DeBriefed 29 November 2024: COP29 disappoints developing countries; Plastics treaty talks; Brazil’s rocky road to COP30
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Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed. An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change. This week COP29 fall-out FINANCE DEAL: Developed nations agreed to help channel “at least” $300bn a year into developing countries by 2035 to support their efforts to deal with climate change, at the end of fractured talks at COP29 […]
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Avoiding fires with composite bund systems
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This article contains paid for content produced in collaboration with Sui Generis. Chemical, oil and fuel spills can have devastating consequences across various sectors, from manufacturing to farming and construction. The financial ramifications can escalate rapidly, involving fines, legal costs, and emergency response fees. As of December 2023, the EA can impose unlimited fines for […]
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China Briefing 28 November 2024: How China approached COP29; Xi cuts energy deals in South America; Solar’s ‘disorderly’ expansion
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s China Briefing. China Briefing handpicks and explains the most important climate and energy stories from China over the past fortnight. Subscribe for free here. Key developments China’s role at COP29 and beyond ‘COOPERATIVE’ COP: China’s “role” at the COP29 climate talks, which concluded over the weekend in Baku, Azerbaijan, was “markedly different […]
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SAP’s Vision for AI-Powered Business: The Role of Joule and Open-Source Models
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming how businesses manage data, make decisions, and streamline daily tasks. SAP, a global leader in enterprise software, is leading this change. SAP has a bold vision for the future, aiming to embed AI into every part of business operations. This approach drives innovation, boosts efficiency, and achieves significant growth. By […]
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Has AI Taken Over the World? It Already Has
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In 2019, a vision struck me—a future where artificial intelligence (AI), accelerating at an unimaginable pace, would weave itself into every facet of our lives. After reading Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity is Near, I was captivated by the inescapable trajectory of exponential growth. The future wasn’t just on the horizon; it was hurtling toward us. […]
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Breeze bonanza: AI helps sculpt first geographically-tailored urban wind turbine
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The team behind the “Birmingham Blade”: (left to right) Dr Kit Windows Yule, University of Birmingham, and Chief Scientific Officer, EvoPhase; Leonard Nicusan, Chief Technology Officer, EvoPhase; Dominik Werner, CEO, EvoPhase; David Coleman, CEO, University of Birmingham Enterprise; Jack Sykes, Chief Operating Officer, EvoPhase; John Cook, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, University of Birmingham Enterprise; Laura Bond, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, University […]
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City-scale heat networks needed to decarbonise heat in Scottish cities, says report by industry body
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Aberdeen. Scotland needs to urgently change the way it heats its cities and towns if it is to meet the Scottish Government’s target of decarbonising heat by 2045, says a report published today (28 November) by Scottish Renewables, the industry body for renewable energy in Scotland. More than half of Scotland’s energy consumption is used […]
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Transformed leakage technology can tackle resource challenge
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There has been a transformation in leakage technology over the past five years, with new systems now available that improve performance, keeping more water in supply, writes Roland Leslie, Ovarro’s UK & Ireland sales lead, ahead of the Annual Leakage Conference taking place in Birmingham, UK, 2-3 December 2024. The impact of emerging technologies, particularly […]
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Recyclability by Design publication keeps packaging developers on top of EPR and other issues
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The new guidance. RECOUP has updated its Recyclability by Design (RBD) publication, bringing things up to date with emerging requirements, and at a critical time for packaging recyclability with the impending increase of compliance costs associated with Extended Producer Responsibility. Originally released in 2006, the RBD document from the group – a leading UK independent […]
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Group plans to advance furniture recycling mission in Scotland
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Design-and-build firm Space Solutions has completed a project employing 100 refurbished desks (image credit: Recycle Scotland). Over 3 million tonnes of office furniture is sent to landfill annually across the world, explains Recycle Scotland as it announces a fresh new look to reflect its ambitions of widening its ‘reuse first’ service. Established in 2010, the […]
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The Carbon Brief Interview: Prof Lyu Wenbin and Prof Bai Quan
The Academy of Macroeconomic Research (AMR) is a research institution under the direct supervision of China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the ministry in charge of economic development and planning. As a “national high-end thinktank”, the AMR’s Energy Research Institute is a well-respected body conducting energy transition research and providing vital suggestions on the […]
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Notta AI Review: Transcribe Multiple Languages At Once!
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Ever struggled to keep up with fast meetings, long interviews, or complex lectures? We’ve all been there, jotting down notes while trying to catch every important word. But what if you could eliminate the stress of manual note-taking and never miss a key detail again? I recently discovered Notta AI, an AI transcription tool that’s […]
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Using sunlight to recycle black plastics
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Inside this reaction vial, spotlit by concentrated sunlight, a piece of black polystyrene from a foam tray breaks down into a recyclable material (image credit: Hanning Jiang). Black foam and black coffee lids, which are often made of polystyrene, usually end up in landfills because colour additives lead to ineffective sorting. Now, a US group […]
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Graphene goes mainstream, says Levidian, with launch of second generation technology
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The second-generation LOOP chamber. British climate technology firm Levidian has launched its second-generation LOOP technology, which the group says will unlock industrial levels of production of high-quality graphene for the first time. As the firm explains, the LOOP system provides heavy emitters and hard-to-abate industries such as landfill and aluminium producers with a route to […]
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How Good Are People at Detecting AI?
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As AI advances, AI-generated images and text are becoming increasingly indistinguishable from human-created content. Whether in the form of realistic deepfake videos, art or sophisticated chatbots, these creations often leave people wondering if they can tell the difference between what is real and what is AI-made. Explore how accurately people can detect AI-generated content and […]
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How AI-Led Platforms Are Transforming Business Intelligence and Decision-Making
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Imagine a retail company anticipating a surge in demand for specific products weeks before a seasonal shopping event. Or consider a healthcare provider accurately predicting patient influx during peak flu season, enabling them to allocate resources efficiently and improve care. These scenarios are not hypothetical—they are becoming the norm in organizations leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) […]
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Climate impacts on European soils predicted by Manchester group
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Some of the soils going though a flooding event in the lab (image credit: Océane Nicolitch, The University of Manchester). New research appears to reveal how tiny soil microbes are impacted by extreme weather events, offering new insights into the risks posed by climate change. As extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, droughts, floods, and […]
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Low carbon heat from EfW to reach thousands of homes in Midlothian
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A new energy centre that will provide heat to thousands of homes across Midlothian has opened today (26 November). The project is part of a partnership between Midlothian Council and Vattenfall, called Midlothian Energy Limited (MEL), and will supply low carbon heat to new homes in Midlothian. The heat will be supplied via the MEL […]