MARCH 6, 2024

Hello!

In our newsy edition: Cat goes deep on geologic hydrogen (we have highlights here for those short on time!), Anca sits down with John Kerry in Paris, Amena chronicles emissions imbalance with emerging economies and Bill snaps a photo from his travels Down Under.

 
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Illustration by Nadya Nickels.

A treasure hunt for underground hydrogen is on

BY: CAT CLIFFORD

Anticipation over naturally occurring hydrogen — the kind found beneath our feet — has been emerging for months, and last month a burst of activity underscored this frenzy.

We’ve written a lot about how hydrogen could be a potential solution for challenging decarbonization problems. But producing the gas takes a lot of energy and current technologies generate huge quantities of greenhouse gas emissions.

That’s why the idea of finding naturally occurring sources of hydrogen in the pore space in the rocks that make up Earth’s surface, known as geologic hydrogen, has become such a hot topic.

Check out our full explainer on geologic hydrogen here.

Here are the highlights:

February’s whirlwind of activity: Early last month, the United States Energy Department announced it was investing $20 million into 16 projects related to naturally occurring hydrogen. The next day, geologic hydrogen startup Koloma disclosed it raised $245.7 million, the largest private investment in the space to date. Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV is a program of Breakthrough Energy, which also supports Cipher) is among its supporters.

At the end of February, the Colorado School of Mines and the USGS announced a research collaboration with oil giants and startups including BP, Chevron, Eden Geopower, Petrobras, Fortescue, Koloma, Hydroma USA and HyTerra. Two days later, Senate lawmakers hosted a hearing about geologic hydrogen.

Geologic hydrogen has long been overlooked for, among other reasons, the fundamental fact that it is hard to detect.

“It has no color. It has no smell. It has no taste. It is non-toxic. And it is 15 times lighter than the air. So, it is very difficult to find it in nature if you are not looking for it,” said Viacheslav Zgonnik, CEO of Denver-based Natural Hydrogen Energy, which erected the first drill to tap geologic hydrogen resources in the U.S. in 2019 in Nebraska.

Now, a full-scale treasure hunt is underway for it. And there’s a feeling among those involved that it’s the solution the world has been waiting for.

“Sometimes the most obvious breakthroughs are staring us in the face. And we keep trying to look around them,” says Douglas Wicks, program director for the Energy Department’s investment into research related to accelerating the natural production of geologic hydrogen.

Nobody has a perfect sense of how much hydrogen could be trapped in porous rocks — estimates range from billions to quadrillions of metric tons of hydrogen — or exactly where the best sources are located.

“In the short term, I will tell you right now, the first reservoir somebody finds will not be the best. It'll take a while to find the Permian of hydrogen,” Pete Johnson, the CEO of Koloma, told Senators.

But the potential is tantalizing for investors, scientists and innovators.

Early analyses project excavating hydrogen from the ground will result in relatively low levels of carbon emissions. Researchers also anticipate it will take less energy to extract hydrogen from the ground than the gas contains, turning hydrogen into a viable energy source. And it’s expected to be comparatively inexpensive.

“It's impossible to overestimate how important this is,” says Eric Toone, managing partner at Breakthrough Energy Ventures and chief technology officer of Breakthrough Energy. “What's important about geologic hydrogen is it offers the possibility of having zero carbon hydrogen at a fraction of the cost that we can have it today.”

Read the full article on Cipher’s website.

Editor’s note: Koloma’s investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a program of Breakthrough Energy, which also supports Cipher. Eric Toone is managing partner at Breakthrough Energy Ventures and chief technology officer at Breakthrough Energy.

Lunchtime Reads and Hot Takes

Exclusive: EU wants fossil fuel sector to help pay to combat climate change, draft shows — Reuters

Anca’s take: The idea: public funding alone won't be sufficient to meet global climate finance goals. Currently in a draft document, the idea will likely attract both supporters and opponents.

Pressed for Space, Solar Farms Are Getting Creative — Bloomberg
Cat’s take: Turning decommissioned fossil fuel sites into solar farms is an obvious win. I also love the idea of making community art out of solar panels, like what Houston has planned!

Just How Much Money Do CO2 Pipeline Companies Stand to Make From the Inflation Reduction Act? — Inside Climate News

Amena’s take: This is an interesting read, although I am still not sure what percentage of the tax credit pipeline developers would receive for transporting CO2 because the credit is given for capturing the gas.

Exxon CEO blames public for failure to fix climate change — The Hill
Amy’s take: This interview with Fortune, as reported by The Hill, has gotten a lot of attention. This seems newsy and worthy of more digging: Woods said Exxon is “tabling” carbon capture projects with governments because it’s too expensive.

Tracking an Invisible Climate Menace From 360 Miles Above — The New York Times

Cat’s take: Environmental Defense Fund, the nonprofit behind the effort, will make the data free and publicly available starting next year. Key question: Will the information change behavior?

UN nuclear watchdog head urges development banks to fund new projects — Financial Times (subscription) 
Anca’s take: The challenge will be, as Rafael Grossi noted, how to overcome opposition from several shareholder countries like Germany to using development banks to fund nuclear projects.

Frackers Are Now Drilling for Clean Power — The Wall Street Journal
Cat’s take: It's encouraging that there are meaningful ways for the oil and gas industry to be a partner in developing truly clean and decarbonized energy solutions. Collaboration can be a productive way forward.

EPA narrowing climate rule for power plants, saying it will take on more robust action later — The Hill
Amena’s take: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it will issue carbon limits for existing natural gas plants later; these plants are responsible for nearly half of the country's power generation and emissions.

More of what we're reading:

• US SEC to vote on long-awaited overhaul of corporate climate disclosure rules — Reuters

• New York sues JBS over ‘misleading’ climate claims — Agriculture Dive

John Kerry left his climate mark — and he’s not done

Illustration by Nadya Nickels. 

BY: ANCA GURZU

PARIS – John Kerry nibbles on a chocolate bar as I ask him what his departure from climate diplomacy might mean at a pivotal moment in the energy transition.

“I’m not leaving,” the 81-year-old American Democrat interjected. “I’m leaving from this role in a way that will allow me to actually do more, and I hope to be more effective in accelerating the transition.”

Kerry’s answer captures what his colleagues describe as the essence of a man who has played a key role in forging the world’s path to a greener future: a tireless, persistent and dedicated politician with a long-time commitment to climate action.

Click here to read the rest of Anca’s exit interview with Kerry, conducted on the sidelines of an International Energy Agency meeting in Paris last month.

Highlights here:

After three years as the United States special presidential envoy for climate and more than 30 in the climate space, Kerry will step down from his role as special envoy today and shift his attention to domestic politics, helping President Joe Biden campaign for a second term.

Tireless, persistent, trusted

Kerry is widely seen as having been instrumental in getting countries to agree to the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, when he was the U.S. secretary of state under former President Barack Obama.

“John Kerry’s tireless, lifelong commitment to the climate cause and his achievements in office are a big part of why we are masters of our own destiny today,” said Laurence Tubiana, France’s former climate change ambassador and a key architect of the Paris agreement, who worked closely with Kerry on the document. “More than just a diplomat and politician, he is, at heart, a climate activist.”

Not always easy

But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing — in part because the U.S. has not had a stellar climate reputation over the years and even in recent months.

The Biden administration recently paused the approval of new projects to export liquefied natural gas after pressure from climate activists. Kerry said he advocated for that and “the president made the right decision."

What about stopping LNG exports completely, I challenged Kerry.

“Well, you can’t. You can’t crash the economies of the world overnight,” he replied. “This is a transition.”

Changing paradigm

At last year’s climate summit in Dubai, the American diplomat helped ensure the final agreement included hotly negotiated language to “transition away from fossil fuels.”

Since then, however, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, Abdulaziz bin Salman, said the “transition away” from fossil fuels was merely one choice on an “à la carte menu” of actions from the summit.

“There is “zero question in my mind,” Kerry said, “the words ‘transition away’ from fossil fuels are pretty fundamentally understandable.” That transition has to happen in a “just, fair and equitable manner,” he added, mirroring language from the final text that he quoted almost word for word.

Read the full article on Cipher’s website.

China, India lean on coal-fired power to shore up economies

Source: International Energy Agency: CO2 Emissions in 2023

BY: AMENA H. SAIYID

China and India grew their economies on the backs of coal-fired power in 2023, resulting in record high global carbon dioxide emissions, a new International Energy Agency report finds.

As climate impacts become more frequent and intense, sometimes with devastating outcomes, the world needs to see a decrease in global emissions, not a net increase.

The emissions increase from coal-fired generation in these two countries along with emissions from other emerging economies more than offset the declines in coal power achieved by the United States, the European Union and other wealthier economies.

Carbon dioxide emissions increased 1.1% to reach a record of 410 million metric tons (Mt) in 2023, with coal accounting for more than 65% of the increase in global emissions, or 272 Mt.

China switched to coal-fired generation as did India to shore up their respective economies after dealing with prolonged droughts that led to exceptionally low outputs from hydropower, a key source of renewable energy.

Although China added as much solar capacity in 2023 as the entire world did the year before, “a historically bad year for hydropower output and the continued reopening of its economy after the pandemic drove up China’s emissions,” wrote the IEA.

Meanwhile, India surpassed the EU to become the world’s third largest emitter in 2023 as the country ramped up its energy-intensive steel and cement sectors.

According to the IEA, emerging economies in Asia now account for around half of global CO2 emissions, up from around 40% in 2015. China alone now accounts for 35% of global emissions.

AND FINALLY...
Aussie advertising

Bill snapped this photo of an advertisement on a public bus stop in Adelaide, South Australia, a major center of copper mining and a state at the forefront of the electrification revolution that the energy transition is creating. Adelaide is the first stop on a months-long reporting journey Bill just started; we'll be following along with pictures and updates!

Editor’s note: In addition to supporting Cipher, Breakthrough Energy also supports and partners with a range of entities working to tackle climate change, including nonprofits, corporations, startups and research firms. For more information on Cipher’s editorial policy, click here.