Equilibrium/Sustainability — Birds and bees bring better morning brew

Today is Monday. Welcome to Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the future of sustainability. Subscribe here and view the full edition here.

Coffee beans grow bigger and better when the birds and the bees join forces to protect and pollinate coffee plants, a new study has found. 

Without the help of these expert fertilizers, coffee farmers would see a 25 percent drop in crop yields and a loss of about $1,066 per hectare ($432 per acre), according to the study, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Not only does the study provide critical information to the $26 billion global coffee industry, but it is also the first to show that the contributions of nature to coffee farms are more robust when they are combined, rather than individual, the researchers found. 

“Nature is an interacting system, full of important synergies and trade-offs,” lead author Alejandra Martínez-Salinas of the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center, said in a statement. 

“We show the ecological and economic importance of these interactions, in one of the first experiments at realistic scales in actual farms,” she added. 

Today we’ll look at Lithuania’s decision to cut off Russian gas — and how this move might affect the EU and the U.S. Then we’ll turn to the latest report of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which calls for a significant decrease in global fossil fuel use. 

For Equilibrium, we are Saul Elbein and Sharon Udasin. Please send tips or feedback to selbein@digital-stage.thehill.com and sudasin@digital-stage.thehill.com.

Let’s get to it. 

Europe moves to further cut off Russian gas 

Pressure is mounting on the European Union to abandon Russian gas supplies as individual countries begin turning off the tap.   

The Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia became Europe’s first region to abandon Russian gas supplies entirely this weekend, as they urged other nations on the continent to do the same. 

Response to ‘energy blackmail’: Lithuania, the first individual EU nation to make this move, declared on Saturday that the country was acting “in response to Russia’s energy blackmail in Europe,” according to a news release from the country’s Energy Ministry.   

“We are the first E.U. country among Gazprom’s supply countries to gain independence from Russian gas supplies, and this is the result of a multi-year coherent energy policy and timely infrastructure decisions,” Lithuanian Energy Minister Dainius Kreivys said in a statement. 

What about the rest of Europe? German Finance Minister Christian Lindner on Sunday said Russia’s crimes could not go unanswered, but on Monday he argued a full-scale embargo would hurt Germany more than Russia.    

No substitute for Russian gas: “We must plan tough sanctions, but gas cannot be substituted in the short term,” Lindner told reporters before meeting with the Eurogroup, the informal body of E.U. finance ministers. 

“We would inflict more damage on ourselves than on them,” Lindner said. 

Rather than banning all energy imports from Russia, Lindner suggested that the EU explore oil, coal and gas separately, according to Reuters. Germany imported about 55 percent of its gas from Russia last year, while the E.U. as a whole gets about 40 percent of its gas from Russia.

THE UNIQUE POSITION OF THE BALTIC STATES 

Lithuania was able to abandon Russian gas supplies because of a decision about eight years ago to develop a floating storage and regasification unit at the country’s Klaipėda Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal.

That move enabled the country to take in gas from other countries, according to Morgan Bazilian, a public policy professor at the Colorado School of Mines. 

Crediting Lithuania for its “foresight and planning,” Bazilian described the country as “one of the early movers on that kind of technology.” 

Prioritizing energy security: While Lithuania might not be an example of how nations can “get rid of Russian gas” overnight, the country is “a very good example of planning for your energy security and not just leaving it to market forces,” Brenda Shaffer, an international energy specialist at the Naval Postgraduate School, told Equilibrium. 

“Lithuania was always a trailblazer on energy security as a part of national security,” Shaffer said, referring to a 2012 law that prevented foreign ownership of strategic infrastructure. 

Small piece of the puzzle: Although the move by Lithuania and its Baltic neighbors is “significant,” Bazilian described this shift as “a relatively small piece of the European puzzle.” 

“It’s very small in comparison to, say, Germany or Italy or other countries that rely on natural gas,” Bazilian said. “It’s always easiest to change something if the scale is not enormous.” 

An unlikely embargo: Both Bazilian and Shaffer agreed that in the short- to medium-term, an EU-wide embargo on Russian energy is unlikely. 

One key difference between Lithuania and many other European countries is that although the Baltic state is highly dependent on gas, it does not have a heavily industrialized manufacturing sector, she explained. 

Yet Bazilian described the weekend’s events as “a symbol that the rest of Europe is really serious about this” and that the continent “is going to look to diversify from Russia.” 

New home for U.S. LNG? One way to foster that diversification will be through U.S. LNG supplies, as confirmed by President Biden’s recent announcement that the U.S. would be supplying an additional 15 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe this year. 

Despite its small size, the Baltic region is yet “another market that will be importing LNG,” according to Shaffer.  

And while that won’t be solely from American sources, more market demand for LNG in general also means more demand for American LNG, she added.  

To read the full story, click here. 

UN panel offers hope, but urgency in latest report 

The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change called for a “substantial reduction” in global fossil fuel use to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, our colleague Rachel Frazin reported for The Hill. 

Countries must decrease greenhouse gas emissions by at least 43 percent by 2030 to keep warming below a key threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), the panel concluded in its latest report, issued on Monday. 

A big challenge ahead: “We have a really, really stark task ahead of us,” said Stephanie Roe, a lead author of the report and global climate and energy lead scientist at the World Wildlife Fund. 

“The amount of emission reductions that we need to achieve over the next decade is unprecedented,” Roe added. 

What else was in the report? The panel’s report also calls for emissions to reach their peak before 2025 at the latest, Frazin reported. 

The report also advocated for limits on fossil fuel use, as combustion of fossil fuels and industrial processes account for about 78 percent of climate-warming emissions in the past several decades. 

What types of limits? The use of coal should be limited by 95 percent, oil by 60 percent and natural gas by 45 percent in 2050, when compared to their use in 2019, Frazin reported. 

And to keep warming under 2 degrees Celsius, rather than just 1.5 degrees, the use of these fuels would need to be cut by 85 percent, 30 percent and 15 percent, respectively. 

Sucking carbon out of the air: The cuts proposed in the report all include the use of carbon capture, a still emerging technology that would aim to capture and store emissions from fossil fuels. 

Some companies have already begun developing machines that act as “giant vacuums” and pull carbon dioxide out of the air, but these work on a very small scale, CNN reported. Another carbon capture technique is through ocean fertilization, in which plankton blooms absorb carbon dioxide from the air, according to CNN. 

The power of methane: The report also identified reductions of methane — which has 80 times more warming power than carbon dioxide in the short-term — as one of the fastest methods of slashing warming, CNN reported. 

‘NOW OR NEVER’ 

Although some optimism remains about the world’s ability to thwart the worst impacts of climate change, such a transition can only happen “through a ‘now or never’ dash to a low-carbon economy,” The Guardian reported. 

But U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres accused some governments and business of “lying” about their progress, according to The Guardian. 

“Some government and business leaders are saying one thing – but doing another,” Guterres said. “Simply put, they are lying. And the results will be catastrophic.” 

Politics are getting in the way: One obstacle challenging global climate goals is the “lack of political will and sufficient funding to make the necessary rapid, widespread, cross-sector changes a reality,” according to a PBS analysis of the panel’s report. 

The report itself had been scheduled to go live early on Monday but ended up being delayed several hours due to alleged disagreements among collaborators about language and issues like finance, PBS reported. 

Renewables are getting cheaper: One glimmer of hope offered by the report was its focus on the increasing affordability of renewable energy, including decreases of up to 85 percent in costs of solar, wind and batteries in the past decade, according to Axios. 

Lifestyle changes, paired with policy shifts in transportation, buildings and other sectors, could bring significant emissions reductions by the middle of the century, Axios reported. 

Moving further, faster: President Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry called upon countries to “move further and faster,” in a statement on Monday cited by PBS. 

“Choosing the more sustainable option is not only the right thing to do, but the IPCC has shown it is now the more affordable choice,” Kerry added. 

Motor Monday

Gas prices thwart van living, Tesla shows strong sales and China’s BYD stops producing combustion cars. 

#Vanlife movement confronts escalating pump prices 

•  #Vanlife, a movement devoted to life on the road, is facing challenges as pump prices rise — since such vehicles often get poor mileage, The Wall Street Journal reported. To avoid breaking the bank, RV occupants have resorted to longer stays at campgrounds, driving fewer miles and even seeking out roommates, according to the Journal. 

Tesla reports sales increases, overcomes supply chain issues 

• Tesla has reported a steep rise in global sales in the first quarter of 2022 — overcoming supply chain issues and bringing production levels up to those of other luxury carmakers, The New York Times reported. From January through March, the company said it delivered 310,00 vehicles, according to the Times. 

China’s BYD ends full combustion car lines 

• China’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer, BYD, said that as of last month it has stopped production combustion engine vehicles and is focusing on full electric and plug-in hybrid cars only, according to Reuters. The move occurred in response to Beijing’s pledge to bring carbon emissions to a peak by 2030, Reuters reported. 

Please visit The Hill’s sustainability section online for the web version of this newsletter and more stories. We’ll see you on Tuesday.

Read the full version here.