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Australia – Townsville to become a renewable hydrogen powerhouse, MoU to investigate feasibility of exporting hydrogen through the port.

Townsville’s bid to become a renewable hydrogen powerhouse has been strengthened with the signing of another Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to investigate the process and feasibility of exporting hydrogen through the city’s Port.

A research team at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has identified a new way to convert ammonia to nitrogen gas through a process that could be a step toward ammonia replacing carbon-based fuels.

The discovery of this technique, which uses a metal catalyst and releases, rather than requires, energy, was reported on November 8, 2021, in Nature Chemistry and has received a provisional patent from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

Climate negotiators ended two weeks of intense talks on Saturday with consensus on urgently accelerating climate action. 

The Glasgow Climate Pact, combined with increased ambition and action from countries, means that 1.5C remains in sight, but it will only be delivered with concerted and immediate global efforts. 

About half of the world’s fossil fuel assets will be worthless by 2036 under a net zero transition, according to research.

Countries that are slow to decarbonise will suffer but early movers will profit; the study finds that renewables and freed-up investment will more than make up for the losses to the global economy.

Saudi Arabia said Middle Eastern economies will be boosted by efforts to cut planet-warming gases and announced a fund to invest in carbon-capture technology.

Global Economic Outlook Q3 2021: Picking Up Steam, Fueled By Vaccinations.
The effective end of the pandemic is approaching, particularly for the most advanced economies, as vaccinations become widely available, severe COVID-19 cases fall, and economies reopen. This is happening earlier and faster than previously assumed, driving both growth and inflation higher.