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California ARB: GHG emissions fell below 1990 levels for first time in 2016; down 13% from 2004 peak; transportation emissions up 2%

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The California Air Resources Board (CARB) announced that greenhouse gas emissions in California in 2016 fell below 1990 levels for the first time since emissions peaked in 2004—a reduction roughly equivalent to taking 12 million cars off the road or saving 6 billion gallons of gasoline a year.

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IEA finds CO2 emissions flat for third straight year even as global economy grew in 2016

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Global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions were flat for a third straight year in 2016 even as the global economy grew, according to the International Energy Agency. In 2016, renewables supplied more than half the global electricity demand growth, with hydro accounting for half of that share.

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ARPA-E to award up to $5M to investigate extracting rare earth and other critical minerals from macroalgae

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Seaweeds accumulate trace metals in such an efficient way that this process is sometimes used to clean up polluted harbors. Economic vulnerability vs. disruption potential for critical minerals in 2016. A techno-economic analysis of these methods, considering the sensitivity to the inputs investigated in items (1), (2) or (3).

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CMU study finds that coal retirement is needed for EVs to reduce air pollution

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Life cycle emissions by pollutant and life cycle stage for each vehicle type in the recent (a) and future (b) PJM grid. They then modeled the emissions from those power plants, the effects of emissions on air pollution in downwind counties, and the resulting implications for human health and the environment. Source: Weis et al.

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Tufts team finds aviation impact on particle number concentrations downwind of airport; correlation with flight activity

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fold higher, respectively, when winds were from the direction of the airport compared to other directions. to analyze collocated measurements at one site for a suite of pollutants to compare impacts across pollutants. to analyze collocated measurements at one site for a suite of pollutants to compare impacts across pollutants.

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Study illustrates impact of ship emissions on Shanghai air quality

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This may have caused substantial atmospheric pollution and worsened the current air-pollution situation in megacity Shanghai. East and southeast winds dominated during the high ship-emission-influenced periods, while the winds mainly blew from the north and northwest in the low ship-emission- influenced periods.

Emissions 150
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ICCT life-cycle analysis finds no climate benefit in using LNG as marine fuel

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However, the use of scrubbers has recently come under intense scrutiny and is undergoing regulatory review due to concerns about both the reliability of these systems to deliver consistent air pollution compliance and because of the water pollution produced by open-loop operations. —Pavlenko et al.

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