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Geothermal energy on Sumatra, Indonesia

Ulubelu Unit 3-4 geothermal power plant, located on Indonesian island Sumatra, generates clean electricity going straight into the grid.

This project – apart from producing clean electricity and thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions – also contributes to Indonesia’s sustainable development. Indonesia needs to become less independent on fossil fuels, both when it comes to energy consumption and to export. It gives local employment opportunities and boosts the economy.

The great potential of geothermal energy

Geothermal energy is a type of renewable energy sourced from the Earth’s core, by using the heat stored in rocks and fluids. The difference between the temperature in the core and on the surface of the Earth drives a continuous conduction of thermal energy towards the surface, creating a source of renewable energy that is harmless to the planet

Geothermal energy is a very good way to complement other renewable energies, like wind and solar, because it offers a constant supply that is not dependent on the weather. It is therefore considered a baseload, or readily dispatchable power.Energy can be sourced at all hours and under almost any weather conditions, it is reliable, efficient, and cost efficient on a long term basis.

This kind of energy source  holds a lot of potential but remains relatively undeveloped. This is due to both the high initial cost of geothermal exploration and also official Indonesian legislation, which until 2014 classed geothermal exploration as a mining activity prohibited from forest and conservation areas. In fact, about three quarters of the total final energy consumption in Indonesia in 2018 came from non-renewable sources. In addition, coal is Indonesia’s biggest export product, and there is a clear need for Indonesia to reduce the risks of relying on fossil fuel exports. Carbon sales is an important source of revenue, making projects such as Ulubelu Unit 3-4 fiscally viable, one of the reasons why we at GoClimate are so excited to be supporting this project!

The power plant

The Ulubelu Unit 3-4 geothermal power plant is located at the southern tip of Sumatra, in the Lampung province. Indonesia is home to roughly 40% of global geothermal resources. In South Sumatra, the potential of geothermal energy reaches up to 2,095 megawatts, equivalent to 10% of the country’s total geothermal energy.

The power plant has been developed by the company PGE. The capacity of Ulubelu Unit 3-4 is 2 x 55 MW. On average over 860 GWh of clean, renewable electricity is generated annually for Indonesia’s Sumatra Interconnected Grid.

So how is the heat from the centre of the earth turned into electricity? The way it works is that steam collected from the geothermal field is sent to the power plant. It gets separated from condensate and fed into steam turbine generator systems with a net capacity of 2 x 55 MW. Next, the condensate is collected and returned to the geothermal field to maintain groundwater supply. Electricity produced in this process is sold to state-owned electricity company, Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), for distribution to the grid.

The benefits of this climate project

As well as producing clean electricity and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the Ulubelu Unit 3-4 geothermal power plant contributes to Indonesia’s sustainable development. The geothermal power plant diversifies Indonesia’s sources of electricity generation, helping to facilitate its low-carbon energy transition. By improving the operation of the existing geothermal field, the project increases community development, while local investment creates local employment opportunities and boosts the economy. 

Some of the added values for the local community include the building of roads, in areas where the infrastructure was previously poor, and other community development projects, such as water supply, mosque improvements, and school upgrading.

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Why should we care about the new climate science report that has gone out?

A new report titled “Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability” from the IPCC was published this Monday, 28th Feb 2022. But why should we care about it? And what does it mean to us?

Let’s start by learning what the IPCC is

IPCC stands for Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It is an independent body of the UN that provides policymakers and the world with science around climate change and how it affects us. The panel reviews research of multiple scientists around the world assesses it, condenses it, and publishes it for people to understand where we are, what we are doing and what we need to do.

So, what does the report say? and why should I care?

The report hits closer and harder than other reports. It speaks about how people’s lives and the natural world can continue to be affected by a changing climate in different parts of the world and how we can respond to those impacts. It lets us know that we need to continue mobilizing, we need to work together, we need to cut emissions boldly and fast, and we need to adapt appropriately. One thing is left clear, we are experiencing climate change impacts today, the whole world will continue to feel them, and billions will feel them harder than others. And, how much and how fast we reduce emissions will determine how heavily we will be hit; “every small increase in warming will result in increased risks.” said the IPCC co-chair.[1]

The report tells us what lies ahead if we continue as we are. We will face significant human losses, economic disruptance, loss of biodiversity, and more. It invites us to create a climate-resilient development where we reduce climate risks, reduce greenhouse emissions, enhance biodiversity and achieve the sustainable development goals.

Is there anything for me to do?

As a business:

  • Learn about your climate impact.

Understand the number of emissions you are responsible for and which ones will be more effective to reduce. Later, plan how to reduce them, set a reduction target, and work to become NetZero.

  • Support projects that avoid the emission of greenhouse gases

Support others working to prevent emissions from going to the atmosphere through financial support. This will help reduce the amount of GHG in the atmosphere. You can also support projects that remove them from the atmosphere.

  • Engage your supply chain

Help create a snowball of action by inspiring your suppliers to reduce their emissions.

  • Engage with the local governments your offices are located in

Different local governments are taking action and need business allies to implement their ideas. Learn about what your local government is doing and engage with them

As an individual:

  • Learn how you can reduce your emissions

Read some of our climate tips and get inspiration

  • Learn about climate justice

Climate change will not affect everyone in the world equally. Instead, already socially vulnerable communities will be the ones more affected. So we should work for a better future for everyone, not just a few.

  • Vote sustainably and hold your politicians accountable

As the ‘managers’ of our society, governments have a big role to play. Whoever is in the driving seat can make a big difference in how fast and well we adapt and reduce emissions. Think about this when deciding who to vote for and hold them accountable when in office. read more

Remarks from the report

  • Climate change affects people unequally. It will significantly affect Central and South America, parts of Africa, South Asia, the Artic, and Small Islands.
  • There is a small window for us to act; we must not miss it.
  • There is a tipping point for ecosystems and social systems from which we will not return if we reach them. If reached, it is possible we won’t be able to adapt.
  • We should prioritize adaptation. Finance has to be prioritized for it.
  • Maladaptation is a thing. We have implemented measures that falsely reduce risks and that emit greenhouse gases.
  • Improving social infrastructures such as health systems is part of adapting to climate change
  • Nature is our friend (it has always been, but let’s really take it in). Nature is key to adaptation and an essential component for keeping emissions in the ground.

[1] IPCC Press Conference – Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation & Vulnerability – YouTube

AR6 Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability — IPCC

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Climate-smart housing association – how you can influence your tenant owners’ association!

Here you will find tips on how your tenant owners’ association can reduce its carbon footprint and energy consumption. In addition to having a lower climate footprint, it also makes your apartment block more attractive and resilient for the future.

  • Install solar panels. Depending on the location of the roof, this is an investment that can pay off in 10-15 years. 
  • Install chargers for electric vehicles to allow for flat owners to buy electric cars. 
  • Install geothermal heating. It can be both an environmental and economic win, depending on the conditions of your particular house.  
  • Improve insulation to lower energy consumption
  • Introduce heat recovery in the ventilation system. .
  • Switch to LED lighting. A 20-year-old lighting system uses four times more energy than a new one.
  • Introduce sharing services like car and bike pools. 
  • Make sure there are safe spaces to store bikes.
  • Introduce individual hot water metering. There are several exciting solutions being developed. Start-up company Labtrino has developed a flow meter that can be installed without a plumber.
  • Switch to a green electricity contract.
  • Carry out an energy audit to review the building’s energy use and how it can be improved.
  • Make sure there’s a recycling room in the building.
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Fix a climate-friendly workplace

An impactful way to take climate action is to influence your workplace and your company to become more climat- friendly. Reach out to the management team or your manager and ask them to:

  • introduce a climate, supplier and travel policy.
  • serve vegetarian or vegan food as norm with meat as an option. Go “Veggie First”!
  • order catering from companies that makes delicous food out of food waste. 
  • replace IT equipment when it is no longer functional instead of every third or fourth year as is the usual standard.
  • buy second-hand IT equipment, for example via Inrego.
  • fix first. Repair before buying new.
  • reduce food waste by notifying coworkers when there is food left from events and meetings.
  • switch to renewable electricity.
  • rent or buy second hand office furniture, via for example reCreate (Sweden), Recycled Business Furniture (UK) or Sustainable Office Furniture (Australia).
  • start calculating your company’s carbon footprint. We at GoClimate both offer an automated calculation tool and manual calculations. 

Read more: How to climate-proof you business

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A climate-friendly school – here’s how you can influence your school in the right direction!

Make your school more climate-friendly! Get a group of students together and contact the headmaster or local authority about:

  • mapping the carbon footprint of the meals served. Klimato has the tools needed.
  • reducing food waste.
  • serving more vegetarian and vegan food in the school cafeteria.
  • buying second-hand IT equipment for pupils and teachers, for example via Inrego.
  • switching to renewable electricity.
  • introducing a climate-smart travel policy.
  • including climate education into the curriculum.
  • encouraging students to participate in global climate strikes.
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GoClimate is bringing South Pole on board as a partner to create bigger climate impact

Good news –  we at GoClimate join forces with South Pole! The partnership will make it easier for us to avoid intermediaries when buying climate credits, giving us even better insight into the climate projects. The added benefit of getting access to their climate expertise and global network means we can do even more good things for the climate in the long run. This also means we get financing that allows us to better spread the word about the climate crisis and what climate actions are urgently needed to meet the Paris Agreement. And not least, it allows us to support more people and businesses to drive positive change for the climate. By joining forces with South Pole, we can accelerate the journey towards a more sustainable planet and have a much greater impact on slowing climate change, together.

Who are South Pole?

South Pole is an international leader in climate and environmental services, solutions and project development. It’s a value-driven social enterprise with a B-corp certification for some of its operations. In 2021 South Pole signed agreements to develop over sixty new carbon projects around the globe, with plans for again as many projects or more in 2022.

What happens now?

We will continue to work independently, with no changes in management, operations or company name. We have lots of ideas and thoughts that we can finally implement, watch this space!

The GoClimate team
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The Carbon Footprint of Clothes

The fashion industry is a cornerstone of our society, with new trends and styles coming into our closets every year. But what are the long-term impacts of our shopping sprees and wardrobe updates?

The clothing industry is a major contributor to climate change and pollution, particularly in the fast-fashion sector. The global fashion industry releases an estimated 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, a number that is expected to increase as our consumption of ready-made clothes increases.

The environmental impacts of clothes are rooted in every step of the industry, from production to wear to disposal. But can our t-shirts really affect the planet to such a great extent? Let’s take a look!

The Carbon Footprint of Our Clothes

When considering our carbon footprints, many of us overlook the impacts that our clothes have. Our small purchases add up quickly though, and with the global fashion industry reaching a value of $2.5 trillion, our clothes have an enormous impact!

The majority of fast-fashion is produced in developing nations, in factories that are severely under-regulated in their environmental impacts, and that are often coal-powered. Moreover, approximately 49% of fast-fashion is produced with synthetic material like polyester and spandex, which come from oils and fossil fuels.

Even clothes that are made of natural material (wool, cotton, etc.) have major carbon footprints. Cotton production alone uses 3.3 million acres of land and 16 billion cubic meters of water every year. The land used for material production is also a major contributor to global deforestation, with large swaths of rainforests cleared to make room for leather, cotton, and wool production.

Pollution

Along with the severe impacts on climate change, the clothing industry also plays a key role in global pollution. With such a significant portion of our wardrobes made from synthetic material, our clothes have a major impact on the global plastic crisis.

At first glance, the plastic in our clothing may not seem like a major issue, but studies suggest that 35% of all microplastics in the world originate from our clothes. These microplastics break down and enter waterways when we wash our clothes, and fill the oceans with irreversible plastic pollution. This plastic even enters our food!

In addition to plastic pollution, our clothes make up a significant portion of landfill waste. Only about 10% of our clothes are fully recycled, leaving the rest to fill up landfills and break down into microplastic pollution. Our unwanted clothes become harmful chemicals that enter our water and atmosphere, and further contribute to climate change.

How Can We Reduce Our Impact?

Clothing is obviously an essential part of our daily lives, so how do we reduce the environmental impacts of our wardrobe?

A key part of reducing our carbon footprint is an awareness of our consumption practices. Using tools like the Fashion Footprint Calculator can help us keep track of our personal impacts and help us stay up-to-date on sustainability practices, including:

– Identifying sustainable brands
– Avoiding excessively washing our clothes
– Best practices of clothing disposal

One of the best ways we can reduce our impact is by avoiding the unsustainable fast-fashion that makes up so much of the clothing industry, and instead opting for second-hand or sustainably-made clothes. When shopping second-hand isn’t an option, investing in good-quality clothes that don’t easily break down or need replacement can also significantly reduce our overall impact.

Look out for brands that are making moves in the right direction. For example, companies looking to improve their footprints can utilize quality testing to ensure long lasting, sustainable practices. These quality controls help reduce fabric and textile waste, and assure good-quality materials in every step of production.

By staying aware of our fashion’s footprint, we can keep our clothing choices sustainable and green.

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Climate Impact and Safe Drinking Water with Nazava Water Filters

Together with our amazing members, GoClimate have now offset another 9087 ton CO2eq in the Gold Standard certified project Nazava Water Filters.

According to the World Economic Forum, lack of access to safe drinking water is one of the biggest threats to humanity today. The Nazava project is a social enterprise that sells affordable ceramic water filters to low-income households in Indonesia (where the lack of clean water is a wide-spread problem) enabling access to safe drinking water. The project also leads to reduced CO2 emissions as well as a number of other benefits, both on a global and a local level.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this!

Difficulties for low-income households to get water

The positive impact safe drinking water has on public health is pretty obvious. It prevents disease and even death. The conventional methods for obtaining drinking water involve fetching, transporting and storing water and then boiling it to make it safe enough to drink. The fact that the water often needs to be transported a long way and to then be stored for a long period of time, means that the risk of it being contaminated is large, even if the water was clean at the point of fetching. Boiling is an energy intensive and time-consuming purification method, often involving burning wood or charcoal. In cases where fetching drinking water is not an option, low-income households are left to spend money on buying water, leading to an unsustainable financial situation.

The Nazava Water Filter project saves CO2 

The Nazava Water Filter project leads to a reduction in GHG emissions, as burning wood or fossil fuel for cleaning water is omitted. The project activity has the potential to give an annual average CO2 emission reduction of up to 372,774 t CO2e over a 10 year period. This yearly reduction in energy is comparable to one year’s CO2 emissions from 5 000 Swedish households.

The Filter

The technology used for this specific filter is a ceramic type that produces water of safe drinking water quality. The Nazava Water Filters remove 99.9% of bacteria as tested by WHO – a result honoring the name Nazava, which is arabic for “cleanliness”. The filters are easy to use and sold at an affordable price, making them accessible for the low-income households affected.  The filters can be used thousands of times before they need to be replaced, making this technique a highly sustainable one.

Other important benefits

The positive impact of access to safe drinking water and the great climate impact is probably pretty clear by now, but the Nazava project keeps on giving with it’s many other social and economic benefits!

Not having to carry water a long way reduces the risk of wear and tear. Not having to boil water reduces the indoor air pollution from burning wood, which is a health risk important to avoid.

The project also creates value for the local community in important ways. Buying and using the filters, low-income households saves the cost for buying wood or water, and as well as saves the labour spent on fetching and preparing the water. User surveys show that this is welcomed as a considerable advantage and the project has been well received. 

The selling and distribution is carried out by a network of informal resellers or micro-entrepreneurs, many of which are women, working under the brand name Nazava Water Filters. 

The Nazava project has a positive impact on many of the UN Sustainability Goals – numbers 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 13, and 15 (No poverty, Good Health and Wellbeing, Gender equality, Good Health and sanitation, Decent work and economic growth, Climate action and Life on land).

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The Price of Carbon Offsets

The last 6 months have been busy in the voluntary carbon offset market. Demand have surged and prices have increased 3-5 fold. This happened mostly on what is called off the shelf credits – credits that are available for purchase now – but also on credits that can be contracted for future issuance.

The Background

When a certified climate project does climate impact and it can be verified, they receive one climate credit for every tonne CO2e saved from entering the atmosphere.

Certified carbon credits are then sold on a market – the voluntary carbon offset market. It being a market means that the price is determined by the buyers and sellers agreeing on a price that is beneficial for both parties.

The effect of this is that prices can vary over time, so when sellers see an increase in demand they can increase the price and vice versa.

A market has many advantages, it’s easy to scale, it’s efficient and it minimizes waste. But, it also has some disadvantages, the primary one many are feeling now is that it’s hard to predict where the prices are going in order to plan future purchases.

How much of an increase are we seeing now?

As of January 2022, we at GoClimate saw an increase of prices with 3-5 times for the type of high quality Gold Standard-certified projects we support. This has resulted in that we increased our prices to our GoClimate members from 4 EUR per tonne to 15 EUR per tonne. This is quite a dramatic increase which have lead to members scaling down the amount they offset, and business customers needing to redo their budgets.

Bear in mind that we at GoClimate are buying big volumes (50-100k) and spending lots of time sourcing the best and most efficient high quality carbon credits. Prices for smaller volumes are typically higher.

What are the consequences?

Just to be clear, this price increase is brilliant news for the climate. It will mean that:

  1. Companies and individuals are even more incentivized to lower their emissions.
  2. Climate projects get more money for doing climate impact. This leads to even more climate projects being built – and more climate impact!

This price increase happening now is exactly what we at GoClimate has strived for since the start. Finally it starts to get even more profitable to save the climate!

Why are we seeing an increase now?

It’s not possible to know the exact reasons, but clear is that demand for climate credits have increased by a lot. Our hypothisis on why this has happened is:

  1. After COP26 the interest among individuals and companies to do something about climate change increased, and offsetting – even though not the only tool – is something you can do now and that has a fairly high impact (if done in high quality climate projects) for a relatively low effort.
  2. Cryptocurrency has entered the market. KlimaDAO has purchased about 14,7 million credits in just the last few months. And that are even more crypto projects out there.
  3. Net Zero-targets have been set by many companies. SBTi definition of Net Zero mentions offsets a tool to help with climate financing even though it’s not enough to claim Net Zero (which is also GoClimates view).
  4. The general awareness of climate crisis has increased. It’s more clear to businesses and individuals that we all need to act now and that time is running out.

Feel free to add other thoughts in the comments below.

The Future

It’s impossible to predict the future of a market, but I personally don’t see anything which suggests a decrease in demand the coming 5-10 years, rather the opposite. That could be interpeted as a reasons that the price would not go down, but as in all chaotic systems this view might already be priced into the market.

On the supply side of the market, I believe it will take a couple of years for climate projects to initiated and credits being approved and issued. This means that the market will not see lots of new climate projects any time soon.

Depending on what type of offsets you are looking at there are speculation that the prices will continue to rise, maybe as much as 50x more. I feel quite confident that this is not the case of Gold Standard credits though, but an 2x increase during 2022 is of course not possible to rule out.

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We are removing the buffer factor (2) in our calculator

You might be wondering why we are doing this and also why we had it in the first place?! And first and foremost – what is it?

Ok, so when you calculate your carbon footprint with GoClimate and get a result of, let’s say, 12 tonnes of CO2e per year, you have – if you signed up with our old calculator – carbon offsetted 24 tonnes of CO2e/year.

Why did we apply this buffer factor in the first place?

Well – there were several reasons for this.

First we wanted to make an as big climate impact as possible. And since carbon offsetting was so cheap we found that very few people signing up minded doubling their impact. Having all of us offsetting twice as many tonnes of emissions as our lifestyle caused, did a bigger and quicker climate impact. 

We also wanted the offsetting to cover all the small details that might have been left out of our calculator. Our goal was (and is still) to provide a tool that is incredibly easy to use, which by asking the right questions can give a good approximation of the carbon footprint. Instead of striving for a very precise answer, which would require asking for a lot of details that one might have to recall or look up but wouldn’t have a huge impact on the result, the calculator is formulated so that anyone can answer effortlessly and get a fairly accurate idea of their impact.

We also found the buffer factor a good way of hedging for risks in the climate projects we support.

So simply put, we used the buffer to compensate for miscalculations of your emissions, for risks in the projects we support and because carbon offsetting used to be relatively cheap.

Why we decided to remove it

The cost of high quality carbon credits has risen with more than 3x, and now more accurately reflects the damage caused by carbon emissions. 

Since the launch of the calculator we have also added a few more questions to it to cover more details of your footprint. 

We’re also stopping to use the term carbon neutral. We rather ask people to balance their carbon footprint out and contribute with critical climate financing.

What happens if I changed my subscription after I signed up?

Since we unfortunately have no easy way of telling whether you changed your subscription after you signed up or not, we will assume that the buffer factor has been used when you changed your subscription.

The result of us removing the factor will be that we half the amount of tonnes in your adjusted subscription. If you want to keep it, feel free to add it manually in your payment settings page.