Leakage

• LOS GATOS, Calif., Feb. 1, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- National Grid Partners (NGP), the corporate venture capital and innovation arm of one of the world's largest utilities, today announced a streamlined leadership structure and refreshed investment focus to accelerate progress toward net zero and scale innovation across global energy networks.
• Led by Steve Smith, recently appointed president of NGP, these efforts bring National Grid's strategy, innovation and startup investing together under one umbrella.
• The new structure is designed to maximize impact and further build on the parent company's transformational work to provide a clean, fair and affordable energy transition.
• "National Grid Partners already offers critical financial resources and expert advice to some of the most exciting companies in climate tech and beyond.

• The complimentary report, The state of AI 2024: Challenges to adoption and key strategies for organizational success, is available for download .
• Findings from the research include:
  83% of technology leaders say AI has become mandatory to keep up with the dynamic nature of cloud environments.
• 88% of technology leaders expect AI to extend access to data analytics to nontechnical employees through natural language queries.
• 62% of organizations have already changed the job roles and skills they are recruiting for because of AI.

• PITTSBURGH, Sept. 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- "My wife has an ostomy and I thought there could be a better way to cut the hole in the skin barrier that attaches to the ostomy bag," said an inventor, from Crown Point, Ind., "so I invented the OSTOMY PUNCH.
• The patent-pending invention provides an effective way to ensure a custom fit of an ostomy skin barrier.
• In doing so, it ensures that the ostomy bag remains securely in place around the stoma.
• The invention features a customizable and adjustable design that is easy to use so it is ideal for ostomy users.

• In early 2023, the Guardian published an article suggesting that more than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets are worthless.
• These credits are essentially a promise to protect forests and can be bought as a way to “offset” emissions elsewhere.
• They quantify the carbon saved through reducing deforestation relative to what would have happened without the project, and sell these emission reductions as credits.
• The finding that many REDD+ carbon credits have not delivered forest conservation is extremely worrying to anyone who cares about the future of tropical forests.

Deforestation could simply move elsewhere

• Carbon credits also face other challenges, one of the biggest being “leakage” or displacement of deforestation.
• Leakage may occur because the people who were cutting down the forest simply relocate to a different area.
• Alternatively, demand for food or timber that was fuelling deforestation in one place may be met by deforestation elsewhere – perhaps on the other side of the world.
• Another problem is ensuring that the forests are protected in perpetuity so that reduced deforestation represents permanent removal of carbon from the atmosphere.

Reasons to be cautious

• Even if these problems can be solved, there are still reasons to be cautious about the role of carbon offsets in combating climate change.
• Second, keeping warming within 2°C will require most deforestation to be stopped and major reductions in fossil fuel emissions.
• If you want to contribute to tackling climate change, perhaps the only real option is to not take the flight.
• She has in the past been funded by the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and the Natural Environment Research Council.