Welcome back to some more good news!

This week, we take a peek into Indonesia’s conservation efforts and South Korea’s efforts in energy. Als0, the USA is having a rare “positive” green effort.

Science

Biodiesel is More than a Gimmick from 20 Years Ago?

• Indonesia is making a big push towards biodiesel

  • Biodiesel is far less taxing on the environment and has lower particulate matter emissions and CO emissions, but could have slightly higher nitrogen oxide emissions (which is also a deadly grenhouse gas :/)

• 35.47 trillion rupiah ($2.2 billion) being put towards subsidizing the biodiesel program

• Looking to implement a 50% palm oil biodiesel by 2026

• Indonesia is one of the largest biodiesel producers and consumers in the world

Business

South Korea’s Push For Renewables

• South Korea is actively looking to build two more nuclear reactors by 2038

• This implementation raises South Korea's portion of renewable energy in the mix from 8.4% in 2023 to 29.2% in 2038

• The plan is to reduce the fossil fuel portion from 31.4% to 10.1% in 2038

  Read more at Reuters

Politics

MORE GREENERY!

• Arizona government and ASU are leading an effort to green-ify Arizona by planting trees in critical, high-pedestrian-traffic areas.

• The lack of greenery is not only ugly but downright dangerous - less shade leads to more heat-related death

  • Especially of at-risk demographics (homeless, outdoor workers)

• The effort is estimated to cost ~$5 million, with funding coming fro the federal government in the form of reimbursement

  • Caveat: there is some doubt about the future of the funding due to the administration change this year. This idea was conceived during Biden's presidency.

Activism

Tigers ❤️ Radios

• Rakom Lintas Subayang, a radio station in Indonesia, is the brainchild of a few volunteers in the remote area of Riau province - Limited cell phone reception

• This radio station is being used to broadcast entertainment news and public information (including life-saving info!)

• The station broadcasts important information about Sumatran forest conservation efforts. It's hard to relay important information from worldwide organizations (like the WWF) to these remote villages, and Rakom Lintas Subayang bridges that gap.

  • This is how they’re conveying the conservation efforts of the near-extinct Sumatran tiger to locals around the forest!

Thank you so much for reading!

If you like the content you’ve been reading, I would encourage you to introduce us to your friends who are also into climate news!

~ Dhanvi