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Industry leaders back plans for zero-emissions aluminium, ammonia and steel

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Mission Possible Partnership maps path to decarbonize materials production

NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — More than 200 industry leaders have endorsed strategies from the Mission Possible Partnership (MPP) to decarbonise some of world’s hardest-to-abate, carbon-intensive industries in this decade.

New plans released at New York Climate Week for production of near-zero emissions materials – aluminium, ammonia and steel – have won support from more than 60 companies, bringing to more than 200 the tally of endorsements for MPP’s published Sector Transition Strategies (STS) which also include aviation, shipping and trucking.

The signatories reflect growing momentum among high-ambition companies, including steelmakers ArcelorMittal, Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN), Liberty Steel, SSAB, Rio Tinto, Tata Steel, thyssenkrupp and Vale; aluminium producers Alcoa, Rio Tinto and EGA; and in the ammonia sector, CF Industries, BASF, SABIC and Yara, as well as renewable energy providers Ørsted, Iberdrola and ACWA Power. These three sectors jointly contribute about 17% of global GHG emissions.

MPP, an alliance of leading organisations working to decarbonise hard-to-abate industries, presented two new STS reports for aluminium and ammonia, and an updated steel strategy, during World Economic Forum’s Sustainable Development Impact Meetings at Climate Week. Participants included senior industrialists and representatives from governments and the financial industry.

Matt Rogers, CEO of MPP said: “These transition plans are operationally relevant and industry-backed, not wishful thinking or pie in the sky. We know how to reduce emissions, initially deploying resources and technology available today. The imperative is to act now, in this decade: we’re working with industry, supply chains and finance to deliver the clear thinking and asset-by-asset plans to make net zero viable”. 

Each STS is premised on the deployment of available technologies by 2030, a date that looms near for industry incumbents operating old-economy assets. The reports detail specific requirements – with real-economy milestones – for clean energy, new or retrofitted industrial plants, and policy reform to meet sectoral carbon budgets aligned to the  Paris Agreement goal to curb global heating to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels by 2050.

Faustine Delasalle, vice-chair of the Energy Transitions Commission (ETC), a founding partner of MPP, said: “Support for these strategies from more than 200 industry leaders sends a signal of hope: companies around the world are committed to invest at scale for a net zero-emissions economy. The data developed by ETC with MPP partners will inform targets and actions from companies in key value chains, as well as financial institutions and governments – and helps all of us to keep decision-makers accountable”.

In the steel sector, early progress in breakthrough projects and increased supply of near-zero primary steel are essential to remain within a Paris-aligned sectoral carbon budget. MPP estimates that commercialisation of net-zero technologies would cost up to $200 billion per year, implying significantly higher demand for hydrogen, clean electricity and natural gas, but a stark decline in coal power.

Sanjiv Paul, vice-president for safety, health and sustainability at Tata Steel, said: “This strategy has laid down the challenges for the steel industry to decarbonise. We are collaborating with suppliers, downstream partners, start-ups, academia, and communities within our area of influence to work towards mitigating the threat of climate change”.

Aluminium plays an enabling role in decarbonising the world economy. MPP’s STS for primary aluminium would mobilise clean power, improved material efficiency and recycling at a cost of up to $1 trillion to reduce carbon emissions by 95%. In a business-as-usual scenario, the sector will emit a cumulative 37 gigatons of carbon by 2050, an overshoot of more than double the Paris-aligned carbon budget of 15 gigatons.

Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, CEO of Emirates Global Aluminium, said: “Aluminum plays an essential role in decarbonisation economy-wide, but it also matters how aluminum is made. Decarbonising aluminium by 2050 requires rapid and proactive cooperation with other sectors, from developing more renewables to designing final products that are easily recyclable. The Mission Possible Partnership’s roadmap will help us achieve this great task.”

MPP forecast demand for ammonia could increase six-fold by 2050, driven by new markets for green ammonia as a marine fuel and for power generation. The shipping sector has the potential to make or break demand for near-zero emissions ammonia. Coordination by policymakers to adopt, certify and expand ammonia’s new application as a marine fuel will be critical to this transition.

The new STS reports follow strategies for aviation, trucking, shipping and steel. Strategies for concrete and cement, and the chemicals sector, are planned for release this year.

To download the reports

Please go to the MPP website:

Making Net-Zero 1.5°C-Aligned Aluminium Possible 

https://missionpossiblepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Making-1.5-Aligned-Aluminium-possible.pdf

Making Net-Zero 1.5°C-Aligned Ammonia Possible

https://missionpossiblepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Making-1.5-Aligned-Ammonia-possible.pdf

Making Net-Zero Steel Possible

https://missionpossiblepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Making-Net-Zero-Steel-possible.pdf

Interactive tool

MPP has released an interactive ‘Explorer’ tool to compare decarbonisation options in different regions, with the functionality to generate custom user scenarios.  The Python model for STS analytics is also available, with full coding and open-source input data.

Aluminium: Explore the Net-Zero Transition

https://dash-mpp.plotly.host/aluminium-net-zero-explorer/

https://github.com/missionpossiblepartnership/mpp-shared-code

Ammonia: Explore the Net-Zero Transition

https://dash-mpp.plotly.host/mpp-ammonia-net-zero-explorer/

https://github.com/missionpossiblepartnership/mpp-shared-code

Steel: Explore the Net-Zero Transition

https://dash-mpp.plotly.host/mpp-steel-net-zero-explorer/

https://github.com/missionpossiblepartnership/mpp-steel-model

Sector press releases

For detailed press release for each STS report, please go to: 

Aluminium Press Release
https://missionpossiblepartnership.org/aluminium-sts-press-release/ 

Ammonia Press Release
https://missionpossiblepartnership.org/ammonia-sts-press-release/ 

Steel Press Release
https://missionpossiblepartnership.org/steel-sts-press-release/ 

The Mission Possible Partnership is an alliance of climate leaders focused on supercharging efforts to decarbonize some of the world’s highest-emitting industries. By leveraging the convening power, talent and expertise of world-leading organizations on climate action, the MPP aims to trigger a net-zero transformation of seven industrial sectors; Aviation, Shipping, Trucking, Steel, Aluminium, Chemicals and Concrete. MPP is led by four core partners: the Energy Transitions Commission, RMI, We Mean Business Coalition and the World Economic Forum. Our goal is to propel a committed community of CEOs from carbon-intensive industries—together with their financiers, customers, and suppliers—to agree and act on decarbonizing industry and transport in this decade.

 

 

SOURCE Mission Possible Partnership

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H3C takes a deep dive into the challenges – and opportunities – AI brings

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BEIJING, Nov. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Nothing carries quite the gravitas of the Nobel Prizes, the five awards that were founded in Switzerland back in 1901 to recognize developments that have been of the “greatest benefit to humankind” in the fields of in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and in the promotion of peace.

These awards have traditionally noted people who have helped alter the course of human history and so it was telling when they were handed out by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences at the start of October that, for the first time, the work of people developing Artificial Intelligence was recognized.

This year’s winners in the sections both for physics (John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hianton) and chemistry (David Baker and joint-winners Demis Hassabis and John Jumper) have been expanding the use of AI software into science and their recognition has again shown how far this new technology’s reach has now spread, so quickly.

That’s a conversation that was carried on to GITEX Global 2024 in Dubai from October 14-18 – an event which brands itself as the “biggest tech & startup show in the world” – with the scope of the impact AI is having around the world once again on show.

At the center-point of displays and discussions were the very latest in AI advances as were the issues of where these developments are going to take the world as the digital economy continues to evolve.

On hand in Dubai was Ray Xu, senior vice-president of H3C, as well as president of the Chinese business innovation and digital transformation group’s cloud, compute, and storage product line. Based out of the eastern Chinese tech hub of Hangzhou, H3C officially launched two new H3C UniServer systems in Dubai (R5500 G7 and R5300 G7) – servers which can support more than 70 kinds of AI.

A week later, Xu sat down to reflect on that experience and on how an AI-led digital transformation, and technological innovation, are reshaping our world.

“These AI technologies are changing our lives and present a lot of new opportunities,” said Xu. “That has sparked a lot of imagination about what the future will be. On the other hand, AI applications also face some challenges in areas such as data privacy and algorithm bias. In the end, though, I’m an optimist. I think the opportunities far outweigh the challenges.”

Through its global commercial partnerships, H3C has helped expand AI technology usage across sectors including “AIGC [Artificial Intelligence Generated Content], autonomous driving in the new energy vehicle industry, and data-driven decision-making and personalized services in finance and enterprise sectors, as well as large-scale computing centers established by governments and operators.”

AIGC is one development that has had a major impact on the way work is done all over the globe. Innovations such as ChatGPT are driving new growth across industries as those industries adapt to generative technology and explore ways to expand AI’s uses.

Xu said there were a number of important challenges ahead, including developing the necessary infrastructure to support the power needed to drive this new technology, the development of more efficient power sources and servers, the building of data centers and learning how to deal with issues of privacy when it comes to data.

“At H3C we are committed to partnering with our customers when it comes to dealing with the challenges of business innovation and digital transformation,” said Xu. “With our comprehensive product line, we have solutions for cloud, computing, networking, security, and terminal issues as well as Information and Communication Technologies [ICT] solutions. With these solutions, we help a lot of our customers in their new journey of digital information transformation.”

The development of arithmetic power was another issue Xu identified, especially in terms of the Chinese market.

“I think there are four key challenges,” he said. “The first thing is computing power. We need huge amounts of computing power, so how to scale up this computing power quickly is very important. Second, how to use this arithmetic power efficiently? How to schedule this power is critical. The third challenge is about storage. We need data so how do we make this data transfer very efficiently, very quickly? 

“More computing means more data, more energy. So, how do we leverage this energy more efficiently? Making data centers more green will be the fourth challenge but in order to address these challenges, the first thing we need to do is scale up computing power more quickly.”

H3C has addressed these issues by focusing on “the upgrade and evolution of digital infrastructure to meet the needs of the AI era.” 

The company has also launched “diverse heterogeneous computing platforms for intelligent computing centers, high-performance AI servers, advanced data center network architectures, and AI storage solutions to provide strong, stable, and scalable digital infrastructure support.”

There has also been a focus on a green strategy when it comes to data center design and across the H3C production line, in keeping with the requirements of the industry. This includes such innovations as liquid cooling and box immersion, which are helping drive new growth on a global scale.

Overall, H3C has identified a “multifaceted” approach that has focused on increased investment in and construction of “computing infrastructure to rapidly scale up computing power,” the company said. 

Other focuses include “the development of more efficient and intelligent computing power allocation and data storage technologies to enhance resource utilization and ensure data security and stability”, while the company continues to explore “the promotion of innovation and application of energy-efficient technologies to reduce energy consumption during computing operations.”

That’s why, Xu said, the company is “open to different kinds of vendors.”

“We have the service capability to help customers build their ecosystem in anticipation of AI development, so they can actively embrace them,” he said. “We can always find ways to solve challenges and deliver more and more opportunities, backed by the belief that AI will bring us a bright and a smart future.”

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/h3c-takes-a-deep-dive-into-the-challenges–and-opportunities–ai-brings-302313932.html

SOURCE H3C

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IMMOTION WINS BEST VR AWARD FOR THE GREAT MIGRATION AT WCFF 2024

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MONTERREY, Mexico, Nov. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — IMMOTION, the global leader in immersive edutainment, received the Best Virtual Reality Award at the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival (WCFF) last month for The Great Migration, its groundbreaking 360º VR film experience.

“What their team accomplished with their intricate and non-intrusive camerawork was previously unseen by our judges.”

The WCFF annually awards the best in conservation filmmaking that spotlight global conservation advocacy.

In The Great Migration, IMMOTION immerses viewers into the incredible journey of over 2 million animals traveling between Tanzania’s Serengeti and Kenya’s Maasai Mara reserves as part of an annual phenomenon known as the Great Migration of East Africa. This journey is filled with predators preying on vulnerable herds that instinctually cross the treacherous Mara River each year.

IMMOTION’s team of VR filmmakers, led by Creative Director Ken Musen, captured breathtaking, immersive footage of the migration using custom-built 360º VR cameras within “rock-cams,” “croc-cams,” drones, and hot air balloons.

“We placed special VR cameras in places along the migration’s paths that no one has ever tried before,” said Musen. “The footage we captured was spectacular; for the first time in VR, you can see inside a herd of wildebeest as they struggle across the river or even come face-to-face with a hippo in the Mara.”

When up for consideration, the film’s production quality and craftsmanship were apparent from start to finish.

“After watching The Great Migration, the decision to award IMMOTION was instantly unanimous,” said Mauricio De La Maza, Interim CEO at the WCFF. “What their team accomplished with their intricate and non-intrusive camerawork was previously unseen by our judges.”

This award adds to the acclaim the film has received since debuting at the Association of Zoos and Aqaurium’s Mid-Year conference in March.

“The reaction from our partners and viewers has been astounding,” said Rod Findley, President and CEO of IMMOTION. “We are honored to receive this award from the WCFF as our missions align on advocating for global wildlife conservation education.”

The Great Migration is the most powerful film in IMMOTION’s growing library, including new immersive content slated for next year.

About IMMOTION

IMMOTION offers dynamic, motion-based virtual reality experiences, featuring live-action and animated educational content guided by marine biologists, wildlife experts, and conservation organizations such as the Marine Megafauna Foundation, Bimini Shark Lab, and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. With over 100 locations worldwide and more than 2M unique annual users, IMMOTION helps leading zoos, aquariums, museums, and science centers generate ancillary revenue through award-winning, on-mission immersive attractions while reinforcing the impact of their education and conservation programs.

About WCFF

The Wildlife Conservation Film Festival aims to inform, engage, and inspire audiences about the utmost need and importance of protecting global biodiversity through its annual film festivals in New York, Los Angeles, and Monterrey, Mexico.

 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/immotion-wins-best-vr-award-for-the-great-migration-at-wcff-2024-302313936.html

SOURCE Immotion

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CCTV+: Embarking on a Renewed Dialogue at Liangzhu Between Global Civilizations–The ‘Liangzhu: A Dialogue across World Civilizations’ Promotional Video and Documentary to Premier

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BEIJING, Nov. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Exchanges make civilizations colorful, and mutual learning makes them prosper. A documentary on the recently-concluded Portugal and Greece stops of the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ ‘Liangzhu: A Dialogue across World Civilizations’ cultural exchanges is about to be aired. A representation of cultural exchanges between the land of divine emblems and inscriptions of Liangzhu and the realm of Athena and navigational compasses, it presents Liangzhu culture’s popularity abroad and appreciation by local youth, media outlets, as well as cultural and academic communities.

The documentary, filled with exciting moments at the Events, could serve as a preview to the upcoming second Liangzhu Forum, building up the anticipation for an even more splendid future of human civilization. Also, it features further explorations into the stories and significance behind the Events.

This event was organized by the Information Office of Zhejiang Provincial People’s Government, the Foreign Affairs Office of Zhejiang Provincial People’s Government, and Zhejiang Media Group. It was hosted by the Overseas Center, or ZTV-World, of Zhejiang Media Group and was supported by the Chinese Embassy in Portuga, the Chinese Embassy in Greece, University of Lisbon, Portugal, and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, among other institutions.

Video – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2565121/2024.mp4

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/cctv-embarking-on-a-renewed-dialogue-at-liangzhu-between-global-civilizationsthe-liangzhu-a-dialogue-across-world-civilizations-promotional-video-and-documentary-to-premier-302313937.html

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