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By Laurie Goering [[link removed]] | Climate Change Editor

Waste to watts?

Finding new places to put solar power plants can be a challenge, but the U.S. city of Annapolis has come up with a solution: The old garbage dump.

The Maryland landfill, closed 20 years ago, "just sat there as a liability", said David Jarrell, the city's public works director. Now, capped and covered with grass it has 50,000 solar modules, the city has " changed a liability into an asset [[link removed]]," he told correspondent Carey Biron.

As ever-cheaper solar energy costs and the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act spur new investment in renewables, solar panels are turning up in a range of innovative new places - including on old toxic waste sites.

A solar park built on a closed municipal landfill in Annapolis, Maryland, seen in March 2023. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Carey L. Biron

Cities on track?

But as some cities rush to meet their ambitious climate action goals, not all are finding it quite as easy as they had hoped.

The Norwegian capital of Oslo in 2016 set a radical target [[link removed]]: to halve its emissions within four years, a plan it called "demanding yet achievable".

Three years after the deadline, Oslo has made huge strides in electrifying public transport, restricting diesel and petrol cars, and building parks and dozens of kilometres of cycle lanes.

But it got barely halfway to its 2020 goal - and its new aim, to cut emissions 95% by 2030 - is similarly in question. That's in part because the city's goals depend on national actions out of its control.

Oslo's struggles raise a broader question: Where is the right balance between goals that are ambitious enough and yet achievable too?

An aerial view shows trees as the sun rises at the Amazon rainforest in Manaus, Amazonas State, Brazil October 26, 2022. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly

Forest protection? Maybe

In Ecuador, the government is taking steps to crack down on illegal gold mining [[link removed]] which it has declared a national security threat.

But indigenous critics say the effort appears more focused on securing legal mining concessions and the financial benefits they bring than protecting indigenous people and their land and forests.

Patricio Meza, leader of the CONAIE Indigenous organization, said evictions of illegal miners have tended to occur in areas where mining concessions have been awarded, which he said was an example of the state's interest in protecting the industry over local communities.

Brazil's Congress, meanwhile, has for the first time backed the sale of carbon credits from sustainable logging concessions [[link removed]] granted on state-owned forest land - a new revenue stream for such projects and one designed to boost interest in them.

But the move comes as carbon credits generated by forestry projects face scrutiny due to land rights issues and a lack of benefits for local communities [[link removed]].

"A growing body of research indicates that no real additional protection is being offered by many of the (carbon credit) projects," said Eugênio Pantoja of IPAM, a nonprofit working on sustainability in the Amazon.

See you next week,

Laurie

This week's top picks South African companies innovate to tackle solar power inequality [[link removed]]

Corporates are funding solar panels for charities and the poor to help them cope with severe daily power cuts

Philippines aid worker fights plastic tide to protect island [[link removed]]

Communities can help keep pollution out of the ocean - but raising awareness and offering alternatives to things like plastic sachets is key

Belgian lawyer takes climate change battle to court [[link removed]]

Young environmental lawyer is working to defend the planet as climate lawsuits mount around the world

UK official brings climate expertise to bank's green transition [[link removed]]

Former civil servant shapes cleaner energy investment policy for HSBC, as activists call on banks to stop funding fossil fuels

Africans want renewables, not fossil fuel funding from G7 [[link removed]]

With Japan’s leader touring Africa, pressure is growing on G7 nations to support clean energy development on the continent rather than oil and gas

EU Amazon protection policies threaten other Brazilian ecosystems [[link removed]]

A broader view of threats from agricultural expansion is needed in Brazil

We need creative solutions to the debt and climate crises [[link removed]]

Linking work on nature and climate goals to debt repayment could give indebted countries the space they need to build resilience

Read all of our coverage here [[link removed]] Editor's pick: How can Brazil's cycle of Amazon land grabs be broken? [[link removed]]

Illegally converting forests to ranches and farms is an established process in Brazil. Here's how to change it.

[[link removed]]Discover more Nature [[link removed]] Climate Risks [[link removed]] Net Zero [[link removed]] Just Transition [[link removed]] Climate Justice [[link removed]] Green Cities [[link removed]] Thank you for reading!

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