希臘擁抱綠能 卻對美國天然氣下重注

When a withering financial crisis forced Greece to rethink its economy a decade ago, it bet big on green power. Since then, Greece's energy transition has been so swift “it almost feels utopian,” one Greek environmentalist said.

當十年前一場讓人難堪的金融危機迫使希臘重新思考其經濟時，該國在綠色能源下了重注。一位希臘環保人士說，從那時以來，希臘能源轉型如此迅速，「幾乎感覺到烏托邦」。

Mountainous ridgelines and arid islands are covered in wind turbines and solar panels that today provide nearly two-thirds of the nation's electricity.

風力發電機和太陽能板完全覆蓋了巨大的山脊線與乾燥的島嶼，如今提供全國電力將近三分之二。

But now Greece is deliberately pivoting back toward fossil fuels, just not to burn at home. This time it's betting that it can become one of Europe’s main suppliers of natural gas, with much of it shipped from the United States.

但現在希臘正刻意戰略轉向，朝著化石燃料回頭，只是不在國內燃燒。這一次，它正在打賭，自己可以成為歐洲主要天然氣供應國之一，其中大部分從美國用船運來。

The investments in Greece are part of a deluge of investments into natural gas around the world, with significant consequences for climate change. In coming years, nearly $1.5 trillion will go into constructing pipelines and terminals. Twenty percent of that spending is in Europe.

在希臘的投資，是世界各地向天然氣蜂擁而至投資的一部分，對氣候變遷有重大後果。在今後幾年，近1.5兆美元將投入建設管道和接收站。這筆開銷的百分之廿是在歐洲。

The world's pivot to gas speaks to a kind of hedging that increasingly defines global climate negotiations: While nations have agreed on the necessity to transition away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible, almost all major economic powers are promoting gas as a “transition fuel.”

世界的戰略轉向天然氣，顯示一種逐漸定義全球氣候談判的避險：雖然各國已同意必須盡快從化石燃料轉型，但幾乎所有主要經濟大國都在宣傳天然氣為一種「過渡燃料」。

Its proponents argue that gas is cleaner-burning than coal and oil, and more reliable than renewables like wind or solar.

它的擁護者主張，燃燒天然氣比煤炭和石油更清潔，比風能或太陽能等再生能源更可靠。

Natural gas is a climate threat in two ways. Burning it produces carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas warming the world. Large but unknown quantities of it also leak into the atmosphere unburned, where it has highly potent but shorter-term planet-warming effects. These concerns prompted the Biden administration this year to pause issuing permits for new export terminals while it assesses their effects on the climate.

天然氣以兩個方面成為氣候威脅。燃燒它產生二氧化碳，即暖化世界的主要溫室氣體。大量但數量未知的天然氣沒有燃燒就洩漏到大氣中，帶來高效但短期的地球暖化效應。這些顧慮，促使拜登政府今年暫停為新的出口接收站發出許可證，同時評估它們對氣候的影響。

But the United States is still far and away the world's main exporter of gas. And those concerns haven't stopped the administration from pushing for Greece to become a new hub for American gas exports in Europe.

但美國仍無疑是世界主要天然氣出口國。那些顧慮沒有阻止美國政府努力爭取希臘，成為美國天然氣向歐洲出口的一個新樞紐。

In this arrangement, Greece gets billions of dollars of heavily subsidized gas infrastructure, but the bigger payoff is political, not financial. Greece positions itself as central to European energy security, and it plays a key role in the West's strategy to isolate Russia.

為了這個安排，希臘得到數十億美元高度補貼的天然氣基礎設施，但更大的收益是政治性，而非財務性。希臘將自身定位為歐洲能源安全核心，並在西方孤立俄羅斯的戰略發揮關鍵作用。

The real money will be made by American gas companies. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the United States has more than doubled its exports of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, to Europe, amounting to nearly $100 billion in trade.

真正的利益將被美國天然氣公司賺走。自俄羅斯入侵烏克蘭以來，美國對歐洲的液化天然氣出口增加超過一倍，貿易額將近1000億美元。

白宮推新策略 防食品落入掩埋場

The Biden administration on Wednesday issued, for the first time, a national strategy to combat a major national problem: food waste.

拜登政府於周三首度宣布一個國家策略，以對抗一個重大的全國性問題：食物浪費。

Roughly 30% of the country’s food supply isn’t eaten, but thrown away or otherwise wasted. In fact, food is the single largest volume of material sent to landfills and incinerators in the United States. When uneaten food goes into landfills, it breaks down and produces as much greenhouse gas emissions annually as dozens of coal-burning power plants, according to the federal government.

該國食物供應量中約30%沒被食用，而是被丟棄或以其他形式浪費。事實上，在美國，食物是被送往垃圾掩埋場和焚化爐的最大量單一物料。聯邦政府指出，沒被食用的食物進入垃圾掩埋場時會分解，每年產生的溫室氣體相當於數十座燃煤電廠的排放量。

The White House strategy involves efforts to change the behavior of businesses and individuals to reduce waste, as well as to fund research into extending the shelf life of perishable foods, expand food donations and turn food waste into usable commodities such as compost, gas or animal feed.

白宮策略包含努力改變企業和個人的行為，以減少浪費，及資助研究延長易腐壞食品保存期限，擴大食物捐贈和將食物廢棄物轉為可用商品，如堆肥、燃料和動物飼料。

“Everyone has a role to play in reducing food loss and waste,” the secretary of agriculture, Tom Vilsack, said in a statement.

美國農業部部長維爾薩克在一則聲明中表示：「每個人都可發揮作用，減少食物損失和浪費。」

The strategy falls short of food-waste laws in other countries and even those of some U.S. states. It contains no new regulations. Dana Gunders, head of ReFED, a research and advocacy group that works on food waste, called the strategy “a good first step.”

這項策略不如其他國家甚至美國一些州的食物浪費法。它沒有包含新規範。研究和倡議組織ReFED致力於改善食物浪費，其負責人達娜．岡德斯稱，這項策略是「好的第一步」。

The U.S. set out in 2015 to cut food waste by half by 2030. In reality, per capita food waste grew between that announcement and 2019, the most recent data available, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

美國2015年宣示，要在2030年以前將食物浪費量減半。事實上，美國環保署指出，最新可用資料顯示，從當時宣布到2019年，人均食物浪費仍在增加。

According to ReFED’s latest figures, in 2021, the U.S. produced 91 million tons of unsold, uneaten food. Nearly half of it was still edible, but only 2% was donated.

ReFED最新數據顯示，在2021年，美國生產了9100萬噸未被售出、未被食用的食物。這些食物中近半仍能食用，但只有2%被捐出。

ReFED’s research has found that 20% of food is lost at the farm level in the U.S. Stores, restaurants and industrial kitchens throw out food that doesn’t sell. And in homes, many people discard food that’s still safe to eat, in part because “best by” labels don’t necessarily indicate when food is bad.

ReFED研究發現，在美國，有20%的食物在農場層級就被丟棄，商店、餐廳和工業用廚房會丟棄沒有賣出的食物。而在家戶，許多人丟棄仍可安全食用的食物，部分是因為「賞味期限」標籤上的日期不一定是指食物到那天就會腐壞。

There’s been some progress in cutting food waste. Between 2019 and 2022, eight supermarket chains that had voluntarily pledged to reduce food waste reported a 25% decline in their total volumes of unsold food.

減少食物浪費已有些進展。2019至2022年間，八間自願承諾減少食物浪費的連鎖超市報告稱，其未售出食物總量減少25%。

Startup companies have popped up in recent years to crack the waste problem. Some use artificial intelligence to spy on what gets tossed so that retailers can make better procurement decisions. Apps offer budget-minded shoppers deals on about-to-perish groceries and restaurant meals.

近年來為解決浪費問題，新創公司不斷湧現。有些公司使用人工智慧監看被丟棄的東西，讓零售商能做出更好的採購決策。一些應用程式，提供精打細算的顧客即期食品雜貨和餐廳餐點等優惠。