Soaring global inflation on the back of the Russia-Ukraine war is weighing down on renewable energy projects. More expensive raw materials (particularly aluminum and steel), coupled with rising transport costs (thanks to the jump in oil prices), have forced renewables players to grapple with more delays and hike the prices of their long-term contracts, the Wall Street Journal writes. Some companies, such as French utility and renewables developer Engie SA, are signing customer contracts closer to projects’ start dates so they align better with cost inflation. These soaring costs for renewables — dubbed “greenflation” — were already weighing on the sector before the war broke out, as the pandemic roiled supply chains and had begun pushing up raw material costs.

The war has also hindered studies of climate change in the Arctic, as many Western scientists and scientific organizations jumped on the sanctions bandwagon and cut ties with Russian institutions, calling off expeditions in the country or in its waters, the Wall Street Journal wrote. “The Russian territorial waters and Russian coastline comprise a huge part of the region. We really need to know the full Arctic,” atmospheric scientist Matthew Shupe said.

What’s hindering the EU’s search for alternative oil? Logistics. Europe landing an alternative to Russian oil largely depends on its ability to secure specialized ships for LNG imports, the Financial Times reports. The continent is working to secure floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) — a crucial component for the transfer of LNG through bodies of water — in efforts to amp up its imports of LNG to cut its Russian oil imports by two-thirds. While Europe aims to boost its LNG imports by 50 bn cubic meters (bcm) a year, analysts are wary of the continent’s infrastructure, which can convert up to 170 bcm into gas, with most spare capacity located on the Iberian peninsula, which doesn't have the pipelines required to move supplies north. Europe is already facing a “systemic” shortage of diesel due to sanctions on Russia that could force governments to ration fuel.

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Microplastics have been detected in human blood for the first time, with scientists finding that the particles can travel around the body and get lodged in organs, reports the Guardian. The study analyzed blood samples from 22 healthy adults and found microplastics in nearly 80% of the donors, which are predicted to come from food and water. The impact on overall health has not yet been studied, but microplastics are known to cause damage to human cells in lab settings. More research still needs to be done with a larger sample size to answer questions that remain, including whether microplastics typically end up in specific organs, “such as getting past the blood-brain barrier?” the study’s leader and ecotoxicologist at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Dick Vethaak, told The Guardian. A widened study would also look to determine the threshold of microplastic presence in the body that would trigger disease.