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Daily Briefing |

TODAY'S CLIMATE AND ENERGY HEADLINES

Briefing date 24.06.2016
Britain votes for Brexit, CMA energy report, NYC heat deaths predicted, & more

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Every weekday morning, in time for your morning coffee, Carbon Brief sends out a free email known as the “Daily Briefing” to thousands of subscribers around the world. The email is a digest of the past 24 hours of media coverage related to climate change and energy, as well as our pick of the key studies published in peer-reviewed journals.

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News.

Britain votes for Brexit after dramatic night leaves nation divided
The Guardian Read Article

The world is waking up to the news that the UK has taken the historic decision to leave the European Union, a result that is sending shock waves around the world. Pollsters and bookmakers were pointing to a victory for the “Remain” camp going into the evening, but a shift in the early hours saw the Brexiters emerge with a 4% margin by this morning. Leave won by 52% to 48% with England and Wales voting strongly for Brexit, while London, Scotland and Northern Ireland backed staying in the EU. With much still to digest and many details yet to unfurl, analysts are predicting a tumultuous day in the markets, with the value of the pound plummeting overnight to levels not seen since 1985. Green Party MP Caroline Lucas told BBC News the vote for Brexit was an “absolutely devastating result”. While the country grapples with what happens next, take a look back at Carbon Brief’s opinion tracker to see what key figures were saying in the run up to the vote about the likely consequences for UK climate and energy policy. With the environment featuring little in the referendum campaign, all eyes will be on what happens now as the UK reconfigures itself. Carbon Pulse has some early implications and reactions.

CMA energy report: Government issues 11th-hour criticism of reform plans
The Telegraph Read Article

Ahead of a report from the Competition and Markets Authority today reporting on its two-year investigation into the energy sector, the department of energy and climate change has criticised the competition watchdog’s recommendation to change how it awards subsidies and subject its policies to greater scrutiny by Ofgem. Critics are calling the £5m investigation a “damp squib” and a “waste of time and taxpayers’ money”, says Gosden, doing little more than re-diagnosing the same long-standing problem – that most households are paying hundreds of pounds too much for their energy by failing to switch supplier.

Thousands of heat deaths predicted as New York City heats up, scientists say
Reuters Read Article

An estimated 3,331 people each year in New York City could succumb to heat exhaustion, dehydration and respiratory conditions as the number of extreme hot days triples by 2080, according to new research. A study by Columbia University scientists said extreme heat events have already become more frequent in recent decades, a pattern that scientists expect to continue as the climate warms further. With temperatures in the city projected to increase by 5-8C about 60 years from now, the authors stress the importance of reducing greenhouse gases and measures to adapt to the heat. New Scientist has more on the research.

Could solar meet 13% of global power demand by 2030?
Climate Home Read Article

The global share of electricity generated from solar power could rise from 2% in 2016 to 13% by the end of the next decade, according to analysts at the International Renewable Energy Agency. With falling costs are driving investments around the world, the report published on Wednesday says declines of up to 59% are possible for solar PV in the next ten years. Record lows in solar prices last year of 4.8 cents/kWh in Peru, 4.8 cents/kWh in Mexico and 5.84 cents/kWh the United Arab Emirates may have seemed implausible to many just two years ago, say experts.

Oslo votes to slash emissions 95% by 2030
Climate Home Read Article

Oslo city council has voted to cut greenhouse gas emissions 95% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. With transport accounting for 63% of emissions, part of the goal will see car use dropping 20% across the city and banned completely from the city centre by 2019. Lan Marie Nguyen Berg, vice mayor for the environment told Climate Home, “A key part of the plan is to prioritise pedestrians, bicyclists and public transport before car traffic, both when it comes to investments in infrastructure and the use of space.”

Up to 210,000 gallons of oil spills from California pipeline
Associated Press Read Article

A rupture to an underground pipeline spilled oil into the ocean near the Southern California coast on Thursday. Authorities say the leak occurred near a valve on an underground line running from Ventura to Los Angeles but was quickly contained before reaching the beach, reports Reuters. Initial reports placed the amount of oil spilled from the pipeline at 5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons, but those totals have now been revised downwards, according to reports from ClimateProgress.

Comment.

Closing California’s last nuclear plant is welcome, so long as it doesn't hamper the state's climate change goals
Editorial, The New York Times Read Article

The announcement this week that California will shut down its last remaining state nuclear power plant by 2025 is good news for Californians, says an editorial in the New York Times, who, it says, have always had an uneasy relationship with nuclear power. Few will be sorry to see the reactors at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant go but as lawmakers closely examine the terms of the shutdown deal, this will be a victory only if the utility can follow through on its promise to replace the lost nuclear power without turning to fossil fuels, it says.

Monsooner or later
The Economist Read Article

The Economist takes a look at India’s monsoon and how human activity is making forecasting increasingly tough. Information about when and where the monsoon will arrive is important for farmers but clearing forest, air pollution and rising greenhouse gases are making an already erratic system more unpredictable. Scientists from the University of East Anglia and the Indian Institute of Science have teamed up in at attempt to better understand the processes at play, a project that will see seven underwater robots deployed into the Bay of Bengal to monitor temperature, salinity and ocean currents.

Why the right climate target was agreed in Paris
Nature Climate Change Read Article

The goals agreed upon in Paris by countries of the world – from Saudi Arabia to the Solomon Islands – are sensible, science-based and still feasible, says a group of scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. The recent exponential rise in solar and wind capacity worldwide and the similarly sharp drop in costs could yet tip the global market scales, say the authors. Together with the accompanying implosion of the “incumbent industrial metabolism nourished by coal, oil and gas”, global temperature could stay well below the 2C guardrail, the authors argue, while avoiding the risk of relying on negative emissions technologies.

Science.

Mapping the climate change challenge
Nature Climate Change Read Article

A key component of the Paris Agreement is a long-term goal to limit temperature rise to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts towards 1.5C. Scientific analysis by itself cannot identify the single best long-term goal, a new paper says, but it can inform the political process that agrees it. The paper describes the mapping process through which science systematically explores the consequences of different policy choices for climate change and the risks it creates.

Deep-time evidence for climate sensitivity increase with warming
Geophysical Research Letters Read Article

The sensitivity of the climate to a doubling of atmospheric CO2 is likely to increase as the climate warms, a new study suggests. Researchers reconstructed the climate during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) – an event 55m years ago where a huge amount of carbon was released into the atmosphere and the Earth warmed by 5-9C. Their findings suggest that climate sensitivity increased from 3.3-5.6C before the PETM to 3.7-6.5C during the event as the Earth warmed up.

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