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Daily Briefing |

TODAY'S CLIMATE AND ENERGY HEADLINES

Briefing date 28.04.2016
Emma Thompson’s fracking Bake Off protest, report on decarbonising world’s energy supply, & more

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News.

Emma Thompson Fracking Bake Off Protest Sprayed With Manure
The Huffington Post Read Article

Emma Thompson and her sister Sophie, who won Celebrity MasterChef 2014, have staged a “Frack Free Bake Off” protest against fracking at a Lancashire field where shale gas exploration could take place. The field’s owner sprayed the protest tent with manure, hitting some protestors, though the Thomspon sisters escaped, the Huffington Post adds. The Times, Sun, Telegraph and Mirror all cover the story.

Radical action needed to decarbonize world energy supply: report
Reuters Read Article

The Energy Transitions Commission, a group including Shell chairman Chad Holliday, says more radical action will be needed to decarbonise the world’s energy supplies and keep below 2C of warming. The commission looked at climate pledges made by 17 major economies and found they were insufficiently ambitious. Heat and transport, not just power supplies, will have to be decarbonised, the commission says.

Democrats — And Republicans — Are Growing More Worried Over Climate Change
FiveThirtyEight Read Article

Two polls conducted in March suggest Americans’ concern about climate change has hit a 10-year high, reports FiveThirtyEight. It says 64% of respondents to one poll were worried about the issue, up 9 percentage points. The increase was replicated across the political spectrum. Under the headline “many more Republicans now believe in climate change, ClimateWire also has the story.

Crude oil prices take a breather after hitting 2016 highs
Reuters Read Article

A pause in oil price increases could be short lived, reports Reuters, with US production falling and other factors likely to push prices higher “soon”. The Financial Times says prices have it the highest level in almost six months. It notes that the ongoing energy crisis in Venezuela could squeeze oil supplies, putting further upwards pressure on prices.

Comment.

Pursuing a post-Paris plan
Editorial, Nature Climate Change Read Article

Politicians and researchers are starting to eye a ‘post-Paris’ agenda, says a Nature Climate Change editorial. Politicians are starting the process of bringing the Paris climate deal into force, it notes. Meanwhile, it says academics are divided on the best response to the Paris deal’s request for a special report on a 1.5C warming limit, citing several recent views in Nature journals.

David MacKay - last interview and tribute
Mark Lynas, Read Article

Science writer Mark Lynas publishes a the last ever interview with David MacKay, the former government advisor on climate and energy who recently died.

How bacon sandwiches could help fight climate change
Editorial, The Independent Read Article

The Danish Council of Ethics has suggested food be taxed in proportion to its climate impact, notes an editorial for the Independent. Red meat will be the council’s most immediate target, it says. The recommendations will be considered by the Danish government. “Danes, famed for their bacon, may soon be paying more for their meat”, says the editorial’s first sentence. Apart from the headline, it makes no other reference to bacon.

Saudi Arabia will struggle to kick its addiction to oil
John Kemp, Reuters Read Article

Sharing oil wealth “has always been central to the social contract” in Saudi Arabia, argues Reuters columnist John Kemp. “Transoforming that contract so that it does not centre on oil is an enormously ambitious undertaking fraught with considerable risks”, he writes, adding “more or less everything in modern Saudi Arabia depends directly or indirectly on oil”.

Science.

The distributional and nutritional impacts and mitigation potential of emission-based food taxes in the UK
Climatic Change Read Article

Scientists have examined the potential for an emission-based food tax as one option for reducing emissions from agriculture and food production. The authors suggest a way to measure the impact of such a tax at a household level, calculating that a tax of £2.84 per tonne of CO2e on all foods in the UK would reduce food-related emissions by 6.3%. Taxing only foods associated with above average emissions would reduce emissions by 4.3%.

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