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Daily Briefing |

TODAY'S CLIMATE AND ENERGY HEADLINES

Briefing date 24.11.2015
Meat tax more palatable than government thinks & weather disasters occur almost daily

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News.

Meat tax far less unpalatable than government thinks, research finds
The Guardian Read Article

Taxing meat to simultaneously tackle climate change and improve global health would be far less unpalatable to the public than governments think, according to new report from thinktank Chatham House. The research found that measures to reduce consumption of meat and dairy products could be accepted if seen as in the public interest – drawing parallels with smoking bans. The livestock sector is already responsible for 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions – the same proportion as all the world’s vehicles – and is responsible for a third of global deforestation, says the Times. Proceeds from a tax on meat could be used to subsidise healthier alternatives that are less damaging to the environment, such as fruit, vegetables and tofu, reports the Telegraph. “Governments must do more to influence diets.” says the lead author in the Express, but they are “trapped in a circle of inertia” and fear a public backlash. Carbon Brief also covered the research.

Weather disasters occur almost daily, becoming more frequent
Reuters Read Article

Weather-related disasters have occurred almost daily across the world in the past decade, almost twice as often as two decades ago, says a new UN report. Since 1995, global weather disasters have left 606,000 people dead and 4.1bn injured, homeless or in need of aid, and accounted for 90% of all disasters, it says. The authors say there is strong evidence that a warming climate is making some events more frequent and intense – such as heat waves, rainstorms and coastal flooding – but for many other types of weather the linkage is less clear, reports the New York Times.

COP21: Philippines wrestles with climate dilemma
BBC News Read Article

The president of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino, has told the BBC that 23 new coal plants are needed to meet the country’s demands for energy. Aquino said that reducing the use of coal in favour of gas was not an option because of a lack of gas-importing facilities, and while the Philippines had increased its share of renewables, costs had limited their appeal. Coal currently generates about 42% of the country’s electricity, but the share could rise to about 70% in a few decades, according to some projections.

Canada to tell world it's serious about climate change, says PM
Reuters Read Article

Canada will tell the Paris talks next week that it is finally ready to tackle climate change, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. After a meeting with the country’s provinces to work out a national strategy, Trudeau announced: “In Paris a united Canada will demonstrate that we are serious about climate change.” The Prime Minister hopes their united approach will help dispel some of the international suspicion about Canada and climate change, says Reuters. Elsewhere, a comment piece in the Hill discusses whether the Paris talks are an opportunity for the US and Canada to shed their “split personalities” on climate change: “The election of a new government in Canada marks a promising opportunity for the US and Canada to be stronger allies in this fight.”

Most of Britain's major cities pledge to run on green energy by 2050
The Guardian Read Article

The leaders of more than 50 Labour-run councils, including Edinburgh, Manchester, Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds, Nottingham, Glasgow, have made pledges to eradicate carbon emissions in their areas. The pledge, coordinated by shadow energy and climate change secretary Lisa Nandy, will mean green transport, an end to gas heating and a programme of insulation of homes in cities across the UK. Also in the Guardian, Labour candidate for London mayor, Sadiq Khan, said he would sign up the capital to the pledge if he is elected next May. Labour said the commitments would cut the UK’s carbon footprint by 10%, reports BusinessGreen.

Qatar delivers target-free INDC in final flurry of national climate pledges
BusinessGreen Read Article

Qatar has become one of a final wave of countries to submit national climate pledges ahead of the climate talks in Paris next week. In its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution, or “INDC”, the oil-rich nation acknowledged its vulnerability to sea level rise caused by climate change but said policies to slash carbon emissions could damage its economy. Elsewhere, the world’s newest country, South Sudan, has also submitted its INDC, reports Climate Homes. South Sudan, which gets 98% of its GDP from oil exports, says it aims to protect 20% of the country’s natural forest and plant 20 million trees within a decade. Cuba also submitted its pledge, says Climate Home, in which it rebukes the US for its ongoing trade embargo that is an “enormous obstacle” to the island’s development. You can see all the latest country pledges in Carbon Brief’s tracker.

US government agencies to slash greenhouse gas emissions 41.8 percent
Reuters Read Article

US government agencies will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their operations to 41.8% below 2008 levels by 2025, the White House has announced. The reductions will come from “reducing energy use in their buildings, making their vehicles more efficient, using clean energy sources like wind and solar, and employing energy savings performance contracts,” the White House said. The federal government is the largest energy consumer in the United States.

Comment.

Russia — the implications of the reset for energy markets
Nick Butler, The Financial Times Read Article

“Russia is coming in from the cold.” says Butler. A pariah state a few weeks ago, Russia is rapidly becoming an essential ally against the militant group Isis, says Butler, but what does this sudden turn of events mean for the energy business? The article goes through the implications step-by-step, including Russia retaining its share of the European gas market, the building of Nordstream 2 – the new line designed to bring Russian gas through Germany to central Europe, and investment flows in both directions being renewed as sanctions are relaxed.

Paris climate talks: Developed countries must do more than reduce emissions
Shyam Saran, The Guardian Read Article

Writing in the Guardian, former foreign secretary of India and chief negotiator on climate change from 2007 to 2010, Shyam Saran, says developed nations must make “significant and absolute” cuts to carbon emissions to accommodate the development needs of developing countries. “There is a difference between the emissions of developing countries which are “survival” emissions and those of developed countries which are in the nature of “lifestyle” emissions,” he argues. “A sustainable and effective climate change regime cannot be built on the basis of such inequity,” he says.

Science.

Corporate funding and ideological polarization about climate change

A new study examines how political and financial actors have influenced polarisation of public climate change discourse over the last 20 years in the US. The authors analysed individuals and 164 organisations in the climate change ‘counter movement’, as well as all written texts written by these groups between 1993-2013. They find organisations with corporate funding are more likely to have disseminated texts intended to polarise climate change issues and that corporate funding influenced the actual content of these polarisation efforts over time.

Low-cost solution to the grid reliability problem with 100% penetration of intermittent wind, water, and solar for all purposes

A new study addresses what it calls the greatest concern facing the large scale integration of wind, water and solar into the power grid – the potential cost of avoiding intermittency. The authors use a model of all US energy sectors and a 3D weather model to find a low cost solution to the problem without higher-cost stationary battery storage. The solution prioritises storage of heat in soil and water; cold in water and ice; and electricity in phase-change materials, pumped hydro, hydropower, and hydrogen.

Costs of mitigating CO2 emissions from passenger aircraft
Nature Climate Change Read Article

An examination of how to potentially lower emissions from commercial aircraft shows fuel efficiency measures could cut each passenger’s carbon dioxide emissions by 2% per kilometre by the end of the century. Focusing on cost-effectiveness, the study says such changes wouldn’t incur costs with oil prices between $50-100 per barrel but that greater reductions could impose extra costs and require the adoption of biomass-based synthetic fuels.

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