Over 190 countries adopt plan to offset air travel emissions & Government accused of ignoring its own climate change experts over fracking
News
Over 190 Countries Adopt Plan to Offset Air Travel Emissions
Governments from over 190 countries have adopted a measure that for the first time will reduce the climate impact of international air travel. The aviation plan, which was agreed yesterday following approval at a meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, is the product of years of negotiations. The plan to fight climate change, which will take effect in 2021, could force air carriers to take major steps to improve fuel economy in their routes and fleets, “very likely accelerating the purchase of newer, more efficient planes”, the New York Times reports. However, mentions of the 1.5C and 2C climate limits agreed in Paris were stripped from the text, Climate Home reports. Most experts think any increases to plane tickets as the result of this would be relatively small. Aviation is currently responsible for about 2% of worldwide emissions of greenhouse gases. The BBC, the Hill, the Washington Post, Climate Home and the Financial Times also have the story.
Government accused of ignoring its own climate change experts over fracking
The Government has been accused of ignoring its own climate change experts in order to allow the “fracking floodgates to open across the country”. A report published this year by the Committee on Climate Change, a body set up to advise the government, concluded that fracking “on a significant scale is not compatible with UK climate targets” unless a number of conditions were met, including insuring that British fracked gas replaced imports, rather than increasing the total supply, and making sure this new source of energy did not displace low-carbon energy. “The Government has so far been silent on how it intends to meet these conditions”, said Hannah Martin, a campaigner with Greenpeace, “so until that becomes clear, expanding the fracking industry in the UK flies in the face of our climate targets and the Paris Agreement [on climate change].” The fracking permit, given yesterday, opens the way to start drilling in months the Times reports. However, successful fracking is “still far from assured”, notes Emily Gosden in the Telegraph, as explorers have yet to prove that Britain’s shale gas can be fracked successfully and safely. The Financial Times also covers the decision.
Removing CO2 From the Air Only Hope for Fixing Climate Change, New Study Says
Future generations could face costs that ‘may become too heavy to bear’, if we don’t reduce carbon dioxide emissions dramatically and immediately, as well as aggressively remove greenhouse gas that’s already accumulated, according to a new study lead by James Hansen. The authors call for atmospheric carbon dioxide levels to be brought down to 350 parts per million – levels not recorded since the 1980s.
Scotland bans controversial gas extraction technique
Scottish ministers have banned the use of a technique to extract methane by burning underground coal beds, after experts warned that the process carried ‘numerous and serious’ risks to the environment and climate. Scotland’s environment minister said he was asking ministers in Westminster to revoke six licences to find test sites for the technique, known as underground coal gasification (UGC), in central and south-west Scotland. Environmentalists believe the Scottish ban will add pressure on UK ministers to ban or postpone possible UCG projects in England, the Guardian reports.
Saudi Aramco prepares to publish its accounts for first time
Saudi Arabia’s state-controlled oil company is preparing to give investors unprecedented access to its accounts, lifting the lid on the world’s biggest oil producer ahead of a planned initial public offering in 2018, the Financial Times reports. The IPO is the “cornerstone” of prince Mohammed’s plan to reduce Saudi Arabia’s reliance on oil, by using proceeds from the flotation to diversify the country’s economy, which has been a priority since crude oil prices halved in the past two years.
Comment
From fracking to airports, our leaders need to show courage and plan for the future
Allowing “horizontal fracking” in Lancashire is the right decision, argues an editorial in the Telegraph, decrying the slow planning process: “Britain needs to press ahead with fracking and there may be a case for reforms that expedite the planning process”. It continues: “More pressing still is the need for clarity on Britain’s future airport capacity”. Theresa May must accept that “Britain’s dynamic businesses are crying out for airport expansion”.
Fracking is not the answer to the question of how we power our nation
Communities Secretary Sajid Javid’s decision to overturn a ban imposed by local councillors on fracking in Lancashire, after objections were made by 18,000 local people, “isn’t in the national interest”, argues an editorial in the Independent. “Fracking – particularly against the wishes of the people – is not the answer to the question of how we power our nation…government investment should be channelled into new, green energy projects that neither risk damaging our natural environment nor require a £10,000 bribe”. Elsewhere the Guardian’s environment editor brands the decision as “nothing short of hypocrisy”.
Here’s what we can — and can’t — say about climate change and Hurricane Matthew
As Hurricane Matthew passes Haiti and the Bahamas and moves onto the US eastern seaboard, Mooney walks his readers through what climate science says about links to hurricanes: “Researchers now think that a warming climate, by heating the oceans, will indeed make hurricanes more intense (on average), even though it may not increase their overall numbers (in fact, those may decrease). These storms will also dump more damaging rain in the future, as the atmosphere holds more water vapor on a warming planet. But are clear changes already upon us, specifically in the North Atlantic region? That’s more tricky.”
Whatever happened to the ‘hidden costs’ of renewables? – ECIU
Aurora Energy Research’s report on the costs of adding solar power to the grid is a “contender for the most important UK energy story of the year”, writes Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit. The key issue for wind and solar is that generation isn’t continuous, and so additional ‘hidden costs’ are incurred to keep the lights on – an argument used against renewable energy by organisations opposed to reducing carbon emissions. But this new report from Aurora puts solar power’s ‘hidden costs’ at just £1.30 per MWh, thereby hiking the cost of solar by just 2%. And when the ‘hidden costs’ were modelled with 8GW of battery storage on the grid by 2030 in addition to 40GW of solar capacity the ‘hidden costs’ actually become a ‘hidden benefit’. The report appears to “slay the canard about hidden costs axiomatically being high pretty effectively”, Black concludes.
Science
Strong influence of palaeoclimate on the structure of modern African mammal communities
Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Both the current climate and that of Earth’s distant past are likely to have influenced the animal community structures we see today, hypothesise a group of scientists. Their study of 208 African mammals shows that while the mid-Holocene (approx. 6000 years ago) and Last Glacial Maximum (approx. 22000 years ago) are better predictors for most mammals, primates are more strongly influenced by modern climate. This suggests continued human influences, such as climate and land-use change, will affect mammal groups differently, depending on their sensitivity.
Analysis of the warmest Arctic winter, 2015-2016
Scientists recorded the winter of 2015/2016 (Dec-Feb) as the warmest in the Arctic over the observational record, preconditioning the region for a low sea ice extent the following Spring. Warm anomalies were concentrated on over the Kara and Barents Seas, southwestern Alaska and the central Arctic Ocean, according to new research. The scientists describe the atmospheric patterns driving the unusual event, including a strong synoptic pattern and anomalous high pressure near the Taymyr Peninsula.
Other stories
- Senate Dems ask Obama to block Atlantic, Arctic offshore drilling (The Hill)
- Australia lags behind as Paris climate deal swings into action (Climate Home)
- It seems like a good time to ask: is privatisation of electricity networks ever a good idea? (The Guardian)
- Free to frack – now we’re cooking with gas (The Telegraph)
- Australia to review energy system, plan for climate target (Carbon Pulse)
- Australia to launch independent review into state-wide blackout (Reuters)
- Canada’s Trudeau Steps Up on Climate Change (New York Times)
- Can a Heathrow runway meet EU air pollution limits? (EnergyDesk)
- Matt Drudge Peddles Irresponsible Conspiracy Theory Downplaying Deadly Hurricane Matthew (Media Matters for America)
- How to make climate change deniers care about the planet: flatter them (The Guardian )