68 new shale gas plans unveiled & Britain follows Paris deal with green subsidy cuts
News
Fracking: plans to drill 68 new shale gas wells unveiled
Fracking firms plan to drill up to 68 shale gas wells in England in the next five years, after being handed new rights to explore across an estimated 4,500 square miles of land, reports the Telegraph. At least 14 of the new drilling sites – in parts of Yorkshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire – are expected to be fracked under the plans, as ministers attempt to “get shale gas moving”. The areas earmarked for shale exploration include parts of the North Yorks Moors and Peak District national parks as well as several Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and part of Chancellor George Osborne’s Tatton constituency. The Telegraph has mapped all the new licences. The Guardian says that campaigners warn that the licences mean vast swaths of British countryside have been opened up to fracking. Greenpeace energy campaigner Hannah Martin said yesterday: “Just days after an historic agreement at the Paris climate summit to move towards a renewable energy future – the UK government’s gung ho approach to a new fossil fuel industry is bizarre and irresponsible.” The New York Times, Reuters, Times and the BBC also carry the story. The BBCalso reports that “Fracking adversaries gear up for the next round”.
Britain follows Paris deal with cuts to green subsidies
“Britain cut more renewable energy subsidies on Thursday, putting jobs at risk and drawing criticism for losing credibility in tackling climate change, a week after the landmark deal in Paris,” reports Reuters. The UK government has cut the tariff for domestic-scale solar up to 10 kilowatts in capacity, such as rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) installations, to 4.39 pence per kilowatt hour. It had proposed much steeper cut to 1.63 p/KWh in consultation in August, but the solar industry lobbied hard for a more gradual decline, explains Reuters. The government’s own impact assessment on the changes show they could result in the loss of between 9,700 and 18,700 solar jobs. The Financial Times runs the headline: “Business attacks UK solar subsidy cuts.” The BBCreports the Lord Turner, the former head of both the CBI and the Climate Change Committee, now “fears a government rift over the low-carbon agenda which the UK backed at the Paris climate talks at the weekend”. He tells the BBC: “I would love – as someone who believes that we have to make better effective action on climate change – that George Osborne was more a believer of this in his heart and fundamentally I don’t think he is.” BusinessGreen assesses the impact the cuts will have on the UK. EnergyDesk lists “7 reasons why the UK solar subsidy cut is flawed”. The Independent also has the story.
Met office says 2016 ‘very likely’ to be warmest on record
A new global temperature forecast from the UK’s Met Office says that 2016 is likely to be even warmer than 2015, reports the BBC. This year has already been provisionally declared the warmest on record thanks to a combination of global warming and a strong El Nino. The Met Office believes that temperatures in 2016 could be 1.1C above pre-industrial levels. The Times says the Met Office’s Prof Adam Scaife stated that the El Nino influence could see the UK experience a “cold than average” end to the winter. The Telegraph, Guardian, Climate Home and Time also carry the story. Separately, Associated Press and the Hill report that last month was the globe’s warmest November on record, the seventh consecutive month to reach a new high.
As China’s demand wanes, the golden age of coal comes to an end: IEA
China faces peak coal demand for the first time as a cooling economy and shifts in industry hit consumption, paving the way for a decline in global use even as India becomes the main driver for demand, the International Energy Agency says in a new report, also covered by Carbon Brief. China is seeking to cap consumption in a bid to clear up the choking smog that smothers the country’s major cities have also hit demand. Today, Reuters, AP and the New York Times also report that Beijing has just issued its second-ever red alert smog warning.
Ministers slash cash subsidies for electric cars
Subsidies to buy low-emission cars have been cut by ministers who have changed the way they are distributing the next £400m of sweeteners to persuade motorists to go electric, says the Times. Announcing that it is to extend the cash subsidies for plug-in hybrids or full-electric vehicles to March 2018, the government said that it aimed to treble the take-up from 50,000 over the past four years to another 100,000 in the next two years. “However, the £5,000-off sweetener, reducing average prices by about 15 per cent, is going. The greenest vehicles will attract a £4,500 handout, but many plug-in hybrids will have only £2,500 off.” The Guardian runs with a more positive headline: “Plug-in car grant extended to 2018.”
Kellingley closure: last coalminers to resurface as way of life disappears
In a series of articles, the Guardian reports on the closure of the last deep coal mine in the UK. Shaun McLoughlin, the mine’s managers, tell the paper: “It’s a whole way of life we are losing for ourselves and the wider community that goes with the mine. I don’t blame UK Coal, or the government, it’s just the free market and rock-bottom commodity prices.” The paper also asks, “What does Kellingley colliery’s closure mean for coal in Britain?” Lisa Nandy, the Labour energy shadow minister, says, “We owe the [miners] a debt of gratitude.” The Guardian also has a “brief history of British coal mining – in pictures”. Carbon Brief looked at the history of UK coal use earlier this year.
Comment
Hopelessness and determination
The Paris agreement will not stabilise the climate, says the Economist, but the efforts it makes possible could still achieve a lot: “If it is to live up to its promise, countries will have to make full use of the mechanisms for ratcheting up emissions cuts and accelerating adaptation for decades to come.”
Carbon markets in the Paris Agreement – an early holiday gift
Widge, the head of climate and carbon finance at the World Bank Group, says that he was “happily surprised to see the extent and detail on carbon markets that was ultimately included in the Paris Agreement”. He adds: “It paves the way for a renewed international carbon market that will look and be different. Carbon Markets 2.0, if you will.”
The Guardian view on the end of deep mining: adieu to the aristocracy of the working class
For overwhelming environmental reasons, “coal had to go”, says the Guardian’s editorial. “But it should not have gone like this. t will now be imported coal that, for at least the next decade, keeps the lights on (the government’s commitment to end all coal-fired power by 2025 is now described as a projection, not a commitment); the government plans to bring shale gas on stream as a substitute, an enterprise that will require so much investment it is likely to displace renewables while creating an infrastructure too costly to phase out in time to meet the 2030 target of clean energy generation.”
An age of climate realism is upon us
Peiser, a former sports science lecturer who now heads a UK-based climate sceptic lobby group called the Global Warming Policy Foundation, says that the Paris Agreement “is likely to be a ‘wait and see’ arrangement which, for the next decade at least, suspends any attempt of reaching a binding decarbonisation treaty”.
Science
Land cover and land use changes in the oil and gas regions of Northwestern Siberia under changing climatic conditions
Environmental Research Letters
Increases in vegetation cover in Siberia due to warming temperatures are being outweighed by land clearance for oil and gas exploration, a new study finds. Using high resolution satellite images acquired in 1968 and 2006, researchers analysed land use changes in northwestern Siberia. The findings show that 8.9% of the area experienced an increase in vegetation cover in response to rising temperatures, while 10.8% of the area showed a decrease due to oil and gas development and logging activities.
Anthropogenic and natural contributions to the Southeast Pacific precipitation decline and recent mega-drought in central Chile
A new study assesses the causes of a consistent decline in rainfall in central Chile since the 1970s. Using rain gauge records and a collection of climate models, the researchers find that natural fluctuations in the Pacific Ocean explain about half of this decreasing trend. The remaining half is “unlikely to be driven exclusively by natural phenomena,” paper says, and is consistent with human-caused warming – for example, a quarter of the rainfall deficit since 2010 is driven by climate change, the researchers say.
Other stories
- Aircraft contrails could be ‘unintentionally’ changing the atmosphere and warming the planet, researchers warn (Mail Online )
- No, lettuce is not worse for the climate than bacon (Grist)
- Ireland plans to wipe out 95 per cent of carbon emissions (BusinessGreen)
- Agency turns over subpoenaed climate documents (The Hill)
- How the diplomatic push for 1.5℃ unfolded in Paris (The Conversation )
- Matt Ridley Mining Firm Hit with £100,000 Bill for Climate Protest (DeSmog UK)
- Obama just released the biggest energy efficiency rule in U.S. history (The Washington Post )
- The Ominous Story of Syria’s Climate Refugees (Scientific American )