Joe Biden blames climate crisis for deadly heatwave in western US and Canada
News
Joe Biden blames climate crisis for deadly heatwave in western US and Canada
There is continuing coverage of the deadly heatwave in the Pacific north-west of the US and western Canada, with the Guardian reporting the comments of US president Joe Biden who, the paper says, “has joined scientists in blaming the climate crisis” for the heat. The Guardian has a video of Biden’s comments. The New York Times reports: “Hundreds of deaths in British Columbia, Washington and Oregon have been linked to a heat wave that has roasted the Pacific northwest for days and broken Canadian heat records, sending hundreds of thousands of people scrambling for relief.” It adds: “This year a study found that 37% of heat-related deaths could be linked to climate change.” The piece quotes one climate scientist saying: “Climate change is increasing the frequency, intensity and duration of heat waves…When you look at this heat wave, it is so far outside the range of normal.” The Hill reports: “Scientists are warning that climate change is already compounding the extreme heat battering the Pacific Northwest and will do so even more as the planet continues to warm.” Reuters reports: “A heatwave that smashed all-time high temperature records in western Canada and the US north-west has left a rising death toll in its wake as officials brace for more sizzling weather and the threat of wildfires.” It continues: “The worst of the heat had passed by Wednesday, but the state of Oregon reported 63 deaths linked to the heatwave…By comparison all of Oregon had only 12 deaths from hyperthermia from 2017 to 2019, the statement said. In British Columbia, at least 486 sudden deaths were reported over five days, nearly three times the usual number that would occur in the province over that period, the BC Coroners Service said Wednesday.” It quotes Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau saying: “We’ve been seeing more and more of this type of extreme weather event in the past years. So, realistically, we know that this heatwave won’t be the last.” According the BBC News, Trudeau “then went on to talk about Canada’s commitment to combat climate change”. The broadcaster says Trudeau “call[ed] the recent weather a reminder of the need to address climate change”. A second BBC News article says: “Experts say climate change is expected to increase the frequency of extreme weather events, such as heatwaves. However, linking any single event to global warming is complicated.” Another Guardian article reports that British Columbia has seen a “195% increase in sudden deaths” during the heatwave. The heatwave is the cover story for Libération in France, with a fullpage image of a burning sun and the title: “Canada 49.6C” and subtitle: “Climate change.” Reuters reports that the heatwave “is moderating slightly, but still looks this week to erase high temperature marks set decades ago, a government climatologist said on Wednesday”. Reuters reports: “President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that the US was behind in preparing for what could be a record number of forest fires this year because of drought and high temperatures and pledged to pay federal firefighters more.” It quotes him saying: “Climate change is driving a dangerous confluence of extreme heat and prolonged drought. We’re seeing wildfires of greater intensity that move with more speed. That’s a problem for all of us.” The Washington Post carries the reactions of experts to the record heat, quoting one in its headline saying the temperatures are “hard to comprehend”. Carbon Brief has published a detailed summary of the media reaction.
Revealed: ExxonMobil’s lobbying war on climate change legislation
A senior lobbyist for ExxonMobil has been caught on camera discussing how the oil firm works to “water down US climate legislation”, reports Channel 4 News, citing footage obtained by Greenpeace’s Unearthed. The broadcaster continues: “The recordings appear to reveal the secretive behind-the-scenes activities of a lobbyist for a company that claims in public to support action on climate change, while fighting against legislative attempts to tackle it.” It adds that the lobbyist claims in the recordings that Exxon has “lobbied key senators to remove and/or diminish climate change measures from President Biden’s US $2tn infrastructure and jobs bill”. It quotes the lobbyist saying: “Did we aggressively fight against some of the science? Yes. Did we hide our science? Absolutely not.” Channel 4 News also reports: “[Exxon lobbyist] Mr McCoy appears to suggest that ExxonMobil’s public support for a carbon tax is underpinned by the conviction it will never happen, allowing the company to ‘support’ it in order to appear green.” Unearthed has its own piece on the recordings under the headline: “Inside Exxon’s playbook: How America’s biggest oil company continues to oppose action on climate change.” It adds: “A senior lobbyist for Exxon told an undercover reporter that the company had been working to weaken key aspects of president Joe Biden’s flagship initiative on climate change, the American Jobs Plan.” The New York Times reports under the headline: “In video, Exxon lobbyist describes efforts to undercut climate action.” It continues: “Keith McCoy, a senior director of federal relations for ExxonMobil, described how the oil and gas giant targeted a number of influential United States senators in an effort to weaken climate action in President Biden’s flagship infrastructure plan.” City AM runs the news under the headline: “Exxon Mobil lobbyist admits to denying climate science in lobbying efforts.” The Wall Street Journal reports: “ExxonMobil chief executive Darren Woods apologised and disavowed statements made by two of the company’s top Washington lobbyists after an environmental group released a video recording of their dismissing its public positions on climate change.” It adds: “Hours after the group posted the video, Mr Woods issued a statement saying that the views expressed by Messrs McCoy and Easley don’t represent Exxon’s position on climate-change issues and that the men were never involved in developing the company’s policy positions on the issues discussed.” The Guardian reports on the lobbyist “describ[ing] the oil giant’s backing for a carbon tax as a public relations ploy intended to stall more serious measures to combat the climate crisis”. Reuters reports the footage and says the Exxon lobbyist, Keith McCoy, wrote on LinkedIn that he was “deeply embarrassed by my comments” and used his post to “apologise[] to colleagues at Exxon”. The Hill and New York Post also have the story. In a follow-up report from Channel 4 News, climate scientist Prof Mike Mann and US senator Sheldon Whitehouse “demand changes to lobbying” in response to the Exxon revelations, the broadcaster says. Channel 4 News has promised more revelations about oil lobbyists in this evening programme.
Meanwhile, the Guardian has launched a new series called “climate crimes” that it says is dedicated to “investigating big oil’s role in the climate crisis” and “attempts to hold the fossil-fuel industry accountable for the havoc they have created”. One piece in the Guardian series looks at an “unprecedented wave of lawsuits, filed by cities and states across the US, aim[ing] to hold the oil and gas industry to account for the environmental devastation caused by fossil fuels – and covering up what they knew along the way”.
Separately, a coalition of financial transparency advocates has suspended its participation in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) after it “decided not to evict an ExxonMobil executive from its board”, Bloomberg reports. It adds: “The coalition accused Exxon’s Matthew Gobush of lobbying against the very standards EITI stands for and called for his removal.”
UK: Nissan announces major UK electric car expansion
Carmaker Nissan has announced a “major expansion” of electric vehicle production at its car plant in Sunderland in the northeast of England, BBC News reports, as part of £1bn worth of investment that includes a new electric battery plant. The Financial Times says: “In a move that raises hopes the UK can attract the investment in batteries needed to support its wider motor industry, the Japanese car giant will create more than 6,000 direct and indirect jobs by developing the new facility next to its existing car plant, and promising to build a new electric car at its site.” Sky News also has the story.
Vast majority of new coal-power plants ‘uneconomic’
Some 92% of coal plants in the pipeline or already under construction would cost more to build than the future income they would generate, rendering them “uneconomic”, the Financial Times reports, citing a new study from thinktank Carbon Tracker. The findings show the 620 coal units in the pipeline would have a combined capacity of more than 300 gigawatts (GW) and would be concentrated in China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Japan, the paper says. It adds: “The report finds that the majority of global coal operations could be replaced by renewable energy with an immediate cost saving.” Separately, Bloomberg reports on a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), which it says suggests that “[a] surge in private lending for renewable energy projects this decade is key to meeting global targets”. The website quotes IRENA director general Francesco La Camera saying “this decade will be decisive” to those goals.
US: Biden plans push to enact clean electricity standard
US president Joe Biden aims to use the budget reconciliation process to enact climate measures, including a clean electricity standard, left out of the “slimmed-down bipartisan infrastructure deal”, reports the Financial Times, in a story trailed on the paper’s frontpage. It continues: “Senior White House advisers wrote in a memo seen by the Financial Times that Biden planned to use the budget reconciliation process to enact legislation that would include the clean electricity standard, as well as various tax breaks for clean energy. The standard would mandate rising targets for electric utilities to produce carbon-free electricity, with 80% of power from clean sources by the end of the decade and 100% by 2035, according to previous plans outlined by the White House.” Reuters reports the comments of White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy saying a clean electricity standard and tax credits for renewables are “bottom lines” needed in a second infrastructure package that could be passed this year. It adds: “President Joe Biden, has sought to reassure environmental and progressive groups that he will include key climate policy measures in a second infrastructure package that could be passed on a party line vote through budget reconciliation.” Vox lists “six crucial climate actions” left out of the first infrastructure deal, that is currently being negotiated in congress. The Hill reports that the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency has “defended the climate and environmental provisions of the bipartisan infrastructure package in response to activists who have accused the Biden administration of cowardice on the issue”.
In related comment, columnist Farhad Manjoo writes in the New York Times: “This could be the great turning point – an opportunity for the US to finally take grand action to curb the worst effects of a climate barreling toward catastrophe.” His piece criticises the compromise infrastructure plan for “abandon[ing] just about every major Biden idea for combating global warming” and runs under the headline: “Democrats have a year to save the planet.” In the Washington Post, academics Thea Riofrancos and Mark Paul write on a similar theme under the headline: “Biden risks botching a key chance to fight climate change.” They add: “The White House has promised that climate will be addressed in a separate bill, to be passed through reconciliation. But it’s unclear how expansive that bill will be, or whether it will move forward in the face of Republican opposition.”
Elsewhere in US news, Utility Dive reports that the state of Oregon has “leap[t] past California and Washington as legislators pass bill to decarbonise [the] power grid by 2040”. Separately, the Washington Post reports that federal transport officials have for the first time judged projects seeking grants from a $900m fund “based on how they might tackle climate change and racial injustice”. The Hill reports that President Biden yesterday eliminated three Trump-era rules including on methane emissions. The Hill reports the comments of transport secretary Pete Buttigieg saying of climate change: “There’s no time to argue about whether it’s real – it’s happening, and it’s incredibly dangerous.” Another story from the Hill reports that the attorney general of California wants the US Securities and Exchange Commission to use its regulatory authority “to establish a standard for firms when it comes to disclosing climate risk”. Finally, Bloomberg reports that the state of New Jersey has approved two “massive” offshore windfarms in the Atlantic, which would have a combined capacity of 2.7 gigawatts (GW).
China is facing its worst power shortage in a decade. That’s a problem for the whole world
CNN reports that China is facing its “worst power shortage in a decade” due to reasons including “extreme weather, surging demand for energy and strict limits on coal usage”. The news network says that the problem, which “could last for months”, will likely disrupt the nation’s post-pandemic economic rebound and global trade. It notes that the power crunch has led to power rationing in various regions and a slowdown in factory activity growth in June. Meanwhile, emissions from crypto mining “could grow” as a result of China’s crackdown on the sector, Reuters reports. According to “climate and tech experts”, Beijing’s clampdown could drive crypto miners towards “dirtier” sources of electricity elsewhere “unless other countries follow China’s lead”, the newswire says.
In other news, China’s biggest bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), has “dumped” a plan to finance a $3bn (£2.17bn) coal-fired power plant in Zimbabwe, reports Bloomberg, citing a relevant email it has viewed. The project in question is the 2,800-megawatt (MW) Sengwa coal project in northern Zimbabwe, the outlet states. However, it does not explain why ICBC abandoned the project. Separately, a column from Fortune calls on ICBC to become “a leader in green finance”. The article says that the state-owned Chinese bank is “uniquely positioned to quickly jump to the forefront of the accelerating climate leadership race”. It adds: “The first step it should take is to stop all coal financing immediately.”
Elsewhere, Chinese financial publication Caixin reports that the nation’s top securities regulator has issued new rules requiring domestically registered companies to disclose pollutant emission situations, environmental impacts and administrative penalties arising from environmental issues. Reuters says that the China Photovoltaic Industry Association has issued a statement saying claims that Chinese solar firms are benefiting from forced labour in Xinjiang are unfounded and unfairly stigmatise firms with operations there. Finally, state-run China Energy News reports that a 20bn yuan (£2.2bn) hydropower station has been put into operation. The publication says that Yangfanggou Hydropower Station in Sichuan – a “key national clean energy project” – has a total capacity of 1.5 gigawatts (GW) and is expected to generate about 6.9 terawatt hours every year. The first of its four generators was connected to the grid on Wednesday, the report adds.
Comment
Scalding temperatures give a taste of the suffering global warming brings
Editorial, The Washington Post
Americans should “get used to terms such as ‘heat dome’ and ‘megadrought’“, says an editorial in the Washington Post, as the “searing temperatures” in the Pacific north-west are “just the latest example” that “the sorts of extreme weather events that experts warned would become increasingly frequent are occurring”. The paper notes that “it will take scientists more time to attribute this particular episode to climate change”, but “it is already clear that baseline temperatures that seem only mildly higher produce more extreme events, more often”. The editorial warns that “human society has developed within a narrow temperature band” and that adapting to a warmer world “will be a long and expensive project”. It concludes: “The sooner the world weans itself off carbon-emitting forms of energy, the better chance human beings have of preventing widespread suffering.”
Writing in the Guardian, Prof Simon Lewis from University College London and University of Leeds (and also a Carbon Brief contributing editor) warns that there is “no time to lose” to “curtail the impacts of ever more ferocious heatwaves”. This requires “cut[ting] off the supply…by halving CO2 emissions this decade, then reaching net-zero emissions by 2050”, he says, but also “prepar[ing] for the inevitable heatwaves of the future”. The latter should include ensuring energy supplies are resilient to heatwaves, Lewis writes, “as people will be relying on electricity for cooling from air-conditioning units, fans and freezers, which are all life-savers in a heatwave”. Plans should also “account for the fact that heatwaves intensify structural inequalities’, he writes: “Poorer neighbourhoods typically have fewer green spaces and so heat up more, while outdoor workers, often poorly paid, are especially vulnerable.”
Also in the Guardian, columnist Arwa Mahdawi says that “none of what is happening should be a surprise to anybody. The climate crisis is not some big secret – it hasn’t been for a long time”. And in a Guardian piece by meteorologist and author Eric Holthaus, he writes: “The imagery we should remember from this heatwave isn’t swimming pools and fountains, it’s friends and neighbours sharing air-conditioning amid a pandemic in a city that’s 40 degrees warmer than normal. It’s young people braving heat stroke to demand climate action from a president who promised it to them. It’s the anxiety of not knowing when or where the next heatwave will be, but knowing that it’s coming. It’s about surviving a society where decades of racial segregation means that redlined neighbourhoods are 15 degrees hotter than others.”
Climate change: Bangladesh migrant megacity ‘crumbling under pressure’ – with warning that same issues will later hit UK
A Sky News feature reports from Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, saying: “Many migrants have been pushed from their rural homes by extreme weather or poor socioeconomic opportunities and pulled to the city for work…But climate change is exacerbating and accelerating this pattern. And migrants have arrived in Dhaka faster than infrastructure can keep up.” It quotes one expert saying: “Bangladesh is really the canary in the coal mine…What we face today, you in the UK will face tomorrow – and you will need to be able to face it.” The piece notes: “Sky News will focus on the impact of climate change in Bangladesh with a series of special reports over the coming months.”
Science
Satellite-based survey of extreme methane emissions in the Permian basin
New oil and natural gas production facilities in the Permian basin in the south-western US are “major emitters” of methane, a new study suggests. Using “a new class of satellite measurements”, researchers perform the “first regional-scale and high-resolution survey of methane sources in the Permian”. The study finds “an unexpectedly large number of extreme point sources”, of which new facilities play a major part –“often due to inefficient flaring operations”. The results “put current practices into question”, the researchers conclude.
Future changes to high impact weather in the UK
New research uses the latest UK climate projections (UKCP18) to assess the potential for “high-impact weather” over the UK in future. Among the findings, the researchers show “increases in the frequency of extremely hot days and nights, with a UK average increase in hot days of between 5 and 39 days per year between 1.5C and 4C of global warming”. The study also finds that “average drought severity is projected to increase for 3-, 6-, 12- and 36-month-long droughts”. For more on UKCP18, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth Q&A.
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- EU steers shipping towards carbon trading market to curb emissions (Reuters)
- How climate change will widen Europe’s divides (Politico)
- The EU’s biomass dilemma: can burning trees ever be green? (Financial Times)
- Chancellor to lay out rules on businesses’ climate disclosures (Press Association via the Independent)
- Development bank climate finance spending hit $66bn in 2020 – report (Reuters)
- Norway’s energy firms plan $1.7bn oil, gas developments (Reuters)
- UN aviation emissions body decried for hiring industry lobbyist (The Guardian)
- ‘Deeply irresponsible’: federal government loan for new Queensland coalmine criticised by campaigners (The Guardian)
- France needs to ‘double’ efforts on climate, says High Climate Council (EurActiv)
- Liebreich: ‘Oil sector is lobbying for inefficient hydrogen cars because it wants to delay electrification’ (ReCharge)
- ‘We will disappear’: Sami reindeer herders fear increase in Finnish logging (Thomson Reuters Foundation)
- ‘Hot air’ carbon offset scheme undermines Colombia’s climate goal, experts warn (Climate Home News)
- Jet Zero: Government launches new £3m green aviation funding competition (BusinessGreen)
- Amazon’s carbon intensity falls, but CO2 emissions soar 19% due to pandemic sales boom (BusinessGreen)
- Full steam ahead for Cornwall’s geothermal energy project (The Guardian)
- Wellcome pledges £29bn investment fund will be carbon zero by 2050 (Financial Times)
- Comment: Four ways to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises simultaneously (The Conversation)
- Generali to make green investments of up to €9.5bn in 2021-25 (Reuters)
- China key to Vietnam’s solar success (China Dialogue)
- Are ‘heat pumps’ the answer to heat waves? Some cities think so. (The New York Times)
- Comment: Shell court ruling is a wake-up call for governments to end fossil fuel support (Climate Home News)
- Comment: As US and Europe push climate policies, Middle East and Russian state oil producers stand to benefit (South China Morning Post)
- Saudi Arabia wants to freeze carbon to cut emissions from power (Bloomberg)
- Forget GDP, ‘vulnerability index best gauges aid’ to small islands (The Guardian )