China vows new steel, coal capacity cuts to make sky blue, White House proposes steep budget cut to leading climate science agency, & more

06.03.17

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China vows new steel, coal capacity cuts to make sky blue

China is to cut steel capacity by 50 million tonnes and coal output by more than 150 million tonnes this year, reports Reuters. The country’s National Development and Reform Commission said it also would shut or stop construction on 50 gigawatts of coal-fired power capacity. China is deepening efforts to tackle air pollution and curb excess capacity, Reuters says. A second Reuters article chronicles the “staggering task to cure [China’s] pollution” set by leaders, which includes switching coal-fired boilers to gas or electricity in at least 1.2m households this year. Chinese premier Li Keqiang pledged yesterday to make the country’s skies blue again, according to the Associated Press report of the announcements, made at the annual National People’s Congress.

White House proposes steep budget cut to leading climate science agency

Washington Post

The Trump administration is seeking to cut the budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) by 17%, the Washington Post reports. This would include a steep cuts to research funding and a $513m loss for NOAA’s satellite division. The Washington Post’s coverage, based on a leaked memo, is picked up by Reuters and the Hill among others. The NOAA cuts could “stymie research [and] put lives at risk”, reports Climate Central.The cuts are an “all-out assault on Earth”, says climate scientist Professor Mike Mann, according to Climate Progress. Separately, the administration is expected to begin rolling back federal regulations on vehicle pollution, report the New York Times, Reuters and Bloomberg. The move is part of wide-ranging Trump administration efforts to roll back the “administrative state”, chronicled by another New York Times story. Given these efforts, jobs should be taking centre stage in the debate over climate change efforts, says a report from Bloomberg. The New York Times notes, in another report, that president Trump received nearly $1m in federal energy efficiency subsidies, in 2012. Meanwhile new energy secretary Rick Perry gave Department of Energy staff a first-day pep talk, reports the Hill, noting he “marvel[led] repeatedly at the prowess and abilities of the agency”.

UK carbon emissions fall to late-19th century levels

Financial Times

Carbon emissions in the UK have fallen to levels barely seen since the latter days of Queen Victoria after a collapse in the use of coal, the Financial Times says, reporting new analysis by Carbon Brief. The record 52% fall in coal use was due to cheaper gas, the UK’s carbon price floor, the spread of renewables and other environmental policies, the FT says. It adds that use of gas jumped last year as coal faded.

Saudis make Maldives land grab to secure oil routes to China

Climate Home

A reported multi-billion dollar deal for Faafu atoll in the Maldives could help Saudi Arabia secure oil routes into China, reports Climate Home. The move could even prefigure Chinese military projection into the Indian Ocean, one observer told the website. The low-lying island nation’s new government is switching its focus from climate threat to mass tourism, reports the Guardian.

Atlantis has tilt at underwater windmills

The Times

The developers of the world’s largest tidal stream energy plant have ambitious plans to halve the costs of their technology, reports the Times. Atlantis Resources has already installed four underwater turbines at the Meygen scheme off northern Scotland. It hopes to build 260 turbines, and will seek subsidies for up to 50 in an auction this summer.

Chevron warns it could face climate change lawsuits with future oil drilling potentially ‘economically infeasible’

The Independent

Oil major Chevron says it could face litigation because of its role in global warming, reports the Independent.The firm adds that its oil and gas resources could be rendered economically infeasible by regulations, the paper says. The admissions are made in an official filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Comment

Old energy order draws to a close amid battery storage revolution

Jeremy Warner, The Telegraph

A revolution in battery storage promises to transform the way power is delivered to consumers, says Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph, and it will have “potentially dramatic implications for existing generators and distributors”. Over the past two years, battery costs have fallen by 40%, he notes, with further reductions to come as economies of scale “take hold”.

Africa’s ‘resilient cities’ plan for the future

Sophie–Morlin-Yron, CNN

Even though the effects of climate change may not yet be apparent in some parts of the world, the battle against its impacts has already begun in cities such as Dakar, says Sophie Morlin-Yron for CNN. The city could love 60% of its beaches by 2080, the report says. Dakar’s plans to fight back are part of the 100 Resilient Cities project, Morlin-Yron explains, a $164m project by the Rockefellr Foundation. Other cities taking part include Lagos and Luxor.

Electric cars: China’s battle for the battery market

Henry Sanderson and Tom Hancock and Leo Lewis, Financial Times

Beijing has ambitious plans to remake the global battery market and exploit rising demand for electric cards, say several authors in a Financial Times feature. The country is investing billions to try to squeeze out Japanese and South Korean rivals, it says. Last week Beijing called for companies to double battery capacity by 2020. It expects 5m electric vehicles on its roads by 2020, up from 1m today.

How disappearing sea ice has put Arctic ecosystem under threat

Robin McKie, The Observer

Arctic sea ice “is likely to set another grim record” in a matter of days, says Robin McKie in the Observer. It is on course to reach the lowest winter maximum since satellite records began, he says, with more than two million square kilometres of midwinter sea ice lost in less than 40 years. The changes threaten a range of species from caribou to seals to polar bears, McKie explains, as habitats are lost and food chains broken.

Science

Projections of future tropical cyclone damage with a high-resolution global climate model

Climatic Change

New model experiments suggest that strong tropical cyclones hitting land in East Asia will increase in future, despite an overall decrease in the number of storms. The study suggests this would increase global storm damage by approximately 50% in 2070, compard to 2015. The authors note, however, that as well as changes to tropical cyclones, future economic growth will increase vunerable assets, potentially tripling the global damages caused by tropical cyclones.

Arctic sea ice decline and continental cold anomalies: Upstream and downstream effects of Greenland blocking

Geophysical Research Letters

Scientists have examined two types of “blocking” systems and their links to cold weather in the Northern Hemisphere. The new paper describes how westward-moving Greenland blocking events are strongly related to sea ice decline over the Baffin Bay, Davis Strait and Labrador Sea, whereas quasi-stationary Greenland blocking events are more strongly linked to the negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation. North American tempertures are more sensitive to the former while European temperatures respond more to the latter, which suggests we should expect more winter cold outbreaks over North America as sea ice decline continues, the study notes.

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