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TODAY'S CLIMATE AND ENERGY HEADLINES

Briefing date 31.05.2019
Businesses urge UK to set net zero emissions target for 2050

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News.

Businesses urge UK to set net zero emissions target for 2050
Financial Times Read Article

The FT reports that more than 120 business leaders in the UK have sent a letter to Theresa May urging the prime minister to legislate for a net-zero emissions target in 2050. The FT adds that it would be a “bold climate goal that could become one of her most important legacies if passed before she leaves office”. The FT’s report also says that the “letter from leaders of businesses including telecoms company BT, consumer group Unilever and the CBI employers’ lobby, asks Mrs May to push through ‘immediately’ a legally binding requirement for the UK to slash greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050”. This is the target formally recommended earlier this month by the Committee on Climate Change. (See Carbon Brief’s in-depth coverage of the CCC’s advice.) The FT adds: “Meanwhile, Momentum, the leftwing pressure group that backs Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, is urging the opposition party to adopt a much tougher target of zero-carbon emissions by 2030 and will seek a vote on the issue at the party’s autumn conference.”

Additionally, BBC News reports that “leading climate scientists have called for Theresa May to make her ‘legacy’ a target to cut greenhouse gases to zero by 2050”. It adds: “In their letter, the scientists said the evidence was ‘unequivocal’ that avoiding dangerous climate change means eliminating or offsetting all carbon emissions – not just reducing them…Among the signatories are emeritus professor Joanna Haigh from Imperial College London, Myles Allen from Oxford University, Sir Brian Hoskins, who chairs the Grantham Institute on Climate Change, and professor Dame Julia Slingo, former chief scientist at the Met Office.”

Meanwhile, Climate Home News reports that London mayor Sadiq Khan has written a letter to Theresa May putting forward the capital city as the host of next year’s UN annual climate conference, or COP, saying it would send a “positive message” about the UK. “Twelve British business chiefs and 162 members of parliament from across the political spectrum have also expressed support for the UK’s candidacy,” adds CHN.

Separately, BusinessGreen notes that Great Britain is today approaching the symbolic landmark of going a whole fortnight without using any coal to generate its electricity.

Renewable energy jobs in UK plunge by a third
The Guardian Read Article

The Guardian reports new data collected by the Prospect union, which has found that “the number of jobs in renewable energy in the UK has plunged by nearly a third in recent years, and the amount of new green generating capacity by a similar amount, causing havoc among companies in the sector”. The Guardian adds: “[Prospect] found a 30% drop in renewable energy jobs between 2014 and 2017, as government cuts to incentives and support schemes started to bite. It also found investment in renewables in the UK more than halved between 2015 and 2017. The union compared the situation to the devastation caused to coal mining communities in the 1980s and demanded instead a ‘just transition’ to clean energy.”

Energy secretary: US aims to making fossil fuels cleaner
Associated Press Read Article

Rick Perry, the US energy secretary, has told an energy conference in Salt Lake City that the Trump administration is, reports AP, “committed to making fossil fuels cleaner rather than imposing ‘draconian’ regulations on coal and oil”. AP’s report continues: “Perry said the Trump administration has proven it can make energy cleaner, but he provided no details involving coal and other fossil fuels other than the closing of old, inefficient coal-burning power plants and exporting increasing volumes of natural gas, an alternative to coal. Department of Energy spokesman Dirk Vande Beek didn’t immediately return an email and voicemail seeking more details about Perry’s claim. Perry pointed to an overall drop in emissions as proof of progress.” (In 2017, Carbon Brief published analysisshowing why US emissions had fallen 14% since 2005: “There is no single cause of reductions. Rather, they were driven by a number of factors, including a large-scale transition from coal to gas, a large increase in wind power, a reduction in industrial energy use and changes in transport patterns.”)

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that the US Interior Department has “vowed [to hold the] first oil lease sale in [the] Alaska Arctic refuge this year”. And the Financial Times has an article about how “a pioneering $1bn project for large-scale storage of energy from wind and solar power has been launched in Utah, offering a way to manage the variability of renewable generation”.

Extinction Rebellion activists plan to use drones for 10-day Heathrow Airport 'shutdown' this summer
Evening Standard Read Article

Many UK publications report the latest protest promised by Extinction Rebellion climate campaigners. London’s Evening Standard says the group is planning to “shut down” Heathrow Airport for 10 days this summer by flying drones near the airport. The paper says: “The climate change activists vowed to stage demonstrations on June 18 and again for 10 days beginning on July 1, disrupting flights at a peak time for holidaymakers. Threatening to bring the UK’s busiest airport to a standstill, they are demanding the ‘immediate’ cancellation of plans to build a third runway at the transport hub. Activists warned those who are booked to fly from Heathrow around the time of its protests to change their travel plans.” The Sun describes the protestors as “eco warriors” and says their action is planned “just as families try to jet off on holiday”. It adds that an earlier action by the protestors at the airport “fizzled out without any flights cancelled”. The Daily Express and Reuters also carry the story.

Could fracking with CO2 instead of water be greener?
Evening Standard Read Article

Many UK publications report the latest protest promised by Extinction Rebellion climate campaigners. London’s Evening Standard says the group is planning to “shut down” Heathrow Airport for 10 days this summer by flying drones near the airport. The paper says: “The climate change activists vowed to stage demonstrations on June 18 and again for 10 days beginning on July 1, disrupting flights at a peak time for holidaymakers. Threatening to bring the UK’s busiest airport to a standstill, they are demanding the ‘immediate’ cancellation of plans to build a third runway at the transport hub. Activists warned those who are booked to fly from Heathrow around the time of its protests to change their travel plans.” The Sun describes the protestors as “eco warriors” and says their action is planned “just as families try to jet off on holiday”. It adds that an earlier action by the protestors at the airport “fizzled out without any flights cancelled”. The Daily Express and Reuters also carry the story.

Could fracking with CO2 instead of water be greener?
New Scientist Read Article

New Scientist is among a number of publications reporting the findings of Chinese researcher publishing in the journal Joule, who say that using CO2 instead of water for fracturing rocks could be a greener way of extracting fossil fuels. New Scientist explains: “To test how effective the gas might be, a Chinese research team drilled and fracked five wells with CO2 at Jilin oil field in north-east China, as well as conducting lab tests on rock samples from south-west China. They were ‘delighted’ to find the wells produced up to 20 times as much oil after the fracking.” However, it adds: “While using the gas could be greener by reducing water use and potential water pollution, the research does not show CO2 fracturing is environmentally better overall. While some of the CO2 could be stored within the rocks, [the authors say] it could also potentially leak out after fracking, which would add to global warming.” The Times also covers the story. It quotes Hannah Chalmers of the University of Edinburgh, who says: “This study does not include the analysis that is needed to establish whether CO2 fracking is likely to lead to an overall reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions.”

Comment.

To make headway on climate change, let’s change the subject
Justin Gillis, The New York Times Read Article

Justin Gillis, the former NYT environment reporter, has written an opinion piece for the paper noting that the six US states where policies have been adopted requiring the elimination of CO2 emissions from power grids happen to be ones where the Democrats have taken full control of state government: “I think the trend holds important lessons for the Democratic Party. At the national level, the Democrats need to start running hard on climate and energy, instead of paying the issue lip service. Signs abound that the American public is ready for a serious discussion about our energy options. But how to discuss the subject? For that we should look not just to states like Colorado but, interestingly enough, also to a state under complete Republican control: South Carolina.” Gillis cites the example of how the solar industry has achieved a surprising success in the state. “Tyler Norris, who helped craft the bill on behalf of South Carolina’s solar industry association, told me that the focus was on the direct benefits to the people of the state. ‘I don’t know that the terms ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming’ were ever uttered in the entire year and a half of advocacy and debate around this,’ Mr. Norris said. The final vote in the South Carolina Senate was 46-0, and in the House, 103-0. You read that right…The polls have told us, over and over, that right below the surface in this country lurks a powerful consensus to go all out on the energy transition. That unanimous measure in South Carolina tells you that for the right policies advocated in the right language, the votes are there.”

Separately, the Economist carries a feature about how “floods and storms are altering American attitudes to climate change”. It says: “Ever more voters can see what is happening first-hand. Older polling, by Pew, had suggested that coast-dwellers were more alarmed by climate change than those living 300 miles or more inland. But inlanders’ views seem to be shifting, too. A survey published this year by the Energy Policy Institute, part of the University of Chicago, found that 70% of Americans believe climate change is real. Nearly half are also more persuaded by warnings from climate scientists than they were five years earlier. Many said that witnessing extreme weather events—like the tornadoes, storms and floods battering the Midwest —did most to form their views.”

Meanwhile, the Conversation carries a piece by two professors of linguistics who argue that “we may have reached ‘peak negativity’, where the news is so full of serious crises that people are increasingly avoiding it”. They conclude: “Constructive journalism should take a solution-focused approach that covers problems with the appropriate seriousness, but also answers the inevitable ‘what now?’, by describing how similar problems have been addressed elsewhere in the world. Awareness of climate change is high and growing, but the potential solutions need more attention.”

Pollution: the race to clean up the shipping industry
Anjli Raval and Josh Spero, Financial Times Read Article

The FT’s “big read” feature is about how the shipping sector is trying to face up to new environmental regulations that “are set to change the industry”. The feature explains: “Vessels belch out large quantities of pollutants into the air, principally in the form of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, which have been steadily rising and endangering human health especially along key shipping routes. They also create between 2% and 3% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions such as CO2, contributing to global warming and extreme weather effects.” It adds: “From 2020, shipowners must clean up their act as part of sweeping plans designed to reduce the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2050 compared with 2008…S&P Global Platts analysts say the rule change could cost the global economy $1tn over five years. Environmentalists say the impact of shipping pollution on the world is far costlier.”

Sea-level rise could be even worse than we’ve been led to expect
Editorial, The Washington Post Read Article

An editorial in the Washington Post expresses concern about the latest projections for sea-level rise: “As with many effects of human-forced planetary warming, the precise nature of some consequences will be known only after they occur, when it is too late. It is this sort of uncertainty that opponents of addressing global warming have played up to argue against action…As scientists have continued to refine their understanding of Earth systems, the distribution of the scenarios that seem probable has tended to move in the wrong direction. President Trump and those in his administration ignore scientists’ increasingly dire warnings to the peril of their children, grandchildren and the rest of humanity.”

Science.

Recent warming of landfalling atmospheric rivers along the west coast of the US
Journal of Geophysical Research Read Article

Atmospheric river storms are well known for their ability to accumulate snowpack, provide drought relief, and generate extreme precipitation and flooding along the US West Coast. Atmospheric river temperature is an important variable for determining the ratio of rain to snow delivered by an individual storm. As a result, changes in atmospheric river temperature have implications for both water storage and flood risk. This study finds substantial warming in atmospheric rivers. The most robust warming occurs in November and March, which has important implications for increased regional flood risk and decreased water storage.

Beliefs about climate change in the aftermath of extreme flooding
Climatic Change Read Article

A key component of a community’s ability to learn from disaster is how community members perceive the causes of extreme flood events and whether there is risk of future similar events. Using data collected from two rounds of public surveys across six Colorado communities flooded in 2013, this study investigated whether there is variation across causal understanding of flooding – and whether this variation can be linked to differences in proximity of damages experienced. The findings suggest that the extent of damage experienced at the neighbourhood and community levels can have a significant effect on the perceptions of climate change held by the public. In turn, these beliefs about climate change are positively associated with perceptions of risks of future flooding.

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