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TODAY'S CLIMATE AND ENERGY HEADLINES

Briefing date 10.07.2019
Climate change: UK government ‘not acting fast enough’

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News.

Climate change: UK government 'not acting fast enough'
BBC News Read Article

The UK government is failing to cut emissions fast enough and failing to adapt to rising temperatures, according to a Committee on Climate Change progress report covered by BBC News and others. The broadcaster’s story says: “There’s palpable annoyance from the committee that their recommendations are often ignored.” BBC News also reports a response from the government saying it will soon set out plans to tackle emissions from aviation, heat, energy and transport. The committee says the government could face lawsuits for its inaction, reports the Financial Times. [The paper suggests targets could be missed “in 2023”. In fact, it is the fourth carbon budget running from 2023-2027 that could be missed, along with the fifth period to 2032. Legal action could come well before then on the basis of insufficient plans.] Climate Home News notes the committee’s warning that there is a short window for government to close the climate policy gap before it risks “being embarrassed” at the COP26 summit in late 2020, which the UK expects to host. Several outlets, including Press Association, the Independent and the Guardian, lead on committee chair Lord Deben’s comments comparing England’s preparations for rising climate risks to “Dad’s Army”, the sitcom about shambolic wartime home defences. The Daily Mail takes a similar line, with its online headline including the words: “climate advisers blast government’s approach to tackling environmental crisis”. ReutersSky News and Bloomberg all have the story and Carbon Brief has all the key details from the report.

David Attenborough: We 'cannot be too radical' in tackling climate change
Sky News Read Article

Naturalist Sir David Attenborough’s comments on climate change, in front of a parliamentary committee yesterday, receive widespread and varied coverage. Sky News leads with his view that the world “cannot be too radical” in tackling warming and says Attenborough “launched a veiled attack on Donald Trump”. According to the Times: “Attenborough told MPs that polluting the oceans and atmosphere will soon provoke as much public abhorrence as slavery” – a line also reported by the GuardianClimate Home News and the Daily Telegraph. He told MPs that the attitude of young people “is a source of great hope”, the Guardian adds. Meanwhile, Press Association and Reuters reports his comment that climate change will “cause great social unrest” within 20-30 years. He also suggested climate change “would make parts of Africa uninhabitable”, says BBC News. According to ITV News, Attenborough said Britain owes it to the world to take a lead on climate change, having “started the problem” with the industrial revolution. According to the Sun, Attenborough “warns Brits will have to dramatically change diets and stop flying to tackle climate change”. Another Guardian covers the session under the headline: “David Attenborough says it’s ‘extraordinary’ climate deniers are in power in Australia.” HuffPost UKBusinessGreen, the Independent and others all have the story.

UN fund removes veto power over climate projects
Climate Home News Read Article

The UN’s Green Climate Fund will be able to distribute international climate finance without reaching consensus, Climate Home News reports, after the body agreed to remove veto powers over such decisions if 80% of board members back a project. The board also approved $267m of finance towards 10 projects, Climate Home News says, meaning the fund has handed out half its $10.3bn starting capital and is now looking for further contributions over the next three years. Carbon Brief’s explainer on climate finance flows has more background.

Quarter of world's biggest firms 'fail to disclose emissions'
The Guardian Read Article

Around a quarter of the world’s largest-emitting listed companies do not fully disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, according to a Grantham Research Institute report picked up by the Guardian. The paper adds: “[N]early half do not properly consider the risks from the climate crisis in their decision-making”. Reuters also covers the report, saying only one in eight of the firms is on track to reduce emissions in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change.

White House won't review climate science before election
E&E News Read Article
A proposed White House panel that would have carried out an “adversarial” review of climate science has been shelved again, reports E&E News, “as President Trump grapples with negative perceptions of his environmental record at the outset of his reelection campaign”. It says the idea is “stalled indefinitely amid internal disagreements within the White House, according to two sources”.
How each country contributed to the explosion in energy consumption
Bloomberg Read Article

“The world has almost doubled its energy consumption since 1980,” begins a feature for Bloomberg that includes an interactive chart showing how each country has contributed – and how far it relies on fossil fuels. It concludes: “As clean power sources get even cheaper, countries will have a greater incentive to transition and cut carbon emissions. Whether that comes in time to to prevent the worst effects of climate change remains to be seen.”

Comment.

Washington floods expose a double threat: Old drains and climate change
Christopher Flavelle, The New York Times Read Article

Torrential rains that caused flash floods in Washington DC this week “showed just how vulnerable cities with ageing water systems can be in the era of climate change”, writes Christohper Flavelle in a New York Times feature. He quotes a professor of civil and environmental engineering saying: “We’re still approaching this 21st-century problem with 20th-century infrastructure, and it’s completely inadequate…And it’s only going to get worse.” The piece also quotes an official from the city’s water utility saying its average water main is 79 years old.

Science.

Discussing global warming leads to greater acceptance of climate science
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Read Article

Discussing climate change with friends and family leads to a greater acceptance and understanding of the facts surrounding climate science, a new study finds. The reverse is also true, the study says, in that knowing more about climate science leads to more conversations with friends and family. “These findings suggest that climate conversations with friends and family enter people into a proclimate social feedback loop,” the authors say.

Ozone and heat-related mortality in Europe in 2050 significantly affected by changes in climate, population and greenhouse gas emission
Environmental Research Letters Read Article

Heat-related mortality could be twice as large as ozone-related mortality in Europe by 2050, a study finds. Ozone pollution currently causes 55,000 premature deaths annually in Europe, according to the study. The change in mortality risk is “due to increasing temperatures and decreasing ozone precursor emissions”, the authors say.

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