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Daily Briefing |

TODAY'S CLIMATE AND ENERGY HEADLINES

Briefing date 21.06.2018
Conflict, climate change choke efforts to cure poverty, inequality: UN

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News.

Conflict, climate change choke efforts to cure poverty, inequality: UN
Reuters Read Article

Climate change and conflict are driving growing numbers of people into hunger and homelessness, according to an assessment by the United Nations. An assessment looking at progress made to meet the world’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) finds that the number of hungry people has risen for the first time in a decade, Reuters reports. Progress has been hampered by climate change-related extreme weather and by violence and war, said Francesca Perucci, assistant director of the Statistics Division at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA). “Countries face mounting challenges – a fast-changing climate, increased numbers of conflicts and inequality and persistent pockets of poverty and hunger,” she said. Xinhuanet also has the story.

EU can increase 2030 pledge to Paris Agreement, says climate chief
Climate Home News Read Article

Climate Home News reports that the European Union could be in a position to begin a process to increase its pledge to the Paris Agreement, according to its climate chief. The EU has previously pledged to cut its emissions by “at least 40%”. However, following the approval of a series of new measures, the EU could now be in a position to cut its emissions by more than 45% below 1990 levels by 2030, according to Miguel Arias Cañete, EU commissioner for climate action and energy. EurActiv reports on one of these measures, an agreement sealed this week to raise the EU’s 2030 energy efficiency target to 32.5%, up from a draft figure of 27%. A second story by Climate Home News reports that the UK government has refused to say whether the country will continue to commit to cuts in line with strengthened EU targets after Brexit.

Theresa May ducks question on UK net zero target
BusinessGreen Read Article

The prime minister Theresa May appeared to try to evade a question on whether the government will introduce a target to deliver net zero emissions across the UK economy by 2050, BusinessGreen reports. Responding to a question from Labour’s shadow energy and clean growth minister Alan Whitehead at Prime Minister’s Questions on whether the government will “commit to a new UK climate change target of zero net emissions by 2050”, May said the UK was “leading the way in relation to dealing with the issue of climate change” but did not comment on whether a new target was imminent. “It was the UK that was, I think, the first country to actually bring in the piece of legislation that related to this and this government has a good record of dealing with these issues,” May said.

Trump just erased an Obama-era policy to protect the oceans
Washington Post Read Article

President Donald Trump has ended an eight-year-old policy to protect oceans, Washington Post reports. The policy was introduced by former president Barack Obama after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the largest and costliest oil spill in US history. However, Trump’s order omits mention of the oil spill. “Ocean industries employ millions of Americans and support a strong national economy. Domestic energy production from Federal waters strengthens the nation’s security and reduces reliance on imported energy,” his order reads.

Comment.

Listening to James Hansen on Climate Change, Thirty Years Ago and Now
Elizabeth Kolbert, New Yorker Read Article

Thirty years ago this week, climate scientist James Hansen issued a warning about the dangers of climate change to the US senate. While Hansen recently said that he regrets not being “able to make this story clear enough for the public”, New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert says that climate scientists should not be blamed for the lack of action over climate change. “Instead of using this anniversary to lament the failures of climate scientists, I’d like to propose that we use it to celebrate…their successes. Three decades ago, led by Hansen, they made a series of predictions; for the most part these have proved to be spectacularly accurate. That we, the general public, have failed to act on these predictions says a lot more about us than it does about them.” Meanwhile, Associated Press explores how, over the 30 years since Hansen’s testimony, climate change has become a politicised issue in the US.

Adapting to Climate Change Will Take More than Just Sea Walls and Levees
Kate Marvel, Scientific American Read Article

Adapting to future climate change will not only require changes to physical structures such as sea walls, but also a change to social structures, including the treatment of refugees, climate scientist Kate Marvel writes in Scientific American. “Climate adaptation requires seawalls and drought-tolerant crops; it also needs institutions, laws, and the basic ability to recognize humanity in others,” she writes. “We’ll need new infrastructure and technology, to be sure, but I doubt we can innovate our way to decency.”

Science.

Changes in climate extremes over West and Central Africa at 1.5 C and 2 C global warming
Environmental Research Letters Read Article

A new study investigates the impacts of 1.5C and 2C of warming on west and central Africa, comprising the Sahel, Guinea Coast and central Africa including the Congo Basin. Temperature increases for the region are projected to be higher than the global average, the study finds, and “heatwaves are expected to be more frequent and of longer duration”. The central and eastern Sahel will likely see the most intense warming, the researchers say, and also the strongest drying trend with a significant increase in the length of dry spells.

Targeted policies can compensate most of the increased sustainability risks in 1.5 C mitigation scenarios
Environmental Research Letters Read Article

Dedicated policies “can more than compensate” for sustainability risks associated with rapid mitigation to limit climate change to no more than 1.5C, a new study suggests. Using the integrated energy-economy-land-use model REMIND-MAgPIE, the researchers assess the impact of targeted policies – such as direct sector-level regulation, early mitigation action, and lifestyle changes – on meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as the 1.5C limit. The findings suggest that “a combination of these policies can alleviate air pollution, water extraction, uranium extraction, food and energy price hikes, and dependence on negative emissions technologies”, the paper says.

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