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TODAY'S CLIMATE AND ENERGY HEADLINES

Briefing date 10.09.2018
‘Everyone was frustrated’: US-China stand-off holds up climate talks

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News.

‘Everyone was frustrated’: US-China stand-off holds up climate talks
Climate Home News Read Article

An extra week of climate talks that ended last night in Bangkok made “patchy” progress on the rules of the Paris Agreement, reports Climate Home News. The rules are due to be finalised at COP24 in Poland this December. The US and China were the focal points for wider disagreement, with the US blocking a Chinese proposal for two-tier standards on guidelines for national climate plans and parts of the climate finance debate “stalled”, Climate Home News says. It adds that the co-chairs of the negotiations have been given a mandate to translate informal notes into draft legal text ahead of December’s meeting. The talks made “good progress”, according to UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa, reports Reuters. According to the Associated Press, the meeting: “Fell short of its aim of completing fruitful preparations,” noting that some had hoped for draft legal text to emerge already in Bangkok. Coverage from AFP and the Independent leads on criticism of the US, said to be “roadblocking” negotiations on climate finance. The talks made progress of several issues but “hit a stumbling block” over finance, reports Bloomberg. The Hindu carries an editorial on the talks, which argues: “Developed countries, especially the US, need to commit funds to limit climate change.” The New York Times carries a lengthy feature on climate finance, tracing progress since rich nations pledged in 2009 to mobilise $100bn a year by 2020 to help poorer countries. Carbon Pulsealso reports on progress in Bangkok. Reuters is among the outlets reporting that extra time has been added to the crunch COP24 talks in December, which will start a day early. Climate Home News also carries an interview with the four negotiators – Sarah Baashan, Paul Watkinson, Jo Tyndall and Emmanuel Dlamini – who are chairing the various parts of the talks. Commenting on a compilation of informal notes running to 307 pages as of Thursday last week, Tyndall warns progress should not be judged by page count, Climate Home News says.

BBC admits ‘we get climate change coverage wrong too often’
The Guardian Read Article

A BBC email and internal briefing says it gets coverage of climate change “wrong too often” and tells staff: “You do not need a ‘denier’ to balance the debate,” reports the Guardian, picking up on leaked documents published by Carbon Brief on Friday. The briefing warns staff to be aware of “false balance”, the Guardian adds. Several papers lead their coverage with a photo of Lord Lawson, the Conservative peer and founder of climate sceptic lobby group the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), whose false claims on climate change in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today programme last year went unchallenged, leading to a critical ruling from regulator Ofcom. Coverage in the Times includes a section from the BBC guidance, which says journalists “need to be aware of the guest’s viewpoint and how to challenge it effectively” and should also say which organisation the guest represents and “potentially how that group is funded”. The Times adds: “The Global Warming Policy Foundation does not disclose who funds it.” It carries a response from Benny Peiser, director of the GWPF, who says Lord Lawson had been on the Today programme only twice in five years. The BBC climate guidance is also reported by the Daily MailHuffington Postand i paper, as well as the print edition of the Daily Telegraph (not online).

Global wave of climate protests as key UN climate talks stumble
AFP via Straits Times Read Article

The “Rise for Climate” movement held a day of protests on Saturday, reports AFP, including in Thailand and Australia. Protests were also held in the US, reports the Guardian and in France, according to Reuters. The protests have been timed ahead of the Global Climate Action Summit, being held in San Francisco this week, according to a second Reuters article.

Comment.

Many Major Airports Are Near Sea Level. A Disaster in Japan Shows What Can Go Wrong.
Hiroko Tabuchi, New York Times Read Article

A quarter of the world’s 100 busiest airports are less than 10 metres above sea level, notes a New York Times feature prompted by flooding at Japan’s Kansai International Airport last week. Some twelve major airports including in Shanghai and New York are less than 5m above sea level. Last week’s events show “what could be a perilous future for low-lying airports around the world, increasingly vulnerable to the rising sea levels and more extreme storms brought about by climate change,” the article says. Regarding Kansai airport, the article notes: “Engineers had boasted that the walls were tall enough to withstand storms as strong as a major 1961 typhoon that caused the sea to surge nine feet. But Typhoon Jebi, which killed 11 as it tore through west Japan this week, generated a storm surge that reached almost 11 feet.”

Comment: As New York and London mayors, we call on all cities to divest from fossil fuels
Bill de Blasio and Sadiq Khan, The Guardian Read Article

“Together, the world’s urban centres can send a message to the fossil fuel industry,” write Bill de Blasio and Sadiq Khan, the mayors of New York and London, in a comment for the Guardian. They write: “Ahead of the Global Climate Action Summit in California [this week], we are calling on other cities to stand with us to divest their assets from fossil fuel companies. Today we are announcing a new global initiative for cities on divestment and sustainable investment…We believe we can demonstrate to the world that divestment is a powerful tool and a prudent use of resources.”

Science.

Spatial and temporal changes in the frequency and magnitude of intense precipitation events in the southeastern United States
International Journal of Climatology Read Article

The number and intensity of extreme rainfall events have increased every year from 1950-2016 in the southeastern US, a new study finds. Using high-resolution modelling, the researchers show that, out of all the seasons, the autumn has seen the largest increases in rainfall events across the study period. In addition, inland regions have seen larger rainfall increases than coastal areas, the authors add.

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