MENU

Social Channels

SEARCH ARCHIVE

Daily Briefing |

TODAY'S CLIMATE AND ENERGY HEADLINES

Briefing date 28.04.2020
German environment minister defends airline bailout, promises green recovery

Expert analysis direct to your inbox.

Every weekday morning, in time for your morning coffee, Carbon Brief sends out a free email known as the “Daily Briefing” to thousands of subscribers around the world. The email is a digest of the past 24 hours of media coverage related to climate change and energy, as well as our pick of the key studies published in peer-reviewed journals.

Sign up here.

News.

German environment minister defends airline bailout, promises green recovery
Climate Home News Read Article

Climate Home News reports that Germany’s environment minister has defended a planned bailout of the country’s largest airline to “protect jobs in the short term”, while “insisting the next phase of post-coronavirus recovery will be green”. The German government is currently in talks with Lufthansa over a “package reportedly worth €10bn”, CHN says. “I do not want to question the bailout money we are dispersing round. We have been internationally commended on our policy on quick help and this is right,” said environment minister Svenja Schulze at the opening press conference of the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, a climate change conference involving 30 environment ministers that Germany is co-hosting with the UK this week, according to CHN. BusinessGreen reports that Schulze also said that countries must update their climate action plans this year, regardless of the strains posed by coronavirus. According to the outlet, she said: “The postponement of the UN World Climate Change Conference in Glasgow to 2021 is understandable because a global consensus of 200 states would not be able to be reached in a video conference. However, I advocate for us to stick to the timetable set by the Paris Agreement which says the international community must update its climate targets this year. We have to take the next step forward for climate action and do this in Europe, and do everything possible to ensure other economies follow suit.” Reuters reports that ministers also discussed how “government efforts to help economies recover from the coronavirus pandemic could also tackle inequality and climate change through investment in energy-smart buildings, electric vehicles and other green measures”. According to the newswire, Rwandan environment minister Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya said: “The Covid-19 crisis has further exposed the unacceptable levels of inequality in our societies, and we need to work even harder to level the playing field. But we must resist the temptation to revert to or ramp up polluting industries as part of a plan to create jobs.”

Elsewhere, BBC News reports that the UK airline industry is pressuring the chancellor Rishi Sunak to extend the government’s job support scheme beyond June. Aviation industry body Airlines UK said airlines hit by coronavirus would face “a renewed cash crisis” if the scheme were withdrawn prematurely, according to BBC News. The Financial Times reports that oil and gas companies in the UK North Sea fear as many as 30,000 jobs will be lost in the region as they brace for an “even more severe” crisis than the oil price crash of 2014.

Meteorologists say 2020 on course to be hottest year since records began
The Guardian Read Article

The Guardian reports that this year is on course to be the world’s hottest since measurements began, according to multiple meteorological organisations. There is a 50% to 75% chance that 2020 will break the record, which was last exceeded four years ago in 2016, according to the Guardian. The estimates come from separate analysis from the UK’s Met Office and the US Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Guardian adds: “Heat records have been broken from the Antarctic to Greenland since January, which has surprised many scientists because this is not an El Niño year, the phenomenon usually associated with high temperatures.” Last week, Carbon Brief published its first annual state of the climate for 2020, which also reported that 2020 is on track to becoming the warmest year on record.

Britain breaks record for coal-free power generation
The Guardian Read Article

Great Britain has gone without coal-fired power generation for its longest stretch since the Industrial Revolution, breaking the existing record of 18 consecutive days this morning, reports the Guardian. The UK also set a new solar power record on 20 April after solar farms generated more than 9.6GW of electricity for the first time, the Guardian adds. “The new coal-free record comes almost three years after the grid first ran without coal power for 24 hours for the first time,” says the Guardian. Carbon Brief also has analysis on the UK’s latest coal-free record. Meanwhile, the Independent reports that Sweden has closed its last coal-fired two years ahead of schedule, becoming the third European country to exit coal after Belgium and Austria.

Enormous 50-turbine onshore wind farm in Scotland given green light
The Independent Read Article

The Independent reports that a 50-turbine onshore wind farm has been given the green light in Ayrshire, southwest Scotland, after a £320m funding deal secured the project’s future. Swedish state-owned firm Vattenfall, which already had planning permission for the project, has partnered with infrastructure fund Greencoat UK Wind to ensure construction goes ahead, the Independent says. BBC News reports that, under current plans, the wind farm should be operational by 2023. BusinessGreen also has the story.

Comment.

A time to save the sick and rescue the planet
António Guterres, The New York Times Read Article

In the New York Times, United Nations secretary-general António Guterres argues that closer international collaboration “could stop a pandemic faster and slow climate change”. Guterres proposes a six-point climate action plan for governments to consider as they take action to rebuild their economies in response to coronavirus. He says: “First: As we spend trillions to recover from Covid-19, we must deliver new jobs and businesses through a clean, green transition…Second: Where taxpayers’ money rescues businesses, it must be creating green jobs and sustainable and inclusive growth. It must not be bailing out outdated polluting, carbon-intensive industries. Third: Fiscal firepower must shift economies from grey to green, making societies and people more resilient through a transition that is fair to all and leaves no one behind. Fourth: Looking forward, public funds should invest in the future, by flowing to sustainable sectors and projects that help the environment and climate. Fossil fuel subsidies must end and polluters must pay for their pollution. Fifth: The global financial system, when it shapes policy and infrastructure, must take risks and opportunities related to climate into account…Sixth: To resolve both emergencies, we must work together as an international community. Like the coronavirus, greenhouse gases respect no boundaries. Isolation is a trap. No country can succeed alone.”

In the Daily Telegraph, Nigel Topping, who is the UK government-appointed high level climate action champion for COP26, also writes on how countries can “build a more prosperous economy” while “protecting the planet”. He says: Destruction of natural habitats and climate change both drive wildlife closer to people. Catastrophic levels of global warming await unless countries quintuple their carbon-cutting ambitions. A warmer Earth means more mosquitoes and ticks bringing disease to new places, more allergies and asthma.“ In the Guardian, writer and former environment correspondent Paul Brown says “what happens after coronavirus will determine our climate’s future”. He writes: How politicians plan the recovery will determine whether we can ever again reach a “safe level” or doom civilisation to inevitable collapse.“ And in the FT, Didier Saint-Georges, a member of the strategic investment committee at Carmignac, the Paris-based asset manager, writes that psychological biases are likely to shape nations’ recovery from coronavirus and plans to tackle climate change.

Science.

Projected shifts in the foraging habitat of crabeater seals along the Antarctic Peninsula
Nature Climate Change Read Article

Crabeater seals, which feed almost exclusively on Antarctic krill, will see their foraging habitat shift away from the coast as their prey respond to changes in circulation, water temperature and sea ice distribution, a new study says. The researchers combine “seal movements and diving behaviour with environmental variables to build a foraging habitat model for crabeater seals for the rapidly changing western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP)”. The findings suggest that “future climate change in this region may force the foraging habitat of these seals southward and offshore, which could affect the ability of seals to access their key prey”, says an accompanying News & Views article.

Rainfall anomalies are a significant driver of cropland expansion
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Read Article

Repeated rainfall shortages contribute to cropland expansion and deforestation in developing countries, a new study suggests. Overall, “dry anomalies account for ∼9% of the rate of cropland expansion over the past two decades”, the researchers say, while there were no discernible effects from repeated wet events. The study concludes: “That these effects are confined to developing countries, which are often dominated by small-holder farmers, implies that they may be in response to reduced yields.”

Expert analysis direct to your inbox.

Get a round-up of all the important articles and papers selected by Carbon Brief by email. Find out more about our newsletters here.