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Daily Briefing |

TODAY'S CLIMATE AND ENERGY HEADLINES

Briefing date 23.02.2018
Green heating subsidy ‘not value for money’, says watchdog

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News.

Green heating subsidy ‘not value for money’, says watchdog
Financial Times Read Article

The government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), which was launched in 2011 to encourage a shift to low-carbon heating systems, has “not achieved value for money” and the government needs to act urgently to cut the carbon emissions of millions of homes and businesses, according to the National Audit Office (NAO). The FT says the NAO found that the government did not have a “reliable estimate” of the amount it had overpaid participants that had not complied with the regulations, nor of the impact of participants “gaming” the scheme. These could “accumulate to reduce the scheme’s value significantly”, it found. It also also found that the take-up of the scheme had been much slower than forecast. BusinessGreen‘s report says: “The RHI has also saved an estimated 4.5 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, or approximately one per cent of total UK emissions, in 2017-18, figures show. But as of August 2017, the government has paid out £1.4bn to participants in the RHI scheme, and the NAO estimates lifetime payments through to 2040-41 could amount to £23bn.” UtilityWeek also covers the NAO report’s findings.

Former Trump Aide Calls Paris Climate Accord ‘a Good Republican Agreement’
New York Times Read Article

In an interview with the New York Times, George David Banks – who recently resigned as Donald Trump’s senior advisor on energy and climate change due to being denied full security clearance for smoking marijuana in 2013 – says that “the Paris agreement is a good Republican agreement.” He adds: “It’s everything the Bush administration wanted.” Banks says he stands by Trump’s decision last summer to withdraw the United States from the global accord, despite having urged him behind the scenes to remain in. “A lot can happen between now and 2020…He’s still thinking about it…I think he wants to keep the option alive.” Meanwhile, E&E News reports that the Florida Department of Transportation is building a new bridge to Trump’s club, Mar-a-Lago, that’s 4 feet higher than the current one. “But don’t call it a climate adaptation project.”

Coral reefs at risk of dissolving as oceans get more acidic: study
Reuters Read Article

Coral reefs could start to dissolve before 2100 as human-caused climate change drives acidification of the oceans, according to a new paper published in Science. Reuters explains that acidification will threaten sediments that are building blocks for reefs, adding: “Corals already face risks from ocean temperatures, pollution and overfishing…The sediments are 10 times more vulnerable to acidification than the tiny coral animals that also extract chemicals directly from the sea water to build stony skeletons that form reefs, the study said.” The lead author of the paper has also written an article about the results for the Conversation.

Tesla battery 'taking straw off camel's back' for South Australia energy demand
The Guardian Read Article

The big Tesla battery in South Australia is consistently working to serve the peak energy demand each day, taking the “straw off the camel’s back”, according to the Australia Institute’s latest national energy emissions audit. The report also finds emissions from the National Electricity Market continued to drop in January, falling to their lowest levels since 2004, driven by the federal large-scale renewable energy target.

Seychelles protects an area 'as big as Britain' in Indian Ocean
BBC News Read Article

The Seychelles has created protected areas “the size of Great Britain” in the Indian Ocean. In exchange for getting some of its national debt paid off, the island nation has agreed to protect 210,000 sq km (81,000 sq miles) of ocean. The reserves will limit tourism and fishing activities in the Seychelles to halt further damage to aquatic life. The foundation set up by actor Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the investors that worked on the deal. The country will direct future national debt payments into a new trust which will offer lower interest rates on debt repayments, and any savings will go to fund new projects designed to protect marine life and handle the effects of climate change. Reuters, the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph also cover the story.

France does not need new nuclear reactors - Environment Minister
Reuters Read Article

France has no need to build new nuclear reactors in addition to the one currently being assembled in Flamanville, in western France, environment minister Nicolas Hulot said yesterday. President Emmanuel Macron said last week he would not rule out France building new nuclear reactors to replace state-controlled utility EDF’s ageing reactors. Hulot said in November last year that reducing the share of nuclear energy in France’s power mix to 50 percent from 75 percent would probably take until 2030-35, dropping an initial 2025 target date. Separately, Reuters reports that French state-controlled power group EDF has said that some weldings on its new Flamanville nuclear reactor did not meet required specifications, but this did not affect safety or the schedule to load it with fuel at the end of 2018.

Comment.

Government should stop burning cash on biomass plants and waste incinerators
Molly Scott Cato, BusinessGreen Read Article

The Green Party MEP says she is concerned about the climate and air quality impacts from wood and waste combustion: “The UK burns far more wood every year than its annual wood production, and imports more wood pellets than any other country in the world…But the message the government really needs to hear is that renewable electricity subsidies should go exclusively to genuinely low-carbon sources such as wind, solar and tidal power, not go up in smoke.”

Errors in BP’s forecasts of the impact of electric vehicles
Chris Goodall, Carbon Commentary Read Article

Goodall takes a look at BP’s latest annual Energy Outlook – as has Carbon Brief– but in particular focuses on its projections for electric cars. He focuses on the “modelling errors and implausible assumptions”. He says they “all tend to increase total oil demand for transportation in 2040 compared to 2016. More plausible inputs and calculations would result in a forecast from BP that sees oil needs falling earlier than 2030 and then declining at a much faster rate than it projects from the peak.”

Science.

Northern Galápagos corals reveal twentieth century warming in the eastern tropical Pacific
Geophysical Research Letters Read Article

This study presents a new sea surface temperature (SST) record for the eastern tropical Pacific, from 1940 to 2010, based on two Wolf Island corals in northern Galápagos. Trend analysis of the Wolf record shows significant warming on multiple timescales, which is also present in several other records and gridded instrumental products. Together, these datasets suggest that most of the eastern tropical Pacific has warmed over the 20th century. These SST trends are consistent with the effects of human-driven warming, mitigated by cooling due to wind forcing during boreal winter, as well as intensified upwelling and a strengthened Equatorial Undercurrent.

Breakup of last glacial deep stratification in the South Pacific
Science Read Article

Why did the concentration of atmospheric CO2 rise so much and so quickly during the last deglaciation? New evidence suggests that old, carbon-rich water accumulated at depth in the Southern Ocean, which then released its charge when Southern Ocean stratification broke down as the climate there warmed. This study finds that the deepwater column of the glacial southern South Pacific was stratified, just as would be necessary for the accumulation of old, carbon-rich water. Their data also show that North Atlantic processes were not the dominant control on Southern Ocean water-mass structure during that interval, as has been thought. The results indicate a glacial northward expansion of Ross Sea Bottom Water and a Southern Hemisphere climate trigger for the deglacial breakup of deep stratification. It highlights the important role of abyssal waters in sustaining a deep glacial carbon reservoir and Southern Hemisphere climate change as a prerequisite for the destabilization of the water column and hence the deglacial release of sequestered CO2 through upwelling.

Coral reefs will transition to net dissolving before end of century
Science Read Article

Coral reef calcification is expected to decrease as the oceans become more acidic, driven by increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations from human emissions. Ocean acidification means that calcium carbonate (CaCO3)—the material with which coral reefs are built—will be more difficult for organisms to generate and will dissolve more quickly. Dissolving CaCO3 could greatly exacerbate reef loss associated with reduced calcification. This study finds that CaCO3 dissolution in reef sediments across five globally distributed sites is 10-fold more sensitive to ocean acidification than coral calcification. Consequently, reef sediments globally will transition from net precipitation to net dissolution by around 2050 CE. Notably, some reefs are already experiencing net sediment dissolution.

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