Leading scientists urge May to pressure Trump over climate change, In Davos, bracing for a shifting U.S. stance on climate change, & more
News
Leading scientists urge May to pressure Trump over climate change
One hundred researchers have written to the British prime minister to ask her to urge president-elect Donald Trump to acknowledge the risks of climate change and declare his support for international efforts to combat the problem, the Guardian reports. The letter warns that the incoming US administration may severely weaken climate change research and the collection of vital data. If US research is wound down then Theresa May should respond by rapidly expanding British climate science and offering jobs to disaffected US researchers. “What concerns me is that if we don’t have good scientific data and observations coming from America, we’ll be flying blind”, said Prof Piers Forster, a signatory of the letter and director of the Priestley International Centre for Climate at Leeds University. He continues: “We have to be prepared as a country because things could change quite rapidly…If climate scientists in the US start to lose their jobs, we have to be ready to take up the slack,” said Piers Forster. Press Association and Reuters also have the story.
In Davos, bracing for a shifting U.S. stance on climate change
As climate change doubter Donald Trump assumes the US presidency this Friday, at the World Economic Forum in Davos climate change experts will be mulling over what his ascent means for international efforts for progress on the issue. It is devoting 15 sessions of its 2017 annual meeting to climate change, and nine more to clean energy — the most ever on the issue. This “reflects how much is at stake” Bloomberg writes, as for global business leaders climate change could affect billions of dollars in potential profits and losses. A piece in the New York Times interviews a number of people who will be attending, to get a sense of what is likely to be focused on at Davos. Some argue that shifts in the energy industry and other promising technologies could “make a dent in global warming” regardless of who’s in power. “A historian who looks back 50 years from now is likely to say this was the time when the game changed,” said Dieter Helm, a professor of energy policy at the University of Oxford. “I think the climate change issue is being addressed by technological change”.
Prince Charles co-authors Ladybird climate change book
Prince Charles has co-authored a Ladybird book on the challenges and possible solutions to climate change, the BBC reports, as part of a series for adults explaining complex subjects written in the style of the well-known children’s series. The book was written together with Friends of the Earth director Tony Juniper and climate scientist Emily Shuckburgh. The Times has a satirical take on the news, in a piece entitled “The Hipster Prince”. The Guardian, the Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday also have the story, the latter quoting climate sceptic MP and GWPF trustee Peter Lilley.
A new special relationship for America and Britain emerges with climate science deniers linked to Trump and Brexit
DeSmog UK has mapped the close links between the climate sceptics in the US that now make up a large part of Donald Trump’s team and the UK climate sceptics that are centred at 55 Tufton St and include the Global Warming Policy Foundation: “DeSmog UK has mapped this new US-UK climate science denier network, held together in large part by conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, to shed light on this growing group of influencers.”
EPA locks in 2025 fuel efficiency rules
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalised a determination last Friday that the landmark fuel efficiency rules instituted by President Obama should be locked in through 2025, a bid to maintain a key part of his administration’s climate legacy, Scientific American reports. Major automakers have appealed to Donald Trump, who has been critical of Obama’s climate policies, to review the rules requiring them to nearly double fleet-wide fuel efficiency by 2025, but legal experts say it will be difficult for Trump’s EPA to undo this latest step.
China, Europe drive shift to electric cars as U.S. lags
Many in the auto industry believe that electric cars will “pick up critical momentum” in 2017 – just not in North America, according to executives gathered at Detroit’s annual auto show. In Europe, green cars benefit for subsidies and other perks, while combustion engines face mounting penalties. China meanwhile is “aggressively pushing” plug-in vehicles as it deals with catastrophic urban pollution levels. This is fuelling an investment surge, despite bigger hurdles in America. “There is not a disagreement that the world is going electric,” said California Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols, noting that all vehicle makers were now investing in electric models across their entire product lines.
Major companies urge PM to deliver on UN Sustainable Development Goals
Over 80 major firms including HSBC, Ikea and Unilever have asked Theresa May to back the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which they argue are “essential for long-term prosperity”, Business Green reports. The SGDs are formed of 17 goals and 169 targets to encourage action in areas such as climate change, environmental protection, poverty and gender inequality, and were adopted by the UK just over a year ago. Energy Live News also has the story.
Comment
China’s energy strategy: power and independence
What are the implications of China’s announcement that it will be spending $360 billion on building its renewables sector over the next four years? This energy strategy is part of “an effort to create a modernised economy that can provide employment for the Chinese workforce and a determination to limit dependence on imported supplies”, argues the FT’s energy columnist Nick Butler. “Any company thinking that their future lies in exporting energy into China should be watching what is happening very carefully”, he warns.
Two cheers for Swansea’s tidal lagoon
The go-ahead for the Swansea Bay project could help end fossil fuel reliance, leading to thousands of megawatts of power and creating thousands of new jobs. But the building of the £1.3 billion prototype lagoon is not yet assured, as ministers have been fickle on other inventive schemes notes Robin McKie, the Observer’s Science Editor. Jonathan Ford in the Financial Times is not so keen on the initiative, arguing that the “numbers around Swansea lagoon project are wildly misleading”, and quoting John Constable, energy editor of climate-sceptic thinktank the GWPF.
Rex Tillerson wants a “seat at the table” for global climate talks. We have many questions. – Vox
Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, sounds “slightly more hesitant” about pulling out of the Paris climate deal than the president-elect. But “don’t get too excited about this possible about-face just yet”, writes Brad Plumer in Vox. “Even if Trump and Tillerson do end up surprising everyone and sticking with the Paris climate deal, there’s still a whole lot they could do to bog down global climate talks and hinder efforts to address climate change from within”, he notes.
Science
Fram Strait sea ice export variability and September Arctic sea ice extent over the last 80 years
Using a combination of satellite radar images and weather station observations, a new study develops a long-term data record of sea ice export through the Fram Strait for 1935 to 2014. Fram Strait connects the Arctic Ocean to the northern North Atlantic Ocean and huge amounts of sea ice and freshwater are transported through it each year. The average annual sea ice export is around 880 000 square kilometres, the researchers estimate. From 1979 onwards, this has increased by around 6% per decade, the study finds, with several years exceeding 1 million square kilometres.
CO2 emission of Indonesian fires in 2015 estimated from satellite‐derived atmospheric CO2 concentrations
Indonesia experienced an exceptional number of wildfires in 2015 as a result of droughts related to the strong El Niño event and climate change. Using satellite data, a new study estimates the CO2 emissions from the fires for July to November 2015. The results suggest that the fires caused 748bn tonnes of CO2 emissions. This is about 30% lower than precious estimates using other methods, the researchers say.
The limits of bioenergy for mitigating global life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels
Generating electricity and heat from bioenergy rather than fossil fuels to could reduce CO2 emissions by between 9 and 68% by 2050, a new study says. Using life cycle analysis, researchers estimate the maximum potential of global bioenergy resources to offset fossil fuels in 2050. Using bioenergy for electricity and heat is more effective for cutting CO2 emissions than for replacing liquid fuels, the researchers note.
Other stories
- China’s embrace of a new electricity-transmission technology holds lessons for others (The Economist )
- Climate change: 90% of rural Australians say their lives are already affected (Guardian )
- City of London grants ClientEarth £100,000 to expand air pollution work (Business Green )
- Hurricane hopes to prove a new force in North Sea oil (Financial Times )
- Scott Pruitt, Trump’s E.P.A. pick, backed industry donors over regulators (New York Times )
- Obama’s climate legacy: a battle of attrition at home (Climate Home )
- How fast is the Arctic ice melting? Meet the British scientist who risked polar bear attacks and plagues of mosquitoes to find out (Daily Telegraph )
- Danger of fresh steel crisis eases as industry wins relief green taxes (Daily Telegraph )
- The long reach of the Aliso Canyon gas leak (New York Times )
- More European carmakers face their own emissions problems (Politico )
- Press regulators need to act when scientific facts are denied (Phillip Williamson )
- The California drought is on its way out, but deeper droughts lie ahead (Grist )
- Humans have destroyed 7% of Earth’s pristine forest landscapes just since 2000 (Washington Post )
- ‘The last five years have not been great at Greenpeace’ (Guardian )
- Fresh controversy over Green Investment Bank sale (Telegraph )