MENU

Social Channels

SEARCH ARCHIVE

Daily Briefing |

TODAY'S CLIMATE AND ENERGY HEADLINES

Briefing date 03.04.2019
Let nature heal climate and biodiversity crises, say campaigners

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.

Let nature heal climate and biodiversity crises, say campaigners
The Guardian Read Article

Natural forests and coasts should be restored to help tackle climate change and loss of biodiversity, says a group of campaigners in a letter to the Guardian. The letter says: “The world faces two existential crises, developing with terrifying speed: climate breakdown and ecological breakdown. Neither is being addressed with the urgency needed to prevent our life-support systems from spiralling into collapse. We are writing to champion a thrilling but neglected approach to averting climate chaos while defending the living world: natural climate solutions. This means drawing CO2 out of the air by protecting and restoring ecosystems.” The letter’s signatories include Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, author Naomi Klein, former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and climate scientist Prof Mike Mann. The letter was instigated by Guardian columnist George Monbiot, who also writes about the initiative in a piece published today. Another signatory is climate scientist Prof Simon Lewis, who has a related comment in Nature with several others. This piece says existing plans to increase forest area rely heavily on plantations, which are less effective at storing carbon than natural forests. It adds: “To stem global warming, deforestation must stop. And restoration programmes worldwide should return all degraded lands to natural forests – and protect them.” Press Association picks up the Nature comment under the headline: “Plans to tackle global warming by restoring forests are flawed, say scientists.” The Independentalso covers the Nature commentary, saying it “accuse[s] [countries] of using [a] ‘cynical trick’ to restore forests that does not tackle climate change”. Carbon Brief looked at the potential of “natural climate solutions” such as forest restoration to help limit warming in an analysis published last year. Carbon Brief has also mapped where afforestation of all types is taking place around the world.

Shell to quit US oil lobby group over climate change clash
Financial Times Read Article

Oil and gas major Shell is leaving one of the largest US oil industry groups because of differences over climate policy, reports the Financial Times. The move “underlin[es] the pressure big energy companies face from investors to ensure any lobbying matches their goals on carbon emissions”, the FT adds. Shell will not renew its membership of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, the FT says, “in part because of the group’s opposition to a carbon tax or other prices on greenhouse gas emissions”. The review of 19 industry group memberships is part of Shell’s drive to increase transparency and show investors it is acting in line with the Paris climate agreement, says Reuters. The firm found “some” climate differences between its views and nine other trade groups, Reuters adds, including the influential American Petroleum Institute (API). It will nevertheless retain its membership of the API, says the Washington Post, which reports that Shell intends to “try to change the position of those [nine] groups”. The Post continues: “Critics said, however, that Shell was not backing up its public positions in private.” Shell’s review shows some oil giants are “moving more aggressively on climate than the petroleum industry as a whole”, says Axios. The Daily TelegraphCNN and the Hill also have the story.

Separately, the Financial Times and Axios report that Exxon shareholders have been denied a vote on whether the company should set emissions reduction targets. Meanwhile a bond prospectus released by Saudi Aramco says the firm could face “substantial costs” due to climate change litigation, reports Climate Home News. It adds that the firm also thinks demand for its products could be cut by “climate change concerns and impacts”. Aramco is “increasingly making the case that in a carbon-constrained world, their oil will have staying power…because of its relatively low carbon intensity”, says Axios, which also reports on the firm’s 469-page prospectus.

Germany sees largest emissions drop since 2009 recession
Clean Energy Wire Read Article

Greenhouse gas emissions fell 4.2% in Germany in 2018, the largest reduction since the 2009 recession, reports Clean Energy Wire. The drop was due to warm weather along with higher prices for fuel and carbon, it says, adding that German emissions had “largely stagnated for the past ten years”. Reuters also has the story. The German federal environment agency (UBA) says more needs to be done for the country to meet its climate goals to 2030, Reuters adds, especially in transport, agriculture and heating.

IEA’s climate models criticised as too fossil-fuel friendly
Financial Times Read Article

The International Energy Agency (IEA) should publish a credible pathway in its World Energy Outlook that shows how warming could be limited to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels with two-thirds probability, according to a letter to the agency seen by the Financial Times. The outlook’s main scenario implies around 3C of warming, the paper says, with even its most ambitious pathway implying only a 50% chance of keeping warming below 1.7C. The FT quotes the letter saying: “Without the inclusion of a central and realistic 1.5C scenario going forward, the World Energy Outlook would abdicate its responsibility to continue to chart the boundaries of the path of the global energy sector.” The letter comes from a group of leading investment firms and climate scientists, the paper says, quoting several of the signatories in its piece. Ingrid Holmes, head of policy at asset manager Hermes is quoted saying: “From a company’s perspective, at worst these scenarios could be used as a fig leaf for inaction…From a government perspective, one of the risks is complacency.” Imperial College London climate scientist Dr Joeri Rogelj is quoted saying: “By not providing more ambitious scenarios, it makes it much harder for those stakeholders to set more ambitious targets, or targets which would be consistent with limiting to 1.5C.”

Australia will no longer contribute to major UN climate change fund
The Hill Read Article

The Australian government’s latest budget ends funding for the UN’s Green Climate Fund, reports the Hill, citing analysis by Climate Home News. The country has given $187m to the fund since 2015, it adds. The budget also stretches a $2bn fund to cut domestic emissions over 15 years, instead of the 10 years originally planned, reports the Guardian, saying this “effectively cuts the amount spent per year from $200m to $133m”. Reuters describes the fund as a “pre-election pitch to entice voters increasingly frustrated with climate policy inaction”. Separately, the Guardian reports exclusively on energy company lobbying that led Australia’s environment minister to seek a review of ways that climate policy could be used to support coal-fired power station upgrades.

Scotland: Climate Change Bill passes first hurdle at Holyrood
Press Association via Belfast Telegraph Read Article

New legislation on cutting emissions in Scotland to 90% below 1990 levels by 2050 has passed its first stage in the country’s parliament, reports the Press Association, which says the bill was approved unanimously “despite concerns the Scottish government’s plans do not go far enough”. Scotland’s environment secretary Roseanna Cunningham has a comment piece in the Scotsman, where she writes: “There is no more urgent issue, in my mind, than climate change…our ambitious new Climate Change Bill…will mean Scotland achieves a 90% net reduction of all greenhouse gases, regarded as carbon neutrality, by 2050.”

Ryanair one of Europe's top polluters, EU data suggests
BBC News Read Article

There is continued coverage of the news that budget airline Ryanair is now one of the EU’s largest emitters of CO2, ranking 10th on a list dominated by the bloc’s largest and most polluting coal-fired power stations. BBC News carries the story, saying “it is the first time a company that does not run a coal-fired power plant has come near the top of the ranking”. Edie also has the story. The Daily Telegraph runs under the headline: “‘Ryanair is the new coal’: Airline joins list of Europe’s top carbon emitters.”

Comment.

These countries have prices on carbon. Are they working?
Brad Plumer and Nadja Popovich, The New York Times Read Article

More the 40 governments around the world have adopted some sort of price on carbon, explains a feature in the New York Times that maps their location. It explains: “Economists have long suggested that raising the cost of burning coal, oil and gas can be a cost-effective way to curb emissions. But, in practice, most countries have found it politically difficult to set prices that are high enough to spur truly deep reductions. Many carbon pricing programs today are fairly modest.” The piece runs through some of the world’s carbon pricing initiatives and explores how effective they have been. It says the UK’s “carbon price support”, a top-up tax on emissions from power stations, is “perhaps the clearest example in the world of a carbon tax leading to a significant cut in emissions”.

Science.

Public communication by climate scientists: what, with whom and why?
Climatic Change Read Article

A new paper explores the factors that drive or inhibit climate scientists from communicating directly with the public. The findings show “that it is the most published and not necessarily the most senior [scientists], which often talk in public”, the authors say, “and it is primarily intrinsic motivation (as opposed to extrinsic reward), which drive them to engage in public communication”. Political orientation, academic productivity and awareness of controversy were also “important determinants of a climate’s scientist public activity”, the study notes.

Tropical cyclone activity affected by volcanically induced ITCZ shifts
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Read Article

Large volcanic eruptions can cause a shift in the tropical rain belt – known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) – and have knock-on effects on tropical cyclones, a new paper suggests. Aerosols emitted into the atmosphere during eruptions can have an uneven cooling impact on the Earth’s two hemispheres, the paper says. This can, in turn, affect the position of the ITCZ and the genesis and intensity of tropical cyclones. Modelling experiments suggest that “volcanic eruptions do not lead to an overall global reduction in [tropical cyclone] activity but rather a redistribution following the ITCZ movement”, the authors conclude.

Carbon emissions from cropland expansion in the United States
Environmental Research Letters Read Article

Recent cropland expansion in the US has caused emissions of almost 40m tonnes of carbon every year, a new study says. The researchers modelled carbon emissions between 2008 and 2012 using high-resolution maps of cropland expansion and published maps of biomass and soil carbon. The results suggest conversion of “non-forest” areas – such as grassland, shrubland and wetland – “represent major emission conduits in the US”.

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.