Lloyd’s of London starts paying out $4.5bn of Harvey and Irma claims
News
Lloyd’s of London starts paying out $4.5bn of Harvey and Irma claims
Hurricane Irma and Harvey will lead to $4.5 billion (£3.4 billion) of net claims in Lloyd’s of London’s market, the world’s biggest insurance market, with further losses expected from Hurricane Maria. Lloyd’s looks set to make its first loss in six years as a result of the hurricanes, the Evening Standard reports. The cost of property insurance cover in the US is likely to rise “materially” as a result, the Guardian writes. Inga Beale, chief executive of the institution, said the impact of climate change meant freak weather events were likely to continue: “Looking at the temperature of the sea it is no surprise that there have been some extreme hurricanes. The sea temperatures are very high, so we think there is a connection between climate change and weather-related events”. In related news, a new report entitled “The Economic Case for Climate Action in the United States”, covered by Inside Climate News, has estimated that the cost from the past few weeks of western wildfires and Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, is $300 billion. If correct, that would make them the costliest string of weather events in US history. Robert Watson, co-author of the report, said: “The evidence in undeniable. These recent extreme weather events are a continuation of a three-decades trend of increasing numbers, intensities and costs of severe storms, hurricanes, flooding, droughts and wildfires”.
Majority of Americans now say climate change makes hurricanes more intense
A majority of Americans say that global climate change helped exacerbate recent hurricanes in Texas and Florida, according to a new poll by Washington Post and ABC News. The two organisations ran a similar poll in 2005, a month after Hurricane Katrina, when 39% said they believed that climate change helped fuel the intensity of hurricanes. Today that figure stands at 55% – a marked increase. Young adults were the most concerned about climate change, with 67% saying that climate change contributed to the severity of the hurricanes. The poll was conducted among a random sample of 1,002 adults reached by phone, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5%. ABC News also has the story.
Tories under pressure to deliver energy price cap promise
UK prime minister Theresa May is facing renewed pressure to honour her pledge to cap energy prices, after 192 MPs wrote a letter in support of the plan. Signatories included 76 conservative backbenchers. The letter urges Theresa May and Greg Clark, the business and energy secretary, to “pledge to help the millions of households who Ofgem seem set to ignore”. “It is clear we must do more to protect the further 15 million households who continue to be preyed on by the big six energy firms”, the letter continues. Mr Clark told MPs earlier this month that it would be “excessive” for him to oblige Ofgem to introduce a cap. But Ofgem “believes that such a radical decision would be at odds with its remit to promote competition”, the Times writes. The Independent, and the Financial Times also carry the story.
Renewable energy sets new record by producing nearly a third of UK electricity
Nearly a third of Britain’s electricity (29.8%) came from renewable energy sources in the second three months of this year, the UK government has revealed. This beats the previous record of 26.9% set in the first three months of 2017, the Independent reports. The government said that the record reflects “both increased wind capacity and wind speeds, as well as lower overall electricity generation”. The statement continued: “Onshore wind generation increased by 50% [from the second quarter of 2016], the highest increase across the technologies, … while offshore wind rose by 22%”. Emma Pinchbeck, director of industry body RenewableUK, commented: “Onshore wind is the cheapest form of new power plant, so it plays an absolutely crucial role in keeping consumer bills down. When the Government holds the next set of competitive auctions for contracts to generate electricity, low-cost onshore wind deserves the chance to compete.”
‘Unacceptable’: European fossil fuel subsidies top €112bn a year
European governments are continuing to hand out more than €112bn a year in fossil fuel subsidies, despite having committed to phase out subsidies by 2020, according to a new report from the Overseas Development Institute and Climate Action Network. There is considerable debate over what constitutes a subsidy and the circumstances under which subsidies can be defined as “harmful”, BusinessGreen cautions, however the report maintains that the huge scale of the subsidies is hampering the transition to low carbon technologies. The report looked at 11 European countries and the EU between 2014 and 2016, and found that the transport sector was the largest beneficiary, receiving more than €49bn of support each year. They also found that industry and business receives more than €15bn a year in fossil fuel subsidies, while oil and gas giants continue to enjoy support for fossil fuel exploration.
Europe plans Sentinel satellite expansion
The European Space Agency has begun the process of scoping an expansion to its Sentinel Earth observation network. Six new concepts will be examined, the BBC writes, including “a constellation of spacecraft that can monitor emissions of carbon dioxide”. As well as a CO2 mission, ESA will consider three satellites that could have applications in polar regions, including a topography mission that could measure the shape and thickness of ice fields. Those that are selected will launch in the mid-2020s.
Alarm as study reveals world’s tropical forests are huge carbon emission source
Forests globally are so degraded that instead of absorbing emissions they now release more carbon annually than all the traffic in the US, according to new research published in the journal Science. This is a far greater loss than previously thought. The study is the most detailed so far on this topic, taking an in-depth look at the impact of disturbance and degradation – the thinning of tree density and the culling of biodiversity below an apparently protected canopy, the Guardian reports. Carbon Brief and the Washington Post also have the story.
Comment
One of the clearest signs of climate change in Hurricanes Maria, Irma, and Harvey was the rain
A feature in Vox takes an in-depth look at how a “monstrous” amount of rain associated with this season’s hurricanes are a sign of climate change, using numerous charts to break down the evidence. “Air can hold about 7 percent more water for every degree Celsius increase in temperature…That means warmer air and warmer water could lead to larger, more intense hurricanes, which in turn lead to more rainfall”, the piece explains. However, the “full accounting for the rainfall from Harvey, Irma, and Maria could take months to deliver as meteorologists piece together their models with the measurements they have”.
Climate and energy are becoming focal points in state political races
A feature in the Guardian discusses hopes for an emerging climate leadership at the the state level, given the present vacuum in governance on climate from the US president and his team. “Support for sensible climate and energy policies is now a topic to run on in [some state] elections”, Abraham says, such as in Minnesota. “It appears that some states are relishing the national and international leadership roles that they have undertaken”, he writes.
Science
Springtime winds drive Ross Sea ice variability and change in the following autumn
Autumn sea ice trends in the western Ross Sea dominate increases in Antarctic sea ice and are outside the range simulated by climate models. A number of independent data sets show that variability in western Ross Sea autumn ice conditions is largely driven by springtime winds in the high latitude South Pacific, with a lead-time of 5 months. Enhanced winds thin the ice, allowing an earlier melt, enhanced solar absorption, and reduced ice cover the next autumn. This seasonal lag has implications for sea ice prediction. Given a weakening trend in springtime winds, this lagged relationship can also explain an important fraction of the observed sea ice increase. An analysis of climate models indicates that they simulate weaker wind trends than observed. This contributes to weak western Ross Sea ice trends in climate model simulations.
Tropical forests are a net carbon source based on aboveground measurements of gain and loss
The carbon balance of tropical ecosystems remains uncertain, with top-down atmospheric studies suggesting an overall sink and bottom-up ecological approaches indicating a modest net source. A new study uses 12 years (2003–2014) of satellite data to quantify annual changes in the aboveground carbon, providing direct evidence that the world’s tropical forests are a net carbon source of 425.2 Tg C per year. This net release of carbon consists of losses of 861.7 Tg C per year and gains of 436.5 Tg C per year. Gains result from forest growth; losses result from deforestation and from reductions in carbon density within standing forests (degradation/disturbance), with the latter accounting for 68.9% of overall losses.
Other stories
- Study by scientists finds amount of methane gas produced by world’s livestock is underestimated (AFP via the Japan Times )
- Severe power failures in Puerto Rico and across the Caribbean spur new push for renewable energy (Washington Post )
- Trump Wants to Repeal Obama’s Climate Plan. The Next Fight: Its Replacement. (New York Times )
- Ice Loss and the Polar Vortex: How a Warming Arctic Fuels Cold Snaps (Inside Climate News )
- California wants to store carbon in the soil (Yale Climate Connections )
- Puerto Ricans Could Be Newest U.S. Climate Refugees (Scientific American )
- Tesla Is ‘Structurally Unprofitable,’ Chanos Says (Bloomberg New Energy Finance )
- Storm-Ravaged Caribbean Eyes Solar, But It Won’t Come Cheap (Bloomberg New Energy Finance )
- Air pollution: Sadiq Khan calls for ban on wood-burning stoves (The Guardian )
- GOP chairman seeks review of Obama mining bans (The Hill )
- French utility EDF shuts its Tricastin power plant (Financial Times )