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TODAY'S CLIMATE AND ENERGY HEADLINES

Briefing date 03.06.2020
Plunging cost of wind and solar marks turning point in energy transition: IRENA

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News.

Plunging cost of wind and solar marks turning point in energy transition: IRENA
Reuters Read Article

The declining cost of renewables marks a “turning point” in a global transition to low-carbon energy, according to a new report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) covered by Reuters. According to the newswire, IRENA says the “attractive prices” of renewables relative to fossil fuel power generation could push governments towards green economic recoveries following the coronavirus pandemic. The Guardian states that the report encourages energy firms to “mothball” coal plants, as more than half of them could be undercut by new large-scale solar projects. The newspaper reports that, according to IRENA, if companies replaced their most expensive coal plants with new solar or onshore wind projects, “they could save up to $23bn (£18bn) every year and wipe out 5% of last year’s total global carbon emissions”. In other news, BusinessGreen says a growing number of financial institutions have signed up to the Powering Past Coal Alliance that aims to encourage the phase out of coal by 2050.

Separately, the Times reports on analysis by natural resources consultancy Wood Mackenzie which suggests that, while the Covid-19 pandemic is driving the decline of coal in Europe and the US, “it could actually bolster use of the polluting fuel in China and other parts of Asia”. Natalie Biggs, lead researcher on thermal coal at the consultancy, tells the newspaper that, while in the US planned retirements for coal units have been brought forward, in the Asia-Pacific region there is “still a huge amount of coal [power] generation getting added this year”. The statements from Wood Mackenzie echo findings from the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Investment report, which was released last week and covered by Carbon Brief.

Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that Durham-based Hargreaves Services, “one of Britain’s last remaining coal mine operators”, will end all of its mining operations from next month due to coal’s “limited future”. The newspaper notes that the country’s total demand for coal fell by about a third to 7.9m tonnes last year. Elsewhere, a proposed coal mine in Cumbria that was “controversially greenlit” by the government last year is “back in the balance”, after the county council said it would consider changing the planning application following criticism, according to BusinessGreen. Local campaigners and a report by Green Alliance have argued that the proposed mine is “incompatible with the UK’s climate ambitions”, the news website reports.

Coronavirus: Rishi Sunak wants green new jobs for laid-off workers
The Times Read Article

The UK’s chancellor Rishi Sunak is planning a “green industrial revolution” to create jobs for people who have been made redundant as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the Times reports. An economic stimulus package announced next month will include government investment in clean energy. There could also be a fund to “reskill” workers “so they can get green jobs in areas such as insulation upgrades, offshore wind and carbon capture”, the newspaper reports. It also states that the ideas being proposed “go significantly beyond the Conservative’s manifesto commitment to create two million jobs in clean energy”.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports that the UK’s energy regulator Ofgem has launched a £350m support scheme to prevent the collapse of energy suppliers hit by customers failing to pay their bills during lockdown. In an “exclusive” story for the Guardian, correspondence between UK car industry representatives the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders and the government shows the sector has been “pushing” for a possible £1.5bn scrappage scheme “that it insists should encourage the purchase of diesel and petrol cars on an equal footing with cleaner vehicles”. In other news, after mass cancellations due to the lockdown, the Guardian reports that EasyJet has announced plans to restart flights across the majority of its European routes this summer.

Elsewhere, Reuters reports that Australia has “pinned hope” on a gas-driven recovery from the pandemic that will help the country adapt to a low-carbon future, “with the conservative government tiptoeing away from its vocal support for coal”. According to warnings from climate negotiators reported by Climate Home News, the crisis is “delaying efforts to protect the world’s poorest countries from intensifying climate impacts”, including weather extremes, such as cyclones Amphan and Nisarga.

UK electricity coal free for first month ever
The Guardian Read Article

The UK’s electricity system has recorded its “greenest” ever month after running without coal for a full calendar month in May, according to the Guardian. The National Grid announced that a combination of “bright and breezy weather” in the nation’s sunniest spring on record meant wind and solar power made up about 28% of electricity generation last month, the newspaper reports. Coal-fired electricity was edged out completely due to both the increased use of renewables and record-low demand for electricity resulting from the coronavirus lockdown, it continues. In total, since April the UK’s electricity system has operated without coal-fired power for about 54 consecutive days. In its coverage, the Times reports that solar power had provided a record high of 11.5% of electricity generation in May. However, it also notes that according to the National Grid, the biggest source of electricity “was still a fossil fuel, with gas-fired power plants providing 30% of power, and low- carbon nuclear plants on 23%”.

The UK’s sunny, dry weather is also covered by Bloomberg which reports that while the nation’s driest month in 124 years was welcomed by those confined to their homes by coronavirus, “as a sign of what the future might hold, it’s not great”. The piece quotes climate scientists including Prof Hayley Fowler from Newcastle University, who says the lack of rain is a sign of things to come: “Conditions at the moment are reflective of what climate models tell us future summers will be like”. BusinessGreen has a piece asking if a UK heatwave could “exacerbate” the coronavirus crisis by putting “enormous strain on our already overburdened doctors, nurses and other key workers”. BBC News reports that UK water companies are urging people to be careful with their water us during the coronavirus lockdown, following a “double water whammy” from the record dry spring and a surge in demand. According to the Daily Telegraph, Severn Trent has supplied bottled water to some households in Staffordshire and Nottinghamshire “as it struggled to meet demand”.

Finally, Reuters reports that the EU expects dry weather to cause “unusually widespread” wildfires in Europe over the summer.

 

Comment.

Delaying COP26 is not a reason to delay climate action
Editorial, Nature Read Article

In light of the recent decision to delay this year’s UN climate summit, COP26, by a year, an editorial in Nature reflects on what this means for global climate action. “The decision to delay was unavoidable: a COP needs representatives of all countries to be present, which would not have been possible if those countries were at different stages of virus transmission and lockdowns,” it says, noting that in Glasgow, where the event was set to take place this November, the venue is currently being used as a temporary hospital. “But delay has risks, and principal among them is slower progress in the struggle against climate change. By the time COP26 was originally scheduled to begin, countries were expected to propose new commitments to bring emissions to net zero.” It lists unresolved issues around finance and carbon markets that were set to be discussed, but says “countries do not need to wait until COP26 to take further action”. By way of example, it gives EU proposals for a €750bn post-coronavirus funding package, and China’s announcement that “for the first time in decades” it will not set a target for economic growth. The editorial ends on a somewhat positive note: “A further delay of a year gives countries more time to plan for more ambitious reductions. It also gives policymakers more time to think strategically as they work to bolster jobs, improve livelihoods and, ultimately, build more-resilient economic systems”. However, it says “the pressure is on and countries must continue to act with urgency…The climate clock is still ticking and by delaying emissions reductions, all countries have done is borrow against the planet’s future”.

Science.

Carbon intensity of global crude oil refining and mitigation potential
Nature Climate Change Read Article

New research calculates the global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from crude oil refining and estimates the total “mitigation potential” in the sector. The study uses “bottom-up engineering-based refinery modelling on crude oils representing 93% of 2015 global refining throughput”. The findings show that total global oil-refining emissions in 2015 were around 1.2bn tonnes of CO2-equivalent (GtCO2e), which represents “~23% of global indirect (that is, before combustion) GHG emissions from oil and gas operations and ~3% of global energy-related GHG emissions in that year”. The study also finds that “on the basis of projected oil consumption under 2C scenarios, the industry could save 56–79 GtCO2e to 2100 by targeting primary emission sources”.

Temporal displacement, adaptation and the effect of climate on suicide rates
Nature Climate Change Read Article

In a “matters arising” paper, a researcher has written a response to a 2018 Nature Climate Change study that suggested suicide rates in the US and Mexico increase in periods of high temperature and could therefore rise in a warming climate. Using the same data, the researcher argues that the original study “does not fully account for temporal displacement” – in other words, that temperature increases shift the timing of suicides, rather than the overall total – and that the proposed weather–suicide relationship cannot “reasonably be projected onto future climates”. In a reply, the authors of the study say that, using data for 1980 onwards, they “find no support for [the] claim that all deaths are simply displaced in time”. And they point out that “published work from cities around the world further confirms our findings”. They subsequently conclude “that – at least in more recent data – hotter temperatures robustly increase suicide risk and hasten suicides by at least a year”.

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