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TODAY'S CLIMATE AND ENERGY HEADLINES

Briefing date 29.11.2019
UK leaders debate climate, with Boris Johnson replaced by ice sculpture

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News.

UK leaders debate climate, with Boris Johnson replaced by ice sculpture
Climate Home News Read Article

Leaders of Britain’s major political parties – minus the governing Conservatives – have battled it out over their green credentials in the UK’s first ever general election debate on climate change, reports Climate Home News (CHN). The debate, hosted by Channel 4, saw leaders of the Labour Party, Scottish National Party, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party “broadly in agreement that emissions need to be reduced steeply in the coming years”, says CHN. There was also “broad support for renewables” and “widespread enthusiasm for zero-carbon homes”, it adds. The leaders were also quizzed on the personal changes they were making to help the environment, notes the Press Association. Conservative leader Boris Johnson chose not to participate, “saying ahead of the debate that he did not want environmental issues to be ‘siloed’,” CHN says: “Dripping ice sculptures stood where the leaders of the Conservative and Brexit parties would have been.” Channel 4 tweeted that the sculptures “represent the emergency on planet Earth”. At the last minute, the Conservatives sent minister Michael Gove to join the debate, but he was turned away by Channel 4 who said the debate was for party leaders only, reports the Guardian. In response, the Conservative Party has threatened to review Channel 4’s public service broadcasting obligations if re-elected next month, reports BuzzFeed News. A Tory source told the website that “broadcasting organisations are rightly held to a higher standard – and particularly Channel 4 which has a special role enshrined in legislation. Any review would of course look at whether its remit should be better focused so it is serving the public in the best way possible.” The party has also written to regulator Ofcom saying placing an ice sculpture on the Prime Minister’s podium was a “provocative partisan stunt”, reports BBC News. The letter accuses Channel 4 of “effectively seek[ing] to deprive the Conservative Party of any representation and attendance”, says Reuters. A Tory spokesman added that they were “deeply disappointed that Channel 4 News has conspired with Jeremy Corbyn to block the Conservatives from making the case for tackling climate change”, adds the Daily Telegraph. Channel 4’s licence runs until the end of 2024, meaning it would need renewing under any new government if the next parliament lasts a full five year, says the GuardianDeSmog UK reports that “Conservative Party candidates across the UK appear to be following their party leader by failing to participate in public debates on the climate crisis”.

On the debate itself, the New York Times says that the melting ice sculptures “stole the show”, while Guardian environment correspondent Fiona Harvey says that Boris Johnson was the overall “loser” from the debate. Harvey also summarises each leader’s best lines, overall pitch and worst moments. A panel of Guardian journalists looks at what they learned from the debate, while the Guardian’s parliamentary sketch writer John Crace pokes fun at Boris Johnson’s no-show at the debate. Finally, the Guardian has video highlights of the event.

Elsewhere, both BBC News and the Guardian take a closer look at the political parties’ manifesto commitments to plant millions of trees across the UK, while the rival pledges are compared in a standardised way for the Carbon Brief grid that lines up the parties’ climate and energy policies against each other.

'Our house is on fire': EU parliament declares climate emergency
The Guardian Read Article

The European Parliament has declared a global “climate and environmental emergency” and urged all EU countries to commit to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, reports the Guardian. It continues: “Intended to demonstrate Europe’s green credentials days before a crucial UN climate conference in Madrid, the vote also ratchets up pressure on Ursula von der Leyen, the incoming president of the European Commission.” Both Reuters and the Washington Post describes the vote as “symbolic” and the former notes that the EU legislature “voted in favour of the declaration with 429 lawmakers for, 225 against and 19 abstaining”. “Europe is the first continent to declare climate and environmental emergency,” said Pascal Canfin, chairman of the European Parliament’s environment committee, reports EurActiv. He added: “And it’s a very strong message, first to European citizens and to the rest of the world, just before COP25, and three weeks after Donald Trump confirmed the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.” Getting the resolution agreed “wasn’t without its drama”, says Politico, with “concerns it would be a purely symbolic PR stunt – a sign of how deeply divided Europe’s political groups are on the specifics of fighting climate change.” The declaration comes just before von der Leyen takes office this Sunday on 1 December, says BusinessGreen, and she has promised a “European green deal” in her first 100 days in office. The Financial Times says it has seen a “leaked document” that reveals von der Leyen “will begin her term by asking EU member states to commit by next year to reduce their 2030 carbon emissions from a target of 40% at present to “at least 50% and towards 55%”. The Hill also has the story, while the Guardian also has a video of the vote.

In related news, Reuters reports that a survey by the European Investment Bank suggests that “almost half of all Europeans fear climate change more than losing a job or of a terrorist attack”. And a separate Reuters piece reports that campaign groups have urged the new European Commission to “put an end to subsidies for hydropower and improve river protection”.

Amazon fires intensify Andes glacier melt
BBC News Read Article

New research finds that smoke from burning forests in the Amazon can intensify glacier melt in the Andes hundreds of miles away, BBC News reports. The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, found that particles of dust and black carbon from the fires were being deposited on the snow and ice of the Zongo Glacier in Bolivia. This “darkened” its surface, the news outlet adds, thus accelerating the rate of ice melt and threatening water supplies in the wider region. The researchers’ model simulations show that soot and dust has the potential to increase annual glacier melting by 3-4% each or by 6% when both were present, says the MailOnline. But high dust concentrations can see melt rates rise by as much as 14%, notes the Independent. Lead author Dr Newton de Magalhaes Neto tells the paper that “biomass burning over southwestern Amazonia cannot be considered a regional issue to be faced but instead has social implications at the continental scale, making the use of water by several Andean communities a vulnerability”. In South America, glaciers are crucial for water supply, notes the Conversation, with some towns relying on glacier meltwater for more than 85% of their drinking water.

EDF to build giant wind farm off the east coast of Scotland
The Daily Telegraph Read Article

French state-owned energy firm EDF will move ahead with plans to build its largest UK wind farm off the coast of Scotland, reports the Daily Telegraph. The project will power 375,000 homes “as wind power becomes an increasingly viable clean energy source”, says the paper. EDF says it has borrowed £2bn to finance the project located offshore near Fife. Matthieu Hue, the chief executive of EDF Renewables UK, said the project would help the UK’s electricity system become greener, and reflected the company’s commitment to Scotland. BBC News adds that several Scottish companies have won key contracts to help build the wind farm.

Comment.

The Times Christmas appeal: Helping hands
Editorial, The Times Read Article

A Times editorial outlines the paper’s traditional Christmas appeal, which typically raises hundreds of thousands of pounds for a range of charities. This year, one of the three charities the Times will be supporting is Possible, which “fosters practical community initiatives to reduce carbon emissions at a local yet significant level”. It continues: “Readers may be more familiar with Possible under its old name of 10:10, which derived from the organisation’s goal of cutting emissions by 10% in 2010, the year following its foundation. In the decade since, concern over global warming has moved from the fringes of political debate to the mainstream.” The Times was particularly “endeared” to the charity because of its “practical approach to what can sometimes seem like a hopeless, throw-your-hands-up-in-the-air problem”. It adds: “Far too much campaigning on environmental issues revolves around telling people, companies and countries what they must stop doing. Possible, as its new name suggests, is more interested in empowering individuals, neighbours and networks to adopt positive measures to combat climate change.”

China's latest coal mania is alarming but green technology has already won the battle that matters
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Daily Telegraph Read Article

The Daily Telegraph’s international business editor Ambrose Evans-Pritchard takes a look at China’s “massive – if surreptitious – expansion of its coal power fleet in breach of earlier pledges”. Citing analysis published by Carbon Brief at the start of this week, which shows that global coal power is set for a record fall in 2019, Evans-Pritchard says that the “EU’s coal use so far this year has fallen 23%…[and] 13.9% in the US”. In contrast, he says that some of China’s provinces are “literally doubling down” by planning to raise their coal capacity twofold, meaning “China is completely out of line” with other countries. However, “behind this is a wave of disruption from super-cheap solar and wind power hitting the grid”, Evans-Pritchard notes, and “recent analysis suggests that “solar module costs have fallen 89% and onshore wind by 49% since 2010” in China. Evans-Pritchard concludes: “The optimistic view is that China’s latest coal mania is the last futile roar of an industry facing annihilation…By all means be cross with China for its clear breaches of the Paris climate accord, but let us not over-react. The hard logic of the market will defeat coal soon enough.”

Science.

Inverse estimation of NOx emissions over China and India 2005–2016: contrasting recent trends and future perspectives
Environmental Research Letters Read Article

A new paper describes an “immediate inversion system” to estimate human-caused emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NOx). The findings show that India’s NOx emissions “showed a continuous increase from 2005 to 2016”, reaching 13.9m tonnes a year in 2016. For China, emissions also increased, peaking in 2011 at 29.5m tonnes, the researchers say, before dropping off to 25.2m tonnes in 2016. The authors conclude: “We expect NOx emissions from China and India will be similar in 2023, with India becoming the world’s largest NOx emissions source in 2024.”

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