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Daily Briefing |

TODAY'S CLIMATE AND ENERGY HEADLINES

Briefing date 06.09.2018
World’s largest offshore wind farm opens in UK waters

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News.

World's largest offshore wind farm opens in UK waters
Daily Telegraph Read Article

The Daily Telegraph is among the many publications reporting that the world’s largest offshore wind farm is set to open in UK waters today “and will generate enough electricity to power 600,000 homes”. The paper adds: “Operated by Denmark’s wind power giant Ørsted, the Walney wind farm off the coast of Cumbria has grown to the size of 20,000 football pitches following an extension, which catapults the project above the size of the giant London Array in the Thames Estuary. The extension project uses a new generation of super-sized wind turbines, each standing around 520 feet high, to generate around 660MW. Together with Ørsted’s earlier Walney 1 and Walney 2 wind projects, the stretch of sea off the Cumbrian coast will have a power capacity of 1.5GW – enough to keep the lights on in 1.2 million homes.” MailOnline says that the farm’s new 87 turbines are “twice the height of Big Ben”. BBC News explains that these new turbines add to the existing 102 turbines, meaning the £1bn Walney facility will cover an area of sea “equal to 20,000 football pitches”. The Guardian and Reuters also carry the story. Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph has published a comment piece by Clare Perry, the UK minister of state for energy and clean growth, who says: “The opening of the world’s biggest offshore wind farm comes 10 years since we passed the Climate Change Act. Since then we have grown our economy while cutting carbon faster than the rest of the G7, a global leadership position that proves tackling climate change is one of the great industrial opportunities of our time. Today there is an ever increasing international consensus that climate change is one of the most pressing challenges we face globally; and as other countries follow us on a path to cut carbon the UK stands to benefit through the innovation and investment driving our clean growth model. Through continued ambition domestically, and through growing exports of low carbon products and expertise, our clean economy could grow by 11% a year to 2030 – that’s four times faster than the rest of the economy – positioning us as global leaders in clean growth as we leave the European Union. Our world-beating offshore wind industry is part of the backbone of our success.”

Australia tried to water down climate change resolution at Pacific Islands Forum: leader
The Guardian Read Article

Pacific leaders meeting in Naura for the the Pacific Islands Forum have issued the “Boe declaration”, reports the Guardian, calling climate change “the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of the peoples of the Pacific”. However, the forum communique – which focused heavily on climate change and the need for emissions reductions – was endorsed by leaders “with qualification”, the paper notes: “When asked at a press conference if those qualifications came from a country ‘beginning with A’, Enele Sopoaga, the prime minister of Tuvalu, confirmed that ‘the name of the qualifier, seeking qualifications [started] with capital A’. Australia is the only nation in the Pacific to fit this description. It appears Australia also did not support a section of agreement calling on the US to return to the Paris agreement on climate change.” Climate Home News also covers the story. Meanwhile, the Guardianseparately reports that Scott Morrison, the new Australian prime minister, has insisted that Australia will meet its Paris Agreement climate commitments “in a canter” despite the government having no emissions reduction policies to achieve that result. Elsewhere, in the Conversation, Anna Skarbek, the CEO of ClimateWorks Australia, says that “Australia is not on track to reach 2030 Paris target (but the potential is there)”. Both Climate Home News and the Conversation have articles about a new report by academics from Australian National University and Melbourne University showing that Australia’s reliance on coal power will end, possibly as early as the 2030s: “Coal makes up roughly two thirds of domestic electricity and is an essential ingredient in the minerals and metals processing industries. But ageing coal plants and increased competitiveness of renewables are likely to drive coal power out of the energy mix.”

Electric vehicle sales surge in UK as fuel prices rise
BBC News Read Article

Sales of electric vehicles reached a record high last month, accounting for one in every 12 new cars purchased in the UK. This is according to new figures released yesterday by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). It added that hybrid, plug-in hybrid and pure electric cars made up 8% of the overall market, with the number of total vehicles registered was up 23% on the same period in 2017. However, the SMMT says “it would be wrong to view the market as booming…August is always a small month in new car registrations ahead of the important plate-change month of September”. BBC News adds that 7,489 electric and alternative fuel vehicles were sold last month, up from the 3,968 sold in August of 2017. In total 94,094 cars were sold last month. The Times also covers the story, adding that the rise in electric vehicle sales “coincided with the continuing collapse in sales of diesel cars. They fell for the 17th month running.” Matt Finch writing on the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit website says “the [global] recent uptake of EVs has surprised many. In particular, it has far exceeded the expectations and forecasts of the oil majors – entities that obviously have an existential interest in EV developments…Question is, how much easier would this work [to move towards EVs] have been if low estimates of future EV numbers had not been absorbed into groupthink beforehand?”

Santander Forced To Distance Itself From Climate Science Denial Conference
DeSmogUK Read Article

DeSmogUK reports that Santander, one of the world’s largest banks, has “been forced to distance itself from a climate science denial conference after its logo was published on the event’s website without the bank’s knowledge”. The banks says it is not a sponsor of the climate science denial conference taking place in Porto, Portugal, at the end of this week, but admits it has given money to the University of Porto, where the conference is being held, to “support investigation and research”. DeSmogUk adds that that the conference “speakers include prominent climate science deniers Piers Corbyn, Philip Foster, Christopher Essex, Nils-Axel Mörner and Christopher Monckton”. Separately, DeSmogUk has published a video “exposing Westminster’s Tufton Street network pushing deregulation and climate science denial”.

Ofgem proposes energy price cap
Financial Times Read Article

The Financial Times reports that Ofgem, the UK’s energy regulator, has proposed a new price cap of £1,136 per year for domestic customers of gas and electricity suppliers. The FT adds: “Ofgem…said 11m households on standard variable and other default tariffs would save approximately £75 per year, based on current prices, under the proposed changes. The regulator was tasked by the government in July with suggesting a marketwide ceiling for what energy providers can charge.” BBC News is among the other outlets covering the story.

Comment.

How Jerry Brown Can Seal His Legacy as a Climate Champion
Justin Gillis, New York Times Read Article

Gillis, a former New York Times environmental reporter who is now a contributing opinion writer for the paper, writes that Jerry Brown, the Californian governor who will be replaced in the US mid-terms, “should sign legislation that commits California to a 100% clean electricity grid by 2045”. Gillis adds: “The measure, known as Senate Bill 100, passed the California Legislature last week. It commits the state to a 100% clean electricity grid by 2045. Rumours are swirling in Sacramento that the governor might veto that bill. His office has not said what he will do, which is ominous. This bill could well be the most important piece of climate legislation ever passed by any government. Putting the nation’s largest state on a path to a clean electric grid would send an unmistakable signal to the rest of world that the odious Trump administration is not going to stop climate progress in the US. It would encourage other states and countries to follow California’s lead.”

A global shift to sustainability would save us $26 trillion
David Roberts, Vox Read Article

Roberts is among a number of commentators taking a closer look at the 2018 New Climate Economy Report published yesterday by the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. He zooms in immediately to the topline conclusion: “$26 trillion by 2030. That, according to the most authoritative research to date, is the amount of money humanity could save through a global shift to sustainable development. It’s a lot of money. Before you break your brain trying to imagine it, just pause to make a note that it’s a positive sum (uh, extremely positive), not negative. Net savings, not costs. That might come as a surprise since decades of conservative and fossil fuel propaganda have made it conventional wisdom that cleaning up our act is expensive — that it costs more than the status quo. It is the argument hauled out against every single pollution regulation.” In HuffPost, Arthur Neslen speaks to one of the report’s authors, Lord Stern, the chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. Stern says he is very optimistic that humanity can avoid dangerous global warming, but is “greatly worried as to whether we will move fast enough to do so…At the moment we are subsidising pollution activities by not charging for it. That is not a market-oriented approach.” Ed Crooks in the Financial Times notes that “over the next 15 years, the world is expected to invest about $90tn in infrastructure, roughly doubling the current stock, giving a window of just a few years to put in place policy frameworks to drive that investment into technologies and assets that help reduce emissions”.

Science.

The interaction of exposure and warming tolerance determines fish species vulnerability to warming stream temperatures
Biology Letters Read Article

Cold-water fish species such as brown trout, rainbow trout and burbot could be pushed out of their current habitats as river temperatures rise in a warming climate, a new study warns. Using Wyoming as a case study, the researchers assessed the vulnerability of fish species to projected stream temperature increases. Species of trout and burbot have “the lowest warming tolerances and the highest proportion of currently occupied sites that will become unsuitable under predicted temperature increases”, the study finds.

Focus on tropical dry forest ecosystems and ecosystem services in the face of global change
Environmental Research Letters Read Article

A new paper introduces a special series of studies on tropical dry forests. Tropical dry forests are distinct from wet and moist tropical forests by the presence of a strong dry season. Although they once accounted for over 40% of all tropical forests, they are highly threatened by climate change and agricultural pressures. “This collection of papers explores the unique biodiversity, plant functional traits, coupling between carbon and water cycles, and threats to these important ecosystems,” the authors say.

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