Investors eye opportunities as Republicans take US Senate
Climate and energy news
Kerry: U.S., China should set example by agreeing
on climate goals
Reuters reports: “The United States and China, the world’s
largest carbon emitters, have an opportunity to agree on ambitious
targets to reduce climate-warming gas emissions and set the stage
for a global deal, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on
Tuesday.” An article on ChinaDialogue arguesthat a climate deal between
the US and China might prove a useful step to reducing tension
between the two countries.
Leaked Transcript Gives Oil Lobbyist Taste of His
Own Medicine
A transcript from a talk given by an oil industry lobbyist
records his talking about mounting an “offensive” campaign against
environmentalists – “[destroying] their credibility by airing the
personal histories of ‘every single activist,’ diminish their moral
authority and use humor to ‘minimise or marginalise’ them”,
InsideClimateNews reports.
Extreme weather ‘will cost lives and billions of
pounds of damage’
Figures released by the Met Office reveal 2014 has had the
warmest and second-wettest January to October on record – with
scientists suggesting that 2014 may well turn out to be the warmest
year on record, even though natural climate cycles are not in their
warmer phase.
Veteran campaigner slams Shell’s “Jekyll and Hyde”
climate stance
Envionmental activist Bill McKibben has told a Chatham House
conference sponsored by Shell that the oil company has a “Jekyll
and Hyde” behaviour when it comes to climate change. He criticised
the company for involving itself in the green debate while seeking
to exploit Arctic oil and gas. He said that oil companies are “no
longer normal companies operating by the normal rules … If they
follow their business plans then the planet tanks. That makes them
very different to other kinds of corporations.” McKibben
also spoke with the Guardianabout his
campaigning.
IGas Energy lifts estimates on its northern
England licences
A company exploring for shale gas in the north of England
has marginally increased its estimates of the amount of gas it
could produce, after initial test results. Further tests will be
required before a clearer idea of how much gas might be produced is
available.
MeyGen plans submerged turbines off the coast of
Scotland
The Mail introduces an article about tidal turbine plans for
Scotland: “Wind turbines are often bemoaned for their unsightly
appearance, noise and danger to local wildlife – but what if we put
them underwater?” Company MeyGen says it could have around 0.4GW of
tidal turbine capacity installed in shallow water off the coast of
Scotland by the 2020s.
Public concern about energy bills
falls
Public concern about energy bills has fallen “substantially”
since last year, the Times reports, with levels of concern nearly
half what they were last summer. The finding comes in polling from
the Department of Climate Change, which also finds high levels of
public support for renewable power. BusinessGreen also covers the
findings here.
Climate and energy comment
IPCC synthesis: We’re headed for “pervasive and
irreversible impacts”
ArsTechnica summarises the IPCC’s latest synthesis report on
climate science, but warns that while the IPCC has been providing
information on the risks of climate change for the best part of a
quarter of a century, “The societal response to that counsel has
been minimal…”.
Subsidy cuts and weak EU targets cloud German
solar energy revolution
The Guardian examines solar subsidies in Germany, concluding
that “cuts to solar subsidies and weak EU clean energy targets” are
putting the delivery of the country’s ambitions for renewables at
risk.
New climate science
The Southern Ocean ecosystem under multiple
climate change stresses
In the future, extensive and widespread loss of sea ice is
expected to negatively affect marine ecosystems in the Southern
Ocean. But the biggest problem is likely to arise from ocean
acidification, according to new research. Almost 86 per cent of the
Southern Ocean ecosystem is likely to be affected by two or three
overlapping factors, which can also include iceberg changes and
glacier retreat.
Surface warming hiatus caused by increased heat
uptake across multiple ocean
basins
Scientists think heat moving from the atmosphere to the
ocean is the main reason for the hiatus in surface warming that’s
dominated the first decade of the 21st century. Heat uptake in the
East Pacific can account for 30 per cent of the increased ocean
warming. Elsewhere, another mechanism that works to reduce heat
loss to the atmosphere in the Southern and Indian Oceans accounts
for a further 30 per cent, with the same process in the North
Atlantic contributing the remaining 40 per cent.