Japan and South Korea top list of biggest coal financiers
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Expert views: Countries meet in Bonn to restartnegotiations on UN climate deal
Diplomats are gathering in Bonn to negotiate the UN’s 2015climate deal – the package that will determine what chance theworld has of limiting global warming to below 2C. With negotiationsnow well under way, here’s Carbon Brief’s summary of what expertsthink need to happen.
Climate and energy news
Japan and South Korea top list of biggest coalfinanciers
Japan and South Korea are the world’s biggest financiers ofcoal through export credit agencies, a new report finds. The datareveals more than $73bn of international public finance was givento coal between 2007 and 2014. As one of eight high incomecountries in the top 20, Australia received over $4bn in fundingfor new coal projects – mostly for mines and mostly from Japan, thereport says. Meanwhile, RTCCreports that China isinvesting billions of dollars into Pakistan’s coal industry.
Ban Ki-moon urges governments to invest in lowcarbon energy
The world’s governments and businesses need to choose wiselyand invest in low carbon energy, says UN secretary general BanKi-moon in an interview with The Guardian. “Over the next 15 years,the world will make a massive investment in new infrastructures, inserious renewable energy,” he said. “We can invest in the lowcarbon economy or we can invest in dirty technologies.” Banconfirmed that Pope Francis, who he met last week, will speak at aUN meeting in New York in September. Ban added: “I’m lookingforward to the Pope’s encyclical on the subject, which would addsome moral voice on this issue.”
Energy Secretary orders Big Six to cutbills
Britain’s biggest energy firms have been ordered to pass onthe fall in wholesale gas and electricity costs and cut householdbills. Energy Secretary Amber Rudd has written to the “Big Six”urging them to ease the pressure on families. Wholesale costsdropped by 30%, but companies reduced bills by only 1.3% lastwinter. The Guardianalso has the story.
Environmentalists sue over Shell plan to drill inArctic
Several environmental groups have sued the United Statesgovernment to derail Shell’s plan to drill in the Arctic Ocean. TheSierra Club and nine other groups are seeking to overturn thegovernment’s recent conditional approval in a petition to the USCircuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. A Shell spokesman saidthe company expected its plan would be challenged in court.
Private sector must pay more into $100bn globalclimate fund, says report
The global target of directing $100bn to poor countries tohelp them cope with climate change is likely to be missed unlessprivate sector finance is ramped up significantly, a new analysishas found. Finance has fallen well short of targets so far, andpoor countries are demanding that it be reached as a prerequisitefor any agreement in Paris, says The Guardian. The analysis, by theWorld Resources Institute, shows that if private sector funding isincluded, the target can be reached or even substantially exceeded.
U.S. Congress Should Have No Part In InternationalClimate Deal, French MinisterSays
The French foreign minister has warned delegates at the UNclimate change negotiations in Bonn that any agreement to loweremissions has to avoid needing approval from the US Congress. “Weknow the politics in the US,” Laurent Fabius told Africandelegates. “Whether we like it or not, if it comes to the Congress,they will refuse.” Under US law, any international treaty must beratified by Congress, but there have been many executive agreementsthat do not trigger Congressional action, the article says.
‘It Is Climate Change’: India’s Heat Wave Now The5th Deadliest In World History
The heat wave in India has so far killed more than 2,300people, making it the 5th deadliest in recorded world history.”It’s not just an unusually hot summer, it is climate change,” saidIndia’s Minister of Earth Sciences. It’s too early to attribute thesearing heat to climate change directly, says one scientist, butother studies suggest strong links between heatwaves and a warmingclimate.
This is why people are so clueless about how muchenergy they use
When it comes to saving energy, we’re very bad atunderstanding where the bulk of our energy use comes from,according to new surveys in the US. Participants overestimated theamount of energy used by computers, cooking and televisions andoverlooked the contribution of home and water heating – categoriesless prominent in people’s minds. Wider uptake of smart meteringcan help solve this imbalance, the researchers say.
Three quarters of business leaders reckon climateimpacts threaten bottom line
A new Carbon Trust study reveals high levels of corporateawareness surrounding climate risks and opportunities, but boardsare still struggling to prioritise long-term green investments.Interviews with experts from business, finance, government,academia, and civil society finds 76% said they saw “bottom linerisks from direct impacts of climate change”, while 84% said therewere business opportunities offered by an environmentallysustainable future.
Climate and energy comment
Keeping the citycool
A recommendation from the deputy mayor of Paris that Londontakes measures to cool the city to combat the effects of climatechange is timely, says the Evening Standard. The London Mayor’s2011 climate change strategy, which includes greening the city, hasyet to make any appreciable difference, it says. We need to plantmore trees, grass more roofs and tackle air pollution, it suggests.
Global warming has foughtfamine
There’s some good news about the effects of global warming,says Geoffrey Lean in The Telegraph. A new study suggests arecovery of summer rainfall in Africa’s Sahel has been caused byhuman-caused climate change, he says. The news is welcome forcoming in the midst of studies highlighting global warming’sill-effects, such as recent cold winters in Europe and the easternUnited States, the growing intensity of typhoons in the Pacific,and increased air pollution in Mexico City, he says.
Everything you need to know about the Parisclimate summit and UN talks
As UN climate negotiations resume this week in Bonn, FionaHarvey takes a look at why the crunch Paris climate talks thisDecember are so important. Harvey covers key issues such as whatwent wrong in Copenhagen and what is likely to be agreed in Paris.
New climate science
Implications of recent multimodel attributionstudies for climate sensitivity
A new estimate of climate sensitivity based on how muchtemperatures have changed in response to greenhouse gases over theinstrumental period produces a best estimate of 1.66C, which isnear the bottom of the range given by the Intergovernmental Panelon Climate Change (IPCC). The study reduces the uncertainty onprevious estimates using this method, says author Nic Lewis.
Misdiagnosis of Earth climate sensitivity based onenergy balance model results
Scientists have published a critique of a recent study byLord Monckton of Brenchley, which estimated a climate sensitivityof 1C or less based on a simple energy budget model. The authors ofthe new study say Monckton’s model “systematically underestimateswarming” and “cannot be considered credible.” Carbon Briefcollected comments from scientistsat thetime of the Monckton paper, who suggested the model was flawed and”physically implausible.”
Other stories
- Will US shale gas bring global energy pricestumbling? (BBC News)
- Lord Stern: India must tackle ‘worrying’ coaluse (BusinessGreen)
- E.P.A. to Set New Limits on AirplaneEmissions (The New York Times)
- Barack Obama to follow Al Gore into campaigningagainst climate change (Mail Online)
- Pester power: The new weapon in the fight againstglobal warming (The Independent)
- Canada’s Alberta pledges new climate regulationsby month’s end (Reuters)
- Expansion in U.S. ethanol on hold after blendingtargets slashed (Reuters)
- US, EU fall flat in cutting forestemissions (Responding to Climate Change)