Obama climate plan comes under fire in Capitol Hill hearing
News
Obama climate plan comes under fire in Capitol
Hill hearing
Republicans, oil-funded think tanks and climate contrarian
scientists tell Congress US carbon cuts should be stopped, writes
RTCC. The US has pledged to slash greenhouse gas emissions between
26-28% on 2005 levels by 2025, but Obama’s endeavour to leave a
climate legacy has met a series of lawsuits filed against it,
threatening to derail the US’ leadership of ongoing UN-backed
negotiations. Almost two-thirds of states have raised legal
objections against its regulatory body, the Environmental
Protection Agency, exploiting a congressional drafting error,
saysBloomberg New Energy.Fox News, theFinancial Times, andReutersalso covered the story.
Climate and energy news
UKIP: Get fracking, invest in coal and scrap solar
support
Support for solar and wind power would be scrapped under plans
unveiled in UKIP’s manifesto yesterday. It believes the only major
renewable technology that currently meets the affordability test is
hydro, but would however invest in coal-fired power plants.
Windfarms have “blighted landscapes and put money into the pockets
of wealthy landowners and investors while pushing up bills for the
rest of us”, the manifesto states.BusinessGreencalled the manifesto a
“climate sceptic wish-list”, whileunions”slammed” its energy plan as
“beyond barmy”.
World set for record droughts by
2050
The planet could suffer unprecedented droughts before the middle
of the century, researchers have warned, urging prompt adaptation
measures. Droughts would grow more severe and frequent by 2050 for
13 of the 26 worldwide regions mapped by by the International
Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, in line with the most
extreme forecast set out by the United Nations’ climate science
panel last year. “Our study shows an increasing urgency for water
management systems to adapt to future drought”, the scientists
said.
BP dropped green energy projects worth billions to
focus on fossil fuels
Oil firm invested billions of pounds in clean and low-carbon
energy in the 80s and 90s but later abandoned meaningful efforts to
move away from fossil fuels, the Guardian reports. At one stage the
company was spending $450m a year ($830m today) on research alone –
but almost all of the technology was sold off, and much of the
research locked away in a private corporate archive. According to
an investigation by the Guardian the oil company is doing “far
less” now on developing low-carbon technologies than it was in the
1980s and early 1990s.Terry Macalister, The
Guardian
Climate and energy comment
Nature Studies: No, it wasn’t the ‘greenest ever’,
but the last government can hold its head high
Michael McCarthy, The Independent
Was it the “the greenest government ever”? A look at the
Coalition’s record reveals a range of environmental highs and lows,
writes Michael McCarthy. Its “outstanding success” has been action
on global warming: the passing of the fourth carbon budget, brought
about by two Lib Dem Secretaries, and protected by Cameron from the
hostility of the Chancellor. On the other hand, Conservatives who
have dominated DEFRA have been “most notable” for the rows they
have provoked with people who care about the natural world.
Fossil fuel campaigners play
charades
The global fossil fuel divestment campaign is an “elaborate
charade”, which is too “inconsistent and impractical” to succeed,
argues John Gapper in the Financial Times. The movement is filled
with inconsistencies, he says: “why should funds listen to a
protest that is not taken seriously by the activists themselves?”.
Scientists must speak up on fossil-fuel
divestment
Alan Rusbridger, the editor of the Guardian, wants researchers to
help convince powerful philanthropic organisations to set an
example and stop propelling carbon emissions. Taking aim at the
Wellcome Trust and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he notes
that: “the voices that will resonate loudest with the Wellcome and
the Gates are those of scientists. I urge you to make them heard.”
New climate science
Icebergs not the trigger for North Atlantic cold
events
Armadas of icebergs were probably not the cause of abrupt episodes
of cooling in the North Atlantic over the past 440,000 years,
according to a new study. Earlier studies have suggested that
pulses of icebergs may have caused cycles of abrupt climate change
during the last glacial period by introducing fresh water into the
ocean and changing ocean currents. However, the new findings
suggest that icebergs generally arrived too late to trigger marked
cooling across the North Atlantic.
Human influences on changes in the temperature
seasonality in mid-to-high latitude land areas
Manmade climate change is affecting the highs and lows of
temperatures between seasons in the Northern Hemisphere, a new
study suggests. Researchers analysed the annual temperature cycle
between 1950 and 2005. Overall, human influences on the climate are
causing a significant weakening in the cycle, the researchers say,
as winters are warming more quickly than summers.
Other stories
- Scotland’s largest electric car club charges into
St Andrews (BusinessGreen) - BP shareholders to vote on climate risk
disclosure (Responding to Climate Change) - Price on carbon key to Canada tackling global
warming, say researchers (The Guardian) - Modi’s coal turnaround to ease India’s chronic
power cuts (Reuters) - Ban Ki-moon Keynote at BNEF Summit
2015 (Bloomberg New Energy Finance) - Dale Vince: Another Cameron government would be ‘a
nightmare’ for green energy (BusinessGreen) - Forget glass, solar panels could soon be made from
GRASS: Moss-powered clock demonstrates how plants can supply our
homes with energy (Mail Online) - On thin ice: the farmers adapting to Peru’s
melting glacier (The Guardian) - Vatican Announces Major Summit On Climate
Change (Climate Central) - El Niño Is Hanging On: What that Means for
Hurricanes (Climate Central) - ()