Once-in-a-millennium heat dome lodges over US and Canada in preview of future climate disaster

30.06.21

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Once-in-a-millennium heat dome lodges over US and Canada in preview of future climate disaster

International coverage of the record-breaking heatwave gripping the US Pacific northwest and Canada continues, with publications such as the Independent making a clear link to climate change. BBC News notes that Canada has recorded its highest ever temperature for a third straight day and that police in the Vancouver area have responded to more than 130 sudden deaths, with the heat a contributing factor in many cases. In Lytton, British Columbia, temperatures reached 49.5C, the news website reports. Reuters reports that in Arizona, Maricopa county is investigating 53 suspected heatwave-related deaths over the week ending on 19 June. The Independent states that, in the US, the National Weather Service has urged people to stay safe as temperatures cause damage to transport links, causing train wires to melt and roads to crack. It adds that in places such as Portland in Oregon it hit 44C , beating the previous all time high of 42C. BuzzFeed News reports that across Washington and Oregon, more than 1,100 people have been sent to the hospital for possible heat-related illness in recent days. According to Reuters, on Tuesday, following three days of record-breaking heat, coastal residents of the Pacific Northwest, “got relief” as temperatures dropped, while the hot weather continued along the Cascade Range in Oregon and Washington. Another Independent piece reports on comments from climate activist Greta Thunberg, who said the heatwave was “just getting started”. The piece quotes Carbon Brief’s Dr Zeke Hausfather, who says “in a world without climate change, this still would have been a really extreme heatwave”, but he adds “this is worse than the same event would have been 50 years ago, and notably so”. The Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang examines the driver of the event, which they say is caused by an “exceptionally strong” heat dome, a ridge of high pressure that brings “copious sunshine” and high temperatures. They write that the event is “firmly within uncharted territory because of a combination of weather effects and climate-driven warming”. NBC News also has a piece on how climate change “loads the dice” for heatwaves. Separately, Politico reports that a week ago, three Republican lawmakers from the Northwest Pacific region joined dozens of their colleagues in creating a Conservative Climate Caucus to “show they were serious” about climate change. “Then they went silent as a devastating heatwave hit the region,” it states.

Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that the collapse of an apartment block in Miami, Florida, last week has raised questions about the impact of climate change and the role that rising sea levels might have on the destabilisation of further buildings. The Independent notes that US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm suggested that impacts “linked to the climate crisis may have played a role in the devastating condo building collapse”. According to the news website, Granholm highlighted this point in a CNN interview about president Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill, which includes elements related to climate change.

Finally, in other US news, the Hill reports that the White House has pushed back against critics who say a bipartisan version of the infrastructure deal, endorsed by Biden, leaves out key climate provisions.

UK government opens registration for COP26 participants to apply for vaccines

Climate Home News

There is widespread coverage of the UK government, via the UN, opening up the application process for those attending the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow to apply for Covid-19 vaccines if they cannot otherwise access them before the event in November. Climate Home News notes that vaccine aid has become a “critical pillar of the UK’s diplomatic effort ahead of COP26”, as developing countries warn that the global discrepancy in access to vaccines threatens the success of the summit. It adds that the UN noted that the early opening of conference registration was independent from decisions on the format of the meeting in November, with more details on the logistical arrangements set to be communicated in the coming weeks. (Recent negotiations, covered by Carbon Brief, took place online, and were plagued by technical difficulties.) Climate Home News notes that despite the promise of vaccines, concerns around quarantine requirements and border closures making attendance difficult for many. The i newspaper notes that general registration for COPs does not normally open until later in the year, but had opened early so as to begin the vaccination programme. The Financial Times states that the UK would offer the vaccine to thousands of delegates, adding that the summit would normally draw 20,000 attendees from governments, charities and media.

Separately, Reuters reports that COP26 president Alok Sharma visited Russia on Tuesday to urge its government to commit to net-zero emissions by 2050, praising Vladimir Putin for his support in addressing climate change. It notes that the UK is looking to get “big power support” for climate action ahead of the event.

UK: Coal power to be consigned to history in October 2024, one year earlier than planned

The Independent

The government has announced that burning coal to generate power will end in the UK in October 2024, one year earlier than originally planned, the Independent reports. The online news source says that ministers hope the move will persuade other nations to “also call time on coal power” at COP26. The i newspaper notes that coal currently makes up just 1.5% of power mix annually, compared to roughly 40% a decade ago. It also adds that the move does not include other uses of coal ,such as the steel industry, stating that the government “came under fire earlier this year for failing to halt the opening of a coking coal mine” to supply steel production. Reuters also has the story. Former energy minister Claire Perry has a comment piece in the Times titled, “It’s time to make coal history”, noting that the UK should “work to unleash the power of global business and finance to influence global governments to make key policy shifts” and move away from coal power.

Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that five Asian countries – China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam – are “jeopardising global climate ambitions “by investing in 80% of the world’s planned new coal plants, according to a report by thinktank Carbon Tracker. Reuters notes that these nations intend to develop more than 600 new coal-fired power projects, with a combined capacity of more than 300 gigawatts (GW). It adds that, according to Carbon Tracker, by 2024, renewable power would be cheaper than coal in every major region, adding that by 2026 almost 100% of global coal capacity would be more expensive to run than building and operating renewables.

UK: Rishi Sunak prepares £15bn green savings scheme for public

The Times

A frontpage story in the Times says that UK chancellor Rishi Sunak will use a speech later this week to reveal plans for £15bn of green savings bonds. The newspaper says the bonds will allow “people to invest in renewable energy projects such as wind and solar power”. It adds: “They will be available through NS&I, the Treasury-backed savings organisation that also offers Premium Bonds. Germany and Sweden have similar bonds for retail investors. Sunak’s announcement will be part of the government’s efforts to enhance its green credentials before the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in November. Britain has committed to hitting net-zero emissions by 2050. Two tranches of green bonds are expected to be issued in 2021-22, the first of which is likely to be worth about £7 billion. It is thought the bonds will be issued in September. The money raised will be used to fund projects such as investments in wind and hydrogen power.”

Separately, Simon Jack, BBC News’s business editor, reports that the UK government has announced “new UK laws to sweep away EU state aid rules”. He adds: “The Subsidy Control Bill will replace EU-wide state aid rules. Those rules require member states to seek approval for government assistance to firms…Government officials told the BBC it was ‘the most important bit of post-Brexit legislation yet’…The UK government says it will judge cases for support on whether they deliver good value for money and help hit targets such as ‘levelling up’ and decarbonising the economy.”

Up to 410 million people at risk from sea level rises – study

The Guardian

The number of people living less than two meters above sea level will rise from 267 million to 410 million by the end of the century – assuming no population growth and one meter of sea level rise – the Guardian reports. This is according to a new study, which uses Lidar satellite data to measure the elevation of Earth’s surface, according to the newspaper. The researchers find that 72% of the at-risk population will be located in the tropics by the end of the century, with 59% in tropical Asia alone, the outlet notes. It adds that 62% of the most at-risk land will be concentrated in the tropics. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Indonesia is “the country with the most land at risk of sea level rise”. It continues: “New satellite data has found Indonesia has 118,200 square kilometres of land at two metres or less above mean sea level, or an area 14 times larger than previously thought…That land, which amounts to about 6.3% of the archipelago, is already home to 17.2 million people”. Meanwhile, the Times notes that 426,000 people in the UK currently live less than two meters above sea level, adding that this number could rise to 599,000 by 2100. “The countries projected to have the biggest populations living at less than two metres above sea level by 2100 are China (96 million people), India (51 million), Vietnam (38 million) and Indonesia and Bangladesh (28 million each),” it adds.

UK: Road development scheme’s ‘undesirable’ climate impact ignored, High Court told

Press Association via Belfast Telegraph

The High Court has heard that the Department for Transport’s £27bn road development scheme is “unlawful” after the government ignored its climate impact, according to the Press Association. The government set out its road investment strategy for major roads in England from April 2020 to March 2025 in March last year, but the Transport Action Network (TAN) group has accused the government of unlawfully failing to take account of the “obviously material” impact of the scheme on the UK’s climate change objectives. The government has defended its programme, with its legal defence arguing that there was no obligation in its climate plans to achieve zero emissions in every aspect of the economy, but rather to achieve a “balance between emissions and sinks”, according to the Guardian. The newspaper notes a recent report from government advisers the Climate Change Committee (see Carbon Brief’s coverage) that pointed to a lack of government policies to meet its “net-zero by 2050” target, and adds that transport is one of the UK’s biggest emitters and the only one to have increased its emissions in recent years. DeSmog also has the story on the two-day judicial review hearing in the High Court.

Separately, the Guardian reports that, according to a new industry report from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), up to 90,000 jobs could be lost in UK car manufacturing without more support for electric cars. Specifically, it calls for incentives for multinationals to build electric battery factories in the UK, grants for consumers to purchase vehicles and at least 2.3m charging points nationwide before 2030. The Financial Times notes high energy costs, low government incentives compared and the friction of post-Brexit trade could leaving the industry “underperform[ing] its potential”, according to the SMMT. The Daily Telegraph has a piece on how the “road to zero carbon transport” poses an “existential threat” to the British car industry as manufacturers race other countries to decarbonise.

In Canada, Reuters reports that the government will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and light-duty trucks from 2035, leaving only zero-emissions cars available, in an effort to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

China: World’s first “new energy tourist sky train” rolls off production lines in Chengdu

Chengdu Business Daily

The Chinese city of Chengdu unveiled a “new energy” suspension railway on Saturday, reports Chengdu Business Daily, a local newspaper. The so-called “sky train” is the first of its kind in the world and can be powered by electricity or renewable energy batteries, the report says. The train features see-through, glass flooring and black-and-white livery inspired by pandas – which are native to the region – reports CGTN, the English channel of China’s state broadcaster. The outlet writes: “Driven by new energy resources, the sky train is greener and more economical.” Meanwhile, SpaceNews reports that China plans to use a new heavy-lift rocket to build a “massive” space-based solar power station 35,786 kilometres above the ground. The information was revealed by the chief designer of China’s Long March rocket series and the chief designer of Shenzhou spacecraft, the website says.

In other news, China’s national carbon trading market will likely expand to cover industries such as cement and aluminium next year, reports Caixin, citing a climate expert. The expert said that the carbon market would move beyond the power sector to include other industries “as soon as possible”, Caixin says. China’s carbon market, or the national emissions trading scheme (ETS), is scheduled to start trading by the end of June – a deadline instructed by Huang Runqiu, China’s Minister of Ecology and Environment, in February. But, on Monday, Bloomberg reported that the target might be “missed” due to “a lack of organisation”. In an article from Tuesday, People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China, says that the national ETS “is about to launch online trading” without giving a specific date.

Elsewhere, MailOnline says that China “ignores air travel global warming fears” in a report about the nation’s latest “mega-airport”: Chengdu Tianfu international airport. The news site writes that China “wants to build another 160 airports by 2035 despite the country being one of the worst polluters in the world”. Introducing the new transport hub – set to handle 40m passenger trips a year – Chengdu-based Red Star News says it aims to be an “environmental-friendly, low-carbon and energy-saving new type of airport”.

Comment

That heat dome? Yeah, it’s climate change

Michael E Mann and Susan Joy Hassol, The New York Times

A piece by climate scientist Prof Michael E Mann and Susan Joy Hassol, director of the nonprofit organisation Climate Communication, in the New York Times details the role of climate change in driving the heatwave currently gripping the Pacific Northwest. “The western US is currently under the influence of an epic heat dome, an expansive region of high atmospheric pressure characterised by heat, drought and heightened fire danger,” they write. “All bets are off when one accounts for human-caused warming. It no longer makes sense to talk about a once-in-a-century or once-in-a-millennium event as if we’re just rolling an ordinary pair of dice, because we’ve loaded the dice through fossil fuel burning and other human activities that generate carbon pollution and warm the planet.” While they note that the heat dome might have developed without climate change, they ask whether it would have been as extreme, concluding: “Almost surely not”. A piece by Washington governor Jay Inslee in the Seattle Times is titled, “Let’s keep up the heat on urgent action in climate crisis”. In it, the politician writes: “As Washington cools down a bit this week – finally – let’s keep the heat up on our efforts to preserve a livable environment for our kids, grandkids and generations to come. If any challenge demands an answer, it is one that threatens the very basics of a climate system around which our civilisation has been built”.

A piece in the Atlantic by Robinson Meyer explores how US infrastructure is unprepared for the kind of event that has struck the Pacific Northwest. “Even as the climate has diverged from its long-time normal range, the construction of physical infrastructure has not,” he writes, noting that an increase in air conditioning demand and the need for heat-resistant power infrastructure are among the ways in which “climate change will force us to improve every part of our society at once or suffer the consequences”. Meanwhile, Charlie Warzel writes in the Washington Post about the “existential dread” and climate anxiety triggered by the heatwave. In Rolling Stone, Tim Dickinson writes that he moved to Portland because it seemed like a “safe bet” in the face of climate change. “But we were naive,” he says, noting that “in the past year, climate-change-amplified emergencies have twice forced us to seek shelter in our basement for days at a time”, citing last year’s fires and the current heatwave.

Science

Global LiDAR land elevation data reveal greatest sea-level rise vulnerability in the tropics

Nature Communications

The number of people living less than two metres above sea level will increase from 267 million to 410 million by the end of the century – even assuming “low-end” sea level rise and stable population number and distribution – according to new research. The paper develops the first global elevation model derived from satellite LiDAR data to estimate lowland terrain globally and determine regions that are less than two metres above average sea level. The authors find that 72% of the at-risk population will be located in the tropics by the end of the century, with 59% in tropical Asia alone. They add that Indonesia will have the largest extent of land at risk worldwide.

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