Peabody, world's top private coal miner, files for bankruptcy & Church uses shareholder power to sway oil giant on climate change
News
Peabody, world’s top private coal miner, files for bankruptcy
Peabody Energy Corp, the world’s largest privately owned coal producer, filed for US bankruptcy protection today, in the wake of a sharp fall in coal prices that left it unable to service a recent debt-fueled expansion into Australia, Reuters reports. The company listed both assets and liabilities in the range of $10 billion to $50 billion. The bankruptcy filing ranks among the largest in the commodities sector since energy and metals prices began to fall in the middle of 2014, as markets in China and Brazil began to slow. “This was a difficult decision, but it is the right path forward for Peabody,” said Chief Executive Officer Glenn Kellow. The Financial Times also covers the breaking news story.
Church uses shareholder power to sway oil giant on climate change
The church commissioners, the group responsible for managing the Church of England’s £6.7 billion investment fund, have pushed climate change on to the agenda for ExxonMobil’s annual general meeting next month, the Times reports. If the vote is won by the church, it will be the first climate change proposal approved by Exxon shareholders, who rejected a request last year to appoint a climate change expert to the board. More than 30 large investors, with more than $6 trillion of assets under management, have signed up to the shareholder proposal so far, Reuters reports. Exxon is facing an inquiry by New York’s attorney general into whether it misled the public and shareholders about the risks of climate change, and has been criticised for funding climate sceptic groups.
Oil price optimism grows as Brent climbs to 2016 high
Brent crude oil rose to its highest level so far in 2016 yesterday, selling for almost $45 a barrel amid mounting expectation of a deal to freeze production at this weekend’s Opec summit in Doha. The world’s largest oil trading houses, including Vitol, Trafigura, Mercuria, Gunvor, Glencore and Castleton, all told the Financial Times that prices were unlikely to revisit the sub-$30 lows they hit in early January But some analysts remain skeptical, Reuters writes: while the market has been driven higher on a global supply-demand rebalancing, the threat of record-high inventory levels and producers increasing output once prices rebound continue to loom. Oil prices fell slightly in Asian trade today, Reuters reports.
Sea-level rise factors unravelled
Global sea-level rise since the 1970s has been predominantly driven by greenhouse gas emissions and not natural climate variability, a new study in Nature Climate Change finds. The findings illustrate the extent to which humans have influenced sea-level rise over the last 115 years, and raise concerns about future sea-level and climate change scenarios, the BBC writes. “There are thresholds we could well cross during the 21st century, which would lead to multi-metre sea-level rise unless there is urgent and significant mitigation”, said John Church, a sea-level rise expert at CSIRO.
It’s settled: 90–100% of climate experts agree on human-caused global warming
There is an overwhelming expert scientific consensus on human-caused global warming, according to a new paper that is the result of a collaboration of the authors of seven previous climate consensus studies, debunking the ‘no consensus’ myth. They conclude that, depending on exactly how you measure the expert consensus, somewhere between 90-100% of experts agree that humans are responsible for climate change. They also found that the greater the climate expertise among those surveyed, the higher the consensus on human-caused global warming. John Cook, one of the authors, also wrote about the study.
Overnight Regulation: EPA faces lawsuit over airplane emissions
Climate activists are filing suit against the US Environmental Protection Agency to force them to enact tougher emissions rules on planes. The EPA is working to comply with new international emissions standards for airplanes which are still under development, but green groups including Earthjustice, the Centre for Biological Diversity, and Friends of the Earth say the rules do not go far enough to protect the environment. Aviation accounts for about 5% of global carbon emissions. AP also has the story.
Comment
BP is playing fast and loose with our future
Bill McKibben, Guardian Environment
As shareholders gather for BP’s AGM in London, the energy giant is still desperately hunting for more hydrocarbons while pretending to care about the planet, argues Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org, in the Guardian. “BP is not only ignoring what its activities could mean for climate change. It is also ignoring the energy transition that is already happening”, he writes.
Green revolution stalls in drive to be ‘Saudi Arabia of renewables’
The “wind rush” is to blame for a potentially insufficient energy supply in Scotland this coming winter, argues Mike Wade, a journalist at the Times. Fracking could buoy up Scotland’s energy supplies, he suggests, and “bring a huge boost to Scotland’s energy economy”.
Corporate winners and losers amid the oil price crash
The latest oil price crash is having an “enormous impact”, but much has changed since the last price crash, writes Pilita Clark, in an in-depth feature detailing who is winning and losing from low oil prices. As expected, airlines are beneficiaries of this cheap fuel, but consumer goods groups are not getting a big boost, because so many people are focused on saving.
We must close the loopholes in Britain’s carbon budget
Last month the government made a landmark decision to reduce the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions to net zero sometime this century. But when lawyers and accountants were brought in to write the rules for our carbon budgets, they “decided to get a little creative”, writes Damian Morris, head of policy at the climate thinktank Sandbag. “While they pretend to limit emissions from the whole British economy, they only actually police half of them. The other half has been offloaded to the EU Emissions Trading scheme, which acts as a kind of offshore carbon haven…It’s incredible to think that the carbon budgets established under the Climate Change Act have not prompted the installation of a single solar panel or wind turbine and haven’t required a single coal-fired power station to close”. But as the energy bill returns to the House of Lords on Tuesday, we have another opportunity to straighten out the rules and change the books, Morris writes.
Science
Consensus on consensus: a synthesis of consensus estimates on human-caused global warming
Environmental Research Letters
The consensus that humans are causing recent climate change is shared by 90–100% of publishing climate scientists, a new paper says. The article is by the authors of a study published in 2013, which identified a 97% consensus on global warming among scientists. The new article comes in reply to a comment on that original paper, which argues there are a number of issues with their original methodology. The new study examines the available studies and concludes that “the finding of 97% consensus in published climate research is robust and consistent with other surveys of climate scientists and peer-reviewed studies”.
Local biomass burning is a dominant cause of the observed precipitation reduction in southern Africa
Emissions of aerosols and soot from burning biomass are the main cause behind the decline in southern African dry season rainfall over the last century, a new study says. The increase in aerosols causes local drying of the atmosphere, the researchers say, and a 20-30% reduction in rainfall. Increasing global CO2 levels also contribute to reduced rainfall, the paper says, “somewhat less in magnitude but covering a larger area”.
Other stories
- Yale Advances in Shaping Portfolio to Address Climate Change (New York Times)
- Government urged to back electric car roll out or miss out on £51bn a year economic boost (BusinessGreen )
- Amazon megadam: European companies line up to bid for giant new hydro project (EnergyDesk )
- Political storm clouds outlook for Brazil’s climate change plan (Reuters )
- Australian Renewable Energy Agency gets new board and chairman (Guardian )
- Apple has ‘strongest climate policy’ of business world (Climate Home )
- GE Global Research turbine runs on carbon dioxide and can produce enough energy to power a town (Mail Online )
- Gas prices at 10-year lows fuel demands for energy price cuts (The Telegraph )
- Solar cell generates power from rain, could solve Britain’s energy needs (The Telegraph )
- North Pole inches towards London as ice sheets melt (The Times )
- America’s national icons underwater: Experts to reveal the full extent of damage climate change could to do everything from Jamestown to the Statue of Liberty (Mail Online)
- ‘Reality of turbines different from myths’ (The Times )
- Exclusive: Climate Hustle’s Marc Morano Turns Down $20k Global Warming Bets From Bill Nye The Science Guy (DeSmogBlog )