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Republican statesmen propose replacing Obama’s climate plans with a carbon tax, 'Whistleblower' says protocol was breached but no data fraud, & more

08.02.17

News

Republican statesmen propose replacing Obama’s climate plans with a carbon tax

Washington Post

A group of veteran Republicans will lobby for a US carbon tax at a meeting today with top White House officials, reports the Washington Post. The figures want to eliminate most of the Obama administration’s climate policies in exchange for a rising tax starting at $40 per tonne, returned to citizens in a quarterly cheque. The group will meet with vice president Mike Pence as well as Trump advisers Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, according to the New York Times. The leader of the group, former secretary of state James Baker III, tells the Times the plan follows conservative principles of free-market solutions and small government. The group, called the Climate Leadership Council, is proposing ideas that mirror those put forward by Exxon, says Bloomberg. Carbon Pulse also has the story. Two of the group’s leaders, who both served under Ronald Reagan, pitch their plan in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal. They compare the challenge of climate change to the ozone hole, recalling Reagan’s role in the Montreal Protocol.

‘Whistleblower’ says protocol was breached but no data fraud

Climatewire

No climate data was manipulated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), according to John Bates, a former employee feted by a Mail on Sunday article and by Republican congressman Lamar Smith as a whistleblower. In an interview with Climatewire, Bates says his complaint was actually about a breach of data handling protocols. In an interview with the Associated Press, Bates says there was “no data tampering, no data changing, nothing malicious”. AP interviewed more than two dozen experts over the data handling concerns: “Most agreed with [NOAA study lead] Karl or didn’t take a side but said it didn’t matter because global warming continues regardless of this latest kerfuffle. Two supported Bates, saying there were serious scientific integrity concerns.” The New York Times, Media Matters for America and the Washington Post have summaries of the allegations and responses. All three refer to a Carbon Brief article setting out the relevant science. The NOAA study was discussed at a hearing of the House Science Committee, where Rush Holt, head of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said he had seen nothing to suggest the NOAA paper should be retracted, according to Inside Climate News. The hearing, on the US Environmental Protection Agency, was not likely to produce an objective view said Eddie Bernice Johnson, the ranking Democrat on the committee, reports the Washington Post. The paper says Johnson expressed concern over the industry ties of those called by Republicans to testify. The Hill also covers the committee hearing.

Government criticised over transparency of energy schemes

BBC News

The government has been criticised once again for its lack of transparency over the Levy Control Framework for energy subsidies. It should report on the impact of all policies on energy bills by April, says the Public Accounts Committee. The Guardian and Press Association also have the story. Carbon Brief has been pursuing a long-running series of freedom of information requests over the lack of transparency around framework.

U.S. solar jobs grew 25 percent last year

Reuters

More than 260,000 Americans now work in the solar sector, according to a widely covered report from sector advocacy group the Solar Foundation. There are now twice as many jobs in solar as in coal, adds Vox, in an article looking at the pros and cons of this rapid jobs growth. The sector added 51,000 jobs last year, says the Washington Post. The Hill, Inside Climate News, Time, Grist and others all have the story.

Comment

Scott Pruitt Is Seen Cutting the E.P.A. With a Scalpel, Not a Cleaver

Coral Davenport, New York Times

Trump nominee Scott Pruitt is drawing up plans to repeal climate rules, cut staffing, close offices and permanently weaken the regulatory authority of the US Environmental Protection Agency, which he is set to lead. The New York Times’ Coral Davenport explores how Pruitt might go about his task, in interviews with senior former EPA officials.

A Crack in an Antarctic Ice Shelf Grew 17 Miles in the Last Two Months

Jugal K Patel, New York Times

One of the largest icebergs ever recorded, measuring some 150 miles long, is likely to break off the Larsen C ice shelf within a few months, says the New York Times. A series of graphics from the Times show how a 100-mile crack along the ice shelf has grown rapidly since June 2016, and why scientists are worried the break could precipitate the collapse of the entire Larsen C shelf.

Science

Using spatial statistics to identify emerging hot spots of forest loss

Environmental Research Letters

A new study tackles the vast challenge of monitoring global forest loss by combining big data analytical tools with Emerging Hot Spot Analysis to identify trends in space and time. Between 2000 and 2014, forest loss declined in Brazil as a whole, though it intensified in some Amazonian regions. Substantial portions of West Kalimantan in Indonesia became new hotspots of forest loss in 2013 and 2014, the authors note. Similarly, new hot spots of forest loss emerged across large areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo, radiating out of city centres.

Half a degree additional warming, prognosis and projected impacts (HAPPI): background and experimental design

Geoscientific Model Development

The UN’s official climate assessment body – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – has accepted the task of producing a special report on 1.5C, the ambitious climate goal that emerged from the Paris Agreement in 2015. But current experiments as part of the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project (CMIP), are not specifically designed for informing this report, according to a group of scientists. A new project – Half a degree Additional warming, Prognosis and Projected Impacts (HAPPI) – aims to develop a new framework to extract relevant climate data, in particular how impacts in a 1.5C world differ from those in a 2C world.