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Ryanair becomes first airline to enter top 10 ranking of EU carbon polluters

02.04.19

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Ryanair becomes first airline to enter top 10 ranking of EU carbon polluters

BusinessGreen

Ryanair is now the tenth highest emitter under the EU’s Emission Trading System (EU ETS), becoming the first non-coal plant to enter the top 10 of biggest polluters, BusinessGreen reports, based on analysis by thinktank Sandbag. The Irish airline reported 9.8m tonnes of carbon emissions to the EU ETS in 2018, up 7% on 2017 figures. Campaigners suggest that as coal use drops off, the news is a sign that aviation is coming to the fore as bloc’s biggest emitter, BusinessGreen writes. Airlines’ emissions covered under the EU ETS “grew 5.7% within Europe last year”, while the total emissions covered by the market “dropped 4.2%”, “mainly thanks to a 6.4% drop in emissions from the power and heat sector”. Andrew Murphy, the aviation manager at the European Federation for Transport and Environment, tells the Guardian: “When it comes to climate, Ryanair is the new coal. This trend will only continue until Europe realises that this undertaxed and under-regulated sector needs to be brought into line”. Ryanair has pledged to reduce its CO2 emissions per passenger from 66.7 grams per passenger mile to 61.4 grams by 2030, BusinessGreen reports, despite that fact that its CEO once described climate change concerns as “complete and utter rubbish”. EurActiv also has the story.

Insects have ‘no place to hide’ from climate change, study warns

The Guardian

Woodlands, whose shade was expected to protect insect species from warming temperatures, are just as affected by climate change as open grasslands, according to a new study covered by the Guardian. Scientists examined 50 years’ worth of UK data and found that spring is shifting forward in the UK, with aphids, moths and butterflies now flying and birds laying eggs much earlier than in the mid-20th century, Press Association explains. The research – published in the journal Global Change Biology – says this could mean that wildlife is becoming “out of sync” with the life cycles of other species they rely on for food. Other studies, from Puerto Rico and Germany, have shown falling insect numbers in the last 25 to 35 years, the Guardian notes.

Saudi Aramco is world’s most profitable company after oil giant opens its books for the first time

The Daily Telegraph

State-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco has been confirmed as the world’s most profitable company after opening its books for the first time to reveal earnings of $224bn (£171bn), the Daily Telegraph reports. In comparison the oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil, “the world’s most valuable listed company”, made profits of $50bn last year. Saudi Arabia kept the financial performance of its oil company “secret for three-quarters of a century”, the Financial Times says. Yesterday’s disclosure was “aimed at courting investors ahead of its debut international bond sale”. A separate piece in the Financial Times adds that “future investors in the state oil company — should it ever go public — still have a number of unanswered questions.” The New York Times and the Guardian also have the story.

In related news, Axios reports that: “Investors on both sides of the Atlantic are pushing ExxonMobil to disclose targets that would drastically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris climate agreement.”

Dolphins clever enough to use sponges as tools deal with climate change better, study finds

The Independent

Dolphins which use sponges as tools to hunt prey are “better able to handle the damage wreaked on their habitat by climate change”, according to a new study picked up by the Independent. Scientists from the University of Zurich studying bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Western Australia, discovered that animals which learnt to use sea sponges to help them forage for prey on the ocean floor tended to cope better with a surge in sea temperature that occurred in 2011. The heatwave raised the temperature of the water to more than four degrees above the average, reducing the dolphins’ survival rate by 12%. Carbon Brief also covers the research.

Comment

Green Party membership soars in Germany as young take a stand against populism

Justin Huggler, The Daily Telegraph

A feature in the Daily Telegraph explores the phenomenon of a “remarkable wave of young Germans” who are “flocking to the Greens in the face of growing disillusionment with the country’s mainstream parties”. “The Greens recorded a record intake of 10,000 new members last year, making them the third biggest national political force in Germany”, journalist Justin Huggler explains, a rise which “strikingly”, comes at a time when most political parties in the country are losing members. Huggler speaks to a number of young Germans about their reasons for joining the Greens. Leonard Ihssen, a 22-year-old who is standing for nomination in the local council elections, tells Huggler: “There are two main factors: climate change and the rise of populism…People are really worried about the climate after last year’s hot summer.” But he suggests that the rise of the nationalist Alternative for Germany party (AfD) has been the biggest factor: “The Greens have been the one party to take a stand against the AfD.”

The mercurial rise and fall of Americans’ belief in climate change

Staff, The Economist

The Economist’s “Daily chart” tracks America’s worry about climate change. A poll published last week by Gallup found that 44% of the country worries “a great deal” about climate change, just below the record of 45% in 2017, the Economist says. “Environmentalists might hope that Americans are gradually accepting the overwhelming scientific evidence regarding man-made global warming”, the piece continues, “but Gallup’s historical polling offers a more depressing picture. The recent spike in climate-change awareness seems to be merely the latest in a long sequence of highs and lows—and it is barely higher than previous peaks.”

Gilets Jaunes may be the start of a worldwide revolt against climate action

Davide Nathalini, The Conversation

Davide Nathalini, a research fellow from the Global Sustainability Institute at Anglia Ruskin University, discusses his research into the link between “violent riots” and the international price of oil. Nathalini collated a database of fuel riots that occurred across the world between 2005 and 2013, finding that riots “are more likely when the international price of oil increases, and in countries that are politically fragile”. He suggests that climate action could trigger conflict when “governments introduce higher taxes on fossil fuels and related products in order to tackle climate change, which increases their price”, although he adds that “France is the only example” of this so far. He suggests that “the design and implementation of new policies needs to become more inclusive”, to avoid “violent rejection from populations”.

Science

Global buffering of temperatures under forest canopies

Nature Ecology & Evolution

A new study discovers “that forests function as a thermal insulator, cooling the understory when ambient temperatures are hot and warming the understory when ambient temperatures are cold”. The discovery comes after researchers took temperatures at 98 forest sites across five continents, during both hot and cold periods. They conclude: “Tree canopies may thus reduce the severity of warming impacts on forest biodiversity and functioning.”

Global ocean heat transport dominated by heat export from the tropical Pacific

Nature Geoscience

The spread of heat across the world’s oceans could be dominated by activities in the tropical Pacific, a study finds, “which exports four times as much heat as is imported in the Atlantic and Arctic”. Using modelling, the study also finds that “global-scale seawater pathways” – such as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) – could “play only a minor role in Earth’s heat budget”.

Nature Climate Change

Natural variability in the Earth’s climate could be the chief driver of the recent strengthening of the “Pacific Walker circulation” – an ocean-based system of air circulation that influences weather across the globe. Scientists had previously postulated that global warming would cause the Walker circulation to weaken. However, satellite observations show the Walker circulation has strengthened in recent years. The new analysis “clearly reveals a dominant role of internal variability” in this strengthening, the authors say.