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Drax quits carbon-capture project, China to announce climate pledge, & renewable electricity overtakes coal for first time

25.09.15

News

UK energy policy under fire as Drax quits carbon-capture project

The Financial Times

The frontpage of the Financial Times leads with the exclusive story that Drax – which operates the UK’s largest coal-fired power plant – has decided to “abandon five years of planning for a carbon capture and storage system next to its huge North Yorkshire power station”. It adds: “A £1bn UK climate-change plan has been thrown into turmoil after the Drax power company said it was pulling out because government green policy reversals made it too risky to proceed…[It] is the most visible sign yet of how green energy subsidy cutbacks are jolting investors.” Peter Emery, the Drax board member chairing the group developing the White Rose carbon capture project, told the FT that several “critical reversals” in government support for renewable energy had made “a severe impact on our profitability”. He added: “We’ve also got concerns about the government’s future support for the low carbon agenda and that’s left us in a position where we are no longer confident we can persuade our shareholders that this is an attractive investment, given the obvious risks. The government has to make difficult decisions based on affordability and, in turn, so are we.” The FT described his remarks as a “thinly veiled dig” at Amber Rudd, the energy and climate secretary. The FT’s Lombard column remarks that “another leaf has dropped from the blighted tree of Conservative green credentials”. It adds: “The stance of an energy department led by the appropriately-named Amber Rudd has switched from positive to neutral. The electorate is disinclined to give a damn…The no-show will save Drax capex. But the move shows management’s faith in ministers’ pledges is ebbing.” The Telegraph, Daily Mail and Carbon Pulse all follow-up the story.

China to announce climate pledge as Xi visits Washington

BBC

China’s President Xi Jinping, who is visiting the US, is set to unveil a landmark pledge on climate change and curbing harmful emissions, White House Officials have said. A White House official told reporters that Mr Xi would announce on Friday plans to launch a national carbon emissions trading scheme in 2017. The “cap-and-trade” scheme would see Chinese companies charged to emit pollutants beyond a certain level. China would also make a “very substantial financial commitment” to developing nations to help them move to low-polluting technologies, the Associated Press quoted the official as saying. The Guardian said the move “would make China the world’s biggest carbon market, overtaking the European Union, and could strengthen global efforts to put a price on carbon”. The Hill said the announcement was “instantly controversial among Republican lawmakers who highly doubt China will live up to its commitments”, whereas the New York Times says: “Mr Xi’s pledge underscores China’s intention to act quickly and upends what has long been a potent argument among Republicans against acting on climate change: that the United States’ most powerful economic competitor has not done so.”Carbon Pulse notes that “China had originally intended to start the market in late 2016, but in recent months it has looked increasingly likely that the launch would be pushed to 2017 to give officials more time to prepare”. It adds: “The delay means the seven pilot markets are likely to operate a year longer than originally intended.” Associated Press said “officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity so they wouldn’t pre-empt China’s official announcement, said it’s hoped the announcement will give impetus to a broader global treaty on climate change at a Paris conference in December”. The Financial Times also carries the story.

Renewable electricity overtakes coal for first time in UK

The Telegraph

The UK generated more of its electricity from renewable sources than from burning coal for the first time in the second quarter of 2015, according to new figures released by DECC. A record high of 25.3% of the UK’s power came from wind, solar, biomass and hydro-electric sources in the three months to June, up from just 16.7% in the same period the year before. By contrast the share of electricity from the UK’s ageing fleet of coal-fired power stations fell to 20.5%, down from 28.2% a year previously. The Guardianand BusinessGreen also carry the story.

AP Interview: India says reducing poverty is climate justice

Associated Press

In an interview with AP, Prakash Javadekar, India’s environment minister, says that India will confirm plans its next week for a fivefold increase in renewable energy by 2020. But it will continue to champion poor countries in their demand that industrialised nations should assume the brunt of responsibility for decades of climate-warming emissions. Javadekar said India’s INDC will be released on October 1 and will include targets not only for increasing renewable energy, but also for curbing its emissions intensity, or how much carbon dioxide the country produces divided by its GDP. The pledge will not include targets for cutting overall emissions, and it will not include a projection for when India’s emissions growth might peak.

Shell, BHP and GE to advise governments on climate change

The Financial Times

The oil group, Royal Dutch Shell, has teamed up with the McKinsey management consultancy and other large companies to advise governments on how to combat global warming without weakening their economies. Coal miner BHP Billiton, the US General Electric conglomerate and at least two big environmental groups are also backing a $6m “energy transitions commission” to create a blueprint for a greener global economy in the next 15 years, the Financial Times has learnt. But the commission, due to be formally unveiled at a conference in Texas on Monday, is already under fire from some climate campaigners asking if a body supported by fossil fuel companies can offer objective guidance on global warming.

U.S. climate finance in limbo, risking ‘trust gap’ before Paris

Reuters

A looming federal budget confrontation and Republican hostility to UN global-warming talks threaten a US down payment into a key climate-aid fund, money considered vital to a climate deal in Paris this December. President Obama had requested $500m in the 2016 budget for the first tranche of its $3bn pledge into the Green Climate Fund. But Congressional Republicans have vowed to oppose that spending request, with some US officials now starting to warn island states and developing countries of the looming shortfall.

Pope Francis Skirts Environmental Tussles in Address to Congress

New York Times Dot Earth

In his New York Times blog, Andy Revkin notes how Pope Francis showed during his address to a joint session of the US Congress that “he is as adept at navigating political environments as he was impassioned about defending the global environment in his encyclical”. He adds: “Words like carbon, climate and ecology were absent from his speech. He’s wisely saving that message for the United Nations on Friday.” The Guardian, the Hill and InsideClimateNews also examine how the Pope chose to raise climate change in his speech. Separately, the Guardian carries a story about Paul Ehrlich has written a commentary in Nature Climate Change describing the papal encyclical as “raving nonsense” for not dealing with human population control. Nature Climate Change has published a special issue on the papal encyclical.

Study: Global warming, evolution are clipping bees’ tongues

Associated Press

Global warming and evolution are reshaping the bodies of some American bumblebees, a new study finds. The tongues of two Rocky Mountains species of bumblebees are about one-quarter shorter than they were 40 years ago, evolving that way because climate change altered the buffet of wildflowers they normally feed from, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science. “It speaks to the magnitude of the change of the climate that it’s affecting the evolution of the organisms,” said study co-author Candace Galen at the University of Missouri. “It’s a beautiful demonstration of adaptive evolution.” The study is also covered by the Times, New Scientist, the Washington Post and MailOnline.

Comment

Global goals can deliver on 2C and new development finance – here’s how

Alice Lépissier, Guardian Global Development

One of the developers of “Skyshares” – an economic model which calculates what the cost implications of a safe global emissions budget would be for every country – explains why she thinks it could both help to tackle climate change and raise money for developing nations: “We were pleasantly surprised by what SkyShares found, for two reasons….It turns out to be far more affordable for high emitters than we dared hope: under our reference scenario, high-income countries would face net costs of just 0.56% of gross domestic product a year in 2025 and 1.45% in 2030…Our second key finding was that emissions trading becomes a new source of development finance. As soon as 2025, low- and lower-middle income countries could make $416bn (£273bn) a year from emissions trading – more than three times as much as total current aid spending.”

What other term is there for climate science deniers other than denier?

Graham Readfearn, Guardian Environment

Readfearn looks at the recent styleguide ruling by Associated Press to stop using the terms climate “denier” and/or “skeptic” and instead use “doubter” or “those who reject mainstream climate science”. He isn’t convinced: “Personally, I don’t like…’doubter’. To me a doubter is a person whose views are not strongly held – someone who might readily change their mind when presented with evidence. But the vast majority of climate science deniers who warrant coverage in the news media are not weather vanes or disinterested observers on climate change. Many are activists…When used appropriately, it’s hard to think of another way to describe people who deny the weight of the evidence and its implications.”

War and deforestation in Sierra Leone

Environmental Research Letters

Areas of Sierra Leone that were less affected by the civil war during the 1990s experienced more deforestation than conflict-ridden areas, a new study suggests. Researchers used satellite data to monitor the change in forest cover (total, primary, and secondary) in all of Sierra Leone’s 151 chiefdoms between 1990 and 2000. The results contrast with other studies that found an acceleration of forest loss during civil war – such as in the Democratic Republic of Congo (also during the 1990s).

Sociological limitations of the climate change encyclical

Nature Climate Change

In a special series of commentaries in Nature Climate Change, social scientists highlight the limitations of the Pope’s high-profile encyclical on climate change. In five papers, the scientists discuss challenging powerful economic interests such as the fossil fuel industry, how the Church must “act collectively and justly” on climate change, and that Pope Francis needs to “assume a leadership position in support of women’s rights and family planning” to address the stresses of global population rise.

Science

CO2 Emissions from Direct Energy Use of Urban Households in India

Environmental Science & Technology

Using household-level data, a new study ranks the emissions of India’s 60 largest cities. The results show the cities with the lowest household emissions are Bareilly and Allahabad, while the highest emitters are Chennai and Delhi. Emissions are similar in magnitude to China’s cities but typically much lower than those of comparable US cities, the study finds. Reducing urban heat-island effects by greening cities, switching to modern nonsolid cooking fuels, and improving transport infrastructure are key to reducing emissions in Indian cities, the researchers say.