Households could get fracking payments, climate at Olympics opening, & more
News
UK considers plan to pay households affected by fracking
Some of the tax proceeds from shale gas development could go directly to local residents, under proposals briefed by Number 10 over the weekend. The government did not say how much each household could receive, Reuters reports. The proposals adapt George Osborne’s planned £1bn shale wealth fund [first proposed in 2014], says the Press Association, with households receiving an estimated £5,000 to £20,000. The proposals are a personal intervention by prime minister Theresa May, says the Guardian. The Telegraph calls it Theresa May’s plan. Direct payments could reach up to £10,000 per households reports the Times, which adds that direct payments could also be made near new housing developments. The government will launch a consultation on the plans this week, says Bloomberg. The Sunday Times says families may be in line for a share of fracking tax revenues. The Mail on Sunday front page asks: “Will you hit the Frackpot?” while the Sunday Express splash says “£10k cash for homes hit by fracking”. The Sun labels its coverage “Exclusive”. Campaigners have accused Theresa May of trying to bribe the public to accept fracking, report the Independent and Mail on Sunday. Labour’s Barry Gardiner criticised the plans given there was no similar “bribe” for windfarms, reports the Guardian. Meanwhile the UK is set to start importing shale gas from the US “in weeks”, reports the Sun, while the Mail on Sunday says shale gas has created a “black gold rush in the USA”.
Scientists warn world will miss key climate target
Leading climate scientists say the 1.5C warming limit is close to being broken, reports the Observer, in a front page splash. It says the 1.5C goal was “the headline outcome” of the Paris Agreement on climate change, yet temperatures are already more than 1C higher than in pre-industrial times. The story is also picked up by the Press Association.
In Olympics opening ceremony, Brazil goes big on climate change
The Olympics opening ceremony included a primetime focus on global warming and climate change, reports the Washington Post. A video narrated by Dame Judi Dench included maps and graphics showing how rapidly temperatures have risen and ice melted. The graphics included the “viral spiral” temperature chart made earlier this year by the University of Reading’s Ed Hawkins. The Guardian and Grist also have the story. The climate message sparked a Conservative backlash on social media, reports the Hill.
Global climate deal likely to enter into force in 2016: study
The Paris Agreement on climate change looks likely to enter into force this year, according to a study of counties’ expected ratification timelines for the Marshall Islands. If the agreement does enter force, it would be harder for Republican Donald Trump to withdraw from the deal if he wins the presidency, Reuters reports. The Hill and Climate Home also cover the news.
Comment
Britain must seize the benefits of fracking
Nothing much has happened beyond the drilling of a number of shale gas test wells in the UK, says a Telegraph editorial. “The biggest barrier to a commercial fracking programme remains public opposition”, it says, with plans to pay local residents “denounced as a bribe”. Yet it says the process “needs to be speeded up…fracking offers cheap and plentiful energy”.
Switched-on solution to a power crisis
Theresa May is showing herself to be the “ultimate pragmatist”, says a Mail on Sunday editorial, having paused Hinkley Point and now moving to “liberate fracking”. The UK has faced “difficulties caused by years of inflexible green dogma”, the paper says, including failing to modernise nuclear power, giving “heavy subsidies” to wind and solar “which are of little use in winter” and shutting down “many of our coal-burning power stations”.
The Sun Says: Its time to sell case for fracking
Paying locals a share of tax near drilling sites is “a neat idea”, says a Sun editorial, “but the most crucial move is to defeat the propaganda of the eco lobby”. It notes that campaigners “are winning the propaganda way”. Shale gas could “power Britain cheaply for a generation”, it says, calling on the government to make the case with more conviction and launch a “huge publicity campaign”. Separately, columnist Trevor Kavanagh says the benefits of shale to the UK are “well worth Theresa May’s £10,000 ‘bribe'”.
Buying off fracking opponents is a smart but cynical political move
The plan to offer money directly to households affected by fracking “sets an uncomfortable precedent for all manner of infrastructure projects”, says an editorial in the Independent. Yet in “cynical political terms”, the plan is smart and has some merit, it adds. There are wider reasons why the approach is “profoundly wrong”, it says: “We are way past the era of fossil fuels…no levels of compensation to residents will stop…the risk of accelerating climate change”.
Bribery won’t convince the British people that fracking is good for them – it’s dirty and dangerous
Shale gas is 25 times more potent than CO2 and “fracking is not compatible with tackling climate change”, says Friends of the Earth campaigner Liz Hutchins in the Independent. Fracking is “about the future of an inhabitable planet, not just the impacts on local people”. She says opposition to fracking in the UK is “so overwhelming” that proposed payments to households “simply won’t work”.
Science
Global and regional climate in 2015
In its annual review of the past year, the journal Weather places the events of 2015 in the long-term climate context. 2015 was the warmest year on record for the global surface average, the paper notes, with a strong El Niño event that affected weather across the world. Large areas of Europe experienced heatwaves in summer, while deadly heatwaves hit India and Pakistan in May and June. For the UK specifically, December was the warmest and wettest on record, the paper says.
Distinct weekly cycles of thunderstorms and a potential connection with aerosol type in China
The weekly cycle of convectional rainfall and thunderstorms in China is affected by the type of aerosols emitted into the air, a new study suggests. Analysing data for 1983-2005, the researchers find thunderstorms in central China occurred more frequently from Saturday to Monday than on other days, whereas the opposite was true for southeast China. Aerosol emissions were highest on weekdays in both regions, the paper says, but the different types of air pollution means aerosols tended to suppress thunderstorms in central China and enhance them in the southeast.
Other stories
- Major Amazon dam opposed by tribes fails to get environmental license (The Guardian)
- EDF to take legal action over union’s claims about Hinkley Point (Reuters)
- Chinese firm with military ties invited to bid for role in UK’s nuclear future (The Guardian)
- India: Suzlon chief seeks greater green power support (Financial Times)
- Yes, Climate Change Has Helped The Spread Of Zika In The United States (Climate Progress)
- Turkey imposes import tax on thermal coal for power generation (Reuters)
- Cut £25bn nuclear plan in HALF, says ex energy chief (Mail on Sunday)
- India climate: What do drowning rhinos and drought tell us? (BBC News)
- ‘Earth overshoot day’ arrives just eight months into the year, says Global Footprint Network (Energy Voice)