US greenhouse gas emissions rise despite Obama's climate change push
Climate and energy news
National Grid calls on businesses to join winter
demand management drive
Businesses are being invited to offer to cut electricity
demand during winter peaks in 2015/16 in return for payments under
the National Grid’s Demand Side Balancing Reserve scheme,
officially launched yesterday. The grid has already tendered firms
under a pilot scheme that will run this winter, with the pilot
having taken on renewed significance after the closure through fire
of a unit at Didcot B power station.
Big business and trade unions lead calls for bold
EU climate change package
The Confederation of British Industry and and the European
Trade Union Confederation have both issued pleas for EU governments
to deliver ambitious emissions reduction goals when they decide on
2030 climate targets tomorrow. A series of other business groups
including Shell and Coca-Colahave also
called for ambitious 2030 targets. We took a look at who wants what
from the 2030 deal here.
US needs to invest in Arctic ships, technology to
prepare for climate change:
envoy
The United States needs billions of dollars of new equipment
including ice-breaking ships, better satellite service and
fibre-optic networks as it prepares for climate change and melting
ice in the Arctic, the US special representative for the Arctic
Region has said. He pointed to the challenges created by a
shrinking polar ice cap.
Insurers tell Osborne £500m extra needed for flood
defences
UK flood defences need an extra £500 million investment to
ensure adequate protection for homes and businesses, leading
insurance companies have warned in a letter to chancellor George
Osborne. Without the extra funding the companies are concerned they
may face losses even higher than the estimated £450 million bill
they faced after severe storms and flooding last winter, reports
Business Green.
Ex-Environment Agency head to lead industry-funded
fracking task force
Lord Chris Smith, the Labour peer and former head of the
Environment Agency, has been appointed to lead an “independent and
transparent” review of the potential environmental and economic
impacts of shale gas as part of an industry-funded task force. The
task force is funded by Centrica, Cuadrilla, Dow, Total, The Weir
Group and GDF Suez, all of which have some interest in the shale
gas industry.
US, EU want UN to stress low cost of climate
change fight – draft
The US and EU want the low cost of fighting climate change to
be stressed in the forthcoming Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change synthesis report, a compilation and summary of the panel’s
latest findings published in three reports over the past years.
Reuters reports on leaked comments on a draft of the synthesis
report that is due to be published in early November.
Oceans Could Lose $1 Trillion in Value Due to
Acidification
A very young field of research is trying to measure the costs
of oceans growing more acidic, reports Climate Wire. Many of the
effects of acidification remain invisible, a new UN report finds,
but by the end of the century that will have changed drastically.
The economic impacts include loss of protection from ocean storms
through coral reef damage and loss of food supplies.
Climate and energy comment
Limiting global warming to 2°C: the philosophy and
the science
Industrial civilisation must become technologically,
economically, politically, and morally sustainable in order to
avoid dangerous warming, argue Michael Mann and Lawrence Torcello
in the Conversation. The challenge is not insurmountable, they say,
but at present emissions rates time is fast running out.
We need more transparency on climate
finance
A 2015 climate deal must ensure clear accountability over
levels of rich to poor funding, says Ecuador’s lead climate envoy
in a piece for RTCC. Higher transparency would help ensure more
funds flow, he argues. Meanwhile Sweden has pledged$500 million to the UN’s
Green Climate Fund, though only around $70 million of this is new
money. A separate UN offer of debt relief to pay for climate
adaptation has been describedas “fundamentally unjust”
by development agencies.
Rooftop solar is just the beginning; utilities
must innovate or go extinct
Solar power is threat to the viability of traditional utility
firms, explains David Roberts over at Grist. In the US these firms
have been focussing on trying to get those with solar panels to pay
for use of the electricity grid. But if they hope to survive,
Roberts says, their response must be more ambitious.
New climate science
The impact of weather and climate on tourist
demand: the case of Chester Zoo
Rising temperatures may affect the number of visitors to
outdoor tourist attractions, new research shows. A study of Chester
Zoo finds that warmer temperatures encourage visits, but only up to
around 21 degrees, after which visitor numbers drop off. The
evidence suggests visitors wait for drier days and avoid scorching
sunshine – or at least, “scorching” by English standards, the
researchers say.
‘Shrinking goats’ another indicator that climate
change affects animal size
Mountain goats appear to be shrinking in size as they react
to changes in climate, according to new research from Durham
University. A study of the Alpine Chamois goat in the Italian Alps
finds that young goats weigh about 25 per cent less than animals of
the same age in the 1980s. The researchers suggest rising
temperatures have caused the goats to spend more time resting
during hot periods and less time eating. The reduced size of the
goats may affect their ability to survive harsh winters.