Airlines urge UN body to ease climate goals for 2020s as traffic collapses
Airlines' trade association says current plans to offset greenhouse gas emissions from a 2019-2020 baseline would put an 'inappropriate economic burden on the sector'
Governments still due to submit tougher climate plans in 2020, despite Cop26 delay
The postponement of a critical climate summit to 2021 does not lessen pressure on governments around the world to submit tougher climate plans to the UN this year
Cop26 climate talks postponed to 2021 amid coronavirus pandemic
Postponement will help clarify US climate policy - Trump is pulling out of the Paris Agreement but Biden or Sanders would rejoin if elected in November
Data for weather forecasts and climate monitoring provided by in-flight sensors and manual observations have decreased significantly since the Covid-19 outbreak
Coronavirus: investors and policymakers must shift to increase resilience
Incentives for long-term sustainability, an end to fossil fuel subsidies, more telework are all needed to make the global economy resilient to shocks like Covid-19
Zoom climate diplomacy: ‘Technology doesn’t help build trust’
The coronavirus pandemic has pushed climate diplomacy online, greening much of UN Climate Change's operations but virtual meeting bring their own challenges
Malawi’s farmers grow crops with ‘magic liquid’ fertiliser
'Bionitrate' made from urine is starting to help yields for farmers in Malawi who face high costs fertilising maize and other crops amid shifting weather patterns
Coronavirus: in Hawaii’s air, scientists seek signs of economic shock on CO2 levels
Ralph Keeling estimates that global fossil fuel use would have to decline by 10% for a full year to clearly impact CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere
New Jersey Confers Strict Water Protections on 600 Miles of Waterways
At a time when the Trump administration is rolling back U.S. clean water regulations, New Jersey has stepped up protections on 600 miles of rivers and streams throughout the state.
Spillover Warning: How We Can Prevent the Next Pandemic
Author David Quammen has tracked the spillover of viruses from animals to humans for more than a decade. To avoid future pandemics, he says, we must rethink our relationship with nature and recognize how our choices can lead to dangerous disruptions of the natural world.
UN Biodiversity Chief Argues for a Permanent Ban on Wildlife Markets
The United Nations’ biodiversity chief has called for a global ban on wildlife markets — such as the one in Wuhan, China, believed to be the starting point of the coronavirus outbreak — to prevent future pandemics.
After the Coronavirus, Two Sharply Divergent Paths on Climate
Some policy experts are optimistic that victory over the coronavirus will instill greater appreciation for what government, science, and business can do to tackle climate change. But others believe the economic damage caused by the virus will set back climate efforts for years to come.
Entries Invited for the Seventh Annual Yale Environment 360 Video Contest
The seventh annual Yale Environment 360 Video Contest is now accepting entries. The contest honors the year’s best environmental videos. Submissions must focus on an environmental issue or theme and be a maximum of 20 minutes in length. The contest aims to honor work that has not previously been widely seen. Videos that are funded by an organization or company and are primarily about that organization or company are not eligible.
Marine Life Could Recover By 2050 With the Right Policies, Study Finds
Despite centuries of rampant overfishing and pollution, marine life in the world’s oceans could be fully restored in as little as 30 years with aggressive conservation policies, according to a new scientific review published in the journal Nature. The research pointed to ocean animals’ strong resiliency and the successful recovery of several species, including humpback whales.
In an Era of Pandemics and Fires, Global Action Is the Only Hope
In the San Francisco Bay Area, where the coronavirus is now eclipsing the dangers of drought and fire, the new pandemic is the starkest reminder yet of how connected we all are. To tackle both the virus and climate change, there is no option but global collaboration.
Methane-Eating Bacteria Could Help Decrease Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Thawing Arctic Tundra
As global temperatures rise, scientists warn that thawing Arctic permafrost is releasing an alarming amount of methane — a greenhouse gas 25 percent more potent than carbon dioxide — into the atmosphere. Now, a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change has discovered a type of methane-oxidizing bacteria living in upland Arctic soils that could potentially offset some of these emissions.
Can ‘Carbon Smart’ Farming Play a Key Role in the Climate Fight?
Markets are emerging to pay farmers to store more carbon in the soil by using improved agricultural practices. But flows of greenhouse gases into and out of soil are complex, and some scientists are questioning whether these efforts will actually help slow global warming.
Seychelles Creates a Marine Reserve Twice the Size of Great Britain
The Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, has established 154,000 square miles of marine protected areas, fulfilling a pledge to protect nearly a third of its vast territorial waters. About half of the newly protected areas will be “no-take zones,” where economic activity such as fishing and mining will be prohibited. Limited economic activities will be permitted in the other half of the protected areas.
The Great Barrier Reef is Experiencing Its Third Mass Bleaching Event in Five Years
Australian officials have confirmed that the Great Barrier Reef is experiencing “very widespread” coral bleaching — the reef’s third mass-bleaching event in five years. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority said the damage is the result of “prolonged thermal stress” due to high ocean temperatures in February and March.
Shifting Gears: The Climate Protest Movement in the Age of Coronavirus
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, Fridays for Future, the youth climate campaign, was seeing numbers of protesters decline and its calls for action falling short of its goals. Now, the movement is recalibrating its strategies to try to usher in the next phase of a global campaign.
A Massive Glacier in East Antarctica Has Retreated 3 Miles in 22 Years
East Antarctica’s Denman Glacier has retreated nearly 3 miles over the past two decades, losing 268 billion tons of ice between 1979 and 2017, according to a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. If the glacier were to melt completely, it holds enough water to raise global sea levels by about 5 feet.
Coronavirus Holds Key Lessons on How to Fight Climate Change
When the COVID-19 pandemic is past, societies may adopt some important measures that would lower emissions, from more teleconferencing to shortening global supply chains. But the most lasting lesson may be what the coronavirus teaches us about the urgency of taking swift action.
Coronavirus Stimulus Plans Are An Opportunity for Bold Climate Action, Expert Says
Governments and financial institutions should incorporate climate change action into their COVID-19 economic recovery plans, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, told Climate Home News. Stimulus packages, he argues, should focus on large-scale investments in things like clean energy, battery storage, and carbon capture-and-storage technologies.
With Temperatures Rising, Can Animals Survive the Heat Stress?
A growing number of studies show that warming temperatures are increasing mortality in creatures ranging from birds in the Mojave Desert, to mammals in Australia, to bumblebees in North America. Researchers warn that heat stress could become a major factor in future extinctions.
Green Violence: ‘Eco-Guards’ Are Abusing Indigenous Groups in Africa
A new UN report says park guards funded by conservation organizations are hounding African forest dwellers. In an interview with Yale e360, a noted anthropologist describes the mistreatment and says the solution lies in giving indigenous people greater control over their traditional lands.
LEGO Bricks Could Linger in the Ocean for 1,300 Years, Study Finds
It can take up to 1,300 years for LEGO bricks to break down in the ocean, according to new research published in the journal Environmental Pollution. The pieces of the iconic children’s toy, which is made from a strong plastic material called acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), are commonly found in ocean trash hotspots and wash up on shores across the globe by the thousands. Scientists say the findings are another reminder for people to be careful of how they dispose of everyday household items.
There’s Been a Six-Fold Increase in Polar Ice Cap Melting Since the 1990s
The polar ice caps are melting six times faster than in the 1990s, according to the most complete analysis to date. The ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica is tracking the worst-case climate warming scenario set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), scientists say.
A Movement Grows to Help Farmers Reduce Pollution and Turn a Profit
More than 100,000 miles of U.S. rivers and streams are polluted by nitrogen and phosphorus, much of it from agricultural runoff. In Pennsylvania, an innovative program is showing farmers how to plant cash crops in buffer zones to help stabilize stream banks and clean up waterways.
The U.S. Global Change Research Program will be presenting at the American Geophysical Union 2019 Fall Meeting from December 9-13 in San Francisco, CA. We hope you will join us for the following talks, sessions, and activities: All Week: Visit us at Exhibit Booth #512 All times local (Pacific Standard Time) Monday [1:40 - 6:00 PM] GC13E Advancing
Dr. Anthony Janetos, a longstanding member of the USGCRP community and Director of Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, passed away on Tuesday, August 6, 2019. He was 64 years old. Dr. Janetos dedicated his career to interdisciplinary, policy-relevant global change science. Prior to the Pardee
The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is pleased to announce the release of Volume II of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) and the 2nd State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR2). NCA4 Vol II NCA4 Vol II, Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States , assesses a range of potential climate change -related impacts, with
The Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) Vol. II remains on track for a December delivery in fulfillment of the Congressional mandate. NCA4 Vol. I, the Climate Science Special Report, is available at science2017.globalchange.gov. Final agency review and comment. Authors have been revising chapters and responding to comments submitted in the
It’s been a while since our last update, but rest assured that we’ve been hard at work on Volume II of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4 Vol. II) in the meantime. Here’s a brief rundown of the goings-on: Public review and comment. This winter (November 3, 2017 through January 31, 2018), the public had the chance to weigh in on the draft
On behalf of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, we are pleased to announce major milestones in the timelines of three important reports. The first of these is the Climate Science Special Report (CSSR), which represents Volume I of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4). The final version of CSSR is released today as a step toward
Let’s start with the big news: As of last week, first drafts of all 28 chapters and five appendices of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) were submitted and are now in the hands of the editorial team at the Technical Support Unit (TSU). A huge thank you goes out to our volunteer author teams for their dedication and hard work over the
NCA4 author teams, staff, and regional collaborators have been hard at work gathering input from stakeholders across the country through regional engagement workshops, webinars, and other public events. Chapter teams have received extensive training on chapter development, scientific resources and tools, and assessment writing through a chapter leadership meeting and regular webinars with all authors. Development of full, first order chapter drafts for interagency review in June is underway and on-schedule.
Building on the success of the third, and most recent, National Climate Assessment , production of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) is now underway and is expected for release in late 2018. Recent efforts are laying the foundation for a robust, inclusive assessment process that responds to information needs across the country.
By Dr. Tamara Dickinson and Dr. Michael Kuperberg Re-posted from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy blog. This and previous Administrations have periodically conducted congressionally mandated National Climate Assessments to assess and inform the Nation about the impact of climate change . The U.S. Global Change Research
The March contiguous U.S. average temperature was 46.08 degress Fahrenheit, 4.58 degress Fahrenheit above the 20th century average. The precipitation total was 2.83 inches, 0.32 inches above average.
The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for February was 1.17 degrees C (2.11 degress Fahrenheit) above the 20th century average of 15.5 degrees C (59.9 degress Fahrenheit).
The biggest driver of the climate variability during February 2020 was a record-strong positive Arctic Oscillation (AO). Four of the five highest daily values on record since 1950 happened during February 2020. The only other day in that list was the previous all-time record-holder, February 26, 1990. The monthly AO in February 2020 was also the second-highest on record behind only January 1990.
During February, the Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent (SCE) was 43.48 million square km (16.79 million square miles), 4.64% below the 1981-2010 average. The global sea ice extent was 17.55 million square km (6.78 million square miles), 4.46% below the 1981-2010 average.
This analysis is based on preliminary data available from the Storm Prediction Center. Final tornado counts published by the Storm Prediction Center and NCEI's Storm Events Database might differ from this report. For a more detailed climatology, please visit our tornado climatology page.
February began with approximatly 36 percent of the contiguous U.S. (CONUS) covered by snow according to NOAA's National Snow Analysis. Snow covered many of the western mountain locations including the Rockies, Cascades and Sierra Nevada ranges. Snow also blanketed much of the northern Plains, the upper and middle Mississippi Valley, Great Lakes and northern portions of the Northeast.
As of February 25th, 8.50% of the Contiguous U.S. was experiencing drought conditions, 1.88% was in severe drought, 0.20% extreme, and 0.00% exceptional.
Tolkien was right: giant trees have towering role in protecting forests
Study highlights importance of biodiversity as part of strategy to stop planet overheating
Scientists have shown to be true what JRR Tolkien only imagined in the Lord of the Rings: giant, slow-reproducing trees play an outsized role in the growth and health of old forests.
In the 1930s, the writer gave his towering trees the name Ents. Today, a paper in the journal Science says these “long-lived pioneers” contribute more than previously believed to carbon sequestration and biomass increase.
Wildlife destruction 'not a slippery slope but a series of cliff edges'
New study finds ocean ecosystems likely to collapse in 2020s and land species in 2040s unless global warming stemmed
Wildlife species will die out and natural ecosystems collapse in the near future if the climate crisis goes unchecked, scientists have warned, as new research shows that the natural world is at far greater risk from climate breakdown than previously thought.
Catastrophe could strike this decade for some species, as key temperature thresholds are crossed. Instead of the anticipated gradual decline of species, there are likely to be a series of sudden collapses.
Volcanic activity now believed to have triggered Triassic climate change
Research offers ‘a sobering warning’ on the impact of today’s climate emergency
Volcanic eruptions played an important and direct role in triggering the extreme climate that killed off swathes of life at the end of the Triassic period 201m years ago, researchers have found.
Experts say they have discovered bubbles of carbon dioxide trapped in volcanic rocks dating to the end of the Triassic, backing up the theory that such activity contributed to the greenhouse climate that is believed to have been behind the mass extinction.
Big Oil is using the coronavirus pandemic to push through the Keystone XL pipeline | Bill McKibben
The oil industry saw its opening and moved with breathtaking speed to take advantage of this moment
I’m going to tell you the single worst story I’ve heard in these past few horrid months, a story that combines naked greed, political influence peddling, a willingness to endanger innocent human beings, utter blindness to one of the greatest calamities in human history and a complete disregard for the next crisis aiming for our planet. I’m going to try to stay calm enough to tell it properly, but I confess it’s hard.
The background: a decade ago, beginning with indigenous activists in Canada and farmers and ranchers in the American west and midwest, opposition began to something called the Keystone XL pipeline, designed to carry filthy tar sands oil from the Canadian province of Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico. It quickly became a flashpoint for the fast-growing climate movement, especially after Nasa scientist James Hansen explained that draining those tar sands deposits would be “game over” for the climate system. And so thousands went to jail and millions rallied and eventually Barack Obama bent to that pressure and blocked the pipeline. Donald Trump, days after taking office, reversed that decision, but the pipeline has never been built, both because its builder, TC Energy, has had trouble arranging the financing and permits, and because 30,000 people have trained to do nonviolent civil disobedience to block construction. It’s been widely assumed that, should a Democrat win the White House in November, the project would finally be gone for good.
Bill McKibben is an author and Schumann distinguished scholar in environmental studies at Middlebury College, Vermont. His most recent book is Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?
Rescuing the Great Barrier Reef: how much can be saved, and how can we do it?
As global heating makes coral bleaching a regular event, scientists are urgently seeking ways to help the world’s biggest reef survive
When coral scientist Dr Zoe Richards left the Great Barrier Reef’s Lizard Island in late January, she was feeling optimistic.
Richards is a taxonomist. Since 2011 she has recorded and monitored 245 coral species at 14 locations around the island’s research station, about 270km north of Cairns.
Day 1 of coral biodiversity re-surveys @ Lizard I, GBR. After 2 cyclones & 2 bleaching events in a decade, it's great to see a range of healthy young Acropora colonies fighting back! #coralnotcoal#recoveryispossible A. echinata (blue), A. speciosa (pink) & A. spathulata (orange) pic.twitter.com/CO7BhJdu72
I’m fearful that in the next 10 years we will see the loss of coral across the planet at phenomenal rates
North Atlantic's capacity to absorb CO2 overestimated, study suggests
Research into ocean’s plankton likely to lead to negative revision of global climate calculations
The North Atlantic may be a weaker climate ally than previously believed, according to a study that suggests the ocean’s capacity to absorb carbon dioxide has been overestimated.
A first-ever winter and spring sampling of plankton in the western North Atlantic showed cell sizes were considerably smaller than scientists assumed, which means the carbon they absorb does not sink as deep or as fast, nor does it stay in the depths for as long.
The coronavirus pandemic has stalled scientific fieldwork and may even start to affect the monitoring of the climate, scientists have warned.
Major projects to gather environmental data have been postponed or canceled over concerns that teams of researchers working together will spread the Covid-19 virus.
Antarctica was warm enough for rainforest near south pole 90m years ago
Experts say new evidence from Cretaceous period ‘shows us what carbon dioxide can do’
Think of Antarctica and it is probably sweeping expanses of ice, and the odd penguin, that come to mind. But at the time of the dinosaurs the continent was covered in swampy rainforest.
Now experts say they have found the most southerly evidence yet of this environment in plant material extracted from beneath the seafloor in west Antarctica.
Climate-damaging products should come with smoking-style warnings
Graphic imagery should be used on petrol pumps and air tickets, experts say
Cigarette packets with grisly warnings of the consequences of smoking are intended to deter smokers. Now a group of public health experts says similar warnings should appear on high-carbon products, from airline tickets and energy bills to petrol pumps, to show consumers the health impacts of the climate crisis.
Warning labels would be a cheap but potentially highly effective intervention that would make consumers aware of the impact of their purchases on climate breakdown, according to the experts.
Japan has laid out its plans to tackle greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris agreement in the run-up to UN climate talks this year, becoming the first large economy to do so.
But its proposals were criticised by campaigners as grossly inadequate, amid fears the Covid-19 crisis could prompt countries to try to water down their climate commitments.
For almost three decades, world governments have met every year to forge a global response to the climate emergency. Under the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, every country on earth is treaty-bound to “avoid dangerous climate change”, and find ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally in an equitable way. Cop stands for conference of the parties under the UNFCCC.
'Probably the worst year in a century': Australia's environmental toll of 2019
The annual Australia’s Environment report finds last year’s heat and drought caused unprecedented damage
Record heat and drought across Australia delivered the worst environmental conditions across the country since at least 2000, with river flows, tree cover and wildlife being hit on an “unprecedented scale”, according to a new report.
The index of environmental conditions in Australia scored 2019 at 0.8 out of 10 – the worst result across all the years analysed from 2000.
A collective solution to Covid-19 and climate change | Letters
Only through state intervention can we fight the twin crises of coronavirus and the heating planet
Capitalist orthodoxies fail in the face of “a crisis that can only be endured and resolved by rediscovering the virtues of collectivism and solidarity”, writes Andrew Rawnsley (Comment). Precisely, and this is why a similar approach is needed to confront the climate emergency – and why rightwing governments will fail to do so unless they adopt a leftwing approach that does not prioritise market and profit and instead sees the merits of massive state intervention. And the coronavirus crisis rather pointedly undermines Philip Cerny’s remark that the nation state cannot have a key role in this (“My solution to the climate crisis”, Letters). What we are learning now is the importance, yes, of individual responsibility and local initiatives but also of decisive governmental action to enforce the suspension of business as usual, and of international cooperation. The only other essential element is a recognition that the climate emergency is just as pressing and very much more of a mortal threat than even the current pandemic. Jem Whiteley Oxford
I read with interest the interview with Professor Tim Lang with its important messages and mention of Covid-19 (“Why our food supply system doesn’t work”, Focus). I too am concerned about the UK’s food supply chains, given it imports at least half of its food. If imports of food, particularly fresh fruit and vegetables, decline because countries like Spain and Italy are going to struggle to feed themselves because of this pandemic, this would affect the diet of the UK’s population, particularly the elderly, young and disadvantaged. It would be reassuring to know what the UK government’s contingency plans are.
Call for isolated Britons to help digitise historical rainfall data
Climate change scientists planning to transcribe paper records from 1820s to 1950s
Weather is a perennial British obsession, with some of the country’s rainfall and temperature records going back centuries. Some of this data has been invaluable in drawing up detailed pictures of the British climate, which have been influential in computer models used to forecast climate change.
But some of it is still effectively unusable because it is marooned in reams of old-fashioned paper records. Now scientists at the University of Reading are planning to rescue these obscure rain gauge records, using citizen scientists to do the work. They hope that hundreds of people currently stuck indoors with little else to do will be inspired to join up to help digitise rainfall data for use by meteorologists and climate experts.
Global efforts on ozone help reverse southern jet stream damage
Jet stream appears to have stopped moving south and may be moving back towards normal
International cooperation on ozone-depleting chemicals is helping to return the southern jet stream to a normal state after decades of human-caused disruption, a study shows.
Scientists say the findings prove there is the capacity to heal some damaged climate systems if governments act promptly and in coordination to deal with the causes.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought urgency to the defining political question of our age: how to distribute risk. As with the climate crisis, neoliberal capitalism is proving particularly ill-suited to this.
Like global warming, but in close-up and fast-forward, the Covid-19 outbreak shows how lives are lost or saved depending on a government’s propensity to acknowledge risk, act rapidly to contain it, and share the consequences.
Book clinic: are there any novels about the climate crisis?
Novelist Melissa Harrison recommends the best ‘cli-fi’ fiction
Q: Can you recommend some climate crisis fiction? The nonfiction is too depressing and fiction often helps the heart cope with the world Peggy Duesenberry, 61, Massachusetts, US
A: Melissa Harrison is a novelist and nature writer whose books include At Hawthorn Time and All Among the Barley. Shewrites:
Is hydrogen the solution to net-zero home heating?
Up to a third of the UK’s greenhouse emissions come from central heating. But a switch from natural gas to hydrogen, one of three proposals for greener energy, has experts divided
On 27 June 2019, the energy and clean growth minister Chris Skidmore signed papers that committed the UK to reduce carbon emissions to effectively nothing by 2050. If we are to stand any chance of meeting this target, known as “net zero”, there is one enormous challenge that we will have to tackle: home heating.
Warming our homes is responsible for between a quarter and a third of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. That’s more than 10 times the amount of CO2 created by the aviation industry. Around 85% of homes now use gas-fired central heating, and a large proportion of gas cooking still takes place. Greening this system is a huge challenge by any measure. But if recent reports are to be believed, there could be a simple and efficient way to do it: change from using natural gas to hydrogen gas.
Why the climate crisis is harder to spot in the UK and US
Changeable weather in mid-latitude countries may have masked impact of climate crisis up to now, study finds
The data tells us that climate change is real, but sometimes the feeling on the ground is far from convincing. A spell of hot weather can always be compared to a similar spell of hot weather from way back in the past. Similarly a big storm, intense rain and flooding often have parallels from long ago. Now a study in Geophysical Research Letters reveals that the signs of climate change are harder to spot in mid-latitude countries such as the UK and US, and easier to see in the tropics.
Ed Hawkins, from the University of Reading, and colleagues compared global mean temperature fluctuations with local temperature fluctuations for different parts of the world. They show that while the global average temperature has wiggled smoothly upwards, a mid-latitude location such as Oxford in the UK has always had wild swings in temperature. “Climate change impacts in some countries are being hidden by their own changeable weather,” writes Hawkins. By contrast increasing temperatures in tropical regions are more obvious because the background climate is steadier in these regions.
Greenland's melting ice raised global sea level by 2.2mm in two months
Analysis of satellite data reveals astounding loss of 600bn tons of ice last summer as Arctic experienced hottest year on record
Last year’s summer was so warm that it helped trigger the loss of 600bn tons of ice from Greenland – enough to raise global sea levels by 2.2mm in just two months, new research has found.
The analysis of satellite data has revealed the astounding loss of ice in just a few months of abnormally high temperatures around the northern pole. Last year was the hottest on record for the Arctic, with the annual minimum extent of sea ice in the region its second-lowest on record.
For decades, the fossil fuel industry has worked to undermine climate science, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to seed uncertainty over global warming. Now some experts say that work appears to have paved the way for denial of Covid-19 by many on the right.
Pushing back against wide-ranging rollbacks of environmental rules by the Trump administration, a federal court has ruled that the EPA violated regulatory procedures when it removed restrictions on hydrofluorocarbons (or HFCs), a widely used chemical refrigerant and climate super-pollutant.
Renewable energy advocates are celebrating a rare win in Kansas after the state's top court struck down a special charge for rooftop solar. We look at how that ruling could impact other states, and more, in the latest Inside Clean Energy by Dan Gearino.
Electricity demand in the U.S. plunged to a 16-year low last week as government travel and work restrictions aimed to slow the coronavirus spread forced offices to shut down and industrial activity to slow sharply, Reuters reports. Power output fell to 64,896 gigawatt hours during the week ending April 4, down 5.7 percent from the same week in 2019.
Starting this spring, a new fund led by global commodities trader Cargill will pay American farmers for capturing carbon in their field soils and cutting fertilizer runoff in exchange for credits in carbon-offset schemes, Reuters reports. The fund will then sell those credits to polluters such as cities and companies, including Cargill itself.
The traditionally conservative U.S. Chamber of Commerce is planning to endorse a primary challenger to progressive icon Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, an original proponent for the Green New Deal. The highly unusual move highlights the ongoing rift between the party's moderate and more left-leaning members.
A growing number of cities across the U.S. that recently implemented bans aimed at reducing plastic waste are putting those bans on hold amid worries that the coronavirus could cling to reusable bags, cups and straws, the Associated Press reports. The moves showcase how some industries are taking advantage of the pandemic to push forward their business interests.
The EPA failed to give public notice when it told businesses they could replace ozone-depleting refrigerants with HFCs instead of less polluting alternatives.
By Phil McKenna
In a ruling that counters recent rollbacks of climate and health-related environmental protections, a federal appeals court has ruled that President Trump's Environmental Protection Agency violated regulatory procedure when it removed restrictions on hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a widely used chemical refrigerant and climate super-pollutant.
After the fossil fuel industry spent hundreds of millions of dollars undermining climate science, it’s easy to see how epidemiology came next.
By Neela Banerjee, David Hasemyer
American science denialism, deployed for years against climate change and, most recently, the coronavirus, can be traced back to the early 1950s during the fight over smog in Los Angeles.
The Kansas Supreme Court has provided a rare and sweet victory for renewable energy advocates in the state, with national implications.
The court issued a unanimous ruling on Friday agreeing with advocates that a 2018 utility rate plan was discriminatory in the way it created a new charge that inflated the bills of rooftop solar customers.
This has the potential to alter the national debate over how utilities deal with rooftop solar, considering that utilities in other states have pointed to Kansas as a model.
“We couldn’t hardly believe it because we don’t win on these issues against the utilities very often,” said Dorothy Barnett, executive director of the Climate and Energy Project in Hutchinson, Kansas. “There was a lot of yelling and happy tears.”
Barnett has worked for more than a decade to help Kansas end its status as a solar laggard. The state ranks 47th in the country in installed solar.
In 2018, state regulators approved rate proposals from Westar and Kansas City Power & Light that created a new charge for households that own systems that generate their own electricity.
The utilities—which have since merged to become Evergy, and serve about two-thirds of the state’s electricity consumers—said the charge was a fairness issue because rooftop solar customers otherwise have bills so small that they don’t contribute enough to maintaining the electricity grid.
This is a familiar—and often dubious—argument, leading to a variety of measures across the country that have reduced the financial advantages of rooftop solar.
The deeper issue is that utilities often see rooftop solar as competition, showing what advocates say is an essential flaw in the utility business model that harms the transition to clean energy.
Barnett notes that the court decision was written by a judge appointed by former Gov. Sam Brownback, a conservative Republican, a fact that she sees as “almost a cherry on the top of an ice cream sundae.”
Republicans in Kansas and in other states have tended to go along with utilities’ attempts to rein in rooftop solar. Barnett says solar should be nonpartisan, appealing to anyone who wants to take control of their energy production.
While many utilities have taken actions to reduce the financial attractiveness of rooftop solar, the Kansas companies were unique in the way they did it, making the new charge based on a customer’s monthly peak electricity demand, as opposed to something that would be easier to understand, like a flat fee or a rate change.
The result was that bills could vary substantially. During the rate case, the utilities calculated that the monthly average charge would be about $25 for a typical household, on top of the regular electricity bill.
The charge meant that solar installers could no longer argue that a rooftop system would pay for itself with utility bill savings in about a decade. In a 2019 legislative hearing about the rates, one consumer testified that her solar system would have paid for itself in 13 years under the old rates, but now would take a projected 39 years.
Many solar companies responded by turning their attention to neighboring Missouri, where most of them were already doing business, Barnett said.
It is too soon to say whether the court ruling will revitalize solar power in Kansas, but Barnett is optimistic that this is a turning point.
An Evergy spokesman said in an email that the company is reviewing the court’s decision and will work with regulators to figure out the next steps.
The ruling will probably soon become part of debates in other states, said Rick Gilliam, program director for distributed generation policy at Vote Solar. Utilities in other states have made proposals that have similar elements, even if they don’t have the specifics of the demand charge.
One example is Idaho, where the utility Idaho Power has proposed a charge that looks discriminatory in the way it treats rooftop solar customers as a separate category from other households, he said.
“Whenever I would work in other states, utilities would point to Kansas as the shining light of how this should be done,” he said.
Now, he has a new and formidable retort, and that’s a big deal.
Photo Credit: Cromwell Solar of Lawrence, Kansas
What Does a Clean Energy Transition Look Like for Industry?
A new report charts a path to eliminating emissions from industry by 2070, finding that although there are many kinds of factories, the potential solutions fall into a few common categories.
This is important research because about one-third of global emissions come from industry, if you include emissions from electricity and heat used in factories. That’s more than the emissions from buildings or transportation, but we don’t talk about it much.
“It hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves, and one reason for that is it’s not as visible,” said Jeffrey Rissman of the think tank Energy Innovation, and a co-author of the report, published in the journal Applied Energy. “If you’re talking about industry, it’s all what’s going on behind closed doors in a factory.”
More than two dozen researchers contributed to this study, which seeks to get an idea of how much specific industries contribute to emissions, and how they can move away from fossil fuels.
The co-authors put together a list of the industries that had the most emissions in 2014, the most recent year for which reliable data is available.
Steel leads that list, and a central challenge is developing a zero-emissions method to produce the high heat used in making it. The report looks at the possibility of burning hydrogen for this purpose as an alternative to natural gas, something that would work for steel and other industries.
There also are opportunities to use electricity in industrial processes that now run on fossil fuels, which would be a big step forward if it coincided with a transition of the electricity grid to net-zero emissions.
Much of the rest of industrial emissions could be eliminated with an emphasis on energy conservation and recycling certain materials, and the development of carbon capture technologies to store whatever carbon remains.
The report lays out a timeline in which some of the steps are available right away, such as energy conservation and electrification, and could be implemented between now and 2035. The next phase, from 2035 to 2050, would include technologies that are not widely available or affordable yet, such as carbon capture. Then, from 2050 to 2070, the steps would include wide deployment of hydrogen as an alternative to carbon-emitting heat sources.
The co-authors recommend that governments increase research funding to shorten the timelines until some of these processes are widely available for use.
Governments can accelerate changes in industry with policies such as carbon pricing and programs to help companies buy low-carbon materials.
It’s a lot to digest, but we need to try, because the energy transition is about much more than power plants and vehicles.
Photo Credit: Morris MacMatzen/Getty Images
Here’s How the Nation’s Largest Solar Installer Is Dealing with Coronavirus
Sunrun, the country’s largest rooftop solar installer, has laid out how it plans to adapt to a market severely disrupted by Covid-19.
The San Francisco-based company says it is switching to conducting sales calls with video conferencing and carrying out roof surveys with drones, part of a broader effort to continue to sell and install solar systems at a time when its personnel cannot come in physical contact with customers.
The company also has cut $30 million in costs for the quarter, most of it through “labor-related cost actions,” which basically means layoffs.
How bad does the company think this crisis will get for rooftop solar? It isn’t saying, other than to withdraw its estimate issued in February that its 2020 solar installations, as measured in megawatts, would be up 15 percent from 2019.
Sunrun installed 413 megawatts of solar last year, up from 373 megawatts in 2018. It’s anyone’s guess what this number will be in 2020.
“The innovations and adaptations we are implementing today will help us get through this and ultimately make us stronger,” said Lynn Jurich, co-founder and CEO, in a statement. “I want people to know that Sunrun not only provides resilience—we are resilient."
Photo Credit: Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Inside Clean Energy is ICN’s weekly bulletin of news and analysis about the energy transition. Send news tips and questions to dan.gearino@insideclimatenews.org.
The Trump administration's proposed rule that would place limits on the science used in decision-making by the Environmental Protection Agency would disqualify some of the most valuable health science, critics say, including studies that could hold clues to Covid-19. That could cripple the federal response to the pandemic.
West of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Interior Department is moving ahead with a massive oil development. But residents of nearby towns will only have until May 4 to comment on the project, a timeline set up when many Americans were sheltering at home and ending just weeks after coronavirus infections are expected to peak in the state.
Global warming is about to tear big holes into Earth's delicate web of life, pushing temperatures beyond the tolerance of thousands of animals at the same time. As some key species go extinct, entire ecosystems like coral reefs and forests will crumble, and some will collapse abruptly, starting as soon as this decade, a new study in the journal Nature warns.
Hunting, farming and the global move of people to cities has led to massive declines in biodiversity and increased the risk of dangerous viruses like Covid-19 spilling over from animals to humans, a major study concluded.
A federal court on Tuesday struck down the Trump administration's move to suspend an Obama-era rule that restricted the use of hydrofluorocarbons, a powerful greenhouse gas, saying the Trump administration did not follow the proper procedure.
President Trump's rollback of Obama-era mileage standards last week may prove to be one of the administration's most vulnerable environmental overhauls as opponents prepare to challenge it in court. Environmental and watchdog groups say the rule falls short of laws requiring the government to set ambitious fuel efficiency standards.
A group of lawmakers from oil producing states announced Tuesday that they are introducing legislation to help the oil industry, which is struggling amid plummeting prices due to coronavirus and an international price war. The bill would give the Energy Department $3 billion to purchase oil to be stored in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Since the 1980s, the frequency of autumn days with extreme fire weather conditions in California has more than doubled, a new study found, highlighting the role human-caused global warming plays in the state's dangerous fire seasons.
Airlines are lobbying to rewrite the rules of a global agreement designed to tackle aviation emissions, because the coronavirus outbreak is expected to make its targets tougher to meet. Industry officials say amending the agreement is "a matter of survival," but environmentalists accuse the airlines of "attempting to dodge their obligations."
A new study shows that as rising heat drives some key species extinct, it will affect other species, as well, in a domino effect.
By Bob Berwyn
Global warming is about to tear big holes into Earth's delicate web of life, pushing temperatures beyond the tolerance of thousands of animals at the same time. As some key species go extinct, entire ecosystems like coral reefs and forests will crumble, and some will collapse abruptly, starting as soon as this decade, a new study in the journal Nature warns.
The rule would disqualify some of the most valuable health science, critics say.
By Marianne Lavelle
In 2018, scientists published a study showing that doctor visits for respiratory infections increased with the air pollution that periodically settled into the urban valleys of northern Utah—research that could prove relevant as researchers try to unlock the mysteries of Covid-19.
The president’s plans for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may fall flat. But a massive ConocoPhillips project is moving full speed ahead.
By Sabrina Shankman
Along the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—the long-fought over stretch of wilderness that President Donald Trump has been working hard to open to drilling—a successful lease sale is looking less and less likely before the end of the year.
Coronavirus patients in areas that had high levels of air pollution before the pandemic are far more likely to die from the infection than patients in parts of the country with cleaner air, according to a new nationwide study that offers the first clear link between long-term exposure to pollution and Covid-19 death rates.
A recent announcement from the Alberta government that it's investing in the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline gives a boost to a project that has faced years of delay. But with the private sector reluctant to fund the project, the move also highlights just how vulnerable Canada's oil sands industry has become, even before the coronavirus pandemic crashed oil demand.
Some populations of robins are starting their northward migration about five days earlier per decade, adjusting the timing of their transit to follow trails of melting snow, new research found. Here's how climate change has played a big role in that and what it means for the birds' breeding habits.
The average level of methane in the atmosphere increased last year by the highest amount in five years, according to preliminary data released Sunday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The agency found that the potent greenhouse gas increased on average by 11.54 parts per billion in 2019 over the previous year's measurement.
New aerial data released on Monday shows that the Great Barrier Reef is bleaching again, an indication of the intense stress the corals are under from the waters around them, which have been growing increasingly hotter.
Solar, wind and other green technologies now provide more than one-third of the world's power as last year saw a decline in fossil fuel power plants in Europe and the U.S., new data shows. Almost three-quarters of new electricity generation capacity built in 2019 uses renewable energy, representing an all-time record.
More than 250 trade unions and environment groups have signed an open letter opposing plans for bailing out the aviation industry amid the coronavirus pandemic, saying any relief efforts should also include better labor conditions and a cut in carbon emissions. In the U.S., the federal relief package included nearly $60 billion for airlines with no green strings attached.
A new tracking study suggests the birds are responding to the dwindling snow cover on their migratory flight path.
By Bob Berwyn
For some people, spring doesn't start until they hear robins cheerfully chirping in the backyard. In many parts of the U.S., that day now comes sooner than it did even a few decades ago.
As Americans shelter in place across much of the country, washing their hands and making sure to stay six feet away from others, American farmworkers who are already prone to respiratory illnesses continue to work. It sets them up for the worst ravages of the coronavirus.
Louisiana, along with the rest of the Mississippi Valley region, is in the middle of its annual wet season, which usually peaks in April. But with the coronavirus already stretching supplies and budgets, local leaders worry that a flood could overwhelm them.
FEMA, which is leading the federal government's coronavirus response nationwide, is running short of employees who are trained for some of its most important front-line jobs, The New York Times reports. With wildfire season looming and hurricane season starting in less than two months, that could complicate federal response to disasters nationwide.
The high end predicted in six-month water level forecasts could surpass all other modern water volumes for some of the Great Lakes. Such high water would be devastating for cities and beaches along the Lake Michigan and Lake Huron shorelines.
The Interior Department on Friday extended the appointment of William Perry Pendley, known for his controversial position on selling off federally owned land to development, to lead the Bureau of Land Management in an acting capacity until May 5. Critics argue the temporary appointments allow controversial figures to stay in power.
Oil giants met with President Trump on Friday at the White House in the hopes of securing aid as crude prices plummeted in the face of coronavirus and a price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia. The move comes among growing calls from Republicans to assist oil producers after a proposal to spend $3 billion filling the nation's oil reserves was left out of the federal relief package.
Three decades fighting fires could not have prepared Chico Fire Department Captain Brian Alderman for the 2018 Camp Fire, which moved at a rate of a football field per second. "There was really no thought of being able to stop and contain or corral or redirect the fire," Alderman said.
Volkswagen installed unlawful "defeat devices" in thousands of its diesel vehicles, the UK high court has found in the first major ruling on mass litigation brought in England and Wales over the "dieselgate" emissions scandal.
The province’ announcement comes after the private sector has shown little appetite for a pipeline project critical to the country’s tar sands industry.
By Nicholas Kusnetz
Alberta's recent announcement that it was investing more than $1 billion to build the Keystone XL pipeline gave a boost to a project that has faced more than a decade of delays and uncertainty.
But by dedicating government money to a pipeline the private sector has been reluctant to fund, the decision highlights how vulnerable Canada's oil sands industry has become, even before the coronavirus pandemic crashed global oil demand.
Already at high risk of disease and early death, workers are especially prone to respiratory illnesses, setting them up for the worst ravages of the coronavirus.
By Evelyn Nieves
SAN FRANCISCO—Sixteen men tending budding grapes on a farm in the Sacramento Delta hit the fields by sunrise, arriving in packed cars and vans.
As Americans shelter in place across much of the country, washing their hands and making sure to stay six feet away from others, the farmworkers carpool on grocery runs. At day's end, most retreat to cramped, crowded quarters, sleeping several to a room.
They are not coronavirus deniers: The pandemic terrifies them.
