EU unveils €300bn plan to quit Russian fossil fuels by 2027 and boost clean energy
The European Commission proposes increased ambition for renewables and energy efficiency, while seeking alternative oil and gas supplies in the short term
Who will replace Patricia Espinosa as the UN climate chief?
The Mexican diplomat is stepping down in July after six years in the top climate job. Female candidates from Africa and Asia are tipped to be best placed to succeed her
Rich countries seek coal-to-clean energy deals with Indonesia and Vietnam
Following a finance deal for South Africa to regenerate coal mining areas, western climate diplomats are discussing similar packages with Asian countries
Leak: EU mulls investment treaty exit as Japan blocks green reforms
Internal committee minutes show EU frustration with Japan's protection of fossil fuel interests under the Energy Charter Treaty, as a decision deadline looms
Why Denmark and Bangladesh are urging support for victims of climate disaster
Millions of people in vulnerable nations are experiencing losses and damages from climate impacts. To help them, we need to break the deadlock at UN climate talks
Campaigners take Canada to court over oil extraction project
An NGO co-founded by environment minister Steven Guilbeault is challenging the approval of Equinor's plan to drill millions of barrels of oil offshore Newfoundland
More Heat, More Drought: New Analyses Offer Grim Outlook for the U.S. West.
The ongoing drought in the U.S. West is expected to persist through this summer, raising the risk of water shortages and wildfires. While California, Arizona, and New Mexico are now facing the brunt of the drought, new research suggests that Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming will increasingly come to look like the Southwest as temperatures continue to rise.
Beyond Magical Thinking: Time to Get Real on Climate Change
Despite decades of studies and climate summits, greenhouse gas emissions continue to soar. Energy scientist Vaclav Smil says it’s time to stop ricocheting between apocalyptic forecasts and rosy models of rapid CO2 cuts and focus on the difficult task of remaking our energy system.
How Ailing Strip Malls Could Be a Green Fix for U.S. Housing Crisis
Urban designer Peter Calthorpe has a plan for the shuttered and financially troubled strip malls that dot the suburban landscape: Convert the malls into housing that would be part of green communities where people could be closer to their jobs and get out of their cars.
Recent European Drought Was the Most Intense in At Least 250 Years
The 2018 to 2020 European drought was the worst in more than two centuries, driven in part by uncommonly high temperatures that exacerbated dry conditions across large parts of the continent, new research finds.
Laser Imaging Reveals How Fire Renews Sierra Nevada Forests
Plane-mounted laser imaging has allowed scientists to map the size, shape, and density of trees in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California, revealing how low- and moderate-intensity burns make forests more resilient to larger blazes.
Climate Change Will Limit How Much Carbon Forests Take Up, New Research Shows
Governments are increasingly looking to forests to draw down carbon pollution, but worsening droughts threaten to stunt tree growth, while larger wildfires and insect infestations risk decimating woodlands, two new studies show.
Oregon Adopts Strongest Worker Protections in U.S. Against Heat and Wildfire Smoke
New rules to protect Oregon workers from extreme heat and wildfire smoke will provide the most comprehensive climate protections for U.S. outdoor workers, including those in construction, forestry, and agriculture, advocates say.
Following Record Growth in 2021, Renewables on Track for New High in 2022
The world added a record 295 gigawatts of renewable power in 2021 and is on pace to surpass that amount in 2022, according to a new analysis from the International Energy Agency.
Salt Scourge: The Dual Threat of Warming and Rising Salinity
As rising seas increase saltwater intrusion and soaring temperatures cause greater evaporation, scientists say that the mounting levels of salt in waters and in soils pose a major climate-related danger and could become a leading cause of climate migration globally.
Flying Insects Have Declined by 60 Percent in the U.K., Survey Finds
A new survey of flying insects in Britain found their numbers have dropped nearly 60 percent since 2004, a "terrifying" decline given the vital role that insects play in pollinating crops, consuming organic waste, and killing pests, advocates say.
Panama’s Indigenous Groups Wage High-Tech Fight for Their Lands
With help from U.S. organizations, Panama’s Indigenous people are using satellite images and other technologies to identify illegal logging and incursions by ranchers on their territory. But spotting the violations is the easy part — getting the government to act is far harder.
Satellite Images Show Disappearance of Iconic Canadian Glacier
The Peyto Glacier in Canada's Banff National Park has shrunk by around 70 percent over the last half-century, a dramatic change highlighted in newly released satellite imagery from NASA.
In the Wake of Coup, Gold Mining Boom Is Ravaging Myanmar
With a military junta retaking power last year, a gold rush is increasingly despoiling rivers in the Myanmar state of Kachin, polluting water with mercury, destroying riverbanks and farmland, and disrupting the traditional way of life of the region’s ethnic groups.
Germany Looks to Rapidly Build LNG Import Terminals to Shift Away from Russian Gas
With the war in Ukraine raging on, German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck is calling for a rapid buildout of liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals to help the country source more gas from overseas suppliers and wean off Russian imports, which currently account for around a third of Germany's natural gas.
World Lost an Area of Forest the Size of Wyoming Last Year, Report Finds
Globally, an area of forest the size of Wyoming succumbed to fires, logging, or other destructive forces last year, according to new report from Global Forest Watch, a project backed by the World Resources Institute.
For Gen Z, Climate Change Is a Heavy Emotional Burden
Britt Wray is a leading researcher on the mental health impact of climate change. In an e360 interview, she talks about the rise of climate anxiety in young people, how social media exacerbates this trend, and why distress about the climate crisis can spur positive change.
Adding Rock Dust to Farmland Could Get UK Almost Halfway to Its Carbon Removal Goal
To meet its climate goals, Britain must not only cut emissions, but also scrub carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. A new study finds that rock dust sprinkled on farmland could supply nearly half of the needed carbon removal.
A Quiet Revolution: Southwest Cities Learn to Thrive Amid Drought
Facing a changing climate, some southwestern U.S. cities such as San Diego, Phoenix, and Las Vegas have embraced innovative strategies for conserving and sourcing water, providing these metropolitan areas with sufficient water supplies to support their growing populations.
Many Household Products Contain Obesity-Promoting Chemicals, Study Says
In addition to poor diet and lack of exercise, endocrine-disrupting chemicals called "obesogens" may be contributing to rising obesity rates in the United States.
Through the efforts of USGCRP, authors, NOAA’s Technical Support Unit, and support staff, the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5) has moved from the planning phase to putting pen to paper. Here is a look back at recent accomplishments: Gathering a diverse team of authors. In the spring and summer of 2021, the NCA5 Federal Steering Committee...
Work on the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5) is underway. The Congressionally mandated report is the U.S. Government’s premier assessment of the science of climate change and its impacts on the Nation. It is written by hundreds of experts from around the country, who help ensure that the findings are accessible and useful to the widest...
The U.S. Global Change Research Program is pleased to announce that Allison Crimmins will serve as Director of the FIfth National Climate Assessment (NCA5). She is detailed to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Air and Radiation. As Director, Allison will oversee...
On May 19, 2021, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) announced that Dr. Mike Kuperberg is returning to USGCRP as Executive Director. This is his second stint in USGCRP leadership, having served previously as Executive Director from 2015 through November 2020. He is detailed from the Department of Energy’s Office of...
NASA, on behalf of USGCRP, issued a Federal Register Notice (FRN) seeking author nominations and scientific/technical inputs for the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5). The FRN, which opened October 15, 2020 and closed the following month on November 14, also served as a notice of planned public engagement opportunities. Prospective authors...
Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, the latest in a series of spacecraft designed to monitor our oceans, launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California on Saturday, November 21, 2020. The satellite will be followed in 2025 by its twin, Sentinel-6B. Together, the pair is tasked with extending our nearly 30-year-long record of global sea...
The U.S. Global Change Research Program extends our condolences to the family and friends of Dr. Mike Freilich, a widely respected geoscientist and former director of NASA’s Earth Science Division, and shares the loss of a longtime member of the USGCRP family.
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 an...
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...
The April contiguous U.S. average temperature was 50.68 degress Fahrenheit, 0.37 degress Fahrenheit below the 20th century average. The precipitation total was 2.58 inches, 0.06 inches above average.
The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for April was 0.85 degrees C (1.53 degress Fahrenheit) above the 20th century average of 15.5 degrees C (59.9 degress Fahrenheit).
Five named storms were active globally during April, which was above the 1991-2020 mean of 4.2. However, only one of these reached tropical cyclone strength (74 mph), which was below normal. That storm, Super Typhoon Malakas, also became a major tropical cyclone (>111 mph). This one major tropical cyclone globally was near normal. The global accumulated cyclone energy (ACE: an integrated metric of the strength, frequency, and duration of tropical storms) was near normal for April.
During April, the Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent (SCE) was 30.86 million square km (11.91 million square miles), 2.11% above the 1981-2010 average. The global sea ice extent was 19.90 million square km (7.68 million square miles), 7.61% below the 1981-2010 average.
According to data from NOAA's Storm Prediction Center, during April, there were 209 preliminary tornado reports. This was 135 percent of the 1991-2010 average of 155 tornadoes for the month of April. For the year-to-date period, the preliminary count of 565 tornadoes is approximately 189 percent of average and the highest tornado count observed for the January-April period since 2017.
The April mean was dominated by the pattern during the middle of the month. It featured a broad trough from the Pacific Northwest to the Great Lakes that was associated with record cold for April 11-17 along with wetter than normal conditions for the region. Meanwhile, a broad ridge brought warm and dry conditions to the Southwest, particularly during the beginning of the month.
As of April 26th, 54.2% of the Contiguous U.S. was experiencing drought conditions, 42.29% was in severe drought, 19.73% extreme, and 3.56% exceptional.
For April, 7,543 fires (10th most since 2000) burned 602,491 acres (5th most on record), which is 79.9 acres burned/fire (7th most on record). For January - April, 22,324 fires (7th most since 2000) burned 1,120,330 acres (6th most on record), which is 50.2 acres burned/fire (7th most on record).
‘World is at boiling point’: humanity must redefine relationship with nature, says report
Stockholm institute calls for ‘bold science-based decision-making’ to tackle climate, social and economic crises
The world is at “boiling point” and humanity needs to redefine its relationship with nature if it is to address a web of crises, from rising prices to extreme heat and floods, according to a report released ahead of a landmark UN conference.
The research from the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and the Council on Energy Environment and Water says the solutions to the interlinked planetary and inequality crisis exist, but calls for “bold science-based decision-making” to “completely rethink our way of living,”.
Replacing GDP as the single metric to measure progress and instead focus on indicators that take “inclusive wealth” and the caring economy into account.
Establishing a regular UN forum on sustainable lifestyles.
A global campaign on nature-based education for children.
Transforming people’s everyday relationship with nature by integrating it in cities; protecting animal welfare and shifting to more plant-based diets. It also says policymakers should draw on indigenous local knowledge.
Critical climate indicators broke records in 2021, says UN
World Meteorological Organization says extreme weather wreaked heavy toll on human lives
Critical global indicators of the climate crisis broke records in 2021, according to a UN report, from rising oceans to the levels of heat-trapping emissions in the atmosphere.
The UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said these were clear signs of humanity’s impact on the planet, which was bringing long-lasting effects. Extreme weather, which the WMO called the day-to-day face of the climate emergency, wreaked a heavy toll on human lives and led to hundreds of billions of dollars in damages, the agency said.
Shut down fossil fuel production sites early to avoid climate chaos, says study
Exclusive: Nearly half existing facilities will need to close prematurely to limit heating to 1.5C, scientists say
Nearly half of existing fossil fuel production sites need to be shut down early if global heating is to be limited to 1.5C, the internationally agreed goal for avoiding climate catastrophe, according to a new scientific study.
The assessment goes beyond the call by the International Energy Agency in 2021 to stop all new fossil fuel development to avoid the worst impacts of global heating, a statement seen as radical at the time.
Caesar’s favourite herb was the Viagra of ancient Rome. Until climate change killed it off
Perfume, tonic – even love potion – silphium was prized by the ancient Romans, but in its success lay the seeds of its own downfall
Of all the mysteries of ancient Rome, silphium is among the most intriguing. Romans loved the herb as much as we love chocolate. They used silphium as perfume, as medicine, as an aphrodisiac and turned it into a condiment, called laser, that they poured on to almost every dish. It was so valuable that Julius Caesar stashed more than half a tonne in his treasury.
Yet it became extinct less than a century later, by the time of Nero, and for nearly 2,000 years people have puzzled over the cause.
‘Pee for the peonies’: researchers say urine fertilizers encourage blooms – and there’s never a shortage
But environmental engineering professors Nancy Love and Krista Wigginton ask garden visitors not to drop their drawers
A pair of University of Michigan researchers are putting the “pee” in peony. Rather, they’re putting pee on the vivid spring blooms.
Environmental engineering professors Nancy Love and Krista Wigginton are regular visitors to the Ann Arbor school’s Nichols arboretum, where they have been applying urine-based fertilizer to the heirloom peony beds ahead of the flowers’ annual spring bloom.
South Africa’s April floods made twice as likely by climate crisis, scientists say
Brutal heatwave in India and Pakistan also certain to have been exacerbated by global heating, scientists say
The massive and deadly floods that struck South Africa in April were made twice as likely and more intense by global heating, scientists have calculated. The research demonstrates that the climate emergency is resulting in devastation.
Catastrophic floods and landslides hit the South African provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape on 11 April following exceptionally heavy rainfall.
Revealed: the ‘carbon bombs’ set to trigger catastrophic climate breakdown
Exclusive: Oil and gas majors are planning scores of vast projects that threaten to shatter the 1.5C climate goal. If governments do not act, these firms will continue to cash in as the world burns
The world’s biggest fossil fuel firms are quietly planning scores of “carbon bomb” oil and gas projects that would drive the climate past internationally agreed temperature limits with catastrophic global impacts, a Guardian investigation shows.
The exclusive data shows these firms are in effect placing multibillion-dollar bets against humanity halting global heating. Their huge investments in new fossil fuel production could pay off only if countries fail to rapidly slash carbon emissions, which scientists say is vital.
The dozen biggest oil companies are on track to spend every day for the rest of the decade $103m
“Simply put, they are lying and the results will be catastrophic,” said Guterres. “Investing in new fossil fuels infrastructure is moral and economic madness.”
Climate limit of 1.5C close to being broken, scientists warn
The probability of one of the next five years surpassing the limit is now 50%, up from 20% in 2020
The year the world breaches for the first time the 1.5C global heating limit set by international governments is fast approaching, a new forecast shows.
The probability of one of the next five years surpassing the limit is now 50%, scientists led by the UK Met Office found. As recently as 2015, there was zero chance of this happening in the following five years. But this surged to 20% in 2020 and 40% in 2021. The global average temperature was 1.1C above pre-industrial levels in 2021.
Matt Canavan declares net zero policy is ‘all over’, opening rift in the Coalition – video
Queensland Nationals senator Matt Canavan has declared net zero by 2050 'all over bar the shouting' only hours after Scott Morrison attempted to hose down internal divisions – insisting the mid-century target was 'absolutely' Coalition policy. The comments have prompted other National party members such as Michael McCormack and Michelle Landry to tell Canavan to 'pull his head in'. Canavan's comments came after the Liberal National candidate for the Queensland seat of Flynn, Colin Boyce, said there was 'wiggle room' in the commitment to net zero, calling it a 'flexible plan' that was not legislated
Twitter uses Earth Day to announce ban on climate denialism ads
The platform has been a source of a growing wave of climate misinformation and said denialism ‘shouldn’t be monetized’
Twitter chose Earth Day to announce it will ban advertisements that deny the scientific consensus on climate crisis.
“We believe that climate denialism shouldn’t be monetized on Twitter, and that misrepresentative ads shouldn’t detract from important conversations about the climate crisis,” the company declared on Friday.
Using geoengineering to slow global heating risks malaria rise, say scientists
Technique of reflecting sunlight back into space found to be likely to cause increase in population of disease-carrying mosquitos
Geoengineering to prevent the worst impacts of climate breakdown could expose up to a billion more people to malaria, scientists have found.
The report, published in Nature Communications, is the first assessment of how geoengineering the climate could affect the burden of infectious diseases.
With 1.5C of heating now all but inevitable, scientists say the focus must turn to mitigation measures
Reaching 1.5C of global heating is now pretty much inevitable, and we will reach it somewhere around 2035, no matter what we do. That’s the conclusion from the latest climate projections, which suggest even if we reach net zero emissions within the next 30 years, we will be stuck with at least that level of heating until 2070 or so.
“Staying below 1.5C of global warming is currently not plausible,” says Jochem Marotzke, from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany.
World on 'fast track to climate disaster', says UN secretary general – video
António Guterres says the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reveals 'a litany of broken climate promises' by governments and businesses, and accuses some of them of lying in claiming to be on track to limiting future heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. In a strongly worded rebuke, he says: 'It is a file of shame, cataloguing the empty pledges that put us firmly on track towards an unliveable world'
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), made up of the world’s leading climate scientists, has now published all three sections of its landmark comprehensive review of climate science.
Working group 1, published in August 2021, covered the physical basis of climate science, delving deeply into atmospheric chemistry and physics. It found that humanity was “unequivocally” to blame for major and “unprecedented” changes to the climate that were already being observed, and that some of these changes – including polar ice melt – were rapidly becoming “irreversible”.
The world has only a narrow chance of limiting global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, and is falling far behind on making the changes needed to transform the global economy to a low-carbon footing.
Thirty months: that is the very short time the world now has for global greenhouse gas emissions to finally start to fall. If not, we will miss the chance to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis.
The conclusion of the world’s scientists, collated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and approved by all the world’s governments, says this reversal requires “immediate and deep” cuts in emissions everywhere.
The world can still hope to stave off the worst ravages of climate breakdown but only through a “now or never” dash to a low-carbon economy and society, scientists have said in what is in effect a final warning for governments on the climate.
Greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025, and can be nearly halved this decade, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to give the world a chance of limiting future heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
Scientists urge end to fossil fuel use as landmark IPCC report readied
Talks stretch past deadline as governments are accused of trying to water down findings
The world must abandon fossil fuels as a matter of urgency, rather than entrusting the future climate to untried “techno-fixes” such as sucking carbon out of the air, scientists and campaigners have urged, as governments wrangled over last-minute changes to a landmark scientific report.
Talks on the final draft of the latest comprehensive assessment of climate science, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), stretched hours past their deadline on Sunday.
Dire warning on climate change ‘is being ignored’ amid war and economic turmoil
The third segment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report is being overshadowed, just like the previous one
Scientists fear that their last-ditch climate warnings are going unheeded amid international turmoil caused by the war in Ukraine, and soaring energy prices.
The third segment of the landmark scientific report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – which could be the last comprehensive assessment of climate science to be published while there is still time to avoid the worst ravages of climate breakdown – will be published on Monday, warning that the world is not shifting quickly enough to a low-carbon economy.
1855 was driest year in UK history, volunteer research project finds
Citizen scientists helped Reading University analyse millions of rainfall records in first Covid lockdown
A new driest year in British history has been found after a massive project in which thousands of volunteer citizen scientists helped unearth Victorian climate data.
Millions of archived handwritten rainfall records dating back 130 years have now been transcribed and analysed, thanks to the work of volunteers during the first coronavirus lockdown.
After Typhoon Haiyan killed more than 6,000 people in the Philippines and damaged more than 1 million homes in 2013, Greenpeace Southeast Asia petitioned the Philippines’ Commission on Human Rights to declare the world’s largest fossil fuel companies “accountable for either impairing, infringing, abusing or violating human rights” because of their contribution to climate change. Earlier this month, the commission issued its conclusions. In a damning and lucidly written report, the commission found that the world’s largest fossil fuel companies had “engaged in willful obfuscation and obstruction to prevent meaningful climate action.” The companies continue to deny climate science and try to slow a transition away from fossil fuels, the report said, driven “not by ignorance, but by greed.”
Also this week, a new study found that pollution was responsible for an estimated 9 million deaths around the world in 2019. Fully half of those fatalities, 4.5 million deaths, were the result of outdoor air pollution, which is typically emitted by vehicles and industrial sources like power plants and factories. The report noted that countries with lower collective incomes often bear a disproportionate share of the impacts of pollution deaths, and called on governments, businesses and other entities to abandon fossil fuels and adopt clean energy sources.
People displaced by climate change must show they face violence or persecution in their home countries to enter the U.S. legally. Advocates say it’s time to recognize climate as cause enough.
By Aydali Campa
With crossings expected to surge when the Covid-related closure of the U.S.-Mexico border to migrants ends, activists are pushing for a new immigration pathway for people who are impacted by climate disasters.
A column highlighting climate-related studies, innovations, books, cultural events and other developments from the global warming frontier.
By Katelyn Weisbrod
Forests hold and filter water that is siphoned to large U.S. cities, supplying at least some of the water that is provided to more than 125 million Americans, a new study found. The finding gives new urgency to protecting forests against development and wildfires, its authors say.
The study, conducted by the U.S. Forest Service and published in the journal
Today's Climate - In Emotional Plea, Ukrainians Urge the West to Ban Russian Fuels
Today's Climate - In Emotional Plea, Ukrainians Urge the West to Ban Russian Fuels
A twice-a-week digest of the most pressing climate-related news, released every Tuesday and Friday, written by Kristoffer Tigue.
In Emotional Plea, Ukrainians Urge the West to Ban Russian Fuels
In an impassioned plea this week, members of Ukraine’s environmental community, many of whom fled their homes as bombs fell around them, urged world leaders to halt the flow of Russian fuel exports. Failing to do so only exacerbates the worsening climate crisis, they said, and continues to “fund Putin’s war machine” at the cost of thousands of Ukrainian lives.
“Today, children and families are losing their future and their lives every day in Ukraine because of energy dependency on fossil-fuel dictators in the middle of the 21st century,” Ilyess El Kortbi, a 25-year-old Ukrainian climate activist, said at a Tuesday press conference as he visibly held back tears. “The system is broken; the oil embargo has done nothing.”
El Kortbi, who escaped his hometown of Kharkiv just before Russian troops arrived, has been calling on European countries to stop buying fossil fuels from Russia ever since the Kremlin invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. On Tuesday, the Fridays For Future organizer expressed shock that now months into the war, he’s still making the same pleas.
The moment highlighted a particularly arduous week in an already difficult series of months for Western nations, whose leaders now find themselves at a major crossroads as skyhigh energy prices and an over-dependence on Russian fossil fuels threaten to derail global efforts to mitigate climate change. Many nations are struggling to find ways to punish Russia without jeopardizing their own pledges under the Paris Agreement.
The United States and the European Union have already implemented increasingly severe sanctions on Moscow, seeking to cripple President Vladimir Putin’s largest source of income—coal, oil and natural gas exports. But Russia’s war quickly complicated global geopolitics, turning record-high oil prices and surging inflation into major political liabilities. As a result, weaning Europe off of Russia’s ubiquitous fossil fuels has proven far more difficult to accomplish.
On Monday, the EU’s effort to impose a new round of sanctions against the Kremlin, including a ban on Russian oil, was blocked by Hungary, one of the bloc’s 27 member-nations that has benefited significantly from cheap Russian energy imports.
That news comes just a week after the International Energy Agency published a report showing that despite the severe sanctions, Russia still earns roughly $20 billion every month in oil sales. In fact, Russian oil exports actually increased in April, the report said, bringing in 50 percent more in revenue that month compared to last year due to soaring oil prices. That’s because declines in Western nations were mostly offset by increased purchases in Asia and the Middle East, including from India, China and Turkey, IEA’s researchers concluded.
At Tuesday’s press conference, Ukrainian environmental groups that have been tracking Russian exports also blamed European countries, who they say should have acted more quickly to stem the flow of Russian imports. During the first two months of the war, the European Union imported more than $52 billion worth of Russian fuels, according to the groups.
“The EU is absolutely central as the buyer and the enabler of Putin’s regime,” Lauri Myllyvirta, an analyst for the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, said at the press event, which was streamed online. “Germany is the largest single buyer, followed by the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Turkey and France.”
Even the United States, which hardly imports any Russian fuels at all, has struggled to agree on what the war in Ukraine should mean for future energy policy. President Biden, who campaigned on quickly transitioning the U.S. to renewable sources, has balked on major environmental goals as the war drove gasoline and other energy costs to all-time highs. That includes Biden agreeing to speed up new domestic oil and gas drilling to increase shipments to Europe, a move that many energy experts have said endangers the administration’s goal of slashing U.S. emissions in half by 2030.
On Wednesday, the EU’s executive arm—the European Commission—announced it would move forward with plans to abandon at least some Russian energy and replace it with renewables, despite Hungary’s objection. While a ban on Russian oil remains stalled, the bloc still plans to halt all coal imports by August and said it would reduce demand for Russian natural gas by two-thirds by the end of the year. The commission also introduced a new $315 billion spending package, dubbed REPowerEU, that aims to streamline the construction of new solar, wind and other carbon-free energy sources.
On Thursday, U.S. officials announced that the Biden administration was also considering new measures to further choke Russian oil revenues. Those proposals include imposing a price cap on Russian oil, which would punish foreign buyers if they flout U.S. restrictions, preventing them from doing business with American companies and partner nations.
Still, climate activists remain wary as they watch the war in Ukraine unfold. Many wonder if the situation will be the spark that finally galvanizes a widespread global transition to clean energy, or if it will become yet another moment in history when the countries most responsible for the climate crisis fail to address it because of short-term national interests. Just last year, climate hawks railed against Western countries that poured trillions of dollars into pandemic relief packages that did very little to boost renewable energy while propping up the fossil fuel industry. One study, which looked at the 30 largest economies, found that of the $17.2 trillion so far spent on economic recovery measures globally, $4.8 trillion would do “more harm than good” to the environment, while only $1.8 trillion was seen as beneficial.
In some ways, the week’s slow negotiations are casting a long shadow on the upcoming global climate talks, including an international climate conference being held in Sweden in June and the highly anticipated COP27 climate summit in Egypt this November.
But El Kortbi said the moment also presents a chance to show the world’s leaders that they can be replaced if they don’t start taking the climate crisis more seriously. At the June talks, which take place the same week as World Environment Day, Fridays For Future is already planning a major global climate protest.
“People vote for leaders they trust,” he said. “We can’t let our leaders fail us again.”
That’s it this week for Today’s Climate. Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back in your inbox Tuesday.
Today’s Indicator
That’s how long ago the world’s oceans were as acidic as they were last year, as they absorb and react with more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to a sweeping new report that also found greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rise and ocean temperatures in 2021 all reached record highs.
More than 500,000 people have fled their homes in India's northeastern state of Assam to escape heavy floods triggered by pre-monsoon rains that have already resulted in seven deaths and could get worse, authorities warned Wednesday.
The suspected perpetrator of the deadly shooting in Buffalo, New York, last week may have been the latest mass killer to be motivated by a growing right-wing extremist ideology that purports that immigrants are replacing white Americans and also causing environmental harm.
Extreme heat events, on the rise due to climate change, are associated with higher overall adult death rates across the United States, a new study has found. From 2008 through 2017, each additional extreme heat day per month was linked to an additional 7 deaths per 10 million adults, it found.
More than a million households are 60 days in arrears on their energy bills, with an average of $1,427.71 in debt, and shut-offs are increasing.
By Quratulain Tejani
During the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, Jen Chantrtanapichate, a climate justice organizer, fell behind on her utility bills after she lost her contract as a consultant.
A battery project uses a technology that could be vital for meeting the need for long-duration energy storage.
By Dan Gearino
A clean energy development this week in the San Diego area isn’t much to look at. Workers will deliver four white shipping containers that house battery storage systems. Soon after, workers will hook up the containers so they can store electricity from a nearby solar array.
The Abell Foundation study found that as many as 85,000 homes in the city had “dangerous” levels of lead, and that remediation could cost billions.
By Agya K. Aning
BALTIMORE, Md.—An estimated 85,087 occupied homes in Baltimore have “dangerous lead hazards,” according to a recent report from the Abell Foundation, a local public policy think tank. Fixing the problem would cost between $2.5 billion and $4.2 billion, the report said.
A clean energy development this week in the San Diego area isn’t much to look at. Workers will deliver four white shipping containers that house battery storage systems. Soon after, workers will hook up the containers so they can store electricity from a nearby solar array.
The part that I care about is the “flow battery” technology inside those shipping containers, developed by ESS Tech Inc., an Oregon startup. Flow batteries have the potential to be an important part of the energy transition because they can provide electricity storage that runs for much longer than the typical four hours of the dominant technology, lithium-ion batteries.
So what is a flow battery? A key design element is the use of two external tanks that contain electrolyte fluids that get pumped through the battery as it charges and discharges.
The duration of the battery, which is how long it can run before recharging, increases based on the size of the tanks. Think of this as the battery equivalent of one of those novelty baseball helmets that hold two cans of soda. If you switch out cans of soda for two-liter bottles, you can drink a lot more.
“For the whole machine, what you need to do is add more liquid rather than adding many, many more batteries,” said Jun Liu, a University of Washington professor and a fellow at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. He also is director of the federal government’s Battery500 Consortium, which develops next-generation batteries for electric vehicles.
In contrast to flow batteries, lithium-ion batteries and most other batteries are self-contained, with less flexibility in their design, he said.
Lithium-ion batteries also are highly flammable. Leading flow battery types, like “vanadium redox” flow batteries, have a much lower fire risk. (Vanadium is a metal that doesn’t easily catch on fire, especially when it’s dissolved in a fluid, as it is in a flow battery.)
And one of ESS’ selling points to investors and customers is that it doesn’t rely on rare metals like lithium or vanadium at all. The main ingredients of its fluid are iron, salt and water.
The San Diego area project, developed in partnership with the utility San Diego Gas & Electric, is the largest demonstration of ESS’ technology to date.
The system will be able to discharge 3 megawatt-hours before being recharged, which is enough electricity to meet the needs of about 100 houses for one day. It includes six shipping containers that house the batteries, the last four of which are scheduled to arrive this week. Each container has stacks of batteries, with tanks of electrolyte fluid for each battery.
Flow batteries can come in many sizes, from as small as a compact refrigerator to as large as stacks of shipping containers. In addition to ESS, the players in this space include Sumitomo Electric of Japan, VRB Energy of Canada and others, a mix of startups and established businesses.
The companies are betting that their technologies can meet the need for energy storage that lasts for eight to 12 hours per charge. The underlying idea is that the grid will need a mix of various storage technologies, with various durations, to fill in the gaps left when wind, solar and other resources are not enough to meet customers’ needs.
That’s a pretty good bet, according to Adarsh Nagarajan, a group manager for power system research at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado.
“Flow batteries are here to stay,” he said.
But he is careful to specify what flow batteries are not: They are not a replacement for lithium-ion batteries. Instead, flow batteries will serve a part of the market that barely exists today for energy storage that can last for eight hours or more, while lithium-ion batteries will continue to be the leaders in shorter-duration storage, electric vehicles and consumer electronics. While lithium-ion batteries can be used for durations of eight hours or more, they are better suited for shorter runs of one to four hours.
One of the biggest obstacles to rapid deployment of flow batteries is cost. A 2020 report from Pacific Northwest lab estimated an installed cost of $551 per kilowatt-hour for a 4 megawatt-hour system. A developer could build a lithium-ion storage system at a lower cost, although there are a number of factors that make this comparison difficult, including a longer life expectancy for a flow battery.
ESS has not disclosed the cost of the San Diego area project. The company has said that it is aiming to get the cost down to $200 per kilowatt-hour by 2025, as Bloomberg reported last year.
Current costs are reasonable enough that utilities and other buyers are stepping forward to finance larger flow batteries than before. Among them, Central Coast Community Energy in California announced in November that it was building three flow battery projects, scheduled to go online in 2026, with no costs disclosed. The projects, with a total of 226 megawatt-hours, would be done in partnership with Concentric Power Inc. of Salinas, California, a designer and builder of microgrids. The design would be a vanadium redox flow battery.
ESS, or Energy Storage Systems, was co-founded in 2011 by Craig Evans and Julia Song, who are married. The two had previously worked together at a manufacturer of fuel cells where Evans was a product designer and Song was a chemist.
ESS worked for years on its technology, with financial help from investors and the government. In 2021, the company held an initial stock offering and hired a CEO, Eric Dresselhuys. It has about 220 employees.
Now, the company is close to the point at which its ideas and designs need to begin translating into large orders from customers.
Last week, ESS reported a first-quarter loss of $5.7 million, with a ledger that includes lots of expenses and almost no income.
In a conference call with analysts, Dresselhuys said the company’s order pipeline was strong, with plans to ship 40 to 50 of its systems this year. But ESS also is facing delays in getting parts, which means some projects that were going to happen in 2022 may get pushed into 2023.
Liu, of the University of Washington, said he is confident that flow batteries will be a success in the market, but he sees potential for wide variability in when that might happen. So 2022 may not be the breakthrough year for flow batteries, but that time is likely coming.
“We need to be patient,” he said.
Photo Credit: ESS Tech
Other stories about the energy transition to take note of this week:
Department of Energy Launches Program to Support Long-Duration Energy Storage: The Department of Energy has begun a $505 million, four-year program to encourage deployment of energy storage systems that can run for at least 10 hours on a charge. The program will use the expertise of agency and national labs to try to drive down the costs of long-duration storage and help figure out which storage technologies are best suited for wider adoption, as Elizabeth McCarthy reports for Utility Dive. The program is called Long Duration Energy Storage for Everyone, Everywhere, which this acronym-loving agency is shortening to LD ESEE.
Inside the Race for a Car Battery that Charges Fast—and Won’t Catch Fire: Toyota, Ford and Volkswagen are among the automakers working to produce a solid-state battery for electric vehicles, a system that could help to catapult the electric vehicle market. Solid-state batteries use a solid electrolyte as opposed to the liquid in most batteries used today. In an electric vehicle, a solid state battery would be able to charge more quickly and have a longer range. Another benefit is that solid-state batteries would be less flammable. Pranshu Verma of The Washington Post looks at the state of the solid-state race and why it’s so important. “It’s the technology of the future,” said Eric D. Wachsman, director of the Maryland Energy Innovation Institute. “The question is: ‘How soon is that future going to be here?’”
Michael Bloomberg Plans a $242 Million Clean Energy Investment in Developing Countries: Michael Bloomberg is announcing a new initiative to promote clean energy in 10 developing countries. Bloomberg Philanthropies will spend $242 million to work with nonprofits and governments in Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, Turkey and Vietnam, as Maggie Astor reports for The New York Times. The idea will be to help the countries move away from fossil fuels and use technologies that are cleaner and less expensive. “Which strategies are appropriate for each country will really be guided by the in-country partners who know them best,” said Helen Mountford, the president and chief executive of ClimateWorks, a nonprofit working with Bloomberg on the initiative.
Google’s New Campus Has a Different Kind of Solar Roof: The roofs of buildings in Google’s newly opened campus in Mountain View, California don’t look like solar panels, but that’s what they are. The roofs are giant canopies that look like futuristic circus tents, covered in silver-colored photovoltaic panels, as Adele Peters reports for Fast Company. The solar roofs, along with a geothermal system for heating and cooling, will help the campus work toward Google’s company-wide goal of running completely on renewable energy around the clock by the end of the decade. The Google complex was designed by Thomas Heatherwick of the United Kingdom in partnership with the Bjarke Ingels Group of Denmark.
Ford Continues to Reduce Stake in EV Startup Rivian: Ford Motor Co. has cut its stake in Rivian to less than 10 percent following two large sales of shares. Ford is reducing its investment following a severe drop in Rivian’s share price as the startup maker of electric trucks deals with challenges in obtaining parts and filling orders, as Jordan Grzelewski reports for The Detroit News. Despite the challenges, Rivian’s debut truck has gotten strong reviews in the automotive press and has high interest from buyers.
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.
It’s looking to be a breakout year for Inside Climate News. We expect to reach our largest audience yet – as many as 25 million readers – and send our award-winning climate journalism to some 300,000 email subscribers. We’re so grateful to count you among our most loyal readers and supporters. Thank you.
Your generous support is helping to power our journalism and its growing reach. Today I’m proud to share with you the progress we’ve made over the first months of 2022.
Since January, our team has grown by five with the addition of a new managing editor (Sonya Ross, pictured), two new Roy W. Howard fellows covering environmental justice full time (Aydali Campa and Zoha Tunio), our first health and climate reporter (Victoria St. Martin), and our first ever network and partnerships editor who will help manage and grow our regional hubs (Erin Schulte).
We received word this month that ICN reporter Georgina Gustin’s December story on the Amazon won first place in Features from the 2022 North American Agricultural Journalists Awards, and then they named her the 2022 Agricultural Journalist of the Year.
As always, our reporters have been hard at work covering the climate news you need to know: what the Russian invasion of Ukraine means for climate policy; the players helping – and hindering – the clean energy transition; the global advance of the burgeoning Rights of Nature movement; and much more.
Three of our reporters are building bodies of work on these crucial subjects:
ICN’s Nicholas Kusnetz has started his deep dive into the climate change “solution” that the oil industry, Biden administration, and even some environmentalists are pushing. It’s a series called Pipe Dreams, and examines whether carbon capture really is a climate solution or a dangerous distraction paving the way to an endless fossil fuel future.
Liza Gross is looking into the longstanding practice of using wastewater from oil drilling – called “produced water” – for crop irrigation in California, and whether it’s safe for human health and the environment. Her probing is leading her to discover questionable ties between the oil industry and a regional water board making decisions having little basis in science.
Ace ag reporter Georgina Gustin is turning her attention to advanced modeling on global crop yields. Yields that sustain billions of people could plummet faster than expected. Who’s paying attention and what can be done? Be on the lookout for more installments to come.
More than ever before, readers in all regions of the country are looking for climate information and finding their way to our stories which – thanks to you – they can read for free.
It’s looking to be a breakout year for Inside Climate News. We expect to reach our largest audience yet – as many as 25 million readers – and send our award-winning climate journalism to some 300,000 email subscribers. We’re so grateful to count you among our most loyal readers and supporters. Thank you.
Your generous support is helping to power our journalism and its growing reach. Today I’m proud to share with you the progress we’ve made over the first months of 2022.
Since January, our team has grown by five with the addition of a new managing editor (Sonya Ross, pictured), two new Roy W. Howard fellows covering environmental justice full time (Aydali Campa and Zoha Tunio), our first health and climate reporter (Victoria St. Martin), and our first ever network and partnerships editor who will help manage and grow our regional hubs (Erin Schulte).
We received word this month that ICN reporter Georgina Gustin’s December story on the Amazon won first place in Features from the 2022 North American Agricultural Journalists Awards, and then they named her the 2022 Agricultural Journalist of the Year.
As always, our reporters have been hard at work covering the climate news you need to know: what the Russian invasion of Ukraine means for climate policy; the players helping – and hindering – the clean energy transition; the global advance of the burgeoning Rights of Nature movement; and much more.
Three of our reporters are building bodies of work on these crucial subjects:
ICN’s Nicholas Kusnetz has started his deep dive into the climate change “solution” that the oil industry, Biden administration, and even some environmentalists are pushing. It’s a series called Pipe Dreams, and examines whether carbon capture really is a climate solution or a dangerous distraction paving the way to an endless fossil fuel future.
Liza Gross is looking into the longstanding practice of using wastewater from oil drilling – called “produced water” – for crop irrigation in California, and whether it’s safe for human health and the environment. Her probing is leading her to discover questionable ties between the oil industry and a regional water board making decisions having little basis in science.
Ace ag reporter Georgina Gustin is turning her attention to advanced modeling on global crop yields. Yields that sustain billions of people could plummet faster than expected. Who’s paying attention and what can be done? Be on the lookout for more installments to come.
More than ever before, readers in all regions of the country are looking for climate information and finding their way to our stories which – thanks to you – they can read for free.
Deaths from exposure to emissions from vehicles, smoke stacks and wildfires have increased by more than 50 percent this century, with poorer countries bearing the brunt of the impacts.
By Victoria St. Martin
Since the turn of the century, global deaths attributable to air pollution have increased by more than half, a development that researchers say underscores the impact of pollution as the “largest existential threat to human and planetary health.”
Today's Climate - Why Florida’s New ‘Anti-Protest’ Law Could Signal Trouble for the Climate Movement
Today's Climate - Why Florida’s New ‘Anti-Protest’ Law Could Signal Trouble for the Climate Movement
A twice-a-week digest of the most pressing climate-related news, released every Tuesday and Friday, written by Kristoffer Tigue.
Why Florida’s New ‘Anti-Protest’ Law Could Signal Trouble for the Climate Movement
Protesting in front of a private residence in Florida could soon land someone 60 days in jail and a fine of up to $500 under a bill signed into law Monday by Gov. Ron DeSantis. While the new law is in reaction to demonstrations over abortion rights, it reflects a larger effort by Republican lawmakers to limit the ways Americans are allowed to protest, which could have broad and lasting consequences for the climate movement.
The legislation, which takes effect in October, makes it a second-degree misdemeanor to protest with the intention of harassing or disturbing someone in their home. It’s the latest effort to crack down on protesters by DeSantis, who pointed to recent demonstrations outside of the homes of Supreme Court justices living in Virginia as justification for the law.
Those demonstrations came earlier this month after the leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito overturning 50 years of abortion rights guaranteed by Roe v. Wade touched off a political firestorm. “Sending unruly mobs to private residences, like we have seen with the angry crowds in front of the homes of Supreme Court justices, is inappropriate,” DeSantis said in a statement Monday. “This bill will provide protection to those living in residential communities and I am glad to sign it into law.”
Florida’s legislation is similar to a growing number of “anti-protest” laws being enacted by Republican legislatures across the country in recent years that impose harsh new penalties on demonstrators, including Indigenous and climate activists who are protesting fossil fuel pipelines and power plants.
Social justice and environmental advocates have increasingly turned to protest and civil disobedience as a way to call for change in response to a spate of high-profile police killings of unarmed Black people and a lack of government action on climate change. Since 2017, at least 38 states have enacted such laws, according to the Informational Center for Not-For-Profit Law. Many impose harsh penalties on protesters, including making it a felony to trespass on property where “critical infrastructure,” such as fossil fuel pipelines and power plants, are operating, ICN’s oil and gas reporter Nicholas Kusnetz reported last year.
Those bills emerged after a pair of stinging losses for the pipeline industry. Activists had used civil disobedience and mass arrests to draw attention to the Keystone XL and Dakota Access projects, and the Obama administration eventually blocked both. States’ critical infrastructure legislation raised the stakes for protesters by increasing penalties for acts like blocking access to a construction site, in many cases converting the offenses from misdemeanors to felonies. Some laws allow prosecutors to seek 10 times the original fines for any groups found to be “conspirators,” prompting concerns from civil liberties advocates and environmental groups, who fear they could be roped into trials and face steep fines for having joined with broader coalitions that include an element of civil disobedience.
Left unchallenged, some legal experts say these laws could jeopardize climate protests in particular, just as more and more environmental advocates grow frustrated by political roadblocks to climate action and turn to public demonstrations and civil disobedience out of desperation. The Biden administration has pledged to enact sweeping climate reforms, but many of those have stalled as Republicans and right-leaning Democrats continue to raise hurdles.
Last fall, demonstrations amassed around the houseboat of West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat who has impeded much of President Biden’s climate agenda. In October, nearly 50 people were arrested for protesting outside the office of Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, another centrist Democrat who has blocked much of Biden’s environmental efforts. And last month, more than 1,000 scientists from around the world staged demonstrations to decry a lack of action to address global warming, including several U.S. researchers who were arrested for locking their bodies to private property.
Florida’s new law should be especially concerning for climate activists, considering DeSantis’ popularity in the Republican party and his past attempts to limit free speech on progressive issues. DeSantis, who is seen as a possible contender with Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, signed an “anti-riot” protest law in 2021 that granted civil immunity to drivers who hit protesters blocking roadways. That law was later blocked by a federal judge, who said the bill was vague, overbroad and criminalizes “vast swaths of core First Amendment speech.”
“While there may be some Floridians who welcome the chilling effect that this law has on the Plaintiffs in this case,” U.S. District Judge Mark Walker wrote in his ruling, “depending on who is in power, next time it could be their ox being gored.”
Thanks for reading Today’s Climate, and I’ll be back in your inbox on Friday.
Today’s Indicator
That’s the level of daily carbon dioxide concentration that was recently detected at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, marking the highest level of atmospheric CO2 researchers have ever observed at the lab since measurements began in 1956.
You’ve probably heard of flash floods, but what about “flash droughts?” Climate change is pushing fast-moving droughts, which can materialize in as quickly as five days and devastate agricultural areas, to become more frequent in Midwestern states, new research shows.
More than 7 million American homes currently have a “major” risk of wildfire damage and that number will increase to nearly 13 million over the next 30 years, according to a first-of-its-kind national assessment that makes wildfire risk to individual homes available to the public.
As China’s rainy season starts, forecasts show that flooding in the north and south of the country could be as bad as last summer, when torrential rain killed hundreds. That means cities that house millions of people have little time to prepare.
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