FtF News #140 – 16th February 2022
EVs on the rise, court wins for climate, and a look at the scale of the commercial decarbonisation challenge
Hello, and welcome to Forge the Future, your weekly rundown of the latest climate news.
I’m often at a loss for how to introduce each week’s news – trying to balance what can seem like a never-ending stream of climate stories with some perspective is a tricky proposition. It seems apt that this week I came across this excellent piece by Sammy Roth of the LA Times about his struggles with bringing personal perspective into his climate reporting. News is supposed to hold all that messy human stuff at a distance, but these events are huge and impact us all, and we absolutely can and should bring that perspective to how we look at and engage with them.
“none of us is going to look back in 20 years and wonder if our climate stories were a little too radical”
On a similar vein, I loved this piece by Sarah Lazarovic for her newsletter MVP, talking about how big the climate crisis is – almost too big for many of us to engage with. As people, the things we care about are human scale – special places, events or moments – and we struggle to engage with caring for the entire planet. By meeting people where they are, it’s possible to engage with many more folks who do care about the planet, but haven’t realised how yet.
Once again, this week’s issue was ably assisted by Syuan Ruei Chang, who contributed a number of the articles and stories featured this week.
State of the world
Climate research and findings, weather events and studies
A new study using satellite imaging has reevaluated the thickness and movement of more than 250,000 glaciers worldwide, and found that ice is distributed differently to previous estimates. For the most part, almost all glaciers surveyed contained less ice than previously thought, though the Himalayas proved an exception, containing 37% more than previous surveys have found – a welcome boon for the many millions who depend on meltwater from the mountain range.
The number of coastal African heritage sites under threat from flooding and erosion could triple by 2050, even under medium emissions scenarios. The findings highlight the immense cultural and natural heritage in Africa as well as its vulnerability. Despite African nations contributing very little to the climate crisis, they are once again facing outsize impacts, and lack the resources to meaningfully protect these vital treasures. As was highlighted on a recent panel, the role of Western nations in impoverishing countries in the global south needs to be taught more widely if this much needed funding is to be secured.
New analysis of carbon loss in the Amazon has found that most was attributable to degradation of forest rather than the more noticeable deforestation. For instance, the Amazon lost three times as much carbon storage in 2015 as 2019, despite the latter year seeing more trees cut down. However, forest degradation is complex to measure and quantify, and so is often ignored, despite its outsize impact.
Climate Visuals
A picture tells a thousand words…
The People’s Choice award in the 2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year has produced some stunning shots that are absolutely worth a look.
This twitter thread has some interesting new takes on a classic visualisation of the density and efficiency of various public and active transport modes versus cars.
Planet positives
Moving towards a greener and more equitable world
Palpable Progress
Australia has broken records for wind and solar power production across half of its states, fueling a new nationwide renewable power production record in January. Six wind farms hit utilisation rates of over 50% last month (competitive with many Australian coal power plants), with the Badgingarra wind farm in Western Australia topping out at 64%. This is all occurring despite the government’s strong support for coal, with nearly 60% of Aussie power coming from coal, and the country still sitting pretty as the world’s second largest exporter of the stuff.
California has become the first US state to register more than 1m plug-in cars, with around ⅔ of those fully electric. EVs have taken off in the state, with a quarter of those vehicles registered just in the last year – in 2021, 12% of all light-duty vehicles sold were plug-in. This pattern is reflected globally in the IEA’s latest EV analysis, which shows 6.6m EVs were sold in 2021, tripling their global market share from just two years before. Unfortunately, the emissions saved by the estimated 12m EVs on the roads were cancelled out by the growth in sales of SUVs – a trend that definitely needs reversing.
Justice is served
Ecuador’s highest court ruled on Friday that Indigenous communities must have a far stronger say over oil, mining and other extractive projects that affect their lands. The result came from a lawsuit brought by the A’i Kofán community of Sinangoe, in the north of the country, and applies to all 14 of the country’s recognised Indigenous groups, whose land includes 70% of the Ecuadorian Amazon. It doesn’t outright ban projects that affect Indigenous lands, but gives communities a seat at the table, and a chance to say no.
In Honduras, six anti-mining protesters have been ordered released by the Honduran supreme court, which ruled that they should never have been put on trial. The protesters were arrested whilst peacefully protesting a massive mine in a protected national park that was polluting key rivers, and have been on remand for the past two and a half years. With Honduras ranked the most dangerous country in the world for environmentalists and land rights defenders, it still remains to be seen whether the protesters will be released without further charges.
Finally, the Marine Management Organisation in the UK has dropped its case against Greenpeace after a rebuke from the judge in the case. Greenpeace has been dropping boulders in protected marine areas to foul the nets of bottom trawlers, which are permitted to operate in the protected zones despite causing damage to the seabed. The judge pointed out that the licensing regime under which the case was brought could be better used to protect against those actively trying to harm the environment rather than those seeking to protect it.
Adverse circumstances
Events that move the needle in the wrong direction
Profit before Planet
Another week of high fossil fuel prices has led to yet more firms declaring vast profits, including Peabody Energy, one of the world’s largest coal firms. This has led to more calls for a windfall tax on fossil fuel profits, particularly in the UK, where gas prices are the primary factor behind an upcoming massive 54% rise in energy bill caps. Over a million people are expected to be plunged into fuel poverty by the change, while BP and Shell have posted combined profits of over £24bn this year. The two firms have also spent £147bn on share buybacks since 2010, boosting shareholder returns at the expense of UK ratepayers, who’ve helped fund billions in subsidies. Despite these egregious profits, the oil companies are claiming that any attempt to implement a windfall tax would actually be hurting their climate ambitions, and so taxing fossil profits would actually negatively impact the environment. OK then…
Long Reads
Interesting deep-dives into climate-related topics
The scale of the efforts needed to decarbonise are often hard to grasp, but this look at Panasonic’s six year effort to bring its highest-emitting factory to net zero shows just how much work is needed. Five years of energy efficiency measures, from increased automation to LED lightbulbs and rooftop solar only reduced emissions by a quarter. The company eventually used renewable energy credits and offsets to balance out the rest, but with its direct emissions some 37 times larger than this one facility, the firm has its work cut out. Including both direct and indirect emissions, Panasonic has a footprint half that of Spain, and needs to bring that to zero by 2050 if it is to keep to its pledges.
With the fossil fuel industry increasingly pushing gas as a clean alternative to coal, more and more attention is being put on its name – natural gas. Whilst the oil companies may not have named it thus, they have leaned heavily on the connotations that come with the word ‘natural’, helping to build a public perception of health, cleanliness and low environmental impact, with few realising that it is, in fact, largely methane. Perhaps it is time to try and shift the narrative, and rebrand it as what it is – a polluting greenhouse gas.
Quick Headlines
Some quick climate news nuggets to sate your appetite
The Joint European Torus (JET) fusion project has doubled its record for energy released during a sustained fusion reaction.
Germany has appointed the executive director of Greenpeace International as climate ambassador in a sign of new seriousness on the environment.
Grey wolves will once again be federally protected in the US, following heavy hunting after a Trump-era repeal of their protection.
The Koala is now officially endangered in half of Australia’s states, with numbers plummeting due to climate change, disease and habitat loss.
Iceland is to end whaling in 2024 as demand dwindles, leaving only Norway and Japan still hunting the animals.