FtF News #167 – 2nd November 2022

Fossil fuel funding, our growing emissions gap, and a win for the climate in Brazil

Somehow we’ve slipped into November, with COP27 less than a week away. Somehow this year’s climate COP has largely stayed under the radar versus last year, despite the arguably greater sense of urgency (see the range of alarming reports on the urgency of the climate crisis out this week for a taste). It feels like with the more immediate chaos elsewhere, from Ukraine to China-US relations, the appetite for climate politics has waned amongst Western nations, despite developing nations clamouring ever louder for them to pay attention. It seems caring about the climate is still a luxury for many.

That all seems a little bleak, so I thought I’d wrap up the intro with a quote from one of this week’s Long Reads on pushing back on climate despair:

“To hope is to risk. It’s to take a chance on losing. It’s also to take a chance on winning, and you can’t win if you don’t try”

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. If you spot any stories you’d like to share, you can submit them here.

Wild Weather

Mother nature’s reactions to the ever-warming world

• Western Africa has been reeling from massive floods, with over 600 killed in Nigeria by the worst flooding in a decade.

• Chad has seen riots and protests amidst political turmoil and its own extreme flooding, the worst in three decades.

• Africa has seen a huge number of extreme climate weather events this year that have largely gone unreported in the West, despite killing at least 4,000 people and affecting at least 19m across the continent, from storms to droughts, floods, extreme heat and much more.

It’s Science!

The latest from in climate research and analysis

• A series of major reports from UN agencies have reemphasised the dire state of the climate crisis (more below), even as fossil fuel firms continue to make outsize profit.

• A new meta-analysis has found that new fossil fuel field development is ‘incompatible’ with 1.5°C (however, the cost of said development could fully fund all renewables required to meet 1.5°C).

• A new UNICEF report highlights that virtually ‘every child in every region’ will face more frequent heatwaves, with at least 2bn children enduring 4-5 dangerous heatwaves a year by 2050.

• The IEA expects CO2 emissions from fossil fuels to rise again this year, albeit less than in previous years thanks to the growth in renewables and EVs.

• The emissions wealth gap in the UK continues to grow, with a new study showing that the top 1% of earners emit as much in a year as the bottom 10% do in 26!

• A new Greenpeace report highlights the continuing failure of the plastics industry to improve recycling, with rates in the US falling to just 5-6% in 2021.

• New analysis has found PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ in over 80% of US waterways, in one case in quantities nearly 70,000 times the EPA’s advisory level.

• In more positive news, the hole in the ozone layer has continued to shrink, reaching a new low this year.

Party Political Broadcast

Climate politics are a special creature indeed

• Lula has narrowly won the Brazilian presidency, running on a climate-centric platform, with many abroad hoping he will massively cut deforestation.

• The latest round of NDCs will cut emissions just 7%, versus the 43% needed, leaving the world on track for 3°C of warming.

• This is echoed by the latest UNEP emissions gap report, which finds current NDCs and policies are massively short of what’s needed for either 2°C or 1.5°C.

• As COP27 looms, African leaders are building up to a confrontation with their Western counterparts over fossil fuel development across the continent.

• The UNHRC has found that Australia failed to adequately protect indigenous Torres Islanders against climate change impacts, in a landmark ruling.

• Australia has joined the Global Methane Pledge, agreeing to cut its methane emissions by 30% from 2020 levels by the end of the decade.

• France has become the latest country to pull out of the ECT, a controversial treaty that allows fossil fuel companies to sue countries that implement policies that threaten their profits.

• Norway will require all state-owned companies to set science-based climate targets, alongside the country’s pension funds.

Money makes the world go around

The machinations of climate finance

• Fossil fuel investments by G20 governments rose by 29% year on year in 2021 to reach a new high, even before the current energy crisis hit.

• Small island states are planning to propose a ‘response fund’ mechanism for climate victims at COP27.

• The US continues to pour huge amounts of foreign aid support into fossil fuel projects, particularly in Africa, despite Biden pledging to change this stance.

• The EPA has begun setting up a $27bn green bank to offer grants to disadvantaged communities across the US to deploy low or zero emissions projects.

Haha, Business!

Climate happenings in the corporate world

• A Greenpeace investigation has found a leading UC Davis institute known for its pro-meat stance is funded by the US livestock industry.

• HSBC has had two adverts for its work on climate change banned by the ASA in the UK for being misleading – the ASA’s first greenwashing ruling against a bank.

• A long and searching look at TerraCycle, the long-running and controversial company that claims to recycle materials that no one else can.

The Future is Electric

Renewables, EVs and all things electrification

• The EU has reached a deal to effectively ban new fossil fuel cars and vans from 2035, as well as tighten existing targets for emission cuts by 2030.

• Indigenous communities in the US are worried that demand for lithium as part of the EV boom will simply replace fossil fuel extraction on their land with an equally damaging industry.

• The village of Modhera, Gujarat has been designated India’s first fully solar-powered village, running 24/7 on renewables, funded by government support.

Speaking truths

Efforts in activism and awareness

• Just Stop Oil and others have made headlines of late for their radical protests, but do they work? Research suggests that even though the public may be alienated from the activists themselves, they still support the cause itself.

Long Reads

Interesting deep-dives into climate-related topics

• As the world continues to plunge deeper into the climate crisis, many turn to despair, but this excellent piece argues that such a perspective is a luxury.

• Kim Stanley Robinson argues the case for counting your person carbon even as focus increasingly moves away from personal footprints.

• A look at how climate migration affects women in rural Kenya, both those forced to move by drought and those who are unable to do so.

• A less visible impact of the hurricanes that have struck Puerto Rico is the massive amounts of debris that have overwhelmed the island’s landfill system. However, community composting efforts are proving a vital way to tackle the issue whilst also providing jobs.