FtF News #201 – 21st April 2024

Coral bleaching, record rain, and climate court victories

Going through the climate news for the past two weeks definitely felt intense. With El Niño peaking, impacts are everywhere, even as politicians are rolling back climate targets and backing away from taking much needed action. Progress is definitely happening, but this is one of those weeks where it all feels a lot slower than what we need. Former US climate negotiator Todd Stern hit the nail on the head recently when he said that politicians presenting themselves as ‘grownups’ whilst slowing the pace of climate action, are pushing the world towards deeper catastrophe. Let us hope that the grownups grow up, or that we elect some more aware leaders in this year’s elections!

You may have also noticed that this is coming out on a different day this week – I’ve decided to move publishing to Sundays, as this is a little easier to work around my rather hectic day job.

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

• March was the tenth consecutive record warm month, falling 0.1°C warmer than the previous March high, set in 2016, and 1.68°C higher than pre-industrial levels.

• Zimbabwe’s president has declared a state of disaster due to widespread drought, the third nation in southern Africa to do so after Malawi and Zambia.

• Venezuela is battling record numbers of wildfires, fueled by climate change-induced drought in the Amazon region.

• Heavy rain has killed 63 people in Pakistan, with flash floods killing dozens in nearby Afghanistan as well.

• Dubai was struck by a freak storm that dropped 1.5 years of rain in a day – the most recorded since records began in 1949. The storm also impacted Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman, killing at least 18 people.

• Russia and Kazakhstan have ordered more than 100,000 people to evacuate after snowmelt caused the worst flooding in the region in at least 70 years.

• Mongolia has seen a rapid rise in winter storms, known as dzuds, which have killed millions of livestock, threatening the rural nomadic communities which rely on them.

• The world is now experiencing its fourth global mass coral bleaching event, which is on track to be by far the most extensive thanks to sustained high ocean temperatures.

It’s Science!

The latest from in climate research and analysis

• The most comprehensive study of its kind has found that average incomes are likely to fall by almost a fifth by 2050 due to climate change, with the cost estimated at £30tn annually by then (although this is still likely an underestimate).

• New analysis has found that German coal mines emit 184x more methane than was officially reported to the UN.

• A new study has found that England could produce 13x more renewable energy than it does now, whilst using less than 3% of its land – enough to power the country 2.5 times over.

• New research across 11 countries has found that diversifying farmland simultaneously delivers both environmental and social benefits, whilst not impacting yields.

Party Political Broadcast

Climate politics are a special creature indeed

• The Scottish government is to ditch its climate target to reduce emissions by 75% by 2030, after the CCC recently concluded that it was unreachable.

• The US EPA has finalised its first nation-wide limit on PFAS in drinking water, although given the scale of the issue, clean-up could take decades.

• India’s Supreme Court has expanded the scope of ‘right to life’ to include ‘protection against adverse effects of climate change’ in a major change from its previous stance.

• Indigenous leaders in New Zealand, Tahiti and the Cook Islands have signed a treaty that will recognise whales as legal persons, which it is hoped will spur conservation efforts.

Money makes the world go around

The machinations of climate finance

• G20 countries spent $142bn to expand overseas fossil fuel operations from 2020-2022, with Canada, Japan and South Korea funding the most.

• The UK government has reclassified nearly £500m in aid to war-torn countries as ‘climate finance’ in a bid to meet its commitments under the Paris Agreement.

• An investigation has found that the World Bank counted support for luxury hotels in Senegal as climate finance, even as nearby fishermen watch their homes wash away.

• US home insurance is rising rapidly, particularly in climate-impacted states, with premiums up 6% from last year, and average premiums in Florida rising to $12,000.

Haha, Business!

Climate happenings in the corporate world

• Just 57 corporate and state fossil fuel entities are responsible for 80% of emissions produced since 2016, according to the Carbon Majors Database project.

• Whilst major companies are improving their climate commitments, new analysis finds that they remain ‘critically insufficient’ to limit warming to 1.5°C.

• SBTi is in turmoil after they announced that they would allow companies to use emissions to offset their scope 3 emissions. The group has been the subject of heavy lobbying, but the move came as a surprise, and caused employees of the organisation to call for the resignation of the CEO and board.

• Amazon is now the largest private operator of EV charging infrastructure in the US after installing 17,000 chargers in two years, although it still has much more to do.

• Zurich Insurance will no longer underwrite new oil and gas projects, and will start to crack down on clients expanding in metallurgical coal mining.

The Future is Electric

EVs and all things electrification

• Whilst many parts of the world are seeing booming EV adoption, three countries are bucking these trends – the US, South Korea and Japan are all struggling to shift to electric, though all for different reasons.

• The US pledged $7.5bn two years ago to build out 500,000 EV chargers by 2030, but so far, just seven have been constructed.

Clean Green Energy Machine

Renewables versus coal – a look at the changing energy system

• China was responsible for 95% of the world’s new coal power construction last year, starting construction on 70GW of new plants, versus less than 4GW elsewhere.

• The country is planning to tighten up allowances in its carbon market, which currently only covers the power sector, in order to increase its effectiveness.

• Clean energy production has exceeded demand in California for 30 of the past 38 days, the longest period yet that this has occurred.

• Commercial rooftops could supply enough solar energy to meet 20% of power needs in disadvantaged communities in the US, helping bridge the so-called ‘solar equity gap’.

Breakthroughs

New inventions to inspire hope

• Redwood Materials is rapidly scaling up battery recycling, in a bid to become one of the biggest suppliers of battery materials in the US and supply the rapidly growing EV industry and supplant Chinese materials.

• A US startup has come up with a lighter, more effective overhead powerline, allowing retrofits of existing transmission lines to increase capacity.

• San Diego will shortly be home to the first electric tugboat in the US, backed by a smart electric charging system to minimise its impact on the grid.

• Coffee is already feeling the impact of climate change, and could well become rarer still, so startups are looking at a host of approaches to produce alternatives.

• Clean sources of heat are a massive need for industry, and a number of companies are pioneering approaches to storing heat in salt, air, bricks and more to meet this demand.

Speaking truths

Efforts in activism and awareness

• A group of older Swiss women have won a major victory in the European Court of Human Rights, with the court ruling that Switzerland’s efforts to meet climate targets have been woefully inadequate. The case is seen as a landmark victory that could open the gates for many similar cases.

• The World Press Photo offered a different lens on the climate crisis, by showing climate impacts from the viewpoint of journalists and reporters.

Long Reads

Interesting deep-dives into climate-related topics

• Brazil’s fight against illegal miners and loggers is a complex and difficult one, with most of the work left to a tiny, under-funded special forces group called the GEF, who battle increasingly sophisticated opponents with minimal support.

• The plastic industry continues to hail recycling as the solution to all its problems, but despite billions invested, the technology still fails to show much promise, although that hasn’t stopped it being used to justify massive increases in plastic production.

• A soundscape recordist has been capturing the sounds of his local state park in California for over 30 years, and the resulting recordings really illustrate the shift in the region, with bird song, wind and even water noises dropping to almost nothing in recent years.