FtF News #95 – 31st March 2021
Fossil fuel funding, French EVs and the power of indigenous land guardians
If FtF seems a little disjointed over these next couple of weeks, I can only apologise – I’m in the process of moving halfway across the country, and am writing this amidst a sea of boxes! Hopefully normality will resume before too long. In the meantime, here’s a powerful take on the surprisingly constant level of fossil fuels in the world’s electricity mix (more info in the thread that follows):
State of the world
Climate research and findings, weather events and studies
Arctic lightning strikes are becoming much more common, tripling between 2010 and 2020, rising in tandem with global temperatures. This is part of a growing trend of extreme storms and weather creeping closer to the poles as the weather there changes at a blistering pace.
A study of a major drought in 2007 in Lesotho has tied climate change to resulting food insecurity in the country. Lesotho has had declining agricultural productivity for years, and is dependent on surrounding South Africa for much of its food supply. However, in 2007, a drought hit both countries, causing food prices to spike massively. The study found that not only did climate change make the drought far more likely, but also made a link to the resulting food insecurity in the country. The findings emphasise the role of boosting agricultural productivity in any climate change adaptation plans, particularly amongst small farmers, who were the hardest hit by the drought.
A new UN report warns that 34m people are on the verge of starvation, as a result of the combination of COVID-19, the climate crisis and conflict. Active hunger is likely to soar in over 20 countries in the next few months, with parts of Yemen and South Sudan already sliding into starvation.
Planet positives
Moving towards a greener and more equitable world
La Révolution Électrique
Sales of plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles have soared in France in 2020, despite the country not planning to ban combustion vehicles before 2040. The increase is thought to be a combination of tightening EU emissions levels for car makers (who face fines if the average emissions across all vehicles sold breaches certain levels) and local policies. One tax in particular – the ‘bonus malus’ – adds a sliding tax onto the purchase price of polluting vehicles, rising to a hefty €30,000 for the worst offenders. However, at the opposite end, the least polluting vehicles (i.e. EVs) receive a €7,000 rebate. This simple strategy, combined with higher availability of EVs and hybrids, seems to be driving the increase in sales.
Adverse circumstances
Events that move the needle in the wrong direction
Burning our future
Turning the good ship Earth away from climate catastrophe is continuing to prove a slow and expensive task. The world’s 60 largest banks have now invested $3.8tn in fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement was signed, and overall fossil fuel financing shows little sign of slowing, with spending last year higher than in 2016. It’s just too profitable (in the short term) to do otherwise, which is a reckoning the world will have to face eventually. Whilst it makes sense to harness market forces and profit motives to help tackle the climate crisis, ultimately we will have to shed our addiction to endless growth if we want to create a sustainable future. What that future looks like is still unclear, but we’re going to have to figure it out fast.
Guardians of the Grove
A new UN report on the role of indigenous peoples in forest protection finds that they are by far the best guardians, with deforestation rates up to 50% lower in tribal lands than elsewhere. Not only that, but it is one of the most cost effective ways to protect land, with the protection of legal titles costing a fraction of the expense of, say, carbon capture.
Indigenous peoples are increasingly on the forefront of battles over land use, with rising demand for beef, soy, timber and more meaning that across Latin America people are being pushed off their land, and more indigenous community leaders are killed each year. For example, in 2020 illegal mining rose 30% on protected lands of the Yanomami peoples, with over 2,400 hectares of their land deforested to date due to such mining.
Long Reads
Interesting deep-dives into climate-related topics
Svalbard has long been a land of extremes, sitting as far north as it does, but it is now one of the fastest warming places in the world. Those rapid changes are already causing visible shifts in weather and climate, but the future could hold far more impactful effects, including flooding, erosion and landslides. The island tells a dramatic tale of the effects of climate change where the impacts are far more visible than in many other parts of the world.
A Dutch firm is dreaming big, and has plans to green the Sinai. The peninsula has been desert for thousands of years, but potentially could be greened in just a few decades using relatively low-tech methods. This not only has implications for the immediate area, but across entire regions – landscape changes in Spain have been linked to weather changes across much of mainland Europe, meaning large scale transformations of local regions have potential to have wide-reaching improvements.
Quick Headlines
Some quick climate news nuggets to sate your appetite
Methane emissions in the Permian Basin are back to pre-pandemic levels, after dropping 60% this time last year.
Renewables met the equivalent of 97% of Scotland’s electricity demand in 2020, just shy of its 100% target for the year.
The UK’s green homes grant scheme has been scrapped after just six months – not great for the only major green stimulus policy yet announced in the country.
Good luck with your move!