Category: Curated Climate News

curated-climate-news-february-2021

February 2021 Climate Change News

Is it too early to see signs of Spring … or signs of thaw in the frozen debate about climate change? Probably. Here in New Jersey, there are undoubtedly many weeks of frigid weather ahead – both real and metaphorical. And yet we can hear ice cracking near and far.

From city councils to state legislatures to both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, from local businesses to the heaviest of global industries, from private investors to the Federal Reserve, so many green shoots have been poking through the snow this month that we’ve decided to forego our usual format of ‘news of hope and concern’ and stick to the sunny side of the street. After all, who can fail to grin when comedian Will Ferrell advertises GM’s stunning decision to phase out gas-powered vehicles by 2035?

We’ll be back flagging causes for concern again next month but we hope you enjoy February’s roundup of exclusively hopeful news. As always we welcome your feedback and questions.

Warmly,
The C-Change Conversations Team

Notable Video

This Super Bowl ad made us chuckle AND feel excited and hopeful! View the video here.

News of Hope

Let’s hit the big news first: you may have heard that the U.S. officially re-entered the Paris Agreement on February 19. Just weeks before, more than 400 companies – including steelmaker ArcelorMittal, shipping giant Maersk, and Shell Oil – announced they would work together to decarbonize by 2050. These are some of the heaviest hitters in the world’s heavy industries.

Meanwhile, reports are circulating that BP, the world’s fifth largest petroleum company, has reduced its oil exploration team from 700 a few years ago to just 100 today – part of its rapid and ongoing shift away from fossil fuels. It’s yet another sign that even the world’s biggest carbon emitters recognize there’s greater risk in ‘business as usual’ than in decarbonization.

That same conclusion has mobilized the highest levels of America’s Federal Reserve. You’ll recall that in November, the Fed acknowledged climate-related risk in its semiannual Financial Stability Report. This month the Fed announced that it is creating a first-ever committee to assess climate risks facing the financial system, including companies, infrastructure, and markets.

Signs of adaptation are less easy to find in the coal industry. Coal communities, however, may be more proactive in the face of climate (and political) realities. We’re excited to see that coal-state economic development groups have called for the immediate creation of a White House Office of Economic Transition, focused on rebuilding the economies of coal communities as the nation transitions to renewable energy. These sorts of efforts are needed for the transition to help all Americans.

The best evidence projects that the wind and solar industries will see the most immediate build-outs but we’re intrigued by smaller industrial innovations, too, like converting garbage to fuel [paywall]. We’re also closely watching startups working to make ‘green cement,’ which would help replace a crucial building material that is responsible for 8% of carbon emissions.

And on the futuristic end of the technological spectrum, we’re delighted to hear the narrative around fusion energy – the ‘holy grail’ of renewables – has changed from ‘if’ to ‘when.’ Scientists have been working to achieve this limitless, clean energy source for decades. A report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine calls for efforts to start building a pilot fusion power plant by 2035 and have it running by 2040.

It seems we at C-Change are not alone in our sense of cautious optimism about renewed energy in tackling climate change. The mood of climate scientists around the nation is also on the upswing.

Notable Graph

The Energy Information Agency projects renewable energy generation will double by 2050, while coal and nuclear will decline and natural gas will stay relatively flat.

Notable Quote

“[The United States] is the best resourced nation in the world for a transition to net zero … [It has] abundant solar and wind resources both onshore and offshore … plentiful and economically accessible natural gas, and enormous geologic and terrestrial reservoirs for CO2 sequestration. Achieving net-zero carbon emissions in the U.S. by 2050 is feasible and would not only help address climate change but also build a more competitive economy, increase high-quality jobs, and help address social injustice in the energy system.” – From Accelerating Decarbonization of the U.S. Energy System, National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine

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jan-newsletter-2021

January 2021 Climate Change News

What a difference a day makes. As we predicted last month, the final hours of the outgoing administration were spent locking in fossil fuel projects and climate-related regulatory rollbacks.

Then came January 20th. Cue the soundtrack: screeching brakes, spinning tires, and swooshing air around one of the most dramatic U-turns in modern American politics. On his first day as the new president, Joe Biden pivoted toward a clean energy economy and promised to address what he called the climate “crisis.” C-Change Conversations applauds the recognition of the severity of this threat to our health and economic well-being and hopes for meaningful bipartisan action.

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December 2020 Climate Change News

Like it or not, the presidential transition is now in full swing. The outgoing administration is working overtime [paywall] to approve a collection of new, large, energy and mineral projects on federal lands in hopes of locking in their version of a ‘business first’ approach to climate and the environment.

Meanwhile, President-elect Joe Biden’s key cabinet nominees view the relationship between the environment and the economy quite differently from the Trump team. Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Energy, for example, is bullish on renewables and the jobs they’ll provide, and his chosen ‘climate czar’ sits on the board of CERES – a nonprofit composed of investors and environmentalists who make a powerful business case for climate action.

That’s been our mindset for some time, and it is good to see it’s gaining traction. As always, we welcome your feedback and reactions.


Warmly,
The C-Change Conversations Team

Notable Quote

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” –Socrates
 

Notable Video

Kicking off our theme of innovation and investment toward a green economy, enjoy this video that envisions American roads paved with something more valuable than gold: solar panels.

News of Hope

We’re buoyed that such economic opportunities seem very much in the sights of the climate and energy team that Biden announced this month. As Fox News reports, the lineup signals the President-elect’s commitment to “ambitious” climate action and – combined with his chosen economic team [paywall] – we see a coherent strategy emerging to align U.S. economic, energy, and environmental policies behind a climate agenda.

At the same time, ever more members of the business community are backing economy-wide climate action. The Wall Street Journal (among others) carried the news that leaders of more than 40 large U.S. corporations representing a broad swath of the American economy penned a letter to Congress urging cooperation with the incoming administration on climate issues. The letter echoed arguments that leveraging U.S. innovation and investment around climate solutions is a recipe for economic growth and called for the U.S. to rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate.

That agreement commits its national signatories to major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. And while the Biden Administration begins to chart a new course in that direction, Princeton University offered a roadmap to get there, itemizing exactly what needs to be built, when, and where. The Net-Zero America study spells out no fewer than five energy-mix scenarios that could transition the economy to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century. Crucially, none of the five scenarios would cost more than the country spends now on energy, and all would result in net job gains for American workers.

Meanwhile, Congress proved that bi-partisan cooperation around a green economy is possible when it passed the massive COVID relief and federal spending package. Forbes magazine described the bill as a “stimulus for clean energy,” noting the legislation’s many green tax credits and bipartisan support for them.

News of Concern

Climate change, however, hasn’t slowed down while the American political transition unfolds. A new scientific paper warns that rising sea levels may exceed even the highest projections of recent years. NOAA released its annual report card on the Arctic, and it describes a ‘new normal’ in the so-called frozen North that includes far less ice, more wildfires, and huge disruptions to ecosystems.
 
And although several large banks have aligned themselves with the fight against climate change, Bloomberg News [paywall] reports that some banks are still financing dangerous energy projects to the tune of billions of dollars. Three top international banks have invested $295 billion in 12 projects with the potential to release CO₂ equivalent to 75% of the remaining carbon budget we must maintain to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to researchers at Climate Analytics.
 
Such financing continues in a year that’s seen 16 separate climate disasters (see image above) as of the end of September costing a billion dollars or more – tying the records of 2011 and 2017. Given that three months have passed since since the data were tabulated, it is expected that the previous records will be broken this year.
 
Also for the record books, 2020 is neck and neck with 2016 for the hottest year in recorded history. In this context it’s disturbing to see that emissions of a super-polluting greenhouse gas called nitrous oxide—which is 300 times more potent than CO₂ and released primarily from fertilizer—is rising far faster than previously thought at a rate consistent with a worst-case trajectory for climate change.

Notable Graph

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nov-2020

November 2020 Climate Change News

Hands down, the most prominent news in the month of November was the presidential election and its long tail. Poll watchers have been debating the role that global warming played in the vote. Many see climate as key to victory, while other analysts aren’t so sure, pointing to mixed messages from the electorate. Whatever the poll parsing ultimately concludes, this was certainly the first presidential election in which climate played such a prominent role. Furthermore, November was a month when even more large American institutions – including conservative institutions with a history of denial – saw the climate handwriting on the wall … and united around its mandate. 

We hope you enjoy this month’s roundup of climate news and welcome your feedback and questions.

Warmly,
The C-Change Conversations Team

Notable Video
Let’s start with a win-win. Take a look at this “new” food that will please our palate while helping save the planet. 

News of Hope
It is extremely promising to anticipate a U.S. administration mobilizing to battle climate change from every cabinet department simultaneously.

It’s equally promising to see groups that have previously denied anthropogenic global warming (or that have resisted efforts to address it) now suiting up for action. The American Farm Bureau Federation is the latest big organization to agree that the impacts are just too profound to ignore. And this month the Federal Reserve for the first time identified global warming as a risk to financial stability. (Readers might remember that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce did an about-face on climate last year and President Trump’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission released a report with warnings of grave financial consequences last month.)

As these institutions turn their attention to climate, renewable energy sources look increasingly robust as economic pillars. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has upped its growth projections for the renewables sector and now sees wind and solar installations setting records. The IEA also issued a detailed report with a clear bottom line: sector growth is outpacing expectations even through the COVID downturn.

And in one of those wonky details that may be critically important, a new look at the efficiency of burning fossil fuels suggests that transitioning to renewables may not be as big a reach as previously thought. That’s because only about 1/3 of the energy stored in coal is converted to power on average and only about 1/5 of the energy stored in gasoline is converted to auto propulsion. The rest ends up as waste heat. Renewables pack a much better punch. So that means we will need less “new” energy to replace the work of the “old” energy – though it’s still a daunting task.

News of Concern
The hard work of transitioning, of course, is still ahead – and the harsh impacts of global warming aren’t slowing down. New research shows the inland damage of hurricanes is greater than before because tropical storms no longer lose as much force when they hit the shore. And homeowners in the paths of climate disasters are having more trouble getting insurance, threatening local communities with economic disaster. The choice ahead could be painful, allowing climate-endangered communities to decline as insurance costs get out of reach or asking the rest of the country to foot the escalating bill.

Meanwhile, on the health front, a new study predicts that a warmer climate will dramatically increase the spread of diseases among wildlife over the next five decades. This is also bad news for humans because 75% of our new diseases start in the wild. COVID-19 is an example of how deadly these diseases can be. The International Red Cross, while on the front lines of the disease spread, this month declared climate change a greater danger than the pandemic and demanded a similar urgency from world leaders to coordinate a response. 

And speaking of animals, National Geographic reports that methane flares in America’s 2,627 landfills are causing widespread destruction to bird populations around the country. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas released by decomposing landfill waste (and by other natural and human processes including leakage from oil and gas production facilities).

Notable Quote
“There are three categories of truth: personal truth, political truth and objective truth that shape our understanding of the universe. The interesting thing about objective truth is that it is true no matter what.”

Science communicator and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson

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october-2020-thumbnail

October 2020 Climate Change News

Welcome back to our monthly roundup of climate news … both encouraging and, well, not-so-much. Just days before the presidential election, though, it’s striking to note more optimistic signs than expected. And we’re not alone. Some are describing a ‘sea change’ in the way the American electorate, politicians, and business people are now talking and acting on the issue of global warming. We concur. To set the tone, watch this new video about the biggest, baddest vehicle of the automotive world — which is now electric! The closing lines say it all.
 
Warmly,
The C-Change Conversations Team

Notable Quote
“Introducing the world’s first all-electric supertruck, the revolutionary GMC Hummer EV, with no limits, no emissions and no equals. It will leave everything you thought possible in a cloud of dust.”

– General Motors marketing video for the new electric Hummer
 

News of Hope
Let’s turn to the presidential debates. In a sign of a sea change, the final debate between President Trump and former Vice President Biden was the first in 20 years to feature a substantive discussion about climate change. Even more important: the issue was treated as fact by both candidates who then sparred over policies.

While Biden made news by calling for a speedy transition away from fossil fuels, the world’s oil companies largely shrugged at the proposition, which many have already incorporated into their business plans. And coal? After years of retraction, the coal companies clearly see the handwriting on the wall and are divesting from coal themselves.

Meanwhile at the United Nations, the leader of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter pledged to achieve carbon neutrality in its economy by 2060. Yes, China— the country currently burning half the world’s coal supplies (see the pie chart, below). China has expressed good intentions before but this commitment from its top politician has been followed up by a concrete plan charting a viable path to get there.

While many researchers in the U.S. are developing similar plans to transition the U.S. economy, it’s encouraging to see evidence that American workers are beginning to recognize that job growth in clean energy is outstripping job losses in fossil fuels. A sea change, indeed.
 
News of Concern
Of course, a sea change doesn’t mean smooth sailing. The annual report of the world’s most authoritative body of energy analysts, the International Energy Agency, concluded this month that the globe is headed toward more warming than the top manageable limit set by the Paris Agreement.
 
Meanwhile, another international body — the G20 (the premier forum for the world’s largest economies) — backtracked on previous commitments to end oil subsidies. The rationale cited was the disruption to oil markets caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
 
On the theme of backward movement, Bloomberg News divulged leaked documents from Exxon Mobil showing plans to increase the company’s annual CO₂ emissions by 17 percent by 2025. This trajectory clashes with plans by Exxon’s main industry rivals to reduce emissions and cut fossil fuel production.
 
Exxon’s short-sightedness may be part of another sea change we’ve witnessed this month: the Dow dropped Exxon Mobil from its index in favor of a software stock. XOM had been part of the Dow Jones Industrial average since 1928 and was its longest-serving component.
 
And lest we forget the climate-linked fires still burning in the West, consider this: a growing body of research shows significant and enduring health risks from wildfire smoke. That’s an extra layer of pain on top of the coronavirus pandemic and the arrival of flu season.
 
Notable Graph
When taking second place is not to be congratulated. How countries compare in CO₂ emissions(Source: Union of Concerned Scientists)

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sept-2020

September 2020 Climate Change News

Sometimes it is difficult not to get depressed. On the surface, this election cycle has laid bare that the polarization around climate change created in the early 2000’s continues to divide us at a time when we must come together to stay safe. But delve deeper and there are glimmers of hope.
 
More Americans, including conservatives, say they believe climate change is happening and that they want government action to address it. In fact, latest polls show that 65% of Americans believe climate legislation should be a key priority. And the steady drumbeat of recent devastating natural disasters, which scientists say have been exacerbated by climate change, is making the concern more visceral and immediate.
 
In addition, we’re also seeing a groundswell of alarm about climate change from businesses, investment groups, regulators, and the military. A growing contingent of sober-minded leaders find it impossible to ignore the costs of climate change. They’re calling for immediate action to protect our economy, our homes, and our national security against systemic risk. Among these leaders is H. R. McMaster, a three star General who was President Trump’s National Security Advisor for 13 months and who considers climate change a top security threat to our nation and the world. 
 
If you’re a returning reader, thank you for revisiting this newsletter and please let us know how we can improve upon it. Our format presents a sampling of non-partisan news grouped in two moods: hope and concern. As we all know, both are in large supply this election season.
 
Please let us know what you think — and please share this newsletter with others.
 
Appreciatively,
The C-Change Conversations Team

Notable Graph
We don’t know where 2020 will end up, but it is in the running to be one of the hottest years ever.

Notable Quote

“So what should be the goal? To effectively decarbonize the U.S. and the global economies by mid-century without shock and disruption. It will be hard, but so was going to the moon.”

Rear Admiral David W. Titley, U.S. Navy, (Ret.)
(Calling for an Apollo-scale, public-private program to address climate change;
C-Change Conversations speaker, 2016)

News of Hope
Even the highly polarized U.S. Senate has found some common ground. Senate Republicans and Democrats joined forces earlier in September to cut the use of hydrofluorocarbons — refrigerants that are considered ‘super greenhouse gases’ and among the most powerful drivers of climate change.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission released a seminal report concluding that “climate change poses a major risk to the stability of the U.S. financial system and to its ability to sustain the American economy.” The report proposes 53 climate change solutions, including a price on carbon and a Securities and Exchange Commission mandate for companies to fully disclose climate risk. Bob Litterman, who spoke at a 2017 C-Change Conversations event, chaired the subcommittee that produced the report. The subcommittee was made up of diverse interests like Morgan Stanley, ConocoPhillips, and the Environmental Defense Fund.
 
The Business Roundtable, a business lobbying group composed of CEOs from more than 200 of the largest US corporations, now supports market-based carbon pricing to fight climate change.
 
And an investing group managing more than $47 trillion in collective assets has ratcheted up pressure for net zero emissions among companies it holds. Led by investment giants like BlackRock and PIMCO, Climate Action 100+ sent a letter this month advising companies to set concrete objectives to reduce emissions by 45% within 10 years to try to meet the 1.5℃ goal set at the Paris Agreement.

News of Concern
National Geographic says that science has “incontrovertibly shown that historic fires like those raging across the American West have everything to do with climate change. In California alone, more than 3 million acres have burned so far. And fire season is just beginning. The LA Times aptly describes this year as The worst fire season ever. Again.” And record-setting fires also bring record-setting health threats. Washington, Oregon, and California suffered “the worst air quality on earth” this month due to the fires.
 
Fires aren’t the only climate-related disaster the West had to endure in September. CBS News described a simultaneous heat wave of “insane” and “unprecedented” levels with temperatures “never before seen in modern history.”
 
Meanwhile, scientists report that rising sea levels caused by melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are in sync with the ‘worst case scenarios’ projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
 
Despite it all, the federal government remains dangerously out of step with the scientific consensus. So much so that six former directors of the Environmental Protection Agency from both Republican and Democratic administrations issued an appeal this month for an agency ‘reset’ after the election. They were endorsing hundreds of pages of recommendations by a bipartisan group of more than 500 former EPA senior managers and employees.

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aug-2020

August 2020 Climate Change News

What a month … The California wildfires. The Iowa derecho. And now, Hurricane Laura. Back-to-back, high intensity natural disasters are exactly what we’ve been warned about and are harder to respond to due to the pandemic. Each is a sobering reminder why C-Change Conversations makes it a priority to understand and discuss climate change and demand more from our elected officials at all levels to address it.

To assist in that effort, we offer this month’s curated list of non-partisan articles that focus on important developments in the story of global warming.

You may be struck, as we are, by the sense that the issue of climate change is gathering velocity on all fronts. The stories shared below describe acceleration in the speed of planetary warming and in the impacts that warming is having on people, businesses, and ecosystems. At the same time, the stories also suggest acceleration in humanity’s response to those challenges — even amid the overshadowing immediacy of the COVID pandemic.

As we did last month, we’re offering you this collection in two groups: developments that inspire hope and those that cause concern. You will find an equal number of both — but we look forward to the day when the balance tips toward optimism.  

We welcome your feedback and invite you to share this newsletter with others.
 
With gratitude for your support and interest,
The C-Change Conversations Team

Notable Quote
“Don’t live in your own echo chamber. A lot of the polarization starts with us. And it’s because we’ve been afraid to engage with people with whom we don’t agree … I tell my students this all the time, ‘If you constantly find yourself in the company of people who say “amen” to whatever you say, find different company.'”

— Condoleezza Rice
Former U.S. Secretary of State
Faculty Member, Stanford University

News of Hope
A substantial majority of Americans think the government should do more about climate, according to a Pew Research Center report …

And a MacArthur “Genius Grant” winner makes a convincing case that the transition to a low carbon economy now could supercharge the economy for the future. 

Fossil fuel companies wonder about exploring for new oil and whether even tapping known fields makes business sense. 

And BP announced that it is radically cutting back its oil and gas business and basically rethinking its business model.

There’s good news in bad: COVID-19 hasn’t caused the financial sector to backpedal its climate focus. Instead, there’s evidence that the pandemic may be galvanizing money managers to be more proactive on the crisis. And …

One large investor group just launched the world’s first step-by-step plan to help pension funds and others align their portfolios to bring us to net zero emissions by 2050.

News of Concern
The Environmental Protection Agency issued a methane regulation rollback unpopular with fuel companies,  climate scientists, Wall Street, and public opinion …

While at the same time, projections for planetary heating are getting worse.

As if on cue, California’s Death Valley hit an unfathomable 130 degrees earlier this month, and Baghdad’s temperatures were close to that a few weeks before. The descriptions and images of the Iraqi experience are breathtaking.

Some 19% of the world might face hot zones with similarly uninhabitable temperature peaks by 2070, fueling massive waves of human migrations that some say have already begun …

And experts believe even the Earth’s more temperate zones will be facing the overwhelming challenge of overlapping crises on an ongoing, rolling basis.

Notable Graph
CHARTING PROGRESS IN RENEWABLE ENERGY

To end on an optimistic note, the amount of solar energy generated around the world, led by Asia and the Pacific, has grown exponentially in the last 20 years. Wind generation shows a similarly sharp upward curve, with Europe and the United States generating a larger proportion.

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