UK’s Committee on Climate Change makes an urgent call for action
Sussex Energy Group 17th May 2019 , Another climate report and another urgent call for action, along with a dizzying array of graphs and figures. The Committee on Climate Change (CCC), who advise the UK government on policies and planning for a low carbon economy, have produced their analysis and recommendations on how to stop UK’s contribution to global warming by 2050.
This follows the “Paris Agreement” signed in December 2015 where the UK, along with 196 other countries, agreed to reduce their nation’s greenhouse gas emissions in efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
The CCC’s excellent and thorough report makes for some tough reading; not for its 277 pages and plethora of statistics and figures, but for the scale of collective effort required. The benign-sounding estimate of costs – 1-2% of GDP – disguises the extent of system change and efforts required, not only of government and businesses, but households as well. http://blogs.sussex.ac.uk/sussexenergygroup/2019/05/17/net-zero/
Scotland increasing its commitment to act on Climate Emergency
Business Green 17th May 2019 Scotland stepped up its response to the ‘climate emergency’ earlier this
week as Glasgow and Edinburgh adopted zero-carbon targets in swift
succession and the Scottish Parliament provided further details on how it
plans to meet its new target of building a net zero emission economy by
2045.
ScottishPower pledged on Monday to help make Glasgow the first UK
city to reach net-zero carbon emissions, setting a target for meeting the
goal of 2045. In related news, SSE announced this week that the last of 84
offshore wind turbines was commissioned this week at Beatrice, Scotland’s
largest offshore wind farm. The company said the project – which is a joint venture development led by SSE Renewables, Copenhagen InfrastructurePartners and Red Rock Power Limited – has been completed on time and under
budget after three years of construction. The final 7MW Siemens Gamesa
turbine was installed in the Outer Moray Firth, around 13km off the coast
of Caithness, bringing the site’s total installed capacity to 588MW –
enough to provide clean, low carbon energy to over 450,000 homes.
Distress in Pacific Island governments, over climate change, and Australia’s inaction on this
UN secretary-general meets Pacific leaders to discuss ‘global catastrophe’ of climate change ABC By foreign affairs reporter Stephen Dziedzic , 15 May 19
- UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said the Pacific is on the “front line of climate change”
- Pacific leaders have voiced frustration over Australia’s failure to curb its emissions
- Australian politicians say rapidly cutting emissions would be “ruinous” for Australia
Regional heavyweights had gathered at an historic climate change summit convened with the UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres.
Mr Guterres is intent on building global momentum for sharper cuts to emissions, arguing that drastic action is necessary to stave off ecological disaster.
The Pacific is on the “front line of climate change”, Mr Guterres told the meeting.
“It has a unique moral authority to speak out. It’s time for the world to listen.”
Senior Australian officials at the meeting could do little else; sent in the place of Prime Minister Scott Morrison only days before the federal election, they were bound to observer status by the caretaker conventions.
As a result, Australia did not sign up to the final statement by Pacific leaders, which declared climate change a “global catastrophe” and called for “transformative action” to stop it……
while Pacific leaders have praised New Zealand’s announcement that it wants to go carbon neutral by 2050, many are frustrated that Australia has failed to curb its emissions.
One Pacific official told the ABC the meeting’s call for radical action on climate change “really was aimed at the whole globe” but “for those in the room [it] was a message for one country”.
“Of course no-one said Australia. No-one needed to say Australia,” the official said. “What other country in the room could we be referring to?”
The outspoken Prime Minister of Samoa, Tuilaepa Sailele, went much further, wading straight into Australia’s election campaign during the post-summit press conference…….
decision makers in Canberra also know that the Pacific is increasingly impatient about Australia’s long and painful debate on climate policy.
The argument will flare up again in only months when regional leaders gather for the Pacific Islands Forum on tiny Tuvalu, which has long been a vocal champion for drastic climate action.
And this time, Australia will not be sitting on the sidelines. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-16/guterres-antonio-un-pacific-meeting-climate-change/11115816
UN chief Antonio Guterres to Pacific islands, warning rich nations about climate impacts
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UN chief Antonio Guterres hits out at climate change ‘paradox’ ahead of historic Pacific trip https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-13/un-chief-antonio-guterres-talks-climate-historic-pacific-trip/11106622, Pacific Beat 13 May 19, The trip marks the first time a sitting UN secretary-general will meet with Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders in the region. Key points:
“Climate change is running faster than what we are … the last four years have been the hottest registered,” Mr Guterres said yesterday alongside New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern.
Under the Paris Agreement, many countries agreed to a long-term commitment to keep the rise of global temperatures well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in a bid to substantially reduce the effects of climate change. After New Zealand, Mr Guterres will travel to Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Fiji to meet with leaders who have for years been warning that many of the Pacific’s small island nations face being washed away by rising sea levels due to global warming. Mr Guterres added to those sentiments yesterday warning that Pacific nations are on the frontlines of climate change.
“We need to protect the lives of our people and we need to protect our planet.” However, he praised the efforts of Ms Ardern’s Government who just last week, introduced an ambitious bill that aims to make New Zealand mostly carbon neutral by 2050 while giving some leeway to farmers. ‘With America or Australia — Sydney could go down’In Fiji, Mr Guterres will meet with PIF leaders and senior government officials from the region. Samoa’s Prime Minister Tuilepa Sailele, a leading critic against nations who he believes are ignoring the threats of climate change, told the ABC’s Pacific Beat program that he had a message for Mr Guterres. To impress on him the importance of the smallness of our islands, and the quicker moves that our vulnerable islands would like to see from the bigger countries responsible for all these problems that we are facing today,” he said. Mr Sailele, who has previously blasted countries for ignoring the warnings, added that rising sea levels is not just an issue for the Pacific, but for those very same “bigger countries” as well.
His comments follow a controversial withdrawal from the Paris Agreement’s commitments by United States President Donald Trump in 2017, a move that was praised by former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott who last year said that Canberra should do the same. The secretary-general’s Pacific trip comes ahead of an anticipated Climate Action Summit that he plans to convene in September in New York. |
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Majority of UK voters want to slash greenhouse gases to nearly zero by 2050
Independent 12th May 2019 A majority of voters would support radical action to slash greenhouse gases
to nearly zero by 2050 at a cost of tens of billions of pounds, a new poll
has found. The public has thrown its weight overwhelmingly behind calls by
the government’s independent climate change advisers to make a legally
binding commitment to achieving net zero carbon emissions by the middle of
the century. The exclusive survey by BMG Research found 59 per cent of
voters would support such action, with only 8 per cent opposing it and 34
per cent who had no view.
UK’s Committee on Climate Change urged to consider a carbon tax
FT 13th May 2019 Nick Butler: There is a very simple measure the UK’s Committee on Climate
Change could have flagged. We need a carbon tax to change consumer
behaviour. Introduced at a level designed to alter behaviour (perhaps £50
a tonne), a carbon tax would encourage consumers of all kinds – from
manufacturers to domestic customers – to switch to lower-carbon energy
supplies and encourage the development of technology to make that possible.
Charged at this level a tax would be far more effective than the current
EU-based measures and would allow energy users to identify low-cost
alternatives, or where necessary develop them. In the process, it would
demonstrate whether the most expensive options, such as carbon capture and
the reconstruction of the way we heat buildings, are really necessary.
https://www.ft.com/content/2c5f19d6-7245-11e9-bf5c-6eeb837566c5
UK to become the first major economy to embrace a legally-binding net zero emissions goal
Business Green 10th May 2019 The UK government is preparing to announce that it will broadly embrace therecommendations of the Committee on Climate Change and introduce a new target to cut emissions to net zero by 2050, according to reports from news agency Bloomberg. Citing officials familiar with the plan, the agency
reported the new target is likely to be announced within two months. Such a fast tracked timetable could potentially allow for amendments to theClimate Change Act to be passed before Parliament’s summer recess,
especially given the limited nature of the government’s legislative agenda in the wake of the delay to Brexit.
Since the CCC’s wide-ranging report was released last week, leading Ministers have repeatedly hinted they want to
see the government adopt the target as quickly as possible and ensure the UK becomes the first major economy to embrace a legally-binding net zero emissions goal.
https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/3075426/reports-uk-prepares-to-fast-track-new-net-zero-target
UK to become the first major economy to embrace a legally-binding net zero emissions goal
Business Green 10th May 2019 The UK government is preparing to announce that it will broadly embrace the recommendations of the Committee on Climate Change and introduce a new target to cut emissions to net zero by 2050, according to reports from news agency Bloomberg. Citing officials familiar with the plan, the agency
reported the new target is likely to be announced within two months. Such a fast tracked timetable could potentially allow for amendments to theClimate Change Act to be passed before Parliament’s summer recess,especially given the limited nature of the government’s legislative agenda in the wake of the delay to Brexit.
Since the CCC’s wide-ranging report was released last week, leading Ministers have repeatedly hinted they want to see the government adopt the target as quickly as possible and ensure the UK becomes the first major economy to embrace a legally-binding net zero emissions goal.
https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/3075426/reports-uk-prepares-to-fast-track-new-net-zero-target
Nuclear power isn’t needed for Green New Deal
 https://www.jacksonville.com/opinion/20190510/guest-column-nuclear-power-isnt-needed-for- green-new-deal By David Kyler, 10 May 19, Recently Tim Echols, vice chairman of the Georgia Public Service Commission, made comments that were critical of the proposed Green New Deal.Echols’ comments could hardly have been more misleading, misinformed and cynically ironic.
In dismissing the progressive proposal, Echols defended Georgia’s energy policy and portrayed the Plant Vogtle nuclear plant as a praiseworthy centerpiece of the state’s achievements. But even casual observers recognize Plant Vogtle as a wasteful fiasco and a tribute to extravagant corporate welfare. Plant Vogtle is now double the starting cost at $30 billion. It is years behind schedule. And it remains a horrendous yet profitable hoax foisted on U.S. taxpayers and Georgia Power customers. Even if Vogtle were running on schedule and within budget, there are very good reasons why so few nuclear plants are now being built — and why nuclear power has been omitted from the Green New Deal. Here are just some of those reasons: • Accidents such as Chernobyl and Three Mile Island demonstrate the dangerous public safety risks of nuclear power. • Mining and processing nuclear fuels produce huge amounts of carbon emissions. • There is still no acceptable method for long-term storage of deadly radioactive waste. • The cost of building a nuclear plant requires corporate financing that is lavishly supplemented by government-guaranteed loans. • Unlike nuclear power, solar equipment can be scaled down to ownership by individual households. One of the Green New Deal’s major goals is correcting unfair income disparities that have been facilitated by public policies that reward corporations at the public’s expense. By supporting decentralized energy technology like rooftop solar and omitting corporate-dependent power sources — like nukes — the Green New Deal will help working people build economic security. Contrary to Echols’ claims, the Green New Deal’s aims are legitimate if ambitious. Providing clean energy is a commendable and timely enterprise that is vital to America’s future. David Kyler is the executive director of the Center for a Sustainable Coast in St. Simons Island, Ga. |
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Over $5 Trillion A Year On Oil And Gas Subsidies !
The World Blows Over $5 Trillion A Year On Oil And Gas Subsidies: Report https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2019/05/the-world-blows-over-5-trillion-a-year-on-oil-and-gas-subsidies-report/ Brian Kahn, May 11, 2019, The world subsidized its own demise to the tune of $7 trillion in 2017.
Radioactive fallout could be released from melting glaciers
“Anthropocene Nuclear Legacy” –Melting Glaciers Could Unleash Radioactive Fallout https://dailygalaxy.com/2019/05/anthropocene-nuclear-legacy-melting-glaciers-could-unleash-radioactive-fallout/ May 9, 2019 “These materials are a product of what we have put into the atmosphere. This is just showing that our nuclear legacy hasn’t disappeared yet. It’s still there,”said Caroline Clason, a lecturer in Physical Geography at the University of Plymouth of a study published in Nature that surveyed 19,000 of Earth’s glaciers and found their total melt amounts to a loss of 335 billion tons of ice each year, more than measurements of previous studies.“When it was built in the early 1900s, the road into Mount Rainier National Park from the west passed near the foot of the Nisqually Glacier, one of the mountain’s longest,” reports the New York Times. “Visitors could stop for ice cream at a stand built among the glacial boulders and gaze in awe at the ice. The ice cream stand (image below) is long gone.”
The glacier now ends more than a mile farther up the mountain, and they are melting elsewhere around the world too.
This scary scenario of our nuclear legacy was explored by an international team of scientists who studied the spread of radioactive contaminants in Arctic glaciers throughout Sweden, Iceland, Greenland, the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard, the European Alps, the Caucasus, British Columbia, and Antarctica. The researchers shared their results at the 2019 General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) in Vienna.
It found man made radioactive material at all 17 survey sites, often at concentrations at least 10 times higher than levels elsewhere. “They are some of the highest levels you see in the environment outside nuclear exclusion zones,” said Caroline Clason
Fallout radionuclides (FRNs) were detected these sites. Radioactive material was found embedded within ice surface sediments called “cryoconite,” and at concentration levels ten times greater than the surrounding environment.“ They are some of the highest levels you see in the environment outside nuclear exclusion zones,” Clason, who led the research project, told AFP.
The Chernobyl disaster of 1986—by far the most devastating nuclear accident to date—released vast clouds of radioactive material including Caesium into the atmosphere, causing widespread contamination and acid rain across northern Europe for weeks afterwards. “Radioactive particles are very light so when they are taken up into the atmosphere they can be transported a very long way,” she told AFP. “When it falls as rain, like after Chernobyl, it washes away and it’s sort of a one-off event. But as snow, it stays in the ice for decades and as it melts in response to the climate it’s then washed downstream.”
The environmental impact of this has been shown in recent years, as wild boar meat in Sweden was found to contain more than 10 times the safe levels of Caesium.
“We’re talking about weapons testing from the 1950s and 1960s onwards, going right back in the development of the bomb,” Clason said. “If we take a sediment core you can see a clear spike where Chernobyl was, but you can also see quite a defined spike in around 1963 when there was a period of quite heavy weapons testing.”
Weapons tests can fling radioactive detritus up to 50 miles in the air. Smaller, lighter materials will travel into the upper atmosphere, and may “circulate around the world for years, or even decades, until they gradually settle out or are brought back to the surface by precipitation,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Fallout is comprised of radionuclides such as Americium-241, Cesium-137, Iodine-131, and Strontium-90. Depending on a material’s half-life, it could remain in the environment minutes to years before decaying. Their levels of radiation also vary.
Particles can return to the immediate area as acid rain that’s absorbed by plants and soil, wreaking havoc on ecosystems, human health, and communities. But radionuclides that travel far and wide can settle in concentrated levels on snow and ice—large amounts of radioactive material from Fukushima was found in 2011 on four glaciers in the Tibetan Plateau, for example.
One of the most potentially hazardous residues of human nuclear activity is Americium, which is produced when Plutonium decays. Whereas Plutonium has a half-life of 14 years, Americium lasts 400.
Americium is more soluble in the environment and it is a stronger alpha (radiation) emitter. Both of those things are bad in terms of uptake into the food chain,” said Clason. While there is little data available on how these materials can be passed down the food chain—even potentially to humans—Clason said there was no doubt that Americium is “particularly dangerous”.
As geologists look for markers of the epoch when mankind directly impacted the health of the planet—known as the Anthropocene—Clason and her team believe that radioactive particles in ice, soil and sediment could be an important indicator.
The team hopes that future research will investigate how fallout could disperse into the food chain from glaciers, calling it a potential “secondary source of environmental contamination many years after the nuclear event of their origin.”
The Daily Galaxy via AFP, France24, and Nature
Mike Pompeo enthuses over the ‘benefits ‘ of climate change
 Mike Pompeo dismisses climate change, calls melting Arctic ice caps ‘new opportunities for trade’ Marissa Higgins, Daily Kos Staff ·Another day, another horrifying dismissal of climate change by one of our government representatives. In this case, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo decided to describe the Arctic’s melting ice caps as “new opportunities for trade,” which is possibly the worst climate-related take of the day. Pompeo uttered this out-of-touch assertion when he appeared at the Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting in Finland. This probably doesn’t come as a major surprise, but the bulk of Pompeo’s speech centered on China and Russia. Russia, for what it’s worth, has long held a serious reach in the Arctic, but China is rapidly getting closer.
But you know, why not throw in an asinine statement on climate change while you’re at it? “Steady reductions in sea ice are opening new passageways and new opportunities for trade,” Pompeo told the audience……. its centerpiece, the Arctic Ocean, is rapidly taking on new strategic significance,” he continued. “Offshore resources, which are helping the respective coastal states, are the subject of renewed competition.” While this is terrible, it isn’t really surprising given Pompeo’s past comments on climate change. For example, he was asked by ABC News over the weekend how he would rank climate change among other national security threats. …… Just last week, the Trump administration tried to remove references to climate change from the Arctic Council’s declaration. The declaration is a big deal, and all eight countries involved expect to sign it. The eight countries include Canada, Denmark (which includes Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the U.S. “There are different tones with which different countries want to approach climate change,” Aleksi Harkonen, the Arctic Ambassador of Finland, said, as reported by CNBC. “It’s not about whether climate change can be mentioned or not. It will be there in the final declaration.” And while everyone (hopefully) agrees that climate change is a serious issue, it’s worth noting that it’s particularly dire in the Arctic. Why? In short, the Arctic is warming at more than double the rate that the rest of the globe is. This means that the region is changing at a rapid rate, which can be impossibly dangerous for wildlife and indigenous populations. Pompeo sees all of this as just a security issue, but it’s a humanitarian one, too……https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/5/6/1855803/-Mike-Pompeo-dismisses-climate-change-calls-melting-Arctic-ice-caps-new-opportunities-for-trade |
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Thousands homeless, 33 dead, as cyclone Fani hits India
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India Cyclone Kills at Least 33, Hundreds of Thousands Homeless, Epoch Times
May 5, 2019 PURI, India—Hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless after a cyclone packing winds of about 200 km per hour slammed into eastern India, ripping out tin roofs and destroying power and telecom lines, officials said on Sunday, May 5.
At least 33 people were killed after cyclone Fani struck the state of Odisha on Friday but a million people emerged unscathed after they moved into storm shelter ahead of landfall. The death toll could have been much greater if not for the massive evacuation in the days before the storm made landfall, officials said….. Fani was the strongest summer cyclone in 43 years to hit Odisha, disrupting water supplies and transport links, the state’s chief minister Naveen Patnaik said in a statement. ….. https://www.theepochtimes.com/india-cyclone-kills-at-least-33-hundreds-of-thousands-homeless_2907764.html |
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UK commits to action on national “environmental and climate emergency”.
Irish Times 6th May 2019 In the quagmire of Brexit there is little to commend the UK government’s approach. This is in stark contrast with its clarity and leadership on climate change. It is the first national parliament to declare an “environmental and climate emergency”.
It has not only committed to “net-zero” greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the climate change committee in Westminster has set out how this can be achieved. Net zero means, in effect, eliminating its carbon footprint in a dramatically transformed economy built on sustainability with a near absence of fossil fuels.
Ireland has some way to go before it could commit to such a course, but a Government report due in the coming weeks must show a similar level of intent, and include a roadmap to reduce the shocking levels of Irish emissions. Declaring an emergency may seem like tokenism but it injects urgency into consideration of the best course to take. Wicklow County
Council was the first Irish local authority to declare a “biodiversity and climate change emergency”.
The Government should endorse a similar vote in our national parliament and introduce binding legislation on revised targets.
Will Ireland follow the example of Britain, and declare an “environmental and climate emergency”.
Irish Times 6th May 2019 In the quagmire of Brexit there is little to commend the UK government’s approach. This is in stark contrast with its clarity and leadership on climate change. It is the first national parliament to declare an “environmental and climate emergency”.
It has not only committed to “net-zero” greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the climate change committee in Westminster has set out how this can be achieved. Net zero means, in effect, eliminating its carbon footprint in a dramatically transformed economy built on sustainability with a near absence of fossil fuels.
Ireland has some way to go before it could commit to such a course, but a Government report due in the coming weeks must show a similar level of intent, and include a roadmap to reduce the shocking levels of Irish emissions. Declaring an emergency may seem like tokenism but it injects urgency into consideration of the best course to take. Wicklow County
Council was the first Irish local authority to declare a “biodiversity and climate change emergency”.
The Government should endorse a similar vote in our national parliament and introduce binding legislation on
revised targets.
1 This Month
26 April – Chernobyl: Inside the Meltdown airs on National Geographic on Sunday 26th April from 4pm
29 April – Nuclear Expert Webinar #1 – Radiation Impacts on Families with Mary Olson and Cindy Folkers
- 12:15 PM MT – 1:45 PM MT
- Location: Virtual – REGISTER TODAY
4 May -West Suburban Peace Coalition to discuss Iran war at May Educational Forum
Monday, May 4, 7:00 – 8:00 PM Central Standard Time
Title: : How Trump’s Narrative Tries to Shape the Reality of the War on Iran.
Contact Walt Zlotow, zlotow@hotmail.com 630 442 3045 for further information
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
Pine Ridge Uranium is the real threat, not Tehran- Tell Burgum: Stop the Extraction.
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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