Climate Summit failed to support African communities on the front lines of the climate crisis.
Kenyan climate activist Elizabeth Wathuti told world leaders attending the
Cop26 climate summit that her message would only land if they had the grace
to “fully listen”. Six months on, the 26-year-old environmentalist
looks back at the Glasgow summit with growing frustration. She feels that
it failed to deliver concrete support for those living on the front lines
of the climate crisis. Promises for future action, made in abundance at the
summit, offer cold comfort to those on the African continent living with
climate-fuelled hunger, flooding and extreme heat, she tells The
Independent, pointing to climate-related food insecurity in her own
country, Kenya.
Independent 22nd May 2022
A fossil fuel front group – The Global Warming Policy Foundation
The Global Warming Policy Foundation, a climate sceptic thinktank, has
been reported to the Charity Commission by the Green MP Caroline Lucas and
Extinction Rebellion. The move comes after the Guardian revealed that the
group received funding from fossil fuel interests. The thinktank has
charitable status, but climate campaigners say the questions about its
funding mean it should be stripped of this. In a letter to the Charity
Commission, the signatories including the writers Irvine Welsh and Zadie
Smith say the GWPF is “not a charity, but a fossil fuel lobby group”.
The GWPF, set up in 2009 by the former Tory chancellor Lord Lawson, has
enjoyed a recent revival in its influence in parliament. It has MP Steve
Baker as a trustee and has its research promoted by the Net Zero Scrutiny
Group of Conservative MPs.
Guardian 23rd May 2022
The U.N. “Sustainable Development Goals”- just ”greenwashing” – claim experts
100 scientists and academics urge UN to drop sustainable development
targets after ‘failure’. Exclusive: The letter was released as the
United Nations begins a summit on disaster risks in Bali, Indonesia on
Monday. The experts are calling for the United Nations to abandon the
“Sustainable Development Goals” — a group of 17 targets adopted in
2015 to tackle global social and environmental issues from hunger to
climate change to economic growth.
Among the notable experts who have put
their names to the letter are Peter Kalmus, a climate scientist at Nasa who
was arrested last month in a climate protest; Yves Cochet, France’s
former Minister of Environment and Regional Planning; and Britt Wray,
author of the recent climate anxiety book, Generation Dread.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are based on an ideology that values
material and technological progress and prioritizes corporate interests –
where “humanity will balance social, economic and environmental issues to
progress materially,” Jem Bendell, a sustainability researcher at the
University of Cumbria, told The Independent via email, citing a recent
non-peer reviewed paper that he authored on the subject. Dr Bendell called
the SDGs a “systemic greenwash” that undermines “challenges to
structural power.”
Independent 23rd May 2022
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/un-sustainable-development-failure-b2084034.html
Global heating brings megadrought and water shortages to over half of the USA
The “megadrought” gripping the southwestern US has driven water levels
at the two largest reservoirs to record lows, forcing unprecedented
government intervention to protect water and power supplies across seven
states.
Millions of Americans already contending with critical water
shortages now face the prospect of black outs as energy demand grows during
heatwaves just as hydroelectric power supply is strained. A US power
regulator this week warned that a big swath of the US was at risk of
blackouts, partly as a result of drought conditions curtailing
hydroelectric supplies.
US government climate scientists have said more
than half the country is enduring drought conditions, while a separate
study estimated that the drought affecting southwestern states was the
worst to hit the region for 1,200 years after being exacerbated by human
activity.
FT 21st May 2022
https://www.ft.com/content/9f00dfff-3a44-483f-9d5a-f58db7806046
Chernobyl nuclear fears as forest near Exclusion Zone in FLAMES – emergency triggered
CHERNOBYL nuclear fears have surged after a forest near the Exclusion Zone erupted in flames as emergency services battled to extinguish the huge blaze.
By PAUL WITHERS, May 18, 2022 The State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported that litter in the forest near the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone had caught fire. More than a dozen firefighters and four units of equipment were involved in battling to put out the massive fire. At 2.10am local time, the fire had been localised to an area of 45 hectares.
Video footage shared on Twitter shows the forest next to the Exclusion Zone engulfed in flames that are several metres high.
Rescue workers wearing protective face masks are also seen leading a local resident to safety.
The State Emergency Service of Ukraine shared footage of the fire on its Telegram channel.
The service also wrote alongside this: “May 17 near the village. “In the forest of Vyshhorod district, forest litter caught fire.
“During the fire, our firefighters rescued a local resident.
“At 02:10 on May 18, the fire was localized on an area of 45 hectares.
“As of 09:00 there is decay of dry grass and stumps.
“Sixteen rescuers and four units were involved in the firefighting techniques.
The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is an officially designated 1,000 square mile area in Ukraine around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster.
It covers an area where radioactive contamination is highest and public access and habitation are restricted.
The Exclusion Zone aims to restrict access to hazardous areas, reduce the spread of radiological contamination, and conduct radiological and ecological monitoring activities.
It remains one of the most radioactively contaminated areas in the world, attracting widespread interest over the high levels of radiation exposure in the environment.
The Exclusion Zone had been established by the Soviet Armed Forces soon after the nuclear power plant disaster in 1986. This initially existed as an area with a radius of 30 miles from the structure, designated for evacuation and placed under military control.
Over the years, its borders have been widened to cover a much larger area of Ukraine.
Germany will vote against EU plans to label nuclear power as a green investment,
Germany says it will vote against EU plans to label nuclear power as a green investment, https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/05/17/germany-will-vote-against-eu-plans-to-include-nuclear-energy-as-a-green-investment By Kate Abnett with Reuters – UK Online Report Business News 17/05/2022
Germany will oppose European Union plans to include nuclear energy as a sustainable investment in its “taxonomy” policy for labelling green investments, the government said on Monday.
With the bloc aiming to achieve net-zero by 2050, massive investments into sustainable energy sources are needed. The European Commission is looking to class nuclear energy as ‘green’ making it easier for states and the private sector to invest.
Brussels is now seeking approval from EU countries and European Parliament for its plan to label gas and nuclear as climate-friendly investments. It has split opinions among states who disagree with the fuels’ green credentials.
Germany, the EU’s biggest economy, is among those planning to reject it when countries come to vote on the plan in the coming weeks.
“The Federal Government has expressed its opposition to the taxonomy rules on nuclear power. This ‘no’ is an important political signal that makes clear: Nuclear energy is not sustainable and should therefore not be part of the
taxonomy,” Germany’senvironment ministry and its economy and climate ministry said in a statement.
Nuclear energy is not sustainable and should therefore not be part of the taxonomy.
“Accordingly, the Federal Government would vote for the Council to object to the EU Commission’s delegated legal act,” the ministries said.
A ‘gold standard’ for green investing
To reject the rules, 20 of the EU’s 27 countries must oppose it – a high threshold seen as unlikely to be reached. Germany’s stance could also steer opinion in the European Parliament, however, where a majority of the assembly’s 705 lawmakers could block the gas and nuclear rules in a July vote.
The EU’s sustainable finance taxonomy was designed to provide a “gold standard” for green investing, by limiting which investments can be labelled climate-friendly to only those that truly protect the planet.
Austria is leading a call for legal action because of “serious concerns” about nuclear energy being too expensive and slow to actually fight climate change. Officials from the country have pointed out that, whilenuclear energy generation is CO2-free, the problem of nuclear waste has still not been solved.
The small but wealthy nation of Luxembourg is also considering legal action if the decision to label nuclear energy as ‘green’ goes ahead.
\The plan to label gas as climate-friendly has faced criticism from countries including Spain, although some countries had lobbied hard for the taxonomy to incentivise gas investments to help them phase out coal.
Gas emits less CO2 than coal when burned, but is also associated with leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
1.2 billion people threatened by escalating heat due to climate change
Rolling out cooling technologies to the 1.2 billion people most at risk
from extreme heat incidents should be a global priority, according to the
global Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) campaign.
In a new report, titled Chilling Prospects, SEforALL reveals the escalating threat
communities are facing from extreme heatwaves and warns that the world is
entering a decisive decade when sustainable cooling solutions must be
deployed at pace if increasingly common heatwaves are not to have
catastrophic and deadly consequences.
The report assesses 76 countries with
cooling access challenges and found that, globally, 1.2 billion people do
not have adequate access to cooling, threatening their ability to survive
extreme heat, store nutritious food, or secure access to safe vaccines.
Business Green 17th May 2022
Climate change makes record-breaking heatwaves in northwest India and Pakistan 100 times more likely
Climate change makes record-breaking heatwaves in northwest India and
Pakistan 100 times more likely, a Met Office study finds. The region should
now expect a heatwave that exceeds the record temperatures seen in 2010
once every three years.
Without climate change, such extreme temperatures
would occur only once every 312 years, the Met Office says. The report
comes as forecasters say temperatures in north-west India could reach new
highs in the coming days. The extreme pre-monsoon heatwave the region has
suffered in recent weeks eased a little after peak temperatures reached 51C
in Pakistan on Saturday.
But the heat looks likely to build again towards
the end of this week and into the weekend, the Met Office’s Global Guidance
Unit warns. It says maximum temperatures are likely to reach 50C in some
spots, with continued very high overnight temperatures.
BBC 18th May 2022
COP26: No countries have delivered on promise to improve climate plans.
COP26: No countries have delivered on promise to improve climate plans. In
Glasgow, 196 countries promised to “revisit and strengthen” their plans for
curbing emissions, but there is little sign of this happening before the
next talks in November.
Sebastian Mernild’s presentation pulled no
punches. As more than 40 countries met in Copenhagen last week to discuss
progress since 2021’s COP26 climate summit, the University of Southern
Denmark glaciologist greeted ministers with jagged red lines showing rising
global temperatures. He reminded them that emissions are still growing.
And he told them their goal of holding temperature rises to 1.5°C needs
nothing less than “rapid, deep and sustained” emissions cuts. “They
all know what we are facing scientifically regarding 1.5°C,” says
Mernild. Whether they are acting on that knowledge is another question.
Half a year on from a deal at COP26 in Glasgow, it is far from clear if
countries are delivering on the commitments they made. COP26 president Alok
Sharma said today that failure by world leaders to deliver on their pledges
would be a “monstrous act of self-harm”. Speaking in Glasgow, he said
he could understand why action to cut emissions had been pushed out of the
spotlight by the war in Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis, but reminded
his audience that “climate change is a chronic danger” the world
couldn’t ignore.
New Scientist 16th May 2022
Germany to reject EU green investment label for nuclear power
https://www.reuters.com/business/germany-reject-eu-green-investment-label-nuclear-power-2022-05-16/ , By Kate Abnett. BRUSSELS, May 16 (Reuters) – Germany will oppose European Union plans to include nuclear energy as a sustainable investment in its “taxonomy” policy for labelling green investments, the government said on Monday.
Brussels is seeking approval from EU countries and European Parliament for its plan to label gas and nuclear as climate-friendly investments, which has split opinion among states who disagree on the fuels’ green credentials.
Germany, the EU’s biggest economy, is among those planning to reject it when countries come to vote on the plan in the coming weeks.
“The Federal Government has expressed its opposition to the taxonomy rules on nuclear power. This ‘no’ is an important political signal that makes clear: Nuclear energy is not sustainable and should therefore not be part of the taxonomy,” Germany’s environment ministry and its economy and climate ministry said in a statement.
“Accordingly, the Federal Government would vote for the Council to object to the EU Commission’s delegated legal act,” the ministries said.
To reject the rules, 20 of the EU’s 27 countries must oppose it – a high threshold seen as unlikely to be reached. Germany’s stance could also steer opinion in the European Parliament, however, where a majority of the assembly’s 705 lawmakers could block the gas and nuclear rules in a July vote.
The EU’s sustainable finance taxonomy was designed to provide a “gold standard” for green investing, by limiting which investments can be labelled climate-friendly to only those that truly protect the planet.
Nuclear energy generation is CO2-free, but produces radioactive waste. Separately, Austria and Luxembourg have threatened legal action over the plan to label nuclear investments as green.
The plan to label gas as climate-friendly has faced criticism from countries including Spain, although some countries had lobbied hard for the taxonomy to incentivise gas investments to help them phase out coal. Gas emits less CO2 than coal when burned, but is also associated with leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
Extreme heat hitting India
An intense heatwave has been sweeping through northern India with
temperature hitting a record 49.2C in parts of the capital, Delhi. Reports
say this is the fifth spell of a heatwave in the capital this summer.
Officials in many parts of the country have asked people to take
precaution. They warned the heat could cause moderate health concerns for
the vulnerable, including infants, the elderly and people with chronic
diseases.
BBC 16th May 2022
Nuclear power is a HUGE water guzzler – so why are we guzzling the lie that nuclear is good for climate?
The video above is 2 years old – but so what? Nothing seems to have changed – this particular facility is especially water-dependent. But they all are. The current article below – is, unfortunately, behind a paywall. But it’s a rare mention in the media of this hugely significan factor in nuclear power problems.
Take France, for example. Right now, nearly half of their nuclear reactors are shut down anyway. But – come the summer – they’ll be shutting down again – due to water stress.
Huge nuclear plant in Arizona desert seeking new sources of water – it uses 23 b gallons of water per year The Arizona Republic 2 May 22, https://www.azcentral.com/restricted/?return=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.azcentral.com%2Fstory%2Fmoney%2Fbusiness%2Fenergy%2F2022%2F05%2F01%2Farizonas-nuclear-palo-verde-generating-station-wants-new-water-source%2F7306649001%2F
Pakistan, India reel under intense heat wave
Market Screener, By Jibran Ahmad and Sumit Khanna, 29 Apr 22,
PESHAWAR, Pakistan/AHMEDABAD,India (Reuters) -Pakistan issued a heat warning after the hottest March in 61 years while in parts of neighbouring India schools were shut and streets deserted as an intense heave wave on Friday showed no signs of abating.
Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Climate Change, Sherry Rehman, urged the federal and provincial governments to take precautionary measures to manage the intense heat wave, which touched highs of 47 degrees Celsius (116.6 Fahrenheit) in parts of the country.
“South Asia, particularly India and Pakistan are faced with what has been a record-breaking heatwave. It started in early April and continues to leave the people gasping in whatever shade they find,” Rehman said in a statement.
Temperatures were predicted to rise by 6 to 8 degrees Celsius above average temperatures after the hottest March on record since 1961, she said.
More than a billion people are at risk of heat-related impacts in the region, scientists have warned, linking the early onset of an intense summer to climate change. For the first time in decades, Pakistan had gone from winter to summer without the spring season, Rehman said.
The government has also told provincial disaster management authorities to prepare urgently for the risk of flash-flooding in northern mountainous provinces due to rapid glacial melting, Rehman said.
Glaciers in the Himalaya, Hindu Kush and Karkoram mountain ranges have melted rapidly, creating thousand of glacial lakes in northern Pakistan, around 30 of which were at risk of sudden hazardous flooding, the climate change ministry said, adding around 7 million people were vulnerable.
A senior scientist at the India Meteorological Department said https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1519938880824176641?s=20&t=NgygE8RS-D4wfM-OJxp9Ew on Friday heat conditions would persist for at least the next three days, but that temperatures would fall after the arrival of monsoons, expected in some parts by May.
The health problems triggered by the heatwave were posing a bigger worry than the expected fourth wave of COVID-19, doctors in India said.
“We are getting many patients who have suffered heatstroke or other heat-related problems,” said Mona Desai, former president of Ahmedabad Medical Association in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
She said that 60-70% of the patients were school-aged complaining of vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal colic, weakness and other symptoms.
Roads were deserted in Bhubaneshwar, in India’s eastern state of Odisha, where schools have been shut, while neighbouring West Bengal advanced the school summer break by a few days.
Delhi sweltering under extreme heat, electricity shortage
| India is facing the worst electricity shortage in more than six years as Delhi saw its hottest April in 12 years on Thursday at a maximum of 43.5C. The temperatures in the national capital are predicted to linger around 44C with peak summer heat still to come before the cool monsoon rains in June. The extreme heat parching across large swathes of south Asia this week has also prompted health officials in the western state of Gujarat to take measures, as they braced for a potential spike in patients. Meanwhile, the leap in power demand has left India scrambling for coal, with inventories running lowest pre-summer levels in at least nine years. Several states including Rajasthan and Haryana in the north and Andhra Pradesh in the south observed the worst power cuts in over six years as the government struggled to manage surging power demands. Independent 29th April 2022 https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/india-heatwave-2022-delhi-latest-b2068112.html |
Climate change ‘already’ raising risk of virus spread between mammals
Mammals forced to move to cooler climes amid global warming are
“already” spreading their viruses further – with “undoubtable”
impacts for human health, a new study says. The research, published in
Nature, uses modelling to map how climate change could shift the geographic
ranges of 3,100 mammals species and the viruses they carry by 2070.
It finds that climate change is increasingly driving new encounters between
mammal species, raising the risk of novel disease spread. The world’s
“biodiversity hotspots” and densely populated parts of Asia and Africa
are most likely to be affected. The findings suggest that climate change
could “easily become the dominant [human] driver” of cross-species
virus transmission by 2070, the authors say.
Carbon Brief 28th April 2022
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