11 July 2016, Carbon Brief, Shifting global cloud patterns could amplify warming, study says. A new study sheds light on one of the biggest uncertainties in predicting future changes to Earth’s climate: clouds. Clouds both warm the planet by insulating the Earth’s surface like a blanket, while simultaneously cooling it by reflecting away energy from the sun. Climate models predict that as the Earth warms in response to greenhouse gases, clouds will shift towards the poles and sit higher in the sky, further speeding up warming. But clouds are tricky to measure and until now, scientists haven’t been able to find direct evidence that these changes were actually happening in the real world. The new study published in Nature uses satellite data to identify how cloud patterns have changed in recent decades, confirming the pace of warming predicted by climate models. Satellite data Scientists use weather satellites to measure the extent, height and thickness of clouds. But these measurements suffer from several issues that can limit how useful they are for detecting long-term changes in cloudiness. Small discrepancies in the data are caused by satellite sensors degrading over time and being replaced by new, more precise instruments. Another issue is the gradual change in the orbit of satellites themselves, says the study’s lead author, Prof Joel Norris, professor of climate and atmospheric sciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego. He explains to Carbon Brief: Read More here
Monthly Archives: July 2016
11 July 2016, The Guardian, Leaked TTIP energy proposal could ‘sabotage’ EU climate policy. EU proposal on a free trade deal with the US could curb energy saving measures and a planned switch to clean energy, say MEPs. The latest draft version of the TTIP agreement could sabotage European efforts to save energy and switch to clean power, according to MEPs. A 14th round of the troubled negotiations on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) free trade deal between the EU and US is due to begin on Monday in Brussels. A leak obtained by the Guardian shows that the EU will propose a rollback of mandatory energy savings measures, and major obstacles to any future pricing schemes designed to encourage the uptake of renewable energies. Environmental protections against fossil fuel extraction, logging and mining in the developing world would also come under pressure from articles in the proposed energy chapter. Join the Guardian Sustainable Business Aus network for news and features on the social and environmental impact of business, as well as other exclusive benefits.Paul de Clerck, a spokesman for Friends of the Earth Europe, said the leaked document: “is in complete contradiction with Europe’s commitments to tackle climate change. It will flood the EU market with inefficient appliances, and consumers and the climate will foot the bill. The proposal will also discourage measures to promote renewable electricity production from wind and solar.” The European commission says that the free trade deal is intended to: “promote renewable energy and energy efficiency – areas that are crucial in terms of sustainability”. The bloc has also promised that any agreement would support its climate targets. In the period to 2020, these are binding for clean power and partly binding for energy efficiency, in the home appliance and building standards sectors. But the draft chapter obliges the two trade blocs to: “foster industry self-regulation of energy efficiency requirements for goods where such self-regulation is likely to deliver the policy objectives faster or in a less costly manner than mandatory requirements”. Read More here
7 July 2016, Renew Economy, How an extreme form of climate science denial has found a home in Australia’s Senate. Australians went off to vote in a general election last week, but five days later and the country still doesn’t have a result. As things stand, there appears to be every chance that neither of the two main party groupings — Labor on the left and the coalition of Liberals and Nationals on the right — will win enough seats to form a government in their own right. But one result in the country’s upper house has sparked a wave of discontent, reflection and rage — the election of the right wing anti-Muslim, anti-Halal, anti-vaccination firebrand Pauline Hanson. Hanson, who leads her own One Nation party, has won election to Australia’s Senate and, as counting continues, she could bring more candidates with her.But as well as pushing xenophobia and division, the Queensland politician will also take a most extreme brand of climate science denial with her into the Senate. As I wrote on The Guardian, Hanson’s party has been taking cues on climate science from one of the country’s most enthusiastic and relentless pushers of climate science denial, former coal miner Malcolm Roberts. Roberts is the volunteer project leader of the Galileo Movement, a Queensland-based project launched in 2011 to fight laws to put a price on greenhouse gas emissions…..Conspiracy climate. If you hang around the climate change issue for long enough, then at some point you’ll likely come across the extreme end of science denial and the conspiracy theories that Roberts represents. It goes a bit like this. Humans are not causing climate change. Government-paid climate scientists and their agencies are corrupt. The United Nations is in league with international bankers to defraud the world. It’s all about control. Read More here
5 July 2016, Renew Economy, Hidden climate report could help Malcolm find the middle. The Climate Change Authority report that some suspected was buried by the Australian government to save it from policy embarrassment during the election campaign, could now make it easier for prime minister Malcolm Turnbull to find the middle ground in a minority government, or one ruling with a razor-thin majority. The CCA report had been expected to be released in late June, but was delayed until after the election, to the obvious relief of the government. So, too, was a report on options for the electricity sector, which had been due for release in April or May, and which leaked reports suggest strongly supported some form of mandatory carbon price. Those reports by the CCA, despite its board being stacked by Turnbull government appointees following the resignation of former chairman Bernie Fraser and other directors, would not have suited the Coalition election platform. They were expected to reaffirm the position that Australia was trailing the world in emission reductions, needed to do more, and would need to adopt a carbon price. And, they would likely note, this would not be anywhere near as expensive as many suggest. That, of course, would not have helped the Coalition election platform, which was to continue with its much criticised Direct Action program, and to lambast any proposals by Labor and the Greens for an economy-wide carbon price and higher renewable energy targets. Read More here