Tag Archives: Emissions

PLEA Network

27 September 2016, Climate Central, The World Passes 400 PPM Threshold. Permanently. In the centuries to come, history books will likely look back on September 2016 as a major milestone for the world’s climate. At a time when atmospheric carbon dioxide is usually at its minimum, the monthly value failed to drop below 400 parts per million. That all but ensures that 2016 will be the year that carbon dioxide officially passed the symbolic 400 ppm mark, never to return below it in our lifetimes, according to scientists. Because carbon pollution has been increasing since the start of the Industrial Revolution and has shown no signs of abating, it was more a question of “when” rather than “if” we would cross this threshold. The inevitability doesn’t make it any less significant, though. September is usually the month when carbon dioxide is at its lowest after a summer of plants growing and sucking it up in the northern hemisphere. As fall wears on, those plants lose their leaves, which in turn decompose, releasing the stored carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. At Mauna Loa Observatory, the world’s marquee site for monitoring carbon dioxide, there are signs that the process has begun but levels have remained above 400 ppm. Read more here

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21 September 2016, Climate News Network, Dire climate impacts go unheeded. New scientific studies address lack of awareness of the adverse economic, social and biodiversity effects that climate change is already having. The social and economic impacts of climate change have already begun to take their toll – but most people do not yet know this. Politicians and economists have yet to work out how and when it would be best to adapt to change. And biologists say they cannot even begin to measure climate change’s effect on biodiversity because there is not enough information. Two studies in Science journal address the future. The first points out that historical temperature increases depress maize crop yields in the US by 48% and have already driven up the rates of civil conflict in sub-Saharan Africa by 11%. Economic growth Hot weather in future could slow global economic growth rates by nearly 0.30 percentage points per year. Almost as surprising, according to Solomon Hsiang, principal investigator in the Global Policy Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, is that nobody seems to be aware of these facts. “People get so used to hot days, since they happen all the time, that they never stop to consider that those days are costing them,” Professor Hsiang says. “But if people used different technologies or organised their lives differently to adapt to their climate, then we might be able to do dramatically better.” Read More here

 

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19 September 2016, The Guardian, Adani Carmichael coalmine faces new legal challenge from conservation foundation. Foundation appeals against ruling that endorsed mine’s approval by the commonwealth. The Australian Conservation Foundation has renewed its legal challenge to Adani’s Carmichael mine, appealing against a federal court ruling that endorsed its approval by the commonwealth. The ACF on Monday lodged an appeal against last month’s decision, which found the then federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, was entitled to find the impact on global warming and the Great Barrier Reef from the Queensland mine’s 4.6bn tonnes of carbon emissions “speculative”. The president of the ACF, Geoff Cousins, said Australia’s national environment protection laws were “broken” if the minister could approve “a mega-polluting coalmine – the biggest in Australia’s history – and claim it will have no impact on the global warming and the reef”. “If our environment laws are too weak to actually protect Australia’s unique species and places, they effectively give companies like Adani a licence to kill,” Cousins said. “Be in no doubt, Adani’s Carmichael proposal is massive and will lock in decades of damaging climate pollution if it goes ahead, further wrecking the reef. “The science is clear that we can have coal or the reef – but we can’t have both.” Read More here

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13 September 2016, Renew Economy, Coalition, Labor agree to slash $500m from ARENA budget. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency will have its funding slashed by $500 million after Labor and the Coalition agreed on Tuesday to a compromise deal on the government’s omnibus budget repair package. As RenewEconomy flagged last week, the compromise came after ARENA sought to strike a last-minute compromise on its funding position, in an effort to continue its support of critical research and early stage development in new renewable energy and storage technologies. Several scenarios were reportedly outlined by the Agency’s board, including that the cuts be reduced to $300 million or $500 million. The Agency has been awaiting news of its fate since March, when the Turnbull-led Coalition proposed to essentially de-fund it and replace it with a new “Clean Energy Innovation Fund.” The two mainstream parties finally agreed on stripping $500 million from the remaining $1.3 billion legislated budget in the agency that was created by Labor in 2012, but which the Coalition has spent three years trying to dismantle, along with the Climate Council, the Climate Change Authority, the carbon price, and originally the renewable energy target and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. There has also been a furious public and industry-based campaign to save ARENA, both from state governments, the renewable energy industry, NGOs, and researchers, who warn that Australia will face an exodus of R&D capabilities and new technologies if the cuts go ahead. Just last week, ARENA announced the 12 large-scale PV projects that won grants in what many thought might be the agency’s last major funding round. The tender was credited for reducing solar PV costs by 40 per cent, and a similar program is being sought for large-scale solar thermal with storage. Labor says it will seek talks with the Coalition over the funding priorities for ARENA. Both parties had expressed interest in solar thermal with storage, which is considered a critical new technology for a high renewables grid. In the meantime, the party is taking credit for “saving” ARENA. But others are not so complimentary, like the Greens, who described Labor as “clean energy charlatans” because of the move. “Labor had absolutely no reason to cut half a billion dollars out of ARENA,” climate change spokesman Adam Bandt said. “If Bill Shorten had joined with the Greens and the crossbench, we could have stared the Coalition down and found fairer places to raise revenue.” Read more here