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Global Growth in Fossil Fuel Burning Continues
Unabated
The International Energy Agency launched its new World Energy
Outlook this week, a tome to be found on the desk of any
self-respecting energy analyst. But the report's launch was
somewhat lost in midst of coverage of the US-China climate deal.
The new report projects global energy demand growing by 37 per cent
and carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels increasing
by one-fifth between now and 2040, mostly because of crude oil and
coal burning in Asian countries and Africa.
Scientific
American
Climate and energy news
Six years worth of current emissions would blow
the carbon budget for 1.5
degrees
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's carbon budget
suggests it will take just six years of current emissions for the
world to pass a point that would give a good chance of keeping
global warming below 1.5 degrees. Limiting warming to 1.5 degrees
has become a political rallying call for some nations and
Non-Governmental Organisations. We take a detailed look at the
carbon budget, and how long it might take the world to spend it.
Carbon Brief
Economists: EPA CO2 Plan May Be Too
Weak
13 economists from the University of Chicago, Stanford
University, Yale, Harvard, MIT, and the University of
California-Berkeley and Davis have published an analysis of
President Obama's clean power plan in the journal Science. Their
verdict? The plan may not have what it takes to cut the emissions
it's setting out to slash, Climate Central reports. The clean power
plan should set specific emissions caps for each state, rather than
emissions intensity goals, the authors recommend.
Climate Central
Keystone bill expected to pass U.S. House, but
Senate in doubt
The US House of Representatives is expected to pass a law
today approving the construction of a major pipeline connecting the
US to Canada's tar sands. The Keystone XL pipeline has become a
political football in the US, with the president and some members
of the Democrat party against the deal, but wary of blocking it.
Latest indications suggest the Senate's new Republican leadership
could be one vote short of getting the bill passed into law.
Reuters has a handy timeline of events so far.
Reuters
G20 summit: Australian PM Tony Abbott tries to
block climate talks - and risks his country becoming an
international laughing stock
G20 host Australia is attempting to block discussion of
climate change at the meeting, the Independent reports. The
country's climate skeptic prime minister, Tony Abbott, wants world
leaders to focus on the economy, rather than environmental issues.
Abbott's recent dismantling of the country's climate policy means
"Australia is looking increasingly out of step with the developed
world", the Independent argues.
Independent
Fracking no 'silver bullet' for emissions cuts or
energy security
There is no evidence to support at outright fracking ban, the
European Academies Science Advisory Council says. Fracking can be
safe so long as there is stringent regulation and companies avoid
using harmful chemicals, it says. Shale gas can also help curb
emissions, it says, so long as care is taken to minimise the amount
of methane that escapes during the process.
Press Association via
Guardian
Obama to pledge at least $2.5bn to help poor
states fight climate change
President Obama is expected to pledge at least $2.5 billion
and as much as $3 billion over the next four years to the UN's
Green Climate Fund. The fund has been set up to help the world's
most vulnerable countries adapt to climate change, but donations
have been slow coming. The president is set to make the
announcement at the G20 meeting in Australia, expecting to
embarrass the hosts and hoping to stimulate more donations. The
Netherlands is set to pledge €100 million to the fund,
RTCC reports.
Guardian
Republicans plan energy policy
revolution
A push to boost the US's shale gas industry will be at the
heart of the Republicans' new Congressional agenda, the FT reports.
The party wants to lift regulations restricting the export of
liquefied natural gas and oil. It also wants to find ways to
encourage companies to build new fossil fuel infrastructure, such
as pipelines. Financial
Times
Lighting strikes set to increase by 50% across the
US because of global warming, scientists
warn
Lightning strikes in the United States could increase by
nearly 50 percent by the end of the century as the world gets
warmer and wetter, a new study says. Strikes are expected to
increase 12 per cent for every degree Celsius the world warms.
We've covered the research here. The Guardian, Scientific
American and New Scientist also have the story.
Mail Online
Frack on! Thumbs up for national shale gas
college
The UK government is to create a "fracking college". The £1.5
million National College for Onshore Oil and Gas will be head
quartered in Blackpool and linked to colleges in Chester, Redcar
and Cleveland, Glasgow and Portsmouth, Energy Live News reports. It
will provide "high level specialist skills" needed by the industry,
train teachers and regulators, run courses, carry out research as
well as work with schools to encourage children to consider careers
in the industry.
Energy Live News
Climate and energy comment
US-China deal makes international carbon emissions
pact 'very likely', says David
King
The US-China climate pact has significantly improved the
chances of getting a new international deal at Paris next year, the
UK's special adviser on climate change to the foreign office says.
The reason the US and China were finally able to come together? The
deal was made in a small meeting, rather than the annual
UNFCCC circus, a University of San Diego professor argues in the
Guardian. This should be the model for future climate negotiations,
he says. The fact that the US and China have both acknowledged
climate action can be taken without large economic costs is
significant, argues an economist from the Stockholm Environment
Institute in RTCC. But the US's pledged target is four per cent lower than the one it
tabled at climate negotiations in Copenhagen, RTCC points out.
China's emissions are also set to rise by a third before hitting a
peak in 2030, Reuters reports, potentially dampening the impact of
China's new pledge. We take a detailed look at the new pledges, and
conclude they're politically significant if not all that ambitious.
Guardian
New climate science
CH4 and N2O emissions embodied in international
trade of meat
A new study is the first to quantify emissions of methane and
nitrous oxide embodied in products traded internationally. The
researchers calculated that between 1990 and 2010, the emissions
embodied in beef, pork and chicken increased by 19 per cent
globally, with the largest trade flow from Brazil and Argentina to
Russia. An increase in emissions can happen as counties import more
meat from high-emissions intensity regions, rather than producing
it domestically.
Environmental Research Letters