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Indians are not impressed with US-China climate
deal
An Indian thinktank has labelled last week's US-China
climate deal as neither historic nor ambitious, reports the
Guardian. It says the deal would lead to dangerous temperature
rises. India's minister for environment says the deal is "not so
ambitious" but also a "good beginning".
Guardian
Climate and energy news
Keystone pipeline vote fails in US
Senate
The US senate bill has failed to pass a bill in support of
the $7bn Keystone XL oil pipeline. A cross-party attempt to press
president Barack Obama into approving it mustered only 59 of the
required 60 votes, despite support from all Republican senators.
The planned pipeline would carry oil from Canada to the US and has
become a proxy for a bigger political fight over the competing
imperatives of economic growth and environmental protection, the
Financial Times says. The New York Times also has the story. The Guardian has
several takes on the news. Reuters reports on White
House opposition to the Senate
legislation.
Financial Times
Brussels targets super-sized TVs in drive for
energy efficiency
The energy use of big screen TVs could be capped from June
2016 under EU energy efficiency rules, reports the Guardian. The
move is expected to cut consumers' energy bills by around €8bn a
year. Similar rules for vacuum cleaners were criticised by UK
newspapers. Kettles, toasters and hairdryers are due to be targeted
by energy saving rules next year.
Guardian
Asia Pushes Hard for Clean
Energy
Asia is set to spend more than $250 billion a year on
renewable energy representing two-thirds of its total power
investment, according to analysts Bloomberg New Energy Finance. It
expects low-carbon sources to provide a third of the region's
electricity by 2030, with solar the biggest contributor. Yet fossil
fuel use and emissions will remain on an upward trend, it says.
RTCC reports on Indian plans to boost
solar capacity five-fold to 100 gigawatts.
New York Times
Cost and lack of fuel stations drag on hydrogen
car take-up
There are just 70 hydrogen refuelling stations worldwide
that are "in principle" open to the public, according to the
website H2stations.org. The addition of 12 stations in 2013 amply
illustrates one of the two biggest hurdles to the widespread
adoption of hydrogen-powered cars, the Financial Times reports. The
other is the cost of building such vehicles, it says.
Financial Times
EDF in fresh delay for flagship nuclear
plant
French state-owned nuclear firm EDF has announced the latest
in a long line of delays to its flagship next generation nuclear
plant in Flamanville, originally due to start operating in 2012.
Construction is now expected to take 10 years and finish in 2017.
EDF is due to build a new nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point in
Somerset, by 2023. Construction has yet to begin.
Financial Times
China needs to cap coal use by 2020 to meet
climate goals -think tank
China needs to hit peak coal by 2020 in order to meet its
commitment to hit peak emissions by 2030 according to an
influential Chinese government-backed thinktank. "We are trying to
tell provincial officials how much coal they could use under a
restricted nationwide quota," a thinktank official tells
Reuters.
Reuters
Climate and energy comment
Climategate five years on: who won the
war?
In general it's mainstream climate science, not its
critics, that have emerged victorious five years on from the
Climategate emails, argues Richard Black. A few leaders such as
Australia's Tony Abbott still find use for the Climategate
accusations. But all governments, including Mr Abbott's, have
endorsed the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's
latest report and therefore accepted the scientific picture that
preventing the worst impacts of climate change means ending fossil
fuel burning on a timescale of decades.
RTCC
Green Climate Fund is not a charity but investment
in our future
A world that does not manage to curb global warming is an
insecure world, argues Swedish international development minister
Isabella Lövin in the Guardian. That means the UN's Green Climate
Fund, designed to support poorer nations adapt to and mitigate
warming, is an investment in our collective future, she says. The
Swedish government "hopes and expects" more developed nations to
pledge money to the fund at a conference on Thursday.
RTCC explains why the fund is important
and reportsthat officials are confident the
fund will reach a $10 billion target.
Guardian
Below the headlines - the nuts and bolts of a new
global climate deal
The question for leaders at the global climate summit next
year is becoming clearer, argues Greenpeace's Ruth Davis. They need
to put the realities of climate risk at the heart of a new deal
without resorting to a top-down global system of emissions targets,
she says, and this requirement cannot be met through national
climate commitments alone.
EnergyDesk
New climate science
Moderating diets to feed the
future
Improving crop yields through fertilisers and irrigation can
potentially meet future global demand, but only if diets are
moderated and crop-based biofuel production is limited. The study
finds that at current levels of biofuel use, existing farming
techniques could be used to feed an additional 1.8-2.6 billion
people by 2030 and 2.1-3.1 billion by 2050.
Earth's Future
Total volcanic stratospheric aerosol optical
depths and implications for global climate
change
Small volcanic eruptions might eject more of an
atmosphere-cooling gas into Earth's upper atmosphere than
previously thought. Ground-, air- and satellite measurements show
that small volcanic eruptions between 2000 and 2013 have deflected
almost double the amount of solar radiation previously estimated.
This translates into an estimated global cooling of 0.05 to
0.12 °C, the researchers say, and could be contributing to the
recent slowdown in global warming.
Geophysical Research Letters
Improving farming practices reduces the carbon
footprint of spring wheat production
Wheat is one of the world's most favoured food sources,
reaching millions of people on a daily basis. However, its
production has a climate impact as fuel, inorganic fertilisers and
pesticides used in wheat production emit greenhouse gases. This
study finds that the carbon footprint of wheat can actually be
negative with a few changes to how it is grown.
Nature Communications
Simulations of 21st century snow response to
climate change in Switzerland from a set of
RCMs
Some potentially bad news for skiers, as a new study finds
that by the end of the century, average snow depths could shrink by
around 35 per cent, 85 per cent and 95 per cent at high-, mid- and
low-elevations, respectively. This could have large socio-economic
consequences for winter tourism, especially for ski resorts located
at mid-elevations, the researchers say.
International Journal of Climatology