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Climate change set to fuel more "monster" El
Niños, scientists warn
The El Niño gaining strength in the Pacific is shaping up to
be one of the biggest on record, scientists say. A new review paper
in Nature Climate Change suggests we can expect more of the same in
future. Carbon Brief
Paris 2015 Tracking country climate
pledges
Carbon Brief's tracker monitoring which countries have
submitted their pledges to the UN on how far they intend to reduce
their greenhouse gas emissions. We've updated it to include
Djibouti's pledge to reduce emissions by 40% by 2030.
Carbon Brief
Climate and energy news
Arctic drilling: Royal Dutch Shell granted final
permit for exploration of possible oil reserves off
Alaska
Shell has been granted the final permit it needs in order to
drill for potential oil reserves in Arctic. The US Bureau of Safety
and Environmental Enforcement, America's offshore regulator, gave
its approval for deep drilling in the Chukchi Sea off the
north-west coast of Alaska. Although Shell has been drilling since
July 30, they hadn't yet been allowed to drill deep enough to reach
oil. Friends of the Earth said the award of the permit "completely
contradicts" President Barack Obama's commitment to tackle the
threat of climate change, reports The Financial Times.
The Independent
U.S. Is Set to Propose Regulation to Cut Methane
Emissions
The US government is today expected to propose the
first-ever federal regulation to cut methane emissions from the oil
and gas sector by up to 45% over the next decade from 2012 levels.
The US boom in natural gas and oil production has raised concerns
about leaks and venting of methane throughout the production
process, says Reuters, and existing standards to
prevent leaks have been voluntary. The US Environmental Protection
Agency forecasts that methane emissions from the oil and gas sector
will rise by 25% over the next 10 years without being reined in,
says Carbon Pulse.
The New York Times
One third of UK 'suitable for a nuclear burial
site'
At least 30% of the UK could have the right geology to allow
a £12bn nuclear waste burial site, experts say. The government has
been on the search for a potential location since a site in Cumbria
was blocked by the county council in 2013. Radioactive Waste
Management (RWM), the government-owned company tasked with
delivering the disposal site, s preparing to launch a public
information campaign on the issue in September, says
The Guardian. A screening process to
identify suitable areas in the UK will complete by 2017.
The Telegraph
Much of Asia's Celestial mountain glacier ice
could melt by 2050
Glaciers in the Celestial mountains of central Asia have
lost 27% of their mass since 1961 and could lose a further half of
what remains by 2050, a new study finds. Analysing records of 2000
glaciers since 1894, scientists found that from 2001 to 2010,
glaciers lost on average 75cm of their thickness per year. This is
twice the rate in the 1990s and treble that in the 1980s, the
researchers say. Meltwater from the glaciers supplies the Fergana
Valley, one of the largest irrigated areas on earth, and provides
water to northern China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and
Kyrgyzstan. New
Scientist
Global warming is reversing 1,800 years of natural
ocean cooling, study finds
Human-caused global warming has triggered a reversal of
natural ocean cooling that has occurred over the past 1,800 years,
says a new study. Reconstructed historical records for the world's
oceans show that temperatures have fallen significantly over the
past two millennia - caused by the cooling influence of successive
volcanic eruptions. "Today, the Earth is warming about 20 times
faster than it cooled during the past 1,800 years. This study truly
highlights the profound effects we are having on our climate
today," says one of the study's authors.
The Independent
Warming will hurt the poor but boost the rich in
the short term
Climate change could initially benefit rich countries while
damaging the economies of poor nations, a new modelling study
suggests. Researchers analysed past links between countries'
economic output and changes in temperature and rainfall, and then
made projections based on future global warming. While economic
growth could increase in Europe, North America and Australia, most
of Africa, India and parts of South Asia will see a drop in growth,
the study finds. But rich countries should not treat the findings
as licence to be complacent over greenhouse emissions, the author
warns. New
Scientist
Climate and energy comment
2015-16 is shaping up to deliver a rollercoaster
from strong El Niño to La Niña
The anticipation is growing that this year's newly formed El
Niño will turn out to be very big, but at this point last year,
fears of a very strong event proved to be anticlimactic, say the
authors of a new study, writing in The Conversation. It's easy to
see why this climate phenomenon gets so much attention - its affect
on weather has some catastrophic impacts around the world, the
researchers say. And their new study shows we will probably
experience more super El Niños as the global climate
warms. Carbon Brief also covered the new
research. Wenju Cai & Agus Santoso
& Guojian Wang, The Conversation
Abbott government war on green 'saboteurs' is
Laurel and Hardy slapstick
The Guardian Australia's Political Editor, Lenore Taylor,
likens the government's "war on environmental vigilantes and
saboteurs" to the slapstick of Laurel and Hardy. When an
environment group successfully uses 16 year-old national
environmental laws to delay a coal project, the government tries to
change the law to prevent them doing it again, she says. But if an
anti-windfarm group can't find a way to use existing regulations to
stop or delay a project, "the Abbott government tries to change
laws to make it easier for them to succeed".
Lenore Taylor, The
Guardian
New climate science
What is the limit of climate engineering by
stratospheric injection of SO2?
Scientists have calculated that it would take the equivalent
of 5 to 7 times the Mount Pinatubo eruption each year to inject
enough sulphur dioxide into the air just to keep global
temperatures constant through solar radiation management. That's
because the effectiveness of the particles in reflecting sunlight
decreases exponentially with the amount injected.
Atmospheric Chemistry and
Physics
Substantial glacier mass loss in the Tien Shan
over the past 50 years
Glaciers in central Asia are thought to have shrunk their
area by 18% and lost 27% of ice between 1961 and 2012, according to
new research. These values correspond to a total mass loss of 5.4
billion tonnes per year, which is about four times higher than the
percentage mass loss of the rest of the world. This is significant
as populations in Central Asia are heavily dependent on snow and
glacier melt for their water supplies, the authors note.
Nature Geoscience
Robust global ocean cooling trend for the
pre-industrial Common Era
A new study analyses how the ocean has mediated the response
of global climate to natural and anthropogenic forcings over the
past 2,000 years, a period known as the Common Era (CE). The data
from 57 different reconstructions suggests that a cluster of
volcanic eruptions, rather than changes in the sun's orbit, caused
the ocean to cool between 1 to 1800 CE - a trend that was reversed
when humans started industrialising 200 or so years ago.
Nature Geoscience
Other stories
El Nino nearly certain to last until end-2015:
Australian weather bureau
Reuters
Trees at risk in warming Andes upland
forests
Responding to Climate Change
Cuba on edge as drought
worsens
Reuters
A Chinese Drought Weather Report Written on Cave
Walls
The New York Times
Is the global warming 'pause'
over?
Mail Online
City grime 'breathes back out' polluting nitrogen
gases
BBC News
Scottish government launches £2.5m pay-as-you-save
electric vehicle push
BusinessGreen
UK firm wins €3m biomass plant order in
Wales
Energy Live News
Climate vulnerable Philippines plans huge bet on
coal
Responding to Climate Change