Climate activists around the world are pushing governments to treat global warming as an emergency.By Tara Golshan Jul 9, 2019, 2:40pm EDTSHARE A movement of climate activists wants the world to respond to the growing wave of extreme weather and climate disasters the way they would to a mass shooting — like it’s an emergency. On Tuesday, they got three prominent progressive allies in …
Report: Pittsburgh could reduce carbon emissions 75% by 2030
Cailin Crowe July 8, 2019 cyptportal.siemens.com/Siemens_CYPT_portal_introduction_selfservice.pdf Pittsburgh could reduce its carbon emissions almost 75% by 2030, improving air quality and creating 110,000 new jobs, according to results from the Siemens City Performance Tool (CyPT). The city could exceed its goal to reduce carbon emissions 50% by 2030, an analysis found, through implementing solar electricity generation and expanding district heating systems, electric …
Natural Gas Beat Coal in the US. Now Renewables and Storage Are Beating Natural Gas
Coal, the long-reigning king of the U.S. power sector, was officially dethroned by cheap, abundant natural gas in 2016. In 2018, natural gas fueled more than 60 percent of newly installed electric-generating capacity and accounted for 35 percent of total U.S. electricity generation. Now, even Indiana is rejecting new gas plants and Los Angeles has struck a deal on the largest and cheapest …
Los Angeles creates and funds an official City Office and City Commission to develop and implement a climate emergency mobilization plan
On Wednesday July 3, by 13-0-2 vote of the City Council, the City of Los Angeles became the first government they know of to create and fund an official City Office and City Commission to develop and implement a mobilization plan, in response to the climate emergency. This vote enacts the following: Creation of the Office of the Climate Emergency …
About half of the world’s GHG emissions are attributable to the wealthiest 10% of the global population, and the poorest 50% of the global population is only responsible for 10% of the emissions
about half of the world’s GHG emissions are attributable to the wealthiest 10% of the global population, and the poorest 50% of the global population is only responsible for 10% of the emissions. So the coupling between wealth, material consumption, and our notion of what constitutes a high quality of life (high levels of consumption) may not be compatible with …
How will decisions change with increased variable, renewable energy (VRE)?
VRE will make it more important to electrify everything, even if, in some contexts (like building heating and cooling), it might mean a short-term reduction in energy efficiency. The more water heaters and electric vehicles are connected to the grid, providing storage and controllable demand, the more stable a high-VRE grid will be. Ancillary services” for the grid include things like …
Forbes: Renewable Energy Is Now The Cheapest Option – Even Without Subsidies. How fast can we get to 100% renewables? Growth of solar has been exponential.
Jun 15, 2019, Forbes: Renewable Energy Is Now The Cheapest Option – Even Without Subsidies, James Ellmore Unsubsidized renewable energy is now most frequently the cheapest source of energy generation These new statistics demonstrate that using renewable energy is increasingly cost-effective compared to other sources, even when renewables must compete with the heavily-subsidized fossil fuel industry Also, 2017 study of 100% by …
Jim Hansen: Earth’s slow response to human-made changes of atmospheric composition provides us the possibility to avert the existential threat of climate change. But to achieve that end we need to understand the time scales for change of the energy and political systems
Saving Earth 27 June 2019 James Hansen It is wonderful that more people are waking up to the fact that we have a climate emergency. The emergency was clear more than a decade ago when it was realized that the long-term safe level of atmospheric CO2 was less than 350 ppm1. Already, we were well into the dangerous zone. Good …
Colorado has legislatively adopted the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees: When leasing land for fossil fuels in Colorado, BLM needs to consider compliance with state law
in the recently-passed HB19-1261. The addition of section (2) to CRS 25-7-102 contains a new Legislative Declaration…”(2) It is further declared that…(c) We must work together to reduce statewide greenhouse gas pollution in order to limit the increase in global average temperature to one and one-half degrees Celsius, which scientists agree would provide a more stable and hospitable climate for …
Jay Inslee has a radical plan to phase out fossil fuel production in the US
Jay Inslee has a radical plan to phase out fossil fuel production in the US By David Roberts david@vox.com Jun 24, 2019 Jay Inslee’s presidential campaign has been releasing its climate policy — the central rationale for its existence — in pieces. Extremely large, detailed, and nuanced pieces. I covered the first piece, on getting to 100 percent clean energy in electricity, new cars, …