By Adam Morton, The Guardian. Eight teenagers and an octogenarian nun had sought an injunction to prevent Ley approving a proposal by Whitehaven Coal to expand the Vickery coalmine in northern New South Wales, arguing the minister had a common law duty of care to protect younger people against future harm from climate change. Justice Mordecai Bromberg found the minister had a duty of care to not …
Ending settler colonialism and capitalism and returning Indigenous lands are all possible—and necessary
Much environmental framing misses the point about capitalism and Indigenous sovereignty. In this era of catastrophic climate change, why is it easier for some to imagine the end of fossil fuels than settler colonialism? To imagine green economies, carbon-free wind and solar energy, and electric, bullet-train utopias but not the return of Indigenous lands? Why is it easier to imagine the …
Gernot Wagner, Nature: 8 priorities for updating and calculating the social cost of carbon
19 February 2021, Nature, Eight priorities for calculating the social cost of carbon: Advice to the Biden administration as it seeks to account for mounting losses from storms, wildfires and other climate impacts. By Gernot Wagner , David Anthoff , Maureen Cropper , Simon Dietz , Kenneth T. Gillingham , Ben Groom , J. Paul Kelleher , Frances C. Moore & James H. Stock One of the first executive orders US President Joe Biden signed in …
A case for transparent net-zero carbon targets and risk management: rate of emission reduction over this decade is key. Ensure temperature limits are not breached by enacting stringent near-term targets.
Nature, Published: 04 February 2021, Stephen M. Smith, Communications Earth & Environment volume 2, Article number: 24 (2021) Cite this article https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00095-w Perceived risks from carbon dioxide removal have led to calls for net zero targets to be split into separate goals for removals and emissions. A better approach is to accompany net targets with ambitious near-term action, disclose measures to achieve them and closely monitor and …
Emissions are still rising. Global fossil fuel use is similar to a decade ago.
Reuters, June 2021: https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/global-fossil-fuel-use-similar-decade-ago-energy-mix-report-says-2021-06-14/ The share of fossil fuels in the world’s total energy mix is as high as a decade ago, despite the falling cost of renewables and pressure on governments to act on climate change, a report by green energy policy network REN21 showed in its Renewables 2021 Global Status Report Fossil fuel use has persisted amid rising …
Undoing Equivalence: Rethinking Carbon Accounting for Just Carbon Removal
Front. Clim., 16 April 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2021.664130 by Wim Carton1*, Jens Friis Lund2 and Kate Dooley3 – 1Lund University Center for Sustainability Sciences (LUCSUS), Lund, Sweden; 2Department of Food and Resource Economics (IFRO), Copenhagen University, Copenhagen, Denmark; 3Climate and Energy College, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fclim.2021.664130/full Concerns are increasingly raised over the centrality of carbon removal in climate policy, particularly in the …
Carbon unicorns and fossil futures. Whose emission reduction pathways is the IPCC performing?
Excerpt from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wim-Carton/publication/345992520_Carbon_unicorns_and_fossil_futures_Whose_emission_reduction_pathways_is_the_IPCC_performing/links/5fb4d0b245851518fdb0926e/Carbon-unicorns-and-fossil-futures-Whose-emission-reduction-pathways-is-the-IPCC-performing.pdf The possibility of future negative emission technologies (NETs/CCS) appears to suggest that more of the same incremental policies will eventually get us there; that there is no need for drastic or economically “irrational” actions. As such it helps preserve a sense of normality against increasingly dire warnings – and observations – of an unfolding climate emergency, against …
Hydrogen isn’t as clean as it seems: 95 percent, is produced from fossil fuels, mainly fracked gas. It’s worse than coal: emissions of both CO2 and unburned methane are 50 percent more for grey hydrogen than simply burning gas for the same quantity of energy.
Bob Howarth, The Hill, June 2021 https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/558366-hydrogen-isnt-as-clean-as-it-seems, CCS, hydrogen, fossil fuels. Also the vast majority of captured CO2 is used for enhanced oil recovery. The irony of using climate-damaging byproducts from fossil fuel production in order to extract even more fossil fuels from the ground cannot be ignored. President Biden’s Environmental Justice Advisory Council recently urged the administration to avoid investments in …
Methane is responsible for about 25% of the climate change we’re experiencing today. IEA has clarified: no new wells! For existing ones, we need an enforcement system that responds to community concerns with definitive, timely action to reduce harmful emissions.
It’s time to recommit to controlling methane emissions to combat climate change: We need urgent action to curb oil and gas pollutants that threaten our health, especially for those living closest to development. Dan Grossman, Colorado Sun, May 15, 2021. latest IEA report (confirms we need zero new fossil fuel investments to reach net zero by 2050), “It’s Time to …
Some of the worst ozone pollution in the U.S. settles along the Front Range
Colorado has made some progress toward reducing the chemical dangerous to human health. But it will take leaning on automobiles and oil and gas producers to really move the needle. Mark Jaffe, Jun 7, 2021, Colorado Sun When it comes to oxygen, the Front Range sometimes has too much of a good thing. On many sunny, summer days the region …