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https://www.valigiablu.it/crisi-climatica-fondi-combustibili-fossili/
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The weekly round-up on the climate crisis and data on carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.
The “window” to meet the commitments of the Paris Agreement “is closing rapidly”, he warns the latest report of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) on the "emissions gap" compared to the objectives to keep the increase in temperatures within 1.5°C of the pre-industrial era.
Despite ambitious commitments, progress has been "limited" in the year since the last United Nations Climate Conference in Glasgow.The drop in emissions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic proved to be "short-lived". In 2021 CO2 emissions have returned to 2019 levels and global coal emissions have exceeded 2019 levels.While emissions of methane and nitrous oxide have remained relatively stable, emissions of fluorinated gases continue to grow.
While there has been some progress in reducing the growth rate of emissions, global greenhouse gas emissions have yet to peak and decline.In the decade 2010-2019 (excluding declines related to the pandemic), emissions grew by approximately 1.1% per year, less than the 2.6% per year recorded in the previous decade (2000-2009).35 countries – equal to approximately 10% of global emissions – they have already reached the peak of CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gases.
Avoiding dangerous levels of warming, the report continues, will require a “broad, large-scale, rapid and systemic transformation” of our societies.Under current policies, the world is likely moving towards a temperature increase of around 2.6°C above pre-industrial levels, although uncertainties in the climate system mean that warming of up to 4°C cannot be completely ruled out .
If countries respected theirs national contributions (NDC) for 2030, according to the terms of the Paris Agreement, the increase in global temperatures should probably be between 2.2 and 2.4°C.By maintaining net zero emissions commitments, global warming would be limited to around 1.7°C.
Over the past year, the number of countries that have made long-term commitments to net-zero emissions has risen from 74 to 88, now covering around 79% of global greenhouse gas emissions.However, many states have yet to pass substantive policies or update their 2030 NDCs to be consistent with their stated commitments to net-zero emissions.And those who had already presented more ambitious NDCs in past years have just begun implementing policies and actions to achieve the new objectives set.
All this, explains UNEP, "does not make us confident" about the achievement of carbon neutrality objectives.Indeed, every year that passes without reductions in global emissions makes the 1.5°C target even more unattainable.If the world had started to act in 2000, emissions would have had to fall by 2% per year to keep global temperatures below 2°C.Starting in 2022, emissions will need to decrease by 5% per year to meet this target.Otherwise, the carbon budget for 2°C it will be exhausted within 26 years.(The animation created by Carbon Brief highlights how quickly emissions need to be reduced to keep global warming to 2°C or 1.5°C).
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Without “substantial economic transformations”, the report concludes, any opportunity to keep warming below 2°C or 1.5°C could be compromised.
Furthermore, the failure to abandon fossil fuels – it reads in the annual Lancet report “Countdown on Health and Climate Change”, also published in recent days – puts the health of “all people currently alive and future generations” increasingly at risk.
Food insecurity, transmission of infectious diseases, spread of heat-related diseases, energy poverty and deaths due to exposure to air pollution are the main health impacts linked to the burning of fossil fuels and climate change highlighted by the Lancet report.
“Climate change is already having a negative impact on food security, with worrying implications for malnutrition and undernourishment,” said Professor Elizabeth Robinson, director of the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics.“Further increases in temperature, the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events and carbon dioxide concentrations will put even more pressure on the availability of and access to nutritious food, especially for the most vulnerable.”This is “particularly worrying considering that once again this year, global food supply chains have proven highly vulnerable to shocks, manifested in rapid increases in food prices and a subsequent increase in food insecurity”.
Added to this are the impacts on health systems which, in addition to continuing to have to bear the weight of the new coronavirus pandemic, are faced with "the impacts on physical and mental health of extreme weather events and other consequences of the climate crisis", as he says to The Independent Kristie Ebi, professor at the University of Washington's Center for Global Health and Environment.
“The data shows that no country is safe,” explains Marina Romanello, executive director of the Lancet Countdown at University College London.“Climate change increases the likelihood and severity of extreme weather events such as heat waves, heavy rainfall, wildfires, storms and droughts, costing hundreds of thousands of lives each year around the world.”
However, despite the current strategies of fossil fuel giants threatening our future, the vast majority of countries analyzed (69 out of 86) continue to collectively allocate hundreds of billions of dollars (400 billion in 2019 alone) to subsidize fossil fuels, they write the authors of the report.These are often sums comparable to or even greater than the amount allocated in their total healthcare budgets.
“Regardless of their climate declarations and commitments, the current strategies of fifteen of the largest oil and gas companies would cause their greenhouse gas production to exceed the quota of emissions compatible with 1.5°C of global warming 37% in 2030 and 103% in 2040,” the report reads.
Yet the report suggests a solution — a “health-centered response” to the current energy, cost of living and climate crises, in which energy companies rapidly switch to clean fuels and countries quickly reach net zero gas emissions greenhouse.In this scenario, nations could create the conditions for “a future of sustainable development, healthy environments and health equity, while improving energy security and offering a path to economic recovery”.
“The world is at a critical stage,” observes Professor Anthony Costello, co-president of the Lancet Countdown.“Our global commitment to reducing fossil fuels is a long way off, and fossil fuel-centric responses to the energy crises we face could now undo the progress we have made so far.We must change, otherwise our children will face a future of accelerated climate change, which will threaten their very survival."
Can science help indigenous peoples protect themselves and the world's largest rainforest?
Drug traffickers, gold miners and loggers are rapidly invading the Peruvian Amazon and, together with the effects of global warming, are putting indigenous communities and a very rich biodiversity at risk.Researchers once focused almost exclusively on protecting the region's biodiversity and sequestering carbon in forests.But after decades of study, scientists and political leaders have recognized that meeting climate goals and preserving forest habitat will not be possible without helping indigenous communities protect their territories.
Over the past decade, the Peruvian government has made large areas available to promote forest conservation and protect isolated indigenous groups.The idea is to give border communities the technological tools to control the arrival of traffickers, loggers, gold miners and protect biodiversity and indigenous groups. Nature he met researchers and indigenous communities fighting to stop the destruction.
A year ago, during the United Nations Climate Conference in Glasgow, governments and philanthropic organizations committed to allocating at least $1.7 billion over 5 years to help indigenous peoples reclaim and protect their lands.On the ground, however, indigenous people say the situation has worsened due to rising gold prices and pandemic policies that have hampered law enforcement activities and limited economic opportunities.“The government doesn't have the resources to patrol this territory,” says Adrian Forsyth, a biologist who has spent the last three years studying how to protect what he calls the deep forest, an environment where rain, humidity, clouds and the sheer distance from reliable energy sources and communications pose a challenge for any type of protection system.In 2019, as executive director of the Andes Amazon Fund, a Washington, DC-based philanthropic organization, Forsyth convened nearly two dozen researchers and technology developers in Madre de Dios, Peru, for a first-of-its-kind meeting.The goal was to protect the vast and often inaccessible territories that isolated groups call home.His idea was to turn the deep forest into a smart forest, capable of detecting who enters the forest and relaying reports to government authorities and local indigenous communities, who he said are best placed to speak on behalf of the groups. isolated.The conference focused on the use of devices such as microphone and camera systems equipped with artificial intelligence, as well as data from drones and satellites that could be disseminated remotely.
There are many questions about using this technology to monitor people who have chosen to avoid modern society.But like many other tropical ecologists and conservationists, Forsyth fears there is no other way to help isolated groups.
Carbon Brief and the Reuters Institute launch the Global South Climate Change Database to give voice to climate experts from around the world
Few issues are as global as climate change.In one part of the world we are trying to help and rebuild after the damage of an extreme meteorological event, elsewhere we are looking for mitigation and adaptation solutions, in yet another area we are trying to plan what new impacts of the climate crisis will be possible.However, the voices telling this climate story, at least in mainstream media, are less diverse.The media story is dominated by European, North American and Australian experts, who often come from those countries that have contributed most to the increase in temperatures.
For this reason, the British site Carbon Brief and the Reuters Institute they launched the Global South Climate Database, a publicly searchable database of more than 400 climate scientists and experts in the fields of climate science, climate policy and energy, from 80 different countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and the Pacific.Their collective expertise ranges from road transport decarbonisation to tropical meteorology, carbon sink mapping and energy modelling.The database allows you to filter by nationality and search for key terms such as "ocean", "migration" or "Indonesia".For each expert, the e-mail address and, in some cases, also the telephone number are indicated in order to allow rapid identification of relevant sources and a rapid exchange between journalists and experts.The database (constantly updated) is available for consultation here.
USA, Biden accuses oil companies of "profiting from war" and threatens a tax on profits
US President Joe Biden has "threatened" a new tax on windfall profits from big oil and gas companies unless they increase production to keep the price of petrol at the pump down.“It's time for these companies to stop profiting from the war, take up their responsibilities to the country and give the American people a reprieve,” Biden told reporters.“In a time of war, every company that receives historic profits like these has a responsibility to act beyond the narrow self-interest of its executives and shareholders.”The reference to how large fossil fuel companies are repurposing large revenues, often to increase dividends and share buybacks rather than to increase production, which could drive down the price of oil and therefore reduce their profits.[Continue reading here]
Greta Thunberg will not attend COP27 in Egypt
Greta Thunberg will not attend the United Nations Climate Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, from November 6 to 18.“I won't go to COP27 for many reasons, but the space for civil society this year is very limited,” the Swedish activist said during a presentation of his new book, “The climate book”, in London.[Continue reading here]
Germany could present a climate "law" ahead of COP27
According to confidential documents seen by Euractiv, the German government is about to present a package of emergency measures to achieve the goal of reducing 1990 emissions by 65% by 2030.The plan would involve a multiple transformation of the construction, traffic, energy, agriculture and waste sectors.[Continue reading here]
South Africa's ecological transition plan will cost $46.5 billion
South Africa has presented an investment plan to switch from coal to renewable energy.It will cost $46.5 billion, more than five times more than the $8.5 billion that several Western countries have promised to support the project.If the plan succeeds, South Africa will be the most industrialized nation in Africa to gradually close its polluting coal-fired power plants and mines, replacing them with wind turbines and solar panels.[Continue reading here]
France, Spain and Portugal have agreed to build the Barcelona-Marseille gas pipeline
Spain, Portugal and France announced on October 19 a plan for the construction of BarMar, a maritime pipeline for the transport of hydrogen and gas between Barcelona and Marseille to replace the extension of the so-called MidCat pipeline, which crosses the Pyrenees, to which the France was opposed.The new pipeline, designed to transport green hydrogen and other renewable gases, will temporarily allow the transportation of a limited amount of natural gas to help ease Europe's energy crisis, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said.[Continue reading here]
Climate change could lead to the extinction of the emperor penguin
Climate change is putting the Antarctic emperor penguin at serious risk.For this reason, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has decided to grant protection under the Endangered Species Act, arguing that the loss of sea ice caused by climate change will put the penguin's long-term survival at risk.[Continue reading here]
Preview image:Richard Hurd, CC BY 2.0, via redpepper.org