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Earlier this year, The Guardian ran a powerful article exposing the ties of Elsevier, one of the world’s largest academic publishing companies, to the fossilfuel industry. The article caught my attention because I’d never considered the ways in which an academic publisher might be perpetuating and enabling a fossilfuel economy.
Last week, I joined my colleagues at COP28 in Dubai , as negotiators and civil society push for a fossilfuel phaseout to meet climate goals. The industry is pushing a narrative that misleadingly calls out emissions , not fossilfuels as the problem. Source: IPCC Sixth Assessment Report.
Fossilfuel power plant owners are facing increased accountability for their air and water pollution, including from a new round of environmental and public health protections that are being rolled out by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). We’ve heard these lazily disingenuous narratives before.
GW record from 2021. And fossilfuel power plants may not stick to their retirement schedules for a variety of reasons. Note: this is adjusted for inflation to 2022 dollars and is based on the amount those plants emitted in 2021, the EIA’s most recent year of finalized data. A bit more on those reasons later.
Current national climate pledges fall well-short of the ParisAgreement goal to keep global average temperature increase this century well below 2°C and to pursue efforts to limit temperature increase to 1.5°C The UN’s 2021 Emissions Gap Report finds that under current pledges temperatures will still rise by 2.7°C One can hope.
When countries signed on to the 2015 ParisAgreement, they made initial voluntary commitments (the so-called Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs) to reduce their heat-trapping emissions, and agreed to revisit them every five years to reflect the “highest possible ambition.” (see of the ParisAgreement ).
Under the 2015 ParisAgreement, the United States voluntarily pledged to reduce its global warming emissions at least 50 percent below their 2005 levels by the end of this decade and reach net-zero emissions no later than 2050. It also will save US consumers money because they will spend less on fossilfuels.
According to the Energy Information Agency , South Korea’s power sector is heavily reliant on fossilfuels. Two thirds of generation capacity is based on fossilfuels, split evenly between coal and natural gas, with 17% nuclear, and 14% hydro and other renewables. 50% coal, 26% gas, and 25% nuclear.
It’s also an essential consideration as countries plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Parisagreement. Unless fossilfuel use declines steeply and swiftly, it will be necessary to pursue options such as removing carbon from the air or growing crops as a fuel stock.
Their efforts have paid off: The 27 resolutions demanding increased disclosure that went to a vote in 2021 averaged approximately 40 percent support, according to investment management firm Boston Trust Walden. ExxonMobil also funded the Consumer Energy Alliance , a pro-fracking front group run by PR firms on behalf of fossilfuel companies.
For years, fossilfuel companies have socialized the costs of their pollution while privatizing the benefits. Since local and state governments are on the frontlines of paying for worsening wildfires, they should also be on the leading edge of holding fossilfuel companies accountable.
The key word here is “ intensity :” Fossilfuel companies often focus on emissions intensity, meaning emissions per barrel of oil, rather than absolute emissions, which is a set number measured in metric tons. Heat-trapping emissions must be cut in half by 2030 to reach the Parisagreement goal of keeping global warming to 1.5
Right in the middle of Danger Season , we are going through a period of unprecedented global extreme temperatures driven by fossil-fueled climate change. C above preindustrial levels, the limit that island nations and allies fought for so hard in the ParisAgreement. (It It is important to note that the 1.5°
Two-thirds of the G20’s public finance for energy went to fossilfuels in 2019–2020. Subsidies reached new highs in 2021, even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a Climate Transparency analysis finds. In total, 63% of the G20’s public finance for energy went to fossilfuels in 2019–2020. By Catherine Early.
Fossilfuels are the root cause of climate change, of long-standing environmental injustices, and are also frequently connected to geopolitical strife and violent conflicts. Other countries are dependent upon these fossilfuels, they don’t make themselves free of them. This is a fossilfuel war.
This assessment wasn’t ExxonMobil’s idea, but was compelled by a successful shareholder resolution that was part of a 2021 investor revolt against the industry’s climate inaction that ultimately displaced several members of ExxonMobil’s Board of Directors.
Drawing on research by the Union of Concerned Scientists and others, the commission report found that fossilfuel companies fully understood their products’ impact on climate as early as 1965, when their own scientists discovered them. The industry’s actions, the CHR report said, were driven “not by ignorance, but greed.”
By Brett Walton, Circle of Blue – September 15, 2021. It’s also an essential consideration as countries plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with the goals of the Parisagreement. In the Parisagreement rich countries said they would contribute $100 billion annually.
This is in total opposition to the US commitment under the ParisAgreement to achieve a 50-52 percent emissions reduction below 2005 levels by 2030, and net-zero by 2050. This is where the analysis behind AEO2022 dates itself to November 2021. EIA also recently reported that US coal exports increased 23% between 2020 and 2021.
This change shall facilitate two long-term obligations: achieving a climate-neutral Europe by 2050 and improving Europe`s contribution to the ParisAgreement. The step is underpinned by an action plan that was prepared for months under the responsibility of Commissioner Frans Timmermans earlier this year.
However, as we replace fossilfuels with clean electricity for heating and transportation to meet our climate goals, these peak demands will increasingly shift to the winter in many parts of the country. Decarbonizing the power sector also plays a critical long-term role by replacing fossilfuels in other sectors.
There is still much we can do to bend that emissions curve sharply within this decade—but only if world leaders, especially leaders of richer countries and major emitting nations, take responsibility to act together quickly and fossilfuel companies are held accountable for their decades of obstruction and deception.
Background Japan has heavily relied on the use of fossilfuels for its power generation. According to the Japanese Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, the countrys fossilfuel dependency was 83.2% in 2021, which is 2% higher than the percentage before the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011.
A 2022 Rainforest Action Network repor t found that “fossilfuel financing from the world’s 60 largest banks has reached USD $4.6 trillion in the six years since the adoption of the ParisAgreement, with $742 billion in fossilfuel financing in 2021 alone.” trillion or 6.8 trillion or 6.8
Statement from Julia Levin, Associate Director, National Climate Dubai, UAE – Today at COP28 Canada joined eight other countries in signing a Joint Ministerial Statement on FossilFuel Subsidies , to address inaction on a 14 year old commitment to eliminate fossilfuel subsidies.
This is a pretty clear illustration of how sea level starts to rise slowly; but in the long run, sea-level rise caused by fossil-fuel burning and deforestation in our generation could literally go off the chart and inundate many coastal cities and wipe entire island nations off the map. Source: IPCC ( 2021 ) Figure 9.25.
Barclays and HSBC are two of the major banks which continue to fund fossilfuel investments. A report by ShareAction has delivered a damning verdict on European banks connection to fossilfuel investments. Major European banks at the heart of continued fossilfuel support. Photo credit: AFP / Getty Images.
Representatives from civil society, non-governmental organizations and the private sector gathered alongside governmental representatives to influence decisions and advance contributions toward the goals of the ParisAgreement of 2015. I was joined by Ocean Conservancy colleagues working to advance ocean-climate action.
The 2021 Global Coal Exit List reveals the sluggish pace of the coal phase-out among major coal firms. above pre-industrial levels, the high ambition goal set by the ParisAgreement. “As Turning coal into another fossilfuel is not a climate-friendly alternative. Photo credit: Evgenii Parilov / Alamy.
As of 2021, 30 emissions trading systems were in force globally, covering 16 – 17 % of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As a compromise, California law (AB 398) has limited offsets to 4% of compliance obligations for the 2021-2025 period and capped the offsets without in-state benefits that can be utilized for compliance. .
Lawyers, bar associations, and law societies have an important but not fully recognized role to play in achieving the net zero goal in the ParisAgreement. presidential envoy on climate change, summarized all of this in a speech to the ABA’s 2021 annual meeting. “You LSEW adopted a similar resolution in 2021. In the U.S.,
But the United Nations has just said that the latest commitments of the 192 parties of the 2015 Parisagreement will equate to a 16% rise in global greenhouse-gas emissions in 2030 compared to 2010. The promise from many nations is to reach net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050 (or earlier) and interim targets are essential.
. – In Canada, and across the world, we need to rapidly wind down production of fossilfuels in order to limit catastrophic levels of warming, save millions of lives, and end harm to frontline communities. Yesterday the Premier of Quebec announced a provincial ban on all fossilfuel extraction.
In the 1960s climate change was not really a significant concern, not even amongst environmentalists – this was despite the fact that the Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius in 1896 was the first to claim that emissions from fossilfuels might eventually result in enhanced global warming. In 2021 the world emitted 36.4
The world is moving away from fossilfuels. With renewable energy, like solar and wind, becoming cheaper and easier to scale up, there has never been a better moment for governments to transition away from the fossilfuel industry and its destructive impacts on the environment, the climate and communities. C pathway.
The targets agreed to during the landmark COP21 summit in Paris in 2015 of limiting temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and which subsequently lead to the ParisAgreement, is in danger of not being met. It now looks like a distant pipedream. Emissions bouncing back.
This leads to an important distinction between fossilfuels specifically produced or merely traded by Shell, as discussed in more detail below. The appellate court notes that a quarter of Shells production by 2030 is anticipated to derive from fields that were not yet in production in 2021. Three Challenges from the Decision 1.
Peterman, York College Of Pennsylvania This guest essay first appeared in the York Daily Record on December 8, 2021 -- I recently returned from the COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. degree C of warming by 2100 as opposed to the ParisAgreement aspiration of 1.5 By Dr. Keith E. We in the U.S.
These are worthwhile questions, but Legg’s answer is a call for more fossilfuels. It also shows how fossilfuel industry boosters are grasping at straws. The biggest obstacle standing in the way of Canada meeting its emissions reduction targets is the fossilfuel industry. This is misguided and dangerous.
Japan’s dependency on fossilfuel s had been slightly declining until 2010. But the country changed course as a result of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, which led to the forced shutdown of nuclear power plants and greater reliance on fossilfuels. As a result, Japan’s CO 2 emissions increased, peaking in 2013.
May 2021 was the hottest May for over 50 years and followed a drought in Turkey, creating the perfect conditions for wildfires. Renewable energy has had a slow uptake in Turkey which mainly depends on fossilfuels for their primary energy needs.
For instance, mortgages are connected to homes, while fossilfuel finance is tied to infrastructure like pipelines, oil wells, and the reserves still in the ground. Up to $4 trillion of fossilfuel assets are at risk of being stranded, with $100bn at risk in Canada by 2036. However, Canada is falling behind.
Energy Futures 2021 has two main projections of Canada’s future energy needs. In neither of these scenarios does Canada actually meet its 2030 emission reduction target under the ParisAgreement or achieve net zero emissions by 2050 – both of which are legal commitments. Success on climate change nowhere to be found.
They apparently have not realised that both the UN climate panel and the professional communities in the USA and Europe have written a number of reports to do exactly that ( IPCC AR6 2021 , NCA 2017 , ESOTC2022 ). It’s urgent to fix our climate problem In August, the global mean temperature was close to 1.5°C
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