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After spending a week in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, I’m now gearing up to attend the 29 th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the Framework Convention on ClimateChange in Baku, Azerbaijan, from November 11-22.
Last year, I wrote that fossilfuel companies made billions of dollars in profit during 2022 as people around the world suffered billions of dollars in damage from climate and weather related disasters. The fire also left toxic ash in its wake, the disposal of which has proven problematic.
While there are thousands of people here in Dubai at COP28 fighting for genuine change, the climate summit is facing a barrage of disinformation. Combatting climatechange has never been more urgent, and COP28 is poised to advance critical global action. According to The Global Carbon Project , approximately 36.6
This year has brought new evidence of what major fossilfuel companies knew and when about the role their products play in climatechange, as well as what they did in spite of what they knew.
Last week, I joined my colleagues at COP28 in Dubai , as negotiators and civil society push for a fossilfuel phaseout to meet climate goals. This year there has been a lot of attention on the more than 2,400 oil and gas lobbyists at the climate meetings. Source: IPCC Sixth Assessment Report.
The world’s biggest fossilfuel companies recently released their 2022 earnings reports, revealing record-breaking profits last year; just five companies–ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Chevron, and TotalEnergies–reported a total of nearly $200 billion in profits. billion and $35.5 billion, respectively, during 2022.
The destruction caused by climatechange is directly linked to human activity, primarily burning fossilfuels. There are multiple realistic, tangible solutions that would rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, yet policy addressing anthropogenic climatechange remains slow and insufficient.
It’s not just the poor air quality, long lines, and excessive fossilfuel company representation ; nations are still too far apart in their positions on a fossilfuel phaseout, the top priority for this COP. Yet global fossilfuel production and use continue to expand. Particulate matter (PM2.5)
Last week, I participated in the Scientists Speakout Day during the Summer of Heat on Wall Street , to protest and disrupt the financial institutions that are enabling the fossilfuel industry (and, as a result, our current climate crisis).
The decision at the Glasgow climate conference to phase down fossilfuels is an important step forward — and not just because of climatechange. We think of fossilfuels as a source of climatechange, but that’s only a one part of the problem. Consider coal. Download as PDF.
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.
Utilities and grid operators prepared for the storm as it was coming down the pike, but they still underestimated the energy demand it would trigger, as well as the number of outages at fossilfuel power plants—mainly naturalgas-fired, plus some coal-fired plants.
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 naturalgas, with 17% nuclear, and 14% hydro and other renewables. 50% coal, 26% gas, and 25% nuclear.
Climatechange is propelling these weather events to grow faster and stronger than ever before. Other climatechange impacts are accelerating as well. Many scientists thought these high ocean temperatures would be years away, but the realities of climatechange are not a distant threat.
This June, I had the opportunity to testify at the Pennsylvania House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee’s hearing on “Hydrogen Hubs and ClimateChange.” My name is Julie McNamara, and I am a senior analyst and deputy policy director for climate and energy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming) announced plans to introduce legislation to prohibit municipalities from receiving Act 13 drilling impact fees if they set more protective standards on the development of naturalgas than required in state or federal law and while a challenge to local restrictions is being litigated. Read more here.
Power plants fueled by methane gas have a serious climate problem. The fuel, commonly known as naturalgas, now powers the biggest portion of US electricity generation—more than 40 percent. And we don’t need to have all the answers to make a difference.
And fossilfuel power plants may not stick to their retirement schedules for a variety of reasons. And CO 2 emissions are a primary driver of global climatechange, which is exacerbating the type of extreme weather that killed 474 people and caused $165 billion in damages in the United States last year alone.
Source: PSE Spatial distribution tools like the one used here (InMAP) allow us to visualize how pollution from gas plants in eastern Wisconsin affect not just local populations, but also neighboring states downwind like Michigan.
The aim of the EU is to try to stop fossilfuel companies suing states over climate action. This shall, according to a leaked document, be pursuit by fundamental changes to the investment chapter and to the Investor State Dispute Settlement MEchanism of the ECT (ISDS).
(For a deeper dive on what’s really going on here in Egypt, check out the Climate Action Against Disinformation’s website.). A small number of big corporations are responsible for the climate crisis. The best solution: Replace fossilfuels with renewable energy. This is not news, but it’s worth repeating.
Both permits are associated with CNX Resource Corporation's Slickville Pipeline Project, which proposes to build a naturalgas pipeline and a shale gas wastewater pipeline along a 13.9 The project is also under scrutiny for its contributions to climatechange. mile route.
Those benefits will flow to people in rural areas as well as urban ones, to national security and international development, and to nature itself. To begin with, there are the health benefits of the energy transition away from fossilfuels. Then there are the benefits of protecting nature.
According to the forecast, while economy-wide CO 2 emissions decrease from 2022 to 2037 due primarily to the growth in renewable energy replacing retiring coal plants, emissions do increase after 2037 from increased usage of naturalgas. EIA is projecting that naturalgas prices will remain low.
If California Attorney General Rob Bonta attends a home game to cheer on his local NBA team—the Sacramento Kings—he may encounter sponsorship ads promoting not one but two of the oil companies he’s suing for allegedly deceiving the public about climatechange. They look like community heroes, not climate villains. But how many?
This means that, with few exceptions, new buildings will need to exclusively use electric appliances, and will not be allowed to contain any fossil-fuel infrastructure, like natural-gas lines. All-electric as the new normal.
Climatechange under other federal statutes. Climatechange as substantial impact requiring discussion in environmental impact statement. Climatechange as reason for threatened or endangered status under Endangered Species Act. SEC rules on disclosure of climate-related risks. Adaptation A.
To help avoid the worst possible consequences of climatechange, however, the alliance states need to reach that 100-percent objective much more quickly. Reducing fossilfuel use under the 100-percent RES policy cuts alliance state power plant carbon dioxide emissions by 58 percent below 2020 levels by 2040.
Mexico is also highly vulnerable to climatechange. What’s the state of climate policy in Mexico? The climate issue has to be placed in the broader context of Mexico’s situation. Because of its geography, Mexico is vulnerable to climate impacts.
Many of my colleagues have already described the various ways we’ve gotten into this elevated fuel price mess, why doubling down on fossilfuels at this moment is a horrible idea, and why doing so would not improve our current or future economic, geopolitical or environmental problems. How Did We Get Here?
In our series on the increasing unreliability of fossilgas , my colleagues at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) have laid out why growing concerns about grid reliability should not be met simply by increasing the number of gas plants on the grid. In fact, too many gas plants are the problem, not the solution.
To head off disastrous climatechange, we need to radically transform the modern energy system. To a large extent, combatting climatechange will mean bringing this long era to an end. We burn coal and naturalgas for heat and to make electricity. Ships are powered with bunker oil. Download as PDF.
Despite the clean energy transition that is well underway in the United States, methane gas, or naturalgas, remains the largest source of U.S. But what does extreme weather actually do to cause gas plants to run into trouble? electricity generation. energy system.
While the epicenter of the war and its horrors has remained trained on and in Ukraine, Russia has also leveraged its position as a major fossilfuel exporter to fund its war efforts and to manipulate and threaten others, including countries across Europe that have long relied on Russian supplies of gas.
These higher costs are being driven by a major overreliance on naturalgas, which has sharply spiked in price and is currently the dominant fuel source in the US for both home heating and electricity generation. Likewise, pipeline giant Williams Companies now refers to its gas projects as “clean energy” projects.
The law school developments are just signs of how the field itself has changed. There are three interlinked reasons for the change. Climatechange. Energy use accounts for the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions. The key to getting climatechange under control is to rapidly decrease the user of fossilfuels.
cranks its air conditioners to get through historic high temperatures , the need for energy that slows, not hastens, climatechange is more apparent than ever. Yet, in 2022, almost 40% of electricity in the US was generated by power plants fueled by naturalgas. And now, as the U.S.
In recent years, The Netherlands has become the leading site of climatechange litigation. its district, appellate , and supreme courts decided in favor of Urgenda, an upstart environmental organization, ordering the government to more aggressively reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These lawsuits face three key barriers.
In fact, studies show that clean energy is a more affordable option than continuing to rely on fossilfuels. In the most recent procurement (LT1), battery storage facilities came in at less than half the cost of naturalgas-fired power. Battery storage is very cost-effective.
“ Natural” gas is not clean or green, as its misleading name implies Every reputable environmental organization and energy agency around the world is saying we can’t build new gas projects if we want to avoid complete climate chaos. Gas is a polluting fossilfuel which emits greenhouse gasses when it is produced and used.
DO: Pay your fair share of the costs of climatechange. Companies are spending millions fighting lawsuits that would hold them accountable for the costs that fossilfuel extraction has imposed on people and the planet. Chevron alone is facing a $9.5
Naturalgas, oil, and nuclear are minor players. Prior to Glasgow, the NRDC had concluded that India was on track to meet its previous commitment to have 40% non-fossilfuel power generation by 2030. It’s also relevant that India is extremely vulnerable to climatechange due to its reliance on monsoons.
In Massachusetts, the Energy Facilities Siting Board is the independent panel that approves proposals for large energy projects, including power plants, electric transmission infrastructure, intrastate naturalgas pipelines, and naturalgas storage tanks.
Just how bad is fossil “natural” gas? And, as it turns out, the infrastructure used to produce, store, distribute, transmit, and burn gas leaks like a sieve , making gas as bad as coal for the climate. Its primary component is methane.
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