Greenhouse gas emissions from the global energy industry hit new highs last year “despite record growth in wind and solar power”, the Guardian reports, covering the “statistical review of world energy” formerly produced by oil giant BP. The paper says emissions climbed 0.8% last year, quoting Juliet Davenport, president of the Energy Institute which now leads the production of the report, saying: “Despite further strong growth in wind and solar in the power sector, overall global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions increased again. We are still heading in the opposite direction to that required by the Paris agreement.” The newspaper continues: “Solar generation climbed by 25% in 2022 while wind power output grew by 13.5% compared with the year before. However, the renewable energy boom was eclipsed by a modest rise in global energy consumption of 1.1% last year – compared to a 5.5% increase in 2021 – which meant more oil and coal was burnt to meet demand, the report found.” The Times reports the figures under the headline: “World struggles to kick fossil fuel habit.” It says: “Oil, gas and coal together accounted for almost 82% of global primary energy consumption last year, barely down on the previous year, according to the Energy Institute’s Statistical Review of World Energy.” The paper adds: “Global power demand grew by just over 2% to a record high, with the vast majority of that growth being met by renewables.” Reuters picks out highlights from the report including that wind and solar met 84% of net electricity demand growth last year, oil demand rose to 97m barrels of per day and remained 0.7% below pre-pandemic levels, while global gas demand fell 3%. BusinessGreen also has the story.

A two-day meeting last week in Paris hosted by French president Emmanuel Macron and Barbados prime minister Mia Mottley, touted as a “summit for a new global financing pact”, did not deliver transformational results on climate finance reforms, reports Politico, but “did deliver a sense of growing momentum”. It points to a “sprinkling of announcements”, including the International Monetary Fund reaching a target of $100bn in “special drawing rights” for climate vulnerable countries and a World Bank pledge to offer “debt pauses” for nations hit by climate disasters, as well as a $2.5bn “just energy transition partnership” between Senegal and rich countries. However, the outlet notes: “But Macron, German chancellor Olaf Scholz, US treasury secretary Janet Yellen and the heads of financial institutions were met with an outpouring of frustration at Friday’s closing ceremony.” The Guardian says the summit “fell short of the debt forgiveness programme that some had hoped for”.

A report from Reuters said on Friday lunchtime: “Multilateral development banks like the World Bank are expected to find $200bn in extra firepower for low-income economies by taking on more risk, a move that may require wealthy nations to inject more cash, world leaders said on Friday.” However, Climate Home News later reported that this was based on an earlier draft of the “chair’s summary” from the summit: “An early draft of the chair’s summary, reported by Reuters, said multilateral development banks would scale up lending by $200bn by taking more risks and maybe getting some more money in from governments. But, in a version we’ve seen and understand is final, that had been dropped.” [There is no reference to the figure of $200bn in the published chair’s summary.] The Reuters article adds: “Many in attendance, however, said over the two-day summit that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were increasingly ill-suited for tackling the most pressing challenges and needed a broad revamp.” The Financial Times reports that Kenya’s president William Ruto “called for the creation of a global green bank separate from the World Bank and IMF, warning that traditional multilateral lenders were ‘hostage’ to rich world interests and unable to solve the climate crisis”. Bloomberg has “five takeaways” from the summit. 

A Reuters analysis is titled: “Paris climate summit gives fresh impetus to development bank reform.” It explains: “A Paris summit to discuss reforming the world’s financial system scored some notable wins that should tee up greater action before climate talks later this year, though some participants were disappointed with progress to address poorer states’ debt.” France 24 notes the summit “ends without deal on global shipping tax”. (The Guardian reports new analysis finding “shipping emissions could be halved without damaging trade, research finds”.) Analysis for the Guardian says the reported agreement to boost World Bank lending capacity by $200bn is “so important”. However, it adds: “The French president, Emmanuel Macron, hailed the ‘unity’ at the end of the conference, when rich and poor alike agreed that the world must overhaul the global response to poverty, development and the climate, which are all closely interconnected. Yet the rifts between the poor and the rich world are much in evidence, and time is running out to heal them…[W]ithout assurance of a real transformation in the global financial system, the lack of trust between developed and developing countries could be the rock on which COP28 founders.” Analysis for Sky News says “the wait goes on for concrete decisions”. DownToEarth says: “The summit did not precipitate any transformational solutions, but it started a conversation on the climate and development financing crisis, and this momentum cannot be lost.”

In related comment, an editorial in the Indian Express says the Paris summit “signals small steps towards improving climate financing architecture”. For Australian outlet Inside Story, Michael Jacobs, professor of political economy at the University of Sheffield, writes: “Emmanuel Macron’s summit meeting has given new momentum to investment in sustainable development and climate financing.” A comment for the Observer by foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdall says: “While the US and China vie for supremacy, smaller countries, championed by Barbados PM Mia Mottley, are speaking out on key challenges of climate, poverty and migration.” The Financial Times interviews the president of the Rockefeller Foundation under the headline: “Raj Shah: Only a new public-private alliance can fund energy transition.”

Chinese premier Li Qiang said China and Europe should “rise above differences” and find “creative solutions” at a summit in Paris on Friday to overcome climate change and other global issues, Reuters reports. The outlet quotes Li saying “China will unequivocally reject trade protectionism and all forms of decoupling” at the summit. (The Paris meeting resulted in a deal for Zambia restructuring its $6.3bn debt owed to other governments, including its largest creditor China, the newswire notes.) Meanwhile, Nikkei Asia also reports on Li’s European trip. The website says Li’s “high-profile” visit to Germany and France is what analysts see as a sign of “European nations’ reluctance to alienate Beijing”. It quotes Marc Julienne, head of China Research at the Centre of Asian Studies of the French Institute of International Relations saying “Macron and Li dealt with the positive topics only…which is probably partly explained by Macron needing China’s help in making his new climate financing initiative a success”.

Separately, the 11th China-Germany Economic and Technological Cooperation Forum was held in Berlin, with the theme “Green development together”, writes Chinese state media People’s Daily. According to the newspaper, more than 200 Chinese and German representatives at the event expressed “confidence and determination” to collaborate in promoting green transformation and addressing climate change.

In other news, the South China Morning Post reports: “Industrial parks in China could cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 40% and avoid tens of thousands of premature deaths if they switched to clean energy earlier than a 2030 baseline scenario,” a study has found. The study is led by a Chinese-US team who analyses 850 of over 2,500 industrial parks in China. The lead author Guo Yang is quoted by the outlet saying: “Industrial parks can be a pioneer for low-carbon policies in practice.” It goes on to say that decarbonising areas zoned for industrial activities would bring “annual economic benefits” of $30bn to $156bn in 2030, according to the analysis. Relatedly, China Business News reports that German carmaker Volkswagen organised an environmental week in Beijing with the theme “goTOzero”. It says, by 2030, the firm plans to have all of its factories in China adopting renewable power and clean energy.

Finally, China Dialogue notes that African country Zimbabwe is seeking cleaner energy. China, once a supporter of large-scale coal power plants there, can play a significant role in promoting much-needed clean energy supply for the country, the outlet says.

Some 14,000 people in India’s state of Assam are in government shelters after the northeastern region of the country faced “heavy monsoon rains”, the Independent reports. It adds: “The pattern of monsoons has been shifting since the 1950s, with longer dry spells interspersed with heavy rain, according to Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune. Scientists say climate change is a factor behind the erratic rains that trigger unprecedented floods in Bangladesh and north-eastern India, killing dozens and making lives miserable for millions of others.”

Elsewhere, Reuters reports: “Days of heavy rainfall have swollen Chile’s rivers causing floods that blocked off roads and prompted evacuation in the centre of the country, amid what has been described as the worst weather front in a decade.” The newswire adds: “Climate change drives increasingly extreme weather. The Chilean rains come just a few months after a period of wildfires amid a severe drought that destroyed hundreds of homes and left dozens of people dead.” A Guardian “explainer” is titled: “El Niño: how the weather event is affecting global heating in 2023.” Another Reuters article reports: “Climate change might have stimulated a plankton bloom that caused thousands of dead fish to wash up along a 3- to 4-kilometre stretch of beach in Thailand’s southern Chumphon province, an expert said.” A further Reuters story reports: “Tropical Storm Bret continued its path through eastern Caribbean islands early Friday, striking the region with winds and heavy rain.” Elsewhere, Reuters reports that Beijing “topped 40C on Saturday for a record third day as the Chinese capital sweltered in extreme heat, while uncommonly high temperatures for June grilled an area the size of California in northern China”.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Reuters reports: “People with disabilities in Spain and other European countries have been disproportionately affected by unprecedented heat extremes, a leading human rights watchdog said on Monday, urging authorities to provide adequate support.” BusinessGreen reports: “The [UK] government today faces calls to better tackle the health risks presented by overheating homes, as experts call on ministers to develop a formal National Heat Risk Strategy in anticipation of more intense and frequent heatwaves.” Separately, the Evening Standard reports: “London hospitals recorded more than 260 ‘overheating incidents’ over 12 months amid rising temperatures, a report has found, as a senior doctor warned of the ‘dangerous’ consequences of climate change on the NHS.”

A record-breaking heatwave in the southern US is entering its third week, the Guardian reports, adding that more than 40 million people in the US are under heat alerts. It explains: “The heat follows a weekend of destructive storms that left hundreds of thousands of people without power. The heat dome, as it is known, has settled above Mexico and parts of the US south-west and is caused by hot ocean air that has become trapped in the atmosphere.” It quotes Andrew Pershing, director of climate science at non-profit Climate Central, saying: “Human-caused climate change made these conditions more than five times more likely.” The Independent reports: “A record-breaking heat wave in Texas is likely to continue through the Fourth of July holiday and expand across eight states, weather forecasters warned.” Axios also has the story, with another Axios article saying: “Extreme heat is the top weather-related killer in the US, and long-duration heat with little overnight relief makes this event particularly hazardous.” It adds: Human-caused climate change is making such extreme heat events more likely, intense and longer-lasting.” Inside Climate News runs with the headline: “Climate change made the Texas heatwave more intense. Renewables softened the blow.” The Guardian reports: “Amid a dangerous heatwave that has brought blistering temperatures across Texas, the state’s governor signed a law this week eliminating local rules requiring water breaks for workers.” A Washington Post feature says: “Extreme heat kills more people in the US than any other weather hazard, and the risk of longer and more frequent heat waves is only expected to increase as climate change worsens.” The paper continues: “The Post is tracking the potential for dangerous heat this summer using the heat index, which accounts for the combined impact of temperature and humidity – the higher the humidity, the more difficult it is for the body to cool itself off through sweating.” It says “41 million people in the US may be exposed to dangerous heat today”. The New York Times Climate Fwd newsletter says of the heatwave: “It’s forecast to expand to Arkansas, Louisiana and Kansas. As people turn up their air-conditioners to stay cool, will the grids hold?”

Meanwhile, the Guardian reports: “An Iowa meteorologist says he is resigning from the television station where he works because he developed post-traumatic stress disorder after threats over his climate change coverage.” The Hill also has the story. Separately, the Hill reports: “Oregon’s Multnomah County on Thursday sued 17 oil companies and related institutions, alleging pollution from fossil fuels contributed to a 2021 heat wave that killed dozens of Oregonians.”

Writing for the Guardian, former BBC correspondent Roger Harrabin reports that this week’s annual progress report from the Climate Change Committee is “likely to say” that the “government should halt all new roads unless there are exceptional circumstances”. The piece continues: “Speaking at Glastonbury on Friday, the climate change committee chair, Lord Deben, said new roads inevitably increased traffic and emissions. The report is likely to advise that any new developments that make climate breakdown worse should be banned.” The article adds: “The CCC itself came under fire at Glastonbury from Prof Kevin Anderson, a climate physicist, who told the meeting that the committee based its findings on what was politically achievable rather than what was really needed to protect the climate. He argued that net-zero was a flawed concept which allowed CO2 levels to continue to grow and gave firms a free pass to carry on emitting.” [The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report said: “Without net-zero CO2 emissions…the climate system will continue to warm.”] The Press Association also reports from the music festival: “Ed Miliband defends ‘world-leading’ Labour climate policy at Glastonbury.”

Elsewhere, the Times reports: “Labour has been urged to clarify its position on drilling in the North Sea for oil and gas amid confusion over whether it will permit companies to develop new fields on existing licences.” The Sun reports: “Ex-Labour leader Ed Miliband looks set to be sidelined in a reshuffle next month after a series of humiliating U-turns on eco policies, insiders say. Current party boss Sir Keir Starmer is secretly plotting to announce a revamp of his front bench in July and clip Ed’s wings, Labour sources believe. Miliband is expected to be kept on as shadow secretary of state for climate change and net-zero. But Sir Keir is considering making it clear he will not be deciding the party’s energy policy, amid a backlash over his plans.” For the Observer, chief political commentator Andrew Rawnsley writes under the headline: “Labour must do no more backsliding on commitments to create a green economy.” He says: “[Labour leader] Sir Keir Starmer doesn’t want to look like a man who makes grandiose-sounding pledges to change the world only to retreat when he encounters resistance.”

In other news from the UK, the Daily Telegraph reports: “Rishi Sunak has quietly scrapped the government’s net-zero pledge to pass a law banning coal power generation in Britain. The government no longer plans to legally outlaw coal from October 2024, a spokesman said, adding that legislation is ‘not necessary’ because the owners of the country’s remaining coal power stations are set to close them before the deadline regardless.” The Press Association reports: “The government is on track to insulate just one sixth of the homes needed to meet its target of reducing energy consumption by 15%, according to a new analysis.” A Financial Times feature is titled: “UK electricity network faces ‘mind-boggling’ scale of change over net-zero.” The Guardian reports: “Electricity from a new onshore windfarm could be used to power the biggest undeveloped oilfield in the North Sea [Rosebank], campaigners are warning, ahead of an imminent decision over whether to approve the project.” Meanwhile, the i newspaper reports in an “exclusive”: “Tories from windiest seats call for Rishi Sunak to lift ban on on-shore turbines.” The Observer reports: “Britain’s solar industry delivered record levels of renewable electricity to the power grid earlier this year, but as daylight hours stretch longer around the summer solstice, it could be on track to reach another record.” A BBC News feature, which quotes Carbon Brief’s Dr Simon Evans, is titled: “The Green Party politicians who oppose solar farms.” Separately, BBC News reports: “The prospect of a new battery factory in Northumberland has suffered a setback after the buyer of Britishvolt was raided by Australian police.”

The UK government has U-turned on plans to fund hydrogen production via a levy on household energy bills, the Press Association reports. It says energy security and net-zero secretary Grant Shapps “said he opposed a direct charge on the bills of energy consumers, already saddled with hefty costs”. The newswire continues: “The cabinet minister said he favoured other ways of funding the move towards cleaner energy and net-zero…This could potentially include landing the industry with the costs or general taxation.” Shapps’s comments came in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, in which he repeats false claims he has made repeatedly in recent weeks about the opposition Labour Party’s plan to end licences for North Sea oil and gas. [Carbon Brief factchecked his claims more than two weeks ago and more recently reported that the UK would be less reliant on imported gas under Labour’s plans than with the current government.] A separate Daily Telegraph article also reports Shapps’s hydrogen levy U-turn. It says: “Discussions between Shapps’s department, No 10 and the Treasury to finalise the new approach [to funding hydrogen production] are ongoing, and there are hopes that an alternative scheme will be agreed before Parliament’s summer recess at the end of next month and put out to consultation.” The Guardian reports: “The hydrogen levy plans prompted a backlash from within [Shapps’s] own party and opposition MPs, who fear further bill increases amid the war in Ukraine and the cost of living crisis.” BBC News also has the story.

Climate and social policy levies will once again be added to household energy bills from July, the Press Association reports. The charges, which were temporarily paid by the government via general taxation from September last year as part of a support package that was supposed to last for two years, the newswire notes. The Sunday Telegraph, which first reported the news, quotes a government statement from last autumn saying: “Schemes previously funded by green levies will also continue to be funded by the government during this two-year period to ensure the UK’s investment in home-grown, secure renewable technologies continues.” The paper continues: “But the Treasury will stop funding the cost – which has risen from £150 last year to £170 now – from July, meaning that it will be borne by consumers once again.” It quotes a government spokesperson confirming the cost of levies will fall to households from July and saying: “Levies more than pay for themselves by driving investment in renewables and other generation technology and have saved consumers money on their energy bills overall over the past 10 years.” [Average household annual energy bills will fall from £2,500 to £2,074 in July, according to energy regulator Ofgem.] The Guardian also has the story.

In related comment, the Daily Telegraph has an editorial titled: “The levy on energy bills is a net-zero poll tax.” It asks: “Are our politicians intent on making people poorer in the name of net-zero?”

Shares in Siemens Energy “plunged by a third” on Friday “after it warned of deeper quality problems at Siemens Gamesa – just weeks after the group managed to acquire the remaining stake in the wind turbine unit”, Reuters reports. The Financial Times says the company warned it may have to spend more than €1bn fixing “an array of technical faults”. A Reuters factbox explains: “On Friday, Siemens Gamesa said that while rotor blades and bearings were partly to blame for the turbine problems, it could not be ruled out that design issues also played a role. It said the problems could affect as many as 15-30% of its turbine fleet.” In the Financial Times, the Lex column says: “Siemens Energy’s warning highlights the headwinds facing the wind industry as a whole…While wind energy is a growth business, companies in the space are struggling to pick up speed.” In the Daily Telegraph, meanwhile, a news feature is titled: “How Britain’s offshore wind industry ran out of puff.” It says: “A string of major projects are under threat from spiralling costs, sclerotic planning rules and shrinking subsidies…Schemes developed by Ørsted, Vattenfall and Red Rock Power are among those understood to be most at risk, despite them only winning subsidy contracts last year.” Another Daily Telegraph article reports under the headline: “Britain’s future as ‘Saudi Arabia of wind’ in doubt after surge in costs.” It adds: “Inch Cape, a 50:50 joint venture between Ireland’s ESB and China’s Red Rock Power to develop a project located 15km off the east coast of Scotland, is understood to be at risk, with the Irish side refusing to proceed with a so-called final investment decision (FID) after baulking at the economics of the project.”

The European Commission is expected to call for international efforts to look into “the risks and uncertainties of climate interventions, including solar radiation modification”, the Financial Times reports, quoting a draft of a paper due to be published on Wednesday. The paper says: “The statement will be the first time that a national or regional governing body has officially recognised the growing interest in a science that essentially involves interfering with weather patterns in order to cool the earth.”

In other EU news, the Financial Times says the bloc “must ‘significantly’ accelerate its efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions if it is to meet its 2030 and 2050 climate targets, according to a leading scientific advisory group”, the European Climate Neutrality Observatory. Separately, the Financial Times reports: “Dozens of leading companies including PepsiCo, Heineken and Nike, are calling on the EU to set more ambitious emissions standards for trucks, arguing that more zero emission vehicles are urgently needed to reach the bloc’s climate goals.” Meanwhile, a comment for the Financial Times by political scientist Heather Grabbe is titled: “The EU needs to move faster on valuing nature.”

Several hundred people have been demonstrating at the Welzow opencast coal mine in Lusatia, a former industrial centre near Berlin, calling for a rapid exit from lignite power generation by 2030, reports Die Zeit. The Fridays for Future movement and Greenpeace are calling on the federal and state governments to create new jobs in the region, especially for employees of the coal industry. In addition, the protestors blame “decades of coal mining” for the lack of water in Lusatia, adds Tagesspiegel quoting Louise Hummel-Schröter from Parents for Future in Dresden: “Coal mining and the climate crisis are responsible for the lack of water in Lusatia, not the coal phase-out.”

Meanwhile, Die Zeit reports that the German federal state Saxony-Anhalt wants to become a pioneer in supplying hydrogen, by creating an energy park in the city of Bad Lauchstädt where hydrogen is to be produced using wind energy. In addition, Mitteldeutsche Zeitung reports that another German federal state, Saxony, supports federal plans to financially support the “comeback” of the solar industry in Germany to overcome the “dangerous dependency” on East Asia and China for photovoltaics. Caschys Blog adds that, according to the German Statistical Office, 2.6m photovoltaic systems are installed in Germany, as of March 2023, with a total rated output of around 70,600 megawatts (MW).

The Times interviews outgoing chair of the Climate Change Committee Lord Deben and quotes him saying the UK should learn from former prime minister Magaret Thatcher by prioritising green jobs over “industries which have no future”, including oil and gas. The paper reports: “[Deben] said that the UK was losing out in a global race for green jobs. However, he said this could be fixed with stronger support for renewable energy and less focus on industries such as the North Sea oil and gas sector.” It adds: “He said it was good the UK had avoided the politicisation of climate change seen in the US, and that it was a ‘totally different atmosphere’ than 11 years ago. ‘If I go and make a speech to an audience, no one is now saying, is climate change happening?’ he said. However, he added that Brexit and the overseas development aid cuts had both undermined international action to cut emissions.” The paper quotes Deben saying of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra): “Defra is not fit for purpose. Defra doesn’t have a plan for net-zero. It hasn’t even really got the adaptation [to global warming] thing right.” It also quotes him saying of campaign group Just Stop Oil: “I always like people doing things in a way which doesn’t turn other people off. And I don’t think these are tactics which are likely to succeed.”

Relatedly, the Sunday Times reports: “Just Stop Oil fundraiser tells activists: Just stop – it’s not helping.” An editorial in the Daily Mail responds to the comments: “Deranged Just Stop Oil activists have unleashed misery on thousands of ordinary working people through their selfish antics…Time for the eco-idiots to finally pack up their paint cans and go home?” The Daily Mail also gives its main comment slot today to climate-sceptic columnist Dominic Lawson to write under the headline: “The tide may finally be turning against the demented drivel of Just Stop Oil fanatics.”

Meanwhile, an editorial in the Times says the Church of England’s decision to divest of oil and gas companies “is a mistake”. The paper says: “It means losing any green influence the church might have wielded over Big Oil. It will lose money for the people whose livelihoods the church’s investment bodies exist to protect. It also makes the church look puerile, on a par with the zealots who think a slogan can magic away the energy sources of which they disapprove.” Referring to BP and Shell, it concludes: “Both companies are committed to achieving net-zero by 2050. To that end, they are gradually transitioning to renewables, making huge investments in offshore wind and solar power. While these firms are behaving like grown-ups, those responsible for the welfare of tens of thousands of church pensioners are acting like children.” The latest “sparklines” column for Bloomberg by senior contributor Nathaniel Bullard addresses matters: “The world’s five biggest publicly listed oil and gas companies posted just under $200bn in total profits last year. Faced with three strategic possibilities for how to use their cash piles – extract oil and gas apace, move their businesses into renewable power and energy transition assets or return money to shareholders – the supermajors have largely sprung for the third option in recent weeks.” Quoting one of his colleagues, he says this shows they “choose cash over climate”. The article is titled: “Big Oil’s pullback from clean energy matters less than you might think.”

An editorial in the Daily Telegraph says the aims of energy security and net-zero are “admirable”, noting that “we have a moral responsibility to preserve the environment for future generations”. However, it continues: “But too often, these objectives appear to be in conflict. Energy security is not just a matter of cutting dependence on foreign suppliers, but ensuring that our new sources are reliable and affordable. Yet our approach to net-zero seems to demand that the public pays higher prices for less reliable fuels. This is not a sustainable state of affairs.” The paper adds: “We should of course aim to cut carbon, but it is a bizarrely punishing approach to insist on the pursuit of an artificially imposed 2050 deadline at great expense even while Beijing continues to approve dozens of new coal power plants.” [In its latest report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said it would be necessary to reach net-zero emissions by around mid-century if warming was to be limited to 1.5C; a recent YouGov poll found overwhelming cross-party support for the government’s net-zero by 2050 target.] The editorial says: “There is an opportunity here for the government to create a new dividing line in British politics, to be on the side of the ordinary voter by prioritising cheap energy and reliable supplies.” [The International Energy Agency has noted that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and use of energy as a weapon drove the high fossil fuel behind the global energy crisis. It said that “clean energy transitions…represent the best way out of [the crisis]”, that renewables remained the cheapest option for electricity generation and that “energy security concerns reinforce the rise of low-emissions sources and efficiency”.] A comment in the Sunday Telegraph is titled: “Scotland is now the testing ground for net-zero madness.”

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail gives a double-page spread to Prof Mike Hulme, who is promoting his new book and uses his article to claim: “Climate change is cited as the sole explanation for everything going wrong in the world. Drought, famine, flooding, wars, racism – you name it. And if it’s bad, it’s down to global warming caused by humans.” Hulme adds: “It makes no sense to reduce politics to the pursuit of a single over-arching goal: to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by a given date…Don’t get me wrong – limiting the rate of climate change is a desirable long-term policy goal. But climate change isn’t the only thing that matters.” He continues: “Climate is not, and never has been, static. It is a changing condition to which all life continually adapts as a natural response. Corals evolve to cope with ocean warming and acidification.” [Carbon Brief coverage of the IPCC reported last year: “Coral reefs, which are home to one-quarter of marine biodiversity, face a range of threats from both climate and non-climate drivers. Increasingly frequent and severe heat stress have increased both mass bleaching events and disease outbreaks. There is high confidence that with warming above 1.5C, reefs are ‘under threat’ of reaching erosion rates that are larger than the rate at which new corals can grow.”] Hulme’s lengthy article is littered with throwaway comments including: “I am certainly not claiming that climate science is necessarily biased, misleading, untrustworthy and worthless,” plus: “Others find that flashing their climate change credentials gains them access to specific financial and political resources.”

Plugging all “orphaned” oil and gas wells documented in the US would exceed the $4.7bn federal funding by 30–80%, according to a new study. The authors analyse data on 81,857 documented orphaned wells across the US. They find that more than 4.6 million people live within one kilometre of a documented orphaned well. The paper adds 91% of documented orphaned wells “overlie formations favourable for geologic storage of carbon dioxide and hydrogen, meaning that orphaned well plugging can reduce leakage risks from future storage projects”.

Three of the five most severe “snow-drought” events in the Italian Alps occurred in the last five years, new research finds. The authors document snow-drought events in the Italian Alps in the early 2020s by simulating “snow water equivalent” (SWE) – a measure of the amount of liquid water stored in the snow pack. The SWE anomaly reached its lowest value in the last century in March 2022 due to “an unprecedented combination of drier- and warmer-than-normal conditions in the period December 2021-March 2022”, the paper finds. The authors add that “exceptional” snow-drought conditions were seen in 2022 and 2023.