In order to overcome Global Warming, we need to continue R&D; to increase funding for solutions, and decrease funding for making things worse; and to increase political will while overcoming denial. These points bear repeating in a new year, with attention to new details. So here we are again.
We are far ahead of nuclear power, too, even dreams of molten salt reactors and fusion energy.
Fusion power is thirty years off, and will always remain so.
Maybe. Probably. But during the period from now to 100% renewables, Zero Net Carbon, and real Carbon Capture (with trees and plankton and minerals, not pumping it down oil wells to increase production), fission and fusion are irrelevant.
How Wall Street reckoned with climate change in 2023
Extreme weather this year carried life-or-death stakes but also economic risks.
A landmark report released by the federal government last month put a price tag on extreme weather events, saying they impose nearly $150 billion in costs for the United States each year.
The largest climate legislation in the nation's history, the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, helped unleash a wave of clean energy projects and record sales of electric vehicles, some experts said.
However, a backlash against environmental, social and governance investing, or ESG, brought a decline in financing for funds focused on those issues. Meanwhile, the U.S. produced a record amount of oil, even though the burning of fossil fuels makes up a key driver of climate change, experts added.
Roughly 280 clean energy projects representing $282 billion of investment were announced over the measure's first year, Goldman Sachs found in a report in October. In all, the study said, such projects created about 175,000 jobs.
Countering those costs and getting rid of subsidies would pay for all of the renewables we can build at present, until we have more and bigger factories, and more and bigger power lines.
A new rule requiring companies to disclose how much they pollute is coming in 2024
The Securities and Exchange Commission will decide by next spring on a rule to make public companies disclose how much they generate in greenhouse gases and how climate change could hurt their businesses.
The proposal requires companies to share information on two forms of climate change risk: physical and transition risks.
- Physical risks refer to climate change’s impact on a company’s operations, including the hazards of increased natural disasters like wildfires or hurricanes.
- Transition risks refer in part to potential damage to a company’s profits due to a growing number of climate change regulations. As a result, the SEC rule would order companies to share pollution generated by their business operations.
In October, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a climate disclosure bill requiring private and public companies that do business in California to disclose scope emissions beginning in 2026.
California’s bill comes after Europe passed its own rule, called the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. It forces certain companies that do business in Europe to publish information on environmental and social matters. That rule took effect in January 2023.
The potential of wealth taxation to address the triple climate inequality crisis
The triple climate inequality crisis, or disparities in contributions, impacts and capacity to act within and between countries, is a central issue in addressing climate change. This Comment advocates for progressive wealth taxation as a viable solution to the finance gap.
USDA to hire climate change fellows
Facing a record number of applications for clean energy funding, the USDA said it would hire 40 Climate Change Fellows to speed up the disbursal of $2 billion through its Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). The $2 billion was part of the 2022 climate, healthcare, and tax law. REAP provides grants and loan guarantees…
Canary Media
Six reasons to be optimistic about the energy transition
Chart: Lithium-ion battery prices are falling again
Covid disruptions broke what seemed like an inexorable trend of annual battery price declines. But this year, average pack prices fell 14% to a new record low.
By at least one metric, the shift to mass adoption is already well underway: Once EVs account for 5 percent of new car sales, “everything changes,” according to an analysis by Bloomberg Green that reports the U.S. crossed that crucial threshold in late 2021. In the third quarter of 2023, EVs made up around 8 percent of U.S. new car sales.
The humble trash truck is ready for an all-electric upgrade
Oregon’s first battery-powered garbage truck offers a look at the clean, carbon-free future of the dirty, diesel-powered world of waste collection.
India’s clean energy transition is rapidly underway, benefiting the entire world
The scale of transformation in India is stunning. Its economic growth has been among the highest in the world over the past two decades, lifting of millions of people out of poverty. Every year, India adds a city the size of London to its urban population, involving vast construction of new buildings, factories and transportation networks. Coal and oil have so far served as bedrocks of India’s industrial growth and modernisation, giving a rising number of Indian people access to modern energy services. This includes adding new electricity connections for 50 million citizens each year over the past decade.
The rapid growth in fossil energy consumption has also meant India’s annual CO2 emissions have risen to become the third highest in the world. However, India’s CO2 emissions per person put it near the bottom of the world’s emitters, and they are lower still if you consider historical emissions per person. The same is true of energy consumption: the average household in India consumes a tenth as much electricity as the average household in the United States.
Lies, Lying Liars, and Climate Denialists
Why people still fall for fake news about climate change
Over the past year, posts with the hashtag #climatescam have gotten more likes and retweets on the platform known as X than ones with #climatecrisis or #climateemergency.
By now, anyone looking out the window can see flowers blooming earlier and lakes freezing later. Why, after all this time, do 15 percent of Americans fall for the lie that global warming isn’t happening? And is there anything that can be done to bring them around to reality? New research suggests that understanding why fake news is compelling to people can tell us something about how to defend ourselves against it.
Science confirms that repeating the lies in order to debunk them just gives them more oxygen.
The only paragraph that helped people recognize falsehoods was one that prompted them to evaluate the accuracy of the information they were seeing, a nudge that brought some people back to reality.
One promising approach, “deep canvassing,” seeks to persuade people through nonjudgmental, one-on-one conversations. The outreach method, invented by LGBTQ+ advocates, involves hearing people’s concerns and helping them work through their conflicted feelings.
A core element in the Indivisible Truth Brigade’s campaigns:
Fox News tells this next story like it’s a bad thing.
Left-wing climate group is quietly preparing judges for global warming cases
Group is 'preparing the bench to understand the science and ensure justice in the new legal environment'
A little-known judicial advocacy organization funded by left-wing nonprofits is quietly training judges nationwide on preparing for cases related to climate change, according to a Fox News Digital review.
The Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Law Institute (ELI) created the Climate Judiciary Project (CJP) in 2018, establishing a first-of-its-kind resource to provide "reliable, up-to-date information" about climate change litigation, according to the group. The project's reach has extended to various state and federal courts, including powerful appellate courts, and comes as various cities and states pursue high-profile litigation against the oil industry.
"As the body of climate litigation grows, judges must consider complex scientific and legal questions, many of which are developing rapidly," CJP states on its website. "To address these issues, the Climate Judiciary Project of the Environmental Law Institute is collaborating with leading national judicial education institutions to meet judges’ need for basic familiarity with climate science methods and concepts."