On 10 September, California governor Jerry Brown signed a bill which would require 100% of the state electricity’s to come from carbon-free sources.

That would have no immediate effect on most gas generators, according to a report by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) analyst Michael Ferguson this month. However, he said: “We believe that over the long term, with the growth of renewable energy, these utilities face a significant threat to their market position, finances, and credit stability.”

Within a fortnight of the California bill, S&P had revised its ratings outlook for Middle River Power, an equity firm backing a natural gas-fired plant providing electricity for 500,000 people in San Bernadino, from stable to negative. On top of increased competition from renewables, the credit agency cited “a more challenging (…) regulatory environment for natural gas-fired assets over the long term because of aggressive renewable energy goal”.

Climate news in your inbox? Sign up here

“This gas plant is going to have to be refinanced,” Ferguson told Climate Home News, “and it’s going to get more and more difficult to refinance over the long-term because they are going to be facing increasing renewable penetration… Longer-term the prospects for [all] gas generation are going to be weaker.”

S&P’s report largely echoes an assessment by its rival Moody’s, released in September. According to Moody’s, the state’s new legislation was “credit negative” for companies Calpine Corporation, NRG Energy, Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), Southern California Edison Company, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

CHN contacted the above companies for comment, only PG&E responded. A spokesperson told CHN the company had concerns about the affordability and reliability of sourcing 100% electricity from renewables. Battery capacity, in particular, may need have to increase 200-fold to meet the 100% goal, according to the S&P report.

Gas generators could become carbon neutral if fitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. But little research had been carried out into CCS up to date and it was unlikely to become commercially successful in California, said Ferguson.

Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro is the environmental story of 2018.

No-one is better positioned than CHN’s Fabiano Maisonnave to cover the impact of his presidency on the world’s most important forest. We are the only international news site with a correspondent living in the heart of the Amazon. You can read some of the great reporting Fabiano has already done for us here.

We know we need to keep on this story, but after a huge 2018 and with the biggest UNFCCC talks in years approaching, our resources are really stretched. Please help us to keep Fabiano writing by making a small donation through our Patreon account.

Henrik Jeppesen from Carbon Tracker, a think tank focusing on the financial impact of the global energy transition, said fossil fuel generators risked becoming stranded assets. Most new energy infrastructure has a lifetime of 40 to 50 years. With a hard date of 2045 for all gas generation to end, that would mean companies would be left with plants that “can not be utilized to the full and they will not be able to generate a financial return on the asset,” he said.

“The companies prioritising an energy mix from coal and gas will have the greatest difficulty figuring how they want to structure their business going forward,” Jeppesen said.

Renewables account for roughly 44% of the state’s power, with gas producing 33%. Coal generation in-state is negligible, although some electricity imports are coal-fuelled. California’s last nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon, is set to shut in 2024. As older plants languish and face closure, some California gas companies have already ditched plans for new generation capacity.

Republish this article

The post Gas companies face Californian wipe-out, say S&P, Moody’s appeared first on Climate Home News.

Translators and staffers chat excitedly in the corridors; the great and the good of global climate governance appear one by one; and behind doors that swing open and then quickly closed, officials from the superpower and the Californian government cut climate deals that fly in the face of White House policy.

California governor Jerry Brown’s Global Climate Action Summit, which is being held just a block away, has long been anticipated as a domestic riposte to the Trump administration’s climate reverse.

On Wednesday US cities, states and businesses released a report detailing how they were upholding the US side of the Paris bargain, in spite of the White House.

And the Chinese are making their own statement in San Francisco. More than fifty Chinese officials, academics and business leaders are listed on a three day programme of events. With their staff, the Chinese are one of the most significant non-US presences at the summit.

What happens in the next few months will impact the future of the Paris Agreement and the global climate

CHN will be there keeping you informed from the inside.

If you value our coverage, please consider helping us. Become a CHN patron for as little as $5 per month.

We have set up a Patreon account. It’s a simple, safe and easy way for you to become part of a community that will secure and guide our future.

Thank you!

In remarks to a room filled to standing at the back, Brown thanked the “very large Chinese delegation”, which included Xie Zhenhua, China’s long-standing climate majordomo and the top official in the delegation.

“Just the fact that you are here, in such numbers, and people of such importance and expertise says volumes about the commitment of China to confronting climate change,” he said.

In 2015, Chinese and US presidents Xi Jinping and Barack Obama signed a bilateral deal that set their targets for emissions curbs and laid the foundation for the Paris Agreement.

Few people outside those governments understand better than Laurence Tubiana how difficult it was to hold the US-China compact together in the final days of talks in Paris. On Wednesday, the former French diplomat, now head of the European Climate Foundation, watched as Brown and Xie signed multiple cooperation deals on research, industry and climate politics.

“I think [the Chinese] are really lost,” Tubiana said. “I think they struggle to recognise that the US has disappeared on [climate change]. They just can’t accept that totally, so they are looking for somebody to talk to. I think that’s why they invested so much in Jerry Brown.”

Brown and Bloomberg: Even without the Trump administration, the US is upholding the Paris Agreement

California and China first signed a climate deal in 2013. But the timing of this renewal is significant. The foundations were laid last year, when Brown flew to Beijing to meet President Xi, less than a week after Donald Trump announced the US would withdraw from the Paris.

“I think for the moment it’s a placeholder and [China] will long for a new administration… but they play their cards too and California is an important place,” said Tubiana.

One of the mantras of the San Francisco summit is California’s position as the fifth largest economy on earth. “We’re not small potatoes,” said Brown. “We’re big.”

A few minutes earlier, when Brown had risen to address the delegation, laughter rippled through the crowd. The Chinese-to-English interpreter had mistranslated his introduction, calling Brown the “president” of California.

California remains a state. But it’s a state that a major superpower, in a time of growing international distrust, is prepared to conduct diplomacy with in defiance of White House policy.

“It’s really, really incredible… It’s just a major event,” said Tubiana, before drifting away to catch up with her old friend Xie.

In his opening remarks, Xie said he had spoken with Brown for more than two hours on Tuesday afternoon.

“We believe that under the current bilateral situation between China and the US we can find the best way to benefit people of both our countries,” Xie said. “We are going to work together for this consensus that we have built.”

By reaching out to Brown, Xie was working around the Trump administration, which has pursued a hot and cold trade war with the US’ major competitor and recently watered down the carbon pollution law that underpinned the US-China climate pact.

Xie Yuan, vice president of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, said: “We are glad to see that both countries’ cooperation now has deepened and reached subnational government.”

Xie Zhenhua added that China considered itself a “leader in global action on climate change” and announced the creation of the Global Climate Action Initiative, which will channel Chinese philanthropic funding to support the government’s low carbon development push.

Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here

That was significant, said economist Nicholas Stern. China has long been reluctant to declare itself a frontrunner on climate change.

“It’s so important for the world that… China is in a leading position [on climate change],” he said. Adding that China’s 14^th five year plan for 2021-2025 and its multi-trillion dollar belt and road overseas investment initiative would shape the “future of the world”.

Brown agreed. Two days after setting one of the most ambitious climate targets in any major developed economy – California will aim for zero emissions by 2045 – he said:  “We have no chance of getting there unless China invests hundreds of billions of dollars in all the technologies that will be needed.”

For example, Brown said, China must continue to mandate ever-higher quotas for its car makers to produce electric vehicles. A prospect that terrifies European automakers, who are behind the technological curve and fear missing out on the great Chinese car boom if they cannot build enough green cars.

“We need zero emissions cars. China has 1.5 million. We need China to have 100 million. And in California we want at least 5 million electric cars,” said Brown. “We can only do that if China continues on  a parallel path and even increases ambition, requiring auto companies, whether Chinese, European or American, in order to sell any cars in China, they should be selling much more electric cars.”

This mutual dependence in the face of mutual threat was a recipe to overcome the two countries differences, said Brown.

Xie Yuan agreed: “Both China and the US have a shared destiny and shared future.”

Republish this article

The post Let down by Trump on climate, China goes around him in California appeared first on Climate Home News.

As he prepares to host a summit of business and political leaders in San Francisco next week, activists and allies are calling on California’s governor to sign SB 100, a law that mandates the complete decarbonisation of the electricity sector by the year 2045.

On Saturday activists at 350.org are mounting “the largest ever climate march the US west coast has ever seen in San Francisco”, according to activists at 350.org.

One of their key demands is for Brown to sign the law and commit to “a fast, fair and just transition to 100% renewable energy and an immediate end to new fossil fuel projects”. The group views the coincidence of the law, which passed the state assembly two weeks ago, and the summit as an opportunity to push Brown to sign.

More than ever, the world needs great climate coverage

Become a CHN patron for as little as $7 per month to help us keep bringing you the most in-depth climate politics news from around the world.

We have set up a Patreon account. It’s a simple, safe and easy way for you to become part of a community that will secure and guide our future.

Thank you!

Jonathan Underland, communications director for state senator Kevin de León who sponsored the law, directed questions on the timing of the governor’s signature to Brown’s office.

Underland said: “I can tell you the that SB 100 – if signed – will make California the largest economy in the world to move to 100% renewable energy.” He said the bill would create jobs, clean up the air and help beat climate change.

Brown’s office did not respond to questions on when he would sign the law.

In a recent tweet, Brown voiced his commitment to solving the environmental crisis: “In California, facts and science still matter. These findings are profoundly serious and will continue to guide us as we confront the apocalyptic threat of irreversible climate change.”

Kristen James, director of investor-facing NGO Ceres, also called on Brown to sign SB 100 in the days before he meets with heads of business and industry.

“The 100% clean energy target provides a clear market signal to businesses and investors, indicating that demand for clean energy will continue to grow – in turn spurring investment, encouraging innovation, and creating jobs,” she said.

However activists’ demands to Brown go beyond the source of carbon emissions. May Boeve, executive director of 350.org, said: “SB 100 is a critical first step toward addressing the worsening climate crisis, but to truly change course, we must end fossil fuel extraction.”

California produces some of the US’ most carbon-intensive oil. Boeve said Brown should “go even further by kick starting the transition off of fossil fuels while protecting Californian’s lives and livelihoods”.

Last month dozens of student protestors blockaded Brown’s office at the state capitol, protesting against drilling operations in California.

Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s climate law institute and representative of the Brown’s Last Chance Campaign told Climate Home News: “Specifically, we have asked Brown to lead by announcing no new permits for oil and gas extraction, fossil fuel infrastructure, or petrochemical projects in California [and to] set a global precedent by becoming the first oil producing state to announce a phase-out of existing production.”

Republish this article

The post As he prepares to host climate bash, will California’s Brown bring gifts? appeared first on Climate Home News.

Trump’s actions since coming into office have favoured polluters. Particularly the elevation of Scott Pruitt to the head of his environment agency. Pruitt, who has close ties to the industrialist Koch brothers, announced this month he was rolling back president Barack Obama’s key climate legislation, the clean power plan.

Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme on UK radio, Brown said California would continue to use this tactic in response to Trump’s anti-climate actions.

Climate Weekly: Sign up for your essential climate news update

“First of all we can go to court and block his efforts and we are doing that. Just like the Republicans tried to block Obama’s efforts,” he said. The clean power plan itself was subject to a lawsuit from 28 mostly Republican states. That suit has now been suspended.

New York is reportedly preparing a lawsuit to protect the clean power plan. California’s attorney general Xavier Becerra has repeatedly sued the federal government this year over a number of issues, including the environment, and has said he would “everything in my power to defend the Clean Power Plan”.

Trump infamously described climate change as a “Chinese hoax” in 2012 – long before he emerged as a contender for the Republican presidential nomination. But after his election, he told the New York Times he had an “open mind” on the issue.

Brown was asked by the BBC whether he believed Trump thought climate change was “an illusion”.

“No, I don’t believe that,” said Brown. “But he, like politicians, work their constituency. And I think he sees this as a galvanising rhetoric for his base.”

That rhetoric includes an announcement that he intends to withdraw from the UN Paris Agreement. Something which, under the terms of the deal, he cannot do until just before his first term ends in 2020. (On Monday, Nicaragua indicated that they were preparing to sign the accord, leaving Syria – perhaps to be joined by the US – as the only nation not a signatory.)

Report: Jerry Brown’s climate coalition now covers 39% of the global economy

Brown also noted that Trump, already struggling to pass major legislation, could be hamstrung by the midterm elections next year.

“At the same time there will be an election in 2018. Hopefully we’ll have one or two of the houses go from Republican to Democrat,” he said.

He also noted the “under-2” coalition of states, nations and cities he has helped to build.

“We are linking up with other similar-minded people all over the world and we are pushing forward. Even as Trump blusters, he cannot command the tides to not come in,” he said. Governments in the coalition, which commits to sharp carbon cuts, already control 39% of global GDP and represent one in every seven people on earth.

The post Jerry Brown: ‘California will sue Trump over climate’ appeared first on Climate Home News.

Senate Bill 100 (SB100) would have forced utilities to speed up the decarbonisation of the grid, with an overall aim of 100% clean energy by 2045.

But the legislature failed to bring the bill to a vote after interventions from the state’s biggest utilities and the electrical workers union. Friday was the deadline for all legislative activity for 2017. Democrats in the utilities and energy committee could not get the votes to push the bill to a full vote in both houses.

California has huge Democratic margins in both houses and a governor in Jerry Brown who is increasingly taking on climate change as a legacy issue. The bill was also written and championed by Kevin de Leόn, the state senate president from Los Angeles.

Despite this, representatives balked at bringing the vote. In a joint letter, California’s biggest utilities Pacific Gas & Electric Company, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric Company argued the bill failed to protect consumers from potential price rises.

Climate Weekly: Sign up for your essential climate news update

NBC reported that the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers also refused to support the bill.

Green groups responded with disappointment, but noted that the bill had been delayed, not defeated. Michelle Kinman, clean energy advocate with Environment California said they would now focus on getting the bill passed at the next opportunity, in January.

“We’re disappointed that special interests short-circuited the opportunity to pass SB 100 today,” she said. “Californians – and all Americans – are demanding a cleaner, healthier future.”

Laura Wisland, a senior energy analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said: “Setting a goal to completely decarbonise California’s electricity sector by 2045 is bold and aspirational, and it should not be a surprise that a big new energy policy will take multiple legislative sessions to hammer out some of the details.”

The post California bid for 100% clean energy stalls appeared first on Climate Home News.

The bill passed the senate in May and is primed for a final assembly vote in the coming days. It will make California the world’s largest test bed for creating an entirely clean power grid.

Kevin De León, acting president of the California senate and a Democrat, told Climate Home the state would not be deterred by a federal rollback of environmental protections.

“With or without Washington, California will lead when it comes to our climate policies and leadership. By moving to 100% RPS [Renewable Portfolio Standards], we send a very clear signal to the market,” he said.

If passed, as observers expect, the legislation will make California the second state after Hawaii to ink a 100% renewable target. As the sixth largest economy in the world, ranked against nation states, California’s proposal would set off an energy transformation on a much larger scale.

Report: US state department to abolish climate change envoy

The move cements the state’s position as a counterweight to the White House on climate issues. Governor Jerry Brown has announced plans to host a global climate summit in San Francisco next year and spoken out against president Donald Trump’s refusal to acknowledge – let alone act on – the threat of global warming.

SB100, as the legislation is known, toughens existing targets up to 2030, setting a course for 60% renewable electricity by that date. It requires utilities to plan for 100%, albeit with lesser penalties if they fail to meet it than for the short-term targets. The language was weakened slightly as the bill passed through the legislature.

Renewable credits count towards the goal, giving the network some flexibility. Still, balancing variable solar and wind power generation on a large scale with consumer demand poses a major challenge for the state’s advanced technology sector.

In his headquarters in Hayward, California, Paul Beach sorts through orders for electricity storage packs. His company, Octillion, focuses on batteries for electric vehicles and off-grid applications.

(Source: Climate Home)

A lot of entrepreneurs are excited by the energy storage industry, Beach tells Climate Home, but getting to the point of making money is rough. “The battery business as I’ve looked at it for 17 years, it has a history of people chasing the dream of a very potentially lucrative market.”

Competing with battery giants like Samsung and LG takes a lot of work – and many energy storage start-ups don’t make it, he said.

But 100% renewable legislation gives him confidence to keep going. If Octillion can weather out the slow years and prepare for the day when demand spikes – which he expects – then it and battery companies like it will reap the benefits of being ahead of the curve.

“[Start-ups are] sort of on the sidelines, waiting for the market to materialize,” he said. “When it hits, it’s going to be a hockey stick.”

Dirtier than tar sands: California’s crude oil secret

The transformation will create losers as well as winners. With California currently getting nearly a third of its power from natural gas, a number of thermal power stations are likely to be forced into early retirement.

Several utility providers, including Pacific Gas & Electric Company and Southern California Edison, have been lobbying against the bill as written. They argue the renewable requirements would pose too much of an economic burden.

“PG&E strongly supports a low-carbon and clean energy future,” the utility company said in a statement. “We want to help California achieve its bold clean energy goals in a way that is affordable for our customers. If it’s not affordable, it’s not sustainable.”

That position was lent academic weight by a paper published in PNAS journal in June, which argued 100% renewable electricity scenarios relied on some implausible assumptions. It is better to use the broadest available range of technologies, it said, including nuclear and fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage.

Nuclear advocates, in particular, are unhappy the bill sees no future for their preferred large scale, low carbon source of power, after the state’s last atomic plant announced plans to close next decade.

De León acknowledged those concerns but said the 100% renewable goal, while ambitious, had a broad support base.

Report: India publishes 9-point plan to increase coal production

Last year, at Brown’s urging, California passed one of the toughest greenhouse emissions reduction targets in the world, seeking to cut carbon pollution 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. Requiring a certain percentage of electricity to come from renewable sources is one of a handful of tools the state is using to meet this goal. The state’s cap-and-trade system was recently extended by legislators until 2030, tightening restrictions on carbon at the same time as Trump seeks to scrap federal regulations.

However it is worth noting that none of these curbs will significantly inhibit California’s oil and gas sector, the third biggest in the US. It is likely to continue exporting fossil fuels to be burned elsewhere while the home market dwindles.

California has long been a proving ground for environmental regulation, said James Sweeney, director of Stanford University’s Precourt Energy Efficiency Center. The nation’s first climate legislation was enacted in California, as were laws that eventually became the federal Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.

“This has been a continuing story of environmental protection that has been global leadership from California, and this is the latest manifestation,” he told Climate Home.

“The significance of what California does [is that] it’s taking some major risks that if they turn out to be successful will encourage others states and other nations to try to do the same thing. If they turn out to be a failure, that information will discourage everyone from trying to do the same thing.”

The post California to pass law setting 100% renewable electricity goal appeared first on Climate Home News.

It “has the consistency of ketchup”, as Chevron expressed it in legal papers. The company injects steam in the well to soften it up and get the crude flowing to the surface.

This high-energy process makes San Ardo one of the most climate polluting sources of oil in the world – worse, even, than Canada’s notoriously dirty tar sands.

And it is at the centre of a legal battle brewing between three oil majors and a coalition of community organisers and environmental lawyers.

On 8 November, Monterey County passed “Measure Z”, a package of regulations to effectively halt new oil and gas production, with 56% of the vote.

Chevron and Aera Energy, a Californian outfit co-owned by affiliates of Exxon Mobil and Shell, sued to block the initiative last Wednesday.

The stage is set for a courtroom drama next year pitting corporate property rights against growing concerns about the oil sector’s impact on water resources and the climate.

Weekly briefing: Sign up for your essential climate politics update

Measure Z was billed as a fracking ban, the seventh at county level in California and the first from a major oil producing area. In fact, its scope is wider, prohibiting a range of practices including disposal of wastewater in aquifers.

“Protect our water” is the rallying cry, with California’s ongoing – if easing – drought focusing attention on the importance of groundwater resources.

The initiative also makes the case for a local economy based around agriculture and tourism, highlighting the beauty of the landscape.

“Oil and gas development projects are industrial operations at odds with the qualities and values that make Monterey County unique and prosperous,” it states.

The campaign website lists scores of endorsements ranging from health professionals to politicians – notably Senator Bernie Sanders, former contender for the Democratic presidential nomination.

On the other side, the oil majors argue Measure Z is unconstitutional, amounting to a property grab without proper compensation. The industry should be regulated at state and federal level, not by counties, they say.

“Measure Z won’t just hurt our company,” said Christina Sistrunk, CEO of Aera, in a statement. “It will inflict significant unnecessary hardship on our employees and their families, as well as on Monterey County and its citizens, by exporting good jobs and essential revenues out of the county and into foreign countries.”

Report: If Trump quits, California could apply to join UN climate talks

In the US and California alike, the bulk of climate change regulations focus on reducing demand for fossil fuels. For example, vehicle emissions standards make cars less gas-guzzling.

The assumption is that declines in production will follow, as oil majors won’t invest in rigs if the demand isn’t there. In practice, energy companies continue to be bullish about the volume of oil and gas that will be needed in future, their projections exceeding what is safe to burn within climate targets.

Tuesday’s move by outgoing president Barack Obama – endorsed by California governor Jerry Brown – to block Arctic and Atlantic offshore drilling was one of a few exceptions. With successor Donald Trump filling his team with oil advocates, the likelihood of further steps in that direction is slim.

The Center for Biological Diversity is supporting a variety of legal challenges against oil and gas fields, whether on water conservation or other grounds.

“Our ultimate goal is to phase out production in the state,” senior attorney Maya Golden-Krasner told Climate Home. “The state has argued: if we reduce demand, you will automatically reduce production. But we think to meet the climate goal you have to focus on both at the same time.”

Data from the California Air Resources Board, compiled by Center for Biological Diversity

It was researchers from the NGO who uncovered data showing that San Ardo oil has a larger carbon footprint than crude extracted from tar sands in Alberta.

For each megajoule of useful energy output, San Ardo oil emits 29g of CO2 equivalent, more than double the state average and higher than Albertan imports at 19-24g. Supplying 7.6 million barrels a year, that adds up to 3.3 million tonnes of CO2.

The data is gathered by California’s Air Resources Board to inform the state’s low carbon fuel standard. That is the main lever to encourage less carbon-intensive production, but Golden-Krasner said the rules had been weakened after industry pushback. California’s emissions cap-and-trade programme does not cover oil and gas extraction.

“Allowing an expansion at the San Ardo oilfield, which is already California’s single-largest source of the most climate-damaging oil, would directly contradict the state’s crucial efforts to reduce pollution and avert the most dangerous effects of climate change,” said CBD’s report.

Measure Z has been put on hold pending the court case, with the first hearing scheduled for April 2017.

The post Dirtier than tar sands: California’s crude oil secret appeared first on Climate Home News.

Asked by Climate Home on Thursday if the golden state could replace the United States, California senate leader Kevin De Leon said it was an “option that I want to keep open”.

Legal experts at Harvard and Yale were already researching if a sub-national body could join the UN climate talks he said, but added this would be a “political decision”.

“We will continue to be active in the international movement to address climate change,” said De Leon, who branded Trump’s threat to the UN process as a “jobs killer”.

“To the extent the UN wants to coordinate with work we are doing we are more than willing to take part in these discussions,” he added.

#Marrakech mail: sign up here for your daily #COP22 update

Traditionally only states have been members of the UN climate body, although there are exceptions to the rule such as the EU and the Holy See.

A spokesperson for the UN climate body appeared to nix California’s chances, telling Climate Home that “only national governments” could join.

But the UN convention on climate change appears to allow for some flexibility: “Any body or agency, whether national or international, governmental or non-governmental, which is qualified in matters covered by the Convention, and which has informed the secretariat of its wish to be represented at a session of the Conference of the Parties as an observer, may be so admitted unless at least one third of the Parties present object.”

Still, Jake Schmidt, head of international climate policy the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a leading US NGO, said Governor Jerry Brown’s administration “should definitely consider it”.

“I’m sure there are creative ways to continue US engagement since the American pubic is clear it wants climate action,” he added.

The West Coast state is the country’s second largest emitter after Texas, and has long led on pushing tough climate targets.

Last year lawmakers voted for 40% greenhouse gas cuts below 1990 levels by 2030, and are also supporting a raft of vehicle emission standards tougher than the rest of the US.

Full version now live: With appeal to Trump, Kerry (and US) leave climate leadershiphttps://t.co/OMknTg1Lbd pic.twitter.com/tNpev03xWI

— Climate Home News (@ClimateHome) November 16, 2016

In the past week the Californian delegation met with ministers from China, Germany, Canada and Mexico said Ken Alex, head of the state’s planning and research department.

“There is exceptional interest around the world to see California, Vermont and Washington [state] to continue their efforts,” he said, referring to the three states that sent representatives to Marrakech.

According to California environment head Matt Rodriguez around 10-12 US states representing 30% of the country’s economy are set to actively oppose Trump’s plans to quash climate laws.

These include Washington state, New York state, Oregon, New England and Vermont, while a total of 36 states have already developed climate plans and renewable energy targets.

“There has been a economic transition in the US that is not changing,” he said. “Even Texas – it has the most renewables in the country – but they are not talking about it as climate change.”

“This is great time to be involved in state and regional action… we now need to be a voice of consistency,” said Deborah Markowitz, head of natural resources in Vermont.

John Kerry made his valedictory speech to the UN climate process in his role as US secretary of state on Wednesday, telling delegates that despite Trump’s threat, support at state and city level for climate action was significant.

“It isn’t a partisan issue for mayors from New Orleans to Miami, who are already working hard to manage sunny-day floods and stronger storm surges caused by climate change,” he said.

“It isn’t partisan for liberal and conservative business leaders alike who are investing unprecedented amounts of money into renewables, voluntarily committing to reduce their own emissions, and even holding their supply chains accountable to their overall carbon footprint.”

The post If Trump quits, California could apply to join UN climate talks appeared first on Climate Home News.

People in this area are used to wildfires, but as California and much of the western US endures its fifth year of severe drought, residents are wondering when there will be any respite from the flames and smoke.

Mike Mohler, a battalion chief with the state’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, says that although there was substantial rainfall in northern California earlier this year, those five drought years mean there is no moisture in the vegetation.

“When we get these fires now, we are seeing what we call explosive fire growth,” Mohler told the NPR radio network.

“And now the explosive fire growth statewide is unfortunately the new normal. We’re seeing fire conditions that are unprecedented. In my 22 years [in the fire service], I haven’t seen fire move like I have this year.”

Weekly briefing: Sign up for your essential climate politics update

So far this year there have been more than 4,000 wildfires in California, with well over 300,000 acres of land burned, forestry officials say.

The US Forest Service estimates that nearly 70 million trees have died in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains over the last five years. Changes in climate, including above-average temperatures and prolonged drought, have created tinderbox conditions, with wildfires spreading quickly.

Widespread infestations of bark beetles, which attack pine trees weakened by successive years of drought, are another significant factor in the destruction of the state’s luxuriant forests.

Studies say California is among the US states hardest hit by climate change and needs to adapt its economy and way of living in order to cope with prolonged droughts and rising temperatures.

Late last month, the state’s legislature – against strong opposition from many corporations and businesses – brought in a bill requiring a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over 1990 levels by 2030.

Report: California feels the heat of record wildfires

Jerry Brown, California’s governor, said the state is charting a clear course on climate, and attacked what he called “the brazen deception of the oil lobby and their Trump-inspired allies who deny science and fight every reasonable effort to curb global warming”.

Although California is seen as a leader in the US in the fight to combat climate change, environmentalists and scientists feel it needs to do far more to preserve its dwindling water resources in the face of the continuing drought.

Research published last year, analysing tree rings, showed that California’s Central Valley had not been as dry for 500 years.

The level of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains – which usually supplies 30% of the state’s water – has been decreasing in recent years.

And reservoirs throughout the state are at a record low. In some areas, water tables have dropped by 50 feet as more and more wells are drilled. In 2014,restrictions on the use of groundwater − mainly applying to urban areas − were brought in.

California’s farmers, who make up a powerful lobby group in what is seen as theagricultural powerhouse of the US, have escaped most of the new laws. Despite the continuing drought, the state remains a major producer of thirsty crops such as almonds, tomatoes and oranges.

This article was produced by the Climate News Network

The post California wildfire growth ‘explosive’ says official appeared first on Climate Home News.

In a major coup for its backers, the extension to Senate Bill 32 passed the state’s upper house on Wednesday evening. It followed the acceptance of its sister bill in the house of assembly on Tuesday.

Together they mandate an emissions cut of 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. This would put California’s climate laws on a par with the EU, which is widely considered an industrialised world leader in terms of its ambition to combat climate change.

California emitted 353 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2013, If it were a country, it would be among the 20 worst polluters.

Weekly briefing: Sign up for your essential climate politics update

The bill passed by 25 votes to 13. As supporters celebrated, California’s Democrat governor Jerry Brown immediately issued a statement committing to signing the bills and taking a swipe at climate revisionists in the Republican party.

“Yesterday, big oil bought a full-page ad in the capital city’s newspaper of record to halt action on climate,” said Brown.

“Today, the assembly speaker, most Democrats and one brave Republican passed SB 32, rejecting the brazen deception of the oil lobby and their Trump-inspired allies who deny science and fight every reasonable effort to curb global warming.”

Speaking before the vote, Republican senate leader Jean Fuller said the original 2006 bill, which required the state’s emissions to fall to 1990 levels by 2020 and which today’s bill extends, had crushed employment.

“It has decreased energy security for our country by dismantling the energy infrastructure in our country and by eliminating jobs that are highly-skilled, well-paid that are very important to my county,” said Fuller.

Ceres programme director in California Ana Zacapa said: “This is a hard-won and hugely important victory for the drought-stricken state of California. Even more importantly, it sets a new precedent for climate action across the US.”

California’s new target steps far beyond the federal administration’s commitments to the Paris climate agreement. The US’ national climate target of 26–28% below 2005 in 2025 uses a different baseline, but is equivalent to 12–19% below 1990.

During the house debate Republican Assembly leader Kristin Olsen had questioned the “intellectual honesty” of prioritising climate change when people in California were dealing with daily real struggles and humanitarian crises, such as abortion which she called the “sanctioned killing of millions of babies across the globe”.

.@KristinOlsenCA on #AB197: Climate change is important. But the biggest humanitarian issue of our time? #caleg pic.twitter.com/lBktr7dO70

— California Assembly Republicans (@AsmRepublicans) August 24, 2016

But advocates say the law will encourage investment incentive in a state where renewable energy innovation is a burgeoning economic force. It will also provide a strong economic signal for the state’s cap and trade system, which suffered from lukewarm demand at its recent auction.

On Thursday, with the vote hanging in the balance, major corporations including Levi Strauss, Symantec and Mars, delivered a letter to lawmakers urging them to sign the bill.

Zacapa said the broad coalition of voices had won the day: “We know from our allies in the legislature that the voices of California businesses and investors that Ceres helped bring to the table were key to the passage of this important legislation.”

The post California passes ambitious climate targets appeared first on Climate Home News.

A still from infra-red footage shot by an Earthworks ITC-certified thermographer over the leak (Pic: EDF/You Tube)

By Joanna Peasland

A new study confirms the unprecedented Californian gas leak as the biggest ever, leading to a 20% spike in the state’s methane emissions.

An estimated 60 metric tonnes of gas spewed from the well near San Fernando Valley every hour, mounting to over 100,000 tonnes of methane and ethane during the 112-day blowout, according to a scientific study in the journal Science.

The figures exceed previous estimations and will leave an impact on the climate for the next 100 years, equal to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from 572,000 US cars, said the report.

At its worst, the ruptured well – finally plugged earlier this month – was California’s largest point source of methane.

The amount of gas being released was double that of a coal mine in Alabama and equal to one-quarter of the annual methane pollution from all other sources in the Los Angeles Basin combined, the report added.

Gas company SoCal detected the ruptured well on 23 October 2015, which continued to spew gas until it was plugged on 11 February.

The concentration of gases in the air was so high that experts could barely believe their readings. “This was just a huge event”, said lead scientist Stephen Conley.

Statewide methane emissions during the event increased by around 20%, according to the California Air Resources Board, undermining efforts to reduce greenhouse gas levels.

It was hoped that California’s ambitious targets to cut emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 would help progress towards a federal goal to cut emissions 26-28% on 2005 levels by 2025.

“Our results show how failures of natural gas infrastructure can significantly impact greenhouse gas control efforts,” said NOAA’s Tom Ryerson, a lead scientist on the study.

“Emitting just a little bit of methane greatly accelerates the rate of climactic change,” added EDF Chief Scientist Steven Hamburg.

-Methane is 84 times more polluting than carbon dioxide in the initial decades after it is released.
-Over a 100-year period, the effect of methane on warming the planet is 25 times that of Co2.

The report noted that rapid evaluation of episodes like the Aliso leak is essential to meet the requirements of the Paris climate agreement, which requires countries to be fully transparent in accounting for their emissions.

It also confirms the adverse human health impacts of major gas leaks. Scientists discovered above average levels of potentially dangerous compounds were found in the densely populated Porter Ranch in the San Fernando Valley, causing mass evacuations.

Sulphur-containing compounds such as mercaptan found in samples of the leaked gas can cause short-term loss of smell, nausea, headaches and other irritations.

SoCal are currently determining the cause of the leak and authorities aim to develop a climate mitigation program in response to the leak by March 31 this year.

University of California, Irvine (UCI) and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) were among the institutions involved in the study.

The post Largest gas leak in US history leaves 100-year climate legacy appeared first on Climate Home News.

Yosemite national park in California is one of many in the region afflicted by drought – water levels in the Merced River are up to 4 feet lower than usual (Pic: Pixabay)

By Tim Radford

Tens of millions of trees in California are now at risk because of sustained drought, according to new research.

And a different study in a different journal foresees a parched future for the evergreen forests not just in the Golden State but in the entire US southwest.

Gregory Asner of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Stanford, California and colleagues used airborne, laser-guided imaging instruments to measure, for the first time, the full impact of California’s four-year drought, and combined their measurements with satellite data going back to 2011. What they were looking for, precisely, were the levels of water content in the forest canopy.

They report, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that 58 million Californian trees – pines, firs, hemlocks, juniper, sequoia and so on – are now suffering losses “extremely threatening” to long-term health.

Their study covered 41,000 square miles, or 10.6 million hectares, containing 888 million large trees. All experienced measurable losses of canopy water between 2011 and 2015.

Study: California drought is worsening, say scientists
Report: California feels heat from record wildfires

Forests of course are vital components of the planetary survival machine: they provide habitat and nourishment to a host of species, they serve as reservoirs of water, they maintain the stability of mountainsides, they sequester carbon from the atmosphere, they supply industry and – in California especially – the giant redwoods of Mariposa and other forests are tourist attractions. 

“So they are tremendously important ecologically, economically and culturally,” said Professor Asner. “The drought put the forests in tremendous peril, a situation that may cause long-term changes in ecosystems that could impact animal habitats and biodiversity.”

In the longer term, too, peril is on the way. US researchers report in Nature Climate Change that they devised models to project the impact of global warming on the forests of the American Southwest – a climatic zone that includes Arizona, and parts of New Mexico, California, Colorado, Utah and Texas – up to the year 2100. The region is home to 11 national forests.

They looked at field results, climate models and a whole range of studies and kept arriving at the same grim conclusion: the outcome was dire. Massive mortality was predicted for the conifers of the region.

“No matter how we investigated the problem, we got the same result. This consensus gives us confidence in this projection of forest mortality,” said Sara Rauscher, of the University of Delaware, one of the authors.

“A treeless Southwest would be a major change not only to the landscape, but to the overall ecosystem”

The study suggests that 72% of the region’s needleleaf, evergreen forests will die by 2050, with nearly 100% mortality of Southwest forests by 2100.

The study does not allow for the forests to adapt. It does consider the worst case scenario, one in which humans go on burning fossil fuels on a business-as-usual principle, releasing ever more carbon dioxide to accelerate increasingly calamitous climate change. The scientists have not considered forest fires and insect plagues that could make their projections even worse.

“This region of the U.S. has beautiful, old forests with historic trees like Ponderosapine that you don’t find in many other places. A treeless Southwest would be a major change not only to the landscape, but to the overall ecosystem,” Dr Rauscher said.

“There is always hope that if we reduce carbon emissions, if we continue to address climate change, then perhaps these dire projections won’t come to pass.”

This article was produced by the Climate News Network

The post Drought is killing millions of trees in California appeared first on Climate Home News.

Jerry Brown, the Governor of the world’s eighth-largest economy (Flickr/ Steve Rhodes)

By Megan Darby

California’s two largest public pension funds are set to ditch coal holdings after a state assembly vote on Wednesday.

Lawmakers backed the “investing with values and responsibility” bill by 43-27, as part of the state’s push to tackle climate change. Governor Jerry Brown is expected to rubber stamp the law in the next few days.

Worth a combined US$500 billion, CalPERS and CalSTRS will become the first US funds to divest on such a large scale.

“Coal is losing value quickly and investing in coal is a losing proposition for our retirees; it’s a nuisance to public health; and it’s inconsistent with our values as a state on the forefront of efforts to address global climate change,” said Kevin de Leon, the state’s Democratic senate leader.

“California’s utilities are phasing out coal, and it’s time our pension funds did the same.”

Report: Divestment campaign swells as 100 trusts worth $5bn sign up

Under the bill, the pension providers must sell shares in companies that get half their revenue or more from mining “thermal” coal – the kind used in power generation.

Calpers has investments worth US$100-200 million meeting that definition, it said, including stakes in Peabody Energy and Arch Coal. For CalSTRS, the figure is around $40m.

Campaigners hailed the decision.

“This is a big moment for California, and for everyone around the world standing up to the most powerful and destructive industry in history,” said May Boeve, executive director of 350.org.

“Today’s vote is so meaningful because it sends a strong message: political leadership on climate change means being willing to stand up to powerful moneyed interests, and call out the destructive practices of the companies causing the climate crisis.”

Citigroup: Coal mining sector running out of time

Scientists have calculated more than 80% of known coal reserves worldwide cannot be burned if the global warming is to be held to 2C.

Half of natural gas and a third of oil also needs to stay in the ground, they found, to meet the international climate goal.

Yet energy majors continue to base their business plans on rising fossil fuel demand growth. Some are engaged in high cost ventures, such as Arctic exploration, that analysts say cannot pay off in a 2C world.

Boeve called on California to go further, divesting from oil and gas and banning shale gas fracking.

California took a slightly looser definition of coal company than adopted by Norway’s oil fund, the biggest globally to divest so far.

Norwegian lawmakers agreed to withdraw finance from firms that get more than 30% of revenues from mining. It also targeted power companies that generate more 30% of their output from coal. The total value at stake was estimated at $8 billion.

Report: Banks urged to halt coal finance before Paris summit

Meanwhile, six ethical banks with assets exceeding €15 billion from Bolivia, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and the US have pledged to stop financing coal.

ASN Bank, Banco Fie, Ekobanken, New Resource Bank, Ethikbank and Umweltbank signed the Paris Pledge.

Advocacy group Bank Track is encouraging other private banks to take that step ahead of a critical climate change summit in Paris this December.

The post California state pension funds to divest from coal appeared first on Climate Home News.

Lakes are drying up across California (Flickr/Ben Amstutz)

By Megan Darby

Human-induced climate change is intensifying California’s long-running drought, fresh evidence shows.

As the dry spell continues its fourth year, US researchers estimate 8-27% of the phenomenon is caused by global warming.

By the 2060s, the state famous for good weather is set for “more or less permanent” drought, according to the study in Geophysical Research Letters.

While the shortage of rain can be put down to natural variations in weather, scientists increasingly agree that rising temperatures make things worse.

That is because heat causes more water to evaporate from the soil, plants and water bodies.

“A lot of people think that the amount of rain that falls out the sky is the only thing that matters,” said lead author Alton Williams, bioclimatologist at Columbia University.

“But warming changes the baseline amount of water that’s available to us, because it sends water back into the sky.”

Report: World set for record droughts by 2050

The researchers looked at month-by-month weather data for the state from 1901 to 2014 and found no long-term rainfall trend.

Average temperatures, meanwhile, increased by around 2.5F (1.4C) as greenhouse gases trapped more of the sun’s heat.

Study co-author Richard Seager said normal rainfall levels could return as early as this winter, easing the water crisis.

In the long run, though, dryness is expected to increase. Most models project warming to bring a slight rise in California’s rainfall, but the study found it would be outweighed by higher evaporation levels.

The drought is already taking its toll on California, the most populous US state and a major food producer.

It will cost the agriculture sector US$1.84 billion and 10,100 jobs this year, according to analysis by University of California Davis.

Some farmers are reportedly switching away from thirsty crops like cotton, oranges and avocados to hardier grapes, pomegranate and dragonfruit.

Homeowners, meanwhile, are planting drought-resistant gardens, leaving their cars unwashed and sacrificing backyard swimming pools.

Report: California water restrictions signal ‘new era’ of drought risk

Governor Jerry Brown has ordered farmers to submit drought management plans and water suppliers to cut consumption by an average of 25% statewide.

These measures have not been enough to stop groundwater levels falling to new lows, up to 30m below previous records.

A NASA report on Wednesday showed this was causing subsidence, with land in parts of the San Joaquin Valley sinking nearly 5cm a month.

Mark Cowin, director of the Department of Water Resources, said: “As extensive groundwater pumping continues, the land is sinking more rapidly and this puts nearby infrastructure at greater risk of costly damage.”

And tinder-dry conditions are making 2015 a big year for wildfires. Hundreds of people fled their homes earlier this month as the Rocky Fire scorched 70,000 acres.

Report: California targets 40% emissions cut in boost to US climate ambition

The state is targeting tougher action on climate change than the rest of the country, which is committed to a 26-28% cut in greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 to 2025.

In April, Governor Brown announced a goal to reduce emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.

That matches the EU target, but analysts said it would be harder to achieve for California, because it has made less progress to date.

The state already has a raft of climate policies; notably a carbon market, under which high polluting industries trade permits to cover their emissions.

To meet the 2030 goal, it is aiming to halve the fuel use of cars, double energy efficiency in buildings and increase renewables’ share of the power generation mix to 50%.

The post Climate change is worsening California drought – study appeared first on Climate Home News.

US wildfires viewed from the Earth-orbiting International Space Station in 2014 (Pic; NASA/Flickr)

By Kieran Cooke

The firefighters are primed, hoses at the ready. May and June are often the peak months for forest fires in the southwest of the US, and the outlook for this year is grim.

“I wish I could have some hope,” says Dr Wally Covington, director of the Ecological Restoration Institute at North Arizona University. “It’s just a terrible situation in southern California.”

Covington, an internationally recognised expert on forest restoration, says a prolonged drought, higher temperatures and stronger than usual winds mean big wildfires are inevitable across the southwestern US.

The main season for wildfires in the region has in the past been from mid-May through till late September, but now forest fires burn virtually year round.

Report: California targets 40% emissions cut in US ambition boost

“Climate change and misguided forestry policies have combined to present a landscape very vulnerable to devastating fires,” Covington told the Climate News Network.

“Since around 2000, we’ve seen more severe dry weather, matched with high winds throughout the western US. Intense firestorms are the result. Get in the vicinity of one of those and it’s like being near a blast furnace.”

Covington and other experts say it is vital that people and government policy adapt to the changes in climate.

Over the years, forests have been densely planted in many areas, and old forestry practices – such as clearing out forest and shrubland by regularly burning off old tree cover and dry shrubs – were stopped.

Report: California water restrictions signal ‘new era’ of drought risk 

The result is not only an abundance of dense forested areas where fire can build up and spread easily, but also accumulations of dried-out grasses and shrubs − referred to as fine fuel.

Opening up forest areas and reintroducing controlled, periodic burning to rid the landscape of these tinder-dry fuels is key, according to Covington.

He says: “The US Forest Service now sees opening up forest areas and restoring them to what they once were – right across the US – as its primary goal. That’s a huge policy breakthrough.”

The past three years have been among the driest on record in California, and there are fears that the drought will continue.

Historic low

Wells have dried up in many areas, reservoirs in the state are at a record low, and the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountain range – vital for feeding water on to the lands below – is at an historic low for the time of year.

For the first time in California’s history, mandatory water restrictions have been brought in, with cities and towns required to cut water use by 25%.

This does not, however, apply to the state’s multi-billion dollar agricultural industry, which uses up to 80% of water supplies.

Besides the drought, strong winds and higher temperatures, other factors have increased the risk of wildfires across the region. For example, building houses in forest and shrubland areas has also increased the danger of fires being ignited.

“We’ve just got to stop building in those places,” Covington says. “It was crazy 40 years ago – and it’s even more crazy now.”

This article was produced by the Climate News Network

The post California braces itself for worsening wildfire seasons appeared first on Climate Home News.

California governor Jerry Brown says the state “sets a very high bar” (Pic: Flickr/Steve Rhodes)

By Megan Darby

California is aiming to slash greenhouse gas emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, under an executive order issued on Wednesday.

That matches the European Union target, but California’s higher emissions today mean it will have to act twice as fast over the next 15 years.

Experts say this carbon-cutting push by the largest economy in the United States and seventh in the world could help the country overachieve its national target.

Announcing the measure, state governor Jerry Brown said: “California sets a very high bar for itself and other states and nations, but it’s one that must be reached – for this generation and generations to come.”

The pledge is “more ambitious than any other proposal we have from any industrialised country,” Niklas Hoehne, head of Germany’s New Climate Institute, told RTCC.

“The EU has the same number, but there is a difference: the EU is already half way there.”

It entails deeper cuts than the US federal goal of a 26-28% emissions reduction on 2005 levels by 2025.

More than half of states have set renewable energy standards and several are running emissions trading systems, noted Hoehne.

“What is important about this state-level action is the states are doing it and in the end it might mean the national targets are overachieved.”

Paris tracker: Who has pledged what for 2015 UN climate pact?

World leaders hailed the move, which boosts US efforts at a time climate action at federal level is facing fierce resistance from Republicans.

UN climate chief Christiana Figueres said: “California’s announcement is a realisation and a determination that will gladly resonate with other inspiring actions within the United States and around the globe.”

The state’s commitment is “yet another reason for optimism” as countries work towards an international climate deal in Paris this December, she added.

It comes as California enters its fourth consecutive year of drought, with scientists warning water shortages are getting more likely as global temperatures rise.

Governor Brown this month ordered conservation measures including a 25% cut in drinking water use.

This had “brought home the harsh reality of rising global temperatures to the communities and businesses of California,” said World Bank president Jim Kim.

“There can be no substitute for aggressive national targets to reduce harmful greenhouse emissions, but the decision today by Governor Brown to set a 40 percent reduction target for 2030 is an example of climate leadership that others must follow.”

The post California targets 40% emissions cut in boost to US climate ambition appeared first on Climate Home News.

Low water levels in Don Pedro lake last month (Pic: Flickr/Rene Rivers)

By Megan Darby

California is entering a new era of drought risk as the climate changes, scientists warned as governor Jerry Brown imposed water restrictions on Wednesday.

Brown ordered a 25% cut in potable water use across the state, which is entering its fourth consecutive year of drought.

It followed news that the snowpack on the Sierra Nevada – a critical source of California’s water – hit its lowest post-winter level since records began in 2050.

Adrienne Alvord, regional director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, endorsed the measure and said more restrictions may be necessary if the drought continues.

“It is also important for Californians to keep in mind that in a warming climate we are entering a new era,” she said.

“The state needs to focus on modernising our water management system to ensure that we are climate-resilient.

“We can no longer rely on the past as a guide to our management protocols.  We need to use the best available science to help manage a situation that will be changing for decades to come.”

Much-needed rain in December 2014 brought green to California. But a record low snowpack in the Sierra Nevada threatens future water supplies (Pic: Flickr/NOAA Satellites)

Drinking water shortages, wildfire risk and lack of water for farming are some of the “urgent challenges” posed by the drought, Governor Brown’s order notes.

And there is a “distinct possibility” the drought could stretch into 2016.

The Department of Water Resources is charged with tearing out 50 million square feet (5m square metres) of public lawns and planting more drought-tolerant species.

Report: Global warming raises California’s drought vulnerability 

The state’s 400 local water suppliers must decide how to reduce usage by an average of 25%, while farmers are required to submit drought management plans.

While scientists have not found a clear connection between low rainfall and human-induced climate change, they say rising temperatures have worsened the situation.

Warmer weather increases evaporation rates from the earth and water sources.

“The drought is made of two components: not enough rain and too much heat,” Michael Oppenheimer, a climate scientist at Princeton, told the New York Times.

“The rain deficit isn’t clearly connected to climate change, but the planetary warming has made it more likely that the weather would be hotter in California.”

The post California water restrictions signal ‘new era’ of drought risk appeared first on Climate Home News.

(Pic: Robert Couse Baker/Flickr)

By Tim Radford 

Climate change could be driving the sustained Californian drought. Arid spells have been more frequent in the last two decades than in the preceding century.

And warmer global temperatures linked to man-made climate change could be at the heart of it.

Right now, California is in the sustained grip of one of its worst-ever droughts. Noah Diffenbaugh of Stanford University in California and colleagues looked at the patterns of precipitation, temperature and drought in the historical record and report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the latest conditions were not just a random outcome.

In a sunlit landscape with a long record of intermittent drought, researchers make such predictions only cautiously. But the Stanford team worked through 120 years of rainfall, snowfall and temperature data to identify connections.

They found that, puzzlingly, the two sets of measurements were not directly connected: for the first 60 or 70 years of the historical record, it could be wet and warm, or cool and dry. But drought was more likely in those years that by chance were both dry and warm.

Doubled risk

“Of course low precipitation is a prerequisite for drought but less rain and snowfall alone don’t ensure a drought will happen. It really matters if the lack of precipitation happens during a warm or a cool year,” said Dr Diffenbaugh.

“We’ve seen the effects of record heat on snow and soil moisture this year in California and we know from this new research that climate change is increasing the probability of those warm and dry conditions occurring together.”

On the flip-a-coin analogy, the weather could be either wet or dry, and cold or hot. So only one time in four, the weather was both hot and dry. For most of the past two decades, years in California have been either warm, or hot.

“Now the temperature coin is coming up tails most years. So even though the precipitation coin is coming up tails only half the time, it means that over the past two decades we have gotten two tails-warm and dry in half the years, compared with only a quarter of years in the preceding century.”

Most populous

Accordingly, drought frequency has doubled. Model simulations suggest that the risk of any year being both warm and dry will continue. More frequent warm years will also increase the probability of multi-year drought.

The present drought is now in its fourth year, and is one of the longest consecutive periods during which conditions are severely dry and severely warm.

And soon California – home to one in eight Americans, and the country’s most populous state – could enter a climate regime in which the risk that every year will be warmer than the 20th century norm will be almost 100%.

The findings, said Dr Diffenbaugh, provide “very strong evidence that global warming is already making it much more likely that California experiences conditions that are similar to what we have already experienced during the current severe drought.”

This article was produced by the Climate News Network 

The post Global warming raises California’s drought vulnerability appeared first on Climate Home News.

By Kieran Cooke 

Take a flight over the densely forested area in California’s northern coastal region and it’s not hard to spot the marijuana plantations, their bright green plants standing out in clearings in the surrounding vegetation. 

But now the big-money cannabis industry is being blamed for adding to water shortage problems caused by a three-year drought that has seriously affected California’s huge agricultural sector.

Although cultivating and using marijuana is illegal under US Federal law, California state law allows marijuana growing – as long as it is for medicinal purposes.

However, the rules governing who can and cannot grow pot are complex – and openly flouted by thousands of growers, both big and small-time operators.

A report by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) estimates that, in this northern region of the state,  marijuana growing doubled between 2009 and 2012.

Report: California governor announces 50% renewables target 

Marijuana plants are extremely thirsty, consuming between five and 10 gallons of water per day, depending on the phase of their growing cycle.

Officials at the CDFW say that marijuana growers are sucking up precious water resources, exacerbating water shortages and threatening fish in the area’s lakes and streams.

Marijuana growing is particularly prevalent in an area of northern California known as The Emerald Triangle, encompassing Mendocino, Humbolt and Trinity counties. Some estimates say the crop accounts for up to 40% of the region’s economy.

Officials of the CDFW say that the small, well-established marijuana plantations – run by what are described as old time hippies − are not to blame for pumping up excess water.

It is the incomers from outside the area − part of a “green rush” into highly-profitable marijuana growing – that are mainly to blame. These growers are out to make quick profits, and care little about the environment.

Growers of various crops in California are bound by rules stipulating that no more than 10% of the flow of water courses should be diverted for crops, and that such diversions should stop altogether in late summer, when water levels are at their lowest.

The CDFW says the incomers take vast amounts of water in order to harvest their crops as fast as possible. They also use excessive quantities of fertilizer, which leach into water courses, endangering fish stocks and polluting land.

Armed gangs 

Fines of up to $8,000 per day are now being imposed for water theft, although monitoring illegal activities is difficult − and, at times, dangerous.

Heavily-armed gangs are often involved in the marijuana growing business, and the CDFW has warned that, as the drought continues, conflicts over water resources are likely to increase.

The Emerald Growers Association, a group that represents some of northern California’s marijuana growers, says more regulation is needed to separate the legitimate pot growers from illegal ones.

The drought in California has been going on since 2011 and is described as the worst in the state since records began in the 1850s.

Arguments continue as to whether man-made climate change or natural phenomena are causing the drought.

Although significant amounts of rain last December helped alleviate dry conditions in some parts of the state, experts say more rain is urgently needed to feed watercourses and restock severely depleted aquifers.

This article was produced by the Climate News Network

The post California’s cannabis industry exacerbating water shortages – officials appeared first on Climate Home News.

Pic: Steve Rhodes/Flickr

By Sophie Yeo

California governor Jerry Brown laid out ambitious new climate targets at his inaugural speech yesterday.

The state should get 50% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2030, he said, as he was sworn in for an unprecedented fourth term.

He also proposed to reduce the use of petrol in cars and trucks by up to 50%, double the efficiency of existing buildings and make heating fuels cleaner.

Speaking as he was sworn in for a record fourth term in office Brown said he wanted to cut emissions from carbon, methane and other pollutants in the USA’s most populous state.

“How we achieve these goals and at what pace will take great thought and imagination mixed with pragmatic caution,” he said.

Brown said he plans to achieve the target by introducing more solar panels on rooftops, battery storage and millions of electric and low carbon vehicles – a package that will require “enormous innovation, research and investment”.

California has already established itself as one of the most ambitious US states on climate change.

Report: California burning points to more frequent wildfires
Report: California drought threatens groundwater supplies
Report: Mexico and California sign climate and clean energy pact 

In 2006, it passed the California Global Warming Solutions Act, which was signed into law by previous governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

This forced the state to bring its emissions back down to 1990 levels by 2020 – a reduction of around 15% below a path of no additional action.

Brown said that the government was well on its way to meeting that target. Progress has been helped by a pioneering cap and trade system that has created a market for carbon emissions.

“Taking significant amounts of carbon out of our economy without harming its vibrancy is exactly the sort of challenge at which California excels,” said Brown.

California is not immune to the impacts of climate change. A severe drought led Brown to declare a state of emergency in January last year.

Billionaire environmentalist and Democratic campaigner Tom Steyer, who spent over $50 million backing climate-friendly candidates in the recent mid-term elections, welcomed Brown’s new initiative.

“I thought that he was trying to temper a very bold vision with an awareness of the needs of effectively bringing things about. So I thought it was a really strong speech. Genuinely.”

The post California governor announces 50% renewables target appeared first on Climate Home News.

Source: Flickr/viinzography

By Tim Radford

Lumberjacks are selecting different trees, US fishermen are sailing further north to catch black sea bass, desert birds are nesting later in California and Arizona, and one kind of wildflower is changing shape in the Rocky Mountains − and all in response to climate change, according to new research.

None of these responses is simple, or necessarily ominous, and global warming is not the only factor at work. But all are nevertheless examples of adaptation to − so far – very modest changes in temperature.

Adena Rissman and Chad Rittenhouse, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, report in the Journal of Environmental Management that they looked at weather records and logging data and found that, since 1948, the winter interval during which ground is firmly frozen has declined by an average of two to three weeks.

Hard winters are the logger’s friend as the ground can support heavy machinery, whereas muddy soils can make tracks impassable.

So, over the decades, foresters have harvested more and more red pine and jack pine − species that flourish in sandy, well-drained soil more accessible to trucks, tractors and chainsaws.

Significant decline

“We wanted to know how weather affects our ability to support sustainable working forests,” says Dr Rissman, assistant professor of human dimensions of ecosystem management.

“We found a significant decline in the duration of frozen ground over the past 65 years and, at the same time, a significant shift in the species being harvested.”

Such changes in selection tend to affect ecosystems – on land or at sea.

Scientists at the Northeast Fisheries Science Centre in the US report in the ICES Journal of Marine Science that they looked at trawl survey data collected between 1972 and 2008 to analyse variations in abundance of black sea bass, scup, and summer and winter flounder.

All had shown “significant poleward shifts” in at least one season.

The bass and scup were responding to changes in temperature. The summer flounder were more likely to be responding to a decrease in fishing pressure − that is, the species could recolonise former habitat.

There was no change in the distribution in the southern New England/Mid Atlantic Bight stock of winter flounder.

“Using these data, we demonstrated how a combination of fishing and climate can influence the distribution of marine fish,” said lead author Richard Bell, research associate at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries service laboratory at Narrangansett. “It is not one or the other.”

Meanwhile, in the arid American southwest’s Sonora Desert, all 13 desert bird species have tended to delay nesting by two weeks or more, as a response to severe drought.

Delays in nesting

This makes survival a problem for the birds as their young are more vulnerable to nest predators and parasites. Some species forego breeding entirely during an extreme drought. Even without global warming, droughts are an enduring fact of life in the region.

But ecologists point out that climate models predict a greater frequency of droughts, which could lead to even more delays in nesting.

“These responses are predicted to become more frequent and extreme, due to climate change, causing us to question how desert birds will persist in the long term,” Chris McCreedy, a desert ecologist at Point Blue Conservation Science, reports in The Auk, the American Ornithologists’ Union journal.

At least one species has responded to climate change by altering not just its life cycle but its shape.

Students at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and the University of South Carolina report in Global Change Biology that the Rocky Mountain mustard plant (Boechera stricta) offers an example of what biologists call “phenotypic plasticity”.

This means that it doesn’t evolve to meet climate change − it just looks different under different conditions. It changes according to whether the conditions are hot and dry, or cold and wet. In experiments that simulated future climate change, it also flowered seven days earlier.

This little ready-for-anything brassica plant seemed able to respond differently according to whether or not there was snow around it. Or, as the researchers put it: “Extensive plasticity could buffer against immediate fitness declines due to changing climates.”

This article was produced by the Climate News Network

The post Warming world already causing dramatic changes, say scientists appeared first on Climate Home News.

Pic: Christine Zenino

By Sophie Yeo

The Greenland ice sheet is more vulnerable to climate change than previously thought, say scientists.

A new model developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge shows that the enormous ice sheet – which contains enough to water to raise the ocean by more than seven metres if lost altogether – will become much more vulnerable as temperatures rise.

The model uses new evidence which shows that the ground beneath the ice sheet is soft and spongy, rather than the hard and impermeable bedrock assumed by previous studies.

“”The soft sediment gets weaker as it tries to soak up more water, making it less resistant, so that the ice above moves faster,” said Dr Poul Christoffersen from Aberystwyth University, who worked on the study.

The soft, slippery ground will be forced to absorb more water as the climate warms, as pools of water form on the surface of the glacier, before filtering down to the bottom.

This makes the ground even more slippery, causing the ice to flow more quickly into the sea, causing the oceans to rise.

Limits

The study, which is published in Nature Communications, eventually concludes that there is a limit to how much water can be stored beneath the Greenland ice sheet, which makes it sensitive to climate change, as well as extreme weather events including rainfall and heatwaves.

“When these large ice sheets melt, whether that’s due to seasonal change or a warming climate, they don’t melt like an ice cube,” said Dr Marion Bougamont of Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute, explaining that water is lost from both the surface and the movement of the glaciers.

How far these moving chunks of ice – a chunk eight times the size of the UK in Greenland’s case – will impact sea level rise remains uncertain.

Surface melting from the Greenland ice sheet alone is causing 0.6mm of sea level rise every year. In total, oceans are rising 3mm annually.

This is particularly worrying for coastal communities and small island nations, which are seeing their land eroded and their vulnerability to extreme weather events increasing as a result.

California drought

Separately, scientists at Stanford University say that the drought in California is “very likely” linked to climate change.

California is currently facing one of its worst droughts on record, which a recent report said will cost the state $2.2 billion and around 17,000 jobs.

The drought has been caused by a ridge of high pressure in the atmosphere, which has caused Pacific storms to bypass California, Oregon and Washington. This means that any rain and snow that would normally fall on the West Coast were instead diverted to Alaska.

In a study published this week in a supplement to the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, scientists are now saying that this ridge was much more likely to form in conditions of higher greenhouse gas levels.

“Our research finds that extreme atmospheric high pressure in this region—which is strongly linked to unusually low precipitation in California—is much more likely to occur today than prior to the human emission of greenhouse gases that began during the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s,” said Noah Diffenbaugh, a climate scientist at Stanford University.

He added: “This isn’t a projection of 100 years in the future. This is an event that is more extreme than any in the observed record, and our research suggests that global warming is playing a role right now.”

The post Greenland ice melt likely to accelerate say scientists appeared first on Climate Home News.

The outback bakes in Australia’s “angry summer”
(Pic: Flickr/Georgie Sharp)

By Megan Darby

Man-made climate change “greatly increased” the risk of extreme heat waves as seen in China, Australia, Korea and Japan last year.

That was the conclusion of a scientific review of 2013’s extreme weather events produced by 92 scientists from 14 countries and published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

The role of human activity was less clear in droughts, heavy rainfall and storms.

The report’s authors stressed that did not mean there was no human influence in these events. It simply means that recent analyses could not distinguish it from natural variability.

Here is what the review had to say about extreme weather across eight regions in 2013.

1. California drought

California’s governor declared a state of emergency in January after 2013 turned out to be the state’s driest year on record. Officials brought in water restrictions and prepared for wildfires.

The jury is still out on whether climate change is making this type of drought more likely.

Uvas reservoir, California, on 1 February 2014 after an exceptionally dry year
(Pic: Flickr/Ian Abbott)

One study found this “exceptional” drought was linked to a large weather system over the northeastern Pacific. This system is expected to come up more frequently under the influence of greenhouse gas emissions.

Other models showed global warming increases air humidity in the northeastern Pacific, cancelling out the effect. The overall risk of drought has not changed since the late 19^th century, according to one reading.

Given the severe impacts of water shortages in a state of 38 million people, lawmakers are not waiting for further research.

They have passed a US$687 million emergency drought relief package with measures to boost resilience, including new wells and pipelines.

2. Australia’s “angry summer”

Dubbed the “angry summer”, Australia’s hot season of 2012/13 saw 123 weather records broken across Australia.

The following summer was even angrier, with the Climate Council reporting 156 records tumbled. The country saw 40C+ temperatures, rainfall lows and large-scale bushfires.

Human influences have made summer heat waves in Australia twice as intense and three times as frequent, scientists found.

Annual average temperatures were at or near record levels across Australia and the western tropical Pacific in 2013.

On this case, the scientists were clear: hot weather on this scale is almost certainly the result of human activity.

Such persistent high temperatures were “either completely outside of, or extremely rare in, the distributions of modelled natural variability”.

This region is part of a bigger picture of rising global temperatures, the review said.

“Although global warming has been described as ‘pausing’ since 2000, global temperatures remain at anomalously high levels, and warm annual and seasonal temperature extremes continue to far outpace the occurrence of cold annual extremes.”

3. New Zealand drought

New Zealand experienced its worst drought in 70 years, which was caused by high pressure weather systems over the summer.

Such pockets of high pressure have been made more likely by climate change, scientists found, although natural variability also played a role.

4. Korea heatwave

It was a bad time for South Korea’s nuclear reactors to be forced offline for safety testing (officials were found to have faked some certificates).

Temperatures hit an all-time high of 39.2C in August 2013 and many people had no air conditioning due to power shortages.

The death rate in Seoul rose 8.4% on the back of the heatwave.

There is more of the same in store, according to the latest study: extremely hot summers in the country have become 10 times more likely as a result of manmade climate change.

5. Japan heatwave

Thousands were hospitalised with heatstroke in Japan that same month.

The mercury reached a national record of 41.0C on the southwestern island of Shikoku.

This was mainly down to natural variability but manmade climate change played “a significant role”, said the scientists.

6. Hot China

The 2013 annual mean temperature in China was the fourth highest since 1961 and 0.6C higher than normal.

July and August were particularly intense, with temperatures exceeding 35C for 31 days straight in Shanghai, the largest city.

The effect of human activities on the climate of central eastern China has been detectable since the early 1990s, according to the scientific review.

Human influence was responsible for around half of the extra heat last summer, it said.

7. Northern India floods

In June 2013, a bout of heavy rainfall over four days wreaked havoc in northern India.

Some 5,700 people were declared missing, presumed dead, in the resulting floods and landslides.

There is some evidence human-induced climate change increased the likelihood of such heavy rain, scientists found.

Limited observational data made it hard to quantify precisely the impact of manmade carbon emissions, they said.

Flood waters crash against a Hindu temple in Uttarkhand, India
(Pic: AFP Photo/Indian Army)

8. European mix

There were record high temperatures across Western Europe in summer 2013, with a seasonal average 1.33C higher than the in the period 1964-93.

Human activities played “a substantial part” in the hot, dry weather, said scientists.

Other parts saw heavy rainfall, causing flooding in the upper Danube and Elbe basins of central Europe. Southern Europe had its second wettest winter since 1948.

The Pyrenees mountains came under a higher than normal volume of snow. Germany and Denmark experienced a violent storm, named “Christian” or “Allan” depending on the country.

Analyses of these events found no evidence climate change had played a hand.

Meanwhile the UK experienced an unusually cold spring, with snowdrifts killing thousands of newborn lambs.

Conditions like this are increasingly rare with manmade climate change, scientists found, becoming 30 times less likely.

Snow in spring is bad news for UK sheep farmers – but climate change makes it less likely
(Pic: Flickr/Alan Tunnicliffe)

The post How climate change affected the world’s weather in 2013 appeared first on Climate Home News.

A 2013 fire in the Stanislaus National Forest near in California (Pic: US Department of Agriculture)

By Kieran Cooke 

As the forest fires season peaks in the western US, a new report predicts that climate-led temperature rise will lead to millions more acres across the world being burned to the ground. 

Smoke from fires burning at present in northern California has been detected as far north as Canada, as thousands of firefighters battle to contain blazes that together cover nearly 300,000 acres of forest and shrub wood. And it looks like things are going to get worse.

A new report by the US-based Cost of Carbon Pollution project forecasts that such fires are going to become ever more intense in the years ahead – not just in the western US, but elsewhere round the world, and particularly in areas of southern Europe and in Australia.

The ongoing drought across much of the western US has had a serious impact on the region’s agricultural industry, and has resulted in the build-up of vast amounts of tinder-dry material on the land.

“We haven’t been out of fire season for a year and a half,” a leading fire official told the Washington Post. “There is no end in sight.”

Incidence doubles 

The new report says the incidence of wildfires – unrestrained fires that burn predominantly in areas of forests, woodlands, grasslands, peat or shrubs – has doubled in the US since the 1990s.

In total, between seven and nine million acres in the US are burned as a result of wildfires every year – an area equivalent to one-and-a-half times the size of the state of Massachusetts.

“These amounts are expected to increase significantly due to climate change and other factors,” the report says. And, overall, there is likely to be a 50% increase by 2050 in the area of North America burned, with more large and potentially catastrophic wildfires.

Not only will more valuable forest be lost, the fires will also have an increasing impact on the economy − with important industries such as tourism suffering serious losses.

More and more people have been migrating to the western US. In 1960, California’s population was 15 million: it’s now nearly 40 million, and is expected to increase to 50 million by 2030. The study says the fires are already taking their toll on people’s health.

Forests and peat lands function as carbon sinks – sucking up volumes of greenhouse gases (GHGs). But the report says an increase in wildfires could mean that, in time, these areas would become net emitters of GHGs, adding to problems of global warming.

Mistaken policies 

Dr Wallace Covington, director of the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University, is an internationally-recognised expert on forest restoration. He says that the growth in wildfires in the western US is due, to a large extent, to mistaken forest policies over the past 100 years.

Dense forests were planted, while natural fires – which form a normal part of nature’s cycle, and can regenerate growth in some trees and plants – were suppressed.

“Forests became unhealthy, and an excessive amount of fire fuel was allowed to build up,” Covington told the Climate News Network. “Natural fires can be easily controlled, but once fires spread over thousands of acres they are virtually impossible to contain.”

Covington says that climate change has exacerbated the situation. “We’re seeing wider swings from very dry to very wet conditions, and wind speeds, which fan the forest flames, have been building up across the region over recent years.”

Forest specialists at Northern Arizona University and elsewhere are now pressing for radical changes in forestry policy, including the thinning of densely-wooded areas and the reintroduction of controlled, natural fires at various times of the year.

This article was produced by the Climate News Network 

The post California burning points to more frequent wildfires appeared first on Climate Home News.

Governor Jerry Brown visited Mexico City on a trade mission
(Pic: kc_aplosweb/flickr)

By Megan Darby

Mexico and California have formally agreed to collaborate on climate action in a historic pact signed on Monday.

California governor Jerry Brown inked the memorandum of understanding with Mexican environment minister Rodolfo Lacy Tamayo as part of a trade and investment mission to Mexico City.

Priorities include developing carbon pricing, curbing deforestation, promoting renewable energy, controlling short-term climate pollutants and cooperating in diplomatic efforts.

Brown said: “California can’t do it alone and with this new partnership with Mexico we can make real progress on reducing dangerous greenhouse gases.”

The two economies, which share a 136-mile border, have a “long and rich history of environmental cooperation”, said Tamayo.

The agreement will “take our joint work to a whole new level,” he added.

Governor Brown signs historic agreement with Mexico to collaboratively address Climate Change. pic.twitter.com/17JfVMKut9

— mark s ghilarducci (@CalOES_Dir) July 28, 2014

The Environmental Defense Fund NGO, which co-sponsored the event, hailed the deal as “exactly the sort of leadership the world needs”.

Nathaniel Keohane, EDF vice president on international climate issues, said: “California and Mexico can give a crucial boost to the growing global momentum on key policies like carbon pricing that can achieve ambitious reductions in climate pollution, drive clean energy innovation, and promote low-carbon prosperity.”

Jointly responsible for more than 2% of global carbon dioxide emissions, California and Mexico have also been among the leaders on climate action in the Americas.

The Globe Climate Legislation Study named Mexico the “standout country in 2012 on climate change”.

It was praised for passing comprehensive climate change law and laying the groundwork to protect forests through the UN’s REDD programme.

Last year, the country introduced a voluntary carbon exchange, allowing polluters to offset their emissions.

Despite imposing no binding obligations on companies, the platform proved popular with organisations wishing to show their green credentials.

Report: Mexico eyes economic benefits of climate law

Meanwhile, Brown picks up the baton from Arnold Schwarzenegger, who as governor pledged to lead the way on US climate action.

Schwarzenegger’s administration brought in a cap and trade system for carbon pollution, which has yet to be replicated at a national level.

In a personal contribution to the cause, the former action movie star converted his fleet of fuel-guzzling Humvees to run on biofuel and hydrogen.

Californian citizens are being asked to save water as the state experiences one of its severest droughts ever.

President Barack Obama has cited the drought as a reason to act on carbon emissions. Climate change will make such weather-related disasters harsher and costlier, he said.

The post Mexico and California sign climate and clean energy pact appeared first on Climate Home News.

The Colorado River supplies 40 million people and 4 million acres of farmland (Pic: Paul Hermans/Creative Commons)

By Megan Darby

Groundwater that supplies millions of people in the southwestern US is drying up, scientists have found in “shocking” results.

As California faces one of its most severe droughts ever, new satellite data shows that groundwater loss from the Colorado River Basin threatens its water supply.

US president Barack Obama has cited the drought in support of the case for tackling climate change.

According to the latest research from NASA and the University of California, Irvine, the Colorado River Basin has experienced its driest 14-year period in the last century.

It lost nearly 65 cubic kilometres of freshwater  between December 2004 and November 2013, of which three quarters was underground. The total is almost double the capacity of the country’s largest reservoir, Lake Mead in Nevada.

Data from a NASA satellite revealed the losses were worse than previously thought. By measuring the gravitational attraction of the region, scientists calculated changes in water levels, which they said gave a more accurate picture than relying on well data.

“We don’t know exactly how much groundwater we have left, so we don’t know when we’re going to run out,” said Stephanie Castle, the study’s lead author.

“This is a lot of water to lose. We thought that the picture could be pretty bad, but this was shocking.”

Some 40 million people across seven states depend on the Colorado River for water. It also irrigates four million acres of farmland.

“The Colorado River Basin is the water lifeline of the western United States,” said senior author on the study Jay Famiglietti.

“With Lake Mead at its lowest level ever, we wanted to explore whether the basin, like most other regions around the world, was relying on groundwater to make up for the limited surface-water supply. We found a surprisingly high and long-term reliance on groundwater to bridge the gap between supply and demand.”

Much of California is facing “extreme” or “exceptional” drought
(Source: US Drought Monitor)

It is bad news for states that are already pleading with residents to save water.

The Californian government even drafted in pop star Lady Gaga to issue a public service announcement.

The arid conditions have also sparked a rise in wildfires over the past decade, which are costly to contain.

This latest evidence of water scarcity reinforces the message of a US government National Climate Assessment.

Published in May, it said: “Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present.”

These impacts on US citizens have pushed climate change up Obama’s agenda.

On a visit to drought-hit Californian farmers in February, he said: “A changing climate means that weather-related disasters like droughts, wildfires, storms, floods are potentially going to be costlier and they’re going to be harsher.”

That supported the case for action to “combat carbon pollution”, he added.

The post California drought threatens groundwater supplies – study appeared first on Climate Home News.

(Pic: Pedro Szekeley/Flickr)

By Gerard Wynn

California’s ground water levels are dropping and the winter just finished has left snow pack at a fraction of historical levels in a continuing drought, the state’s Department of Water Resources said this week.

California receives about half its precipitation in the months of December, January and February, with much of that falling as snow in the mountains.

The state plans according to “water years” which run from October to September the following year.

“California’s Water Year 2014 (October 1, 2013 through September 30, 2014) has been one of the driest in decades and follows two consecutive dry years throughout the state,” the water department said.

“The drought has no end in sight.” Nearly the entire state is in severe drought, and over two-thirds in extreme drought.

In normal years, the snowpack stores water during the winter months and releases it through melting in the spring and summer to replenish rivers and reservoirs. However, relatively dry weather conditions this year have reduced the amount of snowpack in California’s mountains.

“The water equivalent of the 2014 statewide snowpack began falling in early April after reaching a peak of 10.1 inches and is now below 5 inches, compared to late April’s historic average of about 25 inches,” the water department said.

“Rainfall also has been far below normal during this water year as recorded by weather stations throughout the state. Despite a few storms that brought rain in February and March, electronic readings indicate that precipitation at eight Northern California stations has been only about 60 percent of normal for late April.”

“There’s little expectation of significant rainfall for the foreseeable future.”

All of California’s eight major reservoirs are below historical levels, water department data showed. The largest, Lake Shasta reservoir was at 53 percent capacity compared to an historical average of 62% at the end of April.

Crisis

The state governor in January declared a state of emergency, asking all Californians to reduce water consumption by 20 percent; directing local water suppliers to immediately implement local water shortage contingency plans; and putting water rights holders across the state on notice that they may be directed to cease or reduce water use.

Earlier this month, the state published a “Drought Operations Plan”, which anticipated exceptional difficulties during the coming summer.

“As California approaches the summer of a third consecutive dry year, economic and environmental challenges for our State are mounting,” the report said.

“Limited water supplies create a crisis that will require extraordinary management measures on the part of water project operators, water quality and environmental regulators, the hundreds of local water agencies that supply most Californians with water, and State residents themselves.”

“In this extraordinarily dry year, all water users, including agricultural, municipal, and fish and wildlife uses will suffer hardship.”

“So far, 2014, has proven abnormally dry and will be classified as critically dry. The months of December and January, typically the wettest of the year, featured a record-breaking lack of precipitation.”

Scientists have used tree ring data to compare water stress over the past decade in the south western United States with the longer historical average dating back to AD 1000.

“The warm-season vapour pressure deficit has been particularly high since 2000 and is the primary driver of an ongoing drought-stress event that is more severe than any event since the late 1500s megadrought,” found authors publishing in the journal Nature Climate Change in 2012.

“The present event has been associated with regional-scale declines in canopy greenness and tree survival, due in part to large bark-beetle outbreaks and increasingly large wildfires. Collectively, the results foreshadow twenty-first-century changes in forest structures and compositions, with transition of forests in the southwestern United States, and perhaps water-limited forests globally, towards distributions unfamiliar to modern civilization.”

The post ‘No end in sight’ to California drought appeared first on Climate Home News.

Los Angeles, California (Pic: Justin Vidamo/Flickr)

By Ed King

California’s ambitious carbon cutting policies will start to pay off for residents of the state this month, as ‘climate credits’ of $29-40 are paid into their bank accounts.

Customers of some of California’s major energy firms will benefit from the payments, which will go to small businesses, schools, hospitals as well as individual customers.

The money comes from the state’s ‘cap-n-trade’ system, launched 15 months ago with the aim of reducing carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

“The Climate Credit is a perfect example of climate policy working for every Californian – from their wallets to the health of their communities,” said Lauren Navarro from the Washington-based Environmental Defense Fund.

Since its launch, the California Air Resources Board, which runs the state’s carbon market, has raised around $1.7 billion from six auctions of pollution permits, sold to big greenhouse gas emitters.

Of that, 40% is directed towards clean energy projects. Energy is associated with about 50% of the state’s emissions.

By 2020 California’s State Governor Edmund Brown says 33% of electricity will be from renewable energy like solar or wind.

The state’s market covers around 360 businesses throughout California, accounting for approximately 85% of the state’s emissions.

On January 1 2014 it was linked to markets in the Canadian states of British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, coming under the banner of the Western Climate Initiative (WCI).

Analysts at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon believe North America’s two main markets, the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, formed of nine states on the east coast, will grow 22% this year.

The post California rewards energy users with ‘climate credits’ appeared first on Climate Home News.

Obama visited California on Friday, which is having some of its driest weather in 100 years (Source: White House)

By Sophie Yeo

President Barack Obama has pledged financial aid to farming communities suffering as a result of California’s drought.

During a visit to drought-affected areas in the state, Obama reaffirmed the importance of tackling climate change, and announced extra funding to bring short-term relief to impacted communities.

He told ranchers in the state that he would speed up access to US$100 million, promised in the Farm Bill signed off last week, which will help farmers to maintain their livestock in the face of extreme water shortages.

He also pledged an addition $15 million to help some of the hardest hit communities across California and five other states build more sustainable farms.

This is designed to ensure better conservation of scarce water resources and the reduction of wind erosion on dry, dusty fields following droughts.

“We have to be clear: A changing climate means that weather-related disasters like droughts, wildfires, storms, floods are potentially going to be costlier and they’re going to be harsher,” said Obama.

“Droughts have obviously been a part of life out here in the West since before any of us were around and water politics in California have always been complicated, but scientific evidence shows that a changing climate is going to make them more intense.”

The weather, he said, supported the case for taking action to “combat carbon pollution” – the long term goal of a UN treaty to be signed in 2015.

The US will be instrumental in whether the negotiations leading up to this date are successful. An obstinate Congress meant that the Kyoto Protocol was never ratified by the US.

In another show of US determination to act on climate change, Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday warned that it could end up being a “fearsome weapon of mass destruction” during a speech in Indonesia.

Climate change means that extreme weather events are now something for which the US needs to be prepared, he added. He said that the next budget will include $1 billion to make the country more resilient to such events, including improvements to infrastructure and technology.

California has the biggest economy in the US, and is its largest agricultural producer. Obama stressed that this means what happens in the state will have far-reaching implications across the rest of the country.

“What we have to do is all come together and figure out how we all are going to make sure that agricultural needs, urban needs, industrial needs, environmental and conservation concerns are all addressed.”

The post Obama offers $100m to drought-hit Californian farmers appeared first on Climate Home News.

Source: Flickr/an honorable german

By Sophie Yeo

The US government will spend an extra US$ 1billion on improving the country’s resilience to climate change, President Obama said today.

The Climate Resilience Fund will be included in the 2015 budget set to be released next month. Obama will announce the extra funding as he visits the drought-stricken state of California today.

According to the White House, the money will go towards research into the projected impacts of climate change and how to prepare communities and infrastructure to deal with them, as well as funding new technology that will increase resilience in the face of extreme weather events.

White House spokesman Matt Lehrich told the website Politico that Obama “is going to continue to make the case that climate change is already hurting Americans around the country and that it will only get worse for our children and grandchildren if we leave it for future generations to deal with.”

The budget will need to be approved by Congress before the money can be spent. It is not clear how a climate sceptic contingent within the Republican Party will view the large dose of funding. Last year, disagreements over the budget led to a two-week government shutdown.

The US has experienced an onslaught of extreme weather in recent weeks. While a polar vortex brought freezing weather to the east, California is currently struggling with the impacts of one of the state’s worst droughts for over 100 years.

This drought has crippled its multi-billion dollar agriculture industry and caused state governor Jerry Brown to declare a drought state of emergency in January.

On top of the Climate Resilience Fund, Obama will pledge additional funds to help those impacted by the California drought during today’s trip to Fresno, including $100 million for farmers who have lost their livestock.

At the same time, a climate change task force set up by Obama in November met in Los Angeles to discuss how the federal government can help local communities prepare for the impacts of a warmer world.

Governor Jerry Brown, who is a member of the group and who took part in the closed-doors meeting today, said at a press conference: “We’re going into what will be a tsunami of climate change if we don’t accelerate what we’re all doing.”

The post Obama announces $1 billion climate resilience fund appeared first on Climate Home News.

By John McGarrity

The world’s largest thermal solar power plant started producing power this week, but long-term growth in the sector will depend on subsidies and lower technology costs to compete with wind and domestic reserves of cheap shale gas.

US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz today will open the $2.2 billion concentrated solar power plant in the Mojave Desert in California, a technology that some hope will reduce the country’s reliance on fossil fuels and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in a burgeoning domestic solar power industry.

“The Ivanpah project is a shining example of how America is becoming a world leader in solar energy,” said Moniz, pointing to recent comments from President Obama on the potential of solar in last month’s State of the Union address.

The solar project, which is part-funded by tech giant Google, will have a capacity of almost 400MW, supplying almost 100,000 homes.

The plant will generate electricity through 350,000 mirrors that focus large amounts of sunlight onto masts and drive powerful steam turbines.

But the technology is considerably more expensive than traditional solar photovoltaic projects and could be subject to a tricky permitting process in some states as concerns have grown about the environmental impact of large solar plants.

Solar power currently accounts for less than 1% of US power output , but may require a sharp fall in technology costs, subsidies and additional incentives to grow beyond the EIA’s estimate for 2030 that using the sun will account for just 2% of generating capacity.

In its ‘reference case’ scenario, the US Energy Information Agency forecasts the US will almost double its solar capacity from 14 GW in 2013 to 27 GW in 2030, with many of the new projects expected in sun-drenched southwestern states.

That forecast figure would compare unfavourably with Germany’s current solar capacity of 35GW, which can meet half of the country’s energy demand during the sunniest times of the day.

But some US states are trying to give greater encouragement to technologies such as solar though the use of targets and subsidies.

Also increased regulation of fossil fuels and higher carbon prices in the parts of the US covered by emissions trading could mean a higher share of renewables in the country’s energy mix than the EIA suggests.

California, which is home to the biggest share of US solar projects, has mandated that a third of its electricity generation much come from renewables by the end of the decade.

Cheap gas

Earlier this week state regulators said the energy sector would need to speed up the move to low carbon energy if the state is to meet ambitious 2050 carbon reduction targets.

Wind power is expected to be more competitive with solar until well into the next decade, and the growth in solar in the US as a whole is likely to be far less than that expected for gas.

The fossil fuel is expected to increase its share of the US energy mix to 41% by 2030 from almost 35% in 2013, according to the EIA’s reference scenario.

Cheap domestic supplies extracted through fracking of shale deposits, and government regulation are already persuading utilities to ditch dirtier coal, a move the US hopes will help it meet a future 2030 greenhouse gas reduction target.

The post World’s largest thermal solar plant opens in California appeared first on Climate Home News.

(Pic: Franco Folini/Flickr)

By John McGarrity 

California may have to cut greenhouse gas emissions twice as fast as current levels after 2020, involving an expansion of the sectors covered by targets and tougher caps on energy and transportation, state regulators said on Monday.

In an update of an existing proposal to cut emissions to 80% below 1990 levels 2050, California’s Air Resources Board (Carb) said that more sectors, such as buildings, waste management and agriculture, would be required to make emissions cuts.

That would mean most sectors in the largest economy in the US would have reduction targets.

Energy and transport sectors, which account for most of the state’s emissions, would need to move faster towards renewables and low carbon energy after 2020, the report said.

“Progressing toward California’s long-term climate goals will require that GHG reduction rates be significantly accelerated,” Carb said.

“Emissions from 2020 to 2050 will have to decline at more than twice the rate of that which is needed to reach the 2020 statewide emissions limit.”

The report also urged cuts in smog forming pollutants such as methane and black carbon, which are shorter-lived than carbon dioxide but are much more powerful in trapping heat.

The Environmental Defense Fund, which monitors California’s efforts to cut emissions, said the expansion to just about every sector would be needed to meet ambitious reduction targets after 2020.

“As the saying goes, A goal without a plan is just a wish.’ CARB’s Proposed Update not only lays the groundwork for a low-carbon and clean-energy future, but points us towards strategic, and quantifiable, short and long-term goals,” the EDF’s Emily Reyna’s wrote in a blog.

Although the state’s regulators failed to set interim targets in the plan, it said considerations would be “informed” by climate science.

Based on a pledge by the US at the 2009 Copenhagen climate tallks to cut emissions 42% by 2030 from 2005 levels, California could achieve a reduction of 35%, yesterday’s document said.

Regulators said they would also take account of efforts elsewhere to cut emissions, such as the European Commission’s proposal to cut emissions 40% from 1990 levels by the end of the next decade.

California says it is on track to cut emissions 20% by 2020 from 1990 levels, helped by a major economic downturn at the start of the decade.

The post California’s rate of CO2 cuts ‘need to be doubled’ after 2020 appeared first on Climate Home News.

(Pic: Dougtone/Flickr)

By John McGarrity

California’s emissions trading scheme has largely been a success in its first year of trading and a “shining example” that carbon trading can help solve climate change without harming economic growth, the US Environmental Defense Fund said in a review today.

The USA’s biggest state by economic output boasts the highest carbon prices in the world after five successful auctions and a thriving secondary market for credits, in marked contrast to the EU’s larger scheme, which has required major surgery by policymakers to raise prices and make it relevant.

California’s cap-and-trade system, is not without its critics, however, who claim that the scheme could be in surplus for years to come and allows environmentally dubious offsets to be used by major emitters such as power plants and heavy industry.

But the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), an influential observer of carbon trading and climate policy, has garlanded the scheme for being “well-constructed, strong, and adaptive,” as California’s economy continued to recover from near-bankruptcy and recession at the turn of the decade.

“The first year results are highly encouraging and proof positive that we can successfully harness the power of the marketplace to solve climate change without sacrificing economic growth,” said EDF President Fred Krupp.

He added: “In a year marked by gridlock and polarization, the Golden State is a shining example of climate leadership.”

Green investments

Besides the success of auctions and its secondary market, EDF said that prices had been robust without reaching a level that would seriously harm industry in California as it recovered from economic crisis.

Prices at auction have traded between $10 and $16 last year, stronger than prices in the EU’s scheme, which currently trade at $8 but fell below $4 in 2013.

Proceeds from auctions had also been invested wisely in schemes such as low carbon transport and energy efficiency that will play a central role in the state’s target to cut carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, the end-of-year review said.

This involves a 25% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions across the state.

ANALYSIS: World’s carbon markets cover 20% of emissions

Although emissions trading in California has been widely viewed as successful in its first year, the year ahead will be pivotal for the cap and trading the report said.

Participants in the scheme will have to surrender allowances to account for their carbon pollution, and California’s car-dependent economy must prepare for the inclusion of fuels from 2015.

“Key questions remain regarding auction proceeds investment, offset supply, and future linkage,” EDF added.

Last year some green groups questioned whether the use of forestry offset credits from developing countries should be used by California’s polluters, citing concerns about how projects in the Amazon are monitored and verified and the extent of benefits for local communities.

REPORT: Nine US states call for national carbon market

The state’s emissions trading scheme is part of the wider Western Climate Initiative that includes some Canadian provinces, and at the start of this year California linked with Quebec’s cap-and-trade system.

On the eastern seaboard of the USA, state cap-and-trade schemes are much less ambitious than that in California, an outcome that has been driving other methods to deploy finance to low carbon projects.

Today New York’s state governor Andrew Cuomo said US$210 million would be provided  in funding for the NY Green Bank, which was launched to drive clean energy deployment in order to build a more resilient state and create jobs.

The post California’s CO2 market enjoys strong first year in 2013 appeared first on Climate Home News.

(Pic: thesolarindustry)

US: Oregon, Washington and California and the Canadian province of British Columbia agreed on Monday to align carbon-cutting policies in the coastal region, which together is equivalent to the world’s fifth-largest economy. (Reuters)

Brazil: Nearly 17,000 kilometres of road were built in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest every year between 2004 and 2007, according to a new study. The researchers from, from Imperial College London, say studies like this will help combat future deforestation by allowing for more accurate predictions of where it might occur. Even though roads often occupy less than 2% of a country’s land surface, they may have an ecological impact on an area up to ten times as large. (Science Daily)

UK: Pressure is being put on Britain’s big six energy companies to explain why bills have been going up when their wholesale electricity costs have fallen over the last three years. Last week, Prime Minister David Cameron said he wants to “roll back” green energy taxes, saying they have helped push up household bills to “unacceptable” levels. In the House of Lords last night, Lord Jenkin condemned the energy “oligopoly” and tabled an amendment calling for greater competition. Another amendment in favour of decarbonising all of Britain’s electricity by 2030, tabled by Lord Oxburgh, a former chairman of Shell, narrowly failed to pass. (Guardian)

Germany: In the southwest German city of Karlsruhe, researchers have found that heat generated by urban areas and their buildings, factories, sewers, and transportation systems could generate enough power to heat 18,000 households. (Environment 360)

UK: Solar power developers are racing to install large-scale solar parks on land across the UK in unprecedented numbers sparked by concerns that Britain’s ageing electrical grid has limited capacity for renewable energy. (BBC)

Germany: German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives will argue for a new push in support of backloading of CO2 emissions certificates in coalition talks with the Social Democrats (SPD), according to a document prepared for the negotiations. (Planet Ark)

US: Walmart has more solar capacity than 38 US states thanks to rapidly dropping price of solar power spurring many big companies to put panels on the roofs of their buildings, according to the US-based Solar Energy Industry Association. (SEIA)

UK: Walmart, Tescos and Morrisons are driving the destruction of some of the world’s most precious habitats, according to a study by Rainforest Foundation UK. (RTCC)

UK: The BBC has come under fire from Andrew Miller, chair of the science and technology committee for favouring climate change sceptics in its coverage. The BBC said replied by saying that putting forward opinions not backed by science is part of its role. It is the second time in less than a month that the BBC has been slammed by a senior figure for giving too much credence to climate sceptics. (Guardian)

US: NASA is preparing its first spacecraft to provide “unprecedented details” about Mars. It is scheduled for lift off on 18 November from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Analysis of data collected during the mission will help planetary scientists to better understand the history of climate change on Mars. (International Business Times)

Research: A third China-Brazil satellite will be launched from China at the end of this year to collect data for disaster prevention and environmental protection. The images will be used for a variety of purposes, including measuring deforestation and urban planning. More internationally backed, high-resolution satellites for disaster mitigation are on the way, according to Li Guoping, deputy director of the China National Space Administration. (Terra Daily)

UK: Pension funds worth £3 trillion are being placed at risk because managers refuse to acknowledge the risks their assets face from climate change and natural resource scarcity, warns a report by the charity ShareAction. (RTCC)

Japan: Toyota Motor Corporation was honoured this month for its ongoing efforts to promote a sustainable society by reducing, reusing and recycling resources by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. (Toyota)

Research: According to a new report, climate change is not harming the Canadian grizzly bear, rather they are benefitting from warming temperatures say researchers at the University of Alberta. (French Tribune)

The post British Columbia and US Pacific states announce climate pact appeared first on Climate Home News.

(Pic: Coca-Cola)

Coca-Cola will deploy more than 30 alternative fuel vehicles in select cities across the US by the end of 2013, the company has announced.

Half of these vehicles are refrigerated electric delivery trucks that will carry Coca-Cola’s Odwalla brand juices and beverages.

Coca-Cola’s alternative fuel fleet includes hybrid-electric, liquid natural gas and compressed natural gas vehicles. Together, these vehicles reduce emissions equivalent to removing 10,000 cars from the road annually.

“Coca-Cola is intently focused on our environmental commitments. One of many ways we are delivering is by operating the largest heavy-duty hybrid electric fleet in North America” said Rick Frazier, chief product supply officer for Coca-Cola Refreshments.

“By investing in hybrid vehicles we are reducing our carbon footprint while using the best possible mix of energy sources.”

Each truck and refrigeration unit produces zero tailpipe emissions, eliminating fuel usage by about 90 gallons per week.

The trucks can be driven 60 to 80 miles on a single charge, depending on the terrain and the amount of cargo being carried. Charging the trucks is estimated at eight hours to completely recharge.

In California, 16 refrigerated plug-in electric vehicles will hit the streets by year’s end. Coca-Cola will launch 15 additional alternative fuel vehicles to service US cities including Dallas and Chicago.

This fleet supports the beverage company’s goal to reduce the carbon footprint embedded in ‘the drink in your hand’ by 25 percent by 2020.

Coca-Cola began building a hybrid fleet in 2001 and now has the largest heavy-duty hybrid electric fleet in North America.

Steve Saltzgiver, Coca-Cola’s group director of North America fleet operations, said alternative-fuel vehicles now make up close to 10% of the company’s heavy duty truck holdings, and the company is on track to double this percentage in the next seven years.

So far, Saltzgiver says hybrids have saved the company up to 30% in fuel and reduced emissions by about one third.

According to a study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the hybrids’ total cost of operation was 24% less than the diesel group, “which means the customer is realizing real savings with the hybrid group.”

That’s important, since the cost of alternative fuel equipment per vehicle can range from $24,000 to $50,000, said Saltzgiver.

The US government is also assisting companies in the switch to alternative fuels with its Clean Fleets Partnership, which so far is providing 18 companies (including Coca-Cola and UPS, among others) with technical support and public recognition, along with online tools for comparing truck engines and finding alternative fueling stations.

The post Coca-Cola reveals plans for electric and hybrid distribution fleet appeared first on Climate Home News.

Fracking in progress in California. (Pic: Joshua Doubek)

US: California has passed the US’s toughest fracking regulation on Wednesday. Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to sign the bill, which had widespread support from environmental groups, though some withdrew their endorsement at the last minute. (LA Times)

China: The state council of China said it will reduce coal consumption, close steel plants and control the number of cars on its roads in an effort to “gradually eliminate” heavily polluted days in as soon as a decade. (Bloomberg)

Business: New report from CDP and PwC reveals 50 companies are responsible for 73% of greenhouse gas emissions from world’s top 500 firms (RTCC)

Research: Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the University of Canberra has said extreme weather and rising sea levels caused by climate change will significantly increase the need for an effective defence force. Maps of places where climate change might act as a “threat multiplier” – food and water shortages in eastern parts of Asia and forced migration across Africa were shown to military officials. (ABC)

Mexico: On Wednesday Mexico’s parliament began discussions on a fiscal reform proposed by President Enrique Pena Nieto that would impose a tax on carbon emissions from fossil fuel use. (Point Carbon)

Arctic: The volume of sea ice in the Arctic hit a new low this past winter, according to observations from the European Space Agency’s (Esa) Cryosat mission. (BBC)

France: Environment Minister Philippe Martin will introduce a carbon levy on fuel as the government tries to use the tax system to cut emissions he said yesterday. The government will ensure the overall tax burden on fuel stays at current levels next year, he said, giving no details of how the new levy will work. (Bloomberg)

Arctic: Gas flaring by the oil industry contributes to carbon pollution in the Arctic more than previously thought, potentially speeding up the melting of polar sea ice. (RTCC)

Report: Fifty companies account for nearly three quarters of the carbon emissions of the world’s top 500 firms, according to new research. The report, produced by PwC and CDP, reveals greenhouse gas emissions in the world’s top energy, utility and materials firms grew by 1.65% in the past four years. (RTCC)

Europe: Proposals for an energy and climate policy framework up to 2030 by the end of the year, European Commission president José Manuel Barroso told MEPs yesterday. (RTCC)

UK: The UN’s climate science body has rejected claims in the Mail on Sunday newspaper that it plans to hold a crisis meeting to discuss the impending release of its latest major report. (RTCC)

Europe: Members of the European Parliament have voted to limit the amount of biofuels that can be derived from food-based crops to 6%. The EU wants 10% of transport fuel to be comprised of biofuel by 2020, as part of efforts to cut carbon emissions. (RTCC)

Research: Scientists say the varied influence of climate change on temperature and precipitation may have an equally wide-ranging effect on the mosquito-borne spread of West Nile virus, which can infect both humans and horses. (Horse Talk)

Australia: Adelaide has created the world’s first 100% solar-powered electric bus available free of charge. The car receives electric power from solar panels located on the city’s central bus station allowing it to run freely from the city centre and the North Adelaide, and will also offer air conditioning and WiFi to its 40 passengers. (CleanTechnica)

The post California passes tough new fracking laws appeared first on Climate Home News.

The Hyperloop will work like pneumatic tubes once common in offices. (Source: Tesla)

By Nilima Choudhury

Will the Hyperloop be offering cheap, fast and clean long distance travel to consumers in decades to come?

The concept was launched in some style yesterday by Elon Musk, US entrepreneur, and founder of Tesla electric cars and Space X rocket design company.

According to plans published on the Tesla website, the Hyperloop involves firing frictionless, magnetically levitated aluminium pod vehicles for passengers through a near-vacuum tunnel, using solar power like pneumatic tubes that were once common in offices and bank branches.

Musk says the whole project is currently costed at around US$6 billion.

The solar array itself and associated electronics would set a developer back by approximately US$210 million generating on average 285MW at peak solar activity, but only needing 21MW to get it from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

“There would be solar panels laid on top of the tubes, which generate energy for moving the pods and for excess energy that would be stored, so it can run at night,” said Musk in an interview with Bloomberg.

The solar array itself will generate more energy than needed allowing some of it to be stored. (Source: Tesla)

The energy storage element would be built out of the same lithium ion cells available in the Tesla Model S which Musk said is economical.

Musk claims his design will provide a cheaper, safer and more energy efficient travelling experience compared to the bullet train currently under construction between Los Angeles and San Francisco which is estimated to cost US$68 billion and may not be completed until 2028.

Hyperloop will travel between San Francisco and Los Angeles in half an hour. (Source: Tesla)

The technology would cost in the region of US$245,000 to construct and manufacture the structure.

The total trip time is approximately half an hour between Los Angeles and San Francisco, with capsules departing as often as every 30 seconds from each terminal and carrying 28 people each way.

This gives a total of 7.4 million people each way that can be transported each year on Hyperloop. Tickets would cost around US$20.

During a conference call at the unveiling of the Hyperloop yesterday Musk said: “It’s like getting a ride on Space Mountain at Disneyland.” Passengers would experience a G-force no greater than that of a sports car. The ride, Musk said, would be “supersmooth”.

Hyperloop passengers will benefit from cheap tickets. (Source: Tesla)

Although previously Musk was adamant he would not be constructing or funding the Hyperloop, yesterday he admitted he is tempted to construct at least a prototype of the system.

“I could do some scale version and hand it over to someone else…I would like to see it come to fruition, and it might help if I did a demonstration article.”

The design he has offered on his website is an open-source design, meaning anyone can use it and modify it to “see if the people can find ways to improve it.”

“If somebody else does the demo, that’ll be really awesome,” he added.

The post Hyperloop: the clean, green and fast train of the future? appeared first on Climate Home News.

Air pollution may be responsible for more than 2 million deaths around the world each year. (Source: Señor Codo)

Research: Air pollution may be responsible for more than 2 million deaths around the world each year, according to a new study by the University of North Carolina. The study also found that 470,000 deaths yearly are linked with human sources of ozone, which forms when pollutants from sources such as cars or factories come together and react. Exposure to ozone has been linked to death from respiratory diseases. (Eco Business)

US: The University of California Santa Cruz study has concluded that a CalEnergy geothermal field near the Salton Sea in Southern California is triggering small earthquakes very close to the San Andreas Fault. (Orville MR)

Indonesia: Greenpeace has released maps which it says show fire hotspots in the Riau province of Sumatra, Indonesia, on plantation land owned by subsidiaries of member companies of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). The companies include Jatim Jaya Perkasa – an alleged past offender which missed two deadlines to provide information to the RSPO, and palm oil giant the Sime Darby group – which the RSPO had cleared of wrongdoing earlier this week. (Guardian)

China/US: China and the USA, the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, have agreed five new actions aimed at cutting pollution from vehicles and power stations. The non-binding climate plan will focus on reducing emissions from vehicles, carbon capture and storage technologies, energy efficient buildings, smart grids and greenhouse gas data. (RTCC)

Europe: Biofuels are set to play a diminished role in EU efforts to cut carbon emissions after EU Parliamentarians voted to curb the use of crop-based fuels. The European Environment Committee backed proposals to reduce the share of food-based biofuel used in vehicles to 5.5% of total consumption. (RTCC)

UK: The UK is set to break its own record for the world’s largest offshore windfarm after a 288 turbine generating 1,200MW project was unveiled by energy chief Ed Davey. Located off the Lincolnshire and Norfolk coast, the Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farm will cost £3.6 billion, creating over 1,000 jobs and providing power to 820,000 homes. (RTCC)

The post Air pollution linked to two million deaths a year appeared first on Climate Home News.

By mid century, the snow-capped mountains of Southern California will be a lot less snowy, according to a new study from the University of California Los Angeles.

The mountains beyond Pasadena, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Venice Beach and other iconic addresses will have 30-40% less snow on top and none at all at lower elevations. And by 2100, snowfall could be reduced to about a third of its level in 2000.

Alex Hall, of UCLA’s department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences, warned “Climate change has become inevitable, and we’re going to lose a substantial amount of snow by mid-century.

“But our choices matter. By the end of the century there will be stark differences in how much snowfall remains, depending on whether we begin to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.”

By 2050, under the mitigation scenario, snowfall would be reduced 31% by 2050, but would stay relatively stable and  be at 33% below baseline by 2100

The study was produced with funding from the City of Los Angeles – the city’s mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called it “clear and compelling” – and it examined snowfall in the San Gabriel and San Bernadino mountains and other ranges.

The consequences for tourist and leisure industries could be considerable: local enthusiasts use the slopes for skiing and snowboarding; lower snowfalls could have implications for water supplies, agriculture and increased flooding from more frequent rains.

More flooding

The scientists used climate models and real data from local townships to quantify future snow forecasts, but did not measure snow melt. Earlier research had established that the city and its environs could expect to experience a warming of 4° to 5°F (around 2.5°C) by mid century.

By then, the snowpack would be melting 16 days earlier than it did at the beginning of the century. Temperatures would fall to freezing later, and less often, so what fell would be rain, with quicker runoff and more flooding as a consequence.

The researcher considered two scenarios – one the notorious “business as usual” prospect, in which greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise without restraint, and the other a world in which governments and society tried to significantly reduce emissions.

By 2050, under the mitigation scenario, snowfall would be reduced 31% by 2050, but would stay relatively stable and only be at 33% below baseline by 2100. If the world fails to take action to mitigate climate change, by 2100 however, loss of snow is expected to reach 67% by the end of the century.

“Los Angeles must begin today to prepare for climate change,” said Mayor Villaraigosa. “We invested in this study and created the AdaptLA framework to craft innovative solutions and preserve our quality of life for the next generation of Angelenos.”

The post Skiers face dilemma as California snows recede appeared first on Climate Home News.

Two important habitats for marine life, coral reefs and eelgrass meadows, will survive climate change but it will make them vulnerable.

Ocean acidification will make coral skeletons more feeble and coral reefs more vulnerable to battering by the seas – but it may not kill the corals, according to new research from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

The Californian scientists report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) that they tested coral’s response to changes in future ocean chemistry not by experiments in a tank in a laboratory, but under real conditions – off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula where submarine springs naturally alter the chemistry of the surrounding sea water.

“People have seen similar effects in laboratory experiments,” said Adina Paytan, of the university’s Institute of Marine Sciences. “We looked in places where corals are exposed to lower pH for their entire lifespan. The good news is that they don’t just die. They are able to grow and calcify, but they are not producing robust structures.”

As carbon dioxide levels rise, falling rain becomes even more weakly acidic, and all rain eventually makes its way into the oceans, changing the water chemistry subtly.

Ocean acidification will make coral reefs more vulnerable to battering by the seas. (Source: Esie esq)

By monitoring seawater chemistry near natural submarine springs, and by examining cores from colonies of an important Caribbean reef-building coral called Porites asteroids, the scientists were able to show that predicted future changes in water chemistry did have consequences for creatures that exploit that chemistry: it became more demanding for the coral animals to build up the blocks of calcium carbonate skeletons. As the skeletons become less dense, so they become more vulnerable to storm waves, and to coral predators.

Corals are also vulnerable to temperature rise, and recent research has shown that corals can recover slowly from devastating spells of heat. Now it seems they can survive changes in ocean acidity. The question of course is whether reefs can survive both at the same time – and other stresses such as pollution and overfishing.

Eelgrass meadows

Meanwhile, far away to the north and across the Atlantic, Swedish researchers at the University of Gothenburg have been testing the effect of both rising temperatures and changes in sea chemistry on another important marine ecosystem: the eelgrass meadows.

Christian Alsterberg reports in the PNAS that they raised the temperature in laboratory tanks containing eelgrass, while at the same time bubbling extra carbon dioxide through the water, to simulate the real changes predicted in the decades to come.

The aim was to see how the plants, and the animals for which the plants form a natural habitat, responded. As water temperatures increased, for instance, so did the metabolism of many of the crustaceans that live in the eelgrass meadows.

As a consequence, the animals consumed more algae, and grazed the meadows more efficiently. Benthic microalgae on the sediment of the meadows responded more vigorously. Overall, there seemed to be no great effect on the meadows.

But that depended on the presence of crustaceans: without these small, algae-eating animals, the outcome could have been much worse. The research is just another piece in the vast jigsaw puzzle of climate science, in which small changes can have complex outcomes.

“The experiment also taught us the importance of investigating climate change using several different approaches, in order to fully understand its effects and to predict future impacts,” said Alsterberg.

This article was produced by the Climate News Network.

The post Coral reefs can survive ocean acidity – report appeared first on Climate Home News.