What's Changing? - Climate

 

Please see below recent climate-related change, including key developments regarding the UN Sustainable Development Goal 13 - Climate Action.

Imagine a ship that is sinking and needs all the available power to run the pumps to drain out the rising waters. The first class passengers refuse to cooperate because they feel hot and want to use the air-conditioner and other electrical appliances. The second-class passengers spend all their time trying to be upgraded to first-class status. The boat sinks and the passengers all drown. That is where the present approach to climate change is leading - Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard

 

See also:

• What's New? - Climate
• What's Changing? - Conflict
• What's Changing? - Energy
• What's Changing? - Environment
• What's Changing? - Equality
• What's Changing? - Risk
• What's New? - Sustainability (including headlines on SDG 13 Climate Action)

 

January 2025

• The most powerful climate solutions could be hiding in plain sight, according to Bill Gates, who expected to see eco-friendly tech increasingly enter homes, offices and even grocery stores from 2025. From energy-efficient windows to improved EV batteries, these innovations will blend into daily life. He predicted that they’ll cut costs, boost performance and help the planet all at once.

 

November 2024

• 2024 was the hottest year on record (so far), according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, the first year where average global temperatures exceeded 1.5C above the pre-industrial average. Scientists have said that it is imperative the world caps global heating to 1.5C to limit the worst impacts of climate change. World leaders previously agreed at UN climate conference COP in 2015 to limit global warming to 1.5C, but are on course to double that by 2100. Temperatures in 2024 were 1.62C warmer, on average, than those seen between 1850 and 1900. 

 

October 2024

• Governance of the climate crisis is characterised by extreme inequality. According to a study in Nature:  influential countries are unwilling to act because they're not exposed to the worst consequences, while the most exposed countries struggle to be heard. This is the kind of inequality that the climate crisis will accelerate all over the world: the richest, creating half of global emissions, will see only 3% of the relative income loss, while the poorest half of the world will suffer 75% of the costs (for example, many of the poor will stay in uninsurable homes in increasingly dangerous areas).

 

September 2024

• A study cited by the IPCC - the UN’s top climate change body - projected that the island nations of Tuvalu, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Nauru, and Kiribati may become completely uninhabitable by 2100. If that projection comes true, around 600,000 citizens will become climate refugees.

 

July 2024

• The UN published The Peoples’ Climate Vote, a report on the largest ever survey of attitudes to climate change. The project saw questions put to 75,000 people in 77 countries, representing almost 90% of the global population. A majority of people worldwide said they were more worried about climate change now than they a year previously. In countries most associated with fossil fuel production, significant majorities wanted a fast transition away from them. In the US - the world’s largest producer of oil and fast - 54% want a fast transition. In Saudi Arabia, that number was 75%.

 

June 2024

• World temperatures broke records for the 12th consecutive month in May 2024. It was also the 11th month in a row where average temperatures were at least 1.5°C higher than pre-industrial levels.
• Debt payments by the 50 countries most at risk from climate change have doubled since the start of the pandemic, reaching a 30-year high, according to a report by Debt Justice. These nations now spend 15.5% of their government revenues on external debt, up from 8% pre-pandemic. The charity calls for comprehensive debt relief to enable these countries to invest in tackling the climate crisis.

 

May 2024

• Almost 80% of some of the world's leading climate scientists believe the world will warm by an average of 2.5C compared to pre-industrial temperatures, and nearly half expect warming to surpass 3C, according to a survey carried out by the Guardian. The respondents were all from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a leading international research body. Just 6% of those surveyed think warming will stay at 1.5C, the target agreed upon by world leaders which is believed to limit the worst impacts of climate change.
• Wealthy countries contributed US$100bn in climate finance to poorer nations in 2022, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Public funds made up around 80% of the total contribution, mainly based on loans, while private finance rose by 52% in 2022 to US$21.9bn. Further funding will be needed, though, including from the private sector, Mathias Cormann, the secretary-general of the OECD said, particularly for clean energy, agriculture and resilience. Some analysts estimate around US$9tn will be needed each year by 2030 to aid developing countries and to ensure the world limits global warming to 1.5C above the pre-industrial average.
• In The economic commitment of climate change, Maximilian Kotz et al analysed recent empirical findings from more than 1,600 regions worldwide over the past 40 years to project sub-national damages from temperature and precipitation, including daily variability and extremes. They found that climate damages already outweigh the mitigation costs required to limit global warming to 2°C by sixfold over this near-term time frame and thereafter diverge strongly dependent on emission choices.

 

April 2024

• While the entire planet’s surface temperature is rising, Europe is the fastest-warming continent, according to report from two leading climate-monitoring organisations. Temperatures in Europe are now 2.3° Celsius above pre-industrial levels, per the latest five-year averages, compared with 1.3° globally.

 

March 2024

• The head of the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation reported that climate records had been not just broken but smashed in 2023, the hottest year on record. More than 90% of the world’s oceans suffered heatwave conditions, glaciers lost the most ice on record and the extent of Antarctic sea ice fell to by far the lowest levels ever measured. The world is now warming at a pace that scientists did not expect and, may not yet fully understand: e.g. the chair of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said that 2023's spike in temperatures was “quicker than we all anticipated”.
• The Arctic could see ice-free summers as soon as 2035, but unlike ice that took thousands of years to accumulate, sea ice can reportedly return if scientists figure out how to remove excess CO₂ from the air.

 

February 2024

• The world experienced its first 12-month period (Feb. 2023 - Jan. 2024) in which average global temperatures were more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service. This, combined with 2024 witnessing the warmest January on record, had climate scientists ringing alarm bells.

 

January 2024

• 2023 broke the record for the hottest year on record (due to all-time high emissions of carbon dioxide and El Niño). Data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, a European Union climate agency, showed that 2023 was warmer by 1.48 Celsius than the 1850-1900 pre-industrial era.
• “Cli-fi” is an increasingly popular sub-genre of science fiction that deals with the impacts of climate change and global warming. Its popularity is perhaps unsurprising given that stories are how we make sense of the world, and the reality of life on a much warmer planet is no longer a fiction but the stark reality of our near-term future.  

 

December 2023

• Fossil-fuel companies have known about their contributions to climate change since the 1970s, yet they continue to drill and expand their operations. While governments have paid lip service to the problem by adopting the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris climate agreement, the latest Production Gap Report shows how little these commitments mean in practice. Between now and 2030, output in the top 20 fossil-fuel-producing countries will be more than double the amount consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5° Celsius, warned Project Syndicate.

 

November 2023

• According to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Services (CS3), Friday 17 November 2023 was the first day on which average global temperatures were more than 2C above pre-industrial levels. Data for 17 November indicated that global surface air temperatures were 2.07C above those in 1850. This doesn’t mean that the much-discussed 2C threshold has been crossed. For that, we’d need to see a sustained elevation above 2C.
• Climate change is costing the US economy $150 billion a year. The quadrennial National Climate Assessment now includes a new economic impact section.

 

October 2023

• Earth had the its hottest September on record in 2023 - and by a record-breaking margin, according to the leading international datasets which are used by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) for its State of the Global Climate monitoring. This continued an extended streak of land and sea-surface temperatures and is a powerful signal about the speed with which greenhouse gases are changing our climate.
• Damage caused by extreme weather has cost an estimated US$16 million every 60 minutes for the past two decades.

 

September 2023

• Of the 20 countries hardest hit by the climate crisis, 85% are in Africa, US climate envoy John Kerry claimed. Kenyan President William Ruto meanwhile claimed that climate change is holding back the continent’s economic growth by 5-15% annually, despite the fact that the continent accounts for less than 4% of global emissions.
• August 2023 was the second hottest ever recorded, with global temperatures exceeding pre-industrial averages by 1.5 degrees Celsius.

 

August 2023

• Heatwaves may decrease the world's gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.66 percentage points, Allianz Insurance claimed. One day of extreme heat can be equivalent in economic terms to half a day of strike, although the impact varies across countries. Droughts, floods and wildfires damage crops and property. In extreme heat, people often work fewer hours, or make more mistakes. When temperatures hit 32C, worker performance drops 40%, and 66% after 37C. Tax revenues could be hit by such decreased productivity, one analysis noted, and public coffers could be diminished by rebuilding costs. Allianz called on cities to adapt to climate change, such as through the use of urban greening, improved working hours and better building technologies.
• Climate litigation has become an integral part of securing climate action and justice globally, according to a report by the United Nations Environment Programme, which found that climate court cases had more than doubled in five years. The report highlighted a series of landmark rulings, including a Dutch court ordering oil giant Shell to slash its emissions. It was the first time a court found a private company to have a duty under the Paris agreement.
• Experts claimed that droughts and seawater changes associated with warmer temperatures could cut US$3.5 trillion from global growth by 2030.

 

July 2023

• Climate change is making extreme weather events not only more likely, but also more severe. As Vox put it: “there’s no such thing as a disaster-resistant place anymore”. Insurance companies are increasingly pulling out of areas they deem high risk and divesting of reinsurance branches to reduce exposure to natural disaster.
• July 4 2023 was the hottest day ever registered on Earth. The record broke one that was set just the day before. (All the resultant air conditioning use is only making the planet hotter.)
• Sea surface temperatures soared in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, which scientists said partially fuelled heatwaves in Europe. The temperature of the North Atlantic began rising above historical averages in March and climbed to 1.3° C higher than the 1982-2011 mean.
• The US broke 2,000 high temperature records in the July 2023. International scientists said that the intense heat waves hitting the Northern Hemisphere would be “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change.

 

June 2023

• In emerging market and developing countries excluding China, more than US$2tn in investments each year is estimated to be needed to tackle climate change and its impacts by 2030; current investments (in 2023) were running at about $500bn. Mobilising such sums will entail huge efforts from multilateral development banks, governments, and the private sector.

 

May 2023

• A poll suggested that while many are in favour of government and individual actions to combat the climate crisis, there is less support for measures that would impact their lifestyle. A YouGov survey gauged backing of actions in seven European countries. There was stronger support for steps that would mean no major lifestyle sacrifice. For example, 77% of UK respondents said they would grow more plants themselves or were already doing so. However, just 27% were willing to only buy secondhand clothes. Legislation banning the production and sale of petrol and diesel cars was also not popular with respondents across the different countries.

 

April 2023

• Scientists are concerned about the recent, rapid rise in ocean temperatures. Data showed that the temperature of the global sea surface hit a record high of 21.1C in early 2023. However, it's unclear to scientists as why such a rapid change is happening. Experts are especially worried as this warming is happening ahead of an anticipated strong weather event, El Niño, which heats the ocean.

 

March 2023

• A UN report said the world has less than a decade to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (the 2015 Paris Agreement’s target). Industrialised countries must halve greenhouse gases by 2030 and halt carbon dioxide emissions by the 2050s to avoid cataclysmic flooding, droughts, heat waves, and species extinction.
• Good Business warned that, irrespective of whether we’re heading towards 1.5C of warming, 2C, or more, climate change is already here and we’re seeing weather events become more extreme and frequent as a result. The IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report showed the human and natural systems that are already adversely affected: the flooding in Pakistan, wildfires in California and Arctic heatwaves being just some recent examples.

 

February 2023

• Extreme temperatures make people less likely to pursue outdoor activities they would otherwise make part of their daily routine, a study led by MIT researchers confirmed. The data-rich study, set in China, showed that when hourly temperatures reach 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), people are 5% less likely to go to public parks, and when hourly temperatures hit 35 C (95 F), people are 13% less likely to go to those parks. (See also: What's Changing? - Habit)

 

January 2023

• "Climate quitting" means leaving a job for greener organisations, or going as far as changing career to focus on tackling the climate crisis. More than 24 million green jobs could be created globally by 2030. Closing this labour gap will require both new skills and people leaving their existing jobs for rapidly evolving industries, and it’s already underway; in 2022 more people were employed by clean energy companies than by fossil fuel companies, according to the International Energy Agency.
• 2022 was the fifth warmest year on record. According to EU scientists, it was also the second warmest year on record for Europe.
• Atmospheric dust might have distorted the impact of climate change. Global temperatures would have increased by an additional 0.1°F from pre-industrial levels had it not been for an increase in particles, noted Quartz.

 

November 2022

• A major paper released on the sidelines of the COP27 climate summit in Egypt started a countdown: at the current rate of global emissions, the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels will likely be permanently out of reach by 2031, the study warned.
• Data indicate that global warming will worsen health inequalities between rich and poor countries. Yet, there is still (some) hope: rising inflation propelled governments to cut back on fossil fuels, making the International Energy Agency optimistic that COP27 might be a “turning point” in the global transition to clean energy.

 

October 2022

• The UN’s weather agency said greenhouse gas emissions hit record highs in 2021. The World Meteorological Organisation predicted emissions would increase by 10.6% by 2030, compared with 2010 levels. Another UN report found that countries’ climate plans aren’t sufficient.
• To meet the the Paris Accord climate commitments, the world still needed to reduce emissions by 43% by 2030, but, according to the UN, we are actually on track to increase emissions by 10.6% during that period.
• According to a report by Climate Action 100+ – a group of investors monitoring the 166 companies responsible for 80% of global corporate greenhouse gas emissions – the vast majority of companies with net zero targets have no strategy in place to achieve them. In fact, only 19% of companies have quantified key elements of their decarbonisation strategies.
• The White House coordinated a five-year research plan to study ways to cool the Earth by reflecting sunlight back into space. The Office of Science and Technology Policy say the research will look at the costs and benefits of a number of plans, including a plan to spray reflective aerosols into the stratosphere.

 

September 2022

• Common Cause Foundation warned that the message that to adequately address the climate crisis we must each make private-sphere behaviour changes continues to be reinforced again and again and again. From the UN Environment Programme and other big environmental organisations, to Universities and schools, from pop culture and advertising, to local councils and places of worship, individual responsibility is a framing we have become very familiar with in reference to climate action. CCF believes that while encouraging people to adopt simple and painless pro-environmental behaviours can lead to positive effects, these are frankly pretty negligible in comparison to the scale of systemic change required to prevent catastrophic climate impact. 
• An estimated 1.81 billion people, or 23% of the world population, face significant flood risk. Low-income countries are disproportionately exposed to flood risks and more vulnerable to disastrous long-term impacts. However, priorities for flood protection investments often focus on the monetary exposure of assets and economic activity, meaning most attention goes to high-income countries and economic hubs. Systematic risk mitigation measures are crucial to prevent the loss of lives and livelihoods, warned the World Economic Forum.
• The WEF also noted that flooding in Pakistan has revived interest in the relationship between the colonial past and the present climate change crisis. A number of countries scarred by colonialism are now at a disadvantage in terms of dealing with the crisis. They’re also responsible for a relatively small portion of global emissions.
• Australia’s unprecedented 2020 wildfires heated up the stratosphere. Smoke from the blazes increased global temperatures and, possibly, grew the hole in the ozone layer.
• Denmark announced that it would break ranks with countries who refuse to pay money to poor countries and former colonies for the impact of climate change and announced a symbolic US$13M pledge to aid countries already suffering far more than they’ve contributed to climate change. Historically, global powers have been unwilling to give a little, lest they be expected to pay up the full sums that might be expected.

 

August 2022

• Climate disasters tend to be expensive, and 2022 took an especially hard toll. Insured losses from natural disasters reached $35 billion in the first half of 2022, according to analysis from Swiss Re Institute. That’s 22% above the 10-year average.
• Climate change will affect agricultural production worldwide. Average global crop yields for maize, or corn, may see a decrease of 24% by late century, if current climate change trends continue. Wheat, in contrast, may see an uptick in crop yields by about 17%. The change in yields is due to the projected increases in temperature, shifts in rainfall patterns and elevated surface carbon dioxide concentrations due to human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, making it more difficult to grow maize in the tropics and expanding wheat’s growing range.

 

July 2022

• The very high temperatures that hit vast parts of the US, the EU, and China in mid 2022 have a common origin: a high-altitude air current configuration known as wavenumber 5, because it forms when the jet stream splits into five separate airwaves. Scientists are studying it closely, as well as a related 7-wave pattern and the dreaded “Omega Wave,” which also causes extreme heat.
• Following a massive meltdown across its ice sheet, over just three days in July 2022, Greenland lost 18 billion tonnes of water; that’s enough to cover England in water roughly half a foot deep. And it didn’t stop there. A satellite from the EU’s Copernicus Earth Observation Programme captured vast streams of run-off water travelling towards the ocean on 23 July, at the height of the melting. Meanwhile, a paper in Nature Communications found that one in four of the world’s population, or 1.8bn people, are now at risk of severe flooding. Floods could therefore become a mega-force that do much to shape the rest of the 21st century.

 

June 2022

• The amount of money needed to aid communities in the face of extreme weather-related emergencies increased by more than 800% in the past two decades as the climate crisis also rapidly accelerated. Oxfam research found not only is the need for extreme weather-related UN humanitarian funding now sharply higher than 20 years ago, but donor nations are also failing to keep up with the costs of the climate crisis.
• A paper in Nature revealed unexpected and extreme rates of heating in the Arctic. Average annual temperatures in the North Barents Sea are rising at 2.7C per decade according to researchers at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, who say the rises are ‘off the scale’ and likely to drive further global weather extremes.

 

May 2022

• A paper in Nature Climate Change claimed that winter storms in the Southern Hemisphere are already at levels of intensity not predicted to occur until 2080. Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science arrived at the findings by analysing data generated by the 30 leading computational climate models.

 

April 2022

• The UN’s latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, at nearly 3,000 pages, was the most comprehensive analysis yet of what can be done to ward off dangerous levels of warming since the Paris climate accord was agreed in 2015. It was designed to help to shape climate policy debates for years to come. Its message is both stark and compelling. The window for limiting global warming to 1.5C is closing fast. Global emissions should ideally peak before 2025. Greener lifestyles can help, but more sweeping structural changes are needed. Gas, oil and especially coal use must fall steeply.
• Gender inequality and climate change are closely intertwined. Due to their different and unequal social roles and status, women, girls and people of marginalised genders are disproportionately affected by climate change impacts, also differentiated by factors such as age, race, ability and location. They are also leading innovative solutions to climate change at all levels. Yet as the Glasgow Women’s Leadership statement highlighted at COP26, there is still a lack of momentum for prioritising their knowledge, tools and leadership in climate policy and action. 
• Methane, or CH4, accounts for 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions and lasts in the atmosphere for a fraction of the time of CO2 (10-20 years versus hundreds of years), yet accounts for at least 30% of climate change. It is a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 (30-80 times more potent). 

 

March 2022

• The second installation of the IPCC’s sixth major overview of climate science addressed impacts and adaptation options. It makes clear that impacts escalate dramatically with every additional degree of global warming, especially for an estimated 3.6 billion people who live in areas that are especially vulnerable to drought, storms, and other impacts. Although the report included new evidence that adaptive measures - especially reforestation, ecosystem restoration, and other “nature-based” solutions - can be effective in reducing risk, these aren’t being rolled out at a large enough scale, and become more expensive and less effective the more time that passes before they are implemented.
• The report warned that as many as 3.3 billion people are now “highly vulnerable to climate change,” warning that more people are going to die each year from extreme weather events. It said that Africa and parts of Central America, South America and South Asia are “hot spots.”
• Climate change may be creating a vicious cycle of inflation. Products are beginning to cost more due to their increasing scarcity and difficulties in harvesting or transporting,but at the same time, trying to transition to sustainable solutions is inherently more expensive, meaning we are now entering a cycle of “greenflation” that is likely to get worse before it gets better, warned Future Today Institute.
• In a 2018 survey from Deloitte, 77% of Gen Z respondents said it was important to work at organisations whose values aligned with theirs. Social values matter deeply to this population, and the issue of climate change particularly – in the US, Gen Z (people in their teens to mid-20s) are much more concerned about climate change than older generations. Similarly, in the UK, Bupa found in 2021 that 64% of surveyed 18-to-22-year-olds consider it important for employers to act on environmental issues, and 59% would remain longer with responsible employers. In Australia, young workers have left companies that aren’t doing enough to respond to climate change.

 

February 2022

• Countries have been underreporting their combined methane emissions by around 70%, a revelation the International Atomic Energy Agency called “alarming.” Methane emissions, one-quarter of which come from agriculture, are the biggest contributors to climate change after carbon dioxide - and 80 times more potent in warming the planet.
• Big firms touting net-zero targets may have overstated their climate efforts, according to a report from the NewClimate Institute and Carbon Market Watch. On average, the plans of 25 multinationals amounted to a 40% reduction in carbon emissions rather than the 100% pledged. Most companies were also found to be “hiding” behind carbon offsets – a way of compensating for emissions without necessarily reducing them – and were making insufficient progress on their near-term targets, which scientists deem critical in limiting global warming to 1.5°C.
• Despite contributing least to global greenhouse gas emissions, developing countries are most vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. Yet many climate-vulnerable countries lack sufficient finance to meet their mitigation and adaptation needs and to support their sustainable development. This has only been worsened by the economic consequences of the pandemic. In the near future, developing countries’ inability to meet their adaptation needs is likely to result in climate impacts that cascade across borders and affect communities across the world.

 

January 2022

• A Psyche article argued that human behaviour is at the heart of the climate crisis. Drastic reductions in the release of greenhouse gas missions within the next decade is essential and this will require behaviour change within governments, organisations, communities and individuals to transform our existing patterns of production and consumption. Given the scale of the collective changes required, it can be tempting to believe that our own individual choices and behaviours will make a negligible difference. In fact, changes in personal choice behaviours can accumulate to have sizeable beneficial consequences for the climate, especially from those who lead carbon-intensive lifestyles. 
• Data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service showed 2021 was the world's fifth hottest year, and the previous seven years were the hottest on record. US researchers also found that ocean temperatures were the hottest recorded for the sixth consecutive year, which scientists also attribute to climate change.
• The Netherlands swore in a climate-focused government. The coalition, which took nine months to form, aimed to up a $40 billion climate fund and included a climate cabinet minister.

 

December 2021

• Insurance claims from extreme weather events linked to climate change topped $100 billion in 2021. The most expensive single event was Hurricane Ida, which hit the US Northeast, causing $65 billion in damages.

 

November 2021

• Despite COP26 promises, world temperatures will increase by 2.4°C by the end of the century. That’s the conclusion from the globe’s top climate analysis coalition, based on countries’ short-term goals.
• As heatwaves have become an increasingly severe crisis caused by the warming planet, a study predicted that by 2100 extreme heat could contribute to the deaths of up to 97,000 people annually. Meanwhile, many cities around the globe are appointing "heat officers" to implement solutions and avoid the growing death toll from heat seen in recent times.
• Many countries lied about their greenhouse gas emissions to the UN in the lead up to the COP26 summit, according to a Washington Post investigation. Looking at individual nations' data reports, the Post concluded that up to 2.1 billion more tons of carbon dioxide emissions are currently being released into the atmosphere than the filings showed.
• A climate projection says 3 billion people may live with extreme heat by 2070. The research, led by scientists at Exeter University’s Global Systems Institute, said that if emissions continue to rise, 3 billion could be exposed to temperatures as high as in the hottest part of the Sahara desert today.
• Children growing up now will experience extreme weather events at a rate two to seven times higher than their grandparents did, according to a paper published in the journal Science. The Wall Street Journal explained that if the planet continues to warm on its current trajectory, the average six-year-old will live through roughly three times as many climate disasters as their grandparents, the study finds. They will see twice as many wildfires, 1.7 times as many tropical cyclones, 3.4 times more river floods, 2.5 times more crop failures and 2.3 times as many droughts as someone born in 1960.
• Research from Conservation International mapped the places on Earth that humanity must protect to avoid a climate catastrophe. These ecosystems contain what researchers call "irrecoverable carbon," dense stores of carbon that, if released due to human activity, could not be recovered in time for the world to prevent the most dangerous impacts of climate change.  The worldwide map published in the journal Nature Sustainability, built on a landmark study that introduced the concept of irrecoverable carbon. The research found that half of Earth's irrecoverable carbon is highly concentrated on just 3.3% of land – primarily old-growth forests, peatlands and mangroves.
• Global research firm Ipsos said that climate concern in the UK was at the highest level ever recorded. 40% of Britons said pollution and climate change were big issues for the country.

 

October 2021

• Greenhouse gases are headed in the wrong direction, according to a United Nations report that said that the world is “way off track” as carbon dioxide levels broke records in 2020.
• China published a long-awaited plan for how it intends to reach carbon neutrality by 2060. It touched on three big questions about China’s decarbonisation, when its emissions will peak, at what level and how fast they will fall after that.
• Quartz noted that The Gambia is the smallest country in mainland Africa, and it produces less than 0.01% of global annual emissions, but it’s still taking steps to decarbonise - making it perhaps the only country on Earth where those steps match its contribution to the problem. Nepal, Kenya, and Ethiopia aren’t too far behind.

 

September 2021

• A study from Cambridge University, University College London (UCL) and Imperial College London reported that the climate crisis could cut global GDP by 37% in the next 100 years. Researchers estimate that every ton of carbon dioxide emitted will knock around US$3,000 off the global economy by the end of the century.
• Scientists at the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation said the number of weather-related disasters around the globe had increased fivefold over the past 50 years, according to the WMO Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes, covering 1970 to 2019. The total losses over the period amounted to US$3.6 trillion and 2 million deaths.
• Climate change has made severe flooding - like that seen in Germany and Belgium in mid-2021 that killed 200 people - nine times more likely than in the pre-industrial age, according to a study. Climate scientists now directly link human-caused global warming to the extreme weather events recently seen all around the world.

 

August 2021

• US government scientists announced that July 2021 was Earth’s hottest month ever recorded; modern records stretch back to 1879. The global land and ocean surface temperature was 0.9C higher than the 20th-century average of 15.8C.
• A major climate report described as a “code red for humanity” warned that global warming has already had an “irreversible” impact on the planet including the oceans and polar ice caps. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts temperatures will be 1.5C higher than 1850-1900 levels by 2040 but says it is still possible to stay below this with significant cuts to global emissions before 2030. The report said:
  • It is “unequivocal” that humans are warming the planet and have likely caused rapid changes to the climate.
  • Stabilising the global rise in temperatures at 1.5C is possible, but will still result in increasing heatwaves, droughts and floods.
    • Global warming is already affecting weather and climate extremes around the world, and hot extremes have become more frequent since the 1950s.
  • It doesn’t rule out a 2m rise in sea levels by the end of the century.

• The FT warned however that the lengthy IPCC writing process did not allow the authors to take full account of the latest signs that climate may be changing even faster than most models had suggested: extreme heatwaves, catastrophic floods and rapid melting of Arctic ice and permafrost.
• We're getting close to various "tipping points" - when the planet undergoes abrupt changes in response to global warming that can't be reversed no matter what we do, like polar ice caps or coral reefs vanishing. The IPCC says that maybe, just maybe, it's not too late to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. For that to happen, though, the world must halve its carbon dioxide emissions by 2030, and for all countries to attain "net zero" emissions - taking as much carbon out of the atmosphere as putting into it - by 2050, noted GZERO.
• It's worth noting too that governments don't pollute nearly as much as companies, especially those in countries with lax regulations.
• Athens appointed a chief heat officer, becoming the first European city to do so. The move follows closely behind Miami’s CHO appointment announced in early 2021. As we experience more extreme weather, we may see other new roles created specifically to mitigate the impacts of a warming planet.
• Climate scientists found evidence that the Gulf Stream could be collapsing. The researchers found an “almost complete loss of stability over the last century”.
• RethinkX’s report, Rethinking Climate Change, suggested that we already have the technologies to radically transform the energy (solar, wind & batteries), transport (autonomous EVs, transport-as-a-service) and food (precision fermentation and cellular agriculture) sectors. The combination of these technologies, it claimed, could see us reduce our emissions by 90% by 2035, without economic costs and indeed with many benefits.
• Climate Visuals’ image bank, informed by international research and based on seven principles, including depicting real people and highlighting climate effects on local surroundings, shares images designed to move climate change photography from illustrative to impactful. 

 

July 2021

• Climate change will fundamentally reshape life on Earth in the coming decades, even if humans can tame planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, according to a landmark draft report from the UN's climate science advisors obtained by AFP. Species extinction, more widespread disease, unliveable heat, ecosystem collapse, cities menaced by rising seas -- these and other devastating climate impacts are accelerating and bound to become painfully obvious before a child born in 2021 turns 30.
• A  spate of extreme heat waves killed scores of people around the world. But, why is this happening? According to one study, 37 percent of all global deaths from heat can be attributed directly to climate change, as a rapidly warming planet caused by industrial pollution makes heat waves more frequent, intense and deadly. 
• Scientists at World Weather Attribution investigated the idea that a slowing of the jet stream may be amplifying heatwaves in ways we hadn’t anticipated. That would mean models are wrong. In other words, the recent US Pacific Northwestern heatwave might have been a once in 1,000 years event a couple of years ago, but there’s a good chance that it’s not anymore. Heatwaves that were once impossible may become a regular occurrence.
• The European Union announced a raft of climate change legislation aimed at pushing it towards its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. A dozen draft proposals, which still need to be approved by the bloc's 27 member states and the EU parliament, were announced on Wednesday. They include plans to tax jet fuel and effectively ban the sale of petrol and diesel powered cars within 20 years.
• France passed a law to fight climate change. The legislation encompasses everything from a ban on short-haul flights to weekly vegetarian menus in schools, but environmentalists think the country could do better.

 

June 2021

• To stop the worst of climate change, the world is shifting the way it produces and consumes energy. As businesses and economies chip away at their carbon emissions, they’re creating new markets for more sustainable fuels, products, and even financial instruments. Every industry can be part of the solution - or part of the ongoing problem, argued Quartz.
• A new climate feedback loop was discovered by scientists at CERN that could accelerate Arctic warming and sea ice loss. It produces more clouds at the pole which then produce more warming, and then more clouds, in an intensifying cycle.
• After record breaking temperatures in North America, Quartz warned that what climate models predicted is coming true. Scientists forecast global warming would fuel higher temperatures, falling humidity, dwindling snowpack, and intensifying drought. So far, this is coming to pass, despite some uncertainty about how this will play out in the coming century.
• The ground temperature in Siberia hit 118°F (48°C) in June 2021. The 118-degree-Fahrenheit temperature was measured on the ground in Verkhojansk, in Yakutia, Eastern Siberia, by the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel satellites.
• In a leaked report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), scientists warned that climate change is reaching a tipping point sooner than previously assumed. Specifically, the scientists are concerned that global heating is close to triggering “tipping points” in the Earth’s natural systems that will lead to possible “irrevocable disaster” unless decisive action is taken. 

 

May 2021

• The Financial Times warned that the fight to protect the planet is shifting in ways that could soon exacerbate conflicts within countries, particularly between social classes. Or, to put it bluntly, between the rich and the rest. The top 1 per cent by income of the world’s population account for about 15 per cent of emissions, according to UN data. That is more than double the share of the bottom 50 per cent.

 

April 2021

• By 2050, climate change could cut the world economy by $23tn. The Swiss Re Institute compiled several charts highlighting natural catastrophes stemming from climate change.  Poorer countries will feel the lion’s share of this burden but no country is immune from the impact of climate change.
• Google Earth added a unique time feature, allowing viewers to now see the effects of climate change on the platform through time lapses.
• The US and China agreed to cooperate on climate change. In a rare statement of agreement ahead of a US-led climate summit, the world’s two top carbon emitters pledged to tackle the climate crisis with urgency.
• Despite accounting for a small amount of global carbon emissions, small island developing states are on the front lines of the climate crisis, facing unique challenges as a result of climate-induced ocean warming and rising sea levels. Consider that most of the Bahamas is expected to be underwater by 2050, while the entire Maldives could be submerged by the end of the century.

 

March 2021

• The boss of the world's biggest shipping firm told the BBC people would be willing to pay a little bit more for their goods if it helped tackle climate change. From footwear to medical equipment, shipping can be a big part of any product's carbon emissions. The industry as a whole accounts for about 2% of the global total. That means that if it was a country it would be the sixth biggest polluter, above Germany. Maersk chief executive Soren Skou said that for his company the extra costs of greener energy amount to billions of dollars but "for the individual consumer, for the individual product, it will be almost nothing".
• Climate change threatens to shorten winters, springs, and autumns by 2100. The northern hemisphere would have six months of summer instead of a balanced four seasons.
• Jeff Bezos plans to spend $10 billion on climate change during the 2020s. The new CEO of Bezos’s Earth Fund, Andrew Steer, made the announcement in a series of tweets.

 

February 2021

• A paper claimed that climate change is creating conditions for more dangerous coronaviruses.

 

January 2021

• People around the world "want action" on climate change, the United Nations Development Programme said, sharing a poll that shows almost two-thirds of people in 50 countries now believe that climate change is an emergency. The poll of 1.2 million people showed younger people were more likely agree, though 58% of over 60s also said rising temperatures are an emergency. On potential policies, the conservation of forests and increased use of renewables were most popular, while switching to a plant-based diet was least.
• The global financial system took a big step toward pricing in climate risks. Central banks in the US and EU announced they’ll begin analysing the threats climate change poses to banks and the broader financial system. Quartz explained how greater scrutiny from the regulators who oversee more than 30% of the world’s GDP, combined with voluntary efforts by banks and asset managers, is pushing the economy to brace itself for massive changes in the coming decades.
• The coronavirus crisis demonstrated that, when confronted with a significant threat, governments across the world can take decisive action to mitigate the effects. However, despite the very visible devastations of the climate crisis, addressing it has suffered from, among other things, partisan politics and a sometimes disjointed global awareness of where responsibility lies and the extent of action needed. As countries convene in Glasgow for COP26 to update their Nationally Determined Contributions, and the US attempts to re-assert its leadership in climate circles by re-joining the Paris Agreement, Chatham House examined whether there is an opportunity in 2021 to reinvigorate international cooperation on tackling the climate crisis.
• The glaciers of the Hindu Kush Himalayas are the main source of fresh water for around two billion people living in the region. However, by the end of this century, two-thirds of that snow and ice could be lost because of climate change. A network of data scientists and environmentalists around the world, and on the ground in the Hindu Kush Himalayas, are working to understand the extent of glacial melting in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region, its effects and what can be done to minimise its impact. reported Microsoft on the Issues.
• A 2020 project led by PIRC, NEON and 350.org explored how the public understands climate change and ways to improve communication about it. 
• The UK launched a global climate coalition, teaming up with countries including Egypt, Bangladesh, and the Netherlands to promote measures like early storm warning systems and drought-resistant crops.
• Devex's content series Turning the Tide took a closer look at how satellite technology can help build climate resilience. Through engaging storytelling, multimedia, and written features, Devex shares insights on national climate change resilience strategies and how these can be built on to prepare some of the world’s most vulnerable communities for the challenges ahead.

 

December 2020

• Globally, 2020 was the second warmest year of the warmest decade on record, according to data from the World Meteorological Society. That was despite the presence of the naturally occurring climate cooling phenomenon known as La Nina.
• NASA data meanwhile suggested 2020 edged out 2016 as the warmest year on record, with average global temperatures 1.02°C (1.84°F) above the baseline mean (1951-1980) and further demonstrated the global-warming trend of the past four decades.
• Climate change hit harder than ever in 2020 with bigger storms, heat waves, and fires of record-breaking scale in Australia and California. 2020 was the hottest year on record.
• With the US responsible for almost 15 percent of global emissions, any meaningful advances on decarbonisation require Washington's cooperation. But climate-related innovation and diplomacy, traditionally driven in large part by the US, have stalled in recent years under the climate-sceptic Trump administration. However, the US has now marked its intent to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord.
• Kenya accounts for less than 0.1% of global emissions (the same as Ikea, noted Exponential View), but the nation faces a $62bn bill to mitigate and adapt to climate challenges over the next ten years. According to Kim Stanley Robinson’s book, The Ministry of the Future, such smaller countries in the Global South are already paying an extremely high price for climate change

 

October 2020

• Climate change affects not just the natural world, but also the economy: According to WWF's Living Planet Report, continuing "business as usual" could cost $1 trillion by 2050. That's because the environment has a material impact on key services, "from carbon storage to crop pollination." Addressing this issue is, however, good for business - 63% of corporate leaders surveyed by Capgemini said sustainability initiatives increased total revenue. Businesses have a significant role in fighting the climate crisis, and many now take it seriously, said Sir David Attenborough. He spoke with LinkedIn about their potential to drive change.
• Rising temperatures combined with population growth means 3 billion people could be living in “unlivable” conditions by 2070. This could lead to mass migration to “climate havens,” cities sheltered from extreme weather. As cities around the globe develop climate action plans, expect to see more zero-carbon housing projects and green belts replacing asphalt. 

 

September 2020

• The Financial Times pointed to the worst wildfires in US history, Arctic sea ice trending towards a historic low, simultaneous hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean and the hottest summer in the northern hemisphere since records began: scientists say 2020's sequence of natural disasters and record temperatures have exceeded their worst fears. “We were speculating 40 years ago about things that might happen, and I don’t think that any of us expected that in our lifetimes, we would see these things unfolding,” said Chris Rapley, a 73-year-old professor of climate science at University College London. “It has become a real problem of today, rather than a predicted problem of tomorrow.”
• NASA scientist James Hansen estimated that between 1751 and 2006, the Global North was responsible for 77% of all carbon emissions. The legacy of that past is massive global economic and energy inequality. Today the average US citizen uses more than ten times the energy of the average Indian, and three times that of the average citizen in China. In poorer countries the difference is even more stark. According to Foreign Affairs magazine, the average American is responsible for the emission of as much CO2 each year as 51 Mozambicans, or 581 Burundians. Today, though, no one can claim that the Global North is the entire problem. China and India are now big polluters, oted New World Same Humans.
• GZERO Media noted that the poorer half of the world's people generate just 10 percent of the world's carbon emissions, but the UN has warned that poorer countries – which are more dependent on climate-vulnerable agriculture and generally have ricketier infrastructure – will bear 75 percent of the costs for paying for it: the costs of housing and feeding refugees driven from their homes by floods or famines, as well as rebuilding roads, bridges, and property damaged by more extreme weather. The result will be a form of "climate apartheid," a term coined by Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. 
• Scientists at the United States-based National Snow and Ice Data Centre announced that Arctic sea ice coverage had contracted to a near-unprecedented minimum of 3.74 million square kilometers by September 2020, the second lowest in 42 years of records. Arctic sea ice has already lost two-thirds of its volume over the past four decades, part of an alarming trend in polar warming that that is already seeing impacts across the globe.

 

August 2020

• California may have set a new global temperature record. The August 2020 reading of 130°F (54.4°C) in Death Valley could be the hottest ever.
• A range of experts - including professors, astronomers, authors, and historians examined what climate change looks like, how humans have already and are continuing to contribute to it, how and why it has become politicised, and what needs to happen moving forward for real progress to be made. One noted that the main goal of climate action is not to win over the sceptical minority, but to make those people who are concerned but still fundamentally complacent about the issue to be really engaged in a way that they prioritise climate change in their politics and their voting and make sure that leaders think of climate change as a first-order political priority.
• Towns across Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East recorded temperatures over 50 degrees C every day for a week. Record highs were posted in 2020 in Baghdad, Basra, Damascus and Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, and Nasa declared June 2020 the hottest ever measured. 
• It’s predicted that, thanks to carbon emissions, Alpine glaciers could lose half of their ice by 2050 – and the people who live there will be affected, too. Experts have warned that 500,000 cubic metres of ice is in danger of breaking off Mont Blanc’s Planpincieux glacier, prompting the evacuation of homes in the nearby town of Courmayeur in Italy.
• Meanwhile, Greenland lost 586 billion tons of ice in 2019, surpassing the previous annual record by over 15 percent after an unusually warm year. The data confirm that the vast Arctic territory's ice sheet is melting much faster than expected as a result of climate change.

 

July 2020

• Climate TRACE - which stands for Tracking Real-time Atmospheric Carbon Emissions -comprises organisations from the tech sector that have pioneered some of the most-powerful software-based emissions-monitoring solutions in the world, in part using AI and remote sensing. This first-of-its-kind global coalition will leverage advanced AI, satellite image processing, machine learning, and land- and sea-based sensors to do what was previously thought to be nearly impossible: monitor Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from every sector and in every part of the world. The work will be extremely granular in focus - down to specific power plants, ships, factories, and more. The goal is to actively track and verify all significant human-caused GHG emissions worldwide with unprecedented levels of detail and speed.
• By the middle of 2020, the tundra around Khabarovsk in Siberia was on fire. The temperature in Verkhoyansk, inside the Arctic Circle, reached 38 C and an international study in World Weather Attribution said anthropogenic climate change has made all this 600 times more likely. Once-in-80,000 years events have become once-in-130 years events – but don’t expect to have to wait 130 years for the next one, warned Tortoise Media.
• Tortoise added that there seems to be a lag of up to five years between the time methane starts seeping into the Arctic Ocean – as it does from time to time – and the arrival of microbes that eat it. This is the finding of a study of a methane seep first seen in the Ross Sea off western Antarctica in 2011. It matters because methane is 36 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than CO2 and if it starts seeping in large volumes from the sea bed (or permafrost), global warming could accelerate out of control.
• Tortoise Media reported that New York City’s climate has been reclassified: it’s no longer humid continental, but instead sits within the humid subtropical climate zone. In fact, the city has probably met the requirements for the past five years. And it’s only getting hotter. To nobody’s surprise the culprit is – say it with me – man-made climate change. Looking specifically at the city’s horticultural world, the NYT highlighted some of the already visible impacts ($): from early spring to the loss of native plants like birches and survival of plant-eating pests that usually die in the cold weather. Trees from Asia and South America are now thriving in NYC outside conservatories.
• The Financial Times reported that indigenous people make up 6 per cent of the global population but manage or have tenure rights over more than a quarter of the world’s land surface. “There is simply no way to halt climate breakdown if indigenous peoples aren’t included,” says Conservation International (CI), a US-based non-profit organisation. A 2020 study by the Ecological Society of America found that 36 per cent of the world’s intact forest landscapes (forests undisturbed by human activity) lie within indigenous lands “making these areas crucial to the mitigation action needed to avoid catastrophic climate change”. 

 

June 2020

• Earth’s changing climate has big implications for individuals, businesses, and policy makers. McKinsey drew together articles and reports on physical climate risk, sustainability, the energy transition, and approaches to face up to the challenges brought on by climate change.

 

May 2020

• Khatanga is an old cold war outpost in the far north of the Russian arctic, with a giant runway and a modest hotel now used mainly by sledge-haulers trying their luck with ice floes and polar bears. The average temperature there at this time of year is zero degrees C. The record high was 12 degrees, until May 2020, when the mercury reached 25.4, reported Tortoise. 

 

April 2020

• If countries fail to meet the pledges of the Paris climate agreement, the global economy could lose out on $600 trillion by the end of the century. That’s according to a paper in the journal Nature Communications that quantified potential benefits for governments of working together on “self-preservation strategies” – and the costs of not doing so.

 

January 2020

95% of the oldest, thickest sea ice has disappeared since 1984.

? Read more: https://t.co/xxsCvprDPl pic.twitter.com/J8YUbvl8bK

— World Economic Forum (@wef) November 19, 2019

 

December 2019

• Greenland is now shedding ice sheets at an annual rate of 254 billion tons. That's seven times faster than it did in the 1990s. The resulting rise in sea levels has put millions of people around the world in danger of seasonal floods.
• While there’s widespread scientific consensus that the world is getting warmer, it seems some individuals still need convincing. For example, in the US, 6% of people say climate change isn’t real, and 9% don’t attribute global warming to human action, according to a survey by YouGov.
• Climate change could shorten pregnancies. Heat stress causes women to give birth earlier, and may account for 250,000 fewer days of gestation for US babies by 2100.
• The UN climate talks ended in disappointment. The COP25 talks in Madrid failed to produce bold pledges from major nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions more rapidly, despite the proceedings running two days longer than planned.

 

November 2019

• Global temperatures are on track to rise around 3.9 degrees Celsius by the end of the century (7 degrees Fahrenheit), which would have disastrous implications, according to a United Nations report. Increasingly acidic oceans could dissolve all coral reefs, and severe heat, already extreme in many regions, would become intolerable.
• Italy became the first country to introduce compulsory education on climate change. From September 2020, schools are obliged to include about one hour a week in their curriculum, alongside teaching core subjects such as Physics, Maths and Geography through a sustainability lens.
• Parts of Canada are heating up at a level more than double the global average. The province of British Columbia has around 17,000 glaciers. They're releasing 22 billion cubic meters of water each year. Some scientists even predict that they could have disappeared completely by 2030. 

 

October 2019

• An analysis by the Climate Accountability Institute, the world’s leading authority on big oil’s role in the escalating climate emergency, evaluated what the global corporations have extracted from the ground, and the subsequent emissions these fossil fuels are responsible for since 1965 – the point at which experts say the environmental impact of fossil fuels was known by both industry leaders and politicians. The top 20 companies on the list have contributed to 35% of all energy-related carbon dioxide and methane worldwide, totalling 480bn tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) since 1965.

 

September 2019

• The winner of The Economist's Open Future Essay Competition 2019, argued that we should make a healthy climate a legal right that extends to future generations. The slow-onset nature of climate change, and the difficulties of establishing accountability from one generation to the next, make it necessary to develop and adopt new legal principles that articulate the rights and obligations underpinning intergenerational equity. Formal recognition of the rights of future generations would expand the scope of climate litigation and allow present-day litigants to sue on their behalf.
• The world’s readiness for the inevitable effects of the climate crisis is “gravely insufficient”, according to a report produced by the Global Commission on Adaptation, convened by 18 nations . This lack of preparedness will result in poverty, water shortages and levels of migration soaring, with an irrefutable toll on human life”. Trillion-dollar investment is needed to avert “climate apartheid”, where the rich escape the effects and the poor do not, but this investment is far smaller than the eventual cost of doing nothing. The study says the greatest obstacle is not money but a lack of “political leadership that shakes people out of their collective slumber”. A “revolution” is needed in how the dangers of global heating are understood and planned for, and solutions are funded.
• While we busy ourselves greening our personal lives, fossil fuel corporations are rendering these efforts irrelevant, warned The Guardian, which after analysing the breakdown of carbon emissions since 1988, concluded that a hundred companies alone were responsible for 71%.

 

August 2019

• Richer nations tend to politicise the climate change while poorer nations more often present it as a problem of international concern, according to a study published in the journal Global Environmental Change. Researchers analysed more than 37,000 news articles from 45 countries and territories using computer algorithms and found that the strongest predictor of how a given country’s press will cover climate change is Gross Domestic Product per capita. In short: the way a country’s media reports on global warming is based on the resources available to combat it.

 

July 2019

• Scientists tracked in 2019 an unprecedented number of fires burning north of the Arctic Circle in Greenland, Russia, Canada, and Alaska after a record summer heatwave. By one estimate, the fires released more carbon dioxide than Sweden's entire annual emissions in one month alone. This problem increases the risk that politically disruptive effects of climate change – like mass migrations or geopolitical competition for ice-free Arctic sea lanes and undersea resources – will arrive (much) more quickly than expected, noted GZEROMedia.

 

June 2019

• Chatham House examined the increasingly urgent narrative surrounding climate change and the role of the corporate sector in helping avert the climate crisis. How, if at all, are strikes, protests and the new state of emergency reshaping consumer expectations, corporate strategy and public policy on environmental issues? What new business models and frameworks can private enterprises develop to help contribute to climate governance? And to what extent can businesses provide genuine leadership on climate change?
• Compost may be a key part of the solution to addressing climate change, but large-scale collection of food scraps, yard trimmings, and even human bodies poses a huge logistical challenge. Cities like Seoul, South Korea, which recycles 95% of its food waste, are proving it’s possible, while sites in Sweden, California, and New York are turning egg shells and carrot tops into biogas and saving money in the process.

 

May 2019

• A recent map showed the 100 companies responsible for the biggest share of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, and their CEOs. Countries are inflated to represent their share of CO2 emissions since the beginning of industrialisation. If we want to make a serious dent in the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases we're emitting, this map suggests, it's these companies — and more specifically, these CEOs — we need to hold to account. Naming and shaming them is a first step. The basis for this map is the Carbon Majors report from 2017 by CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project), listing the top 100 fossil fuel producers in the world, responsible for 71% of all greenhouse gas emissions since 1988.
• Businesses building climate forecasts into their planning think largely of their own material assets - asking introspective questions such as whether their factories can cope with the physical changes happening around them. However, in terms of the people that work there, in many parts of the world, the impacts of climate change are undermining communities’ life support systems. In some instances this is leading to violent conflict, economic instability and societal unrest, prompting people to flee in huge numbers. The UN’s International Organisation for Migration states that by 2050 there could be as many as one billion climate refugees globally.
• Instead of introducing a premium credit card with benefits that typically encourages further consumption. DO black only has one essential feature - a carbon limit. The core purpose is the ability, not only to measure the impact of individual consumption, but also to bring it to a direct halt. DO Black claims to be a tangible and radical tool to tackle the climate crisis, fostering both awareness and responsibility.
• A recent study projected sea/ocean waters rising between 52cm and 98cm by 2100. This could be enough to wipe out a significant amount of the world's most important food growing areas.
• Youth around the world planned to strike, again, for climate action. The Fridays for Future movement, inspired by Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg, planned over 2,000 demonstrations in more than 200 countries on every continent.
• Carbon removal is gaining traction as an important way to fight climate change: while the UK parliament declared a state of environment and climate emergency, plans for the world's largest facility for carbon capture and storage (CCS) were announced and the IPCC updated its guidelines to improve the transparency and accuracy of carbon reporting and removal. 
• Quartz noted that climate anxiety is growing. And it’s not just the increasingly well-understood effects of living through related catastrophes like fire and drought - the American Psychological Association has recognised that being inundated by the bad news of a slow-moving disaster, delivered 24/7 by news and social media, could be wearing us down.

 

March 2019

• It may be human nature to rejoice in sunshine and balmy breezes, but when the cause is climate change, days much hotter than the seasonal average can spark anxiety, too. Quartz asked scientists and philosophers about how to deal with this cognitive dissonance, and how to channel our emotions toward action.
• The Little Ice Age is term that often refers to a moderately cold period in the 17th and 18th centuries that hit Europe especially hard. But it may have gone as late as the 19th century and began - or was at least triggered - in the 13th century. Either way, the Little Ice Age caused famines, sparked witch hunts, altered wars, toppled dynasties, and may show us what lies ahead with climate change, according to Quartz.
• Students around the world have gone on climate strikes. Inspired by Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish climate activist nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, students in more than 100 countries have held massive school walkouts to protest climate inaction.

 

January 2019

• Quantifying climate-related migration is a challenge, but figures are in the region of 18 million people a year due to natural disasters, not accounting for the impact of food and water scarcity on conflict, noted Forum of the Future.
• PwC's 2019 global survey of CEOs found that trade conflicts, political upset, and a projected slowdown in global economic growth have increased uncertainty and decreased confidence in revenue prospects. However, climate change is no longer among their top 10 threats.

 

December 2018

• At the COP24 meeting in Poland, nearly 200 countries agreed to rules for how they’ll adhere to the Paris climate agreement. The rules define how nations will record their emissions and their progress toward climate goals.
• Chatham House argued that civil society has proved to be particularly effective at harnessing complex narratives such as climate science, and at leveraging an emerging multi-level governance architecture to create political space for climate leadership. Given today’s challenging geopolitical conditions and the evolving nature of the international climate regime, the thinktank argued further that civil society must now once again recalibrate its strategies to ensure continued and increasing relevance.
• GZEROMedia noted that the problem of climate change can’t be addressed without shared sacrifice among nations, a hard political sell even in the most harmonious times. But President Trump’s assault on the 2015 Paris Agreement inspired others, like Brazil’s 2018-elected president, to throw cold water on efforts to jointly combat global warming.
• Worldwide carbon dioxide emissions rose nearly 3% in 2018, the second annual increase in a row after three relatively flat years, according to the Global Carbon Project. Those conclusions are in line with a separate analysis from the International Energy Agency, which found that rich nations in North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region saw an overall emissions uptick of 0.5% in 2018, following five years of declines.
• Like its 1930s counterpart, noted The Intercept, a proposed “Green New Deal” isn’t a specific set of programs so much as an umbrella under which various policies might fit, ranging from technocratic to transformative. The sheer scale of change needed to deal effectively with climate change is massive, requiring economy-wide mobilisation of the sort that countries like the United States haven’t really undertaken since World War II. 
• The need to act on climate change has become so urgent that mainstream voices are calling for civil disobedience to address it, warned Forum for the Future. The IPCC's latest report warned that we only have 12 years to keep global warming within 1.5°C. In the UK, the non-violent group Extinction Rebellion called for 'low level and higher risk acts of civil disobedience', and is backed by 94 prominent public figures, including MPs, MEPs, academics and religious leaders.
• BCG argued that there are clear paths for most countries to achieve substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that can generate near-term macroeconomic payback. Just about all leading emitters could eliminate 75% to 90% of the gap between emissions under current policies and their individual 2050 2°C Paris targets using proven and generally accepted technologies. If they prioritise the most efficient emissions reduction measures, taking the necessary steps will actually accelerate, rather than slow, GDP growth for many countries. All countries can generate economic gain by moving at least part of the way - even if they move unilaterallym believes BCG.
• Crop yields are projected to come under pressure as global warming accelerates. Understanding when, where and how is critical to feeding the world in the decades to come, warned the Financial Times. US field crop agriculture is the most productive on earth. Tens of millions of tonnes of exports make it important to the rest of the world. Climate change is set to alter growing conditions for these crops. Effects will vary by region and crop variety, but net productivity will fall.
• Maersk, the world's largest shipping liner company, will target zero carbon emissions for 2050. Laudable, but not fast enough, for Exponential VIew, as we need to get to net zero by 2035-2040 to avoid 2° warming.
• Governments may need to redesign tax systems to support the fight against climate change. The tangible effects of climate change are an ever-growing challenge that society has to face, so in a fast-changing world, tax systems need to adapt too.
• Further reading:
  • Climate change is firing up middle-class activism - FT
  • Climate Change Summaries - getabstract
  • Climate change food calculator: What's your diet's carbon footprint? - BBC
  • Climate pact opens way for push to implement Paris accord - FT
  • Impacts of climate change - Forum for the Future
  • The answer to climate change lies in technology and engineering - FT
  • Warning for climate negotiators as carbon emissions hit new high - FT

 

November 2018

• The RSA argued that the circular economy is seen as one route to sustainable development and the improvement of livelihoods in the Global South: an economy where every element of every product is reused is an especially appealing concept as we respond to the IPCC's recent urgent warning on climate change.
• Humankind, according to Rolling Stone journalist Jeff Goodell, must face the scientific fact of sea-level rise due to global warming: rising seas will drown coastal cities, displacing hundreds of millions of people and causing trillions of dollars in damage. Storm surges - sometimes driven by hurricane winds –- are already flooding homes and businesses, bringing misery, pestilence and disease. Modern people - unlike their seawise ancestors - cling to coastal land, barricade it and build vulnerable fixed infrastructures like nuclear power plants. Inevitably, Goodell says, as soot-darkened glaciers melt at an unprecedented rate, “the water will come.” The author travelled widely to understand this unfolding catastrophe-in-the-making, speaking with its victims and with those who have the agency to limit its effects. 
• Further reading:
  • SDG 13. Distributional effects of climate policies - thewonk.eu
  • SDG 13. Financing climate futures - OECD
  • SDG 13. Forum for the Future | Blog | When 2°C is too much
  • SDG 13. World's pension funds vulnerable to climate risks, study reveals - Edie

 

October 2018

• The world’s leading climate scientists warned there is only a dozen years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C, beyond which even half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people. The authors of the landmark report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said urgent and unprecedented changes are needed to reach the target, which they say is affordable and feasible although it lies at the most ambitious end of the Paris agreement pledge to keep temperatures between 1.5C and 2C.
• GZEROMedia warned that the world is on track to overshoot its commitment to limit global warming “well below” 2 degrees Celsius. The difference between 1.5 degrees and 2 degrees of warming alone would expose an additional 420 million people to heatwaves and put an extra 10 million at risk from rising sea levels, according to the new UN report.
• The Future Today Institute (FTI) warned that political leadership is shifting to the far right in many countries around the world - countries which happen to produce a lot of pollution. In  Brazil, presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro denies the impact of climate change and promised to increase the burning of coal and wants to pull Brazil out of the Paris Climate Agreement.
• The Conversation argued that women’s suffrage and abolitionist movements, for example, were built on countless individual “choices” but not “behaviour and lifestyles changes” of the kind we associate with current climate checklists. These movements depended on people starting (awkward) conversations in everyday settings. Collective action in response to climate change does depend on changes in individual choices and actions, then, but not those we tend to find on “how to make a difference” checklists.
• A study by researchers at Columbia, published in the journal Science, showed that climate change could lead to 1 million climate refugees migrating into the European Union every year by 2100.
• Part of the solution to climate change, argued Quartz, is to levy a universal carbon tax. This would punish carbon emitters and incentivize the development of greener technologies. While work is needed to integrate climate change into economic models, many leading economists agree a global price on carbon is the way forward.
• Furthermore, a recent study by the Environmental Justice Foundation said that tens of thousands of Bangladeshi families could soon face becoming climate refugees within their own countries. It’s a problem that could soon get worse - a one-metre sea level rise could result in a 20% loss of Bangladesh’s current landmass. And it’s not just Bangladesh at risk.
• Optimism is needed to help fight climate change, argued Quartz. People think that protecting the environment is so costly or difficult that they simply ignore or deny the problem.
• However, Harvard Business Review noted that although people are motivated to avoid threats to their existence, it is very hard to get people to act on climate change. Unfortunately, climate change involves a combination of factors that make it hard for people to get motivated and represents a trade-off between short-term and long-term benefits, which is the hardest trade-off for people to make.
• On the other hand, the director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication believes that, in fact, most of us are willing and even interested to discuss the topic, but their perception is other people don’t want to. 
• The psychological toll of climate change is only beginning to be investigated, claimed Quartz. Papers have been published on farmer suicides in India going up in tandem with crop-scorching heat, and on the mental-health issues accumulating throughout the US as average temperatures climb higher and storms intensify. Last year, the American Psychological Association validated ‘ecoanxiety’ as a clinically legitimate diagnosis - read more.
• We have AI as a new tool to help us better manage the impacts of climate change and protect the planet, according to a World Economic Forum report, Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for the Earth. In India, AI has helped farmers get 30% higher groundnut yields per hectare by providing information on preparing the land, applying fertiliser and choosing sowing dates. In Norway, AI helped create a flexible and autonomous electric grid, integrating more renewable energy.
• Further reading:
  • Climate change and the 75% problem - Bill Gates
  • Inaction over climate change is shameful - FT
  • SDG 13. Fresh warnings over lack of climate action across finance sector
  • SDG 13. Hitting 1.5°C: The Stark Climate Choices for Governments - Chatham House
  • SDG 13. Hitting 1.5°C: The Stark Climate Choices for Governments - Chatham House
  • SDG 13. How A Regenerative Revolution Could Reverse Climate Change - Forbes
  • SDG 13. New U.N. Report Warns of Looming Climate Change Crisis - Time
  • SDG 13. Review finds that 70% of banks recognise that climate change poses financial risks | Bank of England
  • SDG 13. The best way to reduce your personal carbon emissions: don't be rich - Vox
  • SDG 13. The Economic Case for Combating Climate Change
  • SDG 13. UN Says Climate Genocide Coming. But It’s Worse Than That.

 

September 2018

• Thousands of executives, local politicians, and activists gathered in San Francisco to fuel momentum for the fight against global warming, a counterpoint to Donald Trump’s plans to pull the US out of the Paris climate accord.
• The Bank of England warned that not enough banks are planning for long-term climate change risks that could have a destabilising impact on the financial system. Further questions have also been raised about the importance of incorporating climate considerations into the regulation, supervision and oversight of financial markets and institutions.
• Further reading:
  • SDG 13. 8 simple rules for grappling with climate risk - Forum for the Future
  • SDG 13. China’s climate change battle - Inkstone
  • SDG 13. Climate change will force sports to rethink how they're played — Quartz
  • SDG 13. Finance firms 'slowest' signatories to report climate impacts - Edie.net
  • SDG 13. Global Climate Action Summit 2018 | The Global Climate Action Summit 2018 information place
  • SDG 13. Hurricane Florence: why scientists expect climate change to give us rainier storms - Vox
  • SDG 13. Is the ‘Heat Day’ the New Snow Day? - The New York Times
  • SDG 13. Ominous 'hunger stones' reveal dire warnings in Europe | Big Think
  • SDG 13. Pension funds warned of legal action over climate risk - Energy Live News
  • SDG 13. The Masses Are Mobilizing for Climate Leadership - Project Syndicate
  • SDG 13. Women are driving climate solutions today and tomorrow - LinkedIn
  • SDG 13. World will miss Paris climate targets by wide margin, says report - FT

 

August 2018

• A new report suggested that climate change might well render many parts of the planet uninhabitable. Analysis suggests that even limiting emissions won’t be able to stop the planet from warming considerably more than the 2-degree cutoff. Researchers at the Stockholm Resilience Centre note that Earth’s own feedback mechanisms could mean we’ve already crossed the point of no return. 
• Advising people to publish their climate change studies during a hot summer, Quartz claimed that when the context is right, more people will be open to accepting that global warming is at least a possibility.
• An international team of climate researchers warned that the domino effects of climate events could move Earth into a ‘hothouse’ state, even if countries succeed in meeting their carbon emissions reduction targets agreed in Paris. In this context, keeping global warming to within 1.5-2°C may be more difficult than previously assessed and now is a critical time to rethink current and future climate policy, argued Chatham House.
• The heatwave searing northern Europe was made more than twice as likely by climate change, according to a rapid assessment by scientists. The result is preliminary but they say the signal of climate change is “unambiguous”. Scientists have long predicted that global warming is ramping up the number and intensity of heatwaves, with events even worse than current one set to strike every other year by the 2040s.
• Further reading:
  • SDG 13. “Climate change isn’t gender-neutral”: Mary Robinson and Maeve Higgins on their positive, feminist vision for climate justice | Prospect Magazine
  • SDG 13. 288 investors with more than $26 trillion in assets call on world governments to scale up climate action to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement - IGCC
  • SDG 13. Extreme global weather is 'the face of climate change' says leading scientist | Environment | The Guardian
  • SDG 13. Halfway to boiling: the city at 50C | Cities | The Guardian
  • SDG 13. Reducing food waste: 'One of the most important things we can do to reverse global warming' | TreeHugger
  • SDG 13. The global heatwave, as seen from above | World Economic Forum
  • SDG 13. Uncovering the mental health crisis of climate change — Quartz
  • SDG 13. Will Climate Change Remake Human Biology? – Future Human – Medium

 

July 2018

• Quartz noted that heatwaves have killed 50 in Canada and 80 in Japan, caused drought in Germany and Scandinavia, set record temperatures in Algeria, Morocco, and Oman, and left the UK looking brown from space. The heat has spurred wildfires that have claimed at least 80 lives in Greece, melted electrical wires in California, and forced Sweden to call for international help.
• The world’s five hottest years on record, in ranked order, were 2016, 2015, 2017, 2014, and 2010. “The sort of temperatures that are occurring now would’ve been a one-in-a-thousand occurrence in the 1950s,” Joanna Haigh, of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change, told the BBC. “Now, they are about a one-in-10 occurrence.”
• For Quartz, then, it is important we connect the dots on climate change. We aren’t going to find the solution to humanity’s greatest challenge without acknowledging the problem and its sheer scale.
• The temperature at a weather station in Ouargla, Algeria hit 51.3 degrees Celsius – or 124.3 degrees Fahrenheit. If confirmed, that would be the hottest temperature ever recorded on the African continent.
• Reshaping cities to be greener and more sustainable is one of the more urgent responses needed to combat climate change, argued Friends of Europe.
• Further reading:
  • SDG 13. At Wimbledon, Roger Federer wears Uniqlo's climate-controlling clothes — Quartzy
  • SDG 13. Global warming varies greatly depending where you live | World Economic Forum
  • SDG 13. Guys, Our Planet Is on Fire. Here Are The All-Time Heat Records Set Worldwide This Week - Science Alert
  • SDG 13. How to talk about climate change: 5 tips from the front lines - World Economic Forum
  • SDG 13. Major investors urge G7 to step up climate action - BusinessGreen
  • SDG 13. Rising sea levels will soon destroy underground US internet cables, scientists warn | The Independent
  • SDG 13. Top pension funds and insurers failing to engage with climate risks

 

June 2018

• Climate change scientists forecast that extreme temperatures of 46°C (115°F) will be five times more likely in the Middle East and North Africa by 2050 than they were in 2000, when temps reached these levels an average of 16 days per year. 
• To keep global warming in check, the world as a whole must reach zero emissions before the end of the century, warned Quartz.
• Following the publication of the latest IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C, Chatham House discussed the implications of its findings and the path ahead for mitigation efforts, adaptation and the international negotiations. It asked: How have the report’s findings helped build a greater understanding of climate impacts? What might it take now to limit temperature rises? As countries update and review their national climate plans for 2020, what practical challenges need to be overcome to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement?
• SDG 13. Climate Bailout: A financial tool to save the climate - Impakter
• SDG 13. Motor industry should be ‘ashamed’ over emissions - FT

 

May 2018

• Up to 75 percent of the land in northern Nigeria, where the economy is heavily dependent on agriculture, has become desert over the past few decades, according to the International Crisis Group.
• The United Nations has warned that a drought in Afghanistan could lead to a shortage of 2.5 million tons of wheat this year, with two-thirds of the heavily bread-dependent country gripped by drought.
• SDG 13. AXA ranked top insurer for climate change leadership | The Actuary, the official magazine of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries
• SDG 13. Corporate social responsibility reports show oil companies becoming passive about climate change, say linguists — Quartz

 

April 2018

• SDG 13. Animation: How temperature has changed in each country since 1900 - YouTube
• SDG 13. Fiji PM: Climate change threatens our survival - BBC News
• SDG 13. Here’s how fast a glacier can slip into the sea once it’s destabilized — Quartz
• SDG 13. Is your company resilient enough to climate change? | LinkedIn

 

March 2018

• SDG 13. £555bn pension funds questioned over climate risk 'misunderstandings'
• SDG 13. 15,000 Scientists Issue a “Warning to Humanity” | Big Think
• SDG 13. Climate policies place $1.6trn fossil fuel costs at risk, report warns
• SDG 13. Could this be the best way to tackle climate change? | World Economic Forum
• SDG 13. Fewer and fewer people die from climate-related natural disasters- Bjorn Lomborg
• SDG 13. New research shows clear gap between companies' awareness of climate risks and actions for tackling them | Climate Disclosure Standards Board
• SDG 13. Shell outlines scenario for what it would take to halt climate change - Chicago Tribune
• SDG 13. The Arctic is sending us a powerful message about climate change. It’s time for us to listen | World Economic Forum
• SDG 13. The swiftness of glaciers: language in a time of climate change | Aeon Ideas

 

February 2018

• SDG 13. Climate change will force some mammalian species to evolve away from their white winter coats — Quartz
• SDG 13. Europe: all 571 cities are destined for worse heat waves, droughts, or floods — Quartz
• SDG 13. The scientific reason Europe is incredibly cold and snowy this week | World Economic Forum
• SDG 13. Vanguard, Blackrock, and ExxonMobil worry about climate change - Business Insider
• SDG 13. Welcome to the Age of Climate Migration - Rolling Stone
• SDG 13. Why the Two-Degree Climate Change Target Is a Delusion | Foreign Affairs

 

January 2018

• SDG 13. Black snow troubles pollution-weary Kazakhs in Temirtau - BBC News
• SDG 13. Climate Change: NASA ranks 2017 the second-hottest year on Earth despite no El Niño — Quartz
• SDG 13. It’s official: 2017 was one of the hottest years on record - The Verge
• SDG 13. Let it go: The Arctic will never be frozen again | Grist
• SDG 13. Taking firm steps on climate change to shape a more resilient tomorrow | Articles | Zurich Insurance
• SDG 13. The growing adoption of LEDs is having a tangible effect on carbon emissions — Quartz

 

Pre-2018

• Glacier shrinkage, combined with melting of the polar ice caps, pose three main threats: raising sea levels; disrupting ocean current circulation and losing freshwater stores. The threat of the Greenland ice sheet slipping ever faster into the sea because of warmer summers was challenged in a scientific study.
• What if William Wilberforce had said: "Could you just cut down a bit? Own one slave instead of two?"  Fair point, is the environment the biggest threat the world faces - in which case it's elected governments, not just individuals - who should be acting now - or do the less appetising aspects of our human nature - laziness, poor attention, indifference and prevarication - just mean that we can't prepare for a crisis in advance, but will just have to try and deal with it when it arrives? Do we really care that there might be a "perfect storm" in 2030?  Are we suffering from "perverse cosmic myopia" when it comes to the biggest problems - financial as as well as environmental -that we are facing?
• An international wildlife study suggested that climate change and overharvesting are already causing species to dwindle.