Governments need to honour pledges as climate risks grow. The OECD-UN Environment-World Bank Group report presented to the UN in New York, documents that only nine countries out of the 180 signatories to the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change have submitted to the UNFCCC their long-term low-carbon strategies for 2050. Three years on from COP21 in Paris, the overwhelming majority of governments have not taken the necessary action to contain growing risks to the climate. With emissions on the rise again, governments need to get serious about shifting their economies to a low-carbon model and stop investing in carbon-intensive infrastructure. Meanwhile, governments continue to spend half a trillion dollars a year subsidising fossil fuels – OECD.org
Pages updated this week: Wetlands – China – Keystone XL
- Iberdrola plans to boost U.S. renewable wind power by about 50% to 10GW by 2022- Reuters
- Treating protest as terrorism: US plans crackdown on Keystone XL activists – Guardian
- Global warming is destabilizing mountains, creating landslide risks – InsideClimateNews
- Seeking global attention, Philippines moves human rights probe to New York – Reuters
- Scientists link southern ocean’s rapid warming to human activity – EcoWatch
- UN recruits Mike Bloomberg to lead green finance push- ClimateChangeNews
- 19 countries team up to go carbon neutral – ClimateChangeNews
Climate change will cost U.S. more in economic damage than any other country but one. The first country-by-country estimates of the social cost of carbon show who will pay more than their share. In a study published Monday, scientists estimate for the first time how much each country around the world will suffer in future economic damage from each new ton of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere. What they found may come as a surprise: the future economic costs within the U.S. borders are the second-highest in the world, behind only India – Credit: Spencer Platt/GettyImages – InsideClimateNews
OPEC predicts massive rise in oil production over next five years. OPEC expects global oil demand to reach nearly 112m barrels per day by 2040, driven by transportation and petrochemicals, up from almost 100m today. Increasing demand from airlines will more than offset reductions from electric cars. Coal will continue to be burned in record amounts, despite concerns about its impact on climate change. While coal usage in the OECD countries will plummet by a third by 2040, it will increase by 20% in developing countries to reach five times the volumes burned in the west – Guardian
The Southern Ocean around Antarctica is warming at an alarming rate—twice that of the rest of the world’s oceans. Though warming had been observed in the past, there was little historical data to allow scientists to pinpoint the causes with much certainty. Now, researchers have developed more powerful evidence pointing to the human causes. When researchers looked at natural variability and aerosol emissions, neither affected warming or freshening enough to explain what had been observed. But greenhouse gas emissions and ozone depletion did – InsideClimateNews