Trump and Biden: Little Room for Climate Change in 2020 Election (excerpt 2): Deutsche Welle

Trump digs coal.

(Pics by this blog)

"U.S. President Donald Trump has undone many major pieces of climate policy during his term, walking out on the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming and eliminating numerous Obama-era environmental regulations. 

 Trump's Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, has promised as part of his presidential campaign to invest $1.7 trillion in a "clean energy revolution and environmental justice" over the next decade. It falls some $14 trillion short of what the progressive U.S. senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, pledged on climate action during the Democratic primaries.........................."

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Related:  Trump will roll back more environmental regulations if reelected, says EPA chief: CNBC
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"......  Growing Impatience Among Young Republicans

Some younger Republicans are starting to become critical of their party's inattention to climate change. During the recent Republican National Convention, a small group turned to Twitter during the online event, to ask "#WhatAboutClimate"?

Another Pew study from June 2020 found that millennial and Gen Z Republicans, currently aged 18 to 39, are more likely than older GOP voters to think humans have a significant impact on the climate and that the federal government is doing too little to tackle the problem.

Trump and climate

That doesn't mean they're ready to switch allegiance to the Democrats, though. 

"Being a Republican is very much rooted in my upbringing," said Kiera O'Brien, who founded the group Young Conservatives for Carbon Dividends (YCCD). "Conservatism at home in Ketchikan, Alaska, has a focus on community and nature." 

O'Brien dislikes the Democrat's "regulatory approach to climate" and is instead lobbying for free market solutions to climate change through YCCD.

Biden and climate change

Reframing Climate Action  

Environmental policies can be a complicated issue when it comes to federal elections and hard to address for presidential candidates. Many regions in the U.S. have unique challenges: from wildfires in California and storms wiping out harvests in Iowa to water pollution in Flint, Michigan.

Harvard's Ansolabehere also pointed out that opposition to climate policies in the past were typically connected to the fear of losing jobs and that prohibiting coal or retooling the auto industry will "adversely affect employment" in places like Kentucky and Michigan.

How Climate Change is Killing Us: Book

Daron Shaw added that Republicans typically "try to frame environmental issues as a matter of high taxation and job killing proposals with the hope that they can peel off Democrats."

Biden might be trying to assuage fears that tackling climate change means job losses by framing his plan as an opportunity for employment in new industries and a reinvigorated green manufacturing sector.

But when it comes to the swing states of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio, Trump's climate record and support for jobs in the fossil fuel sector might give him the upper hand. His backing for ethane cracker plants, which take natural gas and converts it into the basis for making plastics, has received a lot of support, said Ansolabehere, especially from local unions. 

Go to original article.. By Julia Mahncke in Deutsche Welle 

The last generation who can do something about climate change

Related:  Trump will roll back more environmental regulations if reelected, says EPA chief: CNBC

Biden, Trump, #climateaction, Republicans, #methanegas, jobs, Paris Targets, Paris Agreement, 

South Africa's Climate Action Rating by the 'Climate Action Tracker' (Excerpt)

At the Climate Action Tracker site countries are evaluated according to the sufficiency of climate action.
Check out your country at the site.

(Excerpt- Pics by this blog)

"At 2 Dec 2019     Rating: Highly Insufficient"

"The South African government finally approved its Integrated

Resource Plan (IRP2019) in October 2019, confirming the trend change in power sector planning indicated in the draft for comment from August 2018. The plan reduces the role of coal compared to previous planning and increases the adoption of renewables and gas. Unlike earlier drafts, the IRP2019 proposes extending the operational lifetime of South Africa’s sole nuclear power plant by 20 years, up to 2044.

The final plan marks a major shift in energy policy, which is remarkable for a coal-dominated country like South Africa. It aims to decommission over 35 GW (of 42 GW currently operating) of coal-fired power capacity from state-owned coal and utility giant Eskom by 2050.

Coal in South Africa - Wikipedia

However, it would still see South Africa complete nearly 6 GW of costly coal capacity currently under construction and commission another 1.5 GW of new coal capacity by 2030. IRP2019 includes a detailed phase-out plan for coal-fired power plants, which, despite improvements to earlier plans, still shows that substantial amounts of coal capacity will run beyond the year 2050. For Paris-compatibility, coal must be phased out globally, at the very latest by 2040.

The plan also proposes a significant increase in renewables-based generation from wind and solar as well as gas-based generation capacity by 2030 (an additional 15.8 GW for wind, 7.4 GW for solar and 2.5 GW for gas by 2030), with no further new nuclear capacity being procured.

Implementing the IRP2019 will enable South Africa to achieve its 2030 NDC target. However, we rate South Africa’s NDC target as “Highly Insufficient” based on the upper end of the NDC range. In this context, South Africa should consider revising its target downward for 2030 to be resubmitted to the UNFCCC as part of the Paris Agreement’s ambition raising cycle of 2020.

To be in line with the Paris Agreement goals, South Africa would need to adopt more ambitious actions by 2050 beyond the IRP2019, such as even further increasing renewable energy capacity by 2030 and beyond, fully phasing out coal-fired power generation by latest 2040, and substantially limiting natural gas use.

Although South Africa is one of the few countries that has put forward absolute emissions targets in their NDC, we still rate this target “Highly Insufficient”.  ..........................

Go to Climate Action Tracker for more detail.

Related: This is what sea level rise will do to coastal cities: Video



...and in Australia: "While the federal government continues to repeatedly state that Australia is on track to meet its 2030 target “in a canter”, the Climate Action Tracker is not aware of any scientific basis, published by any analyst or government agency, that would support this. The OECD has warned the Australian Government that it will not achieve its target without intensified mitigation efforts. It describes current climate policy as a “piecemeal approach”." Climate Action Tracker

#climateaction, coal mining, South Africa, Paris Agreement, Paris Targets, #renewables,

Sinking billions of taxpayer dollars into gas would make Australia an international pariah (excerpt) : The Guardian

"The world price for gas continues to dive."

"If environmentalists proposed a comparable
 guarantee to windfarms or industrial-scale
 solar or hydrogen they would be hounded
 for blatant rent seeking."

The Morrison government’s post-Covid recovery commission has called for an astonishing level of support for a declining carbon fuel.

"Gas in our own national electricity market has declined by 29% since 2014 and renewables sprung up by 70%, according to data from OpenNEM. The official market operator believes by 2040 the role of gas is going to be smaller. The gas glut on the world market will last the decade.

A decision by Canberra to rescue a declining carbon fuel by sinking billions into gas would mean Australia having to say officially it was abandoning its Paris targets. Given that our 2019-20 fire season is the most recent image the world has of us, this would brand us an international pariah.

Liveris admitted he “tingled with pride” being recruited as an adviser by the US president, Donald Trump. But a Biden-Harris presidency will elevate climate diplomacy and have little regard for an Australia turning its back on climate action as flamboyantly as Brazil’s president Jay Bolsonaro who allows fires to denude the Amazon."
Bob Carr

Read the complete (Aug 21) The Guardian story 

Related: There is an answer to post Covid-19 economic chaos.

#climatecriminals, #methanegas, #climate crisis, #jailclimatecriminals, #corporations, #criminalesclimáticosdelacárcel, #climateaction, Paris Targets, 

Power prices would be lower under emissions trading scheme, outgoing public service head Martin Parkinson says: ABC News

The outgoing head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet says power prices would be lower now if an emissions trading scheme had been implemented over a decade ago.

"Whatever else you do, Renewable Energy Target, or anything else, they can be no cheaper than putting an explicit price on carbon," Martin Parkinson told 7.30.

"The difference is where's the cost in an emissions trading scheme (ETS)? The cost is quite visible. It's there, it's the price of the permit.

"In the case of the Renewable Energy Target or any other intervention, then often that price is hidden from the view of the consumer. But ultimately the consumer's paying because it's built into the price of power.

"At the moment what we've got is a lot of burden falling on energy prices.

"If we had an ETS it would have smeared that cost across all parts of the economy."

Read the ABC News article 

Related: Can planting trees save our climate?

Canadian youth taking up the climate change fight

"When it comes to climate change, many Canadian youth are not leaving it up to politicians to solve the issue. A panel of young activists explains how they are taking up the fight themselves."

CBC NEWS  June 19  2019

California votes to extend cap-and-trade climate law to 2030

Greenhouse gas pollution

 "California is challenging Mr Trump's decision to scrap his predecessor's environmental policies" July 2017

 

"California legislators have voted to extend a law to cut carbon emissions, weeks after President Donald Trump said the US would withdraw from the Paris climate accord. 

The policy, which requires firms to purchase permits to release pollutants, will be extended to the year 2030.

California Governor Jerry Brown said Republicans and Democrats had taken "courageous action" with the move.
The US state aims to cut greenhouse gases by 40% from 1990 levels by 2030."


"California is the second-biggest producer of carbon dioxide through fossil fuels among US states."

Read the BBC article

Related:

BBC: climate-change-next-generation-will-bear-the-cost

Scott Morrison to reboot Tony Abbott's emissions reduction fund with $2bn : The Guardian

Scott Morrison

Comment: Dodgy accounting and a huge expenditure of taxpayers money for a scheme not proven. A typical 'snow job' by the conservatives not yet fully convinced that climate change exists.

"But a chart released in advance of Monday’s speech makes it clear the looming abatement exercise will rely significantly on accounting measures as well as on practical emissions reduction.

According to projections done last December, the government will count a 367 megatonne abatement from carry-over credits (an accounting system that allows countries to count carbon credits from exceeding their targets under the soon-to-be-obsolete Kyoto protocol periods against their Paris commitment for 2030) to help meet the 2030 target.

It is also factoring in emissions reduction from Turnbull’s pet

There is no Planet B for our children

project, the Snowy 2.0 expansion (which the Morrison government has not yet formally signed off on); energy efficiency measures; an electric vehicle strategy (that it has not yet unveiled); the rebadged climate solutions fund; additional hydro projects and just under 100Mt of abatement from “technology solutions” (which aren’t specified) and “other sources of abatement” such as projects under development but not yet contracted."

Read The Guardian article 

See also

The Australian article which says,

"Labor climate change spokesman Mark Butler said last night the Abbott-era direct-action fund, which has been depleted from an initial $2.5bn to about $226 million, was an ineffective policy that charged taxpayers for carbon-emissions cuts that would have happened anyway.

“This is just another example of the government’s inability to deliver real climate policies,” he said.

“As Malcolm Turnbull famously said: “It is a fig leaf to cover a determination to do nothing.”

See also

Fact-checking Morrison on climate change  

The emissions reduction fund was deeply flawed – and no rebranding will change this

 

If the Coalition has had a climate epiphany, I'm Beyoncé

 

 

Australia can meet Paris targets if government doesn't hinder progress, report claims

climate action now

ANU research suggests net cost of achieving Paris targets is zero because renewables are now cheaper than fossil fuels

New research finds Australia is installing renewable energy faster than any other country, a trend that will allow Australia to meet its economy-wide Paris targets five years ahead of schedule if politics doesn’t derail the trend, according to new research from the Australian National University.

Read The Guardian article

BUT

"Dr Teske said ANU's research focussed on the energy market and not the entire sector.

"We also need to take into account our emissions and transport [and] if we want to electrify our transport system, we need to take into account that the electricity demand in Australia will roughly double," he said.

"Even if we meet our, let's say, 2025 or 2030 targets, we need a long term target and we don't have long term energy policies in place right now."  From ABC NEWS


Rolling Stone: What’s Another Way to Say ‘We’re F-cked’? One of the leading climate scientists of our time is warning of the horrifying possibility of 15-to-20 feet of sea-level rise

Is this the incentive we need? — IPCC Climate Report: Medium

Climate Catastrophe?

The IPCC is currently conducting a study in South Korea — and it is likely to report that keeping global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius is possible — with immediate, radical action.

 

  Could this finally be the thing that kickstarts the green revolution, with governments not just meeting targets but far exceeding them? I’m sceptical, but optimistic at the same time.

Read the Medium article

Australian Labor Party conference fails on climate and coal as Liberals’ Taylor misleads on Paris

climate emergency

The Australian Greens climate change and energy spokesperson Adam Bandt MP today expressed his disappointment that Labor’s National Conference has failed to act on coal.
“It is fundamentally dishonest to move motions about the climate emergency but then have no plan to stop the burning and exporting of coal,” said Mr Bandt.

Climate Change: Sanjeev Gupta shows up Australian Coalition Government on energy leadership

Gupta signs up solar farm to power Victoria steelworks (RenewEconomy)

GFG's announcement to transform Whyalla into a renewable energy super power shows the Coalition Government's lack of leadership is letting Australians down.
"This is the leadership Australia needs to transition to a new, clean economy," Greens Senator for South Australia Sarah Hanson-Young said.

World Economic Forum: Climate change is speeding up. Our response needs to be even faster

There is no more room in the atmosphere for our carbon.pollution

"The race is on. This northern summer’s deadly, record-breaking heatwaves and wildfires leave us in no doubt that the impacts of global warming are accelerating, in many cases much faster than scientists predicted. 

One of the most important, but least understood, aspects of the Paris Agreement is that it legally obliges every country to deepen its emission reduction targets every five years. I call this five-yearly cycle the Agreement’s beating heart, because it provides the life force for achieving the temperature goals that will keep the worst impacts of global warming at bay."

Read the WEF article 

 #carbon #china #usa #coalmining #globalwarming #climateaction #carbondioxide #1.5 degrees

Nature Communications: Warming assessment of the bottom-up Paris Agreement emissions pledges

"Tightening the warming goal of each country’s effort-sharing approach to aspirational levels of 1.1 °C and 1.3 °C could achieve the 1.5 °C and well-below 2 °C-thresholds, respectively. 

This new hybrid allocation reconciles the bottom-up nature of the Paris Agreement with its top-down warming thresholds and provides a temperature metric to assess NDCs. When taken as benchmark by other countries, the NDCs of India, the EU, the USA and China lead to 2.6 °C, 3.2 °C, 4 °C and over 5.1 °C warmings, respectively."

Read the full Nature Communications article

New UN report outlines ‘urgent, transformational’ change needed to hold global warming to 1.5°C

"Whether we are successful primarily depends on the rate at which government and non-state bodies take action to reduce emissions. Yet despite the urgency, current national pledges under the Paris Agreement are not enough to remain within a 3℃ temperature limit, let alone 1.5℃. 

Source: Australian Academy of Science.

Global warming is not just a problem for the future. The impacts are already being felt around the world, with declines in crop yields, biodiversity, coral reefs, and Arctic sea ice, and increases in heatwaves and heavy rainfall. Sea levels have risen by 40.5mm in the past decade and are predicted to continue rising for decades, even if all greenhouse emissions were reduced to zero immediately. Climate adaptation is already needed and will be increasingly so at 1.5℃ and 2℃ of warming."

Read the article in The Conversation

Climate Council News: Australia’s greenhouse gas pollution levels have risen

It’s a small win, but we’ll take it.
Just this month, we let you know that the current Federal Government was up to its same old tricks... censoring climate data that should have been released months ago. 

When the data was finally released it showed that Australia’s greenhouse gas pollution levels have risen, yet again - for three years in a row. Australians deserve to know about this, because emissions must start trending downwards - immediately, and rapidly - if we’re serious about climate change action.