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Earth has seen five mass extinction events. What can we learn from them? | Daniel H Rothman
How such catastrophes occur remains mysterious. But research suggests that Earth may experience a cascade of disruptions when stressed
Five times in the last 500m years, more than three-fourths of marine animal species perished in mass extinctions. Each of these events is associated with a major disruption of Earth’s carbon cycle. How such catastrophes occur remains mysterious. But recent research increasingly points to the possibility that the Earth system – that is, life and the environment – may experience a cascade of disruptions when stressed beyond a tipping point.
As world leaders gather at Cop26 in Glasgow, it makes sense to rally behind concrete goals such as limiting warming to 1.5C. If we don’t meet such a goal, we’ll know it soon. Mass extinctions, on the other hand, may require tens of thousands of years or more to reach their peak. But if they are indeed the result of a disruptive cascade, we must act now to prevent such a runaway process from starting.
Daniel H Rothman is a professor of geophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He co-directs MIT’s Lorenz Center, which is devoted to learning how climate works
Continue reading...Bezos-backed Rivian valued at $100bn in one of world’s biggest IPOs
Share sale values electric carmaker higher than Ford and General Motors at US stock market debut
The Jeff Bezos-backed electric carmaker Rivian has raised more than $11bn in a stock market sale that valued the company at more than $100bn in one of the world’s biggest-ever stock market floats.
The share sale on Wednesday values Rivian higher than Ford or General Motors, even though before the sale the company revealed it had lost more than $2bn since the start of last year and had delivered just 53 vehicles by the end of last month. It plans to deliver 1,000 by the end of the year.
Continue reading...‘Projection fight’ breaks out on side of Cop26 venue in Glasgow
Official projectionists hit back with animations and ‘go away’ after activists beam climate slogans
A “projection fight” broke out at the Cop26 venue in Glasgow, which resulted in official projectionists covering the building in the words “go away”.
“I haven’t stopped laughing since,” tweeted one campaigner.
Continue reading...Cop26 – a tragedy in two acts where the rich nations knife poor countries in the back | John Vidal
Despite the fine words and supposed ambition, there is little time left to reach a meaningful finale
If Cop26 were to be staged, it would be as a political drama in two long acts. Act one would see the leaders of wealthy countries such as Britain, the US and Australia smiling broadly as they strut the Glasgow stage with their friends, wring their hands and manage the world’s expectations. Act two would see them knifing each other offstage and kicking poor countries hard before running away.
The climate crisis conference, now halfway through its second week, is well into act two and the final scenes are being rehearsed in late-night talks. In a dramatic early-morning move, Alok Sharma and the UK presidency acting as the protagonist, listened to countries and produced a seven page draft “non-paper” that sets the broad outline of the final agreement that it thinks it may be diplomatically possible to reach.
John Vidal is a former Guardian environment editor
Continue reading...Do Angus Taylor’s carbon capture and storage claims stack up? | Graham Readfearn
Even the industry’s own data suggests its impact on emissions is extraordinarily marginal
- Temperature Check is a weekly column examining claims about climate change made by governments, politicians, business and in the media. See the latest column and follow the series here
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The Morrison government wants to put more taxpayer money into carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, with a new $500m fund that could include the technology alongside other new projects.
The emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor, told the ABC on Wednesday “there’s 60 [CCS] projects around the world, 30 in operation. It’s working in large quantities now.”
Continue reading...Campaigners celebrate new UK environment law but vow to fight on
Nearly three years after draft bill was published, activists say Environment Act must lead to real action
After 1,056 days, three Queen’s speeches, countless hours of drafting, campaigning, protest and debate, the first environment bill for 26 years has passed into law.
Environmental activists at the heart of first pressing for the bill and then attempting to make it the best it could be, said its enactment was momentous.
Continue reading...CCAs notch new record as decades-high US inflation reading to mean higher 2022 WCI floor
‘Devoid of ambition’: Secret Negotiators on the Cop26 draft text
The Guardian’s anonymous insiders respond to the publication of a draft deal at the climate conference
The Guardian has been speaking to climate negotiators from developing countries in the buildup to and during the Cop26 climate conference. We asked for their immediate reactions to the draft negotiation outcome published on Wednesday morning.
One secret negotiator said:
The draft covering decisions text has not come up to the global great expectations. The whole world wants a more ambitious outcome at Glasgow Cop26. But the draft covering decisions text waters down those ambitions and is not consistent with Paris agreement 1.5C goal, nor with raising ambitions [on cutting emissions].
The hope is that we have still two more days to raise mitigation [emissions-cutting] ambitions, deliver $100bn (£74bn) [that was promised from] 2020 and $100bn-plus for beyond 2025, fix article 6 rules for market mechanisms, set adaptation goals and support national adaptation plans and operationalise Santiago Network for loss and damage.
The IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] report is very clear, and the cover decision [summary of aims] needs to reiterate the messages from the IPCC report, acknowledge the gap between emissions pledges and the emissions cuts needed, and call on parties to fill the gap. Parties need to submit NDCs [nationally determined contributions] by 2022.
We also need clear language on doubling adaptation finance, and on solidarity and support from developed countries. The link between finance for developing countries and their ability to have higher ambition on cutting emissions by 2030 [which would result from that finance] is also not made clear.
To be honest, the text is devoid of any real ambition on finance and adaptation especially in the context of the motto of keeping the 1.5C alive. Furthermore it seems to be a sign of sobering realisation that all the hype around Cop26 and gloss is fading and fading fast.
There seems to be some mad scramble now to kick the can on many issues down the road into next year. The so-called UK leadership does not seem to be present.
Continue reading...Cop26 draft text annotated: what it says and what it means
Fiona Harvey dissects the wording of the draft version of the document
The draft text is the most important document that will emerge from the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow. Unlike the last major climate conference, in Paris in 2015, what emerges here will not be a new treaty, but a series of decisions and resolutions that build on the Paris accord.
Those Cop decisions have legal force in the context of the Paris agreement, so this is a powerful document. But it is also a document that can only be accepted by the consensus of all parties, therefore much of the language is cautious and some is ambiguous or open to interpretation, to the frustration of the countries who want to move faster.
I. Science
1. Recognizes the importance of the best available science for effective climate action and policymaking;
II. Adaptation
5. Notes with serious concern the finding from the contribution of Working Group I to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report that every additional increment of global warming worsens climate and weather extremes and their impacts on people and nature;
III. Adaptation finance
14. Notes with serious concern that the current provision of climate finance for adaptation is insufficient to respond to worsening climate change impacts in developing country Parties;
IV. Mitigation
22. Reaffirms the Paris Agreement temperature goal of holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels;
27. Emphasizes the urgent need for Parties to increase their efforts to collectively reduce emissions through accelerated action and implementation of domestic mitigation measures in accordance with Article 4, paragraph 2, of the Paris Agreement;
28. Decides to establish a work programme to urgently scale-up mitigation ambition and implementation during the critical decade of the 2020s;
30. Recalls Article 4, paragraphs 3 and 11, of the Paris Agreement, and urges Parties to revisit and strengthen the 2030 targets in their nationally determined contributions, as necessary to align with the Paris Agreement temperature goal by the end of 2022;
31. Requests the secretariat to produce an updated version of the synthesis report on nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement annually;
35. Invites Parties to regularly update strategies in line with the best available science;
36. Requests the secretariat to prepare a synthesis report on long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies under the Paris Agreement for consideration by the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement at its fourth session (November 2022);
40. Invites the Secretary-General of the United Nations to convene world leaders in 2023 to consider ambition to 2030;
41. Recognizes that enhanced support for developing country Parties will allow for higher ambition in their actions;
V. Finance, technology transfer and capacity-building for mitigation and adaptation
42. Urges developed country Parties to provide financial resources to assist developing country Parties with respect to both mitigation and adaptation, in continuation of their existing obligations under the Convention, and encourages other Parties to provide or continue to provide such support voluntarily;
VI. Loss and damage
60. Acknowledges that climate change has already and will increasingly cause loss and damage and, as temperatures rise, impacts from climate and weather extremes, as well as slow onset events, will pose an ever-greater social, economic and environmental threat;
VII Implementation
67. Resolves to move swiftly with the full implementation and delivery of the Paris Agreement;
Continue reading...Euro Markets: Midday Update
Indigenous women speak out at Cop26 rally: ‘Femicide is linked to ecocide’
Activists tell of how extractive industries are intertwined with violence against women and girls
“Remember my face,” Sii-am Hamilton told the crowd gathered on Finnieston Street near the high fencing that surrounds the Cop26 summit on Tuesday morning. “Remember because it’s not if, it’s when you will go missing, if you are involved in land rights.”
The rally for murdered and missing indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people heard a painful litany of lost loved ones from witnesses from Alaska to the Amazon, and the legacy of their absence for families and communities.
Continue reading...Gender equality and Indigenous people: day nine at Cop26 – in pictures
Some of the best images from the global climate summit in Scotland on Tuesday 9 November
Continue reading...Horse trading set to begin over agreement at COP26
COP26: Draft deal calls for stronger carbon cutting targets by end of 2022
Protests as cycling absent from Cop26 transport day agenda – video
Dozens of protesters rang their bicycle bells outside the Cop26 conference in Glasgow under the slogan: 'This machine fights climate change'. Bikes are not on the agenda being discussed during 'transport day' at the climate meeting, with electric cars at the centre of Wednesday's talks
Continue reading...Cop26: carmakers agree to end sale of fossil fuel vehicles by 2040
But ‘landmark agreement’ signed by 24 countries also notable for absences of major manufacturers
Twenty-four countries and a group of leading car manufacturers have committed to ending the era of fossil-fuel powered vehicles by 2040 “or earlier”, in a major new commitment set at Cop26.
The agreement to sell only zero-emissions vehicles from this time, unveiled at the UN climate summit in Glasgow on Thursday, includes Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK, which had already agreed to phase out new petrol and diesel car sales by 2030.
Continue reading...Power market reform paves way for tense inclusion of industry in China ETS
Cop26 draft calls for tougher emissions pledges by next year
Move is recognition of gap between current pledges and goals but critics say it does not go far enough
A draft of the Cop26 negotiation outcome published overnight urges countries to strengthen their 2030 greenhouse gas emissions targets by the end of next year in a recognition of the yawning gap between current pledges and the landmark 2015 Paris agreement.
The text, released by the Cop26 president, Alok Sharma, called on all countries to increase their short-term commitments in 2022, which would be a step forward. It also asks them to agree to an annual high-level ministerial round table focused on raising ambition further starting next November.
Continue reading...Barack Obama has a nerve preaching about the climate crisis | Kate Aronoff
The former US president directed his Cop26 speech at young people, but he made the task of keeping warming to 1.5C far harder
Hundreds of people thronged the corridors at Cop26 on Monday, trying to make it into an event in one of the Scottish Event Campus’s drab plenary rooms. Passing by, I asked a man in the crowd what all the commotion was for. He responded with one word: “Obama.” The former president still maintains his rock star-ish appeal. His speech proved the biggest draw of the conference so far. But what should we make of it in the cold light of day?
Much of his message was directed at young people, whom he praised as both “sophisticated consumers” and the source of the “most important energy in this movement”. He was clear: it’s up to all of us – but especially young people – to come together and keep the planet from warming beyond 1.5C. “Collectively and individually we are still falling short” he said, in the kind of grand, sweeping tones that built his career. “We have not done nearly enough to address this crisis. We are going to have to do more. Whether that happens or not to a large degree is going to depend on you.”
Continue reading...Nasa's Moon return pushed back to 2025
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