Climate News of the Week – The Good and the Bad

When will we wake up and demand change department:

Billions of people this week felt the deadly intensity of heat waves fueled by climate change. A week of scorching heat across five continents shows how human-driven warming has raised the baseline of normal temperatures, scientists say, fueling more frequent extremes. In just the past seven days, a majority of the planet experienced heat waves that were made more likely by climate change. Scorching heat across five continents set 1,400 records this week and showed how human-caused global warming has made catastrophic temperatures commonplace. Country by country here.

  • In the Middle East, more than 1,000 hajj pilgrims have reportedly died amid scorching heat in the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, Sky News reported. Agence France-Presse said that temperatures reached 125 F. in Mecca as around 1.8 million people took part in the “days-long, mostly outdoor” pilgrimage. It added that the death toll is expected to rise further as many continue to search for family members.

 

Stand.earth and the Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) today call on major international banks to end the financing of oil and gas extraction in the Amazon, in order to protect the remaining 80% of the world’s largest rainforest by 2025, as a new report underscores the abyss between the environmental and social policies claimed by the top financiers versus the destruction they are bankrolling in the region. This report comes as the Amazon is at an imminent tipping point, which threatens Indigenous Peoples, local communities, the forest and its biodiversity, and the continuity of life on the planet. The report “Greenwashing the Amazon” reveals that, on average, 71% of the Amazon is not effectively protected through the environmental and social risk management frameworks of the five top financiers of Amazon oil and gas – Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Itaú Unibanco, Santander, and Bank of America. This means these banks leave most of the Amazonian territory vulnerable, with no risk management for climate change, biodiversity, forest cover, and Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ rights.

New Research Finds Most of the World’s Largest Marine Protected Areas Have Inadequate Protections
In a setback to efforts to conserve 30 percent of the ocean by 2030, a third of the world’s largest MPAs allow destructive practices like mining and commercial fishing, while others are “paper parks” with no formal conservation measures.

 

Better news

How a wave of developers turning office buildings into apartments could create more walkable cities

Downtown office vacancy rates have not totally recovered from the pandemic, and probably won’t. In the United States, commercial vacancy rates hover around 20% nationwide, as companies have moved more of their employees to fully remote working arrangements. This reality could hollow out urban centres in many cities across North America, as the businesses in these areas struggle with the lack of foot traffic, or it could be a massive opportunity to build the 15-minute neighbourhoods of tomorrow, writes John Weigand, an architecture professor at Miami University. He writes that converting all this space into homes has its challenges but could help bring “a vibrant lifestyle” to these areas. Read more »

ELECTRIFICATION IN CALIFORNIA:

  • California lawmakers consider legislation that would require labels on gas stoves warning customers of the appliances’ health risks. (Politico)
  • A study finds California utilities could save about $20 billion over the next two decades by electrifying clusters of buildings instead of replacing their aging natural gas pipelines. (Utility Dive)
  • A southern California community choice aggregator begins providing rooftop solar and battery storage to customers without upfront costs. (San Diego Union-Tribune) [RCEA, are you paying attention?]

Chicago teachers demand climate solutions in their next contract. Chicago Public Schools will face more than a billion dollars in climate driven cooling costs by 2025,” Ayesha Qazi-Lampert, an environmental science teacher, explained. The CTU wants to transform the city’s schools into “climate-resilient community hubs,” Qazi-Lampert said to the crowd. To do it, the union wants the school district to install heat pumps, transition to solar and geothermal power, and get all lead contamination out of the school’s drinking water.

Last Tuesday, the first class of the American Climate Corps took a pledge to work “on behalf of our nation and planet, its people, and all its species, for the better future we hold within our sight.” Soon enough, this inaugural batch of corps members will set about the task of restoring landscapes, building out renewable-energy infrastructure, and advancing other projects that will push the nation toward its climate goals. This week’s swearing-in ceremony welcomed the first of 9,000 people who will join the corps in its first few weeks, Kate Yoder reports, with at least 11,000 more expected to join the program during its first year.

CLIMATE: Hawaii recognizes children’s constitutional right to a life-sustaining climate and steps up efforts to reach a goal of net-negative emissions by 2045 to settle a youths’ lawsuit targeting the state’s fossil fuel-friendly policies. (Associated Press)

PEAKING CHINA: China has reduced power from fossil fuels and boosted solar and hydro, “feeding hopes that the world’s biggest polluter may have peaked emissions years before its own deadline”, Bloomberg reported. Carbon Brief analysis in May found China may have peaked its emissions in 2023.

Renewables in the Philippines. Changes including allowing full foreign ownership of renewable energy projects have already helped secure a pipeline of 99 gigawatts of wind and solar developments. That’s more than enough power to supply all Philippine households, and is ahead of Vietnam at 86 gigawatts and about five times higher than in Indonesia. The energy transition in coal-dependent emerging nations like the Philippines will determine the success of global efforts to hit net zero targets and curb the worst impacts of climate change. [For comparison, California only projects 25 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2045.]

Could the Global Boom in Greenhouses Help Cool the Planet?
As agricultural greenhouses proliferate, researchers are finding that their reflective roofs are having a cooling effect. Some experts see this as an unintended experiment with lessons for cooling cities, but others point to the environmental damage that greenhouses can cause. [Yale Environment 360 has this story from countries around the world. It is a fascinating case study in the moral and environmental quandaries entangling climate “solutions.”]