Kamala Harris’ climate credentials.
As Bill McKibben says: She may be the last president able to truly help stem the tide. As VP, Harris has often acted as spokesperson for her boss’s climate priorities at home and abroad. She was one of several administration officials who fanned out across the country last year to tout the one-year anniversary of the IRA. Harris, 59, stood in for Biden at last year’s COP28 climate summit, where she announced that the US would contribute $3 billion to a climate aid fund for developing countries. Back in 2019, when Harris (then a US senator from California) launched a presidential bid, her climate agenda was more ambitious than Biden’s. She supported a carbon tax and proposed $10 trillion in private and public climate spending. She also said she would work to ban fracking. In the Senate she sponsored climate equity bills and backed an effort by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to shut down the Dakota Access pipeline. A potential Harris presidency is seen being more aggressive than Biden in confronting oil companies for pollution and addressing environmental justice.
The first details of a potential, and possibly massive, climate agreement between the U.S. and China were announced at a climate summit at the White House on Tuesday. The initiative could significantly reduce emissions of nitrous oxide, a potent and largely overlooked greenhouse gas that also harms the ozone layer. If successful, the two countries could reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking approximately 50 million automobiles off the road at a fraction of the cost of other emission reduction efforts.
Feedback loop portends more warming. In 2023, the CO2 growth rate was at Mauna Loa was 86% above the previous year, and hitting a record high since observations began in 1958, while global fossil fuel CO2 emissions only increased by 0.6 ± 0.5%. This implies an unprecedented weakening of land and ocean sinks, and raises the question of where and why this reduction happened. Here we show a global net land CO2 sink [which is] the weakest since 2003. Land regions exposed to extreme heat in 2023 contributed a gross carbon loss… indicating that record warming in 2023 had a strong negative impact on the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems to mitigate climate change.
Hottest day on record — two days in a row.
Sunday was the hottest day in recent history — until Monday. The daily global average temperature was 17.15°C on 22 July, exceeding the previous record of 17.09°C, set on 21 July. “What is truly staggering is how large the difference is between the temperature of the last 13 months and the previous temperature records,” says Carlo Buontempo, director of the European Commission’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). “We are now in truly uncharted territory.”
Despite warnings that climate change would create widespread desertification, many drylands are getting greener because of increased CO2 in the air — a trend that recent studies indicate will continue. In most drylands, this anticipated desertification has not happened. Rather than shriveling and dying, vegetation is usually growing faster and expanding its terrain, while deserts are retreating. This, researchers of the world’s carbon and water cycles say, is largely due to the extra CO2 in the atmosphere. But scientists warn this added vegetation may soak up scarce water supplies.
A federal appeals court rejects Western Republican-led states’ bid to block Biden administration rules aimed at reducing coal plants’ greenhouse gas emissions. (Associated Press)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A California nonprofit breaks ground on a solar-and-battery powered bidirectional electric vehicle charging complex to support its 50-shuttle fleet. (PV Magazine)
NO NEED TO BURN FOREST WASTE: Researchers propose sequestering carbonby burying or “vaulting” logs removed from Western forests to reduce wildfire risk, saying it could avoid an estimated 2.2 billion tons of emissions in coming years. Burying trees can last for hundreds to thousands of years (one tree recently dug up was 90% preserved after 3000 years). Vaulting also sequesters much more carbon at a lower price than does creating biochar. (Grist)
The Biden-Harris administration announced two commitments to phase out single-use plastic across the federal government to help address the plastic pollution crisis. As part of an existing executive order, the commitments call for the phase-out of all single-use plastic products across US federal government agencies by 2035, and a phase-out of all single-use plastic products in food service, packaging, and events by 2027. The administration also released a report outlining necessary steps for a whole-of-government approach to addressing plastic pollution. “As the single largest consumer in the world, the US federal government has an outsized role to play in curbing the use of problematic and unnecessary plastic products,” said Erin Simon, vice president and head of plastic waste and business at WWF. “The administration’s commitment to removing single-use plastic products across an entity this large goes beyond the positive environmental effects, sending a message to the public and private sector across the world: if we can make change happen at scale, so can you.”
ELECTRIFICATION BACKLASH: Washington state officials certify a November ballot initiative seeking to overturn rules aimed at phasing out natural gas and encouraging electrification in buildings.(Washington State Standard)
ELECTIONS MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
The UK government has revealed its first plans for the new state-backed company Great British Energy. It was announced on Thursday that the Crown Estate of King Charles III, owner of virtually all of the seabed around the UK, will partner with GB Energy to accelerate the building of offshore wind farms. The agreement has the potential to leverage as much as £60 billion ($77 billion) of investment into the UK’s renewables business, the government said. Energy security and the need for the state to play a bigger role in guaranteeing that was a major campaign issue for recently elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
TAKE ACTION
22 insurance companies have already ruled out providing coverage to the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). The EACOP pipeline would be a disaster for our climate if completed – let’s make sure AIG gets the message: Tell AIG: Don’t insure EACOP, we don’t need this dangerous pipeline!