Prime Minister promises to put climate and finance commitments front and centre of upcoming G7 summit in Cornwall. Boris Johnson has urged wealthier countries to provide a “substantial pile of cash” to support climate vulnerable nations, in order to help boost the chances of positive talks and a landmark climate deal at the crucial COP26 Summit in Glasgow later this year. Offering some of his strongest comments yet on the need for an increase in climate finance pledges from governments, the UK Prime Minister yesterday called on leaders of richer economies to play their part in collectively delivering on the Paris Agreement goal of providing at least $100bn a year to help developing nations mitigate and adapt to global warming, a target which is still a long way from being met.

Business Green 7th May 2021 read more »

Rich countries must use the upcoming G7 summit in Cornwall to announce fresh climate finance pledges or risk the COP26 climate summit failing, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has warned. Speaking to world leaders today at a climate summit hosted by Germany, Mr Guterres said the success of the upcoming climate conference in Glasgow “rests on achieving a breakthrough on adaptation and finance”. The UN conference is widely seen as the most important climate summit since 2015, and a crucial moment for the world to get on track for ‘net zero’ emissions.

iNews 6th May 2021 read more »

Why rich nations are feeling the heat on climate funding ahead of G7 summit. Boris Johnson has promised to use next month’s G7 summit to ‘secure a substantial pile of cash’ for poorer nations battling the climate crisis. In a speech made to other leaders on Thursday, Boris Johnson called on all rich nations to “put our money where our mouth is” when it comes to funding climate action.

Independent 7th May 2021 read more »

David Lammy MP & Manish Bapna: There is No Climate Justice Without Racial Justice. This past year has put a spotlight on the climate emergency and racial injustice. Concern for the state of the environment has never been greater. Thanks to Black Lives Matter and related justice movements, voices that have been tragically sidelined for too long are finally breaking through. But still, some of the most fervent activists treat these as separate struggles.

Time 3rd May 2021 read more »

The current pace of global heating risks unleashing “rapid and unstoppable” sea level rise from the melting of Antarctica’s vast ice sheet, a new research paper has warned. Unless planet-heating emissions are swiftly reduced to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement, the world faces a situation where there is an “abrupt jump” in the pace of Antarctic ice loss around 2060, the study states, fueling sea level rise and placing coastal cities in greater peril.

Guardian 5th May 2021 read more »

The rise in sea level caused by the melting of Antarctic ice will become “rapid and unstoppable” unless countries make drastic cuts in emissions, a study has found. The ice sheet will reach a tipping point by 2060 when the melting rate will sharply increase under the policies being pursued by governments, scientists said. Summer temperatures above zero over Antarctica would mean rain falling instead of snow, accelerating the collapse of coastal ice shelves holding back glaciers. This could result in a tenfold increase in the continent’s annual contribution to sea level rise by the end of the century, from 0.43mm a year now to nearly 5mm a year by 2100.

Times 6th May 2021 read more »

Holding global temperature rise to no more than 1.5C – rather than following current emissions pledges – could halve the sea level rise from melting land ice by the year 2100, according to new research. The Nature study, which brings together 84 authors from 62 institutions, projects future sea level rise using the latest models and future pathways. It estimates that, if current pledges to reduce emissions are met, land-ice loss will drive around 25cm of sea level rise by 2100. However, this falls to 13cm if warming is limited to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. The authors note that mountain glaciers and the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica will respond to the lower warming levels in different ways. Greenland ice sheet mass losses would reduce by 70%, while the contribution from Antarctica is relatively consistent across all warming levels due to the “competing processes” of melting ice and increased snowfall.

Carbon Brief 5th May 2021 read more »

Independent 5th May 2021 read more »

Recent climate change promises by major nations will bring the world a fraction closer to the prospect of a more stable climate, analysis suggests. The Climate Action Tracker group says the new targets have reduced projected warming by the end of century by 0.2C. The forecast now stands at 2.4C – a small improvement, but higher than the 1.5C threshold nations are aiming for under the Paris climate agreement. Final calculations by researchers of the emissions gap in 2030 between Paris pledges and a 1.5C pathway show it’s been narrowed by 11-14%. The biggest prospective contributors to reducing emissions are the US, EU countries, China and Japan. The researchers noted that Canada announced a new target at President Biden’s recent climate summit while South Africa is consulting on an increased target. Argentina has increased its target, and the UK has a stronger target of a 78% emissions cut by 2035.

BBC 4th May 2021 read more »

Glacial retreat − the rate at which mountain ice is turning to running water − has accelerated. In the last two decades, the world’s 220,000 glaciers have lost ice at the rate of 267 billion tonnes a year on average, and this faster glacier melting could soon imperil downstream food and water supplies. To make sense of this almost unimaginable volume, think of a country the size of Switzerland. And then submerge it six metres deep in water. And then go on doing that every year for 20 years. European scientists report in the journal Nature that, on the basis of satellite data, they assembled a global snapshot of the entire world’s stock of land-borne ice, excluding Antarctica and Greenland. And then they began to measure the impact of global heating driven by profligate fossil fuel use on the lofty, frozen beauty of the Alps, the Hindu Kush, the Andes, the Himalayas and the mountains of Alaska. They found not just loss, but a loss that was accelerating sharply. Between 2000 and 2004, the glaciers together surrendered 227 billion tons of ice a year on average. By 2015 to 2019, the annual loss had risen to 298 billion tonnes. The run-off from the retreating glaciers alone caused more than one-fifth of observed sea level rise this century.

Climate News Network 5th May 2021 read more »

Hereiti, 17, lives on Rarotonga, the largest of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. She says the ocean is the “lifeblood” of her community, and that when it is “healthy”, the people are too. But she worries that rising sea levels and pollution are threatening the health of the ocean.

BBC 3rd May 2021 read more »

Bill Hare et al. Limiting global warming to 1.5℃ this century is a central goal of the Paris Agreement. In recent months, climate experts and others, including in Australia, have suggested the target is now impossible. Whether Earth can stay within 1.5℃ warming involves two distinct questions. First, is it physically, technically and economically feasible, considering the physics of the Earth system and possible rates of societal change? Science indicates the answer is “yes” – although it will be very difficult and the best opportunities for success lie in the past. The second question is whether governments will take sufficient action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This answer depends on the ambition of governments, and the effectiveness of campaigning by non-government organisations and others. So scientifically speaking, humanity can still limit global warming to 1.5°C this century. But political action will determine whether it actually does. Conflating the two questions amounts to misplaced punditry, and is dangerous.

The Conversation 3rd May 2021 read more »

The UK’s seas have a starring role to play in the UK’s pathway to net zero emissions, yet marine protection is too often overlooked in discussions about climate goals, conservationists have warned. A new report published this morning by the Marine Conservation Society and Rewilding Britain argues the protection and restoration of marine and coastal ecosystems must become a critical pillar of the UK’s net zero strategy.

Business Green 4th May 2021 read more »

Times 4th May 2021 read more »

As glaciers around the world recede rapidly owing to global warming, some communities are facing a new problem: the sudden disappearance of their rivers. River piracy, or stream capture, is when water from one river is diverted into another because of erosion or, in this case, glacier melt. Scientists predict as we move towards a world with far fewer glaciers, land that has been continuously covered by ice for many centuries will become ice-free, thus redirecting rivers in high mountain areas.

Guardian 3rd May 2021 read more »

An increasing number of people are being threatened by flooding caused by glacial lakes bursting, scientists have warned. As the planet warms and glaciers recede, meltwater accumulates and forms lakes, often as a result of ice or moraine acting as a dam. Since 1990, the volume, area and number of these glacial lakes has increased by 50% globally. When these lakes become too full there is a risk that they may breach or overflow, releasing huge volumes of water and causing catastrophic flooding. Some lakes are more dangerous than others, and more likely to result in what are known as glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). Stephan Harrison, a professor of climate and environmental change at Exeter University, said: “The ones we’re concerned about are the very steep mountain valleys in the Andes and in the Himalayas, where you have glaciers retreating up into their steep valleys with lots of opportunity for bits of mountainside to fall off into lakes.”

Guardian 2nd May 2021 read more »

Sandford, 62, is speaking to the Observer from a small shed perched on a hill a few minutes walk from his house on Gometra, in the Inner Hebrides. Here he can pick up 4G from a mast on the neighbouring island of Coll, 20 miles away. The signal is his connection to the world, his four children and a network of environmental activists. Just now, most of his time is spent on Ocean Rebellion, a sister group to the climate action organisation Extinction Rebellion. It uses disruptive, non-violent actions aimed at tackling biodiversity loss, overfishing, the impact of the climate emergency on the ocean, and deep-sea mining. “The oceans are dying, and if they die, we die. Ocean Rebellion has been set up to help stop it,” says Sandford. The group is challenging bodies such as the International Maritime Organization, which, he says, is in “complete denial” over the climate crisis.

Observer 2nd May 2021 read more »

Scotsman 2nd May 2021 read more »

An Antarctic glacier larger than the UK is at risk of breaking up after scientists discovered more warm water flowing underneath it than previously thought. The fate of Thwaites – nicknamed the doomsday glacier – and the massive west Antarctic ice sheet it supports are the biggest unknown factors in future global sea level rise. Over the past few years, teams of scientists have been crisscrossing the remote and inaccessible region on Antarctica’s western edge to try to understand how fast the ice is melting and what the consequences for the rest of the world might be. “What happens in west Antarctica is of great societal importance,” said Dr Robert Larter, a scientist with the British Antarctic Survey and principal investigator with the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration, the most ambitious research project ever carried out in Antarctica. “This is the biggest uncertainty in future sea level rise.”

Guardian 30th April 2021 read more »

The rate at which glaciers have been thinning has accelerated in recent years. Since the 1960s, when the effects of global heating started to become clear, the pace of melting has grown faster and faster. In the 1960s, glaciers were losing just a few centimetres of thickness a year, and in some years even adding mass. However, by the 1990s, it was normal to see 40-60cm a year of average ice loss. The only exception was in the year after the enormous volcanic eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991, which had a dramatic cooling effect on the Earth, resulting in a slight gain in mass. The rate has continued to accelerate since then, and in the early 2000s, the most recent data set available, glaciers were on average 8 metres thinner than they had been 50 years earlier. It is certain that they have only grown thinner since. The melting over that period alone added 17mm to global sea levels – and the rate of increase is accelerating. Even small rises in sea level can be catastrophic for low-lying regions, and increases the risk of flooding.

Guardian 1st May 2021 read more »

The Brazilian Amazon released nearly 20% more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over the past decade than it absorbed, according to a startling report that shows humanity can no longer depend on the world’s largest tropical forest to help absorb manmade carbon pollution.

Guardian 30th April 2021 read more »