Yearly Archives: 2018

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28 February 2018, Carbon Brief, OECD: Fossil fuel subsidies added up to at least $373bn in 2015. Fossil fuel subsidies totalled at least $373bn globally in 2015, according to a new report which for the first time combines figures from two key … Continue reading →

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26 February 2018, Sydney Morning Herald, ‘Really extreme’ global weather event leaves scientists aghast. Climate scientists are used to seeing the range of weather extremes stretched by global warming but few episodes appear as remarkable as this week’s unusual heat over the Arctic. Zack Labe, a researcher at the University of California at Irvine, said average daily temperatures above the northern latitude of 80 degrees have broken away from any previous recordings in the past 60 years. Read More here ALSO 28 February 2018, The Guardian; Record warmth in the Arctic this month could yet prove to be a freak occurrence, but experts warn the warming event is unprecedented Read More here

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21 February 2018, RenewEconomy; Frydenberg fumes as Weatherill does the vision thing on renewables and storage. The war of words between federal environment and energy minister Josh Frydenberg and South Australia premier Jay Weatherill has resumed, as Frydenberg stumbled into the middle of the state’s election campaign and found his modest announcement trumped by Weatherill’s big vision. Frydenberg arrived in Adelaide on Wednesday to, among other things, promote two small ($500,000) grants to help progress two pumped hydro projects in the Spencer Gulf, a week after the state government had backed those same projects and three other pumped hydro plans to boot. But Frydenberg’s announcement was overwhelmed by Weatherill’s proposal to lift the share of renewable in the state to 75 per cent by 2025 (it is already at 50 per cent), and add 750MW of energy storage through pumped hydro, batteries and hydrogen. He backed this up with announced plans to turn the old Holden site into a renewables-based micro-grid, and a separate proposal for a hydrogen-based micro-grid in the middle of Adelaide. Read more here

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17 February 2018, Independent, Global sea ice hits record low for January as the annual polar melting period expanded. The world’s sea ice shrank to a record January low last month as the annual polar melting period expanded, experts say. The 5.04 million square miles of ice in the Arctic was 525,000 square miles below the 1981-to-2010 ice cover average, making it the lowest January total in satellite records, according to the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Combined with low levels in the Antarctic, global sea ice amounted to a record low for any first month of the year, the organisation concluded. The news comes just days after researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder said the rate at which sea levels are rising was increasing every year, driven mostly by accelerated melting in Greenland and Antarctica. The NSIDC, a respected authority on the Earth’s frozen regions, which researches and analyses snow, glaciers and ice sheets among other features, said that ice in the Arctic Ocean hit “a new record low” at both the start and end of last month. In an online post, the group said: “January of 2018 began and ended with satellite-era record lows in Arctic sea ice extent, resulting in a new record low for the month. Combined with low ice extent in the Antarctic, global sea ice extent is also at a record low.” Read More here