Asian governments reject IEA call to stop new fossil fuel investments
In this newsletter:
1) Move COP26 online or risk global fiasco, GWPF warns
Global Warming Policy Forum, 19 May 2021
2) Queue-jumping? Global vaccine shortage imperils Glasgow climate talks
Reuters, 19 May 2021
Global Warming Policy Forum, 19 May 2021
2) Queue-jumping? Global vaccine shortage imperils Glasgow climate talks
Reuters, 19 May 2021
3) Asian governments reject IEA call to stop new fossil fuel investments
Reuters, 20 May 2021
4) Net Zero future: Chinese offer to take over UK steel industry
Financial Times, 19 May 2021
Reuters, 20 May 2021
4) Net Zero future: Chinese offer to take over UK steel industry
Financial Times, 19 May 2021
5) Tesla customers sue over surprise price hikes for solar energy
Bloomberg, 17 May 2021
Bloomberg, 17 May 2021
6) Razi Ginzberg: The anti-humanism of David Attenborough
Spiked, 18 May 2021
7) And finally: Scientists concede they haven't got a clue what will happen to clouds and temperatures as the planet warms
Vox, 19 May 2021
Spiked, 18 May 2021
7) And finally: Scientists concede they haven't got a clue what will happen to clouds and temperatures as the planet warms
Vox, 19 May 2021
Full details:
1) Move COP26 online or risk global fiasco, GWPF warns
Global Warming Policy Forum, 19 May 2021
The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) has repeated its call for the COP26 conference to be moved online as developing nations warn they may not send delegates to the UN climate summit over a shortage of Covid-19 vaccines.
In a recent letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson GWPF director Benny Peiser pointed out that President Biden’s Leaders Summit on Climate has clearly demonstrated that a physical meeting is not necessary to get political leaders to make lofty climate pledges.
And since President Biden’s conference has already delivered an array of pledges from 40 national leaders, it is unlikely that Glasgow will achieve a great deal more.
The longer the Government refuses to make the commonsensical decision to turn COP26 into an online conference and as long as it delays to make the necessary preparations, the bigger the risk that the event will turn into an embarrassing fiasco.
2) Queue-jumping? Global vaccine shortage imperils Glasgow climate talks
Reuters, 19 May 2021
LONDON, May 19 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Poorer nations struggling to access COVID-19 vaccines may make the “moral” choice not to send delegates to November’s U.N. climate summit in Scotland if others more in need of the doses remain at risk, climate and health experts warned on Wednesday.
Giving climate-talks delegates priority in vaccine-short countries would go against the principle of not “jumping the queue”, Dr. Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, deputy director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, told journalists in an online briefing.
Such a move could dim prospects for success at the high-profile COP26 climate conference, which aims to swiftly ramp up action on climate change as the world veers toward failing on its targets to curb dangerous planetary heating.
After negotiations were postponed in 2020, COP26 organisers hope to hold the key gathering in person – but the pandemic has complicated efforts to safely bring tens of thousands of delegates and observers from around the world to Glasgow.
Britain’s COP26 president, Alok Sharma, said last week that decisions had yet to be made about whether conference attendees must be vaccinated, but noted that “the safety of people in Glasgow and the UK, as well as delegates” was a priority.
If vaccines are required, Ogwell Ouma said African nations might decide delegates would not be “preferentially vaccinated” before others on national priority lists if supplies remained insufficient.
Full story
Global Warming Policy Forum, 19 May 2021
The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) has repeated its call for the COP26 conference to be moved online as developing nations warn they may not send delegates to the UN climate summit over a shortage of Covid-19 vaccines.
In a recent letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson GWPF director Benny Peiser pointed out that President Biden’s Leaders Summit on Climate has clearly demonstrated that a physical meeting is not necessary to get political leaders to make lofty climate pledges.
And since President Biden’s conference has already delivered an array of pledges from 40 national leaders, it is unlikely that Glasgow will achieve a great deal more.
The longer the Government refuses to make the commonsensical decision to turn COP26 into an online conference and as long as it delays to make the necessary preparations, the bigger the risk that the event will turn into an embarrassing fiasco.
2) Queue-jumping? Global vaccine shortage imperils Glasgow climate talks
Reuters, 19 May 2021
LONDON, May 19 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Poorer nations struggling to access COVID-19 vaccines may make the “moral” choice not to send delegates to November’s U.N. climate summit in Scotland if others more in need of the doses remain at risk, climate and health experts warned on Wednesday.
Giving climate-talks delegates priority in vaccine-short countries would go against the principle of not “jumping the queue”, Dr. Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, deputy director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, told journalists in an online briefing.
Such a move could dim prospects for success at the high-profile COP26 climate conference, which aims to swiftly ramp up action on climate change as the world veers toward failing on its targets to curb dangerous planetary heating.
After negotiations were postponed in 2020, COP26 organisers hope to hold the key gathering in person – but the pandemic has complicated efforts to safely bring tens of thousands of delegates and observers from around the world to Glasgow.
Britain’s COP26 president, Alok Sharma, said last week that decisions had yet to be made about whether conference attendees must be vaccinated, but noted that “the safety of people in Glasgow and the UK, as well as delegates” was a priority.
If vaccines are required, Ogwell Ouma said African nations might decide delegates would not be “preferentially vaccinated” before others on national priority lists if supplies remained insufficient.
Full story
3) Asian governments reject IEA call to stop new fossil fuel investments
Reuters, 20 May 2021
Asian energy officials on Wednesday disputed the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) call for no new oil, natural gas and coal investments for the world to be able to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, viewing that approach as too narrow.
Reuters, 20 May 2021
Asian energy officials on Wednesday disputed the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) call for no new oil, natural gas and coal investments for the world to be able to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, viewing that approach as too narrow.
The IEA, which has previously championed the oil and gas industry, this week outlined a path to net-zero emissions that suggested stopping new investments in oil, gas and coal supply, retiring coal-fired plants in advanced economies by 2030, and banning sales of new internal combustion engine cars by 2035.
Energy companies in Australia, the biggest carbon emitter per capita among the world’s richest nations, and officials in Japan and the Philippines said there were many ways to get to net zero, even as the IEA said its pathway was “the most technically feasible, cost-effective and socially acceptable”.
Akihisa Matsuda, the deputy director of international affairs at Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), said the government has no plans to immediately stop oil, gas and coal investments.
“The report provides one suggestion as to how the world can reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, but it is not necessarily in line with the Japanese government’s policy,” he said.
“Japan needs to protect its energy security including a stable supply of electricity, so we will balance this with our goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.”
Japan was the region’s third-largest carbon emitter in 2019, after China and India, according to the BP Statistical Review of Energy.
‘NO ONE SIZE FITS ALL’
Australia’s top oil and gas industry and mining lobby groups said there was “no one size fits all” for decarbonisation.
“The IEA report doesn’t take into account future negative emission technologies and offsets from outside the energy sector — two things that are likely to happen and will allow vital and necessary future development of oil and gas fields,” Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association Chief Executive Andrew McConville said. […]
In the Philippines, where coal is set to be the dominant power source for years even after a ban on new coal plant proposals, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said the energy transition should be “fuel and technology-neutral”.
Cutting finance for oil, gas and coal without considering efficiency and competitiveness would “set back the Philippines’ aspiration to join the ranks of upper middle-income countries,” he said.
While the world is moving to renewable energy, demand for coal is still expected to be strong in the next few decades as some countries are still building new coal-fired power plants, said Hendra Sinadia, executive director at Indonesia Coal Mining Association.
Full story
4) Net Zero future: Chinese offer to take over UK steel industry
Financial Times, 19 May 2021
The Chinese owner of British Steel is interested in buying Sanjeev Gupta’s UK steel plants, setting up a potential geopolitical dilemma for Boris Johnson’s government.
Energy companies in Australia, the biggest carbon emitter per capita among the world’s richest nations, and officials in Japan and the Philippines said there were many ways to get to net zero, even as the IEA said its pathway was “the most technically feasible, cost-effective and socially acceptable”.
Akihisa Matsuda, the deputy director of international affairs at Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), said the government has no plans to immediately stop oil, gas and coal investments.
“The report provides one suggestion as to how the world can reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, but it is not necessarily in line with the Japanese government’s policy,” he said.
“Japan needs to protect its energy security including a stable supply of electricity, so we will balance this with our goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.”
Japan was the region’s third-largest carbon emitter in 2019, after China and India, according to the BP Statistical Review of Energy.
‘NO ONE SIZE FITS ALL’
Australia’s top oil and gas industry and mining lobby groups said there was “no one size fits all” for decarbonisation.
“The IEA report doesn’t take into account future negative emission technologies and offsets from outside the energy sector — two things that are likely to happen and will allow vital and necessary future development of oil and gas fields,” Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association Chief Executive Andrew McConville said. […]
In the Philippines, where coal is set to be the dominant power source for years even after a ban on new coal plant proposals, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said the energy transition should be “fuel and technology-neutral”.
Cutting finance for oil, gas and coal without considering efficiency and competitiveness would “set back the Philippines’ aspiration to join the ranks of upper middle-income countries,” he said.
While the world is moving to renewable energy, demand for coal is still expected to be strong in the next few decades as some countries are still building new coal-fired power plants, said Hendra Sinadia, executive director at Indonesia Coal Mining Association.
Full story
4) Net Zero future: Chinese offer to take over UK steel industry
Financial Times, 19 May 2021
The Chinese owner of British Steel is interested in buying Sanjeev Gupta’s UK steel plants, setting up a potential geopolitical dilemma for Boris Johnson’s government.
Gupta has been struggling to secure new financing his for metals empire since its main lender, Greensill Capital, collapsed in March.
Jingye Group, which acquired British Steel in late 2019, has told government officials it is willing to step in to take on parts of Gupta’s Liberty Steel, the UK’s third-largest producer, if the industrialist fails to find fresh funding, according to several people familiar with the matter.
Liberty Steel employs about 3,000 people across the country, including 1,600 at three sites in Yorkshire which produce high-grade speciality steel for aerospace and defence customers.
Jingye “wants to set up an empire in the UK and there have already been discussions with government”, said one person familiar with the Chinese company’s thinking, while stressing that talks remain at an exploratory stage.
One official confirmed that the government was talking to Jingye.
“They have expressed an interest in Liberty assets in the future,” he said. “However, it is not the government’s job to be playing matchmaker at this stage.”
British Steel said it did not “comment on commercial inquiries”. BEIS, the business department, declined to comment.
Gupta’s efforts to find new financing have been complicated after the Serious Fraud Office last week said it was investigating his empire, GFG Alliance, for suspected fraud and money laundering. GFG has denied wrongdoing and said it was co-operating with the probe.
Full story (£)
Jingye Group, which acquired British Steel in late 2019, has told government officials it is willing to step in to take on parts of Gupta’s Liberty Steel, the UK’s third-largest producer, if the industrialist fails to find fresh funding, according to several people familiar with the matter.
Liberty Steel employs about 3,000 people across the country, including 1,600 at three sites in Yorkshire which produce high-grade speciality steel for aerospace and defence customers.
Jingye “wants to set up an empire in the UK and there have already been discussions with government”, said one person familiar with the Chinese company’s thinking, while stressing that talks remain at an exploratory stage.
One official confirmed that the government was talking to Jingye.
“They have expressed an interest in Liberty assets in the future,” he said. “However, it is not the government’s job to be playing matchmaker at this stage.”
British Steel said it did not “comment on commercial inquiries”. BEIS, the business department, declined to comment.
Gupta’s efforts to find new financing have been complicated after the Serious Fraud Office last week said it was investigating his empire, GFG Alliance, for suspected fraud and money laundering. GFG has denied wrongdoing and said it was co-operating with the probe.
Full story (£)
5) Tesla customers sue over surprise price hikes for solar energy
Bloomberg, 17 May 2021
Tesla Inc. customers in California and several East Coast states sued the company over what they called unexpected and steep price hikes for the company’s Solar Roof product.
Tesla is burning its solar roof customers with a huge price increase. From $35,000 to $75,000 for one customer.
Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk first unveiled the Solar Roof idea in the fall of 2016, weeks before Tesla acquired solar-panel installer SolarCity for about $2 billion, a controversial move that has been challenged by shareholders.
In early April, Tesla increased the cost of the Solar Roof by substantial amounts — in some cases, by more than 50% — after buyers had already committed to expensive preparation work, according to the complaint filed Monday in federal court in Northern California.
“After completing the sales agreements, and while the consumers have been making plans for the installations, in classic bait-and-switch fashion, Tesla is now informing these consumers they must pay upwards of a 50% price hike on the cost of the Solar Roof if they want to proceed with the installation — and if they do not pay promptly, they risk losing their place in line for installation,,” according to the complaint. “This is nothing short of a deceptive and unfair scheme.”
Full story
Bloomberg, 17 May 2021
Tesla Inc. customers in California and several East Coast states sued the company over what they called unexpected and steep price hikes for the company’s Solar Roof product.
Tesla is burning its solar roof customers with a huge price increase. From $35,000 to $75,000 for one customer.
Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk first unveiled the Solar Roof idea in the fall of 2016, weeks before Tesla acquired solar-panel installer SolarCity for about $2 billion, a controversial move that has been challenged by shareholders.
In early April, Tesla increased the cost of the Solar Roof by substantial amounts — in some cases, by more than 50% — after buyers had already committed to expensive preparation work, according to the complaint filed Monday in federal court in Northern California.
“After completing the sales agreements, and while the consumers have been making plans for the installations, in classic bait-and-switch fashion, Tesla is now informing these consumers they must pay upwards of a 50% price hike on the cost of the Solar Roof if they want to proceed with the installation — and if they do not pay promptly, they risk losing their place in line for installation,,” according to the complaint. “This is nothing short of a deceptive and unfair scheme.”
Full story
6) Razi Ginzberg: The anti-humanism of David Attenborough
Spiked, 18 May 2021
COP26's 'people's advocate' has called humanity a 'plague on the earth'.
Revered naturalist Sir David Attenborough recently celebrated his 95th birthday. As a capstone to his storied career, he has also been named as the ‘people’s advocate’ for the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). A better title for Sir David would be the anti-people’s advocate.
That’s because, while narrating some of the most stunning nature documentaries ever produced, Attenborough has also consistently advocated for an ideology that condemns humans as the enemy of nature and, in his words, ‘a plague on the Earth’. He argues that, through our industry and quest for material progress, we have despoiled our planet, much as a virus flourishes by destroying its host.
It’s a dramatic story. It is also nonsense. Far from destroying anything, industrial progress continues to lift millions out of poverty every year. For the first time in history, the World Bank has found that fewer than a billion people live in extreme poverty. Much of the world enjoys more prosperity than human beings have ever known.
This progress has been made possible not by nature itself, but by people’s use of it. Over the centuries people have done their best to figure out how to use nature to solve our problems. This includes everything from curing diseases and automating food production to creating new means of transportation. It also includes the capacity to film nature in ultra-high definition, which we can then enjoy watching in the comfort of our homes.
This is why we, as a species, enjoy more clean water than ever – because of our ability to clean dirty water, and to move clean water from where it is to where we need it. This is why we enjoy more clean air than ever – because of our ability to replace dangerous home-burnt biomass and coal with centralised power plants, and to fit those power plants with cutting-edge anti-pollution technology.
But what of the impact of all this progress on the climate? Haven’t we made our planet more dangerous? Not at all. In fact, we’re safer from climatic events than ever before. That’s why climate-related deaths have declined by 98 per cent over the past century – because of, for example, our ability to build climate-resilient infrastructure.
Generations of humans, and the technology and wealth they create, have enriched and improved our environment. Shouldn’t we celebrate that and share our advances with the hundreds of millions of other people who still lack things like electricity and basic sanitation? Attenborough thinks not. Instead of striving for more people to have more, he chastises ‘those that have a great deal’, and urges them to ‘have a little less’.
Radical environmentalists, like Attenborough, see nature like a pie – as something that is fixed and finite. The more some are using nature, the less there is of it for others. From this perspective, our goal must be to stop producing, stop transforming nature, minimise our impact on the planet, and then nature will somehow take care of us.
Well, nature isn’t taking care of the people in, say, Ghana and Uganda. They’re ‘living in harmony with nature’, but when human beings don’t transform nature, the result is poverty.
Full post
7) And finally: Scientists concede they haven't got a clue what will happen to clouds and temperatures as the planet warms
Vox, 19 May 2021
Why clouds are one of the greatest sources of uncertainty for climate change.
What is a cloud? At the smallest scale, it’s simple: just moisture condensed onto a tiny particle — a speck of dust, a grain of pollen, salt spray from the ocean, or a mote of soot.
But as soon as more than one of these cloud droplets get together, things get chaotic, quickly. Scientists describe clouds as an emergent phenomenon, where smaller constituent parts give rise to sophisticated, self-organized patterns, like a school of fish swimming together or a murmuration of starlings.
This chaos is why clouds are so difficult to predict. But the consequences of this inability to see through clouds go beyond sunshine and shade; it’s also obscuring our understanding of climate change.
“How clouds change determines how warm it gets in response to a certain amount of greenhouse gas forcing,” said Angeline Pendergrass, an assistant professor of atmospheric science at Cornell University. And the stakes of how this relationship plays out are high.
Whether a given area sees more rainfall, drought, heating, or cooling in the coming years hinges on what kinds of clouds are present. And right now, scientists are still struggling to understand how this will unfold. Part of this is due to a lack of data about the myriad cloud varieties that are out there, part is due to a lack of computing power, and part is due to a spotty historical record.
Full post
That’s because, while narrating some of the most stunning nature documentaries ever produced, Attenborough has also consistently advocated for an ideology that condemns humans as the enemy of nature and, in his words, ‘a plague on the Earth’. He argues that, through our industry and quest for material progress, we have despoiled our planet, much as a virus flourishes by destroying its host.
It’s a dramatic story. It is also nonsense. Far from destroying anything, industrial progress continues to lift millions out of poverty every year. For the first time in history, the World Bank has found that fewer than a billion people live in extreme poverty. Much of the world enjoys more prosperity than human beings have ever known.
This progress has been made possible not by nature itself, but by people’s use of it. Over the centuries people have done their best to figure out how to use nature to solve our problems. This includes everything from curing diseases and automating food production to creating new means of transportation. It also includes the capacity to film nature in ultra-high definition, which we can then enjoy watching in the comfort of our homes.
This is why we, as a species, enjoy more clean water than ever – because of our ability to clean dirty water, and to move clean water from where it is to where we need it. This is why we enjoy more clean air than ever – because of our ability to replace dangerous home-burnt biomass and coal with centralised power plants, and to fit those power plants with cutting-edge anti-pollution technology.
But what of the impact of all this progress on the climate? Haven’t we made our planet more dangerous? Not at all. In fact, we’re safer from climatic events than ever before. That’s why climate-related deaths have declined by 98 per cent over the past century – because of, for example, our ability to build climate-resilient infrastructure.
Generations of humans, and the technology and wealth they create, have enriched and improved our environment. Shouldn’t we celebrate that and share our advances with the hundreds of millions of other people who still lack things like electricity and basic sanitation? Attenborough thinks not. Instead of striving for more people to have more, he chastises ‘those that have a great deal’, and urges them to ‘have a little less’.
Radical environmentalists, like Attenborough, see nature like a pie – as something that is fixed and finite. The more some are using nature, the less there is of it for others. From this perspective, our goal must be to stop producing, stop transforming nature, minimise our impact on the planet, and then nature will somehow take care of us.
Well, nature isn’t taking care of the people in, say, Ghana and Uganda. They’re ‘living in harmony with nature’, but when human beings don’t transform nature, the result is poverty.
Full post
7) And finally: Scientists concede they haven't got a clue what will happen to clouds and temperatures as the planet warms
Vox, 19 May 2021
Why clouds are one of the greatest sources of uncertainty for climate change.
What is a cloud? At the smallest scale, it’s simple: just moisture condensed onto a tiny particle — a speck of dust, a grain of pollen, salt spray from the ocean, or a mote of soot.
But as soon as more than one of these cloud droplets get together, things get chaotic, quickly. Scientists describe clouds as an emergent phenomenon, where smaller constituent parts give rise to sophisticated, self-organized patterns, like a school of fish swimming together or a murmuration of starlings.
This chaos is why clouds are so difficult to predict. But the consequences of this inability to see through clouds go beyond sunshine and shade; it’s also obscuring our understanding of climate change.
“How clouds change determines how warm it gets in response to a certain amount of greenhouse gas forcing,” said Angeline Pendergrass, an assistant professor of atmospheric science at Cornell University. And the stakes of how this relationship plays out are high.
Whether a given area sees more rainfall, drought, heating, or cooling in the coming years hinges on what kinds of clouds are present. And right now, scientists are still struggling to understand how this will unfold. Part of this is due to a lack of data about the myriad cloud varieties that are out there, part is due to a lack of computing power, and part is due to a spotty historical record.
Full post
The London-based Global Warming Policy Forum is a world leading think tank on global warming policy issues. The GWPF newsletter is prepared by Director Dr Benny Peiser - for more information, please visit the website at www.thegwpf.com.
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