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April 18, 2016
On April 15, the Environmental Protection Agency released its annual greenhouse gas inventory for 2014, revealing that methane emissions are 34 percent higher than previously reported. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, warming the climate 84 times more than a comparable amount of carbon dioxide over 20 years. The inventory also showed a one percent increase in emissions in 2014 from 2013's levels. See the full inventory here.
On April 12, the U.S. Navy announced it will begin requesting its large vendors to file reports on their greenhouse gas emissions and work to reduce them. Speaking at a meeting in Silicon Valley, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus stated that sea level rise and the melting Arctic, both linked to climate change, are changing the Navy's responsibilities. "We've got skin in this game," Mabus said. Although the measure does not mean the Navy will break ties with big polluting companies, emissions reports may affect how they choose between contractors. While the Navy is the first military branch to ask for emissions reports, it is only the second Federal agency to do so; last year the General Services Administration made a similar announcement.
For more information see:
ABC News
On April 14, the Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously passed a $37.5 billion bipartisan energy and water funding bill for fiscal year (FY) 2017, strongly supporting Department of Energy's (DOE) defense spending, next generation nuclear power, and a move toward doubling funding for basic research in energy. Notably, the bill represents a $355 million increase over 2016 levels and a $261 million increase over the President's request. Sen. Feinstein (D-CA) commented, "For most of the non-defense accounts, the bill essentially provides flat funding compared to fiscal year 2016. Given the budget climate, this is good news." The bill will now go to the Senate floor for consideration.
On April 13, a House Appropriations Subcommittee passed a similar $37.5 billion energy and water funding bill, which also strongly supports DOE's defense spending and nuclear energy work, but puts less funding towards renewable energy and more toward fossil fuels. The House bill includes a number of controversial policy riders, including restrictions on the Clean Water Act's jurisdiction; in contrast, the Senate bill does not have riders. The bill will now go to the full House Appropriations Committee for consideration.
The Hill (Senate), The Hill (House), Senate Press Release, House Press Release
On April 13, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and several others lifted a procedural hold on a bipartisan energy bill (S. 2012), after senators came to an agreement over Stabenow's proposed amendment to provide $600 million in assistance to Flint, Michigan, which is suffering from lead contaminated water. The energy bill, sponsored by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), would support energy efficiency measures and upgrades to the aging U.S. energy infrastructure. The bill, which could be the first major energy bill passed since 2007, has strong support from both sides of the aisle, with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) calling it "something very important and very much worth doing for the American people." The bill could come up for consideration this week.
The New York Times
On April 14, the United Nations (UN) released a list of 155 countries that have formally or informally confirmed that they will sign the Paris agreement on climate change this April 22, 2016 in New York, a record for the number of countries that will sign an international deal on its opening day. Of these countries, eight have also confirmed they will provide the UN with an "instrument of ratification" that day, signaling their consent to be legally bound by the deal. The UN notes that the information is subject to change. All 193 member nations of the UN were invited to sign the Paris agreement, and more than 60 heads of state have indicated they will attend the event.
United Nations, KSL
On April 11, Christina Figueres, the outgoing executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), stated that the international agreement on climate set in Paris last year could come into effect by 2018, two years ahead of schedule. In comments at an event at Imperial College London, Figueres explained that a target start time of 2020 was written out of the Paris deal, leaving the door open for earlier action. The agreement will likely come into effect on April 22, 2016, when countries are predicted to sign the Paris agreement at a ceremony in New York.
Climate Change News 1, Bloomberg
On April 12, more than 30 investment organizations with over 6 trillion in collective assets stated their intent to vote in support of a shareholder resolution asking ExxonMobil to disclose the risks climate change poses to its business. The investors, convened by nonprofit Ceres, include New York City Pension Funds, CalPERS, BNP Paribas Investment Partners, and Church Commissioners for England. The shareholder resolution asks ExxonMobil to "stress test its capital planning and business strategies for resilience in line with the globally agreed upon target to limit climate change to well below 2 degrees Celsius." Last month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ruled that ExxonMobil must include the resolution at its upcoming annual meeting on May 25, 2016.
In related news on April 14, ExxonMobil filed a suit in an attempt to block a subpoena from the U.S. Virgin Islands, which asks Exxon for 40 years of documents related to climate change. The Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker filed the request under an anti-racketeering law, saying the company committed fraud by denying the science of climate change when its in-house climate research showed it was happening.
Reuters, Financial Times, Ceres, Inside Climate News
On April 13, Peabody Energy (BTU), the world’s largest private coal mining company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a St. Louis Federal court. The coal producer has accumulated an estimated $10.1 billion in debt after four straight years of reported losses, including a loss of $2 billion in 2015. According to Peabody estimates, 50 coal companies have filed for bankruptcy recently, due in part to low natural gas prices, environmental regulations, and a slowing Chinese economy. Amy Schwetz, Chief Financial Officer at Peabody, commented that the "vast majority of assets that are producing today will produce for the foreseeable future . . . It's much more of a balance sheet restructuring than anything else."
Reuters, Bloomberg, USA Today
On April 14, Norway's sovereign wealth fund pulled its investments out of 52 companies that qualified as more than 30 percent active in the coal industry, due to new ethical guidelines passed in the Norwegian parliament last year and which came into effect February 1st. The fund divested from stocks and bonds in coal-related companies worth about $2.3 billion, and says it will divest from more companies by the end of the year, following a continued review. The Norwegian fund is financed by the country's oil revenues, and worth about $860 billion. The companies it has divested from are predominantly from the United States and China, and include Peabody Energy, China Coal Energy, and AES.
The Guardian, Bloomberg BNA
On April 12, three environmental groups filed suit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to push the agency to finalize an endangerment finding on aviation emissions, and set emission standards for airplanes. Earthjustice, the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The suit says EPA has unreasonably delayed setting aviation emission standards, and therefore violated the Clean Air Act. EPA proposed an endangerment finding on airplane emissions last year and is expected to finalize it this summer, but the groups say the process is taking too long. "The EPA has dawdled for almost a decade, even as airplane emissions are on track to spiral out of control," said Vera Pardee, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.
Reuters, The Hill
On April 8, Eugene, Oregon Federal District Court Judge Thomas Coffin ruled in favor of a group of young plaintiffs and Dr. James Hansen, who are suing the fossil fuel industry and the Federal government for failing to protect future generations from climate change. The group of 21 plaintiffs, ranging in age from eight to 19, say the Federal government is violating their constitutional and public trust rights by encouraging and enabling the widespread use of fossil fuels. Under the notion of public trust, the government needs to preserve natural resources like waterways and beaches for public benefit. The plaintiffs argue that the climate is part of the public trust and should be protected as well. The litigation was supported by Our Children's Trust and Earth Guardians. This case is one of many currently going through domestic and international courts.
Forbes, Our Children’s Trust, Press Release
On April 11, more than 120 faith-based and religious groups wrote a letter to Congress asking them to approve President Obama’s suggested $750 million contribution to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), an international fund to help developing countries adapt to and mitigate climate change. In the letter, the groups called the GCF a "new way forward in climate finance to build resilience and stability," and said Congress should use its leadership role to support it. While lawmakers did not appropriate President Obama's $500 million budget request for the GCF last year, the President was still able to find funds to make a $500 million initial GCF contribution this March. In total, the United States has pledged to contribute $3 billion to the GCF.
The Hill, Letter
On April 12, six new independent studies all found that 90-100 percent of climate scientists think that climate change is happening and caused by humans. The studies, published together in the journal Environmental Research Letters, found that the more climate expertise scientists had, the more likely they were to agree that anthropogenic climate change is happening. The finding confirms an earlier study published by John Cook at University of Queensland that 97 percent of climate scientists think anthropogenic climate change is happening. Study author Dr. Sarah Green at Michigan Technological University commented that the public has a "very skewed" view of the level of scientific consensus, due to surveys that include non-expert scientific opinions or are biased.
Climate Change News, Independent, Study
On April 11, researchers from the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) found that 12 percent of the Greenland ice sheet was melting on April 11, after beginning to melt the day prior. This is the earliest recorded ice melt in Greenland, beating the previous record by more than three weeks. Scientists attribute the record-setting ice melt to a combination of warm temperatures and rain from an unusual weather system, as well as climate change. Walt Meier, a scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), who also recorded Greenland's early melting, said, “This kind of freakish warm spell is another piece in the puzzle . . . we’re getting these things more often and that’s an indication of climate change.” Meier says that over the course of the next century, ice melt in Greenland could raise sea levels a couple feet.
Polar Portal, ABC News, Quartz
On April 11, a study published in Nature Climate Change revealed that under a high-emissions scenario, more than 73 percent of small island nations will become more arid by mid-century, due to increased evaporation of freshwater. Out of an estimated 18 million people living in small island nations, 16 million will be affected by reduced water availability by 2050. The study authors said that small islands have been "computationally disenfranchised" because they are generally too small to register in global climate models, leaving them with a lack of information about how climate change will impact them specifically. These small nations, including Easter Island, Mauritius, French Polynesia and the Marshall Islands, are also threatened existentially from sea level rise.
The Christian Science Monitor, Phys.org, Carbon Brief, Nature Climate Change
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