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November 2, 2015
On October 29, 15 global Buddhist authorities, including the Dalai Lama, issued a letter to world leaders urging negotiators in Paris to achieve a deal that will keep the warming of the Earth’s surface beneath 1.5 degrees Celsius. Image courtesy of Wisconsin state government.
On October 29, Politico reported that Republican Senators Kelly Ayotte (NH), Mark Kirk (IL), Lindsey Graham (SC), and Lamar Alexander (TN) will launch a new informal coalition to broaden their party’s stance on environmental policy, especially in regards to climate change. Politico quoted the senators as saying, “the establishment of the working group shows the shifting political dynamics at play over environmental policy, with some in the GOP worried that Republicans' skepticism of mainstream climate science and opposition to air and water regulations isn't sustainable in the long-term." On Oct. 25, Sen. Ayotte became the first Republican senator to openly support the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan. In a campaign ad released Oct. 28, Sen. Ayotte stated, “protecting the environment is truly a bipartisan issue.”
For more information see:
POLITICO, Washington Examiner, Kelly Ayotte
On October 29, a bipartisan Maryland state commission unanimously called for the state to raise its greenhouse gas emissions reductions target from a 25 percent cut by 2020 to a 40 percent cut by 2030. The 26-person commission, which has members including six Republican cabinet secretaries from Republican Governor Larry Hogan's administration, the state congress, environmental nonprofits, labor groups and businesses, suggested the increase since the state is well on its way to satisfying its current goal. The recommendation would need to be introduced as a bill in Maryland's General Assembly to become state law. Maryland State Environment Secretary Benjamin Grumbles commented after the vote that Maryland is likely to create new jobs and businesses as it works to meet its current 25 percent reduction goal.
BaltimoreSun
On October 28, a $55 billion New York City civil-employee pension fund approved the hire of an advisor to analyze investments for climate risks. This pension, one of five in NYC, made the decision to prevent potential losses resulting from the impacts of climate change. Larry Schimmel, a lawyer who represents NYC Public Advocate Tish James on the pension board, stated that “a four degree [Celsius] increase will affect emerging markets, real estate, infrastructure, agriculture, timber, most asset classes . . . in negative ways.” The move came a month after New York Mayor Bill de Blasio publicly appealed to NYC's pension funds to divest from coal companies.
Bloomberg
On October 26, Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY) introduced two resolutions under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to block the Clean Power Plan (CPP), a regulation on carbon emissions from existing power plants, three days after the rule was published in the Federal Register. The following day on October 27, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) led a group of senators in introducing a senate version of the resolutions. “I have vowed to do all I can to fight back against this administration on behalf of the thousands of Kentucky coal miners and their families, and this CRA is another tool in that battle,” Sen. McConnell said in a press release. Even if these resolutions pass the House and Senate, it is unlikely they will pass with sufficient votes to overcome a presidential veto.
The Hill, National Journal, Energy & Commerce Committee, InsideClimate News
On October 27, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin (D-WV) announced his plans to submit a state blueprint for West Virginia to meet the emissions reduction targets set by the Clean Power Plan. That same day, West Virginia Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), introduced a resolution to block the new rule, following a lawsuit filed by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and other state officials and coal companies on October 23. “I’d prefer to have a plan in place when the time comes. If they [EPA] don’t agree with it then we’ll at least have a starting point where we can talk,” Tomblin said. It remains unclear whether he will consider taking a two-year extension.
Charleston Gazette-Mail
On October 27, nine prominent environmental and public health groups filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to intervene in lawsuits against the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) regulations on carbon emissions from existing power plants. The groups, the American Lung Association, Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Clean Air Council, Clean Wisconsin, the Conservation Law Foundation and the Ohio Environmental Council, also filed a motion to intervene in lawsuits filed against EPA carbon regulations on new and modified fossil fuel power plants. There have been at least 21 separate suits filed against the CPP, including suits filed by unions, utilities, business groups and 24 states, since the rule was published in the Federal Register on October 23. A further group of 15 state attorneys general, utilities, cities and other entities are also expected to file to intervene on behalf of the EPA's Clean Power Plan.
EDF, The Hill, NRDC, Motion
On October 28, lawyers from the Department of Justice filed a court schedule with the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, proposing that the Court accept briefs for a stay on the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan up until December 23, after which time the Court will rule. Opponents of the Clean Power Plan, a regulation on carbon emissions from existing power plants, have asked the court to set a deadline of December 11, which would lead the judges to make a ruling just as United Nations climate negotiations in Paris are finishing up. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) said the EPA is purposefully delaying proceedings, stating, “The Clean Power Plan is on legally vulnerable ground, and the agency knows it.” However, the DOJ's court filing notes that no litigants have opposed the proposed schedule. The court judges will have final say over the brief deadlines.
The Hill
On October 29, 15 global Buddhist authorities, including the Dalai Lama, issued a letter to world leaders urging negotiators in Paris to achieve a deal that will keep the warming of the Earth’s surface beneath 1.5 degrees Celsius. The statement calls for a shift to 100 percent renewable and clean energy, blaming fossil fuel use, unsustainable consumption patterns, and lack of public awareness/concern for our current predicament. “We must take action,” the letter states, “not out of a sense of duty but out of love for our planet and for each other.” With 500 million to one billion Buddhists worldwide, the statement has a potentially wide audience.
GBCCC, Central Tibetan Administration, Huffington Post, BBC
On October 30, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) released a report analyzing the contents of 147 countries' plans to cut emissions and take on climate change in the lead-up to climate negotiations in Paris this December. The UNFCCC found that implementation of the plans, called Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), would not meet the internationally agreed upon target of limiting global warming to less than the dangerous level of two degrees C and higher. However, the report notes that the national processes the countries created to prepare INDCs will help them take "enhanced action in the future" to limit global warming to below two degrees C. The INDCs submitted so far, which cover the equivalent of 86 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions in 2010, are expected to create "sizeable emissions reductions," and reduce emissions growth over the next ten years.
UNFCCC, Brief Overview
On October 28, the Climate Markets and Investment Association (CMIA) published a report indicating governments are expected to receive $22 billion in revenue from policies such as carbon taxes and emissions trading during 2015. Around three quarters of the $22 billion raised is from European policies. This marks an increase from last year, when carbon pricing policies raised $15 billion. The report says the increase is mainly due to increased prices and volumes of European Union carbon allowances (EUAs), United Kingdom and French increases in carbon taxes, and expanded coverage in California and Quebec's cap-and-trade system. CMIA forecasts that revenue from these sources will continue to grow and that the global community will need to engage in debate regarding "how these funds should best be used in future."
CMIA, Reuters
On October 28, British firm Verisk Maplecroft released a report which estimated that Southeast Asia could lose 16 percent of current labor capacity by 2045 as a result of an increase in days with unsafe “heat stress.” The countries that could be most affected by productivity loss are Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia, with 25, 24, and 21 percent drops in productivity, respectively. “Climate change will push heat stress impacts to boiling point, with significant implications for both national economies and the health of vulnerable workers,” said James Allan, chief of environment at Verisk Maplecroft. The firm calculated the drop in labor capacity using climate projections for heat stress conditions that hinder workers from performing physical activity. Out of the 50 cities at high risk of productivity loss, 45 were in Southeast Asia, potentially affecting some of the world’s fastest growing economies.
The Guardian, CNBC, Verisk Maplecroft
On October 27, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) released a report on the state of disaster resilience in the Asia-Pacific region, highlighting disaster risk reduction as the main goal for sustainable development initiatives in the region. As the most disaster-prone region in the world, the Asia Pacific has seen 40 percent of all global natural disasters in the past decade, resulting in $523 billion in economic damages and about 500,000 lives lost. The report stated, “For a region at such high risk of disasters, building resilience is not a question of choice, but rather a collective imperative.” The report also calls attention to the importance of early warning systems with guidance on how to provide critical information to at-risk communities.
UNESCAP, Thompson Reuters Foundation
On October 26, Nature published a study by Loyola Marymount University and MIT researchers which found that summertime temperature and humidity extremes in Southwest Asia will exceed the levels that most healthy humans can survive outdoors between 2071 and 2100. At high temperatures with high humidity, the human body's ability to cool off by sweating is impaired, making high humidity heat waves especially dangerous for prolonged exposure. The researchers defined a threshold for human survival as 'six hours of exposure to 95 degrees F condition' on something called a "wet-bulb" temperature scale, which accounts for humidity (the equivalent of 165 degrees F conditions on a regular temperature scale). The report says cities such as Abu Dhabi, Doha, Qatar and Dubai may have summer conditions that exceed this threshold in the end of the century, and that extremely hot weather by the standards of their current summers will "characterize the usual summer day in the future."
ScienceDaily, MedicalDaily, Study
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