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December 22, 2014
EESI wishes you a happy holiday season! Climate Change News will be taking a break for the next two weeks, but look for us in your inbox January 12. Thanks for reading!
The image this week is the one of the first global maps created using data from the new National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) satellite, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, which has been in orbit since July. The image shows increased carbon dioxide from biomass burning in the Southern Hemisphere. Image courtesy of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
On December 18, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) released a proposal to require government agencies to conduct a climate review for any planned project that would release carbon emissions equivalent to the exhaust of 5,000 vehicles (25,000 metric tons of carbon). The CEQ proposal modifies the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires government agencies to conduct environmental reviews on all projects they consider for approval, whether they are government agency projects or outside projects on government land. The guidelines build on a 2010 proposal to consider climate change in some government reviews. The Administration will accept comments for 60 days, in advance of issuing the final guidelines.
For more information see:
The Hill, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, The White House Face Sheet
On December 16, Washington state Governor Jay Inslee announced a proposal to fund the state’s transportation needs using bonds, fees and a carbon cap-and-trade on Washington state industrial polluters. The cap-and-trade piece of the legislation would create a gradually diminishing limit on carbon emissions from the top industrial polluters, as well as a market-based system to trade carbon allowances. Inslee estimates that the carbon markets created in the bill would generate $7 billion over a 12-year period, financing a significant portion of the total $12 billion transportation plan. The Carbon Pollution Accountability Act would fill a 52 percent decrease in Washington’s maintenance budget coming in 2015. Inslee hopes to fund a new six-lane floating bridge, highway and interstate widening and repairs, and more support for road safety projects such as rumble strips and guard rails, among other works. “We can clear our air and water at the same time we are fixing our roads and bridges,” said Inslee. “It’s a pretty elegant solution for the state of Washington.”
In related news, on December 8 the Northwest Economic Research Center at Portland State University released a report stating that a carbon tax would greatly reduce the state of Oregon’s greenhouse gas emissions, without affecting its economy or jobs significantly. The Oregon state legislature commissioned the study in 2013 with Senate Bill 306 (SB306). The findings may play a large role during the 2015 state legislative session, in which lawmakers will debate whether to join the British Columbia and California in restricting carbon emissions.
E&E News, Press Release, Portland Business Journal, Report
On December 14, the United Nations conference in Lima closed with the announcement of an international deal, the Lima Call for Climate Action, which is the first agreement to ever commit all 190 participating countries to reducing their carbon emissions. Each country has pledged to submit a plan by March 31, 2015 describing the domestic policies it will enact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Negotiators were able to get every country on board with the agreement by making it completely voluntary; countries can choose to submit accounting information, choose what kinds of emissions to reduce, and choose how much they want to reduce. The result is that the only consequence for noncompliance with the deal is global censure – there are no legal ramifications. “If a country doesn’t submit a plan, there will be no punishment, no fine, no black U.N. helicopters showing up,” commented Jennifer Morgan, a climate negotiations specialist at the World Resources Institute. United Kingdom climate change minister Ed Davey said the deal was an important step going forward to next year’s climate negotiations in Paris. “That’s when the real deal has to be done,” Davey said.
BBC, The New York Times
On December 11, Washington, D.C. based non-profit, ecoAmerica and the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions at Columbia University's Earth Institute released a report, Connecting on Climate: A Guide to Effective Climate Change Communication. The report examines the psychology of climate change inaction, and finds that there are several psychological barriers to greater collective action on climate change, including behaviors intrinsic to human nature. According to the report, distance, ideology, confirmation bias and messaging all play important roles in how action on climate change is perceived. “People have a hard time thinking about – or acting on – things and events that are perceived as far in the future, physically distant, happening to other people, or involving uncertainty,” notes the report. Instead, the authors state, the issue of climate change – like any risk – must be made local, personal and immediate. Discussions on climate, according to the authors, are best undertaken in group settings and when what matters to individuals is taken into consideration.
The Washington Post, Study
A new national poll released in December in collaboration between Yale, the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research has found that 60 percent of Americans support regulations to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Broken down by party, 72 percent of Democratic respondents and 50 percent of Republican respondents support carbon regulations. In addition, the poll found that 50 percent of Americans were in favor of an international treaty on climate change, 23 percent opposed, and 27 percent were neutral. Democrats were more in favor of U.S. participation in a treaty (67 percent support) than Republicans (35 percent support). Of the Americans who said they believe global warming is happening, 83 percent said the United States should be an international leader. Forty-one percent of participants said global warming is an extremely or very serious problem, ranking the issue 13th out of 15 environmental issues. The survey polled nearly 1,600 people in late November. The margin of error was +/- 2.9 percent. For more information see:
AP, Poll Results
On December 17, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a report, the Arctic Report Card: Updates for 2014, confirming that the Arctic has continued to warm at twice the rate of anywhere else on earth in 2014, an effect known as “Arctic amplification.” According to the report, Arctic amplification contributes to the shrinking of summer sea ice, declining polar bear populations, the reduction of snow cover, and the melt and darkening of the Greenland Ice sheet. In particular, 40 percent of the Greenland Ice sheet experienced melting in summer 2014 and its reflectivity reached a record-low value in August 2014. “The need for fast action is critical,” said Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development. “Reducing black carbon soot and other short-lived climate pollutants can cut the rate of global warming by half and Arctic warming by two-thirds, and is critical for slowing the loss of Greenland ice and reducing the climate feedbacks.”
The New York Times, Climate Central, Report, NOAA Press Release
Headlines
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1. DOE Announces 22 New Projects to Reduce Methane Emissions and Increase Efficiency
2. Midwest Group Asks EPA for Credit in Climate Rule for Previous Efforts to Cut Carbon
3. Ohio EPA Questions Reliability of Computer Model U.S. EPA Used for Clean Power Plan
4. Climate Change Melting Permafrost beneath Alaskan Village
5. NASA Shows Drying of Vegetation in Amazon May Accelerate Climate Change
6. EPA Says No Decision on Methane Regulations Until January
7. UK Think Tanks Release Climate Change Performance Index
8. Current Anthropogenic Climate Change Resembles Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
9. PolitiFact’s 2014 Reader’s Choice Lie of the Year is: “Global Warming is a Hoax”
Writers/Editors: Jessie Stolark, John-Michael Cross, Laura Small
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