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November 19, 2018
Researchers observed a significant uptick in deforestation in the Amazon coinciding with the campaign rhetoric of Brazil's president-elect. Image courtesy of CIFOR via flickr.com.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has proposed resurrecting a select committee focused on climate change for the 116th Congress, but some members of her party have expressed skepticism that such a body is still necessary. The original Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming was formed by Pelosi and existed from 2007 to 2010. The committee held hearings and informational briefings, but did not have the authority to pass legislation. Opponents to the select committee's return have expressed a preference for climate and clean energy discussions to run through existing congressional committees. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), who is expected to take over as chair for the Energy and Commerce Committee in 2019, said, "Right now we have…a lot of people on the committees that are real champions, so I don't think [a select committee on climate is] necessary." Other Democrats, including Reps. Don Beyer (VA), Jared Huffman (CA), and Don McEachin (VA), have expressed a desire to be involved in a new select committee.
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E&E News
Democratic and Republican legislators alike see an opportunity for collaboration on clean energy during the 116th Congress. Democrats have expressed interest in sending an infrastructure package with clean energy components to the White House. Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY), presumably the incoming chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and committee colleague Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) have pointed to energy efficiency gains for publicly funded projects, grid modernization to better integrate renewable sources, more resilient transmission lines, and incentives for electrifying vehicle fleets as potential areas of focus for a bill. The duo admitted a carbon tax or cap and trade remained unrealistic in this session. Instead, they hope to pursue legislation that's smaller in scale. Rick Powell, executive director of the conservative energy group ClearPath, said, "A lot of head-on climate things like carbon taxes are only the domain of moderate Republicans. But with clean energy innovation, there is a broad set of supportive folks who are significantly further to the Right.”
Washington Examiner
A new report released by the Association of Defense Communities offers an examination of military facilities across the country that have successfully integrated clean energy and microgrids into their operations. The Department of Defense (DOD) has previously cited the risks extreme weather poses to critical facilities, calling such disruptions "unacceptable." Installations had previously turned to diesel generators or natural gas turbines as backup sources of electricity, but the next generation of battery technology has allowed them to shift away from polluting sources. For instance, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar outside San Diego installed a microgrid consisting of natural gas, diesel, and landfill-to-gas power, alongside battery storage and 1.2 megawatts of photovoltaic capacity. The islanded microgrid can power the base and its more than 100 facilities for three weeks. Wilson Rickerson, a report author and consultant at Converge Strategies, said, "The DOD is deploying these projects because of increasing threats to the U.S. electric grid, but there is also an enormous opportunity for clean energy to serve multiple benefits to multiple stakeholders."
GreenTech Media
The government of Spain has announced a plan to convert its electric grid to entirely renewable energy sources by 2050, with an aim to fully decarbonize its economy beyond that. Under the draft plan, the country's greenhouse gas emissions would be cut by 90 percent relative to 1990 levels. This commits the government to installing 3,000 megawatts of wind and solar power capacity each year for the next decade. New licensing for fossil fuel extraction, including drilling and fracking wells, would be banned. In addition, a fifth of Spain's federal budget would be set aside for climate change mitigation measures, with spending increasing following the year 2025. The plan would allow for "just transition" contracts to be established to help workers displaced by the halt in mining. The transition package would include early retirement assistance, training in clean energy industry jobs, and environmental remediation of lands. Financing for parts of the plan would come from emission credit auctions.
Guardian
Members of the Trump administration indicated the United States government will once again lead a side-event promoting fossil fuels at December's annual United Nations climate summit. The climate summit will be held in Katowice, Poland, an active coal mining region and among the most polluted parts of Europe. The event would espouse the administration's opinion on the benefits of more efficient fossil fuel-fired technologies. Meanwhile, the United States will still be sending a State Department team to participate in negotiations on the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement. The 2017 side-event drew widespread protests and criticism, overshadowing the work of the U.S. negotiating team. The United States is the world's leading producer of oil and natural gas, as well as the only nation to announce its planned withdrawal from the climate accord. Several administration officials who had previously supported staying in the Paris Agreement have since left the White House, including economic advisor Gary Cohn and national security advisor H.R. McMaster.
Reuters
According to a new report from the organization Climate Transparency, none of the world's 20 largest economies is on track to meet its emission reduction targets for 2030. Currently 82 percent of the G20's energy is still supplied by fossil fuels. India remains the only G20 member to actually set a target in line with the recommendations of the Paris Climate Agreement to hold global warming below 2 degrees Celsius. The worst polluters in the group include Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. Although the country commitments outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement were intended to keep temperature increases between 1.5 and 2 degrees C, the report notes that the cumulative pledges are not enough to achieve this goal. According to a recently released report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the planet could reach the 1.5 degree C threshold as soon as 2030. The Climate Transparency report also called out the continued reliance of G20 nations on fossil fuel subsidies, which totals $444 billion annually.
CNN
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon nearly doubled during the country's three-month electoral season in anticipation of the arrival of Jair Bolsonaro as president. Bolsonaro has been a vocal proponent of aggressively opening more of Brazil's lands to logging and mining. The far-right president-elect repeatedly criticized the country's environment agency and sent signals of approval to entities illegally exploiting natural resources. Bolsonaro's tactic netted him large voting margins in the Amazon regions with elevated deforestation rates. A survey showed that deforestation was two and a half times higher than in regions that supported Bolsonaro's opponent. The latest forest loss figures were supplied by a Brazilian satellite monitoring system that makes its deforestation data public. Cláudio Almeida, a coordinator with the country's space agency, said, “Literature shows that several factors lead to an increase in deforestation: real estate speculation, expansion of the agricultural frontier, new infrastructures such as roads and ports and expectations of regional development."
Climate Home News
On November 14, a coalition of commercial fishers from California and Oregon filed a lawsuit against 30 fossil fuel companies for their contributions to climate change. The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations alleges the rapidly warming ocean has damaged their businesses and the well-being of their families and communities. The suit, brought in the San Francisco County Superior Court, cited algae blooms as a significant factor in crab fishing waters being closed off over the past four years. The suit states, "These changes threaten both the productivity of commercial fisheries and safety of commercially harvested seafood products. In so doing, they also threaten those that rely on ocean fisheries and ecosystems for their livelihoods, by rendering it at times impossible to ply their trade." The suit shares similarities with an earlier case levied against the fossil fuel industry. In that instance, a group of California cities argued corporations exercised negligence by failing to warn of the dangers associated with fossil fuel products despite advanced knowledge.
InsideClimate News
According to a new study in the journal Science Advances, improved management practices for America's forests, grasslands, and soils could produce up to a 21 percent offset of the country's annual greenhouse gas emissions. An emission reduction of that magnitude would be equivalent to taking every vehicle in the United States off the road. Some of the strategies highlighted by the report include restoring lands with tree planting, instituting more carbon-conscious logging practices, and using new agricultural techniques to improve carbon sequestration in soils. Lead author Joseph E. Fargione of the Nature Conservancy clarified, "We’re not saying these strategies are a substitute for getting to zero-carbon energy; we still need to do that too. But we think that natural climate solutions generally get overlooked." Some scientists were hopeful that some of the tools outlined in the study could help, but cautioned that other ideas may simply not be feasible given the scale necessary.
New York Times
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