Episode 09 Text and Sources

Hear the episode here: https://www.spreaker.com/user/14101666/episode-09

Broken Planet Headlines 9

1.  Text adapted from Carbon Brief's June 11th Daily Briefing: Beginning with recent science, "A major new report warns that the dual challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss cannot be solved unless they are tackled together.  The peer-reviewed report is the first collaboration between the two UN scientific bodies the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.  Together, the groups “warn that the world is currently not doing enough to recognise that the climate and nature crises are inextricably linked,” with the two often “treated as separate issues in the political arena”. The report identifies actions to tackle the two issues simultaneously including “expanding nature reserves and restoring – or halting the loss of – ecosystems rich in species and carbon, such as forests, natural grasslands and kelp forests.”  “Food systems cause a third of all greenhouse gas emissions, and more sustainable farming is another important action, helped by the ending of destructive subsidies and rich nations eating less meat and cutting food waste.” The report also warns of “quick fixes” for climate change that risk harming nature, highlighting potential “climate and biodiversity fails”, such as misguided tree-planting and large-scale bioenergy crops."

2.  A new analysis from Oxfam finds that the world is on track to lose around 10% of gross domestic product per year by 2050 if greenhouse gas emissions remain on their current pathway.  The impacts of heat stress, sea level rise and less productive farmland will contribute to a fall in G7 nations of around 8.5% GDP per year, with the UK losing 6.5% per year and Italy 11.4%.  Poorer countries on average fair even worse, with India facing a loss of 27% per year and the Phillipines 35%.  Even if temperatures are kept under the two degrees Celsius threshold the UK is projected to lose 2.4% of GDP annually.  Another new report from the think tank ODI finds that India may have already lost 3% of GDP due to current levels of warming, and that in a non-warming world India's current GDP might be 25% higher than it is today.

Finally a report from the Network for Greening the Financial System, a body of representatives from central banks, concludes that a relatively quick and orderly transition towards a net-zero world - complete with a $160 per tonne carbon price by the end of this decade - would boost global economic growth.  A slower transition, meanwhile, could see GDP impacted by 13% by the end of the century before even taking into account increased extreme weather.

3.  An analysis by the website Carbon Brief - based on their own journal-published research - finds that climate legislation in G7 countries caused emissions to be 12% lower than they would otherwise have been by 2019, based on 1999 levels.  The authors attempted to distinguish between those cuts resulting from legislation and those resulting from socioeconomic changes such as the broad move from coal towards gas in many of the countries.  They also concluded that without any climate legislation emissions in Canada, France, Germany and Japan would have gone up during the 20 year period.

The G7 held their annual summit in the English county of Cornwall between June 11th and June 13th, with the event considered to be something of a warm-up ahead of the UN COP26 in Glasgow later this year, although climate was just one topic of discussion.  Critics feel that the summit was largely a failure on climate, with the group having little new to offer.  The G7 committed to phase out funding for new coal power plants overseas by the end of this year, but made no hard commitments on dates for phasing out use of the fuel in their home countries.  Critics also lambasted a lack of new commitments on climate finance for the global south.  The world's rich nations had previously promised $100 billion annually in such funding by 2020 but the goal was missed.  Only Germany and Canada promised any new money.  The climate minister of Pakistan called the G7 announcement on climate finance "peanuts in the face of an existential catastrophe."

Finally, the UK has pledged to provide COVID-19 vaccines to all delegates at the November COP summit.  The pledge highlights the discrepancy in vaccine rollouts, which have so far been much more limited in poor countries.  It has not been made clear whether vaccines will be offered to observers and journalists that plan to attend. 

4.  In other news on COP26 a coalition of MPs and union leaders from the UK have written to Alok Sharma, President of the upcoming summit, urging him to include discussions about a shorter working week.  The letter comes in the wake of a report from the campaign group Platform London last month that highlights the climate benefits of a 4 day working week with no loss of pay.  The report, Stop The Clock, estimated that the measure could reduce the UK's carbon footprint by around 21% or 127 million tonnes by 2025, including embedded emissions from imported goods.   Savings would come from reduced electricity use at businesses, less commuting, and less stress-related consumption emissions.  The report cites a 2006 study from The Center for Economic and Policy Research that found if the U.S. adopted EU working time practices such as giving workers more vacation time, its energy use could be cut by as much as 20%.

Finally in UK news it has been revealed that Home Secretary Priti Patel may have interfered in the police response to an Extinction Rebellion protest last September against a printing works site of Rupert Murdoch's News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp.  A trial of some of the activists involved found that police made recordings of multiple phone calls between Patel and the Chief Constable during the direct action, leading to defence lawyers arguing that it violated the principle of police operational independence from the state.  The action was intended to highlight the failure of the media to report honestly on the climate crisis, particularly those outlets owned by Rupert Murdoch.

5.  TC Energy, formerly known as TransCanada, has cancelled its bid for the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline after over a decade of struggle between its backers and environmental justice movements.  Joe Biden cancelled the company's cross-border permit when he entered office in January but as recently as April TC Energy was still pursuing eminent domain claims against Nebraska landowners.  Over 60 landowners are still engaged in legal battles against the company inside the state.  Despite the decision, Canadian oil sands output is expected to grow to 3.2m barrels a day this year and to rise further next year, according to one investment bank.  Regulators currently imagine a peak in oil sands production in 2039, at a level almost double this year's projected levels.  Canadian tar sands companies representing over 90% of the market recently formed the Oil Sands Pathways to Net Zero alliance, pledging to reach net zero by 2050, although they made no commitment to actually extract less oil and the pledge applies only to operations and not to the ultimate consumption of final products.  Despite the pandemic rising crude oil prices have caused investment in the oil sands to increase since May of 2020.  Investor confidence may be due to continuing plans to build the Trans Mountain Pipeline and expand Line 3, which combined would deliver almost a million barrels of tar sands oil a day to market if completed.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration predicted in its most recent short term forecast for crude oil prices to decline through the end of the year as global fuel consumption grows by 6% for the year and oil producers bring production levels back up following the pandemic.

6.  And finally, the Line 3 pipeline has spurred a number of protests in Minnesota in recent weeks as the company Enbridge attempts to complete the expansion of the 1960s-era project before the year is out.  On June 7th a mass mobilisation of over 1,000 people marched to the headwaters of the Mississippi River, near where Enbridge has a federal permit to bore underneath of it, with hundreds walking onto the site.  On the same day controversy arose when a federal Customs and Border Protection helicopter was captured on film flying low to the ground in order to sandblast hundreds of mostly indigenous protesters who had closed down a pump station for the pipeline.  At time of broadcast there appear to have been no repercussions for the department.  The actions were part of a 4-day indigenous-led Treaty People Gathering, although further actions have taken place since and it's estimated that 250 people have been arrested.  On June 14th the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed a previous approval of the pipeline from the state utility regulator.  Despite climate rhetoric from the White House the Biden administration has largely refused to engage with calls for Line 3 to be cancelled. 

Meanwhile the National Wildlife Federation has released a series of radio and TV advertisements starring Michigan actor Jeff Daniels critiquing Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline.  The 68 year old multi-use line continues to operate between Michigan's two peninsulas despite a May 12th deadline from Governor Gretchen Whitner to close the project down.  The National Wildlife Federation claims the pipeline is decades past its intended lifespan and poses a major spill risk, transporting up to half a million barrels of oil and natural gas liquids through the state each day.  Enbridge claims that the line can only be closed by federal regulators and has funded its own series of ads suggesting the closure of the pipeline would have major economic repercussions.

Finally in pipeline news legislators in Illinois have approved a new methane gas pipeline. The measure now awaits approval or denial from Governor J.B. Pritzker.  With support from Reverend Jesse Jackson, the 30-mile, customer-subsidised $10m line would run through the rural Pembroke Township. The community was once the largest Black farming community in the Northern U.S. but has in recent decades suffered from a lack of investment.  In 2016 Illinois passed a law that included plans to meet 25% of the states power needs from clean energy by 2025, but as of last year that number stood at just 7.5%.