[Feb 17-23'25] ☕️ Coffee Prices Soar, GDP Could Pour

How Climate Change is Hitting Your Wallet

Your weekly cup of climate news, where today's headlines might affect tomorrow's coffee prices (and everything else).

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References: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] and [6].

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‼️ News you can't miss

Here's one important scary/bad (🙀), good (😻), interesting (😼) and fossil (💩) news item.

🙀 #GlobalEconomy — Climate change could halve global GDP by 2070 if emissions are not sharply reduced, leading to major social disruptions and economic breakdowns.

😻 #IPCC — IPCC achieves historic milestone with first majority-women authorship team and significant global south representation in upcoming cities report.

😼 #Coffee — Climate change's impact on coffee prices reveals complex interconnections between global warming and daily consumer goods.

💩 #ClimatePolicy — New Energy Secretary Chris Wright claims global warming has benefits, contradicting scientific consensus and undermining climate action efforts.

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👩‍⚕️ Status: Climate & Science

Let's look at how we're doing this week!

#IPCC — The upcoming IPCC special report on cities and climate change will feature a majority-women authorship team - 51 women and 46 men. This milestone also includes significant representation from the global south, with 39 authors from developing nations, marking a crucial shift in climate science leadership and bringing diverse perspectives to climate research.

#Antarctica — Atmospheric rivers are causing rain in West Antarctica, impacting ice shelves and potentially accelerating sea level rise. This phenomenon, which occurs even at sub-zero temperatures, highlights the effects of climate change and may become more common as global temperatures rise.

#GlobalWarming — Global temperatures have exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for 12 consecutive months, indicating a potential earlier breach of the Paris Agreement threshold than previously expected, with projections suggesting long-term exceedance may occur in the late 2020s or early 2030s.

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⚡️ Challenge: Decarbonize Electricity

Clean electricity is the one do-or-die challenge we must solve.

#RenewableEnergy — Despite Trump's anti-renewable energy stance and attempts to cut funding, the momentum towards clean energy in the U.S. is strong, supported by bipartisan investments and public demand, making it unlikely he can significantly disrupt the transition to a greener economy.

#RenewableGrowth — The US experienced record growth in renewable energy in 2024, adding 48.2 gigawatts, primarily due to the Inflation Reduction Act, but future growth is threatened by Trump's pledge to cut federal support for clean power, particularly impacting wind energy.

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🏘 Reduce impact of urban and rural areas

Lowering the impact of urban and rural areas.

#HeatPumps — European heat pump sales have dropped 23% in 2024, returning to pre-Ukraine war levels. This decline, driven by political uncertainty and economic challenges, raises concerns about meeting climate goals. However, the UK's 63% increase in installations shows that with proper policy support, clean heating technology can still gain significant market share.

#DataCenters — Utilities are reversing plans to retire coal plants due to rising electricity demand from data centers, leading to increased fossil fuel reliance, which raises concerns among environmental advocates about climate action and inflated demand projections.