[May 1-7’23] Phase out fossil fuels .. or just emissions?

12 chemical plants still emitting climate super pollutant, pumped hydro growing fast, GDP+social cost of carbon and Google still spreads climate misinformation via ads.

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Weekly Climate 🎉

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.

🙀 11 chinese chemical plants and one 1 emits climate super pollutant

😻 Pumped hydro is growing fast

😼 What would the impact of GDP be if social cost of carbon was included?

💩 Google promised to stop spreading climate misinformation but are still doing that.

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👩‍⚕️ Status: Climate & Science

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

[#heatwave] — An international team of scientists has found that the early-season heat wave that affected parts of Algeria, Morocco, Portugal, and Spain last week was almost certainly caused by human-induced climate change. The region is already grappling with droughts, and extreme heat can set the stage for devastating wildfires. Climate change is fueling extreme heat worldwide, and the development of El Niño could lead to more record-breaking temperatures in many places this year.

[#elnino] — And more on this years expected El Niño: The World Meteorological Organization reports increased chances of the El Niño weather pattern arriving by the end of summer, potentially leading to hotter-than-normal temperatures in 2024. El Niño is associated with warmer ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, and can affect precipitation and temperature patterns around the world. While El Niño is a naturally occurring phenomenon, some studies asuggest that it may be more extreme in a warmer future due to human-caused climate change.

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📰 The 7 Grand Challenges

⚡️Decarbonize Electricity

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

[#grid] — Consumers, governments, and clean energy advocates in various localities across the United States are pushing for local utilities to reimagine or take control of their electric infrastructure to make grids more resilient in severe weather, speed up the deployment of clean energy, and offer customers more choice. The existing system is seen as slow to adapt to climate change, and the increasing impacts of extreme weather events are exposing its vulnerabilities. Some localities are considering forming nonprofit public utilities governed by elected boards and run by private operators, while others are exploring sustainable energy utilities that depend on microgrids and connect homes and businesses to a local power source like renewable energy. However, entrenched utility companies are pushing back, and the process of creating public power agencies can be costly and time-consuming.

[#stiesdal] — Henrik Stiesdal, a Danish inventor and pioneer in the wind power industry, is now leading a start-up that bears his name, pursuing innovative ways to offer clean and affordable energy and tackle climate change. His suite of technologies includes massive tetrahedral structures for floating wind turbines, a new design for an electrolyzer that derives hydrogen gas from water, and an industrial oven that bakes farm waste to prevent carbon dioxide emissions. Stiesdal has raised about $100 million for his company and plans to mostly license the new products to others. He hopes to contribute to a significant cut in greenhouse gas emissions and ensure that Denmark and other Northern Europe countries stay in the forefront of the transition from fossil fuels to other energy sources.

[#hydro] — Hydroelectric power is undergoing a transformation with the expansion of pumped storage systems, which use two reservoirs to store excess electricity as water and generate power when demand spikes. China is leading the way with over 80% of planned projects worldwide, followed by the US and Australia. Pumped storage is becoming prevalent in countries where wind and solar power are also growing, helping to address concerns about weather-related dips in renewable energy output. Run-of-river facilities are also becoming more common, particularly in mountainous regions, as they are less environmentally damaging and produce smaller amounts of power. Conventional dams are becoming less prevalent due to environmental disruption, water evaporation, and water disputes.

🏘 Reduce impact of urban and rural areas

Lowering the impact of urban and rural areas.