THE BRIEF [Jun 5-11’23]
Wildfire smoke undoing anti-pollution work, talk about pollution instead of climate change and UAE oil company have had access to COP28
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.
🙀 Smoke from wildfires are undoing the work to reduce air pollution
😻 Solar is creating the fastest energy system change in history
😼 The terminator says talk about pollution instead of climate change
💩 UAE state owned oil company Adnoc have access to COP28 e-mails
This week’s highlights
[#co2levels] — Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have reached 424 parts per million (ppm) in May, marking a 3.0 ppm increase from May 2022 and the fourth-largest annual increase in NOAA's record. The levels are now more than 50% higher than they were before the industrial era, and rising CO2 levels amplify extreme weather events, disrupt marine ecosystems, and cause ocean acidification. Carbon dioxide pollution is generated by burning fossil fuels, cement manufacturing, deforestation, and agriculture.
[#climatefinance] — Most developed country leaders have not confirmed their attendance for the June 22-23 climate finance summit in Paris, while many developing country leaders have indicated they will attend. The two-day meeting aims to build momentum behind the push for reform of the global financial system so that developing countries can more easily finance climate action and other development goals. The US, UK, Japan, Italy, Canada, and Australia were missing from the attendance list as of last week, while France and Germany were the only major developed countries who have promised to attend. According to new research from the University of Leeds, wealthier countries like the United States and those in Europe could owe an eye-popping $170 trillion in climate reparations for their excessive carbon emissions, with the U.S. responsible for the largest share of $80 trillion. The study highlights inequities in the remaining carbon that the world can emit before invoking even more catastrophic climate events and attempts to quantify the dollar amount that would properly compensate historically low emitters like India and China as well as regions like sub-Saharan Africa.
[#policy] — Taking into account only the most credible climate pledges, global warming would reach 2.6C by the end of the century. However, extending this to include all climate pledges brings it down to 1.7C. The range of emissions outcomes for current policies out to 2030, followed by constant or increasing policy stringency over the rest of the century, is shown in the figure below. Case A, where only current policies are considered, shows that global warming can still rise to 2.6C by the end of the century, continuing thereafter. Case E, where all pledges are implemented, shows a 1.7C central value for best estimate emissions, but with still about 20% likelihood that 2C is exceeded.
That’s it for this week folks!
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