THE BRIEF [May 29-Jun 4’23]
Beaming solar power from space, use trees or machine to remove carbon? and clean energy investments take the lead (again).
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.
🙀 New study: Thresholds for a safe and just planet have already been breached
😻 Scientists at Caltech have managed to beam solar power from space to Earth for the first time
😼Should we use trees or machines to pull carbon out of the air (or both?)
💩 IEA’s new report shows that clean energy investments outpaced fossil fuels (again)
This week’s highlights
[#plastictreaty] — A new report from Pacific Environment urges world leaders to center climate change as they design a legally binding treaty on plastics, calling for a 75% cut in global plastic production by 2050 and a total phaseout of single-use plastics by 2040. The report assigns the global plastics industry a 4% share of the carbon budget and warns that the industry's current plans to expand plastic production could cause cumulative emissions of approx 65 Gt by 2050.
[#localfoodsystems] — This article highlights how women in U.S. island territories are leading the movement towards achieving food sovereignty by growing local food systems. With most food being imported to these territories, the vulnerability caused by importing food has become more apparent due to climate change. To address this issue, women are forming connections and advocating for policies that support local farmers, promote healthy and culturally relevant food, and build resilience in their communities. By growing local food systems, these territories can address vulnerabilities caused by importing food and ensure a sustainable future.
[#planetaryboundaries] — A new study, published in Nature, suggests that the thresholds for a "safe and just" planet have already been exceeded, spanning the areas of climate, ecosystems, and freshwater. The concept of "planetary boundaries" has been widely used in academia and policy spaces, but has also been criticized for oversimplifying a complex system. The updated study introduces a "justice" framework, which takes into account all species and ecosystems, emphasizes intergenerational justice, and examines local-scale impacts. According to the authors, adding justice considerations often makes the planetary boundaries stricter. The study warns that seven of the eight "safe and just" global Earth-system limits have already been breached, which means that there is no safe planet without justice. The study is the first to assess Earth-system boundaries at a local scale, allowing the authors to determine which boundaries have been crossed in specific regions and to identify "hotspots" for breached boundaries. The authors propose a "safe" surface warming boundary of 1.5C and a "safe and just" boundary of 1C, but note that the planet has already warmed by 1.2C, on average, meaning that the "safe and just" boundary has already been breached. The study has been praised for its contribution to the field, but has also been criticized for its scientific basis and the way it was produced.
That’s it for this week folks!
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See you all next week 👋