carbon dioxide – Page 3 – Desdemona Despair

Energy footprints of British households in 2019, from international and domestic aviation (red) and everything else (grey), in the top 10 percent and the bottom 20 percent of incomes. The 102 gigajoules (GJ) used for flying by the average adult in the top 10% of earners in that year was more than the average person in the bottom fifth of earners used for everything, including flying, driving, and heating their homes. Data: Baltruszewicz, et al., 2022 / Ecological Economics. Graphic: Tom Prater / Carbon Brief

December 31, 2022

Richest people in UK use more energy flying than poorest do overall – “There is so much social injustice engrained in those who don’t have enough energy”

By Josh Gabbatiss 14 December 2022 (Carbon Brief) – The wealthiest people in the UK burn through more energy flying than the poorest use in every aspect of their lives, according to new research. The analysis of data from 2019 highlights “significant inequalities” in energy use across the country. Those in the top 10% of […]

The effect of Arctic wildfires on carbon release: Arctic wildfires accelerate the release of organic carbon from the soil into the atmosphere, which can strengthen the feedback to warming. Graphic: V. Altounian / Science

December 23, 2022

Unprecedented Arctic wildfires fuel climate warming cycle – “Larger and more intense wildfires could substantially accelerate the release of permafrost carbon into the atmosphere”

By Kat Kerlin 8 November 2022 (UC Davis) – From Sierra Nevada forests to Arctic peatlands, climate warming is turning some long-held carbon sinks into carbon sources as wildfires increasingly send stored carbon up in smoke. In the Arctic, vast amounts of carbon have been locked beneath frozen soil, much of it in peatlands. Climate warming dries […]

Rising sea surface temperatures in the Caribbean Sea since 1901. The waters around Puerto Rico have warmed by heat two degrees Fahrenheit. Data: EPA Climate Change Indicators in the United States. Graphic: EPA

December 20, 2022

Big oil is behind conspiracy to deceive public, first climate racketeering lawsuit says – “What’s different about this case is that we have their enterprise in writing: the decision by rival companies, their front groups, scientists, and associations to act together to change public opinion”

By Nina Lakhani 20 December 2022 (The Guardian) – The same racketeering legislation used to bring down mob bosses, motorcycle gangs, football executives and international fraudsters is to be tested against oil and coal companies who are accused of conspiring to deceive the public over the climate crisis. In an ambitious move, an attempt will […]

$Mole fraction of atmospheric methane (CH4), 1984-2021. Graphic: WMO$

November 19, 2022

Greenhouse gas levels hit new highs in 2022 – Biggest increase in methane since measurements began – “The continuing rise in concentrations of the main heat-trapping gases, including the record acceleration in methane levels, shows that we are heading in the wrong direction”

GENEVA / NEW YORK, 26 October 2022 (WMO) – In yet another ominous climate change warning, atmospheric levels of the three main greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide all reached new record highs in 2021, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). WMO’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin reported the biggest […]

Deforested area of Amazon rainforest in Brazil, 2006-2021, with large increases shown during the Bolsonaro regime. Data: Brazil National Institute for Space Research (INPE). Graphic: DW

November 19, 2022

Lula insists “Brazil is back” at UN climate summit

By Stuart Braun 16 November 2022 (DW) – One of the most-watched visitors to the UN climate summit in Egypt this week has been incoming Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — more commonly referred to as Lula. With his successful election campaign having included a promise to arrest record deforestation in the Amazon, Lula carried huge expectations into the yearly climate summit […]

Components of the global carbon budget and their uncertainties, 1960-2021 and projected to 2022. Components are presented individually for (a) fossil CO2 and cement carbonation emissions (EFOS), (b) growth rate in atmospheric CO2 concentration (GATM), (c) emissions from land-use change (ELUC), (d) the land CO2 sink (SLAND), (e) the ocean CO2 sink (SOCEAN), and (f) the budget imbalance that is not accounted for by the other terms. Positive values of SLAND and SOCEAN represent a flux from the atmosphere to land or the ocean. All data are in GtC yr−1 with the uncertainty bounds representing ±1 standard deviation in shaded colour. Data sources are as in Fig. 3. The red dots indicate our projections for the year 2022, and the red error bars the uncertainty in the projections. Graphic: Friedlingstein, et al., 2022 / Earth System Science Data

November 19, 2022

Global Carbon Budget 2022: Global carbon emissions in 2022 remain at record levels – No sign of decrease in global CO2 emissions – “This year we see yet another rise in global fossil CO2 emissions, when we need a rapid decline”

11 November 2022 (Global Carbon Project) – Global carbon emissions in 2022 remain at record levels – with no sign of the decrease that is urgently needed to limit warming to 1.5°C, according to the Global Carbon Project science team (Global Carbon Budget 2022). If current emissions levels persist, there is now a 50% chance […]

Satellite view of the turf farm site in the Qatar desert, August 2021. World Cup organisers have created a large-scale tree and turf nursery, the largest turf farm in the world, according to the organisers, in the middle of the desert. It covers an area of 425,000 m2. While irrigation uses treated sewage water, the claim that this will absorb CO2 emissions from the atmosphere and contribute to reducing the impact of the event is not credible as this carbon storage is unlikely to be permanent in these artificial and vulnerable green spaces, while carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for centuries to millenia. Lusail stadium is the largest of the FWC stadiums, with a capacity of 80,000 seats. It is represented here to show the scale of the turf farm. Lusail stadium is not located next to the turf farm. Photo: Google Earth

November 19, 2022

World Cup 2022: The “mirage” of carbon offsetting

By Stéphane Mandard 19 November 2022 (Le Monde) – Organizers will have to buy 3.6 million carbon credits to compensate for emissions, according to FIFA. Carbon Market Watch says this estimate is too low – and a long way off. FIFA claims that the World Cup in Qatar will be the first to be “carbon […]

Near-surface temperature differences relative to the 1981–2010 average for 2022 to September. The map shows the median anomaly calculated from six data sets: HadCRUT5, ERA5, JRA-55, GISTEMP, NOAAGlobalTemp, and Berkeley Earth. Graphic: WMO

November 7, 2022

State of the Global Climate 2022: Sea level rise accelerates, European glacier melt shatters records, extreme weather causes devastation – “What climate scientists have warned about for decades is upon us”

By Seth Borenstein 6 November 2022 SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) – Earth’s warming weather and rising seas are getting worse and doing so faster than before, the World Meteorological Organization warned Sunday in a somber note as world leaders started gathering for international climate negotiations. [Eight warmest years on record witness upsurge in climate change impacts –Des] […]

Projections of GHG emissions under different scenarios to 2050 and indications of emissions gap and global warming implications over this century (medians only). Looking beyond 2030, this figure projects global GHG emissions out to 2050 under different scenarios and indicates the associated global warming implications over this century. The figure illustrates the substantial increase in the emissions gap for 2050 if climate efforts implied by current policies and NDC scenarios are continued without further strengthening. Implementation of net-zero targets by around mid-century would significantly reduce these gaps, but even then, gaps with the 1.5°C scenarios would remain. Graphic: UNEP

November 1, 2022

UN: Inadequate progress on climate action makes rapid transformation of societies only option – “It is a tall, and some would say impossible, order to reform the global economy and almost halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, but we must try”

NAIROBI, 27 October 2022 – As intensifying climate impacts across the globe hammer home the message that greenhouse gas emissions must fall rapidly, a new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report finds that the international community is still falling far short of the Paris goals, with no credible pathway to 1.5°C in place. However, the Emissions Gap Report […]

New Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari (center), is pictured during a group photo in front of the Parliament in Stockholm, on 18 October 2022. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand / AFP

October 24, 2022

Sweden’s climate policy is in turmoil – Far-right government puts Environment Ministry under Ministry of Energy and Industry – “Historic decision that will have devastating consequences for climate issues”

By Anne-Françoise Hivert 22 October 2022 MALMÖ, Sweden (Le Monde) – It is quite a symbol: For the first time since 1987, Sweden has no proper Environment Ministry. Romina Pourmokhtari, 26, the youngest member of the government presented by the conservative Ulf Kristersson on Tuesday, October 18, has been appointed minister for climate and the […]