Satellite view of construction at the Shentou coal-fired power station in Shanxi, China. In July 2017, China’s National Energy Administration ordered the plant’s owners to stop construction of two 1,000 megawatt units at the plant; in September 2017 the order was changed to “postpone.” Construction on the two units officially resumed on 28 March 2019. Photo: Google

In tougher times, China falls back on coal – “There’s a deep contradiction in this”

By Stephanie Yang 23 December 2019 BEIJING (The Wall Street Journal) – China’s efforts to wean itself off coal are losing steam, as the world’s biggest carbon emitter is putting economic growth and energy security above its ambitions to be a leader in combating climate change. Coal consumption is back near peak levels after rebounding […]

Hansen, et al. (1988) projections compared with observations on a temperature vs. time basis (top) and temperature vs. external forcing (bottom). Graphic: Hausfather, et al., 2019 / Geophysical Research Letters

Early climate modelers got global warming right, new report finds – “The warming we have experienced is pretty much exactly what climate models predicted it would be as much as 30 years ago”

By Robert Sanders 4 December 2019 (Berkeley News) – Climate skeptics have long raised doubts about the accuracy of computer models that predict global warming, but it turns out that most of the early climate models were spot-on, according to a look-back by climate scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology […]

Carbon dioxide emissions from natural gas, petroleum, coal, and land use changes, 1998-2017, in gigatons of CO2 per year. Graphic: GCP

Global carbon emissions growth slows, but still hits record high in 2019 – “Emissions cuts in wealthier nations must outpace increases in poorer countries where access to energy is still needed”

By Rob Jordan 3 December 2019 (Stanford News Service) – The runaway train that is climate change is about to blow past another milestone: global fossil-fuel carbon dioxide emissions will reach yet another record high. Driven by rising natural gas and oil consumption, levels of CO2 are expected to hit 37 billion metric tons this […]

Globally averaged CO2 mole fraction (a) and its growth rate (b) from 1984 to 2018. Increases in successive annual means are shown as shaded columns in (b). The red line in (a) is the monthly mean with the seasonal variation removed; the blue dots and line depict the monthly averages. Observations from 129 stations have been used for this analysis. Graphic: WMO

Greenhouse gas concentrations in atmosphere reached yet another high in 2018

GENEVA, 25 November 2019 (WMO) – Levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached another new record high, according to the World Meteorological Organization. This continuing long-term trend means that future generations will be confronted with increasingly severe impacts of climate change, including rising temperatures, more extreme weather, water stress, sea level rise […]

Graphs showing change in global human activities from 1979 to the present. Graphic: Ripple, et al., 2019 / BioScience

More than 11,000 scientists issue warning of climate emergency – “An immense increase of scale in endeavors to conserve our biosphere is needed to avoid untold suffering due to the climate crisis”

5 November 2019 (BioScience) – Scientists have a moral obligation to clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic threat and to “tell it like it is.” On the basis of this obligation and the graphical indicators presented below, we declare, with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from around the world, clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth […]

Shell’s “cracker” plant under construction in Pennsylvania. Photo: Keith Srakocic / AP

Will a push for plastics turn Appalachia into next “Cancer Alley”? – “It’s so obvious that they are trying to lock us into fossil fuels”

By Emily Holden 11 October 2019 MONACA, Pennsylvania (The Guardian) – Construction cranes climb into the sky and sprawl across the massive petrochemical facility that will turn a byproduct of fracked gas into plastic on the banks of the Ohio River, just outside Pittsburgh. Even at a distance, from the car park of a cancer […]

Air pollution (fine particulate matter PM2.5) in the United States, 2009-2018. in 2016, pollution started to increase significantly in the U.S. Midwest and West. Data: National Bureau of Economic Research. Graphic: The New York Times

America’s air quality worsens since Trump election, ending years of gains – “This increase is a real about-face”

By Nadja Popovich 24 October 2019 (The New York Times) – New data reveals that damaging air pollution has increased nationally since 2016, reversing a decades-long trend toward cleaner air. An analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data published this week by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that fine particulate pollution increased 5.5 percent on average across the […]

Clip from BP’s “Energy Illustrated” web series. Graphic: Spencer Dale / BP

BP chief economist to youth conference: “The haves must remember the have nots”

By Spencer Dale 23 October 2019 LONDON (BP) – It’s a great pleasure to be here this morning. One Young World is a big deal in BP. As you just heard, Bob Dudley is a massive fan. And many friends and colleagues have been delegates in the past and raved about it. So I’ve heard […]

Total fossil fuel financing by investment banks in 2016, 2017, and 2018. The financing has been led by the Wall Street giant JPMorgan Chase, which has provided $75 billion (£61 billion) to companies expanding in sectors such as fracking and Arctic oil and gas exploration. Graphic: RAN

Top investment banks provide $713 billion to expand fossil fuel industry since Paris climate change agreement – “We can all sit around pointing fingers at each other, but that doesn’t help solve what is a really complex and multifaceted problem”

By Patrick Greenfield 13 October 2019 (The Guardian) – The world’s largest investment banks have provided more than $700 billion of financing for the fossil fuel companies most aggressively expanding in new coal, oil and gas projects since the Paris climate change agreement, figures show. The financing has been led by the Wall Street giant […]

The top 20 companies that have contributed to 480 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent since 1965. At the top is Saudi Aramco, followed by Chevron, Gazprom, and Exxon Mobil. Data: Richard Heede / Climate Accountability Institute. Graphic: The Guardian

Revealed: the 20 firms behind a third of all carbon emissions – “The great tragedy of the climate crisis is that seven and a half billion people must pay the price so that a couple of dozen polluting interests can continue to make record profits”

By Matthew Taylor and Jonathan Watts 9 October 2019 (The Guardian) – The Guardian today reveals the 20 fossil fuel companies whose relentless exploitation of the world’s oil, gas and coal reserves can be directly linked to more than one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the modern era. New data from world-renowned researchers [Climate […]

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