Climate Laundry Bulletin, 12 July 2024: A Break In Our Scheduled Programming

Earth breaches 1.5C for 12 months in a row

Ajit Niranjan in The Guardian reports on data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service that shows global temperatures between July 2023 and June 2024 were the highest on record, and 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) higher than pre-industrial era average. As Ajit notes, this doesn’t constitute a breach of the Paris Agreement goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 Celsius this century as that figure refers to a multi-decade average. Nevertheless, the news is extremely not good—or as Aditi Mukherji, a director at research institute CGIAR puts it: “Now imagine a human body with [that] temperature for years. Will that person function normally any more? … That’s currently our Earth system. It is a crisis.” (The Guardian)

China is building twice as much wind and solar power than the rest of the world combined

US-based research outfit Global Energy Monitor has calculated that China’s current build out of renewable constitutes two thirds of all wind and solar being deployed worldwide, with 339 gigawatts under construction. The US finds itself in a distant second place with just 40 gigawatts of wind and solar under construction. While the country is also burning more coal than every other country, as Carbon Brief has shown, the chances are that this mindblowing pace of electrification could see emissions peak this year, some six years ahead of schedule. (Global Energy Monitor)

Confusion over whether the UK has banned North Sea oil and gas drilling

It’s unclear whether the UK’s new Labour government has or has not banned new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea, following a flurry of conflicting headlines as well as denials from Downing Street. On Thursday, Scotland’s The National newspaper claimed Ed Miliband, the new Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, had announced a ban—but that article was subsequently revised (without any notes or timestamps acknowledging the change) to state that the government had denied any such ban; The National blamed a story in The Telegraph for the mix up. Aberdeen Live, meanwhile, left the ban story mostly intact, but noted that Miliband’s department had labelled the story a “fabrication”, which “left the [Scottish oil and gas] industry in the dark”. It’s all rather embarrassing to say the least, and it may be a few days before we can figure out WTAF is going on. (The National; Aberdeen Live)

Fifty years of oil industry efforts to delay climate progress

Research org InfluenceMap has released a report detailing efforts by the oil and gas industry to “oppose, weaken, and delay the energy transition since at least 1967”. The report shows that three major oil and gas industry associations—the American Petroleum Institute (API), FuelsEurope, and Fuels Industry UK—have for decades been using the same playbook to lobby very effectively against renewable energy and electric vehicles. The report outlines three distinct industry narratives from 51 separate instances of lobbying activity. These are:
1. Solution Skepticism, which casts doubt on the viability of renewable energy sources while emphasising their challenges and uncertainties.
2. Policy Neutrality, or dressing advocacy up in a narrative that claims to be “policy neutral”, emphasising consumer choice, “market solutions” and minimal government intervention.
3. Affordability and Energy Security, which makes the claim that fossil fuels are central to low-cost and secure energy supplies. Renewables are framed as a significant risk to affordable energy and energy security. (InfluenceMap)

Hurricane Beryl leaves 1 million Texans without power; Texas port resumes LNG processing

A particularly bleak Reuters headline juxtaposed widespread damage in Texas from Hurricane Beryl—a climate-supercharged event—with the resumption of fossil gas processing at an affected facility. The moral of the tale, obviously, is that increasingly extreme climate impacts must not be allowed to stand in the way of the activities that are directly causing those increasingly extreme climate impacts. The damage and loss of life in the US mainland, however, pale in comparison to the death and destruction Beryl wrought across the Caribbean, with some islands in Grenada having experienced “almost complete devastation”, The Independent reports. (Reuters; The Independent)