Heat in the oceans is causing intense storms and rising sea levels
The Paris Agreement
The Paris Agreement central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Persuading the Committee on Climate Change to quickly reduce methane emissions
I admire the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) and welcome their recent report to Parliament. However, I read the report with the knowledge that the CCC is sponsored by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). I think that BEIS values business interests over climate climate change. (I have made a submission to the Labour Party Policy Forum, Climate Change and BEIS.)
Thank you for coming to the UN Headquarters today. I have asked you here to sound the alarm.
Climate change is the defining issue of our time – and we are at a defining moment.
We face a direct existential threat.
Climate change is moving faster than we are – and its speed has provoked a sonic boom SOS across our world.
If we do not change course by 2020, we risk missing the point where we can avoid runaway climate change, with disastrous consequences for people and all the natural systems that sustain us.
On Tuesday I attended a hearing of the York Local Plan Inquiry. I had a seat with my name on the table in front of it. I had been given a place at the first session to talk about climate change. I arrived in the morning ready to point to the effects the Local Plan would have on the climate emergency. I sat through the morning session waiting for the Inspectors’ topic on climate change.
1.8 Does the Plan include policies designed to secure that the development and use of land in the local planning authority’s area contribute to the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change?
I was informed in the lunch break that I would not be able to speak. Apparently, in my submissions, I had not addressed the relevant questions properly. Irritated and a bit emotional, I left the Inquiry. I can be seen on the video of the session mouthing “I’ve been banned”.
“There is a theme running through all this: sustainability. What’s the best way to be gentle on the planet?”
David Sillito, BBC Newsnight, reporting on the 2019 Stirling Prize from the Royal Institute of British Architects.
The winning entry of the 2019 Stirling Prize is a council housing development in Norwich, Goldsmith Street. The site is a mile from the centre of Norwich.
Submission to the Public Inquiry on the 2018 York Local Plan
I believe this submission on the York Local Plan addresses issues of worldwide importance. Worrying climate feedbacks are mentioned in the accompanying document The York Local Plan: Climate Change. These climate feedbacks are eating into the remaining carbon budgets. Keeping to these budgets is one of the few ways to stop climate change becoming completely out of control. These are described in a video on “cascading tipping points” in the video by Paul Beckwith [1].
I heard the news today on BBC, ITV [1] and followed up online [2].
One interesting story concerned a report by Oxford Economics [3] about how every new industrial robot would destroy 2.2 jobs in poor areas and 1.3 jobs in wealthier areas. Apparently, this will be countered by the increased economic growth that these robots will bring.
However reports in the media did not mention the effects of economic growth on climate change so perhaps Oxford Economics should do some more research.
A start would be to look at the global yearly emissions of CO2 and also at the Keeling Curve showing increased CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere:
I intended to respond to the Zero carbon economy: Call for Evidence from the UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC) but after a few weeks of being bedridden (nothing life-threatening), I missed the 7th December deadline. Having worked on preparation that I did not want to waste I have written this note.
Summary:
The Climate Change Act (2008) measures greenhouse gas emissions incorrectly.
This shows UK emissions falling sharply but ignores aviation, shipping and imports.
UK emissions, measured properly, are falling far too slowly.
Per person UK greenhouse gas emissions are nearly twice the global average.
To keep the global temperature rise to less than 1.5°C, there is a limit to global emissions – the remaining carbon budget.
At the current rate, global emissions will exhaust this budget in 12.7 years.
Unless emissions from production can be reduced quickly, consumption must be reduced.
That means #degrowth.
Most greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the affluent.
To save the climate, the affluent must consume less.
We need to find pleasant lifestyles that are climate friendly, which can attract world wide support.
A new disciplineis necessary … enhanced town planning.
The UK government’s climate brief has passed from an environmental department, DEFRA, to a business department, the Department of Business, Energy and Information Services BEIS.
BEIS is not serious about climate, promoting economic growth and fracking.
BEIS is the sponsoring department of the CCC.
The CCC must be freed from its sponsoring department, BEIS.
rss feed
