China’s Coal Cuts Hailed as Major Turning Point And 13 Other Key Stories

Posts 26 Jul 2016

Things are moving quickly as our planet makes the transition to a new, clean economy. You want to stay in the loop – but you’re busy, that’s why we keep an eye on the headlines for you!

Welcome to the 26 July 2016 edition of the Daily Planet’s weekly State Of The Planet. Don’t hesitate to send your tips and comments to @peter_koekoek or peter.koekoek@climate-kic.org.

1. Here are six iconic performances by superstar climate change activists.

It’s thanks to their unique personalities and performances that actors and musicians are able to inspire millions in ways that no climate activist or politician can match. The Daily Planet has listed a few examples.

2. Could Climate Action’s hopeful attitude inspire world peace?

Former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres has entered the race for the post of UN Secretary General. In a campaign video, the Costa Rican says she wants to lead a more hopeful, can-do community of nations according to the Daily Planet.

Last year’s Paris Agreement on climate change was not an accident, Figueres emphasises, but rather the result of “a strategy” and an “attitude.”

“We need a United Nations that reclaims its standing as a beacon of hope,” she said, “A reason for global optimism that calls us towards a really compelling vision of the future.”

3. China’s coal cuts are being hailed as a real turning point in the climate change battle.

Senior economists say the global battle against climate change has passed a historic turning point with China’s huge coal burning finally having peaked, the Guardian reports.

China is the world’s biggest polluter and more than tripled its coal burning from 2000 to 2013, emitting billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide. But its consumption peaked in 2014 — much earlier than expected — and then began falling, according to the Guardian.

In a new paper, economists including Nicolas Stern argue that this can now be seen as a permanent trend that could influence the rest of the world, not a blip, due to major shifts in the Chinese economy and a crackdown on pollution, the Guardian reports.

Reuters also reported last week that China has now set up a special coal asset management firm as part of its effort to reduce excess capacity in the sector.

4. But climate climate is still breaking new records globally.

During the first six months of this year, global temperatures shattered records. The data signals 2016 is on track to be the world’s hottest year ever, according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

Arctic sea ice also melted early and fast – another indicator of climate change. Carbon dioxide levels have reached new highs as well, the WMO reports.

5. The UN will start deploying new Google software in the fight against climate change.

Google has developed new software that will help the UN combat climate change by controlling deforestation and organising more efficient food production, Android Headlines reports.

The new software is capable of making maps that used to take three years to develop in just under a week, according to Android Headlines. The “Open Foris” software is described as an online platform that uses satellite images to monitor environmental changes and the environment in general.

The software can also be used to inspect water resources and even evaluate locations for refugee camps based on availability of firewood for cooking.

6. The Middle East has been dealing with a major heatwave.

Iran, Iraq and northern portions of the Arabian Peninsula are experiencing a heatwave, Al Jazeera reports.

The temperatures reported are extreme, according to the news network. Kuwait reported a maximum of 54.0 degrees Celsius. Globally, only Death Valley in California has recorded higher temperatures with an absolute record of 56.7 degrees according to Al Jazeera.

7. The Paris Agreement’s mysterious Article 10 could help solve climate change.

Demystifying something called ‘technology transfer’ will be absolutely critical to the Paris Agreement’s success according to Climate-KIC’s Andrea Karpati.

It is so important that the historic climate deal struck in Paris last year includes a specific article about it – the mysterious Article 10. Karpati’s piece in the Daily Planet explains what it is and why it matters.

8. In its quest for world domination, Tesla is racing to finish a “gigafactory” in time for the rollout of its Model 3 car.

Tesla Motors is working around the clock to finish building a massive $5 billion battery factory – years ahead of schedule, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The electric car maker has doubled the number of people constructing the “gigafactory,” which sits on more than 3,000 acres in the US state of Nevada. Now, 1,000 workers build seven days a week on two shifts in an effort to start churning out lithium-ion cells by late 2016, according to the Wall Street Journal.

If Tesla’s new plant is successful, it could outpace all the world’s similar factories by a factor of 10.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted he is looking forward to the factory’s opening party.

9. Musk also released his super-secret business “masterplan” on Tesla’s blog.

Tesla’s high-profile CEO has outlined his vision for the electric car company in a blog post, explaining that it covers the full breadth of the sustainable energy chain — from generation and storage, to electrification of the entire vehicle fleet and the sharing economy, GreenBiz reports.

The entrepreneur says he sees Tesla as consolidating all parts of that chain into a single company, and he wants that company to blaze the trail for a more sustainable future, according to GreenBiz.

You can read Musk’s blog post here.

10. ‘Paris – The Sequel’ hopes to clamp down on a coolant that threatens to heat up the climate: HFCs.

A type of gases found in air-conditioners, refrigerators and aerosols are known as hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, and can be vastly more powerful for global warming than carbon dioxide an article in the New York Times explains.

HFCs are on track to contribute up to 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, according to the New York Times article. World leaders were in Vienna last week to discuss these pollutants and are expected to agree on a plan to quickly replace them with safer alternatives.

HFCs have become widespread following the phaseout of another refrigerant and aerosol propellant, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), under a 1987 climate treaty known as the Montreal Protocol the New York Times article says. The gases were rapidly depleting the planet’s ozone layer.

The Montreal Protocol’s exclusive focus on stopping ozone depletion left a loophole, the article explains. Industry swapped CFCs for HFCs, resulting in a 258 per cent increase in the use of heat-trapping HFCs since 1990.

A new UN report, meanwhile, suggests alternatives to HFCs.

11. John Kerry says climate change is as dangerous as terrorism.

Speaking at the HFC conference in Vienna, Kerry said climate change might not get as much public attention as terrorism, but that the meeting in Austria was as important as a gathering he hosted only Thursday in Washington on combating terrorism, the AP reports.

12. Used solar panels offer a significant business opportunity, according to a new report.

The world had 227 gigawatts of installed solar panel capacity in 2015, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and this figure is expected to reach 4,500 by 2050. A more than 1,800 per cent increase.

This gigantic increase is set to result in a huge amount of electronic waste as solar panels reach the end of their roughly 30-year life span, IRENA points out.

But with this waste, comes new opportunity. By 2050, solar panel waste – comprised mostly of glass –- could total 78 million tonnes. If fully injected back into the economy, the value of the recovered glass and other raw materials could exceed $15 billion by 2050 IRENA says.

13. The worldwide extraction of raw materials has tripled in the last four decades, intensifying climate change and air pollution.

Rising consumption, fuelled by a growing middle class, has seen the amount of primary materials extracted from the Earth triple in the last four decades, according to a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme.

The dramatic increase in the use of fossil fuels, metals and other materials will intensify climate change, according to the report. It will increase air pollution, reduce biodiversity and ultimately lead to the depletion of natural resources, causing worrying shortages of critical materials and heightening the risk of local conflicts, the report warns.

14. Want to do something? You could start your own plastics recycling business.

A designer from the Netherlands wants to help you set up your own plastics recycling plant, the Daily Planet reports. Project Precious Plastic provides open-source information and instructions on how to build the machines needed to recycle plastic.

Looking for something to fix?

Some of these stories may just inspire your next business venture:

  • Poor people in developing countries need extreme weather alerts. So writes Kofi Annan, the UN’s former Secretary General.
  • Climate change is raising peat fire risk. Drying bogs are increasingly flammable, researchers warn, fuelling blazes from Fort McMurray in Canada to southeast Asia, Climate Home reports.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to receive next week’s State Of The Planet in your inbox. Don’t hesitate to send your tips and comments to @peter_koekoek or peter.koekoek@climate-kic.org!

 
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