State of the Planet: First Hyperloop Test – Saudi Arabia Pivots – Millionth U.S. Solar Set – Agriculture Cleans Up

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 13 May 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.

You’ve always wanted to know what Eurovision singers and Environment Ministers have in common.

Ok maybe not, but the Daily Planet shows you anyway – in photos! Don’t forget to watch online on Saturday, 21:00 Swedish time.

How do #Eurovision contestants match up to EU climate ministers? Which is which? More: https://t.co/bPtFfOnoc0 pic.twitter.com/4RLaGeSWEF

— EIT Climate-KIC (@ClimateKIC) May 12, 2016

Soon, catching the “tube” could get a whole new meaning, with the First Hyperloop test taking place in Nevada this week.

Remember Elon Musk’s plans for a revolutionary new low-carbon form of public transport? A company called Hyperloop One – which so far has has secured $80 million – shot a sled at almost 200 kilometres per hour down a 58-metre-long test track in Nevada, Tech.Mic reports. The company hopes to get its Hyperloop system up and running by 2020.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e-Po9C8Kj8

Obama has said the Paris Agreement on climate change “wouldn’t have happened” without a united Europe.

It was Europe Day this week on 9 May, and the Daily Planet quoted the U.S. president as saying “perhaps you need an outsider, somebody who is not European, to remind you of the magnitude of what you have achieved,” before naming global climate change as one of the challenges that cannot be overcome without a strong and united Europe (with a special mention for… Eurovision).

The Daily Planet also gave you a look at how Europe Day was celebrated around Europe.

Following the devastating wildfires in Canada and elsewhere, insurance companies look at how to adapt to climate change.

It’s not just Fort McMurray in Canada that has suffered massive and expensive damage. Large wildfires are hitting spots on opposite ends of the world this year — from Tasmania to Oklahoma-Kansas, CBC News reports. And last year, Alaska and California pushed the U.S. to a record 10 million acres burned. Massive fires also hit Siberia, Mongolia and China last year and Brazil’s fire season has increased by a month over the past three decades.

The insurance industry has decided in the past two or three years that it must focus more on “de-risking” insured properties, another CBC News article reports, “spending to adapt to climate change as the effects worsen.”

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources has been renamed the Ministry of Energy, Industry and Natural Resources.

The rebrand is one of the more visible elements of a major overhaul of the country’s bureaucracy, as leaders are moving to implement a new economic plan to diversify the oil state’s economy, the New York Times reports.

Seeing the writing on the wall, big oil companies are looking for ways to get their slice of the low-carbon economy pie.

Bloomberg lists a number of examples of companies looking to diversify their business including French oil company SA, which has announced a $1.1 billion deal to buy the battery maker Saft Groupe. The article also names Canadian pipeline company Enbridge, which is set to pay $218 million for stakes in offshore wind farms as it attempts to double its low-carbon generating capacity.

Should we respond to climate change like we did to WWII?

In the U.S., proponents of “climate mobilisation” are calling on the government to use its power to reduce carbon emissions to zero as soon as possible, an economic shift no less substantial and disruptive than during WWII, New Republic reports.

But it may be more difficult to rally people around climate change, the article says, because the enemies in WWII were “clear and easy to demonise,” unlike climate change. There is no “Hitler or Mussolini of climate change,” those responsible for it are not foreign powers on distant shores: “We’ve met the enemy and he is us.”

Although energy production in the West has hit a record high, energy consumption and CO2 emissions are falling.

The total OECD energy production rose 4 per cent in 2014 to a record high, the International Energy Agency has reveald. But even so, energy consumption among the member countries fell, as did CO2 emissions from fuel combustion.

The millionth set of solar panels in the United States was installed sometime in the last two months.

Industry leaders expect the number of solar-powered systems to double within two years, Huffington Post reports.

You can now follow the EU’s 28 climate change ministers on social media.

The European Union risks lagging behind the rest of the world as it struggles to broker a quick deal between 28 countries in order to ratify the Paris Agreement. Some are quick to blame “Brussels” – but the Daily Planet unveils how national governments have lot to say in the EU capital. A handy list introduces you to all of the EU’s 28 national climate change ministers and their social media profiles.

Morocco says COP22 will be a moment for governments, cities and business to brainstorm about “new levels of cooperation and technology sharing.”

The organisers of the 2016 UN climate summit are promising to use the gathering to “brainstorm” solutions with leaders from cities, regions and business, Climate Home reports.

Meanwhile, a tweet announced that Morocco has started preparing the site where the conference will take place in November.

Bab Ighli: the COP22 commissioner kicks off the development of the COP22 village. pic.twitter.com/wezNrWEwKc

— COP22 (@COP22) May 10, 2016

Agriculture is starting to “clean up its act” in the United States.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released a report on the progress of its efforts to cut U.S. agricultural emissions by 120 million tons by 2025. The verdict? Progress is being made, Think Progress reports.

The EU and U.S. have called for more public-private investment in climate innovation.

The two powers have said they want to see a “substantial increase in public-private investment in research, development and demonstration (RD&D) projects to accelerate the implementation of low-carbon energy and energy efficiency technologies and clean energy commitments,” the Daily Planet reports.

Meanwhile, half of the world’s $370 billion in coal assets may be useless.

More than half the assets in the global coal industry are now held by companies that are either in bankruptcy proceedings – or don’t earn enough money to pay their interest bills, according to Bloomberg.

Banks that ignore climate risk now face a credit downgrade says S&P.

Financial institutions should prepare for “multilayered and significant impacts” of climate change, analysts at S&P have warned according to Climate Home.

And pension funds worth $433 billion are pressuring a major oil company to release a risk assessment of how it will be affected by climate change.

Huffington post reports how the pension funds are putting pressure on oil company ExxonMobil to start telling its shareholders how climate change will affect the oil giant’s business.

Looking for something to fix?

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

• Climate change will increase turbulence, flight times and fares. So says a new report by the University of Reading, the Telegraph reports.
• Five Pacific islands have already been lost to rising seas as climate change hits. Six more islands have large swaths of land, and villages, washed into sea as coastline of Solomon Islands eroded and overwhelmed, the Guardian reports.
• Climate change is making coffee farming more difficult than ever. In Costa Rica, coffee plants have been plagued by a nasty, newly arrived fungus, and last year, torrential summer rains cut our yield in half, a blog published by Huffington Post reports.
• 4 in 5 city dwellers live in overpolluted urban areas the WHO. Air quality levels are exceeding WHO limits for 80 per cent of those living in urban areas that track air pollution, CNN reports, putting people more at risk for respiratory diseases, stroke, heart disease and lung cancer.

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