This weekly round-up brings you key climate news from the past seven days, including an attribution study linking climate change to central Europe’s deadly floods and California’s latest lawsuit against Big Oil.

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1. ‘Heaviest Rain Ever’ That Triggered Deadly Floods in Central Europe Made Twice As Likely By Climate Change, Study Finds

The exceptionally heavy downpours that triggered deadly floods in Central Europe earlier this month, affecting two million people, was made at least twice as likely by human-made climate change, a new attribution report has revealed.

Storm Boris unleashed unprecedented rains throughout the region, causing rivers and reservoirs to swell to alarming levels. All affected countries – Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and northern Italy – experienced flooding and power cuts. Tens of thousands were evacuated and at least 24 were killed.

The four-day downpours were made at least twice as likely and 7% heavier due to human-made climate change, World Weather Attribution (WWA), an academic collaboration studying extreme event attribution, said on Wednesday. The group’s rapid attribution study revealed that the amount of rain that fell between September 12-16 was the heaviest ever recorded across Central Europe, and covered an area even greater than previous historical floods recorded in 1997 and 2002.

WWA warned that the continuous burning of fossil fuels will further increase the likelihood and intensity of devastating storms. In a 2C-warmer world, an event like Storm Boris would be 5% more intense and 50% more frequent, the 24 researchers involved in the study warned.

Read more here.

2. California Sues ExxonMobil Over ‘Decades-Long’ Deceiving Plastic Recyclability Campaign

Filed by the state’s Attorney General Rob Bonta in the San Francisco County Superior Court, the first-of-its-kind lawsuit seeks to hold the American multinational accountable for its active contribution to plastic pollution, one of the biggest environmental threats of our lifetime.

“For decades, ExxonMobil has been deceiving the public to convince us that plastic recycling could solve the plastic waste and pollution crisis when they clearly knew this wasn’t possible,” Bonta said in a statement issued on Monday.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) accuses ExxonMobil, one of the world’s largest petrochemical companies, of deceiving Californians for five decades about the real environmental impact of its plastic products. Through “misleading public statements” and “slick marketing,” the company allegedly tricked consumers into thinking that all of its products are recyclable, despite knowing that this option is neither technically nor economically viable for “the vast majority” of its products.

Read more here.

3. COP29 Host Azerbaijan’s Climate Action ‘Critically Insufficient’ to Meet Paris Goal, Assessment Reveals

Azerbaijan, the country selected to host the year’s most important climate summit, is “moving backward” on climate action, an assessment of its climate policies revealed.

Conducted by Climate Action Tracker (CAT), an independent scientific project monitoring governments emissions reduction plans, the analysis concluded that the country’s policies and targets are “far from consistent” with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to “well below” 2C by the end of the century.

To avoid overshooting the Paris goal completely, the world would need to reduce emissions by 43% compared with levels in 2019. And yet, according to CAT, Azerbaijan’s greenhouse gas emissions are set to rise by 20% to 2030.

In its latest Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submission, the country pledged to achieve a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century compared to 1990 levels. However, it dropped a 2030 target that was included in its predecessor.

“Overall, we rate Azerbaijan’s climate action as ‘Critically insufficient’,” the assessment concluded. “Along with setting a more stringent climate target, Azerbaijan needs to significantly increase the ambition of its climate policies to reverse the present rapid growth in emissions and set its emissions on a firm downward trajectory.”

Read more here.

4. World Leaders Commit to ‘Inclusive, Networked Multilateralism’ As They Adopt UN Pact For Future

The United Nations General Assembly on Sunday adopted a blueprint to bring the world’s increasingly divided nations together to tackle the challenges of the 21st century.

The 42-page “Pact for the Future” covers a broad range of themes, including peace and security, sustainable development, climate change, digital cooperation, human rights, gender, youth and future generations, and the transformation of global governance. It also includes two annexes: a Global Digital Compact and a Declaration on Future Generations.

“We are here to bring multilateralism back from the brink,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres as he thanked world leaders and diplomats for unlocking “the door” to a better future. “Now it is our common destiny to walk through it. That demands not just agreement, but action.”

Among the 56 actions and commitments that countries pledged to achieve are some addressing the climate crisis, such as accelerating efforts to meet obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement. The signatories also reaffirmed the COP28 deal – which calls on nations to “transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner to achieve net-zero by 2050” and to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 – and their commitment to the conservation targets set in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Read more here.

5. Earth in ‘Critical Condition’ As Six of Nine Planetary Boundaries Breached

According to the assessment, the first yearly scheduled report on the wellbeing of Earth systems, six boundaries have already been transgressed: climate change, biosphere integrity, land system change, freshwater change, biogeochemical flows, and the introduction of novel entities. Only three boundaries – atmospheric aerosol loading, stratospheric ozone depletion, and ocean acidification – remain within the safe operating space, though the latter is also quickly approaching the threshold.

“For the first time Patient Earth goes through a full Health Check. The verdict is clear – the patient is in critical condition,” Rockström said in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter).

First published in 2009, the planetary boundaries framework defines and quantifies the limits within which human activities can safely operate without causing irreversible environmental changes. It does so by identifying several critical Earth system processes and defining thresholds – or boundaries – that should not be exceeded to maintain a stable, sustainable, and habitable planet. Transgressing them heightens risks of breaching critical tipping points that would bring about irreversible shifts to the planet, threatening humanity and life as we know it.

Read more here.

The post Week in Review: Top Climate News for September 23-27, 2024 appeared first on Earth.Org.

In a 2C warmer planet, an event like Storm Boris in Central Europe would be a further 5% more intense and 50% more frequent, World Weather Attribution said on Wednesday.

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The exceptionally heavy downpours that triggered deadly floods in Central Europe earlier this month, affecting two million people, was made at least twice as likely by human-made climate change, a new attribution report has revealed.

Storm Boris unleashed unprecedented rains throughout the region, causing rivers and reservoirs to swell to alarming levels. All affected countries – Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and northern Italy – experienced flooding and power cuts. Tens of thousands were evacuated and at least 24 were killed.

The four-day downpours were made at least twice as likely and 7% heavier due to human-made climate change, World Weather Attribution (WWA), an academic collaboration studying extreme event attribution, said on Wednesday. The group’s rapid attribution study revealed that the amount of rain that fell between September 12-16 was the heaviest ever recorded across Central Europe, and covered an area even greater than previous historical floods recorded in 1997 and 2002.

The downpours formed as cold polar air from the north met with warm air in Southern Europe as it flew over the Alps. Heat and moisture drawn up from the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, which have been much hotter than usual for more than a year, exacerbated the storm, fuelling it for days before it moved back inland.

Days before the events unleashed, weather models flagged the potential of a “massive rainfall event” and “catastrophic flooding,” prompting scientists to raise the alarm and authorities to issue early warnings and prepare for the flooding. Ahead of the storm, Czech authorities released large volumes of water from tributary dams in the East of the country to bring reservoir levels down and create storage.

“These floods were big, widespread and hugely damaging. They were well forecast and the planning and action taken, by both individuals and authorities, undoubtedly helped save lives,” said Hannah Cloke, Professor of Hydrology at University of Reading and one of the authors of the study. “Yet many people still tragically died. For some, they were unable to imagine the effects of such intense rainfall. It is vital, as extreme rainfall gets more extreme, that we develop new ways of helping people understand the risks.”

WWA warned that the continuous burning of fossil fuels will further increase the likelihood and intensity of devastating storms. In a 2C-warmer world, an event like Storm Boris would be 5% more intense and 50% more frequent, the 24 researchers involved in the study warned.

The past nine years have been the hottest on record, with 2023 topping the ranking. Last year’s record-breaking temperatures can be partly attributed to the return of El Niño, a weather pattern associated with the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. However, despite the gradual weakening of the pattern, temperatures continued to rise. Earlier this month, European scientists confirmed that the world just endured its hottest summer on record. This string of record temperatures, they said, is increasing the likelihood of 2024 being even hotter than last year.

A warmer planet does not just impact events like Storm Boris. It also makes other weather events such as heatwaves and tropical cyclones more frequent and severe, besides contributing to further melting ice caps, rising sea levels, and the disruption of biodiversity and ecosystems.

The burning of coal, natural gas, and oil for electricity and heat is the single-largest source of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These are the primary drivers of global warming as they trap heat in the atmosphere and raising Earth’s surface temperature. Global fossil fuel consumption has more than doubled in the last 50 years, as countries around the world aim to improve their standards of living and economic output. In 2023, all three of the most potent GHGs – carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide – reached record highs.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has urged countries to halt new gas and oil field projects, arguing that this is the only way to keep the 1.5C-compatible net-zero emissions scenario alive.

“The 1997 and 2002 floods in Central Europe were described as once in a century events, but two decades later, global warming has increased from 0.5 to 1.3°C, and they’ve happened again,” said Bogdan H. Chojnicki, a climatologist at Poznań University of Life Sciences and one of the study’s authors, adding that Europe is warming faster than the rest of the world. “The trend is clear – if humans keep filling the atmosphere with fossil fuel emissions, the situation will be more severe.”

Featured image: Wikimedia Commons.

The post ‘Heaviest Rain Ever’ That Triggered Deadly Floods in Central Europe Made Twice As Likely By Climate Change, Study Finds appeared first on Earth.Org.

This weekly round-up brings you key climate news from the past seven days, including deadly floods in central and eastern Europe and a groundbreaking move to ban fossil fuel advertising in The Hague.

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1. Storm Boris: Record-Breaking Rainfall Floods Central Europe After Continent’s Hottest Summer on Record

The flooding events are among the worst to affect Central Europe in modern history. They follow Europe’s hottest summer on record and a hot start to September in the region as well as several consecutive months of exceptional warmth in the Mediterranean Sea.

They affected parts of Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Italy. They were triggered by Storm Boris, which unleashed unprecedented rains throughout the region. Many European rivers have swelled to alarming levels, including the Danube.

A hotter atmosphere, driven by human-made climate change, can lead to more intense rainfall. As the sea surface warms, so does the air above it, causing water to be carried up to high altitudes to form clouds, while leaving a low pressure zone beneath causing more air to rush in. As these systems build up, thunderstorms are formed, and if there are no strong winds to slow it down, they can become powerful storms.

According to London-based meteorologist Scott Duncan, Boris has been drawing cold air from the Antarctic before mixing with a moisture drawn up from the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, which is also much hotter than usual. The plunge of cold trapped the storm between the moisture to the west and east, slowing it down and fueling it.

Days before the events unleashed, weather models flagged the potential of a “massive rainfall event” and “catastrophic flooding,” prompting scientists to raise the alarm.

“A massive rainfall event is looking increasingly likely for parts of central Europe over the next few days. The reason: a slow-moving cut off upper low fueled by anomalously warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea. If anything near that verifies, catastrophic flooding is likely,” scientist Nahel Belgherze wrote on X last Wednesday.

Read more here.

2. No Mention of Fossil Fuel Phaseout in COP29 Presidency’s Agenda

Azerbaijan has unveiled a list of priorities for the upcoming climate summit, which included global energy storage, electric grids, and climate finance but left out the production and consumption of planet-warming fossil fuels.

In a letter to Parties and Constituencies published Tuesday, the COP29 Presidency outlined a series of voluntary initiatives and outcomes on its Action Agenda, laying out in full the series of pledges and declarations that it will use to supplement the negotiated COP agenda and accelerate climate action.

Notably, the Action Agenda did not include any mentions of phasing out planet-warming fossil fuels: coal, natural gas, and oil. This is despite the COP28 deal’s unprecedented call to “transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner to achieve net-zero by 2050 in keeping with the science.”

The appointment of Azerbaijan, a highly fossil fuel-dependent state and the oldest oil-producing region in the world, as the COP29 host has reignited debates over the role of fossil fuels in the UN summit as it marked the third petrostate in a row to host the talks after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last year and Egypt in 2022. 

Read more here.

3. The Hague Becomes First City in the World to Outlaw Fossil Fuel Advertising, Months After UN-Chief Call to Stop Fueling Disinformation

The Dutch city of The Hague passed a groundbreaking law on Thursday to ban advertisements promoting fossil fuel products and services, the first city in the world to do so.

Effective from January 1, 2025, the new ban applies to fossil fuel products and high-carbon services such as cruise ships and air travel. The legislation is a crucial step in the city’s transition to net zero, which it aims to reach by 2030.

“The Hague wants to be climate neutral by 2030. Then it is not appropriate to allow advertising for products from the fossil industry,” said Leonie Gerritsen, a member of the city council for the Party for the Animals and one of the backers of the new local law.

For many, the ban will have repercussions beyond the local level and could act as a potential catalyst for similar actions worldwide.

The move comes months after UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on countries to ban fossil fuel advertising in the same way they restricted tobacco.

“Many in the fossil fuel industry have shamelessly greenwashed, even as they have sought to delay climate action – with lobbying, legal threats, and massive ad campaigns. They have been aided and abetted by advertising and PR companies – Mad Men fuelling the madness,” Guterres said in a speech in June to mark World Environment Day.

Read more here.

4. Cities, States Leaders Call on World Leaders to Ban Fossil Fuels Ahead of UN Summit

The time has come for world leaders to listen to the voices of cities and states at the forefront of climate action and work alongside them to halt the expansion of fossil fuels, according to a letter signed by dozens of city and state leaders and addressed to UN heads of state.

The call comes ahead of the United Nation’s Summit of the Future, which is set to kick off on Sunday in New York, and the UN General Assembly High-Level Week. World leaders at the summit are set to adopt the Pact for the Future, an intergovernmental blueprint for multilateral governance in an age of crisis.

“As you meet for the General Assembly and Summit of the Future, we as leaders of States and Cities, urge you to transition your countries away from fossil fuels,” the letter, signed by 14 mayors, governors, and subnational leaders across five continents, read. Together, they represent more than 40 million people. The signatories hope their call will add pressure on national leaders to turn their positive words about transitioning away from fossil fuels – a pledge they made at last year’s COP28 –  into concrete action.

Home to 56% of the global population, cities are responsible for 70% of global primary energy consumption and 60% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. They are also at the forefront of climate change, vulnerable to water-related hazards such as floods, droughts, sea level rise, and storm events as well as extreme heat. But as their climate vulnerability grows, so do their efforts in mitigating and adapting to a warming planet.

Read more here.

The post Week in Review: Top Climate News for September 16-20, 2024 appeared first on Earth.Org.

In June, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said advertising and PR agencies are enabling planetary destruction and urged them to stop promoting fossil fuel companies and drop existing clients.

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The Dutch city of The Hague passed a groundbreaking law on Thursday to ban advertisements promoting fossil fuel products and services, the first city in the world to do so.

Effective from January 1, 2025, the new ban applies to fossil fuel products and high-carbon services such as cruise ships and air travel. The legislation is a crucial step in the city’s transition to net zero, which it aims to reach by 2030.

“The Hague wants to be climate neutral by 2030. Then it is not appropriate to allow advertising for products from the fossil industry,” said Leonie Gerritsen, a member of the city council for the Party for the Animals and one of the backers of the new local law.

For many, the ban will have repercussions beyond the local level and could act as a potential catalyst for similar actions worldwide.

British author, political economist and campaigner Andrew Simms said “any sensible, responsible authority” should follow The Hague’s example.

“The city of The Hague has declared it is no longer willing to promote its own self destruction by banning in law adverts for the most polluting products and lifestyles. After the hottest summer on record and the huge, rapidly growing health and economic costs of air pollution from burning fossil fuels, this legal move is one of the easiest steps governments can take at the city and national level,” Simms said. “When you are in a climate-crisis hole, the simplest thing to do is stop digging and that means not advertising the things that got you in trouble to begin with,” he added.

The move comes months after UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on countries to ban fossil fuel advertising in the same way they restricted tobacco.

“Many in the fossil fuel industry have shamelessly greenwashed, even as they have sought to delay climate action – with lobbying, legal threats, and massive ad campaigns. They have been aided and abetted by advertising and PR companies – Mad Men fuelling the madness,” Guterres said in a speech in June to mark World Environment Day.

In his speech, Guterres said advertising and PR agencies as well as news media and tech companies are enabling planetary destruction and urged them to stop promoting fossil fuels and drop existing clients. “Fossil fuels are not only poisoning our planet – they’re toxic for your brand,” he said.

Fossil fuel giants have repeatedly used international events, social media platforms, and influencers to promote their planet-warming activities.

A 2023 analysis by the Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) found that major fossil fuel corporations pumped millions of dollars into digital advertising in the lead-up to COP28, the year’s most important climate summit. The UN conference is notorious for allowing fossil fuel lobbyists to join the talks. According to an analysis by the Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) coalition, at least 2,456 representatives from the world’s largest polluters were granted access to the talks in Dubai last year. At COP27 in Glasgow, the number was 636.

In May of last year, CAAD also accused video streaming platform YouTube of profiting from ads on climate disinformation videos. The global coalition of over 50 leading climate and anti-disinformation organizations identified 200 examples of YouTube videos containing climate misinformation and disinformation, which collectively served ads to over 73 million viewers.

FIFA’s four-year global partnership deal with Saudi Aramco, one of the largest oil companies in the world, to sponsor the 2026 men’s World Cup as well as the Women’s World Cup in 2027, is just another example.  

Thijs Bouman, Associate Professor at the University of Groningen and author of the paper “A ban on fossil ads is essential, but other measures are also needed”, said that fossil fuel advertising “normalizes and promotes unsustainable behavior and discourages sustainable behavior, actively undermining current climate policy.”

“Major government investments are needed to counteract the negative effect of fossil advertising. If fossil advertising is banned, these resources can be better deployed, for example to strengthen sustainable options and facilities such as public transport,” Bouman said.

The post The Hague Becomes First City in the World to Outlaw Fossil Fuel Advertising, Months After UN-Chief Call to Stop Fueling Disinformation appeared first on Earth.Org.

Parts of Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia were flooded over the weekend as Storm Boris unleashed record-breaking rainfall. It comes after Europe’s hottest summer on record and unprecedented heat in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, which scientists say fuelled the storm.

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Parts of central and eastern Europe are experiencing some of the worst flooding events in modern history, which over the weekend killed at least eight people and displaced tens of thousands across several countries.

Floods have affected parts of Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. They were triggered by Storm Boris, which unleashed unprecedented rains throughout the region. Many European rivers have swelled to alarming levels, including the Danube.

As of Sunday night, eight casualties were reported in central Europe over the past two days, according to Reuters, including one firefighter in Lower Austria. Authorities on Sunday declared the area – the country’s largest and second-most-populous state bordering Vienna – a disaster zone.

In the capital Vienna, Wien River banks were partially flooded on Sunday as waters rose from 50 centimeters to 2.26 meters in the course of a day. Three districts lost electricity and two subway lines were partially closed.

A weather station in Czech Republic recorded over 450mm – or half a year’s worth – of rain over the past four days. Over 10,000 people were evacuated in the country and more than 50,000 were left without power in the country’s northern and northeastern areas, which were hit hardest.

The country is trying to buy time by releasing large volumes of water from tributary dams in the East to bring reservoir levels down and create storage.

In the capital Prague, flood barriers were put in place to contain a potential surge of the Vltava River. The system includes fixed and mobile barriers and safety valves in the canalisation network of the river. It was put in place after the city was hit by catastrophic flooding in 2002 in what was back then recognized as one of the most expensive weather-related disaster in the history of the city.

Two bridges collapsed in Poland, one in the historic southwestern town of Glucholazy near the Czech border and one in Stronie Slaskie, where a dam burst under the pressure of the raging Biala Ladecka river, according to media reports.

For hard-hit areas in the Czech Republic and Poland, these are the worst floods in nearly three decades.

On Sunday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) that his government will declare a state of natural disaster in order to mobilise resources from the European Union’s rescEU. These include firefighting planes and helicopters, a medical evacuation plane, and a stockpile of medical items and field hospitals that can respond to health emergencies.

During a visit in partly-flooded Klodzko, a historic town in southwest Poland, Tusk said the situation was “very dramatic.” Here, the local river waters reached 6.7 meters, well above the alarm level of 2.4 meters, The Guardian reported.

Further downpours are expected to continue until at least Monday, though they will ease in hard-hit Romania. At least four people died in Romania’s Galati county. Here, the storm damaged about 5,000 homes and left 25,000 without power, according to Reuters.

“The priority is obviously to save lives. At this moment we have all the necessary logistics to intervene quickly,” said Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu during a visit to hard-hit Galati on Sunday.

“Heartfelt solidarity with all affected by the devastating floods in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. My thoughts are with the victims and their families. Thank you to all those helping for their tireless work. The EU stands ready to support,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on X.

Record-Breaking Storm

The flooding events are among the worst to affect Central Europe in modern history. They follow Europe’s hottest summer on record and a hot start to September in the region as well as several consecutive months of exceptional warmth in the Mediterranean Sea.

A hotter atmosphere, driven by human-made climate change, can lead to more intense rainfall. As the sea surface warms, so does the air above it, causing water to be carried up to high altitudes to form clouds, while leaving a low pressure zone beneath causing more air to rush in. As these systems build up, thunderstorms are formed, and if there are no strong winds to slow it down, they can become powerful storms.

According to London-based meteorologist Scott Duncan, Boris has been drawing cold air from the Antarctic before mixing with a moisture drawn up from the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, which is also much hotter than usual. The plunge of cold trapped the storm between the moisture to the west and east, slowing it down and fueling it.

Days before the events unleashed, weather models flagged the potential of a “massive rainfall event” and “catastrophic flooding,” prompting scientists to raise the alarm.

“A massive rainfall event is looking increasingly likely for parts of central Europe over the next few days. The reason: a slow-moving cut off upper low fueled by anomalously warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea. If anything near that verifies, catastrophic flooding is likely,” scientist Nahel Belgherze wrote on X on Wednesday.

The post Storm Boris: Record-Breaking Rainfall Floods Central Europe After Continent’s Hottest Summer on Record appeared first on Earth.Org.

This weekly round-up brings you key climate news from the past seven days, including new controversies surrounding the European Union’s anti-deforestation law and a new report unveiling the killing of nearly 200 land and environmental defenders in 2023.

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1. Nearly 200 Land and Environmental Defenders Killed in 2023, Mostly in Latin America, Global Witness Report Reveals

196 defenders were murdered in 2023 while exercising their right to protect their lands and the environment, a new report has revealed, adding that the number of casualties is likely much higher.

This brings the total number of killings to 2,106 since Global Witness began reporting data in 2012, the environmental watchdog group said in its latest report published Tuesday.

Latin America made up 85% of all killings last year. Weak legal protections, high levels of corruption, and intense conflicts over land and resource exploitation make the region one of the most dangerous to operate in for environmental defenders.

Colombia topped the list of the deadliest countries for environmental defenders for the second year in a row with 79 murders – 40% of the total. In 2022, 60 defenders were killed in the country, which is preparing to host the year’s most important biodiversity meeting next month.

In neighbouring Brazil, home to the world’s largest rainforest, 25 defenders were murdered, while Mexico and Honduras each saw 18 killings. The latter has the largest per capita killing rate.

“Every killing leaves the world more vulnerable to the climate, biodiversity and pollution crises,” the report read. 

Read more here.

2. Tens of Thousands in Seoul Protest Government’s Climate Inaction Following Landmark Court Victory

More than 30,000 people took to the streets in South Korea’s capital Seoul on Saturday demanding more action on climate change, days after a top court ruled that the government’s climate policies violate fundamental human rights.

Protesters from all walks of life marched in Seoul’s Gangnam District under the slogan “Let’s Change the World, Not the Climate,” many holding handmade cardboard banners reading “Climate Justice” and “Change Now.” In a joint statement seen by The Korea Times, 611 civic and environmental groups said they were marching to “address the climate disaster and global injustice, and to protect a life of equality and dignity.”

The protest came just little over a week after a group of young climate activists scored a landmark victory at the Constitutional Court of Korea. The court late last month ruled that the government’s measures to fight climate change are insufficient for protecting the rights of its citizens. It was Asia’s first climate litigation ruling of its kind.

Read more here.

3. Italy’s Marmolada Glacier Set to Disappear By 2040 As Temperatures Rise, Researchers Warn

The Marmolada glacier, the highest glacier of the Dolomites and an UNESCO World Heritage site, is disappearing and could melt away completely by as early as 2040.

The 3,343-meter glacier, located in the Alps mountain range in northeastern Italy and also known as the “Queen of the Dolomites,” is disappearing at a rate of between 7 and 10 centimeters a day, a recent assessment has revealed. It lost around 50% of its original surface in the past century and another 50% in the past decade. Since 2019, the glacier shrank by an additional 70 hectares or the equivalent of 98 football pitches.

Scientists have repeatedly warned that the largest glaciers in the Alps, namely the Adamello and Forni, are experiencing similar challenges. The Forni Glacier is losing ice at a rate comparable to that of the Marmolada. Meanwhile, long-term measurements of the 3,539-meter Adamello indicate that its current surface is primarily composed of snowfall from the 1980s, highlighting the significant and ongoing decline in glacial mass.

Read more here.

4. ‘From the City to the Countryside’: Greenpeace Raises Alarm After Microplastic Found in 85% of Hong Kong Wild Mammal Feces Samples

A new study published Monday revealed the presence of microplastics in the feces of five wild mammals – buffalo, boar, macaque, porcupine, and cattle – with the latter having the highest concentration. Greenpeace collaborated with research teams from universities in Hong Kong and Taipei to collect 100 samples of feces in Hong Kong’s countryside between June and August 2022. They found a total of 2,503 microplastics pieces in 85% of the 100 samples collected.

The Greenpeace investigation revealed that microplastics commonly found in single-use plastic packaging, takeaway containers, and disposable utensils – also known as polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) – were the predominant types mammals ingested.

“The findings of this study are important, proving that wild animals can ingest microplastics in the countryside, where it is away from urban areas and human activities,” said Christelle Not, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Hong Kong.

Previous Greenpeace research conducted in 2021 confirmed the presence of microplastics in many of Hong Kong’s countryside streams, though Monday’s study marks the first evidence of microplastics reaching wild animals.

Read more here.

5. Brazil Urges EU to Postpone and Reassess ‘Unilateral’ Anti-Deforestation Law Over Fears It Will Affect Trade Relations

In a letter to the European Commission seen by Reuters, the Brazilian government said the law was an “unilateral and punitive instrument” that discriminates against countries whose economies rely on forest resources such as Brazil.

“Brazil is one of the main suppliers to the EU of most of the products covered by the legislation, which correspond to more than 30% of our exports to the community bloc,” the letter, signed by the Minister of Agriculture Carlos Fávaro and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mauro Vieira, said. “In order to avoid impact on our trade relations, we request that the EU not implement the EUDR (EU Deforestation-free Regulation) at the end of 2024 and urgently reassess its approach to the issue.”

Government calculations suggest the legislation could affect some $15 billion-worth of exports. According to Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade figures, as reported by Reuters, Brazil’s exports of products covered by the EUDR in 2023 amounted to $46.2 billion.

In April, European Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius said the law will come into force at the end of 2024 as initially planned in response to calls by an Austria-led coalition of 20 of the 27 EU member states to review the law. They argued that the new rules would hurt European farmers, who are also subject to the new rules.

Read more here.

The post Week in Review: Top Climate News for September 9-13, 2024 appeared first on Earth.Org.

Brazil sends more than 30% of its exports to the European Union. Its government calculated that the new anti-deforestation rules, set to come into effect at the end of 2024, could affect some $15 billion in exports.

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Brazil has urged the European Union to hold off on implementing the highly-contested anti-deforestation law at the end of the year, warning it would have severe repercussions on their trade relations.

In a letter to the European Commission seen by Reuters, the Brazilian government said the law was an “unilateral and punitive instrument” that discriminates against countries whose economies rely on forest resources such as Brazil.

“Brazil is one of the main suppliers to the EU of most of the products covered by the legislation, which correspond to more than 30% of our exports to the community bloc,” the letter, signed by the Minister of Agriculture Carlos Fávaro and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mauro Vieira, said. “In order to avoid impact on our trade relations, we request that the EU not implement the EUDR (EU Deforestation-free Regulation) at the end of 2024 and urgently reassess its approach to the issue.”

Government calculations suggest the legislation could affect some $15 billion-worth of exports. According to Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade figures, as reported by Reuters, Brazil’s exports of products covered by the EUDR in 2023 amounted to $46.2 billion.

In April, European Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius said the law will come into force at the end of 2024 as initially planned in response to calls by an Austria-led coalition of 20 of the 27 EU member states to review the law. They argued that the new rules would hurt European farmers, who are also subject to the new rules.

In an exclusive interview with Earth.Org in April, European Greens leader Bas Eickhout called the U-turn on the policy of some European countries “ridiculous,” and a “failure of the Commission.” 

“This is what you get when you don’t have a long-term vision. The credibility of Europe is at stake. What we have been trying to do with this deforestation law is to make clear that these European industries should not only do green policies within Europe but they also have a global responsibility… they need to be credible in the rest of the world,” said Eickhout.

Strict Requirements

First proposed by the European Commission in 2021, the anti-deforestation law – the first of its kind in the world – was formally adopted last year. It cracks down on commodities linked to deforestation and forest degradation for agricultural expansion, targeting cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soya, and wood sold within the bloc. The six commodities accounted for over 50% of total deforestation between 2001-2015, with cattle accounting for the largest share. 

The main requirement of the EUDR is that commodities sold within the bloc are “deforestation-free.” This applies to both legal and illegal deforestation.

The law also stipulate that the production of covered commodities must meet local requirements of land use rights, environmental protection, forest-specific policy, labor laws, and the Principle of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent as laid out in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Either the company that is placing a product in the EU market or the one exporting a product from the EU must provide a statement of due diligence, containing information and results of supply chain assessments carried out for a product.

These requirements will apply to all products containing, or produced with, covered commodities. All products set for placement in the EU market or being exported from the EU must comply with all EUDR requirements. 

More on the topic: Explainer: All You Need to Know About the EU Deforestation Regulation 

Controversies

The legislation’s impacts are regionally variable. For example, deforestation linked to cattle and soya occurring almost entirely in South America and particularly in Brazil. Meanwhile, palm oil-linked deforestation is heavily focused in Southeast Asia’s Indonesia and Malaysia, which produce over 80% of the world’s palm oil. 

Nations including Colombia and Indonesia have previously criticised the rules, saying they are costly and burdensome. This is especially true for agricultural smallholders, which own 25% of agricultural land and produce roughly 30% of crops globally.

While the companies in charge of importing and exporting products through the EU market are ultimately responsible for ensuring sustainable production, the documentation process is often spread to primary and secondary producers by larger corporations. In order to meet the documentation standards and legal production requirements of the EUDR, smallholders will need significant support and more capacity. 

Besides this, countries have warned that products are often hard to trace given that supply chains often span multiple countries, further complicating efforts to comply with the new rules. 

The post Brazil Urges EU to Postpone and Reassess ‘Unilateral’ Anti-Deforestation Law Over Fears It Will Affect Trade Relations appeared first on Earth.Org.

The 3,343-meter Marmolada, known as the “Queen of the Dolomites,” is losing between 7 and 10 centimeters of ice every day. In the past five years, it lost the equivalent of 98 football pitches.

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The Marmolada glacier, the highest glacier of the Dolomites and an UNESCO World Heritage site, is disappearing and could melt away completely by as early as 2040.

The 3,343-meter glacier, located in the Alps mountain range in northeastern Italy and also known as the “Queen of the Dolomites,” is disappearing at a rate of between 7 and 10 centimeters a day, a recent assessment has revealed. It lost around 50% of its original surface in the past century and another 50% in the past decade. Since 2019, the glacier shrank by an additional 70 hectares or the equivalent of 98 football pitches.

Legambiente sounded the alarm in a press conference on Monday. In 2020, the environmental group and the international commission for the protection of the Alps (Cipra) launched the campaign Caravana dei Ghiacciai (Caravan of Glaciers) in partnership of the Italian Glacier Committee. Speaking with reporters after their latest expedition, the team of scientists behind the campaign said the Marmolada is a “suffering glacier” in an “irreversible coma.” The melting ice, they explained, is leaving a desert of white flat rock behind.

“[W]e have recounted the suffering of a dying glacier, marked by an acceleration of the melting process that has impressive numbers and that requires urgent responses starting from sustainable governance of the territory,” said Vanda Bonardo, national Alpine Coordinator for Legambiente and President of Cipra. But this, she explained, is just the latest example of how the climate crisis is impacting the Alps, one of Europe’s highest and most extensive mountain ranges.

“The Alps are a fundamental place at a national and European level, but they are also increasingly fragile due to the advancing climate crisis,” said Bonardo. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that temperatures in the Alps will rise by 1-3C by 2050.

You might also like: Adapting to a Warmer World: How Ski Resorts Are Thriving With Innovative Strategies

Scientists have repeatedly warned that the largest glaciers in the Alps, namely the Adamello and Forni, are experiencing similar challenges. The Forni Glacier is losing ice at a rate comparable to that of the Marmolada. Meanwhile, long-term measurements of the 3,539-meter Adamello indicate that its current surface is primarily composed of snowfall from the 1980s, highlighting the significant and ongoing decline in glacial mass.

68% of the world’s glaciers are set to disappear at the current global warming rate, with at least half of the loss taking place in the next 30 years, a 2023 study revealed. By 2100, central Europe, western Canada, and the US will have no glaciers left. Even under the most optimistic scenario of 1.5C of global warming set out in the Paris Agreement, 49% of the planet’s glaciers – not including the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets – would still melt completely, the study said.

Around 10% of the world’s land surface is currently covered by glaciers, which store 70% of the Earth’s freshwater. Melting glaciers contribute significantly to sea level rise. Between 2000 and 2019, meltwater from glacier and ice sheet loss alone accounted for 21% of the global sea level rise. Glacial melting also threaten water supplies for up to 2 billion people and increase the risk of natural hazards and extreme weather events such as flooding.  

With global warming and rising temperatures, these massive ice bodies are retreating at unprecedented rates. Between 1994 and 2017, glaciers worldwide lost nearly 30 trillion tons of ice and they are now melting at a rate equivalent to 1.2 trillion tons a year. Among the glaciers that are disappearing the fastest are those located in the Alps, Iceland, and Alaska. 

Featured image: Wikimedia Commons.

The post Italy’s Marmolada Glacier Set to Disappear By 2040 As Temperatures Rise, Researchers Warn appeared first on Earth.Org.

This weekly round-up brings you key climate news from the past seven days, including new data confirming summer 2024 as the hottest on record and worrisome rise in wildfires in Brazil.

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1. Record-Breaking Summer Signals 2024 Could Be the Hottest Year Ever, European Scientists Say

This year is well on track to be the hottest on record after a record-breaking summer and the highest year-to-date global average temperature, European scientists confirmed on Friday.

The global-average temperature between June and August was the highest in the Copernicus Climate Change Service’s (C3S) ERA5 dataset at 0.69C above the 1991-2020 average for the same period and 0.03C higher than the previous record set last year.

According to C3S, a service operated by the EU’s Copernicus Earth observation programme, July was the second-hottest on record, just 0.04C shy than the average temperature in July 2023. However, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) later found it to be the hottest on record. July also saw two back-to-back record-breaking daily temperatures.

Between January and August, the global-average temperature anomaly was 0.70C above the 1991-2020 average, 0.23C warmer than the previous highest anomaly recorded in 2023. For 2024 not to be warmer than 2023, the anomaly for the remaining months of the year would need to decrease by at least 0.30C – a highly unlikely scenario, said C3S.

Read more here.

2. Bangladesh Floods Leave 71 Dead As UNICEF Warns of ‘Unprecedented’ Challenges

The floods, the worst in 34 years for the region, have affected an estimated 5.9 million people – including more than 2 million children – and left at least 71 dead as of Tuesday. More than half a million people were displaced, with thousands currently at evacuation shelters.

Speaking from the southeastern district of Feni, the epicenter of the flooding, UNICEF Deputy Representative to Bangladesh Emma Brigham on Monday talked about “unprecedented times” in the country as she appealed for support.

“Bangladesh is a country that is normally very good at dealing with cyclones, with flooding, they happen all too frequently. But this case is different. It’s happened in an area that doesn’t normally suffer from cyclones and flooding so the preparedness levels were not what they should’ve been amongst communities,” Bringham told CNN.

Read more here.

3. Drought-Stricken Brazil Sees 80% Yearly Rise in Wildfires in 2024 As Toxic Smoke Spreads Across the Country

Wildfires in drought-stricken Brazil have surged to the highest level since 2010 in August as government figures suggested criminal actions were behind the spike.

Last week, environment minister Marina Silva said during an emergency meeting with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva that the country was “at war” with fire, adding that the historic surge in blazes was “unusual” and was being investigated by federal police.

The biome has recorded 38,266 fire hotspots last month, more than double compared to the same time last year according to data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (Inpe). More than 80% of them were concentrated in the states of Para (36%), Amazonas (29%) and Mato Grosso (16%).

Read more here.

4. Italy’s Southern Islands Drought Made 50% More Likely By Climate Change, Study Finds

The “extreme” drought affecting two major Italian islands was made 50% more likely by climate change and exacerbated further by the region’s ageing water infrastructure, a new attribution study has revealed.

In Sicily and Sardinia – the two largest islands in the Mediterranean, home to 5 and 1.6 million people, respectively – a year of “exceptionally low rainfall and persistent heat” have created the perfect conditions for the exceptional droughts, among the worst on record. In July, both islands were in a state of emergency as bone-dry conditions led to devastating wildfires that destroyed farmland and forests. Sicily accounted for 45% of wildfires so far this year; Sardinia for 10%.

Conducted by World Weather Attribution (WWA), an academic collaboration studying extreme event attribution, and published Wednesday, the analysis revealed that without human-driven warming, the droughts on both islands would not have been classified as “extreme.”

Read more here.

5. Super Typhoon Yagi Nears Southern China After Killing At Least 17 in the Philippines

Yagi intensified into a Super Typhoon on Wednesday night local time and is currently the equivalent of a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane, with sustained wind speeds of 210 km/h (130 mph). It is expected to make a rare landfall as a super typhoon in Hainan in the evening of Friday. Between 1949 and 2023, of the 106 typhoons which made landfall in Hainan, only 9 were classified as super typhoons.

Typhoon Yagi formed as a tropical storm on Sunday in the western Philippine Sea. It crossed the islands, dumping 25cm (10 inches) of rain on the northern city of Luzon before moving westward toward the South China Sea. Yagi’s torrential rainfall led to floods and landslides in the northern part of the archipelago, killing at least 13 people.

Typhoons – also known as hurricanes in the North Atlantic, central North Pacific, and eastern North Pacific and cyclones in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific – are a rather common weather phenomenon, though there has been a significant increase in their intensity in recent decades, which scientific observations link to anthropogenic climate change. 

Read more here.

The post Week in Review: Top Climate News for September 2-6, 2024 appeared first on Earth.Org.

Sardinia and Sicily have been experiencing “exceptional” drought conditions intensified by climate change, leading to water shortages and severely compromising agriculture, which both islands heavily rely on.

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The “extreme” drought affecting two major Italian islands was made 50% more likely by climate change and exacerbated further by the region’s ageing water infrastructure, a new attribution study has revealed.

A drought refers to a period of abnormally dry weather long enough to affect water resources and availability. Rising temperatures are altering the water cycle in many areas of the world, leading to higher evaporation rates that dry out soils faster, intensifying droughts.

In Sicily and Sardinia – the two largest islands in the Mediterranean, home to 5 and 1.6 million people, respectively – a year of “exceptionally low rainfall and persistent heat” have created the perfect conditions for the exceptional droughts, among the worst on record. In July, both islands were in a state of emergency as bone-dry conditions led to devastating wildfires that destroyed farmland and forests. Sicily accounted for 45% of wildfires so far this year; Sardinia for 10%.

Conducted by World Weather Attribution (WWA), an academic collaboration studying extreme event attribution, and published Wednesday, the analysis revealed that without human-driven warming, the droughts on both islands would not have been classified as “extreme.”

The burning of coal, natural gas, and oil for electricity and heat is the single-largest source of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the primary drivers of global warming by trapping heat in the atmosphere and raising Earth’s surface temperature.

According to the UN, at least 1.84 billion people – nearly one in four people worldwide – across five continents experienced drought conditions in 2022 and 2023. If no action is taken, it is estimated that 700 million people will be at risk of being displaced by drought by 2030, and one in four children will live in areas with extreme water shortages by 2040. By the mid-century, more than 75% of the world’s population will be affected by droughts with an estimated 4.8-5.7 billion living in areas that are water-scarce for at least one month each year.

Sector ‘On Its Knees’

WWA predicted that the Italian islands will continue to experience exceptional droughts with further warming, with huge consequences on agriculture. Both Sicily and Sardinia heavily rely on agriculture and are responsible for about 10% and 7% of the country’s total agricultural output, respectively. The former mainly citrus fruits, olives, and grapes while the latter primarily grows wheat and barely.

Farming lobby Coldiretti said in June that more than 33,000 people working in the agricultural sector lost their job in Italy’s southern regions during the first trimester of 2024 owing to exceptionally dry and hot conditions.

“From Sicily to Puglia, from Basilicata to Sardinia, the damages linked to the lack of rain are multiplying,” the lobby groups said, adding that several crops have been “wiped out.” Wheat outputs alone dropped about 70%. In 2022, Italy’s wheat exports were valued at $216 million, making it the 25th largest exporter of wheat in the world. 

“The climate crisis is not ideological, it is a dramatic reality in Sicily,” Angelo Bonelli, spokesperson for the Green Europe political party, said at a rally in July, accusing the government of “leaving an entire region on its knees.”

“Farmers are uprooting vineyards, citrus groves, they are slaughtering animals because there is no water. This is a disastrous situation.”

Friederike Otto, Senior Lecturer in Climate Science at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment and one of the study’s authors, said that climate change is making the islands “hotter, drier and less fertile.”

“Crops used to produce Italy’s iconic cuisine, like wheat and olives, are dying in ferocious heat well above 40°C,” Otto said, adding that stopping the burning of fossil fuels is the only way to prevent droughts from worsening further.

Ageing Infrastructure

The drought has also led to months-long water rationing across dozens of municipalities affecting both local residents and tourists.

Experts have repeatedly warned that ageing water infrastructure and inappropriate water managing systems are worsening water shortages on both islands, with the WWA study reinforcing these arguments.

Sicily relies on 29 dams for irrigation and drinking water, most of which were built more than four decades ago. According to regional figures, at the beginning of the year these dams collectively held 23% less water compared to the same time last year, owing to a combination of low rainfall and sediment accumulation, which over time has drastically reduced the amount of water these damn can store. This prompted local authorities to declare a state of emergency.

But ageing infrastructure in Sicily also affects reservoirs and aquifers, which serve approximately 5 million people. According to recent data by the national statistics bureau ISTAT, aging water systems in Sicily led to water losses of over 51% in 2022, approximately 240 million cubic meters. In Sardinia, despite advancements and heavy investments in smart water management systems in recent years, total water losses that year amounted to 52.8%.

To further exacerbate the situation are inadequate sewage systems and agricultural runoffs, which pollute water, coupled with very limited water purification mechanisms in place.

“Limiting water loss from ageing, leaky pipes and increasing storage capacity in Sardinia and Sicily will help reduce similar water shortages in low rainfall years,” said Maja Vahlberg, Climate risk consultant at Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre.

In June, Sicily received the first €92 million of a €1.6 billion regional fund aimed at strengthening water infrastructure and increasing drought resilience in the region.

The funding is “only the beginning” of a series of interventions to improve the situation, said Sicily’s president Roberto Schifani. “We will ensure that Sicilian citizens and entrepreneurs can receive concrete answers as soon as possible to fill the long-standing gaps in our water system.”

The post Italy’s Southern Islands Drought Made 50% More Likely By Climate Change, Study Finds appeared first on Earth.Org.