Climate Change
and Energy - by Henry Adams
Some key facts
NB: 97% of global warming is of the
oceans: 
<
click to enlarge
Global air surface retains a much smaller proportion of the
heat.
Thus when considering global warming trends over the years, don't ignore
ocean heating - a significant intermediary to
atmospheric warming.
That's from IPCC budget data. A number of reputable climate scientists
reckon the "budget" already blown.
Key facts, graphs etc by SGR's climate
scientist Dr Stuart Parkinson: 'Climate
change: an introduction to the key issues' (pdf of a presentation).
'The
oceans are warming so fast, they keep breaking scientists' charts'
John Abraham 22jan15, The Guardian. "NOAA
once again has to rescale its ocean heat chart to capture 2014 ocean
warming ... Some
people tried to tell us global warming had “paused”, that it ended in
1998, or that the past 15 years or so had not seen a change in the
energy of the Earth. This ocean warming data is the clearest nail in
that coffin. There
never was a pause to global warming,
there never was a halt" and also "This
past year [2014], global air temperatures were record-breaking.
" It depends what you are measuring, bearing
in mind that oceans absorb most of the heat, whereas we more often look at
air temperatures. By the way: Ocean warming expansion contributes about a
third of sea-level rises, melting polar ice sheets/caps (not floating ice)
another third, melting mountain glaciers another third.
Melting ice sheets, both Arctic
(Greenland) & Antarctic, and impact
on sea-levels: 'New
NASA videos show stark ice loss from Earth's ice sheets' - Carbon
Brief 27aug15.
Climate sensitivity to CO2 - are recent estimates
de/in-creasing? & was IPCC about right in their 5th report in 2013? -
An-up-to-date
review by Dana Nuccitelli (10mar14).
The
human
fingerprint in global warming http://www.skepticalscience.com/its-not-us.htm EMISSIONS
INFOGRAPHIC & PBL NEAA report etc.
Emissions growth slowing down? decoupling from
GDP?
I
don't apply the word 'belief' to the argument of man as
the main cause of recent and present climate change -
but instead use the word 'likelihood', and IPCC's "95%
likelihood" is an appropriate expression.
Most
citable
web-page: Unburnable
carbon
2013 - Carbon Tracker 2013's
most
useful and readable book re tackling climate change: The Burning Question
New IPCC report Executive Summary September 2013 IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change 5th report AND Resilience website's 'IPCC Climate Report Release - headlines'
The
IPCC
2013 report: scientists are now 95 percent certain that
humans are the main driver of global warming.
FoE (Simon Bullock) adds to the above 2 reports, re: 'Unburnable coal, oil… and gas.' 25oct13 Friends of
the Earth
Is
there a "consensus" view amongst scientists, in particular: climate
scientists?
Obviously this depends on how you define 'consensus', how broadly you
define 'climate scientist', and what precisely you are asking them.
The results of those surveys I link to below show that a majority (or
'consensus' - depending on your definition) of climate scientists agree
that man is the largest of contributors to current climate change, more
specifically in contributing to an ongoing trend in increasing average
global temperatures, or 'global warming' ('agw' = anthropogenic global
warming).
Because I have not critically examined these surveys myself with an
adequate degree of thoroughness beyond getting an overview, I link to them
here so you can assess them yourself:
Bart Strengers, Bart Verheggen and
Kees Vringer, 10 April 2015, 'CLIMATE SCIENCE SURVEY Questions
and Responses' PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment
Survey
According to a 2009 survey, 97% of
actively publishing climate scientists answered yes to the question: “Do
you think human activity is a significant contributing factor in
changing mean global temperatures?” PT Doran & M Kendall
Zimmerman “Examining the Scientific Consensus on Climate Change”
EOS Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, 90, 2009.
'Survey finds 97% climate science papers
agree warming is man-made' 16may13, Dana Nuccitelli, The
Guardian.
May 2013: 97% 'Ninety-seven
percent
of scientists say global warming is mainly man-made
but a wide public belief that experts are divided is making it harder to
gain support for policies to curb climate change, an international study
showed on Thursday. "There is a strong scientific agreement about the
cause of climate change, despite public perceptions to the contrary," said
John Cook of the University of Queensland
in Australia, who led the study in the journal Environmental Research
Letters.' - Reuters 15may13 'Scientists say united on global warming,
at odds with public view' <<< my comment:
public perception doesn't surprise me - due to 'false balance' reporting
by scientifically ignorant
"news" presenters and journalists in the BBC & other TV media (see A4
below). Murdoch media much worse. The above quote from the Reuters
interpretation of the source paper is a simplification because percentages
depend on having pre-defined limits of what data is included|excluded
(i.e. % of what precisely). Thus I give a link to the source paper here: 'Quantifying
the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific
literature' John Cook,
Dana Nuccitelli, et al. (15may13), IOPscience.
JUMP
PAD to SECTIONS BELOW (to save you scrolling):
Answers
to
a key question:
Q:
What are the key things stopping UK, EU, US, Canada, . . .
from tackling climate change?
A1:
The ‘capture’ of governments by fossil
fuel interests - there is much evidence for
this.
UK government, both
its centre and its departments, is riddled with fossil fuel interests
- especially oil and gas (USA & Canada - extremely so). UK:
Ostensibly in an advisory role but in effect much more (e.g. Lord
Browne - head of Cuadrilla - in the Cabinet Office - is a prime
example. Extreme conflict of interests! [see my fracking page via my
hub page]) Also see A3 below.
Good examples of what
such capture makes happen (including that of the US trade negotiator
acting in the interests of US "Big Oil" against EU climate legislation) is
given in my analysis on the
effect of Free Trade Agreements on EU climate legislation and the
fracking threat. In the US, fossil fuel companies and magnates (such
as the aptly-pronounced Koch brothers [coke]) can and do give almost
unlimited huge $amounts to congressmen especially Republicans to finance
their election campaigns etc, and statistics show that the amount of
pro-oil voting and lobbying and absurd climate-denialism or
climate-misinforming by congressmen has a positive relationship with the
amounts of money they are funded by Big Oil (Steve Kretzman, David
Turnbull et al at Oil Change International (priceofoil.org)
reveal good evidence of this - e.g. in Separate
Oil and State, Oil
money behind Keystone XL Senate bill breaks 20 million dollars'
& their Dirty
Energy Money database). Also big corporations write anti-climate
bills for the pro-bigbiz "council" ALEC to provide to collaborating
congressmen (especially Republicans) to try and get into state and federal
law (ALEC
exposed shines a spotlight on this).
A2: The present short-term
returns and the perceived-future-profit-potential
of the fossil fuel industry to the financial sector e.g. banks,
pension funds, and many of those holding office in government.
I use the word "perceived" - because they are gambling
on governments
failing to implement effective legislation on climate change.
Effective
government
legislation on climate change would mean that most
(75 to 80%) of the proven fossil fuel reserves on which the market value
of fossil fuel companies is based (e.g. share values) would have to
"remain in the ground", and finances invested into this gamble - and the
associated built infrastructure - would become 'stranded
assets', and the 'carbon
bubble' would burst resulting in a financial crisis. Thus banks
such as RBS are lobbying government to toughen the skin of the bubble so
it can expand further without bursting - or at least - in the short-term
. . . They are ignoring the
need to deflate the bubble.
A3: The web of people
with vested fossil fuel interests that closely en-mesh these 3
(government, industry, banks) - is well shown by WDM's recent report:
WDM’s
recent
‘Carbon Capital - web of power’ displays the evidence with
powerful graphics:
http://www.wdm.org.uk/carbon-capital/web-of-power
ACTION:
sign this petition: OUTLAW CONFLICTS OF INTEREST WITHIN
GOVERNMENT: bit.ly/outlawconflictsofinterest
A4:
The shockingly bad portrayal by the tv and radio news
media of
1. climate change, especially as to 2. man's influence on it.
Even in September 2013 when IPCC announced that that they are 95% certain
that man is the chief cause of the recent climate change, the tv and radio
news media - even BBC - are way back at "square one" - giving a false
balance (and often worse than that) on whether the IPCC and climate
scientists are correct - or whether Lord Lawson and other denialists are
correct, even equating Lord Lawson's knowledge on the subject as being
worthy of equal representation as all climate scientists. John Ashton has
shown that agw-denialists and fossil fuel supporters Lord Lawson and
Peter Lilley have been putting pressure on BBC's Head of Editorial
Standards David Jordan (The BBC betrayed its values by giving Professor Carter
this climate platform - John Ashton 1oct13) [agw: anthropogenic
global warming]. Caroline Lucas
is correct that we should be beyond that - and dealing with what to do
about it, and others express the risk factor - if there is such a high
likelihood of future inhospitable temperatures and weather events, we
should do what we can to decrease that likelihood. The result of this huge
failing of the tv and radio media, especially BBC, is that the public are
being fed a false perception - what a lot of the public want
to believe - rather than the evidence and facts and likelihoods based on
these. The consequence of this is that politicians - even those who might
want to act on climate change such as controlling the use of fossil fuels,
fear to do so for fear that the public won't back them up. Mike
Berners-Lee in his recent book 'The Burning Question' - has a chapter on
the psychological problems regarding public perception.
BBC coverage criticised for favouring climate change
sceptics 28oct13 Fiona Harvey The Guardian. My conclusion: David
Jordan
should be sacked as his views and actions are incompatible with
his job title.
Conservative media outlets found guilty of biased global
warming coverage New
studies
show conservative and politically neutral media outlets are creating false
balance in climate change reporting
- Dana Nuccitelli 11oct13 theguardian.com re Fox News & BBC, via
Gwen
ACTION:
add your views to BBC public consultation 16sep-13dec13: Citizen
Space - BBC News and Current Affairs review
There is also much more evidence for points 1. and 3. on my
website e.g. on the links pages and on or via my tar sands and fracking
pages.
I'll be copying examples of this to the present page (or linking here to
it) when I have the time.
Former top UK Climate Change diplomat John
Ashton gave an inspiring lecture on 'Climate
Change, Politics and Leadership in Britain Today' on 16th May
2013 at the RSA. (For
links to his lecture scroll down to heading 'Top CC people'). I hope this will inspire politicians to
break free from their perceived "constraints" of market fundamentalism
ideology, tribalism and the corruptive web referred to above. Politicians
should have a healthier regard to
the fossil fuel industry and not regard it as their master. They
should ignore its demands to supress its competition from the clean green
energy and energy efficiency sectors, and to suppress climate change
legislation. Whether they have the will and leadership qualities to do so
though is still questionable. We must not give up and let them off the
hook but have the mental stamina to keep up the pressure over the
weeks, months and years ahead.
JUMP PAD to SECTIONS
BELOW (to save you scrolling):
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CARBON BUBBLE of UNBURNABLE CARBON
"Do the Math":
(quoting Bill
McKibben)
3
important figures: 2 degrees C,
565 gigatonnes CO2,
2,795 gigatonnes CO2, together result in the
important figure 80%:
+2 degrees C was internationally agreed in the Copenhagen Accord
as being the maximum global average temperature rise that we must stay
below. This rise is from pre-industrial levels. We
are now at +0.85 degrees (more recent update: near to +1 degree).
At the Copenhagen summit it was agreed that 2 degrees marked the threshold
between 'acceptable' and 'dangerous' climate change, but low-lying island
states and other states most impacted such as in the global South regarded
+2 degrees as too high a threshold (as the associated sea-level rise etc
would be disastrous for them), and climate scientists such as at the
Tyndall Centre regard +2 degrees as being the threshold
between 'dangerous' and very dangerous'. +1.5 degrees would be a
better threshold. Though the best solution would be no further increase -
unfortunately not easy (understatement).
GLOBAL
CARBON BUDGET for 2010 to 2050 is 565
gigatonnes CO2 for an 80% chance of keeping the global average
temperature rise below the 2 degrees threshold.
2,795 gigatonnes CO2 is the global
total of proven fossil fuel reserves (coal, oil, gas) forming the value of
fossil fuel companies (on which their share values are partly based) and
state-owned reserves.
It takes just simple maths to calculate that 2,795 is 5
times 565.
Thus 80% of proven fossil fuel reserves
are unburnable if we are to have a good chance of keeping below +2
degrees global temperature rise.
Thus 80% of fossil fuel reserves (coal +
oil + gas combined) must remain in the ground.
(This figure reduces to e.g. 75% if a higher risk than 20%
of exceeding the 2 degrees threshold is used for the carbon budget)
Also the budget reduces further if we choose a more sensible threshold to
keep temperature rise below - such as +1.5 degrees C.
Thus much of investments in fossil fuel companies are a 'CARBON
BUBBLE' which must be deflated before it bursts.
Thus our pension funds and savings must be divested out of fossil fuels to
reduce financial and fiducial risk.
Research by University College London published in Nature on 'The
geographical distribution of fossil fuels unused when limiting global
warming to 2 °C' shows how
this 80% is likely to be divided between coal, oil and gas, from
which it was clear that:
- most coal reserves (82% at least) must remain in the ground
- a third of oil reserves - which will include most of tar sands "oil"
(bitumen) must remain in the ground
- about half of gas reserves must remain in the ground - this has
obvious implications on fracking/shale gas, CBM/CSG and UCG.
Euractiv's
summary of this report
and Implications
on tar sands industry
George
Monbiot writes implications of this study to the UK, fracking and
the Infrastructure Bill: 'Why leaving fossil fuels in the ground is
good for everyone George Monbiot
Environment The Guardian
And here is Guardian's Damian Carrington's take on the
UCL and related studies: 'Leave
fossil fuels buried to prevent climate change, study urges' 7jan15.
REFERENCES re the above:
Unburnable
Carbon – Are the world’s financial markets carrying a carbon bubble?
- by Carbon Tracker Initiative - this is highly regarded.
Unburnable carbon 2013 Wasted capital
and stranded assets - Carbon
Tracker Initiative http://www.carbontracker.org/wastedcapital
The Burning Question:
‘Why can't we quit fossil fuels’ - Duncan Clark - Environment- The Guardian 17apr13 - article based on the book The
Burning Question by Mike Berners-Lee and Duncan
Clark, which is published on 20 April by Profile Books, price
£9.99. To order a copy for £7.99 with free UK p&p, go toguardian.co.uk/bookshop or
call
0330 333 6846 and Amazon: The Burning Question We can’t burn half the world’s oil, coal and
gas. So how do we quit Amazon.co.uk Duncan Clark, Mike Berners-Lee
Books £6.99 http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1781250456
Big investors ARE getting concerned: Here's Scottish Widows'
Craig Mackenzie (7nov13): 'Unburnable' carbon fuels investment concerns
in Guardian Sustainable Business, Guardian Professional. But Craig
Mackenzie has played down the threat of the carbon bubble to the fossil
fuel industry in other articles.
Ben
Caldecott is Programme Director of Stranded
Assets Programme Research Smith School of Enterprise and the
Environment University of Oxford
Leave
fossil fuels buried to prevent climate change, study urges Damian
Carrington 7jan15 - on the UCL study in Nature that divides unburnable
carbon geographically - which then provides division re coal, oil, gas.
Al Gore and David Blood - The Coming Carbon Asset Bubble
- WSJ.com 29oct13 'risk' & 'uncertainty' must not be
confused by investors. '
Fossil-fuel investments are destined to lose their economic value.
Investors need to adjust now.'
Wall Street wonders about 'unburnable' carbon
28oct13 Elizabeth Douglass, Business Spectator, Originally
published
on Inside
Climate
News. Reproduced with permission.
A January
[2013?] report from
HSBC underscored
the potential impact of unburnable reserves by estimating that emissions
caps and lower oil prices could put up to 60 per cent of the market
value of certain European companies at risk. "We believe that investors
have yet to price in such a risk, perhaps because it seems so long
term," the report noted. "However, we believe it does give an indication
of the potential impact on the sector."
Carbon
bubble
will plunge the world into another financial crisis – report
Environment The Guardian
19apr13
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/apr/19/carbon-bubble-financial-crash-crisis?CMP=twt_gu
How
your pension is being used in a $6 trillion climate gamble
Bill McKibben and Jeremy Leggett Environment guardian.co.uk 19apr13 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/apr/19/pension-6-trillion-climate-gamble
DEFLATE
THE CARBON BUBBLE ShareAction http://www.shareaction.org/carbonbubble
The global carbon budget:
The
Global
Carbon Budget - The Global Carbon Project
'IPCC
30 years to climate calamity if we carry on blowing the carbon budget'
Fiona Harvey 27sep13 Environment The Guardian
PWC
calculate
that at the current rate of decarbonisation, the total carbon budget for
a 2degreesC pathway will be consumed in 20 years: http://www.pwc.co.uk/.../low-carbon-economy-index-2013.pdf I can't read this but Green Party
NW England stated what I've written.
Ceres & Carbon Tracker: Investors demand oil, coal and power companies
assess climate change risks 'Regulatory,
market
and societal forces are changing the global landscape. Fossil fuel
companies cannot expect business as usual for much longer' - Mindy
Lubber and Mark Fulton 20nov13 Mindy
Lubber
is president of Ceres,
a nonprofit group mobilising business and investor leadership on
climate change and sustainability. Mark
Fulton is an advisory board member of the Carbon
Tracker
Initiative
Guardian
Sustainable Business Guardian Professional
NB: Even without
significant global agreement on emissions the fossil fuel industry
bubble may burst or deflate because its costs per unit energy released
are rising (e.g. due to diminishing conventional sources), and it is
starting to be out-competed by clean green renewable energy sources such
as solar - which has decreasing costs per unit energy released,
and wind, e.g. 'Onshore
Wind Power Is Now Cheapest Form Of New Electricity In Denmark'
22jul14 (ThinkProgress).
Do read this article by the International Business Editor of the Daily
Telegraph:
'Fossil
industry is the subprime danger of this cycle' "The cumulative blitz
on energy exploration and production over the past six years has been $5.4
trillion, yet little has come of it" - Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily
Telegraph, 9jul14.
Thanks
John Fleetwood for providing this graph from the London Stock
Exchange (c) Teleborsa
NB: also see 'Fossil
investment risk from a financial viewpoint' section below.
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Who finances fossil fuels?
Add
www.wdm.org.uk's CARBON CAPITAL & FOSSIL FUEL WEB OF POWER here. My
petition links to these: bit.ly/outlawconflictsofinterest
NB: it's not just banks & financial
sector, but also government subsidies
(in the broad sense of the word [not the Ed Davey sense])
Time to change the game: fossil fuel subsidies
and climate Publication Overseas
Development Institute (ODI).
<<<
NB important publication, Nov.2013
"Producers
of
oil, gas and coal received more than $500
billion in government subsidies around the world in 2011, with
the richest nations collectively spending more than $70 billion every
year to support fossil fuels." - "Those are the findings of a recent
report by the Overseas
Development
Institute, a think tank based
in the United Kingdom."
Fossil fuel subsidies 'killing UK's low-carbon future'
John Vidal 7nov13 Environment theguardian.com
Fossil fuel subsidies costing rich countries $112 per
person - 07 Nov 2013 - News from
BusinessGreen ODI report Overseas
Development Institute "According
to
the International Energy Agency, global fossil fuel subsidies totalled
$523bn in 2011 - almost six times the amount given to renewable energy."
Fossil Fuels Receive $500
Billion
A Year In Government Subsidies Worldwide 7nov13
ThinkProgress re ODI report
Banking on Coal - Undermining our Climate
Major new report. 15nov13 press release by BANK TRACK.
Chart shows UK is world's 3rd largest financier of coal.
British banks among world's biggest lenders to coal
industry, report finds RBS
tops
UK list with lending €5bn for coal-mining operations, followed by
Barclays and HSBC Fiona
Harvey 18non13 Environment theguardian.com via Gwen
tweet.
It's not just the problem of coal's
carbon emissions and lethal smog, but also the destruction of habitats and
communities by the mega-sized mines e.g. Indonesia is the world's biggest
exporter of coal (Australia around 2nd), and UK banks are the biggest
investors into coal-mining in Indonesia which is rapidly increasing, and
causing huge irreversible damage and pollution: e.g.:
Swallowed
by
coal UK profits from Indonesia's harmful
mining industry John Vidal
30oct13 Global development
theguardian.com
BHP in Indonesian Borneo the coal disaster
waiting to happen Arie Rompas - 19nov13 – Opinion – ABC
Environment (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) "BHP
Billiton
has a massive coal mine planned for Central Kalimantan. But local
environmental activists are worried about its impact on people and
forests."
Also see reports in www.wdm.org.uk
website.
Carbon Omissions Animation - YouTube PIRC UK
16mar13 Unfortunately it omits UK's huge investment into fossil fuels
(e.g. by "high street" banks such as HSBC, RBS, Barclays, ...), and how
the London Stock Exchange is one of, if not the,
world's biggest trading hub for international investment into
fossil fuels (and Osborne wants to keep it that way).
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. .
There is a financial industry very
concerned with the prediction of climate risk:
The insurance industry e.g.:
'Insurers
must adapt to climate change' "A Lloyd's report is calling for the
industry to consider new catastrophe modelling after the harsh lessons
of Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy"- John Nelson, Chairman of
Lloyd's of London, in theguardian.com, 11may14
.
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. BACK
TO TOP of page
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DIVESTMENT from fossil fuels is one answer to
tackling climate change:
This
is
one of the most effective measures against climate change that we can do
both individually and by persuading Churches, Universities, Councils and
other bodies.
I hope you find the information below helpful.
But
firstly, here is an example of what the fossil
fuel divestment group within the South Lakes Action on Climate Change
Towards Transition has been doing: DIVESTleaflet&posters
Since
starting this web-page section on fossil fuel divestment there has been an
almost exponential-like increase in key events and articles on this
subject, which is tremendous and a big morale-boost, with even the
establishment's Mark Carney, Gov. Bank of England, saying in a speech that
we can't burn all our fossil fuel reserves. However this rapid succession
of good news means I can't keep up-to-date posting the news here. So join
twitter and follow hashtags such as: #divest ( from
#fossilfuels ) #DivestInvest #carbonbubble
#strandedassets
'How
to get your pension fund to divest from fossil fuels' Money
Patrick Collison 9may15 The Guardian
'Fossil fuels divestment campaign is gathering momentum'
Bill McKibben 29oct13 Environment Guardian.
Bill McKibben: fossil fuel divestment campaign builds
momentum - Jo Confino - Q&A with Bill McKibben Guardian
Sustainable Business Guardian Professional
Fossil Free - An
international/national Movement to Divest From Fossil Fuels - http://gofossilfree.org/
@GoFossilFree
https://www.facebook.com/FossilFree
To find existing fossil fuel campaigns or start one of your own:
FOSSIL FREE UK http://gofossilfree.org/uk/
And divest your money too! - http://gofossilfree.org/mymoney/
Campaign against fossil fuels growing, says study Investors
being
persuaded to take their money out of fossil fuel sector, according to
University of Oxford study
8oct13 Damian Carrington The Guardian
'Desmond
Tutu calls for anti-apartheid style boycott of fossil fuel industry'
- Damian Carrington - 10apr14 The Guardian. Also updates and
reviews other divestment actions.
Visit
the ShareAction website
(ShareAction were formerly called FairPensions - reflecting a major part
of their work - re getting ethical/green standards into Pension Funds) "ShareAction: transforming the investment
system to serve savers, society, and the environment." DEFLATE
THE
CARBON
BUBBLE ShareAction http://www.shareaction.org/carbonbubble
Scroll down if you
want info on fiduciary duty (UN use this term)
The
next 4 sections focus on divestment re CHURCHES,
BANKS, UNIVERSITIES, LOCAL GOVERNMENT & similar bodies, INDIVIDUAL
people:
CHURCHES:
Desmond
Tutu:
"We
need an apartheid-style boycott to save the planet"
Desmond Tutu, 10apr14 Comment is free The Guardian.
BRIGHTNOW - towards fossil
free churches "We believe that churches need to
disinvest from fossil fuel companies if they are to retain their
integrity in the face of climate change." http://brightnow.org.uk/
Operation
Noah @OperationNoah https://twitter.com/OperationNoah
An
ecumenical Christian charity providing leadership, focus and inspiration
on climate change. #fossilfreechurches http://brightnow.org.uk
UK · operationnoah.org
'Doing nothing is not an option' - Bright Now
29oct13. Guidance
pdf for CofE.
The
Church of England has a huge investment into fossil fuels, as revealed
in an article in Ekklesia's website (Christian thinktank): HERE . I am in
contact with Ekklesia on this matter and will improve this paragraph
with links etc. CofE also invest into weapons - if that is
less than 10% of the company's invovement: (so 9% OK!) Check if they
still invest in GE - which also invests in nuclear weapons: http://www.dontbankonthebomb.com/
I wrote this
article for the SLACC-TT August 2013 Newsletter: (Note:
I'm not a churchgoer)
...........................................................................................................................................................
Divestment
from
Fossil Fuels - churchgoers: do read this, especially if CofE
A
great opportunity has arisen for churchgoers - especially of the CofE -
to persuade their church leaders to divest from their huge investments
into fossil fuels. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has so rightly
- if accidentally - let the cat out of the bag about the huge CofE
investment portfolio - over £5 billion, and its prioritization of
profits over ethics. This has given the Christian think-tank Ekklesia
air-time on tv to reveal a glimpse of some disturbing facts to the
public - which they had released several years ago on one of their
papers which I’ll link to HERE.
Incredibly, according to the Ekklesia paper: “its
biggest
share investments of all are in Royal Dutch Shell and BP (a total of
£196 million). In what
way is this helping to change the agenda on environment and global
warming?” Also it invests into fossil fuel associated banks such as
HSBC, RBS, Barclays etc. Do visit the Ekklesia website to keep track of
this: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk
Please
take
this opportunity while the subject is “hot” to persuade your
vicar/pastor to act on this or and/or write to Justin Welby or your
parish news or whatever.
...........................................................................................................................................................
Quakers
to disinvest from fossil fuels 8oct13 Quakers in Britain.
Welcome
for Quaker fossil fuel disinvestment call - Ekklesia 8oct13
Why
not tweet (or write a letter to) the Archbishop of Canterbury to urge him
to divest the CofE from fossil fuels, such as to follow the example set by
the Quakers? E.g.:
@henryadamsUK
":
British Quakers to disinvest from fossil fuels "
How about CofE
too?
Henry Adams @henryadamsUK
@ABCJustin
Fossil Fuels #divestment
campaign is gathering momentum - @billmckibben
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/29/fossil-fuels-divestment-campaign-gather-momentum …
When will CofE #divest
its£fromFF?
NEWS re churches and divestment:
11jul14 'World
Council of Churches pulls fossil fuel investments' "Campaigners hail
'major victory' as council representing half a billion Christians says it
will stop investing in fossil fuels" Adam Vaughan theguardian.com.
On 12feb14 The
CofE General Synod made a first step towards considering
divesting from fossil fuels by voting overwhelmingly in favour of
a motion to review its investment policy towards fossil fuel companies,
but disappointingly the CofE's
Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG)
is still resisting advice to divest now
from fossil fuel companies and instead regarding it as a last resort.
Thus: much more pressure needed to get action on divestment
rather than just potentially ineffectual words to merely consider the
subject. Further info:
12feb14 'Church
of England vows to fight 'great demon' of climate change' Sam Jones,
The Guardian. Strapline: "General
Synod says it is willing to disinvest from companies that do not live up
to its theological, moral and social priorities'.
13feb14 'Church
of England considers divesting from fossil fuels' Sophie Yeo, RTCC.
12feb14 'Church
of England votes in favour of reviewing fossil fuel investments' Tom
Revell, Blue and Green Tomorrow.
12feb14 'Church
of England's General synod debates environmental issues' - Church of
England website.
12feb14 'Operation Noah
welcomes Synod decision to act on climate change' - Ekklesia.
12feb14 'Christian
Aid welcomes Church of England's stance on climate change' -
Christian Aid.
Further details: this
BrightNow web-page links to the CofE
web-page which gives download links to pdf's detailing the motion
and supporting text.
16apr14 'Pope
Francis urged to back fossil fuel divestment campaign'
Environment theguardian_com
BANKS:
BankTrack is into fossil fuel
divestment. 'BankTrack
is the global network of civil society organizations targeting the
operations and investments of large, international operating commercial
banks'
Move Your Money! Email
banks to divest: http://moveyourmoney.org.uk/campaigns/divest/
- NB: great graphic!
WDM World Development Movement
is campaigning for fossil fuel divestment by banks (example action, feb 2014), and is
collaborating on this with BankTrack.
'WDM
campaigns
against the root causes of poverty and inequality. We are a
democratically-governed movement made up of local campaign groups based
in towns and cities around the UK.' WDM are highlighting
HSBC investment into coal mining e.g. in Borneo/Indonesia. The City of
London is a major world hub for investing into fossil fuels ("Carbon Capital"), and UK
banks invest more into Indonesia's coal mining industry than any other
country's banks (Indonesia is the world's largest exporter of coal).
Switch your bank now - if you still bank with HSBC, RBS, Barclays, Lloyds
group. And tell them why.
3,4,5may14
Australian bank customers set a great example by doing a simultaneous
divest protest action: (copies of tweets)
Henry
Adams @henryadamsUK @straitgateactgp
@350 @market_forces
We need this to happen in UK. Customers of Barclays RBS HSBC.. need
educating to divest frm fossilfuels.
Straitgate Action Gp @straitgateactgp
Australian banks lose millions as customers #divest
in #fossil
fuel protest @350 @market_forces
http://www.rtcc.org/2014/05/02/australian-banks-lose-millions-of-dollars-as-customers-divest/#sthash.hHIvXfDm.sOJ4TX9L.dpuf …
#climate
http://www.rtcc.org/2014/05/02/australian-banks-lose-millions-of-dollars-as-customers-divest/
350Australia @350Australia May
5 Thanks for joining us
to divest from the big banks last weekend: http://350.org.au/hundreds-of-australians-divest-from-the-big-banks/ …
#divestmentday
BankTrack @BankTrack In
Australia,
hundreds of customers turned out this weekend to close their accounts in
protest at their bank's... http://fb.me/32oOs78IB
- video
Market Forces is an Australian NGO using market forces of the public
to divest from fossil fuels, and is part of the Ban Track group of NGOs.
Big
Four Australian banks lose customers over fossil fuel gamble
Customers
switch banks in day of divestment 3my14
PENSION
FUNDS
'How
to get your pension fund to divest from fossil fuels' Money
Patrick Collison 9may15 The Guardian
Visit the ShareAction website (ShareAction were formerly
called FairPensions - reflecting a major part of their work - re getting
ethical/green standards into Pension Funds) "ShareAction:
transforming the investment system to serve savers, society, and the
environment." DEFLATE THECARBON BUBBLE ShareAction http://www.shareaction.org/carbonbubble
Why
pension fund trustees must consider climate risk by Natalie smith - Client Earth blog
24jun15
UNIVERSITIES
have several big categories of financial and other links with the fossil
fuel industry that need divestment:
Knowledge
and
Power – Fossil Fuel Universities - a new report (19oct13) by
Platform London, which shows the huge size of the problem that needs
tackling. (ref via SGR & Gwen).
2jun14 'Oxford
University urged to purge its £3.3bn fund of fossil fuel investments'
John Vidal 2jun14 Environment theguardian.com
“Students and
dons at
14 Oxford colleges have urged the university to purge its
£3.3bn endowment fund of all investments in fossil fuel companies. The
move follows 64 Oxford professors
and other senior academics signing an open letter and a petition by
over 800 students, staff and alumni.
The University of
Oxford is believed to have the largest investments in fossil
fuel companies of any UK university. ...”
31may14 'UK's
largest Fossil Free rally hits Oxford' People & Planet
'Oxford
Academics for Fossil Fuel Divestment - An Open Letter from university
academics to Vice Chancellor Hamilton in support of the campaign for
the university to divest from fossil fuels'.
10apr14 'Harvard
Faculty For Divestment - Moving Our Endowment Beyond Fossil Fuels'
- An Open Letter - Faculty of Harvard University to the President and
Fellows. Well worded, strongly worded e.g.: "Our University invests in
the fossil fuel industry: this is for us the central issue. We now
know that fossil fuels cause climate change of unprecedented destructive
potential. We also know that many in this industry spend large
sums of money to mislead the public, deny climate science, control
legislation and regulation, and suppress alternative energy
sources. We are therefore disappointed in the statements on
divestment made by President Faust on October 3, 2013 and April 7, 2014. ..." And summary
by EcoWatch.
14feb14
(Friday) 'Students
call on universities to reduce investments in fossil fuels'
The Guardian
UK universities urged to pull cash from fossil fuel
giants Damian Carrington 26oct13 The Observer
Manchester
Friends
of the Earth People & Planet 23oct13 New research shows UK universities invest £5.2bn in the
fossil fuel industry
Universities under pressure on their £5bn investment in fossil fuels
- Rob Edwards 20oct13
LOCAL
GOVERNMENT and similar bodies
'Exclusive:
Local authorities have ‘conflict of interest’ on fracking
investments' - UK Politics - UK - The Independent 27apr14
NHS
& health-related bodies:
British
Medical Journal launches call for NHS divestment from fossil fuels!
1apr14 - 'Responsible Investment' - Edinburgh University People &
Planet - links to:
'Climate change and
human survival' - Editorial in BMJ (but mostly behind paywall)
26mar14. @BMJ 2014;
348 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g2351 (Published 26 March 2014)
Cite this as: BMJ 2014;348:g2351.
EA - Environment Agency
and divestment: I'm not happy with all of Trucost's arguments here:
'Environment
Agency fund urged not to divest from carbon' 10apr14 IPE.
INDIVIDUAL
people
We
can all divest from fossil fuels by changing our bank accounts from e.g.
Barclays, HSBC, RBS/NatWest..., and many of us can have influence on our
pension investments to varying degrees on what type of pension you have.
Australians set a good example in May 2014. Church-goers can influence
their churches. ... So check the above sections on BANKS, PENSION FUNDS
etc.
Re-invest
your money into non-fossil-fuel companies and projects (NB:
scroll down for link to my investment web-page).
INSTITUTIONAL
investors
Example
of the good news on divestment co-inciding with the climate summit at
New York in last full week of September 2014:
24sep14 'Institutional
Investors Call For Price on Carbon, End to Fossil Fuel Subsidies'
in DeSmogBlog. Good news - pressure on governments at time of climate
summit in New York. The investors include BlackRock, the world’s largest
asset manager, Swiss Re, the BBC Pension Trust Ltd., New York State
Controller and Standard Life Investments.
Another example: the Rockefeller family announcing divestment of their
oil fortune out of fossil fuels.
-------------------------
Fossil investment
risk from a financial viewpoint:
'Fossil
industry is the subprime danger of this cycle' "The cumulative blitz
on energy exploration and production over the past six years has been $5.4
trillion, yet little has come of it" - Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily
Telegraph, 9jul14.
A financial viewpoint from the USA: 'Is Divestment from Fossil Fuels a Sound Financial Play?'
3oct13 - TriplePundit - People, Planet Profit. <<<<
I haven't actually read this - but a brief glance tells me it's worth
another look.
Former US SEC Commissioner writes: 'The Financial Case for Divestment of Fossil Fuel
Companies by Endowment Fiduciaries' - Bevis Longstreth 2nov13 <<< I've only partially read (it's
long!) - sounds good
Norway’s SWF to divest from coal
Energi og Klima 4nov13
COAL - the main players (extraction
co.s & investors) and divestment possibilities: Coal Seen as New Tobacco Sparking Investor Backlash
20nov13 Commodities - Bloomberg.
Also see carbon bubble section above.
RISK
and fiduciary duty
A useful concept-tool to encourage divestment is to question
whether account has been made of the risk
of investment into fossil fuels, especially what would happen if
effective global climate change legislation is put in place that makes 75
to 80% of proven reserves potentially worthless (so too the unproven
unconventionals). Furthermore there is the more immediate risk
imposed by indigenous rights (as reminded to us by Gwen on 5mar14) -
explained further below.
Also relevant here there is the matter of fiduciary duty (thanks Claire
Wickham for that), such as to account for risk:
Scroll to foot of this web-page to look at top results for my Google
search under Christiana Figueres
fiduciary
More
big companies say they're concerned about climate risks Jo Confino
16may14 Guardian Sustainable Business theguardian.com
And here's useful info I've yet to study:
UN:
'PRI: Principles
for Responsible Investment - An investor initiative in partnership
with UNEP Finance Initiative and UN Global Compact'.
UN PRI pdf: 'Responsible
investment and fiduciary duty' - now you can try
and find out what UN's Christiana Figueres meant by
"fiduciary duty" in her notable speech in early 2014.
See publications web-page for numerous reports, on e.g.:
ESG: Environmental, Social and Governance factors - integrating these
into
Fiduciary responsibility II:
Legal and practical aspects of integrating ESG issues into
institutional investment
2009
A legal framework for the
integration of environmental, social and governance issues into
institutional investment, 2005
2005
'Responsible
investment: The financial case' by Responsible Investment
(Edinburgh University People and Planet).
Immediate RISK to FF investment posed by indigenous rights:
Gwen on 5mar14 SLACCtt FF divestment meeting highlighted the risk to tar
sands expansion investment posed by aboriginal protests as described by
Martin Lukacs Guardian article earlier this week. The indigenous
First Nations in Alberta and British Columbia and elsewhere have been
rising up under the #IdleNoMore banner and recently had legal success in
flexing their treaty and territorial rights to try and block tar sands
industry expansion (including pipelines to Pacific). This is chilling
investor interest in the tar sands and must be frustrating the
Conservative Harper government and Alberta government which are both
mouth-pieces for the tar sands industry, and they are trying to neutralize
the indigenous rights.
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NB: "Carrot &
stick": pushing for divestment (by churches, universities, councils
etc) is likely to be more successful if suitable alternative green/ethical
investment alternatives are suggested, hence next section:
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Alternative
ethical
and/or green investment possibilities. <<<
New web-page I've recently started.
Reduction of energy demand and thus
emissions is the most important and urgent requirement, because simply
providing clean green energy alternatives doesn't solve the problem per
se: it is only effective if it reduces demand for fossil energy. This
reasoning also applies to increasing energy efficiency.
One of the top priorities for investment is
(next section):
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Although reducing carbon emissions
is the core aim of action on climate change, we must keep in mind that
reducing fossil fuel use involves tackling both the supply
side ("upstream" side in industry jargon, especially
extraction), i.e. leaving most of it in the ground, as well as the
consumption/combustion side, such as with demand
reduction. George Monbiot explained this impressively in his
March 2015 article, in which he said that tackling the supply side is
woefully ignored in the climate summits (undoubtedly due to the
insidious influence of the fossil fuel industry and finance sector on
politicians especially those within the heart of government). Between
supply and demand there are also intermediate stages that should be
tackled that affect the supply side such as trade and import
regulations.
In
my web-page on the tar sands industry I focus on one of the oil
"feedstocks" which must remain in the ground, and how the UK government
has tried to protect its potential import into the EU by neutralizing
the EU's Fuel Quality Directive climate legislation.
Here
I look at demand-side reduction:
A top priority
is for buildings eg houses to become more efficient and insulating, and
at the same time to reduce energy demand
John
Broderick of Manchester University's Tyndall Centre explains the great urgency for reducing our carbon emissions
(which is not being recognized by coalition government policy), and argues
that this can be achieved faster by reducing demand (i.e.
consumption)
of high-carbon energy than by shifting the demand side from high to
low then neutral carbon, because infrastructure changes to effect the
latter (he argues) take longer to build than shifts in our demand.
REF: Acknowledging the scale and urgency of the challenge we
face (1may12). I will add here that emissions are directly
reduced by decreasing consumption (and not just of high carbon energy but
also of products and services that have "embedded" carbon), whereas
building a wind turbine does not directly reduce emissions, only
indirectly - and then only if it replaces (rather than just displaces)
burning of fossl fuels or 'big biomass'.
It
is great that Caroline Lucas MP keeps recommending "demand
reduction" and "energy
efficiency".
Reducing
carbon emissions is the core aim of action on climate change, and a great
way of doing this is by reducing heat loss and energy usage by buildings,
by increasing insulation and energy efficiency. This is of course much
better than building e.g. wind turbines (though the latter are needed
too), because it directly reduces emissions, whereas wind-turbines only
reduce emissions indirectly - and then only if they replace, rather than
add to, the energy produced by power stations using fossil fuels.
We
wouldn't need to build x number of new power stations if UK buildings are
all properly insulated and made more efficient (DECC have a statement
supporting this - I must find it some time). Our housing stock is still
very leaky of heat and much needs to be done.
It would be a much better taxpayers investment than new nuclear, as well
as more gas power stations.
But the present Green Deal is totally inadequate (as one might expect
being Tory thinking):
Green deal on energy is 'unattractive and
uncompetitive', say MPs 8oct13 Fiona Harvey
Environment theguardian.com
The
Energy Bill Revolution campaign is a much better idea, and our MP Tim
Farron supports it too:
http://www.energybillrevolution.org/
- "a campaign for Warm Homes and Lower Bills"
If
you are interested in economics, I have ended my comment sequence on the
Pieria economics website with my views on the economic value of this
idea and others to insulate houses and to improve their efficiency: http://www.dragonfly1.plus.com/MyCommentsInPieria26-27jun13belowFrancesCoppolaPiece.pdf
(I must admit that I failed to add a qualifying statement to my
"gradually increasing demand and supply together" sentence - as it seems
to imply that I agree with the GDP growth model as being a good one or
the only one possible. I don't. That statement of mine only
concerned help to get us out of the recession - with "green growth" -
such as demand for low-carbon or zero-carbon products or services, not
for an economy requiring increased consumption of our resources and
associated increased carbon emissions. Unfortunately the current system
of money creation by banks increasing the private debt bubble has an
intrinsic pressure for increasing consumption and thus increasing
emissions. We need to have a money-supply system that results in an
economy that works for all of us (and the climate) even if growth
is zero. http://www.dragonfly1.plus.com/Economics.html.)
Fuel Poverty: reducing fuel
poverty goes hand in hand as a potential WIN WIN with house
insulation/energy efficiency/demand reduction.
Yet Cameron couldn't give a .... about either of these 2 urgent
priorities:
Cameron's green levy threat 'devastating' energy
efficiency industry Damian
Carrington 11nov13 Environment theguardian.com
Green Party: Caroline Lucas 6nov13: The Coalition is weaselling out of its duty to help
people struggling with cold homes and high fuel bills
Some related articles:8 key recommendations for ending fuel poverty
BREEAM: There is more to sustainability than a building's
environmental impact BREEAM
doesn't
go far enough. Truly great buildings make society better by adding to
the area, writes Richard Wheal 5nov13 Guardian
Sustainable Business theguardian.com
.
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A few useful relevant twitterers
attacking fossil fuel interests who work against action on climate change:
(just to start you off, I'll add more when I have the
time)
https://twitter.com/PriceofOil - excellent resource.
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LINKS to climate change and energy websites, articles, books etc
Firstly:
within my dragonfly1 webspace:
2013 onwards: With
the exclusion of * these mostly have not been updated since mid to late
2013.
CLIMATE CHANGE & ENERGY LINKS
except for pdf on: Arctic Amplification & loss of sea-ice - how it
affects UK weather
Other related subjects:
FRACKING for SHALE GAS &
other unconventional gas extraction methods. <
more date-specific (e.g. news & articles),
My
FRACKING notes etc HERE
TAR SANDS
< more date-specific (e.g. news), &: less
date
specific
FOSSIL
FUELs other than above - e.g. other bad actions by the fossil
industry
CANADA FIRST NATIONS versus TAR SANDS
RAINFOREST destruction, BIOENERGY, palm oil, LAND-GRABBING
Alternative
ethical
and/or green investment possibilities.
*
Archive: 2011 to
2013 LINKS pdf - BUT only to c. April 2013.
Warning: It's a big file!
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My pdf on: Arctic Amplification & loss of sea-ice - how it
affects UK weather - contains links, preceded by a bief
introduction to this fascinating and evolving subject
My work on #2030decarb for
#EnergyBill
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Graphs
showing changes in:
- this
section only just started - much more to add
SEA LEVEL: http://www.columbia.edu/~mhs119/SeaLevel/ - Great looking graphs. There appears to be a
discrepancy in the statement here about recent ocean heat storage (over
past 5 years) as cf other sources re past c.13 years or so. I have yet
to sort this out.
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Climate
change websites
- this section
only just started - much more to add is Local (South
Lakes > Cumbria / Lancaster to national
SLACC TT - South Lakes Action on Climate Change,
Towards Transition www.slacc.org.uk
twitter: Fb: https://www.facebook.com/SLACCTT
SL WDM - Kendal group takes part in Dirty Energy Month
25oct13 (From The Westmorland Gazette) targetting HSBC
Green Drinks, Kendal: http://www.greendrinks.org/Cumbria/Kendal Not a new craze for absinthe. You are
welcome to come and chat about green topics.
CAfS https://www.facebook.com/CAfSonline
Sustainable Carlisle e.g. http://www.sustainablecarlisle.org/?tribe_events=extreme-energy-info-night
Campaign against Climate Change http://www.campaigncc.org/
https://twitter.com/campaigncc/
https://www.facebook.com/campaigncc
http://insideclimatenews.org/
Tyndall°Centre
for Climate Change Research ® http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/index.html
RTCC - Responding To Climate
Change - Climate change news, comments and analysis http://www.rtcc.org/
Reclaim Power - organizations &
Global Month of Actions on Energy
Extreme
Energy Initiative - School of Advanced Study, University of
London
Extreme Energy
Initiative - A unique academic forum that concentrates
specifically on the effects of unconventional fossil fuel extraction on
society and the environment
http://www.realtimecarbon.org/
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Top CC people and local
(Cumbria-N.Lancs) CC people -
this section only just started - much more to add
USA: Heros's to all of us
who are concerned
James Hansen (USA), Bill McKibben (USA), Michael
Mann (USA) (hockey-stick curve)
Michael Clare assesses what is actually happening re climate change - the
exact opposite of what should be happening: it's simultaneously very
chilling and very warming:
Michael T. Clare author
of The
Race
for What’s Left - 'The global scramble for the world's last
resources' and 'The Third Carbon Age - Don’t for a
Second Imagine We’re Heading for an Era of Renewable Energy' and 'Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's
Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum (American Empire Project)',
and 2005: Resource Wars 'In
his
pathbreaking Resource
Wars,
world security expert Michael Klare alerted us to the role of resources in
conflicts in the post-cold-war world. Now, in Blood
and
Oil,
he concentrates on a single precious commodity, petroleum, while issuing a
warning to the United States—its most powerful, and most dependent, global
consumer.'
Michael
Klare
is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College,
a TomDispatch
regular, and the author, most recently, ofThe
Race
for What’s Left, just published in paperback by Picador. A
documentary movie based on his book Blood
and Oil can be
previewed and ordered at www.bloodandoilmovie.com. You can follow Klare
on Facebook by clicking here.
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook or Tumblr.
Check out the newest Dispatch book, Nick Turse’s The
Changing
Face of Empire: Special Ops, Drones, Proxy Fighters, Secret Bases, and
Cyberwarfare. Info on Michael Clare via his post
on www.tomdispatch.com: Tomgram Michael Klare, How to Fry a Planet TomDispatch
John Ashton - Former
top
UK climate change diplomat - brilliant inspiring speaker - e.g. ‘Cometh
the
Hour’ Climate Change, Politics and Leadership in Britain Today - Speech by
John Ashton CBE to a Friends of the Earth and RSA event, 16 May 2013
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/john_ashton_speech.pdf &
http://www.thersa.org/events/audio-and-past-events/2013/lifting-the-lid-on-the-politics-of-climate-change
No UK political party serious about climate change RTCC -
Climate change news 17may13 - speech to FoE http://www.rtcc.org/john-ashton-no-uk-political-party-serious-about-climate-change/
“This
can
be expressed in three words. Must.
Now. Can.” “There
is
one thing we need that only politics can give us. Leadership.”
His speech with my
comments: www.dragonfly1.plus.com/JohnAshtonSpeech16may13atRSA.pdf
Professor
Kevin
Anderson - Tyndall
kevinanderson.info http://kevinanderson.info/blog/ https://twitter.com/KevinClimate @KevinClimate Kevin
Anderson
Professor of energy and climate change -
"interested in translating the science of climate change into carbon
budgets, policy goals and mitigation options."
University of Manchester · kevinanderson.info Tyndall°Centre
for Climate Change Research ®
John Broderick - Tyndall Tyndall°Centre
for Climate Change Research ®
Danny
Chivers e.g. The No-Nonsense Guide to Climate Science
No-Nonsense Videos
NATIONAL-LOCAL
Mike Berners-Lee - Small World
Consulting - on
Lancaster University campus http://www.sw-consulting.co.uk/ Email:
info@sw-consulting.co.uk Phone: 01524 510272 Small World
Consulting, Lancaster Environment Centre, Gordon Manley Building,
Lancaster University LA1 4YQ
LOCAL:
(Kendal
and environs)
Rebecca Willis - independent
researcher
and adviser on climate change and sustainability:
http://www.rebeccawillis.co.uk/ https://twitter.com/Bankfieldbecky
Gwen Harrison - http://www.gwenharrison.co.uk/ - Free-lance climate change and
sustainability consultancy. And
other members of www.slacc.org.uk.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Sustainability
centres/orgs/people/
-
this section only just started - much more to add
Of course 'sustainability' doesn't just
apply to having regard to our climate but also to all the other attributes
and natural resources that we are so fortunate that the world provides us
with - which as a whole are essential to the survival not just of Homo sapiens but also of most other species except the
hardiest of 'extremophiles'.
The short-term and blinkered mindset of
the ConDem government (or - to put blame where it more specifically lies -
the OsCam government) closed The Sustainable
Development
Commission in 2011 but its
archive website is still accessible: http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/.
LOCAL to NW England
Institute
for Leadership and Sustainability (University of Cumbria) www.iflas.info
Leader: Professor Jem Bendell http://jembendell.wordpress.com/. In his April 2013 article 'Climate
Reflections
at 397ppm'
he gives a useful summary of climate changes but retains some optimism
that significant action can happen - though it has not as yet. He ends by
writing: "We
intend
to explore some of these ideas at the Institute
for
Leadership and Sustainability.
Which is why our launch in May at the RGS is called “Adventures
in
Sustainability”
(He had started his article by referring to his Guardian article
question: “Is sustainable business still possible?” ).
LEC
Lancaster Environment Centre
at Lancaster University http://www.lec.lancs.ac.uk/ https://twitter.com/LancsUniLEC
2013:
Lectureships in Sustainability - Lancaster
Environment
Centre is making a major investment in Sustainability Science by
creating up to four Lectureships with an emphasis on social and
inter-disciplinary science: Jobs
at
Lancaster University ref: A716
Rebecca Willis - independent
researcher
and adviser on climate change and sustainability:
http://www.rebeccawillis.co.uk/ https://twitter.com/Bankfieldbecky
Gwen
Harrison - Freelance
climate change and sustainability consultant: www.gwenharrison.co.uk
Other
websites & ref-links
IEA - International Energy Agency
- Publication - World Energy Outlook Special Report 2013 Redrawing
the Energy Climate Map
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
UK ENERGY
DECC 5942-uk-energy-in-brief-2012
pdf - a National Statistics Publication. <<< very useful
for its summary charts & tables BUT: I wanted to know % sources of gas
to UK eg from Norway v from Russia from LPG etc...
Examples
of
our banks investing in climate change
There are so many examples. No space here to be comprehensive.
List: coal industry - especially abroad, the tar sands and other
unconventional oil sources, shale gas and CBM.
Watch our video to see the dirty secrets behind our
banks' investments World Development Movement
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Psychology re Climate Change and Energy Use
See my web-page PsychologyCC&E.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Media
representation of climate change (continued from near top of
page)
From Gwen - collated for those
who think the "false balance" is a true balance:.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/10367061/BBC-gives-too-much-weight-to-climate-sceptics-minister-claims.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/10366387/Science-in-favour-of-climate-change-akin-to-evidence-linking-smoking-to-cancer.html
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/oct/11/climate-change-political-media-ipcc-coverage
Interactive infographics which show
a scientific consensus: the
consensus project
http://www.theconsensusproject.com/
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/oct/01/bbc-coverage-climate-report-ipcc-sceptics
And my collation:
11apr14 'Climate
imbalance – disparity in the quality of research by contrarian and
mainstream climate scientists' 'Contrarian papers tend to be
rebutted quickly in peer-reviewed literature, but receive disproportionate
media attention' - Dana Nuccitelli The Guardian.
IBT 'The Environment on TV'
- International Broadcasting Trust - report - includes climate change.
TV news: BBC NEWS - THE BBC IS NOT DOING ITS JOB
- YouTube (8 mins, well worth watching). Covers a range of subjects.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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This
section is a copy & paste of the top of the relevant section of my
pdf of ref-links up to c.April 2013
CLIMATE
CHANGE
& ENERGY http://www.energybulletin.net/ http://www.iea.org/press/pressdetail.asp?PRESS_REL_ID=426
Global
average
surface temperatures have already risen by 0.8 degrees
C since pre-industrial times.
But
most (93%) of warming is stored by the oceans, so it makes more sense to
measure their heat content:
Global
ocean heat and salt content NOAA http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/3M_HEAT_CONTENT/
93.4% of global warming is of the oceans - calc’d from IPCC: http://www.skepticalscience.com/Where-is-global-warming-going.html
*** Three Simple Facts
About Carbon Dioxide Climate
Abyss a Chron.com blog 8feb12 http://blog.chron.com/climateabyss/2012/02/three-simple-facts-about-carbon-dioxide/ - this post written by John
Nielsen-Gammon
who
is
the Texas State Climatologist and a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at
Texas A&M University
http://www.carboncommentary.com/2012/12/07/2654Arctic
Sea
Ice News and Analysis Sea ice data
updated daily with one-day lag http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/
- NSIDC - National Snow
& Ice Data Center - NSIDC
is
part of theCooperative
Institute
for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at
theUniversity
of
Colorado Boulder.
- and is sponsored by NASA, NSF, NOAA. And:
JAXA Arctic
Sea-Ice
Monitor (data also from NASA): http://www.ijis.iarc.uaf.edu/en/home/seaice_extent.htm
The Greenland surface melt
story (with tweets) · icey_mark · Storify http://storify.com/icey_mark/the-greenland-surface-melt-story Storify by Mark Brandon
@icey_mark - Polar Oceanographer
ENERGY
ROYD - Changing more than lightbulbs - http://www.energyroyd.org.uk/ - about energy, climate
change and environmental
justice issues
at local,
regional, national and global levels.
Climate Change: Lines of
Evidence videos » America's Climate Choices NAS http://nas-sites.org/americasclimatechoices/summaries-and-videos-from-the-acc-series/climate-change-lines-of-evidence-videos/
Climate change
Oxfam International http://www.oxfam.org/en/grow/issues/climate-change
Debunking wind energy myths –
At a glance - 30 Aug 2012 - Analysis from BusinessGreen 30aug12 http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/analysis/2201767/debunking-wind-energy-myths-at-a-glance
CARBON BUBBLE: http://www.carbontracker.org/carbonbubble - http://www.carbontracker.org/unburnable-carbon
Committee on Climate Change
http://www.theccc.org.uk/ Chairman = Lord Deben (John
Gummer, former Con.Env.Minister ),
WHICH Switch Energy Supplier
- Energy companies rated http://www.which.co.uk/switch/energy-suppliers/energy-companies-rated
http://www.energybillrevolution.org/
TRADING CARBON
FERN http://www.fern.org/book/trading-carbon Our
work
centres on forests and forest peoples’ rights and the issues that affect
them such as trade and investment and climate change.
Carbon Omissions Animation - YouTube
PIRC UK 16mar13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2QkkgNDV3Y&feature=youtu.be
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SEA
LEVEL change: New
Scientist: "Greenland's rapid loss of ice mean we're in for a rise of at
least 1 metre by 2100, and possibly much more Read
more"
Natural variations and cycles
ENSO El Nino Southern Oscillation e.g. WMO
update El Nino - World Meteorological Organization .
More
sections to add
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Other
contributions to climate change:
US carbon emissions:
Drivers
of the US CO2 emissions 1997-2013
Kuishuang Feng, Steven J.
Davis, Laixiang Sun & Klaus Hubacek - Nature
Communications, Nature Publishing Group,
published 21jul15.
AGRICULTURE
'UN
Predicts 30% Rise in Agriculture’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2050'
EcoWatch, April 2014.
DEFORESTATION
"Deforestation accounts for close
to 15 percent of the world’s
greenhouse gas emissions—about the same as the transport sector worldwide.
The fastest growing cause of deforestation in the tropics is the
clear-cutting of forests to make way for plantations to grow palm oil and
timber for pulp and paper." - REF-LINK.
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Climate impact - social costs:
According to Chris Hope: "The climate impact from one extra tonne of CO2
emissions is called the social cost of CO2 (SCCO2). The SCCO2 is very
uncertain, but the mean estimate from the PAGE09 model is about £80 per
tonne in today’s prices," - from: 'Has
the treasury omitted £300 million per year of extra climate impacts from
its fuel duty reduction calculations ' - Chris Hope's blog.
The
'Social Cost Of Carbon' Is Almost Double What The Government Previously
Thought Ryan Koronowski 5jun13, ThinkProgress
"Other groups have separately
tried to calculate the true cost of emitted carbon dioxide. The US
government works on the basis of $37 in social
costs per tonne emitted, but two US scientists proposed that the true cost
in future health and habitat losses was probably six times higher." -
Climate News Network 3apr15.
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Results of a Google search for Chistiana Figueres fiduciary
-
www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25743457
15
Jan 2014 - Christiana Figueres has called
on investors to pull their money out of fossil ... of
their fiduciary duty if they ignored the "clear
scientific evidence".
-
www.rtcc.org/.../fund-managers-who-ignore-climate-risks-breac...
16
Jan 2014 - Speaking at an investment summit in New
York, the United Nations climate chief Christiana
Figueres said bankers would be “blatantly in ...
-
[PDF]
unfccc.int/files/press/press_releases.../pr20140115_ceres_final1.pdf
15
Jan 2014 - ... The UN's top climate change
official Christiana Figueres today urged ...
fiduciary duty to their beneficial owners – men and
women who have ...
-
www.climatebonds.net/.../figueres-un-investor-summit-on-climate-risk-in...
17
Jan 2014 - Jan, 2014 by Sean Kidney in blog, Fiduciary
Duty, UN ... was the UN's top climate change official,
Christiana Figueres, and she was very direct.
-
www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp/html/story.asp?NewsID...Cr...
15
Jan 2014 - Specifically, Christiana Figueres
called on investors to move out of ... in breach of
their fiduciary duty to their beneficial owners –
men and ...
-
www.unep.org/newscentre/Default.aspx?DocumentID=2754...9703
18
Nov 2013 - Keynote address by Christiana
Figueres, Executive Secretary UNFCCC at ...
Like any other industry, you have a fiduciary
responsibility to your ...
-
www.fossilfreemit.org/01-15-14-divest-from-fossil-fuel-funds-says-un-cl...
15
Jan 2014 - Christiana Figueres pointed to
the need for institutional investments to be ... clear
scientific evidence, and fiduciary responsibility
needs to grasp ...
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Price
of Carbon & Cost of Carbon
SCC Social Cost of
Carbon per tonne CO2
Google search
-
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_price
A carbon
price is
the amount that must be paid (to some public authority as a
tax rate, or on some emission permit exchange) for the
emission of 1 tonne of ...
-
www.pointcarbon.com/
If
you are an existing Carbon Market News or Carbon Market Research
user, ... LONDON, May 16 (Reuters) - European Union carbon prices headed for an
8.5 ...
-
16 Jul 2012 - A carbon price is a cost applied to carbon pollution to
encourage polluters to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas
they emit into the ...
-
www.sandbag.org.uk/.../what-influences-price-carbon-beginners-guide/
14 Feb 2014 - This
morning, the price for a tonne of carbon was hovering
around €6.50 (the price to destroy carbon with Sandbag is
£7.42, slightly higher ...
-
[PDF]
www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/.../PB_case-carbon-pricing_Bowen.pdf
The
analytical case for carbon
pricing. 4. 3. The challenge of deciding on the correctprice.
7. 4. How should a carbon price be introduced?
14. 5. Carbon
pricing ...
-
www.epa.gov/climatechange/EPAactivities/economics/scc.html
EPA
and other federal agencies use the social cost of
carbon (SCC)
to estimate the climate benefits of rulemakings. The SCC is an
estimate of the economic ...
-
https://www.gov.uk/carbon-valuation
7 Oct 2013 - This is
known as the Shadow Price of
Carbon (SPC),
and is based on the Social Cost of
Carbon (SCC).
See below for further information on the ...
-
www.carbonbrief.org/.../budget-2014,-why-shed-a-tear-the-unloved-car...
18 Mar 2014 - Sometimes,
the Chancellor must feel like he just can't win. When he
introduced the UK's top-up carbon tax - the carbon price floor ...
-
climaterealityproject.org/the-price-of-carbon/
We've
all been paying the bill for years, but now it's got to stop
and you can help. Share this with your friends and tell our
leaders it's time to put a price on carbon ...
-
-
OilPrice.com -
3 hours ago
For
one, the amount of “hot air,” or excess carbon allowances ...
This will also keep thecarbon
price from
depressing too much due to an ...
-
Energy
Collective
- 1 day ago
-
Wall
Street Journal (blog)
- 5 hours ago
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These
oil and gas specialists are new to me: https://twitter.com/Open_Oil https://twitter.com/robinenergy
