10 Countries That Have Ratified The Paris Climate Deal (Australia Still MIA)

Climate Council

Australia is once again late to the climate action party.
As of today, 74 countries representing over 55% of global emissions have ratified the Paris Climate Agreement, putting it into effect. The agreement requires signatories to do everything possible to limit global warming to no more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels, with an aspirational target of 1.5°C.
The historic deal required ratification by at least 55 countries representing 55% of global emissions for it to become operational – which it now is!
Sounds like good news, right? Well unfortunately Australia remains one of the largest emitters to delay ratification.
But while Australia lags behind the rest of the world, many other nations are stepping up – here are 10 countries that have been pro-active in the ratification of the landmark climate agreement!

China

When the world's two biggest carbon emitters ratified the Paris Climate Agreement together, it was kind of a huge deal.

China and the US ratified in a joint statement, collectively totally 38% of global emissions.

China has pledged to cap their total emissions limits by 2030, reducing the carbon intensity of economic output by 60-65%, with 20% non-fossil fuel energy, and forest stock by 4-5 billion cubic metres!

USA

The United States is the world's second largest producer of GHGs
The country has pledged a reduction of 26-28% on 2005 levels, and aims to reach its targets by placing restrictions on power producers' emissions levels, while offering incentives to renewable energy producers.
However, the result of the US election has worried some about the United States' ability to maintain the pledge, as a little known part of the agreement is a four-year wait required to abandon the pledge – exactly the length of a US presidential term!

India

The fourth largest emitter of GHGs ratified the Paris Agreement this week, on Mahatma Gandhi's birthday.
The government has pledged to reduce the emissions intensity of their economic output by 33-35% by 2030, on 2005 levels with 40% non-fossil fuel based power, an ambitious pledge in the coming decades where hundreds of millions will access energy for the first time.
Additionally, 2.5-3 gigatons of CO2 will be stored through additional forestation by 2030.
India has faced several devastating heatwaves in recent years, with a long coastline leaving it exposed to sea-level rise, storms and floods – threats heightened among vulnerable populations.

European Union

Ratification this week by the EU, representing around 12% of global emissions, pushed the agreement past the 55% threshold and led to the Paris Agreement coming into effect.
EU negotiators were among leaders in the "high ambition coalition", a pact formed 6 months ahead of the Paris negotiations to spur more ambitious change.
The parliament has a formal, binding target of a 40% reduction in emissions by 2030 on 1990 levels.

Brazil

Latin America's biggest emitter, Brazil, has been an early and active part of the ratification process.
Brazil intends to reduce its GHG intensity by 37% by 2025 on 2005 levels, with a further attempt to reach a 43% reduction.
Significant emissions reductions have already been achieved in the country through reforestation efforts in the Amazon, hydropower and other renewable energies.

Canada

Canada has pledged a 30% drop in emissions by 2030 on 2005 level.
Along with ratifying Canada's portion of the agreement, the government has announced a national price on carbon, at C$10 per ton, rising $10 each year until 2022, when it will be reviewed.
This is an extension of different carbon pricing programs in four of Canada's most populous provinces.

Mexico

Mexico is the 13th largest emitter in the world.
Mexico has pledged a 36% reduction of GHGs by 2030, by increasing their mix of renewable energy and stopping deforestation by 2030.
Conditional on some international support, the government has signalled an ambition of making a 40% reduction.

United Arab Emirates

The UAE is the first Middle Eastern country to ratify the Paris agreement.
The UAE's pledges involve a 24% mix of non-fossil fuel energy production by 2021, a fast but small contribution for a large oil producer.
Efforts to increase renewable energy, water efficiency, sequester carbon, and achieve an economic diversification away from oil will contribute to the country's targets.

Morocco

Ahead of the next UN climate change conference in Marrakesh this November, Morocco has ratified the Paris agreement.
With some international assistance, Morocco has pledged to reduce their emissions by 32% by 2030, and to stop any emission growth along with 42% renewable energy by 2020

New Zealand

Even our neighbours across the ditch have ratified the Paris Agreement, pledging a 30% reduction of GHGs by from 2005 levels.

So what about Australia?
Australia's former Environment Minister signed the agreement in April but it is yet to be approved by Parliament.
"If the pledges are honoured promptly, and then deepened, this could be the turning point in tackling climate change," the Climate Council's Chief Councillor Professor Tim Flannery said.
"Around the world, we have seen leaders act swiftly in acknowledging the huge task ahead of us. Unfortunately, here at home in Australia, we continue to bicker and drag our feet."
Climate Councillor Professor Lesley Hughes, who last week appeared before a Parliament committee considering the Paris agreement, said Australia had so much work to do to reduce its emissions, and no time to lose.
"The severe storms that recently hit South Australia and other states, disrupting electricity supply and flooding our agricultural heartland, illustrates once again that Australia is on the front line of climate change," Professor Hughes said.
"Without drastic and deep emissions reductions we will face even more severe climate impacts, which could cripple the nation's major infrastructure and seriously affect our economy and way of life. Now is the time to get to work."

Links

• Australia worst among G20 on climate action: new report
• On the Frontline: Climate Change & Rural Communities
• A timeline of Earth's average temperature: in comic form
• Climate Change Authority Special Review: Minority Report
• VIDEO: South Australian storms – blaming the solution

Climate Change Must Be Part Of Australia’s Electricity System Review

The Conversation - Tony Wood

Australia's electricity network is going through a period of major transformation. Indigo Skies Photography/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

On  Friday, Australia's federal and state energy ministers met for an extraordinary meeting following the complete loss of power in South Australia on September 28. The COAG Energy Council announced a wide-ranging independent review to provide advice to governments on a coordinated, national reform blueprint. The review will be chaired by Australia's Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel.
Dr Finkel has been challenged with steering Australia's energy system around some big potholes while keeping his eye on the horizon. And all in about six months.
The review will consider work already being done around maintaining the security, reliability and affordability of electricity as delivered by the National Electricity market (NEM) (which covers all states except Western Australia and the Northern Territory).
The state-wide blackout became a political opportunity for Australia's politicians. Yet it is certainly too early and hopefully wrong to say if this is just a reactive response.

What's in the review?
The review has three timeframes. The immediate priority will be to systematically assemble existing processes and work programs initiated over the last year by the energy council and identify any major gaps in the context of energy security and reliability in the NEM. Some of these processes, such as a review of market governance arrangements, have been completed but not fully actioned.
Others have only recently been announced. These include analysis of the impact of federal, state and territory carbon policies on energy markets and the reviews of the South Australian blackout. They will not all be complete by the December council meeting.
The review is expected to deliver a blueprint via a final report early in the new year. It is likely to include specific actions, both physical and financial, that respond to recent events such as South Australia's price shock in July and blackout in September. These two issues should not be conflated. To do so, would risk solving neither.
The council has highlighted the significant transition underway in the Australian electricity market. The drivers include "rapid technological change, the increasing penetration of renewable energy, a more decentralised generation system, withdrawal of traditional baseload generation and changing consumer demand". The blueprint will address all of these issues in a comprehensive and coordinated way not previously a feature of the council's output.
There is much uncertainty to how some of these drivers will evolve over the next two decades. To be really effective, the blueprint will need to consider a range of plausible long-term scenarios but focus on near-term options that can be adapted to evolving developments on all fronts.
The Chief Scientist will, amongst other things, bring to the review his knowledge of current and likely future developments in energy technologies. This will be important in considering policy, legislative and rule changes that favour the adoption of technologies that could address both low-emissions and reliability but are otherwise technology-neutral.
The federal energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, and his state and territory counterparts are to be applauded for the speed and cohesiveness they have shown in instigating the review. This follows a similar approach that permeated their August meeting where considerable progress was made on key energy market reforms across several fronts.

Get climate policy right
There are two critical areas of concern. The fundamental driver behind the issues listed in the review's terms of reference is climate change and the policy response to it.
The federal government is committed to a 2017 review of its domestic climate change policies against its 2030 emissions reduction target.
State and territory governments have announced or implemented their own climate change and renewable energy policies. It is not surprising that states such as Victoria remain committed to these policies even though they are open to criticism for being uncoordinated at a national level, or failing to consider implications for system reliability and security.
Primary responsibility must rest with the federal government to deliver a credible scalable climate policy. Much can then flow from there, including agreement from states and territories to truly act in the spirit of national coordination to which they committed.
Greenhouse gas reduction is best achieved by putting a price on emissions through one of several options that have been canvassed in 2016 and in a form that acts with the electricity market and not outside it. The review's terms of reference are silent on this issue, and yet recognise that the nature and structure of climate change policy have critical implications for the NEM.
Wind and solar power are intermittent. Their integration into the generation mix while maintaining reliability is best achieved by valuing flexibility either through the NEM or via complementary policies or regulations. The review is oddly silent on this issue. It is to be hoped that this is unintended and will be picked up in the course of the review.
There were high expectations for Friday's council meeting. A state-wide blackout does that. These expectations have been delegated to the review which the council must support and drive to outcomes.
Minister Frydenberg has strongly and repeatedly emphasised that the government will not compromise energy reliability and security in the transition to a low emissions future. Failure on this front will not be forgiven.

Links

• What caused South Australia's state-wide blackout?
• We don't know why South Australia's wind farms stopped working, so hold off on the blame game
• Power prices rising, time for politicians to act
• The real lesson from South Australia's electricity 'crisis': we need better climate policy

Climate Change Is Causing Earlier Springs in (US) National Parks

National Geographic - Becky Little

Three-quarters of parks surveyed are experiencing warmer weather earlier in the year, which could hurt their ability to manage invasive species.

Grinnell Glacier melts in Glacier National Park, Montana. A new report reveals that many national parks are experiencing earlier onsets of spring. Photograph by James Balog, National Geographic

The National Park Service was created to protect and preserve the United States' natural wonders. But what happens when climate change starts to alter these sites?
On Thursday, U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced a new report revealing that three-quarters of 276 national parks are experiencing an earlier onset of spring. Half of the parks studied are experiencing "extreme" early springs.
The report authors discovered this by looking at historical data dating back to 1901.
For the parks in the "extreme" category, they found that "the onset of spring is earlier than 95 percent of the historical range," says Jake Weltzin, an ecologist at the U.S. Geological Survey and one of the authors of the report.
"And we're talking on the order of weeks."

Good News for Invasive Species
Jewell made Thursday's announcement in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, one of the sites that has experienced an early onset of spring. Weltzin says that, like many parks, Shenandoah is struggling to manage invasive species like kudzu—a scourge that can be exacerbated by earlier springs.
"Biological invasions are a really big deal in the national parks," he says. In Saguaro National Park, Arizona, near where Weltzin lives, one of the invasive species that park staff struggle with most is buffelgrass.
"The warmer the winter and the warmer the spring, the sooner it can start growing," Weltzin says of buffelgrass. "And so a lot of the other native plants are sort of sequestered in place."
Another problem that earlier springs present for parks is a mismatch between plants and pollinators.
"Not every organism is going to respond the same way to an early spring," Weltzin says. "Some plants might respond a certain way, but the hummingbirds or other pollinators might not be affected in part because of where the migration routes are taking them or when they start migrating.
"So they may be arriving and it may be too late for certain species," he says.

Looking Ahead
The Park Service's new report was actually initiated by the National Phenology Network, a science nonprofit of which Weltzin is executive director. For the report, the network used a tool that it had developed to assess the onset of spring in different locations.
"What we're doing really is producing maps of spring for the entire nation," he says. "The national parks is just sort of the first application. As we go along, we hope to be able to apply this to the national wildlife refuges and other protected areas."
The purpose of the current report is to give staff at individual parks a sense of how climate change is affecting their sites, rather than make prescriptions about how parks should deal with this change. Given the diverse ecosystems among the more than 250 parks surveyed, more research is needed to determine the more specific ways in which climate change is affecting particular parks.
"There's clearly more work to be done," says Weltzin. "And you know, we've got about a century behind us, and there's a century ahead of us."

Links

• Climate Change in Your Life
• President Obama Urges Swift Action on Climate Change
• Climate Change: Real, Serious, Fixable
• New Climate Change Report Warns of Dire Consequences
• Severe Weather More Likely Thanks to Climate Change
• Climate Change Is Making Your Allergies Even Worse