Environmental Activists Are Suing Governments Over Climate Change — And Winning

Futurism - Kyree Leary

Creative Commons

In Brief An environmental organization has won its third court case over the UK government regarding its failure to adequately address air pollution. These cases are part of a global trend toward litigation over climate change that is expected to include several high-profile cases in the U.S. this year.

On Wednesday, the High Court in London ruled the UK government’s current stance on air pollution is “unlawful.”
The ruling came about because the government has failed to impose new policies on 45 local authority areas with illegal levels of air pollution.
According to the Royal College of Physicians, air pollution contributes to nearly 40,000 deaths in the UK each year.
This is the third court case the UK government has lost to ClientEarth, an organization of environmental activist lawyers. As reported by The Guardian, the new ruling will require clean air policies to be overseen by the courts rather than ministers and local officials.
“The history of this litigation shows that good faith, hard work, and sincere promises are not enough and it seems court must keep the pressure on to ensure compliance is actually achieved,” said Justice Garnham, the judge who heard the case.
ClientEarth lawyer Anna Heslop explained in a statement that the initial air pollution issue was meant to be solved 8 years ago, but the government’s failure to implement any solutions has allowed the problem to go unchecked.
While it would be difficult to predict whether the court case will improve the UK’s air pollution problem, it may stand a better chance being monitored by the courts — which have taken note of the government’s past failures to rectify the issue.



The UK isn’t the only country embroiled in lawsuits related to environmental issues, but ClientEarth’s third win in the country could serve as a warning to other nations. If anything, it demonstrates that legal action can successfully promote change; a precedent that could be particularly influential for groups that have, or are considering, perusing legal action against governments over climate change.
As Reuters reported in December, a number of high-profile climate change cases are expected to take place in the United States this year. Similar lawsuits in Germany and Norway could also make headlines.
Whether the lawsuits involve governments or fossil fuel companies, each case is aimed at those perceived of either knowingly causing — or failing to take action against the progression of — climate change.
Back in December, eight northeastern states moved to sue the Environmental Protection Agency. The suit sought to require the EPA to enforce new restrictions on Midwestern states generating air pollution, which the east coast states claimed was, essentially, blowing over to its cities.
In January, the state of New York, led by Mayor Bill de Blasio, sued multiple fossil fuel companies for their contributions to climate change through knowingly burning harmful fossil fuels and “intentionally mis[leading] the public to protect their profits.”
At the time, ClientEarth’s Sophie Marjanac told Reuters that there was a trend toward litigation around climate change and that “the lack of political action in the United States may increase that trend.”
One thing is clear: citizens have taken notice that those in charge aren’t doing everything in their power to curb climate change. Those that are simply aren’t making changes fast enough: if recent studies are any indication, we’re running out of time for our actions to make a difference.

Links

• Courts' critical, underappreciated role in climate policy
• 'Sloppy And Careless': Courts Call Out Trump Blitzkrieg On Environmental Rules
• If Climate Change Wrecks Your City, Can It Sue Exxon?
• Newest Youth Climate Lawsuit Targets Washington State
• U.S. Climate Change Litigation In The Age Of Trump: Year One
• International Court Ruling: A Safe Climate Is A Human Right
• Could A Future Labor Government Really Stop The Adani Mine?
• Paris, Inspired By New York City, Considers Climate Suit Against Oil Companies
• 'Everything Is Made Into A Political Issue': Rethinking Australia's Environmental Laws
• NSW Court To Hear 'Landmark' Challenge To Coalmine Over Climate Change Impact
• Today’s Delays in Addressing CO2 Emissions Could Influence Sea Levels for Centuries
• Some of the Ozone Layer Is Still Thinning, Thanks to a Surprise Chemical
• Oh, Great: There’s Lots of Mercury in the Thawing Permafrost

Every One Of Europe’s 571 Cities Is Destined For Worse Heat Waves, Droughts, Or Floods

Quartz - Zoë Schlanger

Floods are set to rise in 85% of UK cities that have a river. (Darren Staples/Reuters)

A new analysis of climate change across Europe found that under several probable future climate scenarios, European cities will be hit harder by floods, droughts, and heat waves than previously understood.
A study published Tuesday in the journal Environmental Research Letters used all available climate models to assess what is likeliest to happen to Europe under a scenario in which the world fails to dramatically reduce carbon emissions, while population continues to grow. That scenario—dubbed RCP8.5 in scientific literature—is often pointed to as a proxy for a worst-case (though still absolutely possible) future emissions scenario, in which temperatures increase 2.6°C to 4.8°C from the 1850–1900 global average by 2050-2100.
In that scenario, there can be a lot of variation in how climate systems respond, so the researchers tested what would happen to European cities in low-, medium-, and high-impact climate outcomes. In every outcome, Europe gets battered by more intense droughts, floods, and heat waves.

Droughts will hit everywhere, but especially southern Europe
For example, under the low-impact scenario, southern Europe will be the hardest hit by drought, with cities like Malaga and Almeria, both in Spain, likely to experience droughts that are twice as severe as they were from 1951 to 2000. Under the high-impact scenario, droughts worsen on a mass scale: 98% of European cities would have to cope with worse droughts, and in southern Europe, drought are likely to become 14 times worse than they are now.
“Although southern European regions are adapted to cope with droughts, this level of change could be beyond breaking point,” Selma Guerreiro, a hydrology and climate-change researcher at Newcastle University and lead author on the paper said in a statement.
The European capital cities which will see the greatest increase in drought severity and frequency, according to the paper, are:

• Athens, Greece
• Lisbon, Portugal
• Madrid, Spain
• Nicosia, Cyprus
• Sofia, Bulgaria
• Valleta, Malta

Floods will rise, especially in the UK
The UK is expected to be hit hard by flooding by the second half of the century; 85% of UK cities that have rivers flowing through them (like London) would face more floods than before in the low-impact scenario. Under the high-impact scenario, certain cities will see dramatic spikes in the severity of floods. For example, Cork, Ireland, is expected to be inundated with 115% more water per flood. Glasgow, Scotland is likely to see 77% more water per flood, and Wrexham, Wales is likely to see 80% more water.
The European capital cities which will see the greatest increase in flooding severity and frequency are:

• Dublin, Ireland
• Helsinki, Finland
• Riga, Latvia
• Vilnius, Lithuania
• Zagreb, Croatia

Heat waves will go up, and central Europe will roast most
Under all three scenarios, the number of heat wave days and their maximum temperature will increase for all 571 cities in the European Union’s official database of cities. Those in central Europe are likely to see the biggest spikes in temperatures during heat waves: 2°C to 7°C in the low-impact scenario and 8°C to 14°C in the high-impact scenario.
The European capital cities which will see the greatest increase in heat wave severity and frequency are:

• Athens, Greece
• Nicosia, Cyprus
• Prague, Czech Republic
• Rome, Italy
• Sofia, Bulgaria
• Stockholm, Sweden
• Valleta, Malta
• Vienna, Austria

Links

• Climate change 'will push European cities towards breaking point'
• Heatwaves, floods, drought to hit European cities London, Helsinki, Riga, Vilnius, Zagreb by 2051
• European cities including London face huge threat from flooding, droughts and heatwaves, experts warn
• Europe's cities face more extreme weather than previously thought

Sea Levels Could Rise An Extra 60cm If Emission Reductions Are Delayed Until 2035, Study Finds

ABC Science - Nick Kilvert

Scientists say sea levels will continue to rise until at least 2300. (Getty Images: Brook Mitchell)

Key points: Sea levels are projected to rise between 0.7 and 1.2m above 2000 levels by 2300 Delaying peak emissions between 2020-2035 results in 20cm rise for each 5-year period missed A 2C temperature increase this century could result in a sea-level rise of at least 1.5m

Global sea levels will continue to rise until at least 2300 regardless of how much we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, according to new research published today.
But for every five years until 2035 that we delay reaching net-zero carbon emissions, as committed to under the Paris agreement targets, sea levels will rise by about an extra 20 centimetres, the researchers found as part of the study published in Nature Communications.
They estimated average global sea levels would be between 0.7 and 1.2 metres above 2000 levels by 2300, depending on how quickly we can reduce our emissions.
The Paris agreement, to which Australia is a signatory, has a core aim of limiting global temperature rise this century to "well below" 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels, and to pursue efforts to keep the rise below 1.5 degrees.
However, the authors argue that a 2C-temperature increase would result in a sea-level rise of at least 1.5 metres.
"Even if we only look at 2020 to 2035, we can say we need to start greenhouse reduction as soon as possible to reduce the damage," study co-author Alexander Nauels from the University of Melbourne said.

"We will have to adapt to sea-level rise, but it's really a question of how much and how bad it will be."

Time to 'put our money where our mouth is'
The researchers created a computer climate model using the major drivers of sea-level rise — thermal expansion of the ocean, melting of mountain glaciers, and the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.

Scientists say uncertainty about Antarctic melting means sea levels could be higher than projected (Supplied: NASA)

They then plugged in a range of different parameters based on different possible scenarios of emissions-reduction rates, and emissions-peak years under the Paris agreement, and ran each scenario 600 times up until the year 2300.
Their results showed that every delay in peaking emissions by five years between 2020 and 2035, created a 20-centimetre increase in sea levels by 2300.
"Under the Paris agreement, current mitigation commitments by nations to 2030 are at the upper level of the emissions scenarios considered [in the study]," Professor John Church from the Climate Change Centre at UNSW, who was not involved in the study, said in a statement.
"Mitigation efforts will need to be increased significantly and urgently if a rise of more than 1 metre by 2300 is to be avoided."
The most extreme end of the study's results showed a possible sea-level rise of more than 4 metres by 2300. However, the average and median results fell well below that figure.
A Sea-level rise of two metres would mean Sydney's Circular Quay and Botanic Gardens, Brisbane Airport, Melbourne's Docklands, Elizabeth Quay in Perth, and significant areas of the Gold Coast and Darwin would be underwater, according to modelling done last year.
The uncertainty in projections comes from the limited knowledge regarding how positive feedbacks will affect the rate and extent of melting in the Antarctic.
Positive feedbacks occur where one effect amplifies the process that causes it, such as melting ice exposing darker ground, which absorbs more heat resulting in more melting ice.
Modelling for positive feedbacks becomes difficult and means that extreme scenarios cannot be dismissed.
"Even a sea-level rise of up to 3 metres until 2300 cannot be ruled out completely," study author Matthias Mengel said.

"We are not yet fully certain how the Antarctic ice sheet will respond to global warming."

A number of climate scientists have commented on the study, reiterating the importance of immediate and strong action to curb global greenhouse-gas emissions.
"This study tells us it's time to put our money where our mouth is. I think we should encourage all the climate sceptics and big fossil-fuel investors to live smack on the shorefront," Professor Bill Laurance, director of tropical and sustainability science at James Cook University, said.
"That way, if they're right about climate change they'll be happy as clams. But if they're wrong they can just live with the clams, then let's see how happy they are."

Links

• What can we expect from Australian climate politics in 2017?
• Forget Paris: Australia needs to stop pretending we're tackling climate change
• 'My islands are sinking': Climate activist to feature at Womadelaide
• Forget Paris: Australia needs to stop pretending we're tackling climate change
• Satellites tell us how fast sea levels are rising — and how high they will go
• The challenges of understanding impact of climate change in Antarctica