20/08/2019

Iceland's Okjokull Glacier Issued With 'Death Certificate' To Sound Climate Change Warning

ABC News - AP

Key points
  • After about 100 people made a two-hour hike up a volcano, children installed a memorial plaque to the glacier
  • The plaque, which notes the level of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, warns "we know what is happening and what needs to be done"
  • Iceland's PM says climate change will be a priority when Nordic leaders meet in Reykjavik on Tuesday
With poetry, moments of silence and political speeches about the urgent need to fight climate change, Icelandic officials, activists and others bade goodbye to what once was a glacier.
Okjokull glacier was pronounced extinct about a decade ago by Icelandic geologist Oddur Sigurdsson.
On Sunday, Dr Sigurdsson brought a death certificate to the made-for-media memorial.
About 100 people made a two-hour hike up a volcano, where children installed a plaque to commemorate the glacier, now called just "Ok", minus the "jokull" — Icelandic for glacier.
The glacier used to stretch 15 square kilometres, Dr Sigurdsson said.
Residents reminisced about drinking pure water thousands of years old from Ok.



"The symbolic death of a glacier is a warning to us, and we need action," said former Irish president Mary Robinson, who attended the plaque ceremony alongside Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir.
Dr Sigurdsson sounded a further warning, saying all of the nation's ice masses would be gone in 200 years.
"We see the consequences of the climate crisis," Ms Jakobsdottir said. 
"We have no time to lose."
Ms Jakobsdottir said she would make climate change a priority when Nordic leaders and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met in Reykjavik on Tuesday.
"I know my grandchildren will ask me how this day was and why I didn't do enough," said Gunnhildur Hallgrimsdottir, 17.
The plaque, which notes the level of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, also bears a message to the future: "This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it."
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China And Japan See The Future, And It’s Not Coal: Why Australia Will Be Stranded

Sydney Morning Herald - Martina Linnenluecke

Solar PV panels in China's Fujian province. Credit: AP
Martina Linnenluecke
Professor Martina Linnenluecke is Macquarie Business School’s head of the Centre for Corporate Sustainability and Environmental Finance.
Scott Morrison was a lone voice at the Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu this week as his government  warned that any condemnation of coal, or calls for a ban on new mines, were a ‘‘red-line issue’’. It may be that Beijing sees things differently.
The fact is, Australia might only have a decade left to wean itself off coal if the latest international efforts to decarbonise are anything to go by.
The demand for coal from some of Australia’s main thermal coal export markets, specifically China and Japan, is in decline. Both major economies are rapidly transitioning to clean technology.
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) reports that China is taking the lead in the clean energy race to become the world’s largest producer, exporter and installer of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and electric vehicles.
Despite forecasts that China will continue to consume about half the world’s coal until 2023, the country has spent more on renewable energy than any other country and led a campaign to burn gas instead of coal in its battle against pollution. It has already promised to launch a series of solar and wind projects that can provide electricity at the same price as coal-fired power.
China’s investment from January to March this year in thermal power plants, which mostly consist of coal-fired generators, slumped 30 per cent from a year earlier. In contrast, spending on hydro-power and wind-power projects rose 48 per cent and 30 per cent respectively. Most of the capital expenditure planned by coal-fired power companies will be in renewable energy.
A push to a cleaner economy is also visible in Japan.
With a traditional high reliance on coal-powered generation, Japan is shifting away from new coal-fired projects. Several large utility companies, Osaka Gas, Kyushu Electric Power, Tokyo Gas, Idelmitsu Kosa and Chugoku Electric Power, are scrapping their plans for coal-fired power.
These cancellations come as renewable energy is on the rise in Japan and as the government brings in stricter regulations on new coal-fired power plants as part of its energy outlook. Coal power generation is expected to fall to 281 billion kilowatt hours in the 2030 financial year, down from 346 billion kWh in 2017.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, one of Japan’s largest banks, is reviewing its lending policies for coal-fired power generation. It is said to be guided by OECD standards to lend only to “high-efficiency, ultra-supercritical” coal-fired power plants.
As one of Japan’s biggest suppliers of thermal coal, this fall in demand will significantly hit Australia’s coal export market in the long-term.
There is certainly a reason to continue to rely on coal in the short term to ensure the reliability of power supplies. Given China’s enormous power needs, it is allowing 11 provinces and regions to resume building coal power plants. And the closure date of AGL’s Liddell power plant in NSW’s Hunter Valley has been pushed back by four months.
However, a Macquarie Business School research paper, “How markets will drive the transition to a low-carbon economy”, shows that the long-term business case for new coal projects no longer exists, domestically or globally.
Our research shows the total global wealth creation by 2050 through the development of clean technology patents in areas such as bio-fuels, fuel cells, hydro energy, wind energy, solar energy, and geothermal energy is $13.69 trillion to $20.87 trillion.
China has a clear lead in terms of the underlying technology with over 150,000 renewable energy patents as of 2016. This amounts to 29 per cent of the global total. The next closest country is the US, which has a little over 100,000 patents. Japan and the EU have closer to 75,000 patents each.
While not all patents are useful or valuable, these figures give an indication of how much investment different countries have been putting into clean technology.
The point to realise is that the global transition to renewables means our investments in coal are likely to become “stranded” and eventually these will need to be written down.
But such transitioning takes time, leadership and policy.
Germany’s transition to a low-carbon economy with its “Energiewende” has taken 30 years. It will decommission all its coal plants by 2038. Beijing has stated its intention to clean up its polluted cities, so it will increasingly turn to cleantech for its power supply to improve air quality.
Countries such as China ad Japan – our significant coal customers – see the future, and it’s not coal.

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Australia Is Third Largest Exporter Of Fossil Fuels Behind Russia And Saudi Arabia

The Guardian - 

Australia Institute says claim Australia is only responsible for 1.2% of emissions hides real contribution to climate crisis
Greenpeace activists attempting to disrupt coal loading at Newcastle, the world’s largest coal port. Australia is the third biggest exporter of hydrocarbon fuels. Photograph: EPA
Australia’s role as a leader in the global fossil fuel trade is underscored by a report that finds it is the world’s third biggest exporter and fifth biggest miner of fossil-related emissions.
While political debate sometimes emphasises that Australia is responsible for 1.2% of global emissions at home, the analysis by progressive thinktank the Australia Institute says it trails only Russia and Saudi Arabia in exporting fossil fuels.
When exports and what is burned at home are combined, Australia ranks fifth behind China, the US, Russia and Saudi Arabia in responsibility for carbon dioxide from extractive fossil industries.
The premise of the report – that Australia plays a greater role in the climate crisis than global greenhouse accounting rules suggest – is not new, but it goes further than some previous analyses in comparing exports emissions from different countries.


Its release follows the prime minister, Scott Morrison, facing criticism at the Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu over Australia’s limited response to the climate crisis and refusal to commit to a rapid transition away from coal.
The government and opposition both stress the importance of the coal export industry to the economy and employment. The institute’s report, by the senior researcher Tom Swann, challenges this, finding Australia’s economy is more diverse and less reliant on fossil fuels than that of most carbon exporters. It says Australia ranks 24th for carbon intensity across all exports, reflecting the broad range of goods it trades in.
Australia is responsible for 7% of global fossil fuel exports based on their carbon dioxide potential. Its coal exports doubled between 2000 and 2015 and now make up 29% of the global coal trade. Liquefied natural gas exports tripled over the same timeframe to 6% of trade, and continue to increase.


The report says exports are often downplayed in climate change policy as treaties focus on demand for carbon-intensive products rather than supply. This ignores that increasing supply and supply infrastructure can “lock in” emissions increases.
“The scale of exports from countries like Australia bring into stark relief why efforts to reduce emissions must limit both demand and supply,” it says.
In terms of domestic emissions, the report says Australia is the 14th biggest emitter despite having just 0.3% of the global population. It emits more greenhouse gas than 40 countries with bigger populations. While the government promises to cut carbon dioxide, national emissions have increased year-on-year since the abolition of a carbon price scheme in 2014.
As a member of the Pacific Islands Forum, Australia last week backed a call for countries to develop and release long-term low emissions development strategies by next year. The forum communique said this may include commitments and strategies to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

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