11/06/2020

BBC Climate Change Videos


CO2 - or carbon dioxide - is at the heart of the world's changing climate. Reality Check's Chris Morris explains why.
Motion graphics by Jacqueline Galvin.
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The coronavirus crisis has seen many changes to life as we know it.
The number of cars on our roads has reduced dramatically, planes are grounded and many of us are working from home for the first time.
It has resulted in cleaner rivers and better air quality, and global CO2 emissions are predicted to be their lowest in a decade.
Could changes we have been forced to make during the pandemic become long-term environmental solutions?


The 10 years to the end of 2019 have been confirmed as the warmest decade on record by three global agencies.
This year, climate change has been linked to Australian bushfires, torrential rains in Indonesia and record-breaking temperatures in Europe - but just what is climate change?
The BBC's global science correspondent Rebecca Morelle explains.
Produced and edited by Larissa Kennelly Graphics by Terry Saunders

Forest area has been increasing in some parts of the world, but deforestation is continuing at speed in others.
Can the trees we are planting make up for those that are being cut down?
Reality Check's Jack Goodman takes a look.
Motion graphics by Jacqueline Galvin Produced by Sarah Glatte

Activists are warning that the world is now facing a "double crisis" because of the coronavirus pandemic and climate change.
Many campaigners have had to cancel or postpone their work because of lockdowns worldwide.
However, some say now is a big opportunity to spread their message in a different way.
Video journalist: Olivia Le Poidevin

Thousands of species could go extinct over the next decade according to a 2019 UN report.
Biodiversity is decreasing at a faster rate than ever, BBC Reality Check investigates why.
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Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss And Other Global Ills Share Root Causes

The Conversation -  | 

The Cendrawasih, commonly known as the Bird of Paradise, is facing extinction. Getty Images

Authors
The modern world seems to lurch from one crisis to another.

What if that is because the crises have shared underlying causes, and therefore tackling them as if they were independent events is doomed to fail?

The issues of climate change and biodiversity are deeply intertwined.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity, the international treaties charged with solving two of the biggest problems of the 21st century, were both due to hold make-or-break meetings in 2020.

COVID-19 – yet another crisis with strong connections to the other two – has forced the meetings to be postponed. The only positive result is that the delay provides an opportunity to better coordinate actions, in order to lead to better outcomes.

To mark World Environment Day on 5 June, the Commonwealth Academies released a statement on climate change, biodiversity and sustainable energy. The statement stressed the grave risks to people and nature of allowing the global climate to warm at its current rate and draws attention to the accelerating rate of biodiversity loss. It proposes that a rapid transition to predominantly renewable energy sources can help alleviate both issues. The statement calls for urgent leadership.

This article explains the logic behind that statement, linking three apparently different issues. By identifying the connections we reveal the opportunities for coordinated action and the pitfalls of continuing to pursue independent agendas.

Rapid species extinction

The world is in the throes of a “sixth extinction crisis” – an accelerating loss of species at a rate far more rapid than the evolution of new species. Such a loss was last seen sixty million years ago, when Earth collided with an asteroid. The result is the unravelling of the ecosystems which we depend on for our well-being.

For the past few centuries, the main cause of declining biological diversity has been habitat loss – the relentless replacement of natural ecosystems by croplands, cities and managed forest, to meet human demands for food, timber and raw materials. That process continues.

Apart from driving our co-inhabitants of the planet to extinction, land use change is the most important cause of climate change after the burning of fossil fuels. Human encroachment on nature is also the root cause of the emergence of novel zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19. So if we could stop deforestation, we would help solve three problems at the same time.

Climate change

But as we move into the middle part of the 21st century, the biggest future threat to plants and animals is climate change. Despite the undertaking by most of the countries of the world in Paris in 2015 to stabilise the global climate at safe levels by mid-century, the climate continues to warm at an accelerating rate.

As a result the climate comfort zones of millions of species are moving faster than they can keep up. Our main strategy thus far for conserving biodiversity – the creation of protected areas – is increasingly irrelevant.

The single most important thing we can do to save nature (and ourselves) in the 21st century is to cap global warming at no more than 1.5℃. In other words, the fate of nature is being decided by the outcome of climate negotiations, not biodiversity discussions.

There are also examples where an action taken to address one of the crises makes things worse for another. For instance, there is great enthusiasm for planting forests to soak up carbon dioxide. Many of the targeted areas – which need to be huge to make a useful difference – are not places that formerly supported forests.

As South Africa learned the hard way, when we afforest ancient, species-rich grasslands with monocultures of alien trees, the rivers dry up and biodiversity is lost. There are potentially similar problems with simply replacing fossil fuels with bio energy crops. The vast areas required will either displace food crops or further encroach on natural habitats.

Energy generation

Renewable energy – particularly solar and wind power – offer far more sustainable futures. They are not without impacts on biodiversity, but the magnitude of those impacts is much less than the effects of climate change, driven by fossil fuels and land use change.

The remarkable worldwide reduction in atmospheric pollutants and the resurgence of nature while travel and economic activity were suspended under COVID-19 restrictions give us a glimpse of what we have lost and what we stand to gain.

Those effects will be short-lived, but they do show that when the world perceives a problem to be urgent and critically important, it can very quickly take actions previously said to be completely impossible. That is the lesson we need to apply to the much more life-threatening, and just as urgent, challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss.

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Why Hydrogen, Why Now? Because Climate, Economy And Finance Say So.

Forbes - David Hart

Hydrogen energy is seeing unprecedented support, not only from long-time enthusiasts like Japan and Korea, but from upstarts like Australia and Chile. 

Germany has just announced a plan to spend €7bn on hydrogen as part of an economic stimulus package. 

The IEA–born in the oil crises–is publicly suggesting we need more hydrogen in the energy system, and the World Economic Forum helped seed the Hydrogen Council, now 81 hydrogen-supporting members including oil and gas companies and carmakers, trading companies and banks. 

European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans sees hydrogen as essential to Europe’s Green Deal.

European Commission vice-president in charge for European Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, speaks during a press conference on Green and Just recovery at the European Commission headquarters in Brussel on May 28, 2020. Photo by Aris Oikonomou / AFP via Getty Images

Why hydrogen? Simply, it can do things electrons cannot. As a molecule, it can be used as a convertible ‘currency’ between renewable energy, chemical feedstock, transport fuel, residential and industrial heat. It is an excellent clean energy store for long periods and large energy needs. It sits alongside and in partnership with electricity as a consummate carbon-free energy vector.

Hydrogen has enormous promise, but needs to be scaled up dramatically to have an impact. Its detractors dismiss it as inefficient and difficult to handle. Battery vehicles seem to be conquering transport, while wind and solar feed our grids. All of the signals scream ‘hype cycle’. Or do they? Three powerful drivers seem to be combining to push hydrogen forward.

Firstly, the concept of ‘net zero’ carbon emissions is gaining pace. National governments and energy companies alike are proclaiming it their goal. And models show that without hydrogen, net zero is almost impossible to achieve. Hydrogen is needed to help decarbonise heat, and shipping, and long-haul trucking, and fertiliser, and heavy industries like steel.

Secondly, our energy and transport systems are on the brink of upheaval, bringing dramatic economic pain. The growth of renewables is accelerating, cost is dropping, vehicles are becoming electric and maybe autonomous. Traditional industries are facing existential threats, and hundreds of thousands of discarded jobs. Hydrogen can help them reinvent themselves, create employment and drive economic growth, while still meeting the climate imperative.

Thirdly, COVID-19 has brutally exposed the inherent fragility and endemic risk in our economies. Supply chains are stationary, oil prices have gone negative, and fiscal rules have been rewritten. The risk from climate change is seen as many times worse. Major company shareholders, like pension funds, are scrutinising corporate ESG reports for their willingness to limit social upheaval and exposure to carbon emissions.

Thierry Philipponnat, an EU expert on sustainable finance at Finance Watch and board member of France’s financial regulator, suggests that bank risk ratings for fossil fuels should be increased by up to an order of magnitude, to fairly reflect future threats. Investors and analysts increasingly see hydrogen as an option for long-term sustainable investment, and will reward company boards for pursuing it, where in the past they penalised.

Hydrogen is rarely an easy solution to any single problem. A lot must be done before it makes a meaningful energy - or climate - or economic - contribution. But the current conditions suggest an opportunity to be seized.

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