Category: Weather & Environment

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden planned Wednesday to return the United States to the worldwide fight to slow global warming in one of his first official acts, and to immediately launch a series of climate-friendly efforts that would transform how Americans drive and get their power.

“A cry for survival comes from the planet itself,” Biden said in his inaugural address. “A cry that can’t be any more desperate or any more clear now.”

Biden was to sign an executive order rejoining the Paris climate accord within hours of taking the oath of office, fulfilling a campaign pledge. The move undoes the U.S. withdrawal ordered by predecessor Donald Trump, who belittled the science behind climate efforts, loosened regulations on heat-trapping oil, gas and coal emissions, and spurred oil and gas leasing in pristine Arctic tundra and other wilderness.

The Paris accord commits 195 countries and other signatories to come up with a goal to reduce carbon pollution and monitor and report their fossil fuel emissions. The United States is the world’s No. 2 carbon emitter after China.

Biden’s move will solidify political will globally, former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday.

“Not a single country in this world, however powerful, however resourceful one may be, can do it alone,” said Ban, speaking virtually at a briefing in the Netherlands for an upcoming Climate Adaptation Summit. “We have to put all our hands on the deck. That is the lesson, very difficult lesson, which we have learned during last year,” as Trump made good on his pledge to pull out of the global accord.

Biden also will use executive orders to start undoing other Trump climate rollbacks. He will order a temporary moratorium on new oil and gas leasing in what had been virgin Arctic wilderness, direct federal agencies to start looking at tougher mileage standards and other emission limits again, and revoke Trump’s approval for the Keystone XL oil and gas pipeline.

Another first-day order directs agencies to consider the impact on climate, disadvantaged communities, and on future generations from any regulatory action that affects fossil fuel emissions, a new requirement. Human-caused climate change has been linked to worsening natural disasters, including wildfires, droughts, flooding and hurricanes.

However, there was no immediate word on when Biden would make good on another climate campaign pledge, one banning new oil and gas leasing on federal land.

After Biden notifies the U.N. by letter of his intention to rejoin the Paris accord, it would become effective in 30 days, U.N. spokesman Alex Saier said.

Rejoining the Paris accords could put the U.S. on track to cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 40% to 50% by 2030, experts said.

“There’s a lot we can do because we’ve left so much on the table over the last four years,” said Kate Larsen, former deputy director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality under the Obama administration.

Biden has promised that the needed transformations of the U.S. transportation and power sectors, and other changes, will mean millions of jobs.

Opponents of the climate accord, including Republican lawmakers who supported Trump’s withdrawal from it, have said it would mean higher gas prices and higher electricity prices — even though wind and solar have become more affordable than coal, and competitive with natural gas, in generating electricity.

“The Paris climate agreement is based on the backward idea that the United States is a culprit here, when in reality the United States is the leading driver of climate solutions,” said Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican.

Republican senators are expected to introduce legislation that would require Biden to submit the Paris plan to the Senate for ratification. It’s not clear whether the narrowly divided Senate would have the two-thirds votes needed to ratify the agreement, which was never approved by Congress.

Supporters say congressional approval is not needed. Most of the pollution-reduction goals set by the agreement are voluntary.

The climate deal is based on each nation setting a goal for cutting carbon pollution by 2030. Other countries submitted theirs by last month. The U.S did not. Saier said America just needs to submit its goal some time before November climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland.

A longtime international goal, included in the Paris accord with an even more stringent target, is to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times. The world has already warmed 1.2 degrees (2.2 degrees Celsius) since that time.

As of 2020, U.S. emissions were 24% below 2005 levels, but that reflected the extraordinary economic slowdown stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, said climate scientist Zeke Hausfather, energy and climate director for the Breakthrough Institute.

There are two big areas where climate policy deals with day-to-day American life. One is electricity generation, and the other is transportation.

There’s been a quiet transformation, because of market forces that have made wind and solar cheaper than dirtier coal, toward cleaner fuels, and that’s expected to continue so that eventually nearly all of the nation’s power will be low or zero carbon, Larsen and other experts say.

What happens to cars, trucks and buses will be far more noticeable. Several experts foresee the majority of new cars purchased in 2030 being electric.

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Knickmeyer reported from Oklahoma City. Borenstein reported from Kensington, Maryland. Associated Press writers Matthew Daly in Washington, Michael Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Frank Jordans in Berlin also contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s climate coverage at https://www.apnews.com/Climate

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Follow Ellen Knickmeyer on Twitter at www.twitter/ellenknickmeyer and Seth Borenstein at www.twitter.com/borenbears.

 

— Associated Press

 

PARIS (AP) — World leaders are staging a virtual gathering Saturday to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Paris climate accord, which set a goal for keeping global temperatures from rising above levels that could have devastating consequences for mankind.

The event, hosted by France, Britain, Italy, Chile and the United Nations, will see heads of state and government from over 70 countries pledge to increase their efforts to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that fuel global warming.

Experts say commitments put forward by the international community have already improved the long-term outlook on climate change, making the worst-case scenarios less likely by the end of the century. But wildfires in the Amazon, Australia and America, floods in Bangladesh and East Africa, and record temperatures in the Arctic have highlighted the impact an increase of 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times is already having on the planet.

The Paris agreement aims to cap global warming at well under 2C (3.6F), ideally no more than 1.5C (2.7F), by the end of the century.

Achieving this will require a phasing-out of fossil fuels and better protection for the world’s carbon-soaking forests, wetlands and oceans.

The United States, which quit the Paris accord under President Donald Trump, won’t attend the event at the federal level. But Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and U.S. business leaders, such as Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook, will take part.

President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to rejoin the pact and put the U.S. on course to reduce its emissions to net zero by 2050.

Also absent from the event are major economies such as Australia, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico, none of which has offered significant improvements on its existing emissions targets.

Environmental campaigners singled out Brazil’s recent announcement that it will stick to its target of cutting emissions by 43 percent over the next decade compared with 2005 levels and aim for net zero by 2060 — far later than most other countries.

By contrast, an agreement Friday by European Union members to beef up the continent’s 2030 targets from 40% to at least 55% compared with 1990 levels was broadly welcomed, though activists said it could have aimed even higher.

China, the world’s biggest emitter, also surprised the world in September by announcing a net zero target of 2060, with emissions peaking by 2030. Observers say this is likely a low offer that Beijing can significantly improve on in years to come.

The 189 countries that are party to the Paris agreement are required to submit their updated targets to the United Nations by the end of the year. This would normally have occurred at the annual U.N. climate summit, but the event was postponed for a year due to the pandemic.

The gathering, now scheduled to take place in Glasgow in November 2021, will see haggling over financial support for poor countries to cope with climate change, and fine-tuning the rules for international markets in emissions trading. Britain, next year’s host, announced this month it is aiming to cut emissions by 68% over the next decade and end state support for fossil fuel industry exports.

Former U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres, who was a key player at the Paris negotiations, said leaders had a duty to be optimistic about their ability to curb global warming.

“Because if we don’t, the alternative is unthinkable,” she said. “None of us adults alive today want to have on our shoulders the responsibility of turning over a world that is a world of misery for generations to come.”

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Jordans reported from Berlin.

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Summit website: https://www.climateambitionsummit2020.org

— Associated Press

The fund will divest from many fossil fuels in the next five years and sell its shares in other companies that contribute to global warming by 2040.

— NYT: Top Stories

 

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fire danger remained high Friday amid unpredictable wind gusts and dry conditions in Southern California, as crews made progress against blazes that burned several homes and injured two firefighters.

The region’s notorious Santa Ana winds decreased slightly but red flag warnings of extreme wildfire risk were in place into the weekend because of low humidity. After the weather calms in the southern part of the state, winds are expected to increase in Northern California starting Sunday, forecasters said.

Firefighters were still busy trying to contain a number of blazes south and east of Los Angeles. The biggest began late Wednesday as a house fire in Orange County’s Silverado Canyon that spread to dry brush by fierce winds. Some 25,000 people were ordered to flee their homes, although some evacuations orders were later lifted.

The fire grew to 10 square miles (26 square kilometers) and blanketed a wide area with smoke and ash. It was 10% contained as calmer conditions helped hundreds of firefighters who fought the flames on the ground and by air.

Two U.S. Forest Service firefighters were hospitalized after being hurt while battling the blaze, though it wasn’t known how the injuries occurred. One was treated for a leg injury and the other suffered bruising and both were released Wednesday night, the Forest Service said on Twitter.

Some residents said they didn’t receive evacuation alerts because Southern California Edison had shut off power as a precaution before the fire erupted, leaving them without cellphone service.

The fire was not far from the site of October’s Silverado Fire, which also forced thousands from their homes and left two firefighters critically burned.

Crews mostly tamed two small fires that prompted evacuations in Riverside County east of Los Angeles.

And to the south, a small blaze in San Diego County that threatened about 200 residences was fully contained Thursday after destroying one home and damaging six others in a neighborhood near El Cajon.

Santa Ana winds hit 50 mph (80.5 kph) to 85 mph (137 kph) at times throughout the region beginning Wednesday night.

Numerous studies have linked bigger wildfires in America to climate change from the burning of coal, oil and gas. Scientists have said climate change has made California much drier, meaning trees and other plants are more flammable.

The fires erupted as Southern California utilities cut the power to more than 100,000 customers to avoid the threat of winds knocking down or fouling power lines and causing wildfires — something that has sparked devastating fires in recent years.

Southern California Edison cut power to nearly 50,000 homes and businesses, including those in the area where the Bond Fire started, but as winds eased the utility began restoring electricity.

San Diego Gas & Electric’s precautionary blackouts affected around 73,000 customers at the peak.

California already has experienced its worst-ever year for wildfires. More than 6,500 square miles (16,835 square kilometers) have been scorched, a total larger than the combined area of Connecticut and Rhode Island. At least 31 people have been killed and 10,500 homes and other structures damaged or destroyed.

The latest fire threat comes as much of California plunges deeper into drought. Virtually all of Northern California is in severe or extreme drought while nearly all of Southern California is abnormally dry or worse.

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Associated Press reporter Amy Taxin contributed from Orange County, California.

 

— Associated Press

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Researchers believe the vessel is the Caroline Eddy, a ship built during the Civil War and wrecked in 1880. “It was a sea like a mountain,” its captain recounted at the time.

— NYT: Top Stories

Two 3.4 magnitude earthquakes struck hours apart in the same area in Northern California on Sunday, according to officials.

 

— FOX News: Travis Fedschun