Hundreds of thousands protest in Germany alone, organisers say
‘No political party is doing close to enough’, Thunberg says
BRUSSELS, Sept 24 (Reuters) – Young people around the world took to the streets on Friday to demand urgent action to avert disastrous climate change, in their largest protest since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The strike takes place five weeks before the U.N. COP26 summit, which aims to secure more ambitious climate action from world leaders to drastically cut the greenhouse gas emissions heating the planet.
“The concentration of CO2 in the sky hasn’t been this high for at least 3 million years,” Swedish activist Greta Thunberg told a crowd of thousands of protesters in the German capital.
“It is clearer than ever that no political party is doing close to enough.”
Demonstrations were planned in more than 1,500 locations by youth movement Fridays for Future, kicking off in Asia with small-scale demonstrations in the Philippines and Bangladesh, and spreading throughout the day to European cities including Warsaw, Turin and Berlin.
“Everyone is talking about making promises, but nobody keeps their promise. We want more action,” said Farzana Faruk Jhumu, 22, a youth climate activist in Dhaka, Bangladesh. “We want the work, not just the promises.”
A landmark U.N. climate science report in August warned that human activity has already locked in climate disruptions for decades – but that rapid, large-scale action to reduce emissions could still stave off some of the most destructive impacts. read more
People take part in the Global Climate Strike of the movement Fridays for Future in Berlin, Germany, September 24, 2021. REUTERS/Christian Mang
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So far, governments do not plan to cut emissions anywhere near fast enough to do that.
The United Nations said last week that countries’ commitments would see global emissions increase to be 16% higher in 2030 than they were in 2010 – far off the 45% reduction by 2030 needed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“We are here because we are saying a loud ‘no’ to what is happening in Poland,” said Dominika Lasota, 19, a youth activist at a protest in Warsaw, Poland. “Our government has for years been blocking any sort of climate politics and ignores our demands for a safe future.”
Friday’s strike marked the in-person return of the youth climate protests that in 2019 drew more than six million people onto the streets, before the COVID-19 pandemic largely halted the mass gatherings and pushed much of the action online.
Yusuf Baluch, 17, a youth activist in the Pakistani province of Balochistan, said the return to in-person events was vital to force leaders to tackle the planetary crisis.
“Last time it was digital and nobody was paying attention to us,” he said.
But with access to COVID-19 vaccines still highly uneven around the world, activists in some poorer countries said they would only hold symbolic actions with only a handful of people.
“In the global north, people are getting vaccinated so they might be out in huge quantities. But in the global south, we are still limited,” Baluch said.
Reporting by Kate Abnett, Additional reporting by Kacper Pempel and Andrea Januta, Editing by William Maclean
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
The Turow open-pit coal mine operated by the company PGE is seen in Bogatynia, Poland, June 15, 2021. Picture taken June 15, 2021. REUTERS/David W Cerny
BRUSSELS, Sept 20 (Reuters) – Poland will have to pay a 500,000 euro ($585,550) daily penalty to the European Commission for defying an earlier court order to halt operations at its Turow open-pit lignite mine, Europe’s top court said on Monday.
The order, which a Polish deputy minister called “aggression,” comes amid a dragging dispute between coal-reliant Poland and the Czech Republic.
The Czech government says the mine is damaging communities along its side of the border, and it subsequently took its grievance to the European Commission which last year started legal proceedings against Poland, saying Warsaw had breached EU law when extending the mine’s life.
The Czech Republic also took its case to the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union, Europe’s highest, and won judges’ backing for a temporary order to Poland to stop Turow’s operations until a final judgment in the case – which Warsaw has rejected.
It also asked for a daily penalty payment of 5 million euros to be levied on Poland. The court on Monday agreed on a fine but set it at a much lower sum.
“Poland is ordered to pay the European Commission a daily penalty payment of €500 000 because it has not ceased lignite extraction activities at Turów mine,” the CJEU said.
“Such a measure appears necessary in order to strengthen the effectiveness of the interim measures decided upon in the order of 21 May 2021 and to deter that member state from delaying bringing its conduct into line with that order,” judges said.
TALKS DRAG ON
The order could pressure Warsaw to reach a deal with Prague over upgrades and measures to safeguard water, noise and air levels around the mine that the Czech government has sought.
Talks started in June and are aimed at the Czech Republic removing its legal challenge. read more
In response to the penalty, Czech Environment Minister Richard Brabec said it could be motivation for Poland to respect the court’s pre-emptive ruling.
Polish group PGE (PGE.WA), which operates Turow, situated along the Czech and German borders, said it expects operations to continue.
Polish deputy justice minister Sebastian Kaleta called the order “aggression” on the side of the court and the European Commission, while another deputy, Marcin Romanowski, said it went beyond blackmail.
“The CJEU demands half a million daily fines from Poland for the fact that Poland did not leave its citizens without energy and did not close the mines overnight,” he said on Twitter. “It is judicial robbery and theft in broad daylight. You won’t get a cent.”
($1 = 0.8539 euros)
Reporting by Foo Yun Chee in Brussels; additional reporting by Anna Koper in Warsaw and Jason Hovet in Prague; Editing by Mark Porter
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BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON, Sept 13 (Reuters) – The United States and the European Union have agreed to aim to cut emissions of the planet-warming gas methane by around a third by the end of this decade and are pushing other major economies to join them, according to documents seen by Reuters.
Their pact comes as Washington and Brussels seek to galvanize other major economies ahead of a world summit to address climate change in Glasgow, Scotland, in November, and could have a significant impact on the energy, agriculture and waste industries responsible for the bulk of methane emissions.
The greenhouse gas methane, the biggest cause of climate change after carbon dioxide (CO2), is facing more scrutiny as governments seek solutions to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, a goal of the Paris climate agreement.
In an attempt to jumpstart the action, the United States and the EU later this week will make a joint pledge to reduce human-caused methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030, compared with 2020 levels, according to a draft of the Global Methane Pledge seen by Reuters.
“The short atmospheric lifetime of methane means that taking action now can rapidly reduce the rate of global warming,” the draft said.
A separate document listed over two dozen countries that the United States and the EU will target to join the pledge. They include major emitters such as China, Russia, India, Brazil and Saudi Arabia, as well as others including Norway, Qatar, Britain, New Zealand and South Africa.
The U.S. State Department and the European Commission both declined to comment.
“The Pledge would represent a very encouraging sign that the world is finally waking up to the urgent need to rein in methane pollution,” said Sarah Smith, program director for super pollutants at the non-profit Clean Air Task Force.
PRESSURE
The agreement would likely be unveiled on Friday at a meeting of major emitting economies intended to rally support ahead of the COP26 Glasgow summit.
World leaders are under pressure from scientists, environmental advocates and growing popular sentiment to commit to more ambitious action to curb climate change in Glasgow.
Methane has a higher heat-trapping potential than CO2 but it breaks down in the atmosphere faster, so “strong, rapid and sustained reductions” in methane emissions in addition to slashing CO2 emissions can have a climate impact quickly, a fact emphasized by a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last month.
Experts say the fossil fuel sector has the biggest potential to cut methane emissions this decade by mending leaky pipelines or gas storage facilities, and many of those fixes can be done at a low cost.
Yet satellite images and infrared footage have in recent years revealed methane emissions spewing out of oil and gas sites in countries including the EU, Mexico and the United States. read more
The United States and EU are both due to propose laws this year to restrict methane emissions.
The U.S.-EU pledge would cover key sources of methane emissions, including leaky oil and gas infrastructure, old coal mines, agriculture and waste such as landfills, the draft said.
Countries that join the pledge would commit to take domestic action to collectively achieve the target methane cut, “focusing on standards to achieve all feasible reductions in the energy and waste sectors” and reducing agricultural emissions through “technology innovation as well as incentives and partnerships with farmers,” it said.
Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Leslie Adler and Sonya Hepinstall
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The three candidates for Norway’s prime minister Erna Solberg from the Conservatives, Jonas Gahr Stoere from Labour Party and Trygve Slagsvold Vedum from the Centre Party attend a debate in central Oslo, Norway August 9, 2021. Picture taken August 9, 2021. REUTERS/Gwladys Fouche
Conservatives seen losing power after 8 years
Debate over oil vs. climate, inequality vs. taxes
Tough coalition talks await
OSLO, Sept 13 (Reuters) – Norway’s centre-left opposition parties are on course to win the country’s parliamentary election, in which debate has centred on economic inequality and climate change, projections showed as voting ended on Monday.
Labour Party leader Jonas Gahr Stoere is widely expected to form the next government, either ruling in a minority or together with several other parties, thus bringing to a close Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s eight years in power.
But to form a viable Cabinet, Stoere must persuade potential centre-left partners to compromise on policies ranging from oil and private ownership to Norway’s relations with the European Union.
Norway’s status as a major oil and gas producer has been at the heart of the campaign, although a transition away from petroleum – and the jobs it creates – is likely to be a gradual one despite progress by pro-environment parties.
“I believe that calling time on our oil and gas industry is the wrong industrial policy and the wrong climate policy,” Stoere told reporters on Sunday after casting his ballot on the first day of the election.
Norway’s crown currency was largely unchanged, trading at 10.21 against the euro.
“There will be some tax increases for example and there will be a different set of priorities … but the total size of the public budget will not be substantially different from if the current government would remain in place,” said DNB Markets Chief Economist Kjersti Haugland.
VOTE COUNT
With over 65% of the votes counted, Labour and four other centre-left parties could swing to a combined majority of 100 seats, up from 81 currently, the Directorate of Elections projected.
A minimum of 85 seats is required to win a majority in the 169-seat parliament.
If the projections prove correct, Stoere could form a majority of Labour, the Centre Party and the Socialist Left, on track for a combined 89 seats, and avoid having to work with the Marxist Red Party or the anti-oil Greens.
Getting the rural-based Centre Party and the mostly urban Socialists to govern together could be difficult, however, as the two take different views on issues from oil to taxes.
Ruling in a minority could also be an option for Labour. Stoere says his government would focus on cutting CO2 emissions in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement, but has rejected any ultimatum over energy policy.
If he wins, Stoere has pledged to address inequality by cutting taxes for low- and middle-income families and hiking rates for the rich.
Reporting by Nora Buli and Victoria Klesty; Writing by Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche; Editing by Timothy Heritage, Grant McCool and Peter Cooney
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LONDON, Aug 30 (Reuters) – Demonstrators from the Extinction Rebellion group, which is demanding urgent action by governments and business to limit climate change and biodiversity loss, staged a sit-down protest that stopped traffic from using Tower Bridge in London on Monday.
A Reuters photographer saw around 200 protesters taking part in the demonstration at the north end of the bridge while groups of police officers tried to prevent others from joining.
Extinction Rebellion is targeting the City of London financial district – located close to Tower Bridge – in a two-week series of protests. The group accuses the finance industry of funding climate change.
Police later said the bridge had been reopened and 11 people had been arrested in relation to protests by the group on Monday, taking the total number of arrests since the start of the demonstrations on Aug. 22 to 367.
Reporting by Tom Nicholson and Juby Babu
Writing by William Schomberg; editing by Barbara Lewis and Sandra Maler
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Prudential, Citi, HSBC, BlackRock devising coal plan
Initiative aims to secure funding at COP26 summit
ADB preparing feasibility study on early closures
LONDON/MELBOURNE, Aug 3 (Reuters) – Financial firms including British insurer Prudential, lenders Citi and HSBC and BlackRock Real Assets are devising plans to speed the closure of Asia’s coal-fired power plants in order to lower the biggest source of carbon emissions, five people with knowledge of the initiative said.
The novel proposal, which includes the Asian Development Bank (ADB), offers a potentially workable model and early talks with Asian governments and multilateral banks are promising, the sources told Reuters.
The group plans to create public-private partnerships to buy out the plants and wind them down within 15 years, far sooner than their usual life, giving workers time to retire or find new jobs and allowing countries to shift to renewable energy sources.
It aims to have a model ready for the COP26 climate conference which is being held in Glasgow, Scotland in November.
The initiative comes as commercial and development banks, under pressure from large investors, pull back from financing new power plants in order to meet climate targets.
An ADB executive told Reuters that a first purchase under the proposed scheme, which will comprise a mix of equity, debt and concessional finance, could come as soon as next year.
“If you can come up with an orderly way to replace those plants sooner and retire them sooner, but not overnight, that opens up a more predictable, massively bigger space for renewables,” Donald Kanak, chairman of Prudential’s (PRU.L) Insurance Growth Markets, told Reuters.
Coal-fired power accounts for about a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, making it the biggest polluter.
The proposed mechanism entails raising low cost, blended finance which would be used for a carbon reduction facility, while a separate facility would fund renewable incentives.
HSBC (HSBA.L) declined to comment on the plan.
Finding a way for developing nations in Asia, which has the world’s newest fleet of coal plants and more under construction, to make the most of the billions already spent and switch to renewables has proved a major challenge.
The International Energy Agency expects global coal demand to rise 4.5% in 2021, with Asia making up 80% of that growth.
Meanwhile, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is calling for a drop in coal-fired electricity from 38% to 9% of global generation by 2030 and to 0.6% by 2050.
MAKING IT VIABLE
The proposed carbon reduction facility would buy and operate coal-fired power plants, at a lower cost of capital than is available to commercial plants, allowing them to run at a wider margin but for less time in order to generate similar returns.
The cash flow would repay debt and investors.
Reuters Image
The other facility would be used to jump start investments in renewables and storage to take over the energy load from the plants as it grows, attracting finance on its own.
The model is already familiar to infrastructure investors who rely on blended finance in so-called public-private deals, backed by government-financed institutions.
In this case, development banks would take the biggest risk by agreeing to take first loss as holders of junior debt as well as accepting a lower return, according to the proposal.
“To make this viable on more than one or two plants, you’ve got to get private investors,” Michael Paulus, head of Citi’s Asia-Pacific public sector group, who is involved in the initiative, told Reuters.
“There are some who are interested but they are not going to do it for free. They may not need a normal return of 10-12%, they may do it for less. But they are not going to accept 1 or 2%. We are trying to figure out some way to make this work.”
The framework has already been presented to ASEAN finance ministers, the European Commission and European development officials, Kanak, who co-chairs the ASEAN Hub of the Sustainable Development Investment Partnership, said.
Details still to be finalised include ways to encourage coal plant owners to sell, what to do with the plants once they are retired, any rehabilitation requirements, and what role if any carbon credits may play.
The firms aim to attract finance and other commitments at COP26, when governments will be asked to commit to more ambitious emissions targets and increase financing for countries most vulnerable to climate change.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has re-entered the Paris climate accord and is pushing for ambitious reductions of carbon emissions, while in July, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the heads of major development banks, including ADB and the World Bank, to devise plans to mobilize more capital to fight climate change and support emission cuts. read more
A Treasury official told Reuters that the plans for coal plant retirement are among the types of projects that Yellen wants banks to pursue, adding the administration is “interested in accelerating coal transitions” to tackle the climate crisis.
ASIA STEPS
As part of the group’s proposal, the ADB has allocated around $1.7 million for feasibility studies covering Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam, to estimate the costs of early closure, which assets could be acquired, and engage with governments and other stakeholders.
“We would like to do the first (coal plant) acquisition in 2022,” ADB Vice President Ahmed M. Saeed told Reuters, adding the mechanism could be scaled up and used as a template for other regions, if successful. It is already in discussions about extending this work to other countries in Asia, he added.
To retire 50% of a country’s capacity early at $1 million-$1.8 million per megawatt suggests Indonesia would require a total facility of roughly $16-$29 billion, while Philippines would be about $5-$9 billion and Vietnam around $9-$17 billion, according to estimates by Prudential’s Kanak.
One challenge that needs to be tackled is the potential risk of moral hazard, said Nick Robins, a London School of Economics sustainable finance professor.
“There’s a longstanding principle that the polluter should pay. We need to make absolutely sure that we are not paying the polluter, but rather paying for accelerated transition,” he said.
Additional reporting by David Lawder in Washington; Editing by Amran Abocar and Alexander Smith
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BUENOS AIRES, July 30 (Reuters) – Two lakes in a far-flung coastal region of Patagonia, in Argentina, have turned fluorescent pink, as of yet unexplained phenomena that local environmentalists fear could be harmful and caused by industrial contamination.
The lakes, located near an industrial park on the outskirts of the Argentine city of Trelew, sprawl across a dusty, desert-like plain and are largely undeveloped. Officials with the municipality of Trelew recently uncovered a truck dumping waste in the watershed, according to posts made by the city on social media.
Authorities gave conflicting views to local media, however, on whether the sudden change in color of the lakes was harmful. Environmentalists were more concerned.
Aerial view of the Corfo lagoon, that turned pink due to chemical waste, in Trelew, Chubut, Argentina July 29, 2021. Picture taken July 29, 2021 with a drone. Daniel Feldman/Handout via REUTERS
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Local activist Pablo Lada, a member of Argentina’s National Ecological Network (RENACE), told Reuters in an interview that the pink color could potentially be the result of a dye typically used to give prawns raised nearby their typically rose-colored hue.
“I think that the pink lagoon uncovered a …lack of treatment of this waste that has become a big problem,” Lada said.
Local and regional environmental officials are investigating the cause and potential damage to the lakes but have yet to arrive at any conclusions.
Reporting by Reuters TV, writing by Dave Sherwood and Eliana Raszewski
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July 22 (Reuters) – Deadly floods that have upended life in both China and Germany have sent a stark reminder that climate change is making weather more extreme across the globe.
At least 25 people in the central Chinese province of Henan died on Tuesday, including a dozen trapped in a city subway as waters tore through the regional capital of Zhengzhou after days of torrential rain. read more
Coming after floods killed at least 160 people in Germany and another 31 in Belgium last week, the disaster has reinforced the message that significant changes will have to be made to prepare for similar events in future. read more
“Governments should first realize that the infrastructure they have built in the past or even recent ones are vulnerable to these extreme weather events,” said Eduardo Araral, associate professor and co-director, Institute of Water Policy, at Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
In Europe, climate change is likely to increase the number of large, slow-moving storms that can linger longer in one area and deliver deluges of the kind seen in Germany and Belgium, according to a study published June 30 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
As the atmosphere warms with climate change, it also holds more moisture, which means that when rainclouds break, more rain is released. By the end of the century, such storms could be 14 times more frequent, the researchers found in the study using computer simulations.
While the inundation that devastated wide swathes of western and southern Germany occurred thousands of kilometres from the events in Henan, both cases highlighted the vulnerability of heavily populated areas to catastrophic flooding and other natural disasters.
“You need technical measures, bolstering dikes and flood barriers. But we also need to remodel cities,” said Fred Hattermann at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. He said there was increasing focus on so-called “green-adaptation” measures, like polders and plains that can be flooded, to stop water running off too fast.
“But when there’s really heavy rain, all that may not help, so we have to learn to live with it,” he said.
Reinforcing dikes and climate-proofing housing, roads and urban infrastructure will cost billions. But the dramatic mobile phone footage of people struggling through subways submerged in chest-deep water in Zhengzhou or crying in fear as mud and debris swept through medieval German towns made clear the cost of doing nothing.
A street is flooded following heavy rainfalls in Erftstadt, Germany, July 16, 2021. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen/File Photo
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“It is shocking and I have to say it is scary,” said John Butschkowski, a Red Cross driver who was involved in rescue work in western Germany this week. “It is ghostly, no people anywhere, just rubbish. And it is inconceivable that this is happening in Germany.”
ONE YEAR’S RAINFALL IN THREE DAYS
Koh Tieh-Yong, a weather and climate scientist at Singapore University of Social Sciences, said an overall assessment of rivers and water systems would be needed in areas vulnerable to climate change, including cities and farmlands.
“Floods usually occur due to two factors combined: one, heavier-than-normal rainfall and two, insufficient capacity of rivers to discharge the additional rainwater collected,” he said.
In both China and northwestern Europe, the disasters followed a period of unusually heavy rain, equivalent in the Chinese case to a year’s rainfall being dumped in just three days, that completely overwhelmed flood defences.
After several severe floods over recent decades, buffers had been strengthened along major German rivers like the Rhine or the Elbe but last week’s extreme rainfall also turned minor tributaries like the Ahr or the Swist into fearsome torrents.
In China, built-up urban areas with inadequate water evacuation and large dams that modified the natural discharge of the Yellow River basin may also have contributed to the disaster, scientists said.
But measures such as improving the resilience of buildings and raising riverbanks and improving drainage are unlikely to be enough on their own to avert the effects of severe flooding. As a last resort, warning systems, which were heavily criticized in Germany for leaving people insufficient time to react, will have to be improved.
“It really needs to be embedded in practical knowledge that people have so they know what to do,” said Christian Kuhlicke, head of a working group on environmental risks and extreme events at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research.
“If you can’t keep the water back, if you can’t save your buildings then at least make sure that all vulnerable people are moved out of these places.”
Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan in Singapore and James Mackenzie in Milan;
Additional reporting by Ann-Kathrin Weis in Ahrweiler, Maria Sheahan in Berlin; Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Lisa Shumaker
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July 16 (Reuters) – U.S. coastlines will face increasing flooding in the mid-2030s thanks to a regular lunar cycle that will magnify rising sea levels caused by climate change, according to research led by NASA scientists.
A key factor identified by the scientists is a regular “wobble” in the moon’s orbit – first identified in the 18th century – that takes 18.6 years to complete. The moon’s gravitational pull helps drive Earth’s tides.
In half of this lunar cycle, Earth’s regular daily tides are diminished, with high tides lower than usual and low tides higher than usual. In the cycle’s other half, the situation is reversed, with high tides higher and low tides lower.
The expected flooding will result from the combination of the continuing sea level rise associated with climate change and the arrival of an amplification part of the lunar cycle in the mid-2030s, the researchers said.
“In the background, we have long-term sea level rise associated with global warming. It’s causing sea level to increase everywhere,” Ben Hamlington, NASA team leader and one of the study’s authors, told Reuters.
“This effect from the moon causes the tides to vary, so what we found is that this effect lines up with the underlying sea level rise, and that will cause flooding specifically in that time period from 2030 to 2040,” Hamlington said.
Waves at high tide make their way over rocks and onto the road in Oceanside, California, U.S., November 27, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
The researchers studied 89 tide gauge locations in every coastal U.S. state and territory aside from Alaska. The effect of the dynamic applies to the entire planet except for far northern coastlines like in Alaska.
The prediction pushes previous estimates for serious coastal flooding forward by about 70 years.
The study, published this month in the journal Nature Climate Change, was led by members of a NASA science team that tracks sea level change. The study focused on U.S. coasts but the findings are applicable to coasts worldwide, NASA said.
“This is eye-opening for a lot of people,” Hamlington said. “It’s really critical information for planners. And I think there’s a great amount of interest in trying to get this information from science and scientists into the hands of planners.”
Hamlington said city planners should plan accordingly.
“A building or particular piece of infrastructure, you may want to be there for a very long amount of time, whereas something else you may just want to protect or have access to for a few years.”
Reporting by Dan Fastenberg; Editing by Diane Craft and Will Dunham
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