Climate

• [New] Existing and new global threats and challenges, including climate change, global health, weapons of mass destruction, technology and artificial intelligence are really testing coherence within the UN system. / GOV.UK
• [New] India will be quite the biggest challenge beyond China on climate change - for many good reasons, such as historic emissions. / House of Commons
• [New] The losses from the ice sheet could be five times larger than the main predictions, which would imply a 5% chance of the land ice contribution to sea level exceeding 56 cm in 2100 - even if we limit warming to 1.5 C. / The Guardian
• [New] The Biden administration's top Asia official has warned about the absence of a crisis-communications channel between the US and China at a time of rising military tensions over Taiwan and the South China Sea. / The Guardian
• [New] The incremental cost of ensuring new water and sanitation assets are climate-resilient is estimated to be between $0.9 billion and $2.3 billion a year, which represents around 1% of baseline infrastructure investment needs and would reduce the risk of damage to new infrastructure by 50%. / IISD
• [New] Lastly Biden believes in taking an active role in climate change leadership to reduce carbon emissions, so Trump's reopening of coal mines and removing America from the Paris Climate Accord will all be reversed. / This Is Local London
• [New] Ambitious emission reductions could decrease the number of people living in areas with fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) concentrations that exceed the World Health Organisation air quality guidelines from 18 million to 1 million by 2050. / IIASA
• [New] An average sea level rise of 0.5 to 1m by the end of the century, in combination with storm surge events, could result in approximately 300 to over 1,000 km 2 of coastal lands around Ireland being inundated by the sea. / Environment Protection Agency
• [New] The United Nations Environment Organization has recently launched a campaign for the elimination of primary sources of plastic litter which includes microplastics in cosmetics and also banning the handling of single-use plastic by the end of 2022. / Frontiers
• [New] The world is entering the crucial decade for climate change, when climate and energy policy decisions will either put it on a new, low-carbon trajectory or rule out its ability to avoid the most dangerous climate impacts. / Center for American Progress
• [New] As the Biden administration brings the United States back into the international arena to combat climate change, China's energy and climate actions will once again be a key focus of U.S. policymakers. / Center for American Progress
• [New] Failing to require changes that will lower carbon emissions puts Arizona behind other Western states that have increasingly been adopting tough new standards in an effort to limit the effect of climate change. / AP News
• [New] Cities are a leading source of carbon emissions that have made them increasingly vulnerable to climatic events, with rising sea levels threatening coastal cities around the world. / The Conversation
• [New] Climate change in Iraq is expected to reduce annual rainfall, which will lead to a surge in dust storms, a reduction in agricultural productivity and increased water scarcity. / FRANCE 24
• [New] Unless planet-heating emissions are swiftly reduced to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement, the world faces a situation where there is an abrupt jump in the pace of Antarctic ice loss around 2060, the study states, fueling sea level rise and placing coastal cities in greater peril. / The Guardian
• [New] The current pace of global heating risks unleashing rapid and unstoppable sea level rise from the melting of Antarctica's vast ice sheet, a new research paper has warned. / The Guardian
• [New] Inmarsat services will support the real-time transfer of scientific data as teams measure ocean conditions as they race across the world, including through some of the most remote parts of the planet. / Inmarsat Corporate Website
• [New] Capping warming at close to the Paris agreement's goal of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit would cut the contribution of melting land ice to sea level rise in half, to five inches, as opposed to the 10 inches expected by 2100 under current climate projections. / Inside Climate News
• [New] If the signatories to the Paris agreement can hold warming to its least ambitious target of 2 degrees Celsius of warming, meltwater from Antarctica will raise seas between 2.4 and 4.3 inches. / Inside Climate News
• [New] Sea level rise in parts of the tropical Pacific Ocean is projected to be as much as double the global average, which will submerge some of the far-flung islands that are home to 2.3 million people. / Inside Climate News
• [New] The Britishvolt gigaplant will be built on a 95-hectare site and will use renewable energy, including the potential for hydro-electric power generated in Norway and transmitted under the North Sea. / News
• [New] We find that starting CDR at any point after 2060 does not appreciably slow ice sheet loss, with every decade of delay causing an additional jump in sea level rise. / Carbon Brief
• [New] The rate of sea level rise increases greatly soon after - exceeding 6 cm per year by 2150, as the West Antarctic ice sheet fully disintegrates. / Carbon Brief

Last updated: 10 May 2021