Summary
In today’s edition, we cover the latest G7 meeting, where both President Obama and Chancellor Merkel tried to drum up enthusiasm for action on climate change. Also, China’s greenhouse gas emissions will probably peak in 2025, five years earlier than its stated target, a study by the London School of Economics says. Finally, how the past sometimes haunts you, with a story on how 1970’s deodorant is still doing harm.
Quote of the day
“Fluorine is the tyrannosaurus rex of the periodic table. It will react spontaneously with every other element except for helium, neon and argon.”
University College London chemistry professor Andrea Sella, in the BBC News’ story How 1970s deodorant is still doing harm
Lead stories
Chinese greenhouse gas emissions may peak by 2025, says study
Agence France-Presse
China’s greenhouse gas emissions will probably peak in 2025, five years earlier than its stated target, a study said on Monday, in a boost for hopes to curb climate change.
http://jlne.ws/1BTCmG8
***LB: Also in this story “On current trends, the world’s biggest carbon emitter will discharge 12.5-14bn tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) in 2025, after which emissions will decline, it said. The work was carried out by two research institutes at the London School of Economics (LSE).”
China to make pledge for global climate treaty this month, UN official says
By Cara Anna – Associated Press
China is expected this month to formally submit its pledge for a global climate treaty that countries are seeking to finalize by December, the United Nations’ top adviser on climate change.
http://jlne.ws/1KPmucJ
Obama, Merkel Seek to Parlay G-7 Meetings Into Climate Action
By Justin Sinkt – Bloomberg News
President Barack Obama’s meeting Sunday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel is an opportunity for the pair to champion an issue dear to them both: climate change.
http://jlne.ws/1AWkOy9
How 1970s deodorant is still doing harm
How mankind blew the fight against climate change
By Bill McKibben – The Washington Post
If historians someday need to explain how mankind managed to blow the fight against climate change, they need only point to last month’s shareholder meeting at Exxon Mobil headquarters in Dallas.
http://jlne.ws/1dpQWza
India assures France of full support for climate meet
PTI
India has assured France it will work with it for ensuring the success of the climate change conference in Paris later this year, a top French diplomat said here today citing “strong and fruitful dialogue” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard.
http://jlne.ws/1FKjHgP
UN panel calls Canada a climate laggard
By Shawn McCarthy – The Globe and Mail
A group led by former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan is condemning Canada as an international climate laggard that falls short even of impoverished Ethiopia in the effort to combat global warming.
http://jlne.ws/1MALvtD
Africa sounds the alarm over crucial climate summit
By John Vidal – The Guardian
The world’s least-developed countries have accused richer nations of failing to provide financial backing for a strong new global climate treaty.
http://jlne.ws/1QE1wzb
Harper faces tough talk on climate change, security threats at G7 summit
CTV National News
The G7 leaders started their annual meeting Sunday during which Prime Minister Stephen Harper was expected to face discussions on a topic he has been repeatedly criticized for not doing enough about — climate change.
http://jlne.ws/1Gugetb
Amber Rudd comes under pressure from Scotland to step up climate action
By Jessica Shankleman – BusinessGreen
As international climate change talks continue in Bonn this week, UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd has come under pressure from Scotland to prove that the UK is leading on efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
http://jlne.ws/1RX6TMC
Events
Climate Strategies Forum
ACCO
Washington Marriott Hotel at Metro Center
Washington, DC
June 24-26, 2015
http://jlne.ws/1J3aeGO
EMA Annual Meeting
October 28-30, 2015
Omni Parker House Hotel
Boston, MA
http://bit.ly/192w3CR
Carbon
Pollutionwatch: How to make our cities safer
By Gary Fuller – The Guardian
April’s Supreme Court ruling, impending EU fines and increasing evidence of health harm are ratcheting up the pressure on the UK government to meet legal limits and World Health Organisation guidelines for nitrogen dioxide.
http://jlne.ws/1Hhf17l
California air quality rules to tighten after cancer risk estimate triples
By Joanna Walters – The Guardian
Factories and oil refineries in southern California face a new crackdown on their emissions of air toxins, after experts in the state reported that breathing in pollution carries almost three times the risk of causing cancer than was previously thought, especially for children and babies.
http://jlne.ws/1eXoupB
The Tide Is Turning Against ALEC In The Renewable Energy Battle
Natural gas / coal
Patagonian shale raises hopes and fears
By Benedict Mander – Financial Times
Dario Díaz will never forget the day two years ago when Argentina’s biggest company, YPF, and the US oil major Chevron signed a $1.2bn deal to develop what is now the biggest shale field outside the US next to the dusty little town of Añelo.
http://jlne.ws/1QDWGC5
EPA fracking report
brings spin into play
The Daily Sentinel
Judging from the reactions to the Environmental Protection Agency’s exhaustive study on hydraulic fracturing, the matter is hardly settled.
http://jlne.ws/1GkEz2G
***LB: Also in this story “The draft study’s core conclusion — that the practice hasn’t had “widespread, systemic impacts” on the country’s drinking water — backs the energy industry’s long-held assertion that fracking isn’t the bogeyman some environmentalists claim it is.”
Fracking divides red, blue states
By Timothy Cama – The Hill
Fracking is creating a new dividing line between the nation’s red and blue states.
http://jlne.ws/1dpR4yL
Coal in Poland Lowering Life Spans
By Beth Gardiner – The New York Times
The children Karolina Zolna knows huff and puff after a few minutes of exercise. Two years ago, her infant daughter spent four months in the hospital with pneumonia. The doctors did not identify a cause, but to Ms. Zolna, the reason for the baby’s illness was obvious.
http://jlne.ws/1QDXAyx
World leaders urged to kick killer coal habit
By Paul Brown – Climate News Network
Leaders of G7 countries at this weekend’s summit in Germany are being called on today to show leadership by pledging to end all coal burning for electricity generation in the industrialised world.
http://jlne.ws/1RX9tlQ
You’ll Never Guess Which Energy Source Coal Killed in the 1800s
By Justin Loiseau – The Motley Fool
It’s easy enough to assume that coal has always enjoyed a top spot in America’s energy portfolio. It’s the solid “black gold” that fueled our steam locomotives and powered our factories. But before coal, there was an even earlier energy source: wood.
http://jlne.ws/1Ixgubi
Power
EU power tariffs should reflect fixed costs of renewables -Eurelectric
Reuters
Europe’s electricity tariffs should include more fixed-price elements to reflect the increasing share of power from renewables, which have mainly fixed capital costs and few operating costs, the utilities trade group chiefs said.
http://jlne.ws/1F3JFv2
(Uk’s) Power producer Drax takes further hit from weak prices
Reuters
Drax has forward sold some of its electricity for this year at a 1.8 percent discount to prices achieved earlier this year showing the British power producer is continuing to suffer from weak power prices.
http://jlne.ws/1Hhm8wE
Once-Lauded Eskom Now Derided Over South African Power Outages
By Michael Cohen and Paul Burkhardt – Bloomberg News
A week after taking the helm at Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., Brian Molefe was grilled by lawmakers over why the South African power utility, once ranked the world’s best-run, couldn’t keep the lights on.
http://jlne.ws/1KW1VyI
Clean tech
Panasonic to send hundreds to Tesla Gigafactory from autumn
Reuters
Japanese electronics group Panasonic Corp plans to send hundreds of its employees to Tesla Motors Inc’s Gigafactory in Nevada from this autumn to prepare for production at the plant, which it confirmed will start sometime next year.
http://jlne.ws/1T6wm7H
Water
California drought not helping water funds, but stocks prosper
By David Randall – Reuters
The record California drought, now in its fourth year, is prompting fund managers to dive into the shares of water technology companies.
http://jlne.ws/1HhmFP5
Miscellaneous
Unexplored South Dakota cave could tell millennia-old tale of climate change
Associated Press
The National Park Service is beginning to excavate the mouth of an unexplored cave in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and researchers believe it could help broaden our understanding of how the region’s climate has changed over thousands of years.
http://jlne.ws/1QgYWUY
Santorum: Climate change about ‘political science’
By Mark Hensch – The Hill
Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) said on Sunday science behind climate change arguments is far from settled. “This is what bothers me about this debate – the idea that the science is settled,” he told host Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.”
http://jlne.ws/1dpOXLc