My Climate Change News

One of Europe's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals has confirmed plans to expand capacity at its site after backing from investors.

South Hook in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, processes about 20% of UK current demand for natural gas.

But new research has revealed LNG's environmental costs, and Friends of the Earth Cymru are "very concerned".

The Welsh government said it is developing Wales' pathway to a net zero system.

South Hook has been importing liquefied gas from various parts of the world before turning it into gas and delivering it to homes since 2010.

At the moment, the site can process about 15.6m tonnes of gas per year and can handle 20% of the UK's natural gas demand.

Whether new gas pipelines will be needed from Milford Haven to accommodate South Hook's expansion remains unknown.

Dr Carol Bell, an energy market expert, said Milford Haven is a "vital port" for the UK's import ...

The power plants, due to be shut down, would be kept in reserve to provide electricity if Russia ended shipments of natural gas.

Germany plans to order coal-fired power plants that were due to be shut down to be placed in reserve, as part of a plan to ensure the country can keep the lights on if supplies of natural gas from Russia are abruptly cut.

A bill drawn up this week by the economy ministry, led by Robert Habeck, a member of the Greens, envisions maintaining power plants that burn coal and brown coal, or lignite, so they could be fired up on short notice.

“This means that the short-term use of coal-fired plants in the electricity sector is made possible on demand, should the need arise,” it states. The measure still requires approval by the cabinet of Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Natural gas, much of it from Russia, accounted for 15 percent of Germany’s electricity generation in 2021, the ministry said, although it expected that number to be lower ...

Crossbench senator’s support is crucial if government is to introduce planned revamp of safeguard mechanism

The independent senator David Pocock has urged the Albanese government to quickly implement all recommendations from a review of Australia’s carbon credit system, given that it wants to introduce a climate policy that relies heavily on offsets.

Pocock’s is a key vote if the government is to introduce a planned revamp of the safeguard mechanism, a scheme that is meant to reduce carbon pollution from 215 big polluting industrial and resources sites.

The Canberra senator said he wanted to see the 16 recommendations of the former chief scientist Prof Ian Chubb’s review of the system acted on “as soon as possible” given that the government hopes to start the rebooted safeguard mechanism on 1 July.

After years of the safeguard failing to cut pollution, Labor wants to change it so that most heavily emitting sites have to cut emissions intensity by 4.9% a ...

Hearing into Labor’s changes to the scheme told a 75% reduction in methane was possible using commercially competitive existing technology

Methane emissions from the oil and gas industry are “incredibly cheap” to cut and companies could improve their financial position by embracing existing technology to stop carbon leaks, an inquiry into the Albanese government’s climate policy has heard.

A hearing into proposed changes to the safeguard mechanism – a Coalition policy applied to industrial emissions that Labor plans to revamp – was told the International Energy Agency (IEA) had estimated a 75% reduction in methane was possible using commercially competitive existing technology, such as capturing the methane and using it to generate electricity.

Matt Watson, from the US Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), said with gas prices inflated following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, nearly all of these cuts would be cost-effective for the companies involved.

Both ...

It could be part of the solution to the impasse over the safeguard mechanism. Even if it isn’t, the logic for it should be irresistible

New Orleans was still awash in the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the then prime minister, John Howard, was in climate doubt and delay mode when Anthony Albanese got to his feet in the Australian parliament to argue for a better way ahead.

Then a mid-ranking opposition frontbencher, the future PM gave a nod to the carnage in Louisiana before running through the “profound risks’’ that Australia would face if greenhouse gas emissions kept rising – a now-familiar list including worsening heatwaves, less rain in the south, more rain in the north, more severe bushfires, cyclones, storms and ocean surges.

Declaring that a “suite of policies” was needed, he called for a national emissions trading scheme, an ambitious renewable energy target and “establishing a climate change trigger in federal environmental law”.

That ...

Breathe, due out next year, will see the London mayor draw on his own experience with adult-onset asthma to address the crisis

London mayor Sadiq Khan to is to publish his first book, described by his publisher as a “warm and practical guide” to tackling the climate emergency.

Khan became mayor of London in 2016, and since then has brought in a range of environmental measures, including introducing the world’s first ultra-low emission zone, overseeing hundreds of kilometres of new cycle lanes and announcing plans to rewild Hyde Park.

He was diagnosed with adult-onset asthma when he was 43, while training for the London Marathon. He has said his asthma is down to breathing polluted London air, and it was his diagnosis that drove his interest in addressing air pollution and climate change.

Khan’s book Breathe, which will be released in 2023, will outline seven ways in which “environmental action gets blown off course”, said publisher Hutchinson Heinemann. ...

In the climate crisis, wetlands have more economic value than new development

Coastal cities worldwide are squeezed by two opposing forces: urban sprawl and the rising sea. This struggle is intensely visible in the flatlands of South Florida, where burgeoning neighborhoods routinely flood and saltwater inundation damages the estuaries that protect communities from the worst of our climate crisis.

Massive resources are being put into environmental restoration projects there, and development is subject to many layers of approvals. Yet in 2022 the Miami-Dade County Commissioners voted to expand a legal boundary that contains sprawl to allow a 400-acre warehouse project. They are failing to see the value of this land in the greater ecosystem: pave over it, and you'll cut off waterways that sustain a critical buffer against flooding and erosion.

Wetlands, coastal plains, sand dunes, forests, and many other permeable surfaces do cheaply (or even for free) what ...

A former rugby player who suffered severe spinal injuries is to cross the largest ice cap in western Europe.

Ed Jackson, who was BBC's West's Unsung Hero in 2021, will join two others to become the first fully disabled team to traverse Iceland's Vatnajokull Glacier.

They hope to raise £155,000 - £1,000 for every kilometre of their journey.

The former Bath and England player said: "Normally I would say I'm just excited. But actually for this one I think I am a little bit nervous."

After an accident in 2017, Mr Jackson, who lives near Bath, was told by doctors he might never walk again.

But he defied his doctors' predictions by taking on multiple challenges including reaching the top of Snowdon the year after his accident, and climbing the equivalent of Mount Everest by going up and down his parents' staircase during the pandemic.

And in 2021, he climbed 12 of the UK's highest peaks in six ...

Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our newsletters.

Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

Yale Climate Connections

Dozens of lives were lost in Mississippi on Friday night, March 24, from a compact, fast-evolving tornado outbreak that struck a highly vulnerable area after dark. The bulk of death and destruction resulted from a single supercell thunderstorm that plowed across the breadth of northern Mississippi and Alabama with one or more long-track tornadoes.

More severe weather is possible across the South on both Saturday and Sunday, March 24-25, although the conditions will not be as favorable for intense tornadoes on these days as they were on Friday.

Friday’s outbreak was well predicted by the NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center, or SPC (see our March 24 post), and tornado warnings were issued along the path of the prolonged supercell. However, the main ...

First the rains in Somalia failed in 2021. Then they failed again and again and again and again. For five wet seasons in a row, Somalis looked anxiously to the skies while their crops withered, their cattle perished and many people died of hunger or disease. A new report, released by UN agencies and the Somali government, estimates that there were 43,000 “excess deaths” in the country last year, relative to the typical level. Half of the dead were children under the age of five.

This hunger is the deadliest in Somalia since the famine of 2010-11, which claimed 260,000 lives. And it will get worse before it gets better. Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, whose modelling underpins the report, project that in the coming months 135 people will die every day from drought-related causes. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN affiliate that measures hunger, reckons that 6.5m Somalis will face “crisis”, “emergency” or ...

Berlin has been pushing to allow the sale of vehicles running on synthetic fuels past 2035. Its dispute with the E.U. threatened the bloc’s climate goals.

The German government has reached an agreement with the European Union to allow the sale of vehicles that burn fuels made from renewable energy past 2035, resolving a dispute that threatened to upset a key element of the bloc’s path to climate neutrality.

Volker Wissing, Germany’s minister for transportation, said on Saturday that Berlin had won assurances from negotiators that the rules for new vehicles would be technology neutral, allowing carbon-neutral synthetic fuels, known as e-fuels, to be used. Germany had been pushing for an exception to the E.U.’s proposed 2035 ban on internal combustion engines.

“This paves the way for vehicles with combustion engines that only use CO2-neutral fuels to be newly registered after 2035,” Mr. Volker Wissing said.

“In a first step, a vehicle category of ...

This video can not be played

A team from the Isle of Man will trek through the Arctic to raise money for charity

A team of fundraisers from the Isle of Man are set to trek through the Arctic to support a mental health charity.

The Expedition Limitless group will cover 68 miles (110km) over a week, camping along the way, in temperatures that could reach -30C.

They aim to raise funds for Manx charity Isle Listen, while testing their own resilience.

Karl Staniford, whose brother took his own life in 2019, said the organisation's work was "vital".

He said he was supporting the charity so it could continue to develop wellbeing education in schools, such as help with managing thoughts and emotions.

In October, it was revealed the number of children in need of mental health treatment had risen by 83% since 2020.

The week-long challenge will start in Abisko in northern Sweden on Sunday and follow the Kungsleden trail, which runs ...

This video can not be played

A team of charity trekkers from the Isle of Man are set to take on an Arctic expedition to support mental health services.

The Expedition Limitless group face sub-zero temperatures in their 68-mile (110km) challenge.

To prepare for the challenge, the team spent time taking part in winter survival training in Sweden.

Why not follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and Twitter? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk

Editor's recommendations

Manx trekkers take on Arctic charity challenge. Video, 00:01:17Manx trekkers take on Arctic charity challenge

Up Next. Drama in the courtroom as Gwyneth Paltrow testifies. Video, 00:01:23Drama in the courtroom as Gwyneth Paltrow testifies

Bouncer wrestles gunman trying to enter strip club. Video, 00:00:52Bouncer wrestles gunman trying to enter strip club

Australian senator ends up on ground in police scuffle. Video, 00:00:35Australian ...

SAN DIEGO (AP) - As drought dried up rivers that carry California’s newly hatched Chinook salmon to the ocean, state officials in recent years resorted to loading up the fish by the millions onto trucks and barges to take them to the Pacific.

The surreal and desperate scramble boosted the survival rate of the hatchery-raised fish, but still it was not enough to reverse the declining stocks in the face of added challenges. River water temperatures rose with warm weather, and a Trump-era rollback of federal protections for waterways allowed more water to be diverted to farms. Climate change, meanwhile, threatens food sources for the young Chinook maturing in the Pacific.

Now, ocean salmon fishing season is set to be prohibited this year off California and much of Oregon for the second time in 15 years after adult fall-run Chinook, often known as king salmon, returned to California’s rivers in near record-low numbers in 2022.

“There will be no wild-caught ...

This is my last video for Yale Climate Connections, I’ve already transitioned to more focus on helping site clean energy across the US Heartland. When I began producing a monthly series for Yale, in 2011, I was one of just a few journalists focusing on climate as an issue. Now there are comparative armies of journalists and videographers following the issue. Our most critical need now is not more information on the problem – it is to vastly accelerate deployment of solutions.

This week I’ve met with two groups of farmers who are under sustained attack by fossil fuel coordinated disinformation campaigns, designed to deprive farmers of the right to diversify their incomes and contribute to solving the world’s most critical issue. They are seeking to tell their stories to a wider audience, and organize to push back on what they see as not just a threat to a livable planet, but an immediate threat to democracy itself.

I’ll still be ...

Can’t believe they filmed a real life “this is fine” meme for climate change. pic.twitter.com/A8qBO4uY3Y

It’s in Paris. I think it’s related to the recent protests about Macron raising the retirement age for blue-collar workers (not people who fly desks, but who are on their feet all day).

[Macron’s position is that France doesn’t have the demographics for a smaller younger generation to support the earlier retirement for the older generations. This wouldn’t be an issue where young immigrants can be used to back-fill the labor force.]

AIR CONDITIONING THE MOTHER EARTH ?? https://raveendrannarayanandotcom1.wordpress.com/ ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ?? ???? ?? ??? #Not_CO2_GHG #CO2_PlantFood http://acmotherearth.org #Earth ???????????????????? #IPCC #UNEP #IMF #EarthShotPrize2023 #UNEP2023 #NobelPeace2023 #Water ?? #ClimateChange #GlobalCompact2023 #WorldWaterResearcher ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ?? ??

In the meantime, though, Rini Saha - the co-owner of the FullFillery, another Washington-area refill shop in the suburb of Takoma Park, Maryland - hopes to make a difference from the ground up. "We want you to reuse as much as we can, because recycling is still a huge carbon footprint," the 46-year-old told AFP. Saha and colleagues make a number of body care and cleaning products on-site, for refill or purchase in a returnable container. On a recent Wednesday morning, fellow co-owner Emoke Gaidosch, a chemist by training, poured liquid soap she had made into a large receptacle. Aside from the lack of packaging, Miller says bulk sales could yield even bigger environmental benefits by helping consumers buy only what they need. That, ultimately, can help eliminate the impacts from a product's entire lifecycle, from the energy and resources used to create it, to things like methane released when unused organic waste decays in landfalls. Over three years of existence, the ...

Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our newsletters.

Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

Yale Climate Connections

Just two days after Los Angeles experienced its strongest tornado since 1983, a volatile severe weather setup driven by the same upper-level storm was taking shape for Friday, March 24, from Louisiana and Arkansas into Mississippi.

The NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center placed the region under a moderate risk for severe weather - its second highest of five risk levels - and warned that an outbreak of strong tornadoes could emerge by Friday evening.

Both the L.A. tornado and the potential Mississippi Valley outbreak can be attributed in large part to a powerful upper-level low racing along the polar jet stream. On Friday, this low will be “lifting” northeast toward the Great Lakes. As it does so, a surface low will intensify and pull very moist, warm, ...

[1/2] A view of the damage in the aftermath of cyclone Kevin, in Port Vila, Vanuatu March 4, 2023, in this screen grab obtained from a social media video. DevMode/via REUTERS

March 24 (Reuters) - Vanuatu, still reeling from two cyclones that struck within a week, says it hopes the United Nations General Assembly will next week adopt its push for greater priority to be given to the human rights impact of climate change.

The Pacific island nation's Minister of Climate Change, Ralph Regenvanu, said 119 governments have co-sponsored Vanuatu's resolution, which seeks legal clarity on the obligation of states to take climate change action, and draws attention to the vulnerability of small islands states hit by worsening storms and rising seas.

Vanuatu hopes more nations will sign-on before the general assembly debate begins on Wednesday, and it will be passed by consensus, he said.

"Right now in my country, thousands of citizens are dealing with ...