USA and Saudi Arabia the worst at curbing climate change (Australia’s pretty bad, too)
Other nations at the bottom of the list included Iran, South Korea, Australia, Canada, Russia, Turkey and Japan.
 US, Saudi Arabia back-of-the-pack on curbing climate change, Researchers have identified the United States and Saudi Arabia as the climate change laggards. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/us-saudi-arabia-back-of-the-pack-on-curbing-climate-changeThe United States and Saudi Arabia rank last when it comes to curbing climate change among the 56 nations accounting for 90 percent of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, researchers said Monday.A large number of laggards means the world is dangerously off-track when it comes to slashing the carbon pollution that has already amplified droughts, flooding and deadly heatwaves worldwide, they reported on the margins of UN climate talks in Katowice, Poland.
Only a few countries have started to implement strategies to limit global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit),” the cornerstone target of the 2015 Paris climate treaty, according to NewClimate Institute and Germanwatch, an NGO. Most governments “lack the political will to phase out fossil fuels with the necessary speed.” Continue reading |
Mark Jacobson evaluates nuclear power as a solution to climate change
Evaluation of Nuclear Power as a Proposed Solution to 
Global Warming, Air Pollution, and Energy Security In 100% Clean, Renewable Energy and Storage for Everything. Textbook in Preparation Mark Z. Jacobson December 10, 2018 Contact: Jacobson@stanford.edu; Twitter @mzjacobsonFrance: government report finds new nuclear power plants uneconomical
Building new nuclear plants in France uneconomical -environment agency https://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL8N1YF5HCGeert De Clercq, DECEMBER 11, 2018
State environment agency contradicts Macron on new nuclear
* New nuclear reactors would be structurally loss-making
* Renewables could account for 85 pct of power mix by 2050.
Building new nuclear reactors in France would not be economical, state environment agency ADEME said in a study on Monday, contradicting the government’s long-term energy strategy as well as state-owned utility EDF’s investment plans.
In a speech last month, President Emmanuel Macron said nuclear energy would remain a promising technology for producing low-cost, low-carbon energy and that EDF’s EPR reactor model should be part of future energy options.
Macron has also asked EDF to draw up a plan for building new reactors with a view to making a decision about nuclear in 2021
Two EPR reactors under construction in France and Finland are years behind schedule and billions of euros over budget.
“The development of an EPR-based nuclear industry would not be competitive,” ADEME said, adding that new nuclear plants would be structurally loss-making. bit.ly/2GlEbcT
Building a single EPR in 2030 would require 4 to 6 billion euros of subsidies, while building a fleet of 15 with a total capacity of 24 gigawatt-hour by 2060 would cost the state 39 billion euros, despite economies of scale that could bring down the EPR costs to 70 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh), ADEME said.
Renewables costs could fall to between 32 and 80 euros/MWh, depending on the technology, by 2060.
But extending the existing fleet too long, while also building new EPRs, would lead to overcapacity, compromising returns on all generation assets, including renewables.
EDF – which generates about 75 percent of French electricity with 58 nuclear reactors – declined to comment.
The ADEME report, which studied energy mix scenarios for 2020-2060, said renewables could account for 85 percent of power generation by 2050 and more than 95 percent by 2060, except if the government pushes through the EPR option anyway.
The gradual increase of renewables capacity could reduce the pre-tax electricity cost for consumers – including generation, grids and storage – to about 90 euros per MWh, compared to nearly 100 euros today, ADEME said.
ADEME director Arnaud Leroy, appointed in February, helped write the energy chapter of Macron’s election programme and was a spokesman for his campaign, but the agency is independent and earlier studies have also contradicted government energy policy.
In 2015, a ADEME study suggesting that France could switch to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050 at a cost similar to sticking with nuclear was barred from publication for months by the government. reut.rs/2RLGKG8 (Reporting by Geert De Clercq; editing by David Evans)
Germany: low on sunshine, high on cheap electricity from solar power
 Germany Works (accessed) 9th Dec 2018, Germany has belied its status as a country with the fewest hours of sunshine in the world to become one of the planet’s largest solar power producers.In 2017, Germany ranked fourth globally and accounted for about 10 per cent of the global installed capacity, according to the International Energy Agency. In 2017, Germany ranked fourth globally and accounted for about 10 per cent of the global installed capacity, according to the International Energy Agency.
This has been achieved by 1.7 million small-scale solar panel operators rather than by big, centralised power producers. These operators produced 9.6 per cent of Germany’s net energy production in the first nine months of 2018, according to research institute Fraunhofer ISE. Further, solar power has become the cheapest mode of power generation in Germany, according to Fraunhofer ISE, which says that equipment and installation costs fell by 75 per cent between 2006 and 2017.
https://germanyworks.ft.com/energy/german-solar-power-is-a-sunrise-market/ |
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Scotland’s record electricity production in November, from wind energy
WIND output in Scotland has broken through the 100% threshold for the first
time with 109% of total electricity demand being met from renewables, according to new data. Figures from Weather Energy, part of a wider European project, show electricity generated by wind in November was enough to power nearly 6 million homes – a new record for Scotland.
In another milestone, wind production outstripped total electricity demand on 20 out of 30 days. Gina Hanrahan, head of policy at environmental group WWF Scotland, welcomed the contribution made by wind: “Wind power breaking through the magic 100% threshold is truly momentous. For months output has flirted around the 97% mark, so it’s fantastic to reach this milestone. “It’s also worth noting that 20 out of 30 days wind production outstripped demand.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/17286749.scottish-wind-power-output-breaks-100-output-milestone/
A wave of change is coming to our planet’s water resources
Thanks to climate change, Earth’s freshwater supplies will never be the same again, Science News for Students, BETH GEIGER, DEC 6, 2018 This is the fourth in a 10-part series about the ongoing global impacts of climate change. These stories will look at the current effects of a changing planet, what the emerging science suggests is behind those changes and what we all can do to adapt to them.
Water world Our cool blue planet is covered in water. Just 2.5 percent of that water, however, is fresh. Of that, only about one third is liquid. The rest is locked up as ice.
That isn’t much freshwater. Yet we depend on it for everything. In the United States, each person uses an average of 340 liters (90 gallons) per day at home. And that doesn’t include the water needed to grow our food or manufacture everything from clothes to cars to cell phones. It takes 3,400 liters (900 gallons) just to make one pair of jeans.
As climate changes, though, so does how much water is available. Water, climate and weather are connected in a never-ending loop called the water cycle. And like any natural system, change one part of it — whether it’s temperature, soil moisture or even how many trees are in a region — and everything else changes, too. Continue reading
Nuclear catastrophe – fast but avoidable. Climate change -slow, inexorable
Former Defense Secretary Compares Climate Change To Nuclear War, Forbes, Jeff McMahon, 9 Dec 18, There are two existential catastrophes threatening the world, former Defense Secretary William Perry said. One is quick but avoidable, while the other is slowly unfolding.“Our planet today faces two existential dangers,” Perry said at Stanford University, where he now serves as a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute. “One of them is nuclear war—nuclear catastrophe—and the other is a climate catastrophe.
The nuclear catastrophe could happen next month, next year, ten years from now or if we’re lucky, never. But if it happens it happens all at once. On the other hand the climate-change catastrophe is on a slow roll. It is happening. It’s happening every month, every year. It’s getting worse…….https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2018/12/09/former-defense-secretary-compares-climate-change-to-nuclear-war/#15e849ee60bb
Increased risk of bushfires in Tasmania
Growth spurt fuels ‘normal’ bushfire riskFire danger Rapid vegetation growth during Tasmania’s recent spate of wet and warm weather could pose an added bushfire risk for property owners, the Tasmania Fire Service says….(subscribers only)
US and Russia ally with Saudi Arabia to water down climate pledge
Guardian, Jonathan Wattsand Ben Doherty, Mon 10 Dec 2018 , Move shocks delegates at UN conference as ministers fly in for final week of climate talks The US and Russia have thrown climate talks into disarray by allying with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to water down approval of a landmark report on the need to keep global warming below 1.5C.
After a heated two-and-a-half-hour debate on Saturday night, the backwards step by the four major oil producers shocked delegates at the UN climate conference in Katowice as ministers flew in for the final week of high-level discussions.
It has also raised fears among scientists that the US president, Donald Trump, is going from passively withdrawing from climate talks to actively undermining them alongside a coalition of climate deniers.
Two months ago, representatives from the world’s governments hugged after agreeing on the 1.5C report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), commissioned to spell out the dire consequences should that level of warming be exceeded and how it can be avoided.
Reaching a global consensus was a painstaking process involving thousands of scientists sifting through years of research and diplomats working through the night to ensure the wording was acceptable to all nations.
But when it was submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change on Saturday, the four oil allies – with Saudi Arabia as the most obdurate – rejected a motion to “welcome” the study. Instead, they said it should merely be “noted”, which would make it much easier for governments to ignore. The motion has not yet been able to pass as a result of the lack of consensus.
t opened up a rift at the talks that will be hard to close in the coming five days. During the plenary, the EU, a bloc of the 47 least developed countries, as well as African and Latin and South American nations, all spoke in favour of the report. Several denounced the four countries trying to dilute its importance. ………
Scientists were also outraged. “It is troubling. Saudi Arabia has always had bad behaviour in climate talks, but it could be overruled when it was alone or just with Kuwait. That it has now been joined by the US and Russia is much more dangerous,” said Alden Meyer, the director of strategy and policy in the Union of Concerned Scientists….
Ministers have only five days to establish a rulebook for the Paris agreement. A wild card is the role of the host nation, Poland – the most coal-dependant nation in Europe – which will chair the final week of the meeting………
As well as acceptance of the report, there are several other potential fights brewing regarding transparency rules for reporting emissions and proposals for wealthy high emitters to provide financial support to poorer nations struggling to adapt. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/09/us-russia-ally-saudi-arabia-water-down-climate-pledges-un
Trump wants the Paris climate accord to be scrapped
 Trump, observing French turmoil, suggests end of climate change pact https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-france/trump-observing-french-turmoil-suggests-end-of-climate-change-pact-idUSKBN1O70RP, 9 Dec 18WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump, commenting on the clashes between police and “yellow vest” protesters in Paris, said on Saturday that it may be time to do away with the Paris accord on climate change.
“Very sad day & night in Paris,” the president said in a message issued on Twitter. “Maybe it’s time to end the ridiculous and extremely expensive Paris Agreement and return money back to the people in the form of lower taxes?” Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Nick Zieminski |
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Don’t Nuke the Climate is at the COP talks in Poland.
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Beyond Nuclear 2nd Dec 2018 , Linda Walker: Back in the UK, the Labour Party needs to listen. How many times have you heard people say ‘I would much rather not have nuclear power but we need it to combat climate change’? This claim has been made so many times by the nuclear industry and its supporters that many people now just accept it as the lesser of two evils. But the development of new nuclear power plants is actually no part of the solution to tackling climate change, and is in fact a big part of the problem. Nuclear power is not carbon-free; is prohibitively expensive; all projects overrun wildly on both time and budget; is a source of harmful waste which no one yet knows what to do with; provides a terrorist target; produces routine emissions which are harmful to health; power plants are vulnerable to the flooding which will come as sea levels rise, and have to close down in times of drought; Chernobyl and Fukushima have shown the widespread and long-term health and environmental impact of accidents; and even nuclear advocates have recently admitted the close links to nuclear weapons. |
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Australia’s Prime Minister maintains his allegiance to COAL
The most famous environmentalist on this blue planet, Sir David Attenborough, has pronounced it so as an envoy of the people to the UN: “Right now we’re facing a man-made disaster on a global scale, our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate change.
“I am only here to represent the voice of the people to deliver our collective thoughts, concerns, ideas and suggestions.
“The people have spoken. Leaders of the world you must lead. If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.”………
Donald Trump believes in fossil fuels. Just one of many examples of this is his choice of Andrew Wheeler, a coal lobbyist, to head the Environmental Protection Agency. You wouldn’t see this in a forward-looking country like 
Australia. Oh, hello, ministers Melissa Price and Angus 
Taylor.
In February 2017, Morrison, courtesy of the Minerals Council of Australia, brandished his friend. He said, “Don’t be afraid. Don’t be scared.”
Mr O’Coal, of course, had no say in the matter. Others spoke for him. He was just there – a token of their esteem, a symbol of their way of thinking, a pillar, metaphorically, of their ideology. He sat quietly except when passed around. There was laughter and much mirth. He was not the butt of jokes, but light entertainment. See, look at him, poor harmless fellow. Oh, don’t be scared yon naysayers across the floor and throughout the land, he won’t bite. See, he has no teeth. Look at our hands. Clean!
He was servant to a grinning master and, his usefulness in the skit done with, put away. You can’t blame Mr O’Coal. He was just the prop, the sight gag to a larger joke that is still running throughout the land: in this long night of the lumpenproletariat, ignorance flourishes. Too much sunlight and it withers. Too much science and it withers. It’s as if there’s an idiot wind making it so we can hardly breathe. https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/federal/remember-mr-lump-o-coal-he-s-still-doing-his-thing-20181207-p50kxi.html
Deploying short- and medium-range missiles in Eastern European countries will turn them into a military staging ground
Eastern Europe may become ‘nuclear desert’ – Russian military expert https://belsat.eu/en/news/eastern-europe-may-become-nuclear-desert-russian-military-expert/
“In this case, each of these countries might become a nuclear desert,” he warned.
And their residents might become ‘hostages whom one will start to shoot’, the expert said.
At the moment, the ‘war zone’ is 500 km (i.e. Iskander range of application), Shurygin stressed.
According to him, such a scenario will be plausible if the US decides to deploy nuclear weapons in eastern Europe after denouncing the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. It should be noted that the White house has not voiced such plans.
On 20 October 2018US president Donald Trump announced that he was withdrawing the US from the treaty. According to a number of US politicians, the Kremlin had repeatedly violated it.
n October, Russian envoy Mikhail Babich told Belarusian state-run TV that Moscow would consider any attack on Belarus as an assault on Russia with ‘all that it implies’. He commented on the feasibility of establishing permanent US military base in Poland.
Evacuation orders in place as Little River grass fire burns out of control
Olivia Shying, Geelong Advertiser, December 7, 2018 FIREFIGHTERS have managed to contain a large grassfire at Little River that threatened homes and properties.
While the evacuation orders for Mambourin and Manor communities have been downgraded to watch and act alerts, authorities warn the fire is still not under control.
Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp said the fire started just before midday near Edgars Rd at Little River.
By early afternoon the fire had burned more than 1000 hectares and had jumped across train tracks causing V/Line to suspend all services to between Geelong and Wyndham Vale……
…….EARLIER: ALL TRAINS on the Geelong line between Wyndham Vale and Waurn Ponds have been suspended due to fire danger.
Coal lobby prominent at UN climate talks in Poland
COP24 President defends participation of coal companies at climate talks, ABC, The World By Erin Handley 7 Dec 18, COP24 President Michal Kurtyka has defended displays of coal soap and jewellery at key climate change talks in Poland, saying “it’s good to have everybody on board”.
Key points:
- The climate talks drew some ridicule for putting coal on display in the foyer
- New Zealand has named climate change as its biggest security threat
- Pacific nations are facing an existential threat, Michal Kurtyka said
Conference attendees were confronted with coal displays in the foyer and greeted by a performance from the Polish Coal Miners Band during the talks designed to bring about global action on climate change.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said using coal was not in conflict with climate protection, and with the climate change talks taking place in the city of Katowice — a coal mining stronghold — some observers said the setting undermined the purpose of the talks.
Mr Kurtyka, who is also a secretary of state in the Ministry of Environment, denied that coal companies “sponsored” the event, which he said was publicly funded by Poland — but said there were several partners, including Ikea and energy companies. …….
Richie Merzian, director of the Australia Institute’s Climate and Energy Program, said the coal-heavy setting left “a sour taste in the mouths of those who are committed to climate action”.
“But at the same time it is symbolic of trying to deal with the vested interests and the long history of reliance on fossil fuels in many of these cities and countries.”
Mr Merzian added that coal companies were not on the same page as delegates seeking an ambitious plan to combat climate change.
“Their core business is directly in contrast to … the goal of the Paris Agreement, which is to transition completely away from reliance on fossil fuels,” he said, adding that the influence of coal companies on governments ran deep.
“Stopping that outright, in-your-face sponsorship would definitely help in terms of optics, but a lot of the influence is just strongly embedded into the positions that the countries bring forward.”………
Yesterday New Zealand released a defence policy statement naming climate change as its biggest security threat and stressing the impact of climate change on the Pacific.
“It identifies climate change as one of the most significant security threats of our time, and one that is already having adverse impacts both at home and in New Zealand’s neighbourhood,” said Defence Minister Ron Mark in an emailed statement to Reuters.
Australia, however, has turned its back on its Pacific neighbours in terms of climate change, Mr Merzian said.
“The Pacific are getting desperate, and instead of their friends helping, they’re hurting,” he said.
“Poland is the Australia of the EU — the largest coal user, the largest coal producer — but unlike Australia that can operate in its own bubble, Poland has to marry up its position with its EU colleagues as a bloc, and that’s why they help drag Poland to be better than what it would otherwise be.” https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-07/coal-company-participation-at-climate-talks-defended/10592146
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 