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Brussels punts on nuclear question, plus Glasgow spurs ESG fund buying spree

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Source: pastorscott / iStock via Getty Images

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

More than 50% of the contiguous U.S. was in a drought by the end of November, according to NOAA. The average November temperature across the contiguous U.S. was 45.2°F. (3.5 degrees above the 20th-century average), which placed the month at the seventh-warmest November in the 127-year record. The nation’s average precipitation across the contiguous U.S. was 1.28 inches, almost an inch below average.

The European Union took a big step Thursday toward setting into law categories on what investors and businesses can consider sustainable environmental practices. But it left the prickly question of where in the spectrum nuclear energy falls unanswered.

The EU Taxonomy is a hideous name for a vital set of rules that will ultimately govern sustainable economic activities with goals such as climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as disclosure around sustainable investment products. In passing the taxonomy, the EU Council set it to take effect on Jan. 1.

But a fierce debate over whether nuclear energy, as well as some forms of natural gas, can fall under the taxonomy as part of any economic “transition,” caused the council to push those two off for further discussion. The EU is divided on nuclear energy, with some members such as France big proponents of nuclear power while Germany, among others, is against it. Earlier this week, Germany’s incoming government said it dropped plans to oppose nuclear in the blueprint, indicating a deal might be close.

It appears Brussels diplomats instead decided getting the vast majority of the taxonomy into law sooner was more important than addressing the divide. But with natural gas prices surging this month and winter energy shortages across the continent, both gas and nuclear must be decided before investors and companies can really take the law to hand.

While Europe will be keen to declare victory and go home for the holidays, come January the hard decisions will still have to be made.

More insights below. . . .

ZEUS: Germany’s new leader faces immediate climate crisis as carbon soars

. . . . New German Chancellor Olaf Scholz inherits a country in climate crisis this week as soaring carbon prices and the standoff over the Ukraine between Russia and the U.S. threaten the climate-friendly policies he and his coalition brought in, writes David Callaway. That’s not to mention Omicron. As carbon markets rise, Germany’s historic reliance on coal becomes a bigger problem for its government, as well as for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia that has caused such controversy. With Angela Merkel gone, suddenly Scholz is the man in the middle. . . .

Read the full ZEUS column

The last time a journalist won the Nobel Peace Prize was the Nazi era. Until Friday.

. . . . On Friday, two journalists will step on stage at Stockholm City Hall to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, including my friend Maria Ressa, founder of the Philippines digital news organization Rappler. Ressa and Dmitry Muratov, editor of the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, will be the first journalists to win the prize since 1935, in the Nazi era. In this special commentary, courtesy of the World Editors Forum, Mexican editor Javier Garza Ramos looks back on the conditions for journalists just before World War II compared to now, and wonders why it took so long. . . .

Read the full column

Thursday’s subscriber insights: Will EVs become a two-horse race?

. . . . Elon Musk probably isn’t looking over his shoulder just yet, but recent big announcements from Ford (F) and GM (GM) about massive electric vehicles operations has some analysts wondering who will win this race in the short term. Say five years. As Big Auto floods the market, strategy may be more important than sex appeal, analysts say. Read more here. . . .

. . . . Solar farms are increasingly moving from the farm to the city, where the energy is needed more. A handful of cities are now building them at their airports, which despite some concern about glare for incoming pilots, make sense from an energy need, and a tax subsidy standpoint. But will they work? Read more here. . . .

. . . . With gasoline prices high, oil companies have been throwing their weight around, suggesting there should be more fossil fuel investment rather than less. But now fuel costs are projected to fall next year, impinging on profits. A handful of big oil companies — such as BP, which just bought another EV charging company — aren’t waiting around. Read about them here. . . .

. . . . President Joe Biden’s announcement this week that the federal government will try to go carbon neutral by 2050 left plenty of questions unanswered. Chief among them is how all the contracts will be altered on servicing some 300,000 buildings, 600,000 vehicles and $650 billion in goods and services. The key benefit, though, may be in setting an example for state and local governments. Read more here. . . .

Editor’s picks: $2 bln inflow to UK’s ESG funds; plus, insurers focus on resilience

Insurers make progress on climate resilience

The insurance industry made progress on climate change resilience at COP26, but faces big challenges to reducing or eliminating underwriting for carbon-related activities, Ben Dyson writes for S&P Global Market Intelligence. In an insight report, Dyson notes two industry initiatives focusing on greater climate resilience. The Insurance Development Forum, an industry-led public-private initiative that aims to improve countries’ natural disaster resilience through insurance and risk management, at COP26 launched the Global Risk Modeling Alliance, which seeks to improve climate-vulnerable countries’ access to risk modeling. It also co-established the Global Resilience Index Initiative to create a global model for measuring climate resilience.

A ‘sea of spills’ goes unreported

In one of the first comprehensive studies of images captured by the Envisat satellite, researchers with French consultancy firm VisioTerra found evidence of 18,063 oil slicks in the Gulf of Guinea between 2002 and 2012, according to Ashoka Mukpo writing in Mongabay this week. The report says that while some of the slicks were caused by natural seepages from oil-rich coastal areas, the bulk were tied to shipping and offshore oil production. Researchers told Mongabay the images suggest that the total amount of oil spilled into the Gulf of Guinea over the study period was greater than 2010’s Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, despite going largely unreported.

Latest findings: New research, studies and projects

How international trade and climate regimes can save the planet

Through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the scientific community tells us that we are heading toward a climate catastrophe, say the authors of Green Bills for Green Earth: How the international trade and climate regimes work together to save the planet. “As a result, various countries are offering various promising and novel policy instruments to mitigate climate change and continue to grow macro-economically, as we witnessed in the Glasgow Conference of the Parties in 2021. In other words, finding ways to grow economically while at the same time  protect the environment and mitigate climate change. In that spirit, this article first provides an overview of the global trade and climate regimes. It then offers an analysis of how the World Trade Organization globally and the European Union regionally might combat climate change in remarkable ways.” The article also provides an analysis of the European Green Deal and the U.S. Green New Deal, “two encouraging policy instruments to help mitigate climate change ambitiously.” Finally, the article provides an assessment of the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.

Callaway Climate Insights Newsletter

By David Callaway

America’s Largest Glaciers and Icefields

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Source: Wildnerdpix / iStock via Getty Images

Glaciers, rivers of ice, thousands of years old, that move slowly through mountain ranges, fueled by gravity and their own weight and dynamics, are found on every continent except Australia. Formed by abundant snowfall, accumulating and compressing faster than the snow can melt, glaciers can reach thousands of feet in depth and over a hundred miles in length. 

All told, the world’s glaciers hold about 69% of the world’s fresh water, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. They also account for — and have created — some of the world’s most awe-inspiring landscapes, even as their annual melt feeds rivers and streams throughout much of the world. (Here are stunning photos of America’s largest attractions.) 

To find the largest glaciers and icefields in the U.S., 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data from the Census Bureau’s Tigerweb database.

The United States has glaciers in Washington, Oregon, California, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, and most prominently, Alaska, where nearly 100,000 glaciers cover 5% of the state’s surface area. This one state has more active glaciers than any other region in the world. All 50 of the largest U.S. glaciers and icefields are found in Alaska.

Alaska’s largest glacier is the Bering Glacier, measuring nearly 500 square miles, and, when combined with the Begley icefield, which feeds it, measures 1,900 square miles. Even the Bear Glacier, the smallest of the country’s 50 most extensive glaciers, is an impressive 41.4 square miles in area. 

The largest icefield, generally defined as an immense ice mass comprising interconnected glaciers, is the Juneau icefield, which is made up of and feeds dozens of individual glaciers. (For the other extreme, here are the most dangerous volcanoes on the planet.)

Glaciers provide one of the most dramatic measures of climate change. Globally, glaciers are melting at an accelerating pace, losing 31% more ice and snow each year than they did 15 years ago, according to a study of satellite imagery published in April in Nature. 

The Alaskan glaciers are among the fastest melting in the world, contributing about 7% of the ice melt fueling sea level rise, while the state’s ice cover is only 1% of the world’s total, according to a 2018 study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. 

Here are the country’s 50 largest glaciers and icefields

Climate A-list shows few techs and financials, plus an early national EV charge map

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Source: j26 / Flickr

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

In the early days of environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting, just getting companies to disclose environmental information can be a win. In that context, climate researcher CDP Worldwide’s release of its annual rankings Tuesday, showing a 37% increase in international companies reporting — some 13,000, was a success.

But everything goes downhill from there the deeper you get into the report. In its three primary categories, climate, forests and water security, only 272 of the companies achieved an A rating in at least one, down from 313 last year. Only 14 had top ratings in all three, among them public companies Unilever Plc (UL) and Philip Morris International (MO).

Wait? Philip Morris? The list is as unusual for who is on as it is for who is off. Only a few financial firms, such as UBS, BNY Mellon and Moody’s. Microsoft (MSFT) and HP made the list from tech, but none of the loudest ESG players in the space. And in autos, Ford (F) and GM (GM) both made it, but no Tesla (TSLA).

In short, it seems to be a list of the biggest global manufacturers who took the time to make sure they ticked the boxes. Still, you have to begin somewhere, and CDP deserves credit for pioneering what will certainly be a robust business.

But is there any correlation between ESG grades and stock performance? We ran the numbers on the top 14. Of them, HP (HPQ), up 50% year-to-date, and International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF), up 33.7%, were the big winners for investors this year. Perhaps not for their climate policies, but it’s a start.

More insights below. . . .

Book review: Back from the dead. How nature rebuilds the worst we can dish it.

. . . . Walk through a war zone, as former foreign correspondent Jack Hamilton has, and you can see the damage mankind can do to nature. But in a new book by Cal Flyn, called Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape, Hamilton finds example after example of nature adapting to the worst kinds of pollution and destruction that we can throw at it. From Chernobyl and Verdun to New Jersey, where they used to make Agent Orange, Flyn trekked around the world documenting the remarkable ways the environment comes back after the pollution stops. And gives a tough assessment of where climate change is taking us. . . .

Read the full review

Tuesday’s subscriber insights: Private power companies step in to help cure ‘range anxiety’

. . . . Just weeks after President Biden’s infrastructure bill passed with $7.5 billion targeted to building charging stations across the country for electric vehicles, a coalition of some 50 electricity companies has proposed a deal to build an early network. Edison Electric Institute said the group hopes to have them up and running by the end of 2023, that they would all be rapid charging, and yes, that they hope to get some of that federal money. Read more here. . . .

. . . . Electric vehicle fans waiting for Toyota (TM) to decide whether to stay with its popular hybrid models or jump into the EV pool full on got a signal this week when the world’s largest automaker said it would build a $1.3 billion battery plant in Greensboro, N.C., capable of delivering enough batteries for 200,000 vehicles. Where does that put it in the U.S. EV race? Read more here. . . .

. . . . Electric vehicle charging stations aren’t the only ones benefiting from the Biden infrastructure plan. A little-discussed part of the plan allows for more than $4 billion in tax subsidies for e-bikes, the fastest-growing part of the electric vehicle revolution. Pedestrians beware. Read more here. . . .

. . . . Lots being made of United Airlines’ (UAL) first flight last week under sustainable aviation fuel, with several others in the works. But lost in the hype is that SAF still pollutes. A British project to develop liquid hydrogen for flights might have more promise. Read more here. . . .

Editor’s picks: Hawaiian blizzard, Fashion and deforestation, and smoke gets in your eyes

Ugh. Fashion brands may contribute to Amazon deforestation

Several large fashion brands have been identified as possible contributors to deforestation in the Amazon rainforest because of complex supply chain issues, according to new research reported in The Guardian. The story points to the brands’ connections to tanneries and other companies involved in the production of leather. The research report “analyzed nearly 500,000 rows of customs data and found that brands such as Coach, LVMH, Prada, H&M, Zara, Adidas, Nike, New Balance, Teva, UGG and Fendi have multiple connections to an industry that props up Amazon deforestation.” The Guardian notes that more than 50 brands have multiple supply-chain links to the largest Brazilian leather exporter, JBS, which is known to engage in Amazon deforestation. “JBS recently made a commitment to achieve zero deforestation across its global supply chain by 2035, something environmental groups have called insufficient,” according to the report.

Wildfires in 2021 caused climate havoc around the world

This year’s devastating wildfire seasons, on a global basis, produced an estimated total of 1760 megatonnes of carbon emissions, which is the equivalent of 6450 megatonnes of CO2, according to a report from the EU’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). CAMS says: “To put this figure into some perspective, total CO2 emissions from fossil fuel in the EU in 2020 amounted to 2600 megatonnes. In other words, wildfires this year generated 148% more than total EU fossil fuel emissions in 2020. This year’s wildfire activity in some regions around the world was at a much larger scale than previously seen in the CAMS dataset. As a result, several regions around the globe saw some of their highest estimated emissions in 2021, based on the CAMS 19-year Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS) dataset, going back to 2003.

Callaway Climate Insights Newsletter

By David Callaway

Omicron hangs over the oil market; plus, the hottest electric vehicles aren’t cars

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Source: Dikuch / Getty Images

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

Turns out a few cases of Omicron did what President Joe Biden and other Western leaders haven’t been able to for three months: take down oil prices.

Last week’s global scare from the new variant, reportedly out of South Africa, turned stock markets upside down, but also caused oil prices to fall 15% from their highs above $80 a barrel. It helped that OPEC also decided to keep raising oil production, in an early bet that Omicron won’t be the world destroyer it was first feared to be.

Oil prices were back up 3% Monday morning in New York, and the stock market rallied in tandem. While we’re still a week away from any definitive analysis on the danger of Omicron, the lack of worse news over the weekend . . . .

To read this column, all our insights, news and in-depth interviews, please subscribe and support our great climate finance journalism.

Callaway Climate Insights Newsletter

By David Callaway

Post-COP26 pushback threatens climate goals, plus, new EU hydrogen target

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Source: Harvepino / Getty Images

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

The 2021 Atlantic hurricane season officially closed this week, with 21 named storms (the third highest on record), seven hurricanes, and four major hurricanes. Yale Climate Connections, in a great piece headlined Top-10 weirdest things about the bonkers 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, quotes researcher Brian McNoldy: “This has never happened before, not during the satellite era, not since records begin in 1851. This sustained level of tropical cyclone activity in the Atlantic is unprecedented even for four years, let alone six.”

Apres moi, le deluge. After me, the flood. The French expression attributed to King Louis XV of France is widely used and corrupted these days but was originally intended to describe a people who didn’t care about the future.

Hard not to think about it now, only three weeks after the UN’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, where 195 nations pledged to combat global warming by working together to reduce fossil fuel production and consumption.

The vapors from the private state jets were still hanging over Scotland when Australia’s prime minister said he had no intention of limiting coal and mineral production. Egypt, home to next year’s summit, and the largest oil producer in Africa, also quickly caved.

Brazil was covering up deforestation statistics in the Amazon Basin even before Glasgow, while Japan is reportedly urging fossil fuel companies to slow down their transitions to renewable energy. In Europe, implementation of new climate disclosure rules tied to the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) were delayed this week for a second time, to January 2023.

In China, the world’s largest coal producer, an even more ominous development is taking shape. Nationalists are starting to push back on any government efforts to reduce fossil fuel consumption, arguing that the entire strategy is a Western plot to destabilize the country.

After the frenzy that was Glasgow, it’s natural to expect a hangover of some sorts, especially as world leaders return to the domestic energy troubles of their individual countries. But high energy prices, supply-chain issues, and a new Covid scare are combining to push climate back in the priority list this winter.

As one former colleague in London told me this week, “If half the world is too stupid to wear a mask to save their own lives, how can we expect them to work to save us all from climate change?”

Indeed. More to come on this in the next few weeks but if 2021 was the year the world was supposed to turn the corner on the climate transition, 2022 is suddenly looking make or break for the whole concept of diplomacy as a solution. Versus markets and technology. This business is not for the faint of heart.

More insights below. . . .

Carbon market fans applaud as COP26 deal burns Rome

. . . . Fans of carbon markets, such as this newsletter, were optimistic after a deal at COP26 to resolve technical issues around the Paris Agreement that will allow the markets to scale internationally. But Mark Hulbert argues that a key part of the deal, which allows past carbon offsets to be included in the new initiatives, will not only make the markets more dangerous for investors but will encourage more greenhouse gas emissions from large polluters. Forget fiddling while Rome burns, now the audience is applauding, he says. . . .

Read the full column

EU notebook: Von der Leyen says green hydrogen prices to fall by half by end of decade

. . . . European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says she is confident green hydrogen prices will fall by 30% to 70% by the end of the decade, enabling consumers and countries to transition away from fossil fuels without energy shortages, writes Daniel Byrne from Dublin. The promise comes as European politicians increasingly question the EC’s blueprint for leading the world in moving to renewable energy, arguing it’s leaving millions of consumers behind, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, public pressure is rising for Europe to do something more about the carbon footprint of its ancient buildings, which is responsible for up to a third of the region’s greenhouse gases. . . .

Read the full EU notebook

Thursday’s subscriber insights: The other electric vehicle tipping point

. . . . The adoption of electric vehicles involves several tipping points. The one most in the news now is an adequate number of charging stations. But there is also the cost of buying EVs. That could change as battery prices go down, and vehicles become cheaper to build, since they don’t have internal combustion engines. So far, prices remain stubbornly high, and take-up painfully slow. Read more here. . . .

. . . . Rising oil and gas prices have roiled the race for renewables this year, making them more attractive in terms of price, but less popular as high oil prices force countries to stock up. In Japan, as in Europe, there is suddenly great caution about moving away from polluting energy sources, especially ahead of winter. A reckoning may soon be coming. Read more here. . . .

. . . . Amazon has emerged as the largest corporate renewables buyer in the world after striking deals to procure output from 18 new wind and solar projects. That’s great, but unlike other major tech companies, it has a huge transport infrastructure – planes, trucks, etc. — that it must transform to be truly green. It will take more than a press release. Read more here. . . .

. . . . And finally, investors of a certain age will remember the panic in the market 20 years ago today when Enron collapsed. Billing itself as a new age energy trading colossus, the company crashed amid hundreds of millions of dollars of fraudulent accounting transactions. In the end, investors just walked away from its stock, letting it slide to nothing. A cautionary tale at a time when markets are looking for the next big idea in energy transition. . . .

Editor’s picks: Record weather, record renewables and record plastic waste

Another record year for renewables

It looks like this year will set another record for renewable energy installations, with 290 GW of new capacity expected to be built globally, the International Energy Agency said in its annual Renewables Market Report, released Wednesday. S&P Global Market Intelligence quotes Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, as saying that despite volatile energy markets and the rising cost of key raw materials used to make solar panels and wind turbines, the record additions are “yet another sign that a new global energy economy is emerging.” According to the report, by 2026, global renewables capacity is forecast to grow more than 60% compared to 2020 levels, surpassing 4,800 GW, the IEA projects. That equates to 1,830 GW of new additions in five years, or up to 380 GW annually.  More than half of the growth to 2026 is expected to come from solar.

U.S. produces the most plastic waste

The U.S. is a major producer of plastics and in 2016, generated more plastic waste by weight and per capita than any other nation, according to a congressionally mandated report released Tuesday. The report, titled Reckoning with the U.S. Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste, says that “although the U.S. solid waste management system is advanced, it is not sufficient to deter leakage into the environment.” The report calls for “a national strategy by the end of 2022 to reduce the nation’s contribution to global ocean plastic waste at every step — from production to its entry into the environment — including by substantially reducing U.S. solid waste generation. This report also recommends a nationally-coordinated and expanded monitoring system to track plastic pollution in order to understand the scales and sources of U.S. plastic waste, set reduction and management priorities, and measure progress.”

Latest findings: New research, studies and projects

“Climate change has profound effects not only for societies and economies, but also for central banks’ ability to deliver price stability in the future.” The authors of To Be or Not to Be Green:  How Can Monetary Policy React to Climate Change? start by documenting why climate change matters for monetary policy: it impacts the economic variables relevant to setting the monetary policy stance, it interacts with fiscal and structural responses and it can generate dislocations in financial markets, which are impossible for monetary policy to ignore. Next, they survey several possible ways central banks can respond to climate change. In the abstract, they write, “These range from protective actions to more proactive measures aimed at mitigating climate change and supporting green finance and the transition to sustainable growth. We also discuss the constraints and trade-offs faced by central banks as they respond to climate risks. Finally, focusing on the specific challenges faced by inflation-targeting central banks, we consider how certain design features of this regime might interact with, and evolve in response to, the climate challenge.” Authors: Lena Boneva, European Central Bank (ECB), Centre for Economic Policy Research; Gianluigi Ferrucci, European Central Bank; Francesco Paolo Mongelli, European Central Bank, Goethe University Frankfurt.

Words to live by . . . .

“We must acknowledge that progress was made. There are now new opportunities for countries to deliver on what they know must be done to avoid a climate catastrophe. But unless they sharply pivot to implementation and show substantial results, they will continue to have their credibility challenged.” — WWF Global Lead on Climate Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, speaking about COP26.

Callaway Climate Insights Newsletter

By David Callaway

American Cities With the Most Unusual Weather This Year

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Source: benlankamp / iStock via Getty Images

Unusual weather and temperatures, especially heat, are key indicators of climate change. Climate change’s effects on the natural world and the human environment are most consequential to life on Earth. While there have been unusually cold winters in recent years, they have become less common. Much of the unusual weather tends to be hotter. 

It is no secret that the planet is warming, and that the warming has happened more rapidly in recent years, with eight of the hottest 10 years on record in the contiguous United States occurring since 1998, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. (See how global warming is affecting every state.)

From January to September of this year, the average temperature of the lower 48 states was 1.9 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the 20th century average. The month of September was particularly warm, measuring 3 degrees warmer than the 20 century average, making it the fifth warmest on record.

This past September, the Midwest, the Plains states, the Great Lakes region, and New England experienced some of the most unusually high temperatures. 

To identify the U.S. cities with the most unusual weather this September, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the National Climate Report – September 2021 released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information. 

The report included the average September temperature for 1901-2000 for U.S. cities. 24/7 Wall St. ranked cities based on the difference between their average temperature in September 2021 and their 20th-century average. Though cities with colder than usual temperatures were considered, all of the cities on the list happened to have hotter than normal Septembers. 

A single month is not an indicator of a trend or pattern, but divergence from longer term trends highlight the capriciousness of weather as the planet warms, as exemplified by the September data. 

The two most extreme increases from average temperatures — 7.8 degrees in the case of Grand Forks, North Dakota, and 7.2 degrees in Goodland, Kansas — occurred in regions where the incidence of unusually hot days had decreased over the last 70 years. (This is the coldest town in every state.)

Here are the 25 U.S. cities with the greatest increases in average September temperatures.

Click here to see the US cities with the most unusual weather this year

Carbon market fans applaud as Rome burns

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Source: nicmcphee / Flickr

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

The resolution of Article 6 at the UN summit will make carbon markets more dangerous, not less, argues Mark Hulbert.

(Mark Hulbert, an author and longtime investment columnist, is the founder of the Hulbert Financial Digest; his Hulbert Ratings audits investment newsletter returns.)

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (Callaway Climate Insights) — An emerging narrative in the wake of COP26 is that there was at least one issue area in which major progress was made towards mitigating climate change.

The reference is to the carbon offset market. This market, which exists under the rubric of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, is where countries and companies can go to purchase credits to offset their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These credits allow them to continue emitting GHG while nevertheless claiming progress towards meeting their carbon reduction goals.

Many defend the carbon trading market by arguing that it will ultimately play a crucial role in keeping the climate from overheating. They contend that the profit motive will attract large amounts of financing from Wall Street to invest in new and innovative carbon reduction technologies. . . .

To read this column, all our insights, news and in-depth interviews, please subscribe and support our great climate finance journalism.

Callaway Climate Insights Newsletter

By David Callaway

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Grave Danger

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Source: SimonSkafar / iStock via Getty Images

The stated mission of UNESCO seeks to “encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.”

World heritage sites include places as divergent as the pyramids of Egypt, the Serengeti in East Africa, rainforests in Madagascar, the Baroque cathedrals of Latin America, and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. (This is the most beautiful natural wonder in every state.)

UNESCO’s task to preserve humankind’s heritage is a daunting one, however. Some of the sites are in danger, imperiled by armed conflict, increasing urbanization and tourist activity and development, pollution, poaching, natural disasters such as earthquakes and flooding, and climate change. (Here are 28 amazing places that could be underwater by 2050.)

To identify sites currently at risk, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger. There are 52 sites the World Heritage Committee has decided to include on the list. Sites are listed in order of year of designation as World Heritage in Danger.

UNESCO divides humanity’s treasures into cultural and natural sites. There are sites in each category with ascertained or potential dangers. Ascertained dangers are specific and proven imminent threats such as serious deterioration for cultural properties and human encroachment on natural properties. Potential dangers can include lack of conservation policy for cultural properties and development projects near or within a natural property.

UNESCO believes that just putting a site on its List of World Heritage in Danger helps alert the international community to the seriousness of the danger of a given property and the need for prompt action. 

Every continent except for Antarctica has endangered sites, though most of the sites are in Asia and Africa. Syria has the most sites on the list with six, followed by Libya with five, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo with four.

Click here to see the UNESCO world heritage sites in danger

This WAS the safest place in America from climate change; plus, sea dragons stalk UK

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Source: DenisTangneyJr / E+ via Getty Images

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

When I was running USA Today a few years back, I asked our weather team to look at the newspaper’s famous, back-page weather map and pinpoint the safest place in the country from natural disasters. No threats of hurricanes, earthquakes, tornados, rising seas, etc. They came back with Salt Lake City.

A natural valley between two mountain ranges, the area around Great Salt Lake in Utah presented none of the threats of Tornado Alley or the Gulf Coast, or California’s fault-laden geography. But as The Salt Lake Tribune, one of the West’s oldest newspapers, demonstrated this week, even that area is in danger from climate change.

The megadrought in the West, combined with years of diverting rivers from the lake to provide water for agricultural irrigation, have left the lake at half its average size this year. The Tribune and AccuWeather began publishing the lake at its true size in images and maps, and not its average size, to show the effects of climate change.

We’ll see more of this in coming years as American and global maps are redrawn to account for changing geological patterns and rising seas. As for my old weather team, the search is on for a new safest place. Duluth, Minn. anyone?

Please enjoy today’s issue, including a look at Germany’s new traffic-light coalition government, and its potential impact on the country’s fabled auto industry. Will climate change sensitivity finally force a speed limit on the autobahn? Also, the Intercontinental Exchange is out with a new futures contract tied to its popular global carbon index, the first new product since the carbon trading deal at COP26.

More insights below. . . .

Tuesday’s subscriber insights: Sea dragons plough the Orkney waters

. . . . In the race to develop renewable energy, perhaps no space is as inhabited by wacky technical innovation as tidal energy, that plentiful source that defies weather interruptions but is the most difficult to harvest. Now Sweden’s Minesto (MINEST:SS) a spinoff of airplane manufacturer Saab (AAABF) has come up with winged “sea dragons” to plough the dark waters northwest of the Orkney Islands to capture energy from the churning tides. Read more here. . . .

. . . . As Germany prepares for its biggest change in government in a generation, with Angela Merkel stepping down as chancellor after 16 years in what will be the longest reign since Otto von Bismarck, the question over just how far Olaf Scholz’s new coalition government will go on fighting climate change hangs over Europe. The answer will manifest itself in the country’s famous auto industry, which if coalition plans work out will be entirely electric within a decade. Read more here. . . .

. . . . As COP26’s carbon trading deal starts to take shape, and carbon prices continue to soar, expect a host of derivatives products to be introduced to capture surging investor interest. The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) today announced a futures contract tied to its ICE Global Carbon Futures Index (ICE:CO2), which has almost doubled since the beginning of the year. . . .

. . . . New technologies allowing offshore wind farms to be floated have caught attention in Europe and the U.S. West Coast, where the idea that they could be floated far enough out to sea to avoid being eyesores. Now a group is planning floating solar panels, saying they could make solar energy even cheaper. Read more here. . . .

. . . . One of the poster children for the need for evolution of our aging electric grids is New York State, which has an abundance of renewable energy upstate but little access downstate in New York City, where the need is greatest. Two new grid projects, one of them led by BlackStone (BX), aim to change that. Read more here. . . .

Editor’s picks: Depleted snow pack in the Western U.S.; the danger of nurdles

The no-snow-capped Sierra Nevada?

The iconic snow-covered mountains of the Sierra Nevada mountain range could change drastically in as little as three decades — or less, if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. And more important than just the view and ski resorts, “diminished and more ephemeral snowpacks that melt earlier will alter groundwater and streamflow dynamics,” resulting in even more dire water conditions across the drought-stricken U.S. West. That’s just part of the message from research titled A low-to-no snow future and its impacts on water resources in the western United States, published in Nature.com. “Anthropogenic climate change is decreasing seasonal snowpacks globally, with potentially catastrophic consequences on water resources, given the long-held reliance on snowpack in water management,” the authors write.

The trouble with nurdles

Nurdles — the tiny plastic pellets used as the building blocks for plastic products, are floating in the ocean by the billions. They cause as much damage as oil spills, yet they are still not classified as hazardous, The Guardian reports. Nurdles are a type of microplastic, less than 5mm in size. Due to their size, they are almost impossible to remove from the sea, unlike plastic bottles, nets or larger items. According to the report, “They are often mistaken for food by seabirds, fish and other wildlife. In the environment, they fragment into nanoparticles whose hazards are more complex. They are the second-largest source of micropollutants in the ocean, by weight, after tyre dust. An astounding 230,000 tonnes of nurdles end up in the oceans every year.”

Data (and purpose) driven: Greenpeace’s 50th anniversary

. . . . The Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise, above, sails the Salish Sea off the Washington coast near Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham, and the San Juan Islands. The ship is following the route that would experience a seven-fold increase in tar sands tanker oil traffic if pipeline expansion were to be completed. Greenpeace says the report documented the communities threatened by the Trans Mountain Expansion Project, which would worsen the effects of global warming, risk poisoning water, jeopardize the hundreds of thousands of jobs that depend on clean coasts, violate Indigenous sovereignty, and threaten the extinction of the Southern Resident Orca Whale. Tuesday is the 50th anniversary of the founding of Greenpeace, the international organization dedicated to preserving endangered species of animals, preventing environmental abuses, and heightening environmental awareness through confrontations with polluting corporations and governmental authorities. Greenpeace was founded in 1971 in British Columbia to oppose U.S. nuclear testing at Amchitka Island in Alaska. Seagoing ships have played a vital role in its campaigns, and the group has three ocean-going ships, the Esperanza, Arctic Sunrise and Rainbow Warrior III. Greenpeace does not accept funding from governments, corporations, or political parties, relying on three million individual supporters and foundation grants.

Callaway Climate Insights Newsletter

By David Callaway

EU notebook: Austrian climate minister threatens over nuclear power

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Source: iaea_imagebank / Flickr

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

By Daniel Byrne

(Dan Byrne is a correspondent based in Dublin, covering climate and finance matters. He is a graduate of Dublin City University. He has held communications & fundraising roles in NGOs and has contributed content for Irish media outlets RTE, AMLintelligence, and the Irish Examiner.)

DUBLIN (Callaway Climate Insights) — Austria is ready to take the fight over nuclear power directly to the courts, threatening to sue the European Union if it includes the controversial power source in its renewable energy platform.

One of the country’s senior politicians revealed last week that opposition to classifying nuclear energy as green is so strong in Austria, that it will happily go to legal means to break the deadlock in Brussels.

“Yes, if the EU taxonomy includes nuclear energy, we are ready to challenge that in court,” said Austrian minister for climate protection and energy Leonore Gewessler.

It is this EU Taxonomy where the heart of the debate lies. . . .

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