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The Hottest Inhabited Places on Earth

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Source: Tiago_Fernandez / Getty Images

Temperatures in parts of the Pacific Northwest surged to all-time highs of over 115 F in June 2021. The record-breaking heatwave, which resulted in nearly 200 deaths in Washington and Oregon, is part of a broader pattern of extreme and more frequent weather events resulting from climate change.

While triple-digit temperatures were a shock to cities like Portland or Seattle, there are many parts of the world where such high temperatures are expected. Here is a look at the rarest types of weather on earth. 

Using data from the Global Historical Climate Network, 24/7 Wall St. identified the hottest inhabited places on Earth. Places were ranked based on the average year-round temperature. Only places that are currently inhabited were included.

The cities and towns on this list span the Middle East, Africa, and South America. Several of these areas have had at least one month in the last 10 years where the average temperature was above 100 F. 

No U.S. cities have average temperatures high enough to rank on this list. Here is a look at the 50 hottest cities in America. 

Click here to see the hottest inhabited places on Earth

To determine the hottest inhabited places on Earth, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed average temperature data from the Global Historical Climate Network (Version 4) of the National Centers for Environmental Information of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Weather stations were ranked based on the average year-round temperature from 2011 to 2020. Only places with at least five years of data were considered. Data used to determine the hottest month also came from the GHCN and are for the years 2011 to 2020.

The Most Powerful Hurricanes of All Time

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Source: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

The 2020 hurricane season was one of the most active on record — a dozen different storms landed in the contiguous U.S., breaking the century-old record of nine. In fact, experts exhausted the list of 21 names used to designate hurricanes each year, forcing them to begin using Greek letters as a backup. This had only happened once before, in 2005.

The 2021 hurricane season, which began June 1, was predicted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to be particularly active as well. Though meteorologists can estimate the frequency of hurricanes in a given year, their power does not become apparent until the storm becomes fully formed. If hurricanes gain enough power, they can devastate the areas where they make landfall.

To determine the most powerful hurricanes of all time, 24/7 Wall St. used data from NOAA dating back to 1851 to rank tropical cyclones based on estimated central pressure at time of landfall for all hurricanes. Hurricanes were ranked according to their minimum pressure in millibars, where one millibar is the equivalent of 100 pascals in pressure. The lower a storm’s minimum pressure, the stronger the storm is. For context, air pressure is 1,013 millibars at sea level. The storms on this list had minimum pressure of 950 millibars or lower.

The frequency of tropical cyclones in a given year is rarely an indication of how intense the hurricanes may be when they make landfall — that is, how destructive they can be. Some of the most powerful storms, like Hurricane Andrew in 1992, for example, hit during one of the slower hurricane seasons of the past several decades. The strength of a hurricane is difficult to accurately predict, and the most intense storms on record vary heavily by decade, deadliness, and destructiveness.

In addition to high winds, hurricanes can batter areas with heavy rainfall, storm surges, and inland flooding. Many of the storms on this list have been the catalyst for some of the worst floods in American history.

Click here to see the most powerful hurricanes of all time
Click here for our detailed findings and methodology

ESG fund inflows return to earth in Q3; plus Facebook’s climate denier tipping point

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Source: UWMadison / iStock via Getty Images

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

Last month’s stock market selloff scuffed the last of the shine off an already weak third quarter for environmental, social and governance (ESG) funds, as inflows slowed to their lowest pace in a year.

Net buying of ESG funds was about $110 billion, with funds focused on emerging markets in Asia and Latin America doing the best, according to the Institute for International Finance.

Real estate and technology stocks helped funds post a generally positive performance, despite the selloff in September, in line and actually a touch above the performance of broader benchmarks. The Morningstar US Sustainability Leaders Index, which holds the 50 largest companies with the lowest ESG scores, was up 1.9%, compared with 0.23% by the S&P 500.

Without technology companies, which make a bigger deal of ESG than others but which often have mixed, or at least controversial, environmental profiles, the sustainable indexes would have been lower for the first time in almost two years.

As an emerging global energy crisis and supply-chain pressures grip world markets in the coming quarter, it’s hard to see how these stocks can sprint to the finish line. But a leveling off of Delta variant infections could set the stage for better economic growth than most currently expect.

More insights below. . . .

Tuesday’s subscriber insights: What does Google’s new prohibition of climate deniers mean for Facebook?

. . . . Google is putting its money where its mouth is. Lots of companies make climate pledges, but the action is often very slow and/or hard to see. Its striking new initiative to ban advertisers who promote climate denial from its platforms is both immediate self-sacrificing. An example for other companies. Troubled Facebook, meanwhile, had to be pushed kicking and screaming to stop its Marketplace section being used to sell land for clearance in the Amazon rainforest. Can Mark Zuckerberg resist this one? Read more here. . . .

. . . . The green paradox that is China: On one hand, it refuses to sign multinational pledges to cut methane emissions and declare a clean environment as a human right. On the other hand, its renewables projects are impressive in scale. It also, as it has proved with rail and other infrastructure projects, has shown itself capable of turning on a dime if it wants to. We can’t help thinking Xi Jinping has some sort of surprise in store for COP26. Read more here. . . .

. . . . A very interesting new Kiplinger poll finds that large numbers of investors are willing to sacrifice some level of return to achieve ESG goals. Is this like the old TV viewing poll question, where more people say PBS because they want to look good, or is it for real? We look into the numbers here. . . .

. . . . Big Oil bad boys Chevron and Exxon, under big pressure from investors, seem to be getting their acts together somewhat when it comes to fighting climate change. Chevron has set net-zero goals; meanwhile, Exxon is setting up a large project to recycle plastic into raw materials. Read more here. . . .

Editor’s picks: Open-water wave energy project; cash for your clunker

CalWave commissions open-water wave energy pilot

CalWave Power Technologies successfully commissioned its CalWave x1 earlier this month off the coast of San Diego. The company says the event marks the beginning of California’s first at-sea, long-duration wave energy pilot operating fully submerged. The CalWave x1 will be tested for six months with the goal of validating the performance and reliability of the system in open ocean, according to a report from Renewable Energy Magazine. The project is supported by a U.S. Dept. of Energy award with the goal of demonstrating CalWave’s scalable xWave technology.  “CalWave’s long-duration deployment is a novel open water demonstration of a wave energy technology with active load management features,” said Jennifer Garson, acting director of the Dept. of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office.

Bay Area clean car program tops up

Air quality officials in the San Francisco Bay Area recently announced a new round of funding for a program that pays residents up to $9,500 to trade in their old cars and replace them with newer, more energy efficient vehicles. According to a report in the San Jose Mercury News, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District has received $8.3 million in state funding to extend its “Clean Cars For All” program. “Not only is transportation the largest source of air pollution in the Bay Area, it accounts for 40% of our greenhouse gas emissions,” said Cindy Chavez, a Santa Clara County supervisor who also is chair of the air district board.

Hydrogen supplies becoming cleaner, but too slowly

Hydrogen demand stood at 90 megatonnes (Mt) in 2020, practically all for refining and industrial applications and produced almost exclusively from fossil fuels, resulting in close to 900 Mt of CO₂ emissions, according to the International Energy Agency’s recent Global Hydrogen Review 2021. “But there are encouraging signs of progress,” The IEA report says. “Global capacity of electrolyzers, which are needed to produce hydrogen from electricity, doubled over the past five years to reach just over 300 MW by mid-2021. Around 350 projects currently under development could bring global capacity up to 54 GW by 2030. Another 40 projects accounting for more than 35 GW of capacity are in early stages of development. If all those projects are realized, global hydrogen supply from electrolyzers could reach more than 8 Mt by 2030. While significant, this is still well below the 80 Mt required by that year in the pathway to net zero CO₂ emissions by 2050 set out in the IEA Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector.

Callaway Climate Insights Newsletter

By Douglas McIntyre

Climate pledge mapping begins; plus, why private equity is buying fossil fuels

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Source: JasonOndreicka / Getty Images

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

A lot being said this morning about the latest report from The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, chaired by Mike Bloomberg, which found for the first time that more than 50% of the 1,600 world’s largest companies surveyed disclosed their climate risks and opportunities.

As consensus on climate initiatives continues to elude governments, companies are increasingly playing an important role. Another report out today with less fanfare, but perhaps more potential impact, comes from Winmark Global in London, the largest network of C-Suite executives, run by John Jeffcock.

Winmark’s Climate Pledge Guide offers best practices for companies who want to make a climate pledge, engage their boards and management teams, and avoid falling into the greenwashing trap of making promises they can’t/won’t keep. It also includes, for the first time, a “pledge marketplace,” which divides pledges into four distinct categories.

As more companies make climate pledges and begin disclosing risk data, the potential for pledge mapping becomes more real, and Winmark is already engaged in early efforts to do such work in its Chief Sustainability Officers network. Investors able to access data on which companies fall into which pledge categories can get a much easier idea who is serious and who is not.

The inevitable march of data and AI in guiding climate commitments will become big sources of news as the $40 trillion environmental, social and governance investing (ESG) sector begins to mature. The more these efforts start to come together, the better for investors.

More insights below. . . .

ZEUS: Fossil fuels are the new newspapers

. . . . One of the more depressing things about the collapse of newspapers is the way hedge funds are strip-mining the remaining assets. Now we’re starting to see that with fossil fuel companies, writes David Callaway in his weekly ZEUS column. The phenomenon promises a messy transition as major oil companies sell assets to more secretive private equity and hedge fund buyers, and will push the move to renewable energy beyond the time frame considered vital to contain global warming. On top of that, oil and coal usage is surging as countries combat a global energy shortage. Renewable energy needs more government help . . . .

Read the full ZEUS column

Why climate investors need to play the long game

. . . . This year’s surge in fossil fuel stocks, and corresponding decline in renewable energy shares are testing the resolve of sustainability investors used to unending upside in their ESG portfolios, writes Mark Hulbert. A shakeout of fast money in sustainable shares as soon as they stopped gaining was inevitable. Investors who claimed they were buying ESG funds in part to help support the battle against global warming face a defining decision about where they stand, Hulbert argues. . . .

Read the full column

Thursday’s subscriber insights: Biden’s offshore wind moonshot

. . . . The White House’s announcement this week to develop large-scale wind farms along nearly the entire U.S. coastline was dramatic in scope, coming just before the UN climate summit. But given how long it took the pitiful number of current projects in the U.S., such as Vineyard Wind in Massachusetts, to get off the ground, it seems more pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking than an actual strategy. If President Biden thinks Congress is tough, wait until he gets a load of the local city councils in these coastal towns. A look at who does offshore wind right and what the chances are for success. Read more here. . . .

. . . . Call it the anti-Trump climate rule. The Department of Labor published new rules around retirement plans using environmental, social and governance investing strategies in their considerations, saying that they can, should, and might even be required to do so. The rule reverses the poorly-received Trump rule last year that prohibited plans from using ESG factors, although it still demands that they can’t sacrifice returns or take bigger risks in pursuit of ESG practices. Glad that’s clear. . . .

. . . . The timing could not be worse. Just ahead of COP26, energy supply chains are in turmoil, bringing shortages and higher prices. Which means nations, notably China, are reluctant to get rid of coal and oil companies are getting rich. Both of these are probable impediments to an embrace of renewables. Then there are financiers, who hate to see money pass by. Read more here. . . .

. . . . The anger around a proposed two-tier system for tax credits to EV buyers — $12,000 for purchasers of union-made cars and only $7,500 for non-union vehicles — was already hot. Now it’s boiling over, with manufacturers running TV ads in the DC market railing against the pro-union measure. There’s also controversy about other parts of the bill working its way through Congress. How will it play out? Read more here. . . .

Editor’s picks: Uruguay’s renewable reach, GM rolls out electric Hummers

GM’s new all-electric factory rolls out Hummers

General Motors’ Factory ZERO has started producing 2022 GMC Hummer all-electric pickup pre-production models, while plant construction continues, according to a report from The Detroit Free Press. GM (GM) will start building sellable models at Factory ZERO soon, union and GM officials said. The plant, located in both Detroit and Hamtramck, has been undergoing $2.2 billion in retooling for 18 months so that GM can build all-electric vehicles there by year end, the report says. GM reportedly has about 10,000 pre-orders for the Hummer EV pickup, which starts at $112,595 for Edition 1.

U.S. roadways at greater risk of flooding, research says

Nearly a quarter of the road miles in the U.S.  are at risk of becoming impassable during a flood, according to a new study that documents the vulnerability of key U.S. facilities such as roads, hospitals and power plants, according to a report from E&E News/ClimateWire. The analysis by the nonprofit First Street Foundation aims to fill a gap left by flood models that have focused on residential risk, the report notes. That includes First Street’s own analysis last year that showed far more homes are in danger of being flooded than the federal government projects. Using modeling that incorporates climate change, First Street’s latest report quantifies the huge current and future number of critical facilities and road segments that would be shut down by an average flood.

Words to live by . . . .

“If governments fully deliver on the climate pledges they have announced so far, it would limit global warming to 2.1°C. Not enough to solve the climate crisis, but enough to change energy markets, including oil — which would peak by 2025 — and solar & wind, whose output soars.” — Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency.

Callaway Climate Insights Newsletter

By Douglas McIntyre

Net zero pledges and the fire next door; plus Biden’s COP26 army

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Source: DenisTangneyJr / iStock via Getty Images

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

Just a year ago, wildfire destroyed the Glass Mountain Inn in St. Helena, Calif.

I’m always struck by the stories warning the earth will run out of oxygen in a billion years, one of which made the rounds last week. That will be a bad quarter for someone’s business when that happens.

In the meantime, climate change is here now, and it’s impacting just about everybody’s financial performance. A new survey by Cervest, the British climate intelligence firm we’ve written about, reports that 88% of some 800 executives responsible for climate strategies in the U.S. and UK saw damage from flooding, heat or other climate disasters to their physical assets in the last five years.

The report, Cervest 2021 Climate Intelligence Outlook, calls into question whether the prevailing mid- to long-term strategy of getting to net zero carbon emissions over the next generation is as important as resilience planning for corporate assets right now, ahead of the next environmental assault.

“Decarbonization is essential, but insufficient to protect organizations and investors against the impact of climate change,” said Cervest CEO Iggy Bassi. “Resilience, developed from informed decisions on climate risk at an asset level, must be built into all businesses to protect future economic sustainability.”

Cervest is building a database that will allow users to more accurately predict out 20 or 30 years the impact of global warming on specific geographic areas, right down to individual addresses.

The near-term financial benefits of shoring up physical assets and supply chains now, such as lower insurance costs and debt-financing costs, are not being pursued aggressively enough, according to the survey, which said only about a third of executives believe their company needs to allocate more resources to managing climate risk.

Next quarter may seem a billion years away now. But it only takes one big disaster to suck the oxygen out of a rising stock trend.

More insights below. . . .

As climate change hits fall foliage season, money won’t grow on trees forever

. . . . The $3 billion fall foliage tourism industry is starting to sweat climate change, which is slipping back a calendar day in October every 10 years as hotter summers and more rain threaten the green derived from brilliant oranges and reds, writes Justin Sharon from New York. While that might seem manageable, for businesses who make most of their annual revenues over a few weeks of peak leaf-peeping, it’s a potential calamity, and another example of global warming’s ripple effects.

Read the full story

Tuesday’s subscriber insights: Biden’s bravado bashed by Xi Jinping’s COP26 absence

. . . . President Joe Biden is arriving at COP26 with an army of his cabinet officials. It looks likely, meanwhile, that China’s Xi Jinping won’t be attending. As the world’s second biggest polluter, the U.S. enthusiasm is crucial, but Beijing’s balking is likely to make the meeting toothless. But, hey, Biden is also talking to the pope about climate change, so everything will be OK. God willing. Read more about Biden’s entourage here. . . .

. . . . We called it last week — that a White House plan for offshore wind power all around the U.S. coast by 2030 was “pie in the sky.” And now proof: An already in-the-works project, New York’s Empire wind has announced it is going be pushed by nearly two years. An inside look at what is causing the delay – and will no doubt apply to other offshore projects. Read more here. . . .

. . . . If any company has money, it’s Google. Which means it can actually do something about climate change. And it is going further than its main rich-tech rivals. CEO Sundar Pichai’s insights into what they it is doing and what it’s realistic chances are of success may be an example to others. Read more here. . . .

. . . . The orphan renewables that could be the big winners. A top scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory says geothermal is being ignored. Along with tidal, it has great potential and advantages that other renewables do not. It never stops producing and it does not scar the landscape or the sea. Read more here. . . .

Editor’s picks: High and dry at Lake Mead, Great Salt Lake; plus, factory farming raises pandemic risks

Environmentalists secure water rights for Great Salt Lake

In an effort to help the shrinking Great Salt Lake — at its lowest recorded level since 1847 — recover, a coalition of environmental groups have partnered with Rio Tinto Kennecott and the Central Utah Water Conservancy District in a first: securing water rights for the lake itself. The Associated Press reports that the donation of the water rights, about 21,000-acre feet of water, took years to secure. “Kennecott has a water right that’s currently in excess of our demands for our mining and industrial operations,” Ted Balling, Rio Tinto Kennecott’s senior adviser for water resources, said in an interview with FOX 13. “We’re able to donate this water right, let it go down the Jordan River out to Farmington Bay to benefit the wildlife and habitat out there.”

Is chicken production breeding the next pandemic?

Global attention is fixed on the origins of Covid-19, either in nature or from a laboratory, but eight or more variants of avian flu, all of which are able to infect and kill humans and are potentially more severe than Covid-19, now regularly rattle around the world’s factory farms barely noticed by governments, The Guardian reports. According to the report, it’s industrial chicken production that could very well be the source of the next global pandemic. The World Health Organization “suspects, but has no proof, that Covid-19 is linked to the intensive breeding of animals in south-east Asia’s many barely regulated wildlife farms. Major outbreaks over the past 30 years including Q fever in the Netherlands and highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreaks have been linked with intensive livestock farming,” The Guardian reports.

Callaway Climate Insights Newsletter

By Douglas McIntyre

Biden’s Plan C on climate targets banks, relies on states; plus Putin out for COP26

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Source: mark-gunn / Flickr

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

Nothing comes easy on the climate front lines. After almost nine months without a drop of rain, the San Francisco Bay Area gets hit with an “atmospheric river” in the next several days that could dump half the amount of rain — more than four inches — than we had in all of last year.

According to the local newspaper, the last time it rained an appreciable amount in San Francisco was Jan. 28. While I admit to initially rejoicing, including standing out in the rain with my face up like a turkey, the deluge has now given way to collective fears of flooding and mudslides.

All that loose dirt and debris turned up by the fires this past summer is now a slide risk. And of course, new growth from the rains builds fuel for next year’s fires. But as for California’s historic drought, this week’s storms are a help.

In today’s issue, we look at two ways the U.S. can still move the needle on fighting global warming, despite gridlock in Washington caused by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin. A new report on how some countries are jockeying behind the scenes to shut down progress at COP26 in Glasgow in two weeks. And the threat of global warming to the $3 billion fall foliage industry.

Enjoy the coverage and pass the umbrella.

More insights below. . . .

ZEUS: How the U.S. can overcome Biden’s climate policy failure

 . . . Barring a miracle on Capitol Hill this week, President Joe Biden will head to Glasgow in 10 days for the UN global warming summit with what the British call a “dog’s breakfast” of a climate agenda, after coal-rich Sen. Joe Manchin blocked the most important renewable energy part of the president’s tax and spending legislation, writes David Callaway. While Biden will put on a brave face, it’s a clear embarrassment in front of the world. But it will begin a period where states and private enterprise will need to double down on their own efforts to offset the federal government’s inability to fund a robust transition from fossil fuels, if only to save their own natural assets. North Carolina set a good example this week. As for the future of Manchin’s West Virginia without the legislation he promised to block, see the image above. . .

Thursday’s subscriber insights: Saudi Arabia wants fossil fuel transition scrubbed from COP26. Are you surprised?

. . . . The BBC dropped a bombshell this morning with leaked documents showing several countries actively campaigning to weaken the UN global report on climate change last month, which is the basis for negotiations at the COP26 summit in Glasgow in two weeks. Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Australia, among many others, each tried — unsuccessfully — to soften recommendations that would affect them. Did you expect anything different? To see how this will go over, read more here. . . .

. . . . A panel of U.S. government regulators will for the first time cite climate change as a systemic risk to the financial system later today in a much-anticipated report on how Wall Street will need to prepare for more climate disclosure and regulation. This is too long in coming but welcome ahead of the climate summit and will at least blow the starting whistle on some of the important change to come. . . .

. . . . Russian President Vladimir Putin formally put the boot in the COP26 climate summit this morning, becoming the latest global leader to bail on the crucial climate talks and casting a further shadow over the British-hosted affair in Glasgow. Putin wasn’t expected to show up, but his absence means the majority of the world’s biggest polluters are now out. A blow to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s quest to save the world, and his government. . . .

. . . . The debate over charging of electric vehicles is nowhere near over. It’s still hard to make money there. But something hot is on the horizon, in the form of wireless EV charging. A host of new products is heading our way that could solve this dilemma once and for all. A look at who is leading the way. Read more here. . . .

. . . . Time was — just last year — that oil and coal companies seemed beleaguered, with oil trading at record lows as economies shut down. But fossil fuels are far from dead. Production is rising as the world rebounds from Covid and renewables are, in many cases, not yet there to match demand. A climate backlash is shaping up that could set the green transition back years. Read more here. . . .

Editor’s picks: Africa’s incredible shrinking glaciers; plus, Bill Gates predicts ‘10 Teslas, 1 Amazon, 1 Microsoft’

Africa’s glaciers melting rapidly

Africa’s glaciers will disappear in the next 20 years because of climate change, a new report warned Tuesday. The report from the World Meteorological Organization and other agencies, released ahead of COP26, the U.N. climate conference in Scotland that starts Oct. 31, forecasts major problems for the continent that contributes the least to global warming but will suffer from it most, Cara Anna reports for The Associated Press. The report notes that Africa’s 1.3 billion people remain “extremely vulnerable” as the continent warms more, and at a faster rate, than the global average. Africa’s 54 countries are responsible for less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The AP says the new report focuses on the shrinking glaciers of Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya and the Rwenzori Mountains in Uganda as symbols of the rapid and widespread changes to come. “Their current retreat rates are higher than the global average. If this continues, it will lead to total deglaciation by the 2040s,” it says.

Gates: Climate innovation will create ‘10 Teslas’

Bill Gates says in an interview that aired Wednesday as part of the virtual SOSV Climate Tech Summit that in the future “there will be eight Teslas, 10 Teslas.” CNBC reports the Microsoft (MSFT) founder also said he also expects climate innovation to lead to a Microsoft, a Google and an Amazon for investors. Gates founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which includes Amazon (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg and Ray Dalio as investors. Gates said he’s bullish, but that “like the early days of software and computing,” referring to the dot-com bust. CNBC quoted him as saying for “somebody who can’t afford risk or if you expect near-term returns, I would look elsewhere.”

Banks and climate governance

Major banks in the United States and globally have begun to assert an active role in the transition to a low-carbon economy and the reduction of climate risk through private environmental and climate governance, write authors Sarah E. Light, University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School, Legal Studies & Business Ethics Department, and Christina Parajon Skinner, University of Pennsylvania – The Wharton School in Banks and Climate Governance, Columbia Law Review. In the abstract, they write “This essay situates these actions within historical and economic contexts: It explains how the legal foundations of banks’ sense of social purpose intersect with their economic incentives to finance major structural transitions in society. In doing so, this essay sheds light on the reasons why we can expect banks to be at the center of this contemporary transition. This essay then considers how banks have taken up this role to date. It proposes a novel taxonomy of the various forms of private environmental and climate governance emerging in the U.S. banking sector today. Finally, this essay offers a set of factors against which to normatively assess the value of these actions. While many scholars have focused on the role of shareholders and equity in private environmental and climate governance, this essay is the first to position these steps taken by banks within that larger context.”

Words to live by . . . .

“Climate change is the existential threat of our time. We have a moral obligation to do everything we can to protect our planet.” — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Callaway Climate Insights Newsletter

By Douglas McIntyre

Sneak preview of Biden at COP26

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Source: Photo by Drew Angerer / Getty Images

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

In advance of the UN’s vital climate summit starting this weekend, Callaway Climate Insights is running previews from our top columnists all this week.

(Bill Sternberg is a veteran Washington journalist and former editorial page editor of USA Today.)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Callaway Climate Insights) — We can’t vouch for its authenticity, but here’s an early draft of President Joe Biden’s speech to the COP26 summit:

Folks, it’s great to be here in Glasgow. It’s a little chilly in this room, though. Do you think you could turn up the heat a bit?

Anyway, this is a “Code Red” moment for Planet Earth. The world is in peril. That’s not hyperbole.

Let me tell you what the U.S. is prepared to do to combat this climate crisis. . . .

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

Subscribe now

Callaway Climate Insights Newsletter

By Douglas McIntyre

Glasgow’s granite charm can’t hide rising gloom about COP26 prospects

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Source: Alexey Rezvykh / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

In advance of the UN’s vital climate summit starting Friday, Callaway Climate Insights is running previews from our top columnists all this week.

(Stephen Rae is the former Group Chief Editor of INM, Ireland’s largest online and print media group. He serves on the board of the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and was previously on the board of the World Editors Forum. He was appointed by the European Commission to its High Level Expert Group on Online Disinformation.)

DUBLIN (Callaway Climate Insights) — Geopolitics. Not since the 1970s has the word had such resonance.

It harkens back to the Cold War summits in cities like Helsinki and Geneva, where deals were eked out by the nuclear superpowers which prevented hostilities becoming hot.

Now, as global warming presents a clear and present existential crisis, geopolitics is again on the lips of international commentators and government strategists. . . .

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 Douglas McIntyre

Latin America, with most to lose from climate change, puts on brave face at COP26

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Source: celsopupo / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

In advance of the UN’s vital climate summit starting this weekend, Callaway Climate Insights is running previews from our top columnists all this week.

(About the author: Michael Molinski is an economist, content strategist and author. He has worked for Fidelity, Charles Schwab and Wells Fargo, and previously as a foreign correspondent and editor for Bloomberg News and MarketWatch. He is the author of Investing in Latin America: Best Stocks, Best Funds (Bloomberg Press, 1999), and Small Business in Paradise (Nolo, 2007). Currently, he is a senior economist at Trendline Economics.)

MEXICO CITY (Callaway Climate Insights) — If there is one single region of the world that has the most to lose from climate change and from the decisions made at COP26, it is Latin America.

Latin America does not have the resources to spend on climate change, and therefore it depends on developed countries to clean up the mess that they’ve made of the world. And that includes tapping loans and grants made by developed countries in an effort to prevent Latin America from falling behind on climate change initiatives.

And yet, “COP26 could be the perfect opportunity for the international climate finance architecture to support (Latin America) and champion a just transition to net-zero,” says Leonardo Beltram, former deputy secretary for planning and energy transition in Mexico. . . .

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 Douglas McIntyre

The most arresting people at COP26

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Source: Spencer Platt / Getty Images

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

. . . . COP26. No, it’s not a member of the Highway Patrol who will turn up when your car breaks down. Nor is it a Halloween prank (its start date was Oct. 31). Rather, it’s the 26th Conference of the Parties, also known as the annual UN climate change conference, in which up to 197 nations — though some may not show up — hash out pollution goals. Leaders hope to build on the 2015 Paris Agreement (agreed at COP21 in Paris), where 191 countries agreed to limit global warming below by reducing emissions by 55% by 2030.

This year the event is being held in Glasgow, a revitalized and trendy metropolis that is the fourth largest in the U.K. (See our guide to the city.) About 20,000 people — including scientists, policy experts and other advisers — will attend the talks, but who are the ones that really matter? Here’s our guide to the top honchos.

Key COP26 participants

Alok Sharma: As a U.K. Cabinet minister and president of COP26 — Italy also is an official host — Sharma’s job will be to keep the trains running on time, something that won’t be easy given competing agendas, particularly those of Western nations and large Asian countries.

U.S. President Joe Biden: Having just scrambled in an attempt to save his multi-trillion-dollar spending proposal, Biden arrives at COP26 knowing that a large proportion of the surviving cash — more than half a trillion — will go to fighting climate change. That gives him a bully pulpit at the conference, but he is also hampered by perceived political weakness at home as dipping poll numbers in the face of rising prices, particularly of gasoline. However, Biden is quite a wizard at twisting arms and doing deals, so he could help keep COP26 from fizzling.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson: Despite often being pictured on a bicycle during his time as mayor of London, Johnson has not always been a climate change-fighting warrior, having pooh-poohed global warming in newspaper articles several years before taking the U.K.’s top job. However, he is now a relatively enthusiastic supporter of climate action and leads a nation that has made great strides in renewables, particularly in onshore and offshore wind power. He can be relied upon to use his combination of charm and backroom machinations to push other leaders toward his views and tactics.

UN Secretary General António Guterres: A scientist and former prime minister of Portugal, Guterres has embraced the battle against climate change as a key component of his job, having declared last year that human-caused pollution is “suicidal,” adding that “Nature always strikes back — and it is already doing so with growing force and fury.” With his fierce intelligence — he was named his nation’s best high school student back in 1965 — and political savvy, Guterres will be a key at what is, after all, a U.N. event.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison: As a major coal, oil and gas producer that generates its power using 93% fossil fuels, the Land Down Under has become somewhat of a climate villain. Morrison is leader of the country’s Liberal Party, which, despite its name, is center right and tends to defend the massive coal industry, which is a major exporter and source of revenue. In this light, he refused to set net-zero emissions targets at the President Biden-led Leader Climate Summit in April. He has, however, changed his mind about attending COP26, having originally said he would not be there, so he might be open to deals.

Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi: India, the world’s third-worst polluter (after China and the U.S.) is very dependent on coal as it seeks quick economic growth for its vast and ambitious population. However, it has been making big strides in renewables, particularly solar and wind power, and there were hopes a couple of years ago that Modi might declare a net-zero emissions target. However, with his nation being particularly hard-hit by Covid, that was put on hold; now, with the pandemic looking to be in the rearview mirror, fingers are being crossed that he will use COP26 to come through with a pledge.

John Kerry, U.S. special envoy on climate: As the U.S. secretary of state in 2015, Kerry signed the Paris Agreement on behalf of the Obama administration, a deal that was torn up by President Trump and restored by President Biden. Since his appointment in January, he has been racking up the miles visiting a slew of foreign capitals, particularly Beijing and New Delhi, the political denizens of which are key to fighting climate change. Expect more sweet-talking as he roams the halls in Scotland.

Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of England: The Canada-born money man, educated at Harvard and Oxford, is both a U.N. special envoy for climate action and the finance adviser for the U.K.’s presidency of COP26. In his current and former roles — he was also governor of the Bank of Canada — COP watchers are looking to him to make the financial case for renewables in the face of pressure, especially from Asia and other developing areas, for speedy economic growth mainly based on fossil fuels.

Roberto Cingolani, Italy’s minister for ecological transition: Why is he important? Because he hosted the pre-COP meeting of environment-oriented national officials in Milan a few weeks back. Thus, he knows a lot of the players and also, as a decorated scientist, brings deep knowledge of the subject.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission: The Belgium-born German, who also spent many years living in the U.S. and Britain, is particularly important to the process because the EU’s 27 nations — where she is its leading figure — will negotiate as a bloc. With Europe having recently seen renewables pass fossil fuels as the leading source of electrical power, the continent is seen as having strength in numbers, especially when dealing with China, with which it has many fewer political beefs than with the U.S.

Frans Timmermans: The former Netherlands foreign minister, who is the EU’s executive vice-president — and thus Ursula von der Leyen’s deputy — was instrumental in pushing through 2020’s EU Green Deal, which promised cleaner air with no loss in prosperity. His forceful yet charming personality — which was on display at a February webinar hosted by Callaway Climate Insights — is likely to be helpful in knocking heads together in pursuit of a COP26 deal.

Xie Zhenhua, China’s chief climate change official, and (probably) vice-environment minister Zhao Yingmin: With President Xi Jinping skipping the conference, all eyes will be on his senior envoys as many of the world’s nations trying to reign in the world’s worst polluter. That said, the voracious coal consumer has made big strides in renewables, having, for instance, recently become the biggest offshore wind power force, with solar not far behind. Xie, who has met several times with the U.S. climate envoy John Kerry, has reportedly earned respect from other climate leaders though has yet to persuade Xi to make a net-zero pledge. Zhao is more of an unknown quantity, but as a government minister has more weight in making changes.

Significant non-participants

Prince Charles: With his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, having decided to forgo a Glasgow trip — doctors advised that the 95-year-old needed rest — the mantle of royal representation will fall on her eldest son and heir. And it is fitting, given his deep interest in conservation and environmental matters, most recently manifested in the founding of Terra Carta, which asks businesses to sign a pledge that they will invest in the health of the planet. “I am making an urgent appeal to leaders, from all sectors and from around the world, to give their support to this Terra Carta,” he said at its launch in January, “to bring prosperity into harmony with nature, people and planet over the coming decade.” His sincerity is little in doubt; his clout, however, might not extend to the Xi Jinpings of this world. That said, companies such as BlackRock (BLK), Bank of America (BAC) and HSBC (HSBC) have signed on.

Greta Thunberg: The ubiquitous teen climate activist is in Glasgow in hopes of pressuring the COP26 participants with her passion and outspokenness. She is, however, not very hopeful of a positive outcome, having told The Guardian that “the leaders will say ‘we’ll do this and we’ll do this, and we will put our forces together and achieve this,’ and then they will do nothing. … We can have as many COPs as we want, but nothing real will come out of it.” A smooth politician she ain’t, as the Scottish would say, but sure to bring extra attention to the conference and its aims.

Missing in action

China’s President Xi Jinping: The Beijing boss made several excuses about not attending — too busy, fears of Covid, etc. — and there is no doubt his absence will put considerable doubt as to whether China will pledge a net-zero date. However, with its considerable progress on renewables and desire to be an even bigger global player, Beijing may strive to surprise.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin: The leader of the world’s fourth-worst polluter tends not to go abroad much, and with its high pollution rates — and high exports of fossil fuels — Moscow probably thinks that wheeling out an Aeroflot executive jet is not worthwhile. In fact, expect de facto dictator Putin to be about the last in line to sign a net-zero document.

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro: Will he? Won’t he? Turns out to be the latter for the controversial leader, who, in a bizarre announcement on Thursday, said he will instead visit a small town in Italy where some of his forebears lived to pick up an honorary citizenship. And under Bolsonaro, Brazil has become a bad world citizen, with vast tracts of the Amazon basin — a vital carbon sink — being cleared for agriculture along with other environmental no-nos. . . .

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