- This weekly roundup brings you some of the top environmental stories from the past seven days.
- Headlines: New York votes to ban natural gas in new buildings; oil and gas reserves threatened by climate change; the $ 1.6 trillion labor cost of global warming to 3C and the EU is proposing methane, gas and building regulations.
1. Environmental stories from around the world
New York City Council voted on Wednesday ban the use of natural gas in new constructions, following in the footsteps of dozens of small American towns seeking to switch from fossil fuels to cleaner forms of energy. New buildings in the largest city in the United States with 8.8 million people will need to use electricity for heating and cooking, according to the council’s vote posted on its website.
Rising consumption in China, India and the United States could global demand for coal-fired electricity to a new record this year, undermining efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday. The IEA said global electricity production from coal is expected to reach 10,350 terawatt-hours in 2021, up 9%, driven by a rapid economic recovery that has “pushed the demand for electricity much faster than electricity. low carbon supplies cannot keep up ”.
Denmark will allocate 16 billion Danish kroner ($ 2.43 billion) to carbon capture and storage subsidies over the next decade in a bid to meet one of the world’s most ambitious climate goals, his government said on Tuesday.
Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) to start requiring companies to supply climate related reports as well as information on diversity on board from next year, the exchange said on Wednesday. All issuers must provide climate reporting on a “comply or explain” basis in their sustainability reports from the fiscal year beginning in 2022.
What is the World Economic Forum doing about natural climate solutions?
The world is facing converging environmental crises: the accelerated destruction of nature and climate change.
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To promote collaboration, in 2019, the Forum and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development came together to establish the Alliance for natural climate solutions bring together public and private stakeholders with the aim of identifying opportunities and obstacles to investing in NCS.
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The insured losses of swarm of tornadoes and severe convective thunderstorms which caused destruction in parts of the United States this month could be as high as $ 5 billion, industry experts said Tuesday.
The Chinese province of Guangdong, a major technological hub on the southeast coast, plans to relocate some of its Big Data Centers to new underwater sites in order to reduce energy consumption, according to a plan released Tuesday. Data centers have become one of the largest industrial consumers of energy. Building them underwater will reduce the need for cooling technology, which can account for about a third of a facility’s total electricity consumption.
Germany’s new government on Monday adopted a supplementary budget for boost its climate and transformation fund with a debt-financed injection of 60 billion euros ($ 68 billion) to allow more investment in the transition to a green economy.
The weather outlook for Argentina poses a ‘big challenge’ for soybean and corn production, with below normal rainfall due to the The La Niña climate model expected during the summer of the region, said the Buenos Aires grain exchange. Argentina is the world’s largest exporter of processed soybeans and the second largest exporter of corn. Farmers are currently planting soybeans and corn for the 2021/22 season.
A new global standard for business climate information disclosures will be chaired by Emmanuel Faber, the former director of French yogurt maker Danone and longtime advocate for sustainable businesses. G20 leaders at the UN climate change conference COP26 last month supported the creation of a new International Sustainability Standards Council, or ISSB, which plans to launch its first global business climate information disclosure standards in the second half of 2022.
Much of the world oil and gas reserves are threatened rising tides, storms, flooding and extreme temperatures caused by climate change, risk consulting firm Verisk Maplecroft said Thursday. Access to the equivalent of 600 billion barrels or 40% of the world’s recoverable oil and gas reserves could be affected by wild weather, with major producers in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Nigeria among the most vulnerable, the British company wrote in a study. Remark.
Number of companies sharing climate data with CDP, the world’s leading disclosure platform, jumped nearly 40% over the past year as investors and policymakers lobbied boards of directors, data viewed by Reuters.
2. 3C Global Warming Could Cost $ 1.6 Trillion Per Year In Lost Labor
Global warming of 3 degrees Celsius could cost up to $ 1.6 trillion annually in loss of labor productivity because even the coolest hours of the day are starting to pose major health risks to workers around the world, researchers said on Tuesday.
Most at risk will be outside workers in already hot countries where temperatures and humidity are rising rapidly, perhaps threatening the economic lifeline of South Asian migrants seeking employment in Gulf countries.
A study published in Nature Communication found that the global economy is already losing up to $ 311 billion a year as workers struggle in hot and humid weather.
He warned the sum would increase by more than five times if the planet got 2C (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than today, in addition to the 1.1C warming already seen since pre-industrial times.
3. EU proposes regulations on methane, natural gas and buildings
European Union policymakers on Wednesday presented a second set of proposals to cut emissions from its economy this decade and put it on track for net greenhouse gas production by 2050.
In July, the bloc of 27 countries became the first of the world’s leading emitters to develop a comprehensive plan to meet its weather targets with legislative proposals including larger carbon markets and phasing out sales of combustion-engine cars.
The European Commission on Wednesday proposed a second, smaller set of regulations, focusing on buildings, methane emissions and natural gas.
The countries of the European Union would be required to renovate their less energy-consuming buildings by the end of the decade to reduce emissions and save fuel. Buildings account for around 40% of the EU’s energy consumption and most are heated by fossil fuels.
The bill included require oil and gas companies to report their national methane emissions and fixing the leaks of the powerful greenhouse gas, but the overseas companies that supply most of Europe’s fossil fuels will largely be spared.
The rules would also allow EU countries to jointly purchase strategic gas reserves, under plans that would also boost gas storage and aim to add more low-carbon gas to the grid.