The real story behind Shell's climate change rhetoric | Environment. A man of Ben van Beurden’s power and reputation for blunt speaking is capable of silencing a ballroom packed with his boisterous peers. When the chief executive of Shell rose to address an industry gathering in a London hotel, a respectful hush descended. Van Beurden, 57, rose from a modest background in the Netherlands to the top of a cut-throat, politically fraught sector that rarely finds itself out of the public firing line. The annual black-tie dinner at International Petroleum Week in February, a typical nexus of senior executives and high-ranking government officials, was expecting a frank assessment of its response to its biggest challenge: global warming. Van Beurden did not disappoint. That speech was a far cry from the usual backslapping fare at the annual event and it put some noses out of joint. But it was welcomed by those who knew that Van Beurden was no fluffy liberal. . — Guardian Environment (@guardianeco)May 18, 2015Shell strategy = catastrophic climate change.
Shell accused of strategy risking catastrophic climate change | Environment. Royal Dutch Shell has been accused of pursuing a strategy that would lead to potentially catastrophic climate change after an internal document acknowledged a global temperature rise of 4C, twice the level considered safe for the planet. A paper used for guiding future business planning at the Anglo-Dutch multinational assumes that carbon dioxide emissions will fail to limit temperature increases to 2C, the internationally agreed threshold to prevent widespread flooding, famine and desertification. Instead, the New Lens Scenarios document refers to a forecast by the independent International Energy Agency (IEA) that points to a temperature rise of up to 4C in the short term, rising later to 6C. The revelations come ahead of the annual general meeting of Shell shareholders in the Netherlands on Tuesday, where the group has accepted a shareholder resolution demanding more transparency about the group’s impact on climate change.
Climate change is far from the only cause of a rapid rise disasters | Doug McNeall | Environment. A recent World Meteorological Organisation report described the frightening increase in weather and climate related disasters that occurred over the last four decades. Floods became more frequent and costly, hurricanes caused more damage. Drought killed hundreds of thousands and blighted the lives of millions, and heat waves emerged as a new threat. A casual reader of the resulting Guardian story might be forgiven for thinking that the rapid rise in disasters was due solely to climate change, but it had as much to do with a rapidly changing human world as it did changes in the weather. What’s more, ignoring the contribution of changes in human systems could hamper efforts to blunt the worst impacts of climate change. Climate change's future impact on us will depend on three things. Since 1970, the global population has nearly doubled. There is no one-to-one mapping between changes in the climate, and changes in climate impact.
New G7 Report Highlights Climate Change and Fragility as a Foreign Policy Priority. At the close of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Lübeck today, ministers announced a stronger collective commitment to tackling climate-related risks in states experiencing situations of fragility. “Climate change is among the most serious challenges facing our world,” the ministers’ final communiqué declared. “It poses a threat to the environment, global security, and economic prosperity. It has the potential to reverse the progress that has been made in the past decades in tackling global poverty. Without adequate mitigation and adaptation efforts, the impacts of rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns heighten the risk of instability and conflict.
The G7 are responsible for almost two thirds of global development funding In preparation, an independent consultancy working on behalf of the G7 looked into the relationship between climate change and fragile and conflict-affected states. Stronger Cooperation Needed 7 Compound Risks Photo Credit: Johnson Space Center/NASA. River flooding to affect 40M people annually by 2030. WRI flood map for Indonesia 20.7 million people are affected by river flooding each year, and the number is expected to more than double by 2030 as population growth, urban expansion, and climate change will increasingly put people at risk.
This according to the World Resources Institute (WRI), who recently released the Aqueduct Global Flood Analyzer, an online tool to help public, private, and corporate entities understand flooding potential and develop risk reduction and mitigation strategies. 56% of people at risk of being impacted by river flooding live in just three countries: India, Bangladesh, and China. These combined with the next 12 largest impacted populations—in Vietnam, Pakistan, Indonesia, Egypt, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Brazil, Thailand, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, and Cambodia—account for 80% of the people at risk world-wide. According to WRI, an average of $96 billion in global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is exposed to river flooding each year.
World locked into 'alarming' global warming: World Bank. The world is locked into 1.5°C global warming, posing severe risks to lives and livelihoods around the world, according to a new climate report commissioned by the World Bank. The report, which called on a large body of scientific evidence, found that global warming of close to 1.5°C above pre-industrial times – up from 0.8°C today – is already locked into Earth's atmospheric system by past and predicted greenhouse gas emissions. Such an increase could have potentially catastrophic consequences for mankind, causing the global sea level to rise more than 30 centimeters by 2100, droughts to become more severe and placing almost 90 percent of coral reefs at risk of extinction.
The World Bank called on scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Climate Analytics and asked them to look at the likely impacts of present day (0.8°C), 2°C and 4°C warming on agricultural production, water resources, cities and ecosystems across the world. Vanuatu's president blames climate change for extreme weather. The president of Vanuatu says climate change is contributing to more extreme weather conditions and cyclone seasons, after cyclone Pam ripped through the island nation.
The damage from the category five storm to the island nation has been extensive, and is still being assessed as aid workers scrambled to get to affected areas on Monday morning. The official death toll remains at six, with many more injured, and is expected to rise as communication begins to be restored. Vanuatu’s president, Baldwin Lonsdale, spoke at a United Nations world conference in Sendai, Japan, on Monday, and said the storm was a major setback for the people, virtually wiping out Vanuatu’s development. “This is a very devastating cyclone … I term it a monster that has hit Vanuatu,” he said. “It is a setback for the government and for the people of Vanuatu … All the development that has taken place has been wiped out.”
He said the cyclone seasons that the nation had experienced were directly linked to climate change. Extreme Rain May Flood 54 Million People by 2030. River flooding could affect 54 million people worldwide in 2030 as more extreme rainfall and the rapid expansion of cities double exposure to inundation, according to a new analysis. Currently, 21 million people are affected annually by floods. The project by several research organizations in the Netherlands and the World Resources Institute developed the first public tool that shows the estimated flood risk in most countries and how it's expected to rise over the next 25 years. The project, called the Aqueduct Global Flood Analyzer, also features a global map showing the encroaching reach of rivers as temperatures rise and land is developed. The economic impacts are growing even faster than the increase in flood victims, researchers say. "We found that today, river flooding affects about $96 billion U.S. dollars in GDP each year on average," said Tianyi Luo, a research analyst with WRI.
The tool is meant to be a resource for organizations that finance and plan adaptation efforts. Rapidly Rising Sea Levels To Endanger NYC By 2050, So Say Goodbye To Queens - NYU Local. Imagine for a moment that it’s 2050. Those of us who are currently students at NYU will be reaching the end of middle age by then. We will be wise, with satisfying careers behind us and a complete and utter lack of social security services ahead. The entirety of downtown Manhattan will have been re-purposed into NYU superblocks, and the portions of the city that remain will be….underwater? Well, not exactly. But a recent map released by the New York City Panel on Climate Change reveals some pretty striking changes in the flood risk and water levels for New York in the decades to come. In just 35 years, we can expect to see the flood zone encroaching dramatically into the city so that huge swaths of Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island will be in the high-risk flood zone.
Now flash back to 2012. Over the next several decades, the new map shows us dramatically rising flood danger zones in areas of several boroughs. [Image 1 via Lydia Epp Schmidt, image 2 via] Credit ratings agencies just realized that climate change is a threat to the world economy - Quartz. Credit rating agencies have been accused of being asleep at the wheel during the US subprime mortgage crisis, which ended up morphing into a full-blown international financial crisis and triggering a global recession. But there’s a new risk to the world economy and this time credit ratings agencies are on it. Over the past week or so, one of the most prominent credit agencies, Standard & Poor’s, has, in a series of reports, attempted to quantify the financial impact of climate change.
The company looked at the impact of changing weather patterns on various industries, including utilities and insurance. Among other things, the ratings agency ranked nations based on the percentage of their population living below an altitude of 5 meters (about 16 feet), their share of agriculture in total economic output, and their ranking in the GAIN Vulnerability Index, a measure developed by the University of Notre Dame that measures countries’ vulnerability and readiness to deal with climate change. WA will need twice as many firefighters in 2030 to cope with climate change – report | Australia news.
Western Australia will need twice as many firefighters in 2030 to cope with increased bushfire risks caused by climate change, a report by the Climate Council has found. The Heat Is On report, released on Tuesday, said south-western WA, one of the most fire-prone areas in the world, was on track to have twice as many days of severe fire danger per year by 2090, “if global carbon emissions are not reduced”. “To stabilise the climate and eventually halt the rising trend of extreme heat, carbon emissions need to be cut rapidly and deeply,” the report said. “Most of the world’s known reserves of coal, oil and gas will need to be left in the ground, including over 90% of Australia’s coal reserves.” WA has had more than 1,000 reported bushfire incidents since 1 January.
On Tuesday afternoon an out-of-control bushfire at Casuarina, 40km south of Perth, was declared a threat to lives and homes by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (Dfes). “That’s going to be a tough place to live.” The New Normal of Extreme Weather Conditions. Disruptive forces created by climate change represent the “new normal” for the real estate industry and cities worldwide, posing “huge risks” to those not adequately preparing for it, warned a panel of experts at the ULI Europe Annual Conference in Paris last week. “Whether you’re an owner, occupier, investor, insurer, or running a city, it affects you.
Extreme weather is a topic that goes right across the board, although it is not on the radar of many people,” said Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas, former chairman, London & Partners. Henk Ovink (left), senior adviser to Secretary Shaun Donovan, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development/Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, talks about Rebuild by Design at the ULI ULI Europe annual conference in Paris. On the left is Gregory Lowe, executive director of Willis Group. Related: Extreme Weather Events and Property Values | Video: Rebuild by Design | Building for Resilience “You all invest in places near water—it is an asset. From Bangkok to Bhutan, growing cities race to outrun disasters. A man carrying a fishing net runs toward a rubber boat on a flooded road at the Amata Nakorn industrial Estate in Chonburi province, east of Bangkok, Oct. 9, 2013.
REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom BANGKOK, Feb 12 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Asia's fast-growing cities are struggling to build the roads, waste management and drinking water systems that could help protect their swelling populations from climate-related disasters, said city leaders from across the region. Many of these cities are in disaster-prone coastal areas, river deltas and floodplains. Experts estimate that by 2030, 55 percent of the 3.7 billion people in developing Asian nations will be living in cities. "Asia-Pacific is the region of the world most affected by the impacts of climate change," Bangkok Deputy Governor Pusadee Tamthai told a forum on urban resilience.
"This is because this is the fastest-growth region, with a lack of urban planning to accommodate the cities' expansion and especially the environmental problems. " Now BP and Shell will consider the cost of climate change when doing business. BP will support a shareholder resolution calling on the company to release information about how climate change could affect its business. It’s the second big win for climate-conscious investors this year: Shell agreed to support a similar resolution last week. Both the Shell and BP resolutions were submitted by a coalition of activist investor groups representing more than 150 major shareholders in Europe and America, including the U.K.’s Environment Agency and the Church of England, for a combined $300 billion in assets.
The resolution asked Shell and BP to reduce emissions, to invest in renewables, to provide transparency about bonuses that reward “climate-harming activities,” and to test how their business models would hold up if governments were to take action to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. These steps are good business, the resolution argues, “given the recognised risks and opportunities associated with climate change.” Study: Global warming 'doubles risk' of extreme weather. 26 January 2015Last updated at 12:11 ET By Helen Briggs Environment correspondent, BBC News Extreme weather in 1998 was linked with La Nina Extreme weather arising from a climate phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean will get much worse as the world warms, according to climate modelling.
Parts of the world will have weather patterns that switch between extremes of wet and dry, say scientists. The US will see more droughts while flooding will become more common in the western Pacific, research suggests. The study, in Nature Climate Change, adds to a growing body of evidence over climate change and extreme weather. The latest data - based on detailed climate modelling work - suggests extreme La Nina events in the Pacific Ocean will almost double with global warming, from one in 23 years to one in 13 years.
Continue reading the main story “Start Quote Our previous research showed a doubling in frequency of extreme El Niño events, and this new study shows a similar fate for the cold phase of the cycle” Beetles and Climate Change Helped Create This Huge Wildfire in Alaska.
Understand climate change and natural disasters. 41 Billion 2013. Impact on the poorest. Typhoons. Cyclones. Extratropical cyclones. Hurricanes. Heatwaves. Polar vortex. Sea level rise. Floods.