Monthly Archives: September 2023

Response to Rishi Sunak abandoning climate crisis policies

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One of the many occasions UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak uses a private jet.
One of the many occasions UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak uses a private jet.

This post should be regarded as a draft subject to change or elaboration. dizzy deep

Politicians given a climate brief often come to appreciate and understand how desperate and important the current climate situation is. I have reached the same conclusion from my experience of addressing the climate. By contrast people who attack activists and protesters are totally ignorant and have no idea.

Zac Goldsmith resigned from Rishi Sunak’s government on 30th June 2023 claiming that Prime Minister Sunak was “simply uninterested” in the environment.

Zac Goldsmith resigns accusing Sunak of being ‘uninterested’ in environment

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In his letter stepping down from the Foreign Office, where his portfolio was overseas territories, Commonwealth, environment, energy and climate, Goldsmith said it had been a privilege to work as an environment minister, particularly under Johnson.

He said he had been horrified by the Sunak government’s “abandonment” of policies around animal welfare, and that its efforts on environmental issues at home had “simply ground to a standstill”.

Addressing Sunak directly, the Tory peer said: “Prime minister, having been able to get so much done previously, I have struggled even to hold the line in recent months. The problem is not that the government is hostile to the environment, it is that you, our prime minister, are simply uninterested. That signal, or lack of it, has trickled down through Whitehall and caused a kind of paralysis.”

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Sunak’s disinterest should not come as any surprise: Sunak became UK Prime Minister on 25 October 2022; during his first week in office he announced that he intended to not attend the COP27 climate conference at Sharm-el-Sheik. That decision was reversed and he did attend, partly to avoid getting embarrassed by previous Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s intended attendance. Sunak routinely uses private jets and helicopters to travel regardless of the damage he causes to the climate.

I consider that Sunak’s disregard for the climate is due to his privileged situation: being excessively wealthy he is part of the problem of excessively wealthy individuals disproportionately damaging the climate. His lifestyle is that of a climate destroyer. He has a holiday home in Santa Monica, California, he routinely travels by private jet, he had to have the electricity grid to his home upgraded at his own expense to heat his private swimming pool FFS. He’s not able to address the issues of the climate debate because to do so would require he recognise and address his own destructive actions instead of ignorantly carrying on.

This post should be regarded as a draft subject to change or elaboration. I will also be increasing my attention to Sunak and the Conservatives. dizzy deep

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Global heating made Greece and Libya floods more likely, study says

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Destruction caused by floods in Derna, Libya
Destruction caused by floods in Derna, Libya

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/19/global-heating-made-mediterranean-floods-more-likely-study-says

Report says climate change made rainfall heavier but human factors turned extreme weather into humanitarian disaster

Carbon pollution led to heavier rains and stronger floods in Greece and Libya this month but other human factors were responsible for “turning the extreme weather into a humanitarian disaster”, scientists have said.

Global heating made the levels of rainfall that devastated the Mediterranean in early September up to 50 times more likely in Libya and up to 10 times more likely in Greece, according to a study from World Weather Attribution that used established methods but had not yet been peer-reviewed.

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The amount of rain that fell in Libya was “far outside that of previously recorded events”, the WWA report found. Up to 50% more rain fell than it would have in a world where people had not changed the climate, the report found, though the researchers cautioned that the level of uncertainty was high.

The report found the ongoing conflict and political instability in Libya compounded the effects of the flooding. Dams built in the 1970s had been poorly maintained. They may also have been designed based on short rainfall records that underestimated how strong an extreme storm could be.

The report found that people were at greater risk because the dams stored so much water and failed at night, leaving little time to escape.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/19/global-heating-made-mediterranean-floods-more-likely-study-says

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‘Missing half the equation’: scientists criticise Australia over approach to fossil fuels

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/19/missing-half-the-equation-scientists-criticise-australia-over-approach-to-fossil-fuels

Image of a kangaroo.
Image of a kangaroo.

Prof Lesley Hughes and others says there is ‘cognitive dissonance’ between Labor’s stated commitment to the climate crisis and its policies

The Australian government is “missing half the equation” in acting on the climate crisis by backing a shift to renewable energy but having no plan to get out of fossil fuels, according to an author of a new scientific review.

Prof Lesley Hughes is a leading climate change scientist and member of the independent Climate Council and government advisory body the Climate Change Authority. Hughes said there is a “cognitive dissonance” between Labor’s stated commitment to addressing the problem and the pace at which it is moving.

The dissonance is most clear in it subsidising or approving new and expanded fossil fuel developments while arguing it supports trying to limit global heating to 1.5C – a goal agreed at UN climate conferences.

“The two things are completely at odds with each other,” she said.

Hughes is the co-author of a Climate Council review, released on Wednesday, which found Australia should be cutting national carbon dioxide emissions by 75% by 2030. The government’s legislated target is a minimum 43% cut (compared with 2005 levels).

The report said the country should be aiming to reach net zero emissions by 2035 – much sooner than the current 2050 goal. The finding is broadly consistent with other analyses that have found Australia should be moving more rapidly.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/19/missing-half-the-equation-scientists-criticise-australia-over-approach-to-fossil-fuels

Dissonance but not cognitive dissonance to this pedant but understood …

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Young people to take 32 European countries to court over climate policies

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/14/young-people-to-take-32-european-countries-to-court-over–climate-policies

Canadian wildfire 2023
Canadian wildfire 2023

Claimants to argue lack of adequate action is breach of human rights, in largest climate legal action to date

Six young people are preparing to appear at the European court of human rights to try to compel 32 nations to rapidly escalate their emissions reductions in the world’s largest climate legal action to date.

Aged from 11 to 24, the six Portuguese claimants, say they were driven to act by their experiences in the wildfires that ripped through the Leiria region in 2017, killing 66 people and destroying 20,000 hectares of forest.

After another summer in which wildfires raged across Portugal, Greece, Spain, Croatia and Italy, the young people will argue in the grand chamber of the Strasbourg court in 13 days’ time that the 32 European nations’ policies to tackle global heating are inadequate and in breach of their human rights obligations.

Crowdfunded by people around the world, who have donated more than £100,000, they are seeking a binding ruling from the judges to force the countries to rapidly escalate their emissions reductions in what would be a historic milestone in climate litigation.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/14/young-people-to-take-32-european-countries-to-court-over-climate-policies

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House of Lords give damning assessment of Therese Coffey’s dealings with water companies

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Image of a burst water main.
Image of a burst water main.

https://leftfootforward.org/2023/09/house-of-lords-give-damning-assessment-of-therese-coffeys-dealings-with-water-companies/

Committee slam a ‘lack of leadership and deep-rooted complacency’

A House of Lords committee has given a damning judgement into the work of environment secretary Therese Coffey, finding ‘deep-rooted complacency’ in government dealings with water companies.

This has come at the risk of water shortages and extreme environmental consequences, the industry and regulators’ committee found, due to a ‘lack of leadership’ in government which has meant water companies have failed to protect the environment and the water supply.

In a letter to Coffey, the committee warned that a continued under-investment in water infrastructure will have ‘serious long-term consequences for the environment and the security of water supplies’, risking future water shortages.

The inquiry was launched in June as a follow-up to a previous report titled ‘The affluent and the effluent: cleaning up the failures of water regulation’ which concluded large scale failures in the water system from under-investment and insufficient government strategy.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2023/09/house-of-lords-give-damning-assessment-of-therese-coffeys-dealings-with-water-companies/

Continue ReadingHouse of Lords give damning assessment of Therese Coffey’s dealings with water companies