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Met Office: 2022 UK’s warmest year ever, 2023 to be hotter

2022 will be warmest year ever for UK, Met Office says

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-64111625

The Met Office has said 2022 will be the warmest year on record for the UK.

According to provisional figures, every month was hotter than average, with the exception of December when the UK experienced a notable cold snap.

The year’s average temperature will likely beat the previous all-time high of 9.88C, set in 2014.

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Dr Mark McCarthy, a senior climate scientist at the Met Office, said the provisional figures are in line with the “genuine impacts we expect as a result of human-induced climate change”.

“Although it doesn’t mean every year will be the warmest on record, climate change continues to increase the chances of increasingly warm years over the coming decades,” Dr McCarthy added.

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Met Office forecasts 2023 will be hotter than 2022

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-64032458

Next year will be warmer than this one, and one of the hottest on record, the UK Met Office is forecasting.

Predictions suggest it will be the 10th year in a row the global temperature is at least 1C above average.

The Met Office explained that a cooling effect known as La Niña will likely end after being in place for three years – part of a natural weather cycle.

It also noted the warming impact of human-induced climate change.

Scientific evidence shows that climate change is driving up the global temperature.

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Continue ReadingMet Office: 2022 UK’s warmest year ever, 2023 to be hotter

Weather extremes becoming ‘new normal,’ warns UK’s National Trust

https://www.courthousenews.com/weather-extremes-becoming-new-normal-warns-uks-national-trust/

This photo provided by the fire brigade of the Gironde region shows a wildfire near Landiras, France, on Sunday, July 17, 2022. (SDIS 33 via AP)

Britain’s National Trust on Wednesday said nature and wildlife at the charity’s sites had been harmed by extreme weather in the past year and warned it could become the “new normal”.

The heritage conservation charity’s climate change adviser Keith Jones said it was a “stark illustration of the sort of difficulties many of our species will face if we don’t do more to mitigate rising temperatures”.

“We’re going to experience more floods, droughts, heatwaves, extreme storms and wildfires –- and they will go from bad to worse, breaking records with ever alarming frequency if we don’t limit our carbon emissions,” he said.

The planet currently remains off track from an ambition set by the Paris climate accord in 2015 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

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Continue ReadingWeather extremes becoming ‘new normal,’ warns UK’s National Trust

BP criticised over plan to spend billions more on fossil fuels than green energy

Just Stop Oil protests at BP
Just Stop Oil protests at BP. Image: Just Stop Oil

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/dec/27/bp-plan-spend-billions-fossil-fuels-green-energy-oil-gas-renewables

BP has been accused of prioritising fossil fuels over green energy as it plans to spend as much as double the amount on oil and gas projects than on renewable investments next year.

The FTSE 100 company has earmarked up to $7.5bn (£6.2bn) for oil and gas projects, compared with a range of $3bn to $5bn for green energy.

BP expects to increase spending on “resilient hydrocarbons” – oil and gas, refining and bioenergy projects – by up to $1bn in 2023.

In 2021 the company’s capital expenditure was $12.8bn and it expected to spend $14bn-15bn this year, and then $14bn-16bn a year between 2023 and 2025.

Within this, investment into “resilient hydrocarbons” will increase from $9bn in 2022 to “$9bn to $10bn a year” from 2023 to 2025, including $7.5bn a year on oil and gas projects.

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Continue ReadingBP criticised over plan to spend billions more on fossil fuels than green energy

UN Chief To Convene ‘No Nonsense’ Climate Summit To Avert Disaster

https://www.eurasiareview.com/24122022-un-chief-to-convene-no-nonsense-climate-summit-to-avert-disaster-oped/

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has never ceased to warn about the impending hazards of climate change worldwide. “We are on a fast track to climate disaster,” he has predicted rather ominously and pointed out that some of the world’s major cities are under water.

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Announcing a “Climate Ambition Summit”, scheduled to take place in September 2023, he is aiming at generating “new, tangible and credible climate action” to “accelerate action at the mid-way point” of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Going forward, he will push for a “Climate Solidarity Pact”, for all big emitters to “make an extra effort” to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in line with the 1.5°C goal and provide support for those who need it.

Describing the proposed meeting of world leaders as “a no-nonsense summit, he said there would be “No exceptions. No compromises.”

“There will be no room for back-sliders, green-washers, blame-shifters or re-packaging of announcements of previous years.”

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Continue ReadingUN Chief To Convene ‘No Nonsense’ Climate Summit To Avert Disaster

Activists cut off top of huge Christmas tree in climate protest in Berlin

Image: Stefan Muller, Leztze Generation

https://news.sky.com/story/activists-cut-off-top-of-huge-christmas-tree-in-climate-protest-in-berlin-12772409

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Protest group Last Generation said two of its members used a hydraulic lift and a hand saw to cut two metres off the top of the 15-metre tree and hang up a banner.

The banner read: “This is only the tip of the Christmas tree.”

In a statement, the group said it wanted to highlight that Germany is so far only seeing the “tip” of the climate catastrophe happening around the world.

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Leztze Generation is Germany’s version of Just Stop Oil – a climate group engaging in direct action. They have blocked roads and airport runways and attacked a Claude Monet painting (protected behind glass) with mashed potato.

“When will you finally start to listen?” – Mashed potatoes on Monets “Les Meules” [23.10.22]

Continue ReadingActivists cut off top of huge Christmas tree in climate protest in Berlin