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EVs and datacentres driving new global ‘age of electricity’, says watchdog

The Guardian Climate Change - February 14, 2025 - 01:00

Forecast for rising global electricity use likely to stoke fears of rising costs and stalled efforts to fight climate crisis

The world’s electricity use will grow every year by more than the amount consumed annually by Japan because of a surge in electric transport, air conditioning and datacentres, according to the world’s energy watchdog.

The International Energy Agency has raised its predictions for the world’s rising demand for electricity, pegging the growth at almost 4% a year until 2027, up from its previous forecast of 3.4% year.

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Categories: Climate

Brake pad dust can be more toxic than exhaust emissions, study says

The Guardian Climate Change - February 14, 2025 - 01:00

Research shows move to electric vehicles may not be enough to enable pollution from cars to be eradicated

Microscopic particles emitted from brake pads can be more toxic than those emitted in diesel vehicle exhaust, a study has found.

This research shows that even with a move to electric vehicles, pollution from cars may not be able to be eradicated.

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Categories: Climate

Weatherwatch: Hadley Centre shows Thatcher understood value of climate science

The Guardian Climate Change - February 14, 2025 - 01:00

Thirty-five years after she opened it, climate change centre can claim that for every £1 invested, the UK economy benefits by £33

When Margaret Thatcher opened the Hadley Centre for Climate Change in 1990 journalists suggested she was attempting to appear to be doing something about global heating rather than implementing any policies.

Fast-forward 35 years and the Hadley Centre’s science is world-leading and makes the claim that for every £1 invested, the UK economy benefits by £33. This calculation is based on the predictions scientists are able to make, and advice they can then give about incoming weather and its impacts.

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Categories: Climate

Tracking Trump’s Biggest Climate Moves

NYT Global Warming Climate Change - February 13, 2025 - 15:10
In his first few weeks, President Trump has frozen climate spending, shaken up staffing at agencies like the E.P.A. and set off a wave of legal challenges.
Categories: Climate

Climate crisis contributing to chocolate market meltdown, research finds

The Guardian Climate Change - February 13, 2025 - 08:47

Scientists say more-frequent hotter temperatures in west African region are part of reason for reduced harvests and price rises

The climate crisis drove weeks of high temperatures in the west African region responsible for about 70% of global cacao production, hitting harvests and probably causing further record chocolate prices, researchers have said.

Farmers in the region have struggled with heat, disease and unusual rainfall in recent years, which have contributed to falling production.

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Categories: Climate

World’s largely unprotected peatlands are ticking ‘carbon bomb’, warns study

The Guardian Climate Change - February 13, 2025 - 01:00

Bogs and swamps are a colossal carbon store but their continued destruction would blow climate change targets

The world’s peatlands are “dangerously underprotected” despite the colossal amount of climate-heating carbon dioxide already being emitted due to their destruction, a study has warned.

Peatlands occupy just 3% of all land, but contain more carbon than all of the world’s forests. However, farmers and miners are draining the peatlands, releasing so much CO2 that if they were a country, they would be the fourth biggest polluter in the world after China, the US and India.

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Categories: Climate

‘Even the sound of the water has changed’: can Bogotá bring its wetlands back from the brink?

The Guardian Climate Change - February 13, 2025 - 01:00

The marshes in Colombia’s capital are sacred to Indigenous peoples, provide vital wildlife habitats and could help the city adapt to climate change. But after centuries of development they are close to collapse

  • Photographs by Antonio Cascio

Early last year, Bogotá faced a prolonged drought, leading to historically low water levels in reservoirs and forcing Colombia’s authorities to impose water rationing. Then, in November, heavy rains triggered widespread flooding, submerging streets, stranding vehicles and disrupting traffic.

People living in neighbourhoods built over wetlands, such as Suba Rincón, suffered a double impact from these extreme events, that served to underscore the city’s vulnerability to deforestation, El Niño and the climate crisis. In these districts people have been left counting the cost of repeated floods.

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Categories: Climate

FEMA Can Freeze Money for Migrant Shelter Program in New York, Judge Says

NYT Global Warming Climate Change - February 12, 2025 - 18:59
The court ruled that the Trump administration had a narrowly defined path to withhold some funds to the city that had been approved by Congress.
Categories: Climate