Climate Point: Will countries pledge deep emission cuts at UN summit?
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate change, energy and the environment. I'm Janet Wilson, writing to you from the United Nations in New York with a special early edition. This morning, world leaders will hold a Climate Action Summit.
The U.N. secretary-general has bluntly told nations they need to ramp up commitments to slash greenhouse gas emissions. President Donald Trump, who wants to pull the United States out of the 2015 Paris agreement to rein in emissions, won't be there, but China and 70 other countries could make major announcements — or not — as I report in USA Today. Check back at usatoday.com later Monday for updates from me, and don't forget to take our survey if you've got questions and ideas for world leaders.
Here are some other things of interest:
MUST-READ STORIES
Bank on it. On Sunday, 130 of the world's banks, with assets of $47 trillion, adopted new U.N.-backed “responsible banking” principles to fight climate change and shift their loans and investments away from fossil fuels. Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and Barclays all signed on, as Matthew Green from Reuters tells us. But eight of the world's 10 largest banks did not sign the agreement, per Bloomberg's Saijel Kishan and Emily Chasan. A U.N. official said, “some are not ready to be held to account for their lending.” JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley all declined to comment.
House afire. Much of the growing momentum to act on surging global warming has been spurred by young activists, led by teenagers Greta Thunberg in Sweden, Alexandria Vilasenor in New York and others. On Friday, millions of youths skipped school to march in the Youth Climate Strike, as chronicled by Doug Stanglin, Grace Hauck and yours truly in USA Today. It was likely the largest climate strike ever.
Stories people are talking about:
Thar they go. Gray whales are dying; 121 found dead on beaches this summer.
Soot goes deep. Pollution has been found in the placenta of pregnant women.
Too hot. A pretty yellow North Carolina flower is pushed to the brink.
POLITICAL CLIMATE
Tax 'em. Several Democratic presidential contenders are calling for a carbon tax on major polluters, as Emma Newburger with CNBC tells us. They unveiled their proposals at two recent climate town halls, one on CNN and the second on MSNBC. Carbon pricing has drawn intense opposition from many, but not all, Republicans in Washington, who argue that it would make energy bills, gas and air travel more expensive. But several economists say that raising the cost of burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas could be the best way to cut emissions.
ALL ABOUT ENERGY
Powering down. Two coal heavyweights, Duke Energy and American Electric Power, last week separately announced sharp CO2 emissions reduction targets, writes Sonal Patel for Power magazine. Duke said it would achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. AEP said it would extend its target to 70% from 2000 levels by 2030, and by more than 80% by 2050—and outlined an “aspirational goal” of zero emissions by 2050. Both cited customer preferences and risk mitigation as reasons for the steep carbon cuts, and announced they are actively investing in renewables.
Three Mile Island Closed. Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant, where a meltdown 40 years ago forever changed nuclear energy in America, shut down Friday, as Ledyard King reports for USA Today.
AGOG OVER GRETA
Greta takes the subway. On Friday, at the tail end of the Youth Climate Strike in New York, youth climate activist Greta Thunberg bustled past me and others to the subway, spurning an escalator to take the stairs down to the train platform. Teens shrieked and whooped like they were seeing a rock star.
“She’s so amazing! I saw that little pink dress and I couldn't believe it was her! Greta! No one’s ever taking the escalator again!” said Jackson Dean of Palm Springs, Calif., who is a freshman theater student at NYU. He and his classmates said her speech was energizing, inspiring them to do more than skip classes for a day.
Last, here's that chart showing how much we've warmed in the past century over the past 2,000 years. Scientists say if temperatures increase more than 1.5 degrees C this century, the world's coral will be gone and many island nations will disappear.
That's all for this week. For more climate, energy and environment news, follow me on Twitter @janetwilson66. You can sign up to get Climate Point in your inbox for free here.