BRUSSELS/DUBAI, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Countries at the U.N.'s COP28 climate summit opening on Thursday hope to clinch an early deal on a new fund to pay for climate-caused damage, aiming to muster some political goodwill before talks turn to divisive topics including the future of fossil fuels.
Executives will join world leaders in calling for rapid climate action to avert a catastrophic outcome at the United Nations’ annual Climate Change Conference in Dubai from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12.
A new analysis from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that, coupled with building envelope improvements, installing geothermal heat pumps in around 70% of U.S. buildings could save as much as 593 terawatt-hours of electricity generation annually and avoid seven gigatons of carbon-equivalent emissions by 2050.
Gasoline became unleaded in the 1970s. The sulfur content of diesel has been lowered over decades. Ethanol has been blended into gasoline for years. The historical timeline of liquid transportation fuels is colored by change after change to fuel chemistry.
Atop the Caribbean Sea’s famously pristine waters floats a 5,000-mile-wide heap of rust-colored, brambly seaweed. When that seaweed, a form of sargassum, clumps up on beaches and decomposes, it emits hydrogen sulfide gas (also known as swamp gas), which smells like rotten eggs and, in high doses, can be toxic. For obvious reasons, this seaweed swarm is a huge problem for the Caribbean’s tourism industry and residents—and potentially for Florida, where the heap is headed next.
For the first time, US public companies will be required to tell investors about their exposure to climate risks and greenhouse gas emissions.
On Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved requiring US-listed companies to communicate how they are managing material risks related to climate change and how those risks affect their bottom lines. Large companies will also be required to disclose their direct emissions from their operations and energy use, known as Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions.
The current El Niño is now one of the strongest on record, new data shows, catapulting it into rare “super El Niño” territory, but forecasters believe that La Niña is likely to develop in the coming months.
One of the main ways scientists determine whether El Niño is present, and a key indicator of its strength, is through ocean surface temperatures. And from November to January, the temperature of the tropical Pacific Ocean where El Niño originates was 2 degrees Celsius warmer than normal, according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction center – a threshold that has only been breached six times on record. It means a very strong El Niño is ongoing.
Beginning in 2018, North American farmers and scientists started noticing an unnerving and unusual trend: Oysters were dying at alarming rates in mass mortality events.
