Thirsty country: climate change and drought in Australia

This report argues that climate change is likely making drought worse in the southeast and southwest of Australia, which are some of our most populous regions. Introduction Drought has deeply affected Australia throughout its history. The Millennium Drought from 1996-2010 serves as a recent reminder of the wide-reaching impacts that drought can have on Australia’s people and environment. Australia is the driest inhabited continent on Earth and drought is an important feature of Australia’s climate. Whilst Australians have always lived with drought and its consequences, it is likely that climate change is making drought worse in the southeast and southwest, some of our most populous regions. We begin this report by describing what a drought is, before considering its consequences for health, the economy, ecosystems and urban water supplies. We then outline the changing drought conditions and increasing drying trends in Australia and explore recent dry conditions in various parts of the country. We conclude by exploring how climate change is influencing drought conditions in the southeast and southwest of the continent as well as drying trends globally

Mythbusting: electricity prices in South Australia

In recent months, there have been a number of inaccurate media stories linking high electricity prices in South Australia with the state’s high proportion of wind and solar generation. While the complexities and technical aspects of the electricity system can be difficult to fully understand (even for those in the sector), we hope this explainer provides some clear answers on what is happening with electricity prices in South Australia and why other factors such as high gas prices, limited connection with the eastern states and lack of competition in South Australia’s electricity market are primarily to blame

Climate change 2015: growing risks, critical choices

This latest Climate Council report provides an update of climate change science, impacts and risks. This report draws from the massive body of evidence that human activities - primarily from the burning of coal, oil and gas - are driving dramatic changes in our climate system. The report outlines how the changing climate poses substantial and escalating risks for health, property, infrastructure, agriculture and natural ecosystems in Australia. Compared to our understanding when the last Critical Decade report was published, the risks of climate change for our well-being now look more serious at lower levels of climate change, strengthening the case for urgent action. Finally, the report describes why it is in Australia’s national interest to play a leadership role in the global move for strong climate action leading up to the Paris climate conference at the end of 2015

Renewable energy jobs: future growth in Australia

The physical implications of a move towards greater renewable electricity – new generating capacity, significant investment, reduced greenhouse gas emissions – have been explored for a range of scenarios in many countries. However, employment associated with the electricity sector, and the impact of an accelerated uptake of renewables on employment in the sector, has received considerably less attention. As in other economic and technology shifts, jobs will be lost and new jobs will be created. Some jobs will be easy to replace, while others may require re-training, upskilling or relocation, or may disappear. &nbsp

Scientific Assessment of Climate Change and Its Effects in Maine

Climate change has already made its presence known in Maine, from shorter winters and warmer summers with ocean heat waves, to stronger storms, new species showing up in our backyards and the Gulf of Maine, aquatic algal blooms, acidic ocean waters that affect shellfish, and new pests and diseases that harm our iconic forests and fisheries. The health of Maine people is also being affected by climate change, from high heat index days driving increased emergency room visits to the ravages of Lyme and other vector-borne diseases. And our economy is feeling the effects, too -with farmers trying to adapt to longer growing seasons but dealing with severe storms and late frosts, aquaculturists already adapting to a more acidic ocean, and winter sports like skiing and snowmobiling being impacted by our shrinking winter season. This is the first report from the Maine Climate Council’s Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, produced by more than 50 scientists from around the State representing Scientific and Technical Subcommittee members, other co-authors, and contributors. This report is part of the 2020 Maine Climate Action Plan. The report summarizes how climate change has already impacted Maine and how it might continue affecting our State in the future. The findings from this report inform the ongoing deliberations of the Maine Climate Council and have aided the Maine Climate Council’s six working groups in the development of draft strategies to address climate change by reducing Maine’s greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee identified critical scientific information gaps and needs to better understand and forecast potential future climate change impacts in the State. Key take-aways from this report are listed below, with the full details appearing in each of the twelve chapters

Implications of "peak oil" for atmospheric CO2 and climate

Unconstrained CO2 emission from fossil fuel burning has been the dominant cause of observed anthropogenic global warming. The amounts of "proven" and potential fossil fuel reserves are uncertain and debated. Regardless of the true values, society has flexibility in the degree to which it chooses to exploit these reserves, especially unconventional fossil fuels and those located in extreme or pristine environments. If conventional oil production peaks within the next few decades, it may have a large effect on future atmospheric CO2 and climate change, depending upon subsequent energy choices. Assuming that proven oil and gas reserves do not greatly exceed estimates of the Energy Information Administration, and recent trends are toward lower estimates, we show that it is feasible to keep atmospheric CO2 from exceeding about 450 ppm by 2100, provided that emissions from coal, unconventional fossil fuels, and land use are constrained. Coal-fired power plants without sequestration must be phased out before mid-century to achieve this CO2 limit. It is also important to "stretch" conventional oil reserves via energy conservation and efficiency, thus averting strong pressures to extract liquid fuels from coal or unconventional fossil fuels while clean technologies are being developed for the era "beyond fossil fuels". We argue that a rising price on carbon emissions is needed to discourage conversion of the vast fossil resources into usable reserves, and to keep CO2 beneath the 450 ppm ceiling.Comment: (22 pages, 7 figures; final version accepted by Global Biogeochemical Cycles

Supporting the EU’s approach to climate change:the discourse of the transnational media within the ‘Brussels Bubble’

Abstract: The Union’s global climate change policy has been widely seen as an expression of its normative power, where it is committed to act through multilateral frameworks in order to tackle the effects of changes in the climate and safeguard the future of people around the world. Internally, the EU’s approach to climate change is complemented by high levels of support from citizens. This article explores another internal source of support for the EU’s leadership in global climate change policy, namely the media. The focus here is on the transnational media’s reporting and coverage of the Copenhagen summit, which is widely considered to be one of the key points in the development of global climate change policy. The article shows that within the ‘Brussels bubble,’ the transnational media supported through its reporting the EU’s ambitious agenda in global climate change policy around the time of the Copenhagen summit

A late Quaternary climate reconstruction based on borehole heat flux data, borehole temperature data, and the instrumental record

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95180/1/grl24686.pd

The availability of land for perennial energy crops in Great Britain

This paper defines the potentially available land for perennial energy crops across Great Britain as the first component of a broader appraisal undertaken by the ‘Spatial Modelling of Bioenergy in Great Britain to 2050’ project. Combining data on seven primary constraints in a GIS reduced the available area to just over 9 M ha (40% of GB). Adding other restrictions based on land cover naturalness scores to represent landscape considerations resulted in a final area of 8.5 M ha (37% of GB). This distribution was compared with the locations of Miscanthus and SRC willow established under the English Energy Crop Scheme during 2001–2011 and it was found that 83% of the planting fell within the defined available land. Such a correspondence provides confidence that the factors considered in the analysis were broadly consistent with previous planting decisions

Bayesian spatial extreme value analysis of maximum temperatures in County Dublin, Ireland

In this study, we begin a comprehensive characterisation of temperature extremes in Ireland for the period 1981-2010. We produce return levels of anomalies of daily maximum temperature extremes for an area over Ireland, for the 30-year period 1981-2010. We employ extreme value theory (EVT) to model the data using the generalised Pareto distribution (GPD) as part of a three-level Bayesian hierarchical model. We use predictive processes in order to solve the computationally difficult problem of modelling data over a very dense spatial field. To our knowledge, this is the first study to combine predictive processes and EVT in this manner. The model is fit using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms. Posterior parameter estimates and return level surfaces are produced, in addition to specific site analysis at synoptic stations, including Casement Aerodrome and Dublin Airport. Observational data from the period 2011-2018 is included in this site analysis to determine if there is evidence of a change in the observed extremes. An increase in the frequency of extreme anomalies, but not the severity, is observed for this period. We found that the frequency of observed extreme anomalies from 2011-2018 at the Casement Aerodrome and Phoenix Park synoptic stations exceed the upper bounds of the credible intervals from the model by 20% and 7% respectively