This weekly round-up brings you key climate news from the past seven days, including Kamala Harris’s VC pick and worrying new research suggesting Australia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef is deteriorating rapidly.
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1. July Was Second-Hottest Month in History As Experts Warn 2024 Will ‘Likely’ Be Warmest on Record
July 2024 saw a global average temperature of 16.91C. This was just 0.04C lower than the average temperature in July 2023, currently the hottest month on record. This makes last month both the second-warmest July and second-warmest month in recorded history.
Until June, monthly average temperatures had broken records every month since May 2023. Scientists blame the hot streak partly on the return of El Niño, which pushed temperatures off the charts worldwide. The weather event is associated with the warming of sea surface temperatures in the central-east equatorial Pacific. It typically occurs every few years, with the most recent one taking place in 2016.
Despite the trend coming to an end, experts warned that extreme heat will continue for as long as the world maintains its reliance on fossil fuels.
Seas also continued to warm last month. The average sea surface temperature reached 20.88C, the second-highest value on record and only 0.01C shy of the value recorded in July 2023. This put an end to a 15-month period of record-breaking sea surface temperatures.
Read more here.
2. Kamala Harris Chooses ‘Climate Champion’ Tim Walz As VP Pick in US Presidential Election
Tuesday’s announcement prompted reactions from climate advocates and groups, including political action organization the Sunrise Movement, which praised Walz’s robust environmental record and called the Governor a “climate champion” and a “fighter for working people and young people.”
Since his appointment as Governor, Walz, 60, has been focused on tackling the threats posed by the climate crisis in his state, enacting important legislation to phase out planet-warming fossil fuels and promote clean energy development. When signing a law that would lead Minnesota to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040 in February of last year, Walz said: “We can’t move too fast when it comes to addressing climate change.” The legislation also requires utilities to create plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their operations.
If elected to the White House, Walz and Harris would bring a strong climate policy background to the national stage at a critical juncture in the US’s efforts to address the climate crisis, an increasingly urgent threat.
Read more here.
3. Highest Ocean Warming in 400 Years Poses ‘Existential Threat’ to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Researchers Say
This generation will likely witness the demise of Australia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef unless rapid, coordinated, and ambitious action is taken globally to reverse climate change. Scientists came to this conclusion after looking at recent sea surface temperature trends. They found that the extreme ocean heat recorded between January and March in 2017, 2020, and 2024 was the highest in 400 years.
These extremes, which were caused by anthropogenic influence on the climate system, pose an “existential threat” to the reef’s ecosystem. Located off the coast of Queensland, the reef is the largest in the world. It covers an area of about 344,400 square kilometres (133,000 square miles), more than the UK and Ireland combined.
Coral bleaching occurs as a heat stress response from rising ocean temperatures, which drives algae away from coral reefs, causing reefs to lose their vibrant colours. While a bleaching event is not directly linked to corals’ death, more frequent and intense heat stresses make corals more vulnerable to diseases, slowing down their recovery and limiting their ability to spawn.
Read more here.
4. Wind and Solar Overtake Planet-Warming Fossil Fuels in EU Electricity Generation For First Time
According to energy think tank Ember data published last Tuesday, the two renewable energy sources accounted for 30% of the bloc’s electricity, while planet-warming fossil fuels accounted for 27%, a 17% decrease in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2023. This is despite a 0.7% rebound in energy demand following two years of downward trends, which Ember said was “more than met” by wind and solar.
In total, wind and solar surpassed fossil fuel generation in 13 of the 27 EU Member States with Germany, Belgium, Hungary, and the Netherlands hitting the milestone for the first time. All low-carbon sources combined, including hydroelectric and nuclear power, surged this year and combined made up 73% of all electricity generation. Contrarily, all planet-warming sources dropped. Coal generation alone fell by 24% compared to the same period last year.
Read more here.
