Climate change could bring stronger winds, more wind power

A new study by the British Antarctic Survey, the University of Oxford and the University of Bristol looked at what effect a warmer world would have on winds, specifically across the UK and Northern Europe where wind power is already becoming a major source of energy. In a world that is on average 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer, winds would be stronger and as a result, wind power would make up a significantly larger chunk of the electricity produced in that part of the world.

A warmer world brings with it more wind.

Using data from 282 onshore wind turbines over a span of 11 years paired with climate model data for that 1.5 degree increase in global temperature, the researchers found that in the UK alone there could be a 10 percent increase in wind energy generation. That's equivalent to meeting the energy demands of an additional 700,000 homes based on the current wind power capacity. The UK is quickly increases wind power installations, so that number would likely be even higher in the future.

Germany, Poland and Lithuania would also see major gains in wind energy production, but the UK stood out from the rest.

Read the story from Treehugger by Megan Treacy - “Climate change could bring stronger winds, more wind power.”

Scientists think we could hit a critical climate threshold in the next 10 years

OXFORD, England (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The planet could pass a key target on world temperature rise in about a decade, prompting accelerating loss of glaciers, steep declines in water availability, worsening land conflicts and deepening poverty, scientists said this week.

Last December, 195 nations agreed to try to hold world temperature rise to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius, with an aim of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

But the planet is already two-thirds of the way to that lower and safer goal, and could begin to pass it in about a decade, according to Richard Betts, head of climate impacts research at the UK Met Office's Hadley Centre.

With world emissions unlikely to slow quickly enough to hit that target, it will probably be necessary to remove some carbon pollution from the atmosphere to stabilize the planet, scientists said at a University of Oxford conference on how to achieve the 1.5 degree goal.

Read the Business Insider story - “Scientists think we could hit a critical climate threshold in the next 10 years.”

Laurence Tubiana on the 1.5C questions scientists need to answer

Laurence Tubiana discusses
 the 1.5 degree target.

On the eve of the 1.5 Degrees scientific conference taking place at the University of Oxford this week, Carbon Brief spoke to Laurence Tubiana, the French climate change ambassador who played a pivotal diplomatic role in securing the Paris Agreement last December.

Carbon Brief asked Tubiana what questions policymakers need scientists to answer as they prepare to provide the evidence base for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s special report on 1.5C, which is due to be published in 2018. The Paris Agreement surprised many observers, not least the scientific community, by committing the world’s nations to limit the rise in global temperatures, compared to pre-industrial times, to “well below” 2C and “pursue” 1.5C.

Watch the CarbonBrief video – “Laurence Tubiana on the 1.5C questions scientists need to answer.”

Heatwaves have climate change connection - scientists

Hundreds of people in Paris and London who died in a record-setting European heat wave in 2003 perished because of human-caused climate change, first-of-its-kind research has found.

A study published yesterday in Environmental Research Letters found about 68 percent of the 735 deaths in Paris that scorching summer are attributable to human activity, as well as 20 percent of the 315 deaths in greater London. Across Europe, nearly 70,000 people died, and scientists said at least some of those deaths could be attributable to climate change, as well.

"We are already feeling very real impacts of Paris ," said Daniel Mitchell, a climate scientist at the University of Oxford and the lead author of the study. "We are now capable of making these estimates, albeit with large uncertainties."

This is the first study to directly attribute deaths during a particular extreme weather event to climate change. The study limits itself to Paris and London, but extending its framework to other cities that suffered in 2003 would increase the deaths due to climate change.

Read the E&E News story - “Scientists link heat wave deaths directly to climate change.”

(Victoria’s much publicised 2009 “Black Saturday” bushfires killed nearly 200 people and injured more than 400, but what is rarely mentioned that the heat of the week leading up to the catastrophic fires killed far more people, in excess of 300 – Robert McLean.)