Global emissions to hit 36.8 billion tonnes, beating last year’s record high

Global emissions for 2019 are predicted to hit 36.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂), setting yet another all-time record. This disturbing result means emissions have grown by 62% since international climate negotiations began in 1990 to address the problem.

Coal emissions are falling, but gas and coal
 use are strongly rising around the world.

The figures are contained in the Global Carbon Project, which today released its 14th Global Carbon Budget. 

Digging into the numbers, however, reveals a silver lining. While overall carbon emissions continue to rise, the rate of growth is about two-thirds lower than in the previous two years.

Driving this slower growth is an extraordinary decline in coal emissions, particularly in the United States and Europe, and growth in renewable energy globally. 

Read the story from The Conversation - “Global emissions to hit 36.8 billion tonnes, beating last year’s record high.” 

How to stay sane in the face of climate change.

On an unusually hot morning in Washington, D.C., particularly for early November, sunlight beamed through the large windows at the American Psychological Association’s headquarters, framing the long expanse of the National Mall and the Washington Monument off in the distance. The setting was peaceful, but tensions, like the outside temperature, ran high: the U.S. presidential election was just five days away, and the media cycle — already whipped into a frenzy by months of acerbic news — had been punctuated by a barrage of unprecedented FBI leaks that seemed to threaten the very foundation of the democratic election.

Greenpeace activists form the word "Hope?" in the sand.

Inside one of the building’s airy conference rooms, Bob Doppelt, executive director of the Resource Innovation Group, rose to address a group of about 50 people. They were there, he reminded them, for a first-of-its-kind conference, one that had attracted participants from all over the world. He lead the group in a brief exercise in meditation — an unorthodox beginning, perhaps, for some conferences — asking attendees to close their eyes, notice their breath, notice their thoughts, notice their sensations.

Read the story from ThinkProgress by Natasha Geiling - “How to stay sane in the face of climate change.”

UK runs without coal power for three days in a row

The UK has been powered without coal for three days in a row, setting a new record and underlining the polluting fuel’s rapid decline.

 Drax power station in North Yorkshire said it
expected to go without coal on Tuesday.

Coal has historically been at the cornerstone of the UK’s electricity mix, but last year saw the first 24-hour period that the country ran without the fuel since the 19th century.

New records were broken last week when zero power came from coal for nearly 55 consecutive hours.

Read Adam Vaughan’s story from The Guardian - “UK runs without coal power for three days in a row.”