Climate

The price of solar power is plummeting faster than we ever expected.

They are eco marvels but they are fast disappearing. Sophie Hunter explains why she is using film, music, a few tonnes of salt and a reimagined wife of Lot to sound the alarm

Eerie, desolate wastes in old novels, salt marshes are still seen as flat, grey and inhospitable landscapes today. Rainforests, meadows, oceans and even peatlands have their celebrity champions. But now there is someone to speak up for the magnificence of the tidal marsh: Sophie Hunter, theatre-maker and opera director, hopes her new performance installation will make us take more care of these crucial, carbon-sequestering coastal guardians.

A salt marsh doesn’t attract attention, perhaps because not much seems to happen in these expanses of grass and creek. “And then it disappears twice a day, which is extraordinary,” says Hunter, sitting miles from any marsh in a north London pub, visibly refreshed after her return from her traditional family holiday, swimming, sailing and savouring the salt marshes of a location she asks me not to reveal, with her husband, Benedict Cumberbatch, and their three sons. “Salt marshes are the last wild places in the UK. These liminal intertidal spaces have often been associated with outcasts, people living on the fringes of society. How can we shift our perception to realising how much value they have on so many levels?”

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Extinct in central Europe for 300 years, 36 northern bald ibis are following an ultralight aircraft on their long-forgotten migration route from Austria to Spain

The northern bald ibis was extinct in central Europe for 300 years. Now, it has returned – and scientist “foster parents” aboard a tiny plane are teaching the birds to fly their long-forgotten migration routes.

Thirty-six of these endangered birds are now following an ultralight aircraft 1,740 miles (2,800km ) from Austria to Spain, on a trip that could take up to 50 days to complete.

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Windell Curole built a vast levee to protect his district from disappearing into the ocean – despite federal resistance to his plan. Had he listened to officials, he says, ‘we wouldn’t have a community’

On 29 August 2021, as Hurricane Ida made landfall on Louisiana’s Gulf coast, 69-year-old Windell Curole sought refuge with others at the three-story Lady of the Sea hospital in Galliano, located 90 minutes south-west of New Orleans.

As Curole looked out the window, watching Ida’s rain hammer the grass, a question tormented him: would the levees that encircled his community be tall enough to hold back the water that was surging toward them?

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Why have politicians outsourced the most important issue of our time to private agencies and individuals? We can’t do it all - this way lies disaster

There are several services and assets I would like to see nationalised. But at the top of my list is neither water, nor trains, nor development land, much as I’d like to see them brought under national or local public ownership. Above all, I want to see the nationalisation of my own business: environmental persuasion. I love my job. But I’m not very good at it. None of us is.

We face the greatest predicament humankind has confronted: the erosion and possible collapse of our life-support systems. Its speed and scale have taken even scientists by surprise. The potential impacts are greater than any recent pandemic, or any war we have suffered. Yet the effort to persuade people of the need for action has been left almost entirely to either the private or voluntary sectors. And it simply does not work.

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Madrid study finds people from below-average income groups more likely to die in heatwaves

Scorching temperatures across Europe have killed tens of thousands of people in recent years. But as fatalities rise, researchers are finding that one group is disproportionately bearing the brunt of extreme heat: those living in poverty.

“It’s common sense,” said Julio Díaz Jiménez, an investigative professor at Madrid’s Carlos III health institute. “A heatwave is not the same when you’re in a shared room with three other people and no air conditioning, as when you’re in a villa with access to a pool and air conditioning.”

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Kennedy’s former co-workers in the environmental movement aren’t surprised that he endorsed Trump, who has called climate change a “hoax.”

The finding comes as a late-August heat wave bears down on a significant part of the country.

Moisture from crops drives up already high humidity in areas where 55 million are under extreme heat alerts

You won’t believe your ears, but corn is making the extreme heat the US midwest is battling feel more intense, according to experts.

The moisture – or “sweat” – that corn and other crops release in high temperatures is contributing to the humidity in the air in the midwest US, where 55 million people have been under alerts for extreme heat in recent days. The increase in moisture pushes up dew points, making it harder for water vapor to condensate – and for it to feel cooler.

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More than 21,500 US deaths over last two decades were connected to heat, top medical journal finds

As record-breaking heatwaves continue across parts of the US, a new report shows that heat-related deaths in the country rose by 117% between 1999 and 2023.

The report, released on Monday by the Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama), found that from 1999 to 2023, there have been more than 21,500 heat-related deaths recorded in the US.

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Coldplay and Billie Eilish have tried to drive down carbon emissions while touring, but the British band Massive Attack has tried to take the efforts even further.

Open letter to Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, says biomass plants are putting forests and biodiversity at risk

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More than 40 green groups have called on Ed Miliband to scrap plans to pay billions in subsidies to the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire for it to keep burning wood pellets imported from overseas forests.

In an open letter to the energy secretary, 41 groups from across Europe and the US said they were “deeply concerned” about the government’s plans to foot the cost of extending the subsidy scheme, which supports the UK’s most polluting power plant from 2027 until the end of the decade.

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The post-growth movement says GDP is the wrong way to measure progress and we need a radical economic rewiring

In the run-up to the UK general election, the Labour party’s central offer to the public was a “laser-like” focus on economic growth. Its leader, Keir Starmer, promised to “take the brakes off Britain” and repeatedly said “ensuring economic growth will be fundamental”.

In the weeks since the party was elected, it has regularly been grilled about whether the required growth is possible, or how it could be achieved. But to the dismay of ecological economists and climate experts, there has been almost no debate about what sort of growth it should be, who it would benefit – or even whether the aim of perpetual growth on a planet with finite resources is either possible or desirable in the midst of an escalating climate crisis.

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Groups challenging emissions limits in key sectors including agriculture, waste and transport

The EU is being sued for failing to set ambitious climate targets in sectors that contribute more than half of the bloc’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe and the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) argue that climate targets laid out for agriculture, waste, transport and small industry in the 27 EU member states until the end of the decade are not based on the best science and are therefore “grossly inadequate”.

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Speaking during the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga, the United Nations secretary general, Antonio Guterres, said fossil fuels must be phased out and all G20 countries must pursue a 'drastic reduction of emissions'. Asked whether he believes it is acceptable for a country like Australia to be continuing to approve new coal and gas projects, Guterres said the 'situation of different countries is different' but there should be no 'illusion'. 'Without a phase-out of fossil fuels in a fair and just way, there is no way we can keep the 1.5 degrees alive,' Guterres said in a reference to the Paris climate agreement goal of holding temperature rise to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels

• Albanese government accused of trying to ‘bury bad news’ about health of Great Barrier Reef

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António Guterres calls for a ‘massive’ increase in finance and support for the countries most vulnerable to rising sea levels

Pacific island nations are in “grave danger” from rising sea levels and the world must “answer the SOS before it is too late”, the UN chief has warned during a visit to Tonga.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, urged the world to “look to the Pacific and listen to the science” as he released two new reports on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum, the region’s most important annual political gathering.

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The disaster killed one person and injured three in the town. Researchers said heavy rains preceding the disaster may have played a role.

As electricity demand from data centers soars, Meta and Google are looking at a novel solution: harnessing clean heat far below Earth’s surface.

Rising temperatures = rising costs

The heat is on: it’s burning down forests and towns, it’s melting down grids, and it’s making hard jobs even harder. Beyond the staggering human and environmental toll of danger season’s extreme weather, there are rising costs associated with climate damages. And those costs are not being borne equitably. California has taken important steps to address some of these equity concerns—and now has another big opportunity to pass the water and wildfire bond, which will be on the ballot this November as
Proposition 4.

As one example of these rising costs, Californians’ electricity bills have been skyrocketing over the past few years. This is concerning not only because people are struggling to pay their utility bills, but also because increasing rates are starting to become a barrier to transitioning to electric vehicles for some families and individuals.

There are multiple reasons why bills are increasing, but the main driver is costs related to reducing wildfire risks, according to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). Climate-caused hotter, drier conditions are leading to longer, more intense wildfire seasons in many parts of California . Worryingly, the Commission notes that only a few wildfire-related expenses have made it onto customer bills, namely increased costs for vegetation management and wildfire insurance. There are many more capital costs likely coming. And we know that as our climate warms further—driven by burning fossil fuels—the risk of large wildfires will only grow.

To-date, the public narrative has largely focused on the narrow issue of rates, or how costs are distributed among different customers. Equitable rate structures are important to ensure affordability. Yet, danger season means costs are rising overall and will continue to drive up the revenue requirement, or the total amount of money that utilities are allowed to collect across all their customers.

Right now, increased costs associated with larger and more intense wildfires are mostly borne individually or by the most impacted regions. It’s a starkly regressive way to pick up the tab. That’s why California is taking, or should take, these steps:

Sue the fossil fuel industry for damages

Extensive scientific research has shown how fossil fuel companies have contributed to worsening climate change impacts. A UCS report, The Fossil Fuels behind Forest Fires, calculates that about half of the rise in fire-danger conditions in western North America since 1901 can be traced to carbon pollution from 88 fossil fuel companies and cement manufacturers. This alarming finding clarifies the significant role and responsibility of fossil fuel companies to not only stop their harm moving forward, but also to address damage they have already done. This science has been incorporated into dozens of lawsuits filed by cities, counties, and states to collect damages from fossil fuel companies. Last year, California filed the most significant lawsuit addressing climate deception and damages. But the wheels of justice can turn slowly, and in the meantime, costs are racking up.

Ensure affordability in rate structures

Earlier this year, the California Public Utility Commission passed new requirements to ensure electricity rate structures address growing affordability concerns by incorporating an income-based monthly charge that more equitably shares the costs for electricity infrastructure while also supporting the transition from fossil fuels to clean electricity. The new rate structure guidance lowers electricity bills on average for lower-income households and those living in regions most impacted by extreme weather events.

Develop more equitable ways to share rising costs

Now more than ever, wildfires are affecting all of us whether they are burning through our neighborhoods, shutting down our power supplies, keeping us indoors for days, or sending people to the hospital with asthma attacks. One way California has financed shared resource management challenges is through general obligation bonds. General obligation bonds allow us to spread out costs across all taxpayers and incorporate affordability by applying taxable income tiers in repayment. This is why UCS supports California’s water and wildfire bond, which will be on the ballot this November as
Proposition 4.

Reduce the rate of return to investors to limit rising costs

Beyond finding more equitable financing methods, the state should also consider limiting how much money utility investors or shareholders receive, known as the rate of return, included in the revenue requirement. Recent analysis from the Haas School of Business finds “that over recent years, utilities have earned sizeable regulated rates of return on their capital assets, particularly when set against the unprecedented low interest rate environment from 2008–2022. When the economy-wide cost of capital fell, utilities’ regulated rates of return did not fall nearly as much. This gap raises the prospect that at least some of the growth in capital spending could be driven by utilities earning excess regulated returns.” They conclude that excess rates of return have important implications beyond just the additional cost they place on consumers. From a distributional standpoint, higher rates create a transfer of wealth from ratepayers to shareholders. From a societal standpoint, expensive energy can discourage electrification, which is a key component of our efforts to tackle climate change.

Achieve our clean energy goals to limit rising costs

Over the long-term, the only way to significantly reduce the costs associated with worsening wildfires is to limit climate change impacts. California has passed the nation’s most ambitious climate change emission reduction goals. And, while we have made important progress, to achieve our goals we need to roughly double the amount of clean energy coming online. We have previously blogged about solutions to overcome the top three clean energy barriers: the need for more transmission capacity; delays in the interconnection process; and permitting difficulties.

What you can do: Vote yes on Proposition 4 this November

California has already done a lot to get us on the right path by filing lawsuits against big oil companies to recoup damages and by reforming electricity rate structures to ensure affordability. Right now, we now need to focus on passing Proposition 4 this November. Moving forward, lawmakers should consider limiting the rate of return that is authorized by the California Public Utilities Commission and addressing barriers to clean energy. We cannot afford to be distracted by temporary fixes that will raid our state’s preeminent climate mitigation and adaptation programs. California has always led the way by investing in the future rather than stealing from the past—this time should be no different.

The end of winter tends to lift spirits as colour returns to gardens. But the too-soon blooms have become worryingly consistent

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Kangaroo paws normally flower in late September in Cranbourne, south-east of Melbourne. This year they bloomed in July.

The Western Australian plant has since been joined by a host of spring-blooming flowers, attracting animals who would typically wait for warmer months.

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