Markey, Braun, Houlahan, Garbarino announce bipartisan, bicameral legislation to increase resources for farmers to protect the environment
Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety, and Senator Mike Braun (R-Ind.), along with Representatives Chrissy Houlahan (PA-06) and Andrew Garbarino (NY-02), today announced the introduction of the Natural Climate Solutions Research and Extension Act. The bipartisan, bicameral legislation would advance sustainable agriculture practices across the United States by making natural climate solutions a high research and extension priority at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), unlocking federal funding for farmers to protect the environment via land management practices that increase carbon storage and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Continue reading on Senator Markey’s website.
A year of ‘unreal’ fire and warming in the Arctic
Observations from researchers and residents, published annually in a report by NOAA, reveal a region grappling with rapid change.
This summer was the Arctic’s warmest on record, as it was at lower latitudes. But above the Arctic Circle, temperatures are rising four times as fast as they are elsewhere.
The past year overall was the sixth-warmest year the Arctic had experienced since reliable records began in 1900, according to the 18th annual assessment of the region, published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday.
“What happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic,” said Rick Thoman, a climate specialist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and an editor of the new report, called the Arctic Report Card.
Read more on The New York Times.
T-shirt weather in December is a sign of what winter has in store
It’s the cusp of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, but in many places from the US to Japan, it feels more like spring — and forecasters say that’s a sign of what to expect over the next couple of months, until a late-season cold snap arrives.
In New York City this weekend, temperatures will soar above 60F (16C). Warmer-than-average weather will also blanket London and Tokyo. And longer-term outlooks show mild conditions lingering for much of North America, Europe and East Asia into January.
Continue reading on BNN Bloomberg.
At COP28, Woodwell Climate Research Center and the Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development (MEDD) of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have jointly released a new report, From Risk to Resilience: A strategic assessment of challenges and solutions to scaling climate mitigation and adaptation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“This is a very important tool,” said Benjamin Toirambe, DRC Secretary-General of the Environment. “There’s a real need for this, you can’t simply be feeling your way in the dark. If today the Minister of Agriculture has a risk analysis, he can guide his decision making based on what is happening in the field.”
“It really points towards the need to make much more critical investments in basic science to support this type of model, and support more efficient policy implementation,” said Dr. Glenn Bush, Associate Scientist at Woodwell Climate Research Center.
The report is based on a collaboration that began last year between Woodwell Climate and MEDD to generate a localized, customized, cost-free climate risk assessment. It examines a range of climate change threats to forests and agriculture in the region – including drought, heat stress, agricultural yields, extreme precipitation, flooding, and wildfire – and finds that these threats necessitate swift climate adaptation action, particularly by enhancing carbon credit integrity and scaling finance mechanisms in order to fund necessary adaptation efforts and support forest preservation as a critical natural climate solution.
“I am very pleased that the report has been adopted by both parties,” said Joseph Zambo, who facilitated the collaboration as Woodwell Climate’s focal point in the DRC. “This report comes at a good time for the DRC, as the country is engaged in several processes to combat climate change. This report will serve as a sustainable and real support to prevent climate risks and find ways to find solutions at scale.”
“The DRC’s landscapes are one of the greatest insurances against future climate risks—a natural climate solution to prevent further warming and avoid the worst harm from climate change. Carbon markets represent one of the most important and effective tools we have to protect them,” said Dr. Bush.
To support disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation planning, the report offers policy recommendations, including: creating more stable and reliable observational networks and data records; scaling up agricultural research and extension services; improving field inventory and remote sensing monitoring systems; and building community awareness of climate impacts. Additionally, specific policy recommendations related to financing include:
- Develop a national “umbrella framework” of measurable and enforceable criteria for carbon performance, to operationalize a regional standard for carbon market integrity and quality;
- Identify in detail the technological needs and operational resources to enable the transparent performance assessment of regionally generated carbon credits for the global market, including organizational development needs, gaps, roles, and interagency responsibilities;
- Enhance the digital framework for data access and transparency of nature-based climate solutions carbon credits, building around existing emerging national infrastructure.
“What’s particularly interesting is the comparison we have done with the initial data provided by NDCs and compared to forecasting and models used by Woodwell,” said Professor Onesphore Mutshail Kuval of the University of Kinshasa. “This made it possible for us in DRC to propose certain types of adaptation in the context of the carbon market, based on risk assessments provided by this forecasting model. We have a whole series of proposed adaptation measures, and these were devised in conjunction with the models provided to us.”
The report was officially released during the 2023 United Nations climate change conference, or Conference of the Parties, COP28, at a panel event, The intersection between adaptation and mitigation, and implications for developing the New Climate Economy. The event was co-hosted by Woodwell Climate and the DRC, and focused on discussing the report’s findings in the context of emerging priority policy and management pathways to a green economy.
The full report can be read here.
Impact of Amazon’s climate-driven drought may last until 2026
The Amazon rainforest’s record-breaking drought hit home for Raimundo Leite de Souza one October morning, he said, when he woke to find the stream that runs behind his house had dropped nearly a foot overnight, stranding his skiff in a mudflat.
As weeks passed, Souza said, rotting fish washed up on the banks of the Jaraqui, a tributary of the Rio Negro. Rodents thrashed in the mud searching for water. Carcasses of caimans and cobras turned up in the forest.
How AI could power the climate breakthrough the world needs
Tomato growers in central India have been increasingly worried about the volatility that extreme weather events have brought to the region. For much of the area, the last decade has been punctuated by severe droughts that led to significant crop loss, impacting the livelihoods of local farmers.
On the other side of the world, Silicon Valley startup ClimateAi is developing an artificial intelligence platform to evaluate how vulnerable crops are to warming temperatures over the next two decades. The tool uses data on the climate, water and soil of a particular location to measure how viable the landscape will be for growing in the coming years.
This is what actually happens at the COP climate summits
The UN has been holding annual climate conferences for 28 years. Here’s a peek behind the curtain.
When the United Nations held its first annual climate conference in 1995 in Berlin, Michael Jordan was still in the NBA, Google didn’t exist yet, and cellphones were rare. Times have changed. But 28 years—and 28 conferences later—we’re still not moving quickly enough to deal with climate change.
This week, tens of thousands of people will attend the 28th “COP,” or Conference of Parties, in Dubai. You might be wondering how much these summits actually accomplish. Here’s a short guide to the process.
Continue reading on Fast Company.