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The Hambach open-pit mine, widely covered in the news in recent weeks, supplies a significant portion of the coal that is burned in the Niederaussem and Neurath power plants in Germany’s lignite mining area of North Rhine-Westphalia. Its harmful effects on the climate and local environment are well known. Recent analysis by NewClimate Institute has estimated the direct impacts on human health of burning the coal to generate electricity. The pollutants produced by the burning of Hambach coal alone contribute to roughly 320 premature deaths per year, caused for example by heart disease or stroke...

Der in den letzten Wochen viel diskutierte Tagebau Hambach liefert einen erheblichen Teil der Kohle, die in den Kraftwerken Niederaußem und Neurath im rheinischen Braunkohlerevier verbrannt wird. Dass dies schädlich für Klima und Umwelt ist, ist lange bekannt, doch auch der direkte Einfluss auf die menschliche Gesundheit lässt sich bestimmen: Die durch Verbrennung der Hambacher Kohle erzeugten Schadstoffe tragen zu rund 320 frühzeitigen Todesfällen pro Jahr bei, etwa durch Herzerkrankungen oder Schlaganfälle. Zu diesem Ergebnis kommt eine aktuelle Analyse des NewClimate Institutes. Ein Ende...

Das Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) hat den Special Report zu 1.5°C veröffentlicht. Hier die Einschätzungen von NewClimate zum Bericht. Der Sonderbericht sendet ein klares Signal an die Politik: jetzt handeln, es ist fast schon zu spät! Vielen in der Politik war vielleicht noch nicht klar, worauf sie sich eingelassen haben, als sie 2015 in Paris dem Ziel zugestimmt haben, den globalen Temperaturanstieg auf 1.5°C zu begrenzen. Nun ist durch einen der aufwändigsten wissenschaftlichen Überprüfungsprozesse klargestellt: Eine Begrenzung auf 1.5°C ist nötig, um wichtige Ökosysteme...

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released its special report on 1.5°C . Here is NewClimate’s take on the report. The IPCC special report sends a clear message to policy makers: act now, it's almost too late! Many policy makers may not have understood what they agreed to when, in 2015 in Paris, they agreed to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C. Now one of the most elaborate scientific verification processes, the IPCC, has made it clear: A 1.5°C limit is necessary to protect important ecosystems (Summary for policy makers, SPM, section B4), it is technically and...

Quantifying the benefits of climate change mitigation measures in buildings, transport and energy supply Full Report, Summary & Methodology The Climate Opportunity report investigates the economic, social and environmental benefits for climate change mitigation action in cities. Enhanced policies and measures for residential building retrofits, bus networks and district-scale renewable energy can generate millions of jobs, save billions of dollars for households, and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths related to ambient air pollution worldwide. The analysis is based on the development of...

Our new study published by Climate Policy finds that national climate action has spread rapidly, and that this spread is strongly coincident with landmark international agreements. Following the Paris Agreement, 89% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (76% not counting USA) are covered by pledged national GHG reduction targets, a near universal coverage. Moreover, more than two thirds of global emissions are covered by national climate legislation or strategy, a development strongly shaped by negotiations around the Copenhagen Accord. While national actions are, as yet, insufficiently...

Long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies are essential to plan short-term steps for greenhouse gas emission reduction and to set targets for the second round of nationally determined contributions. Such long-term strategies should focus on full decarbonisation in line with the Paris Agreement’s long-term goals for each sector and the required financial resources to implement them. This blog provides reasons why. Download as pdf Introduction 2018 marks an important year for the UNFCCC climate negotiations as the details of the Paris Agreement, the “Paris Agreement...

The Climate Action Tracker has released an update on 23 of the 32 countries whose development on climate action tracked is released. Also, as part of the respective project team, NewClimate Institute is proud to announce the relaunch of the homepage for the Climate Action Tracker. Update on country development (Briefing) Paris Tango. Climate action so far in 2018: individual countries step forward, others backward, risking stranded coal assets The Climate Action Tracker has updated our assessments of 23 of the 32 countries whose development on climate action we track. While some progress has...

Under the Ambition to Action project funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German government, NewClimate Institute organised a workshop with stakeholders on the integration of renewable energy technologies into the Argentinean electricity system. Read the Workshop Notes The workshop was hosted by the Argentinean Independent System Operator, CAMMESA, and brought together representatives from the Argentinean Ministry of Energy, the grid operator TRANSENER and CAMMESA to discuss the impact of scaled up renewables on the current and future operation of the Argentinean...

Deutsche Version With the coalition agreement for a new German government under Angela Merkel, a major opportunity to realign German climate policy to the challenges of the Paris Climate Change Agreement has passed. The new coalition no longer aims to reach the German 2020 climate target in time. With this announcement, Germany officially steps down as an international climate champion and undermines the Paris agreement as a whole. The coalition agreement fails to provide new ideas for tackling greenhouse gas emissions in industry and buildings, and proposed measures in transport are...

English version Mit dem Koalitionsvertrag von CDU/CSU und SPD ist eine große Chance vertan, deutsche Klimapolitik an den Herausforderungen des Pariser Klimaschutzabkommens neu auszurichten. Mit der Abkehr der großen Koalition, das für 2020 gesteckte Klimaziel tatsächlich auch in 2020 zu erreichen, gibt Deutschland nun offiziell die Rolle als internationaler Klimaschutzvorreiter auf und unterminiert damit das Abkommen als Ganzes. Der Koalitionsvertrag enthält keine neuen Ideen, Treibhausgasemissionen in Industrie und Gebäuden in den Griff zu bekommen, vorgeschlagene Maßnahmen im Verkehr werden...

A new analysis of agricultural emissions by the Climate Action Tracker shows that reducing emissions through changes in farming practices alone will not be enough to limit global warming to 1.5°C, but changing our diets and reducing food waste could make significant additional reductions, which calls for a much more holistic approach. Read the full briefing here. Agriculture accounts for roughly 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and as much as 50% of non-CO 2 emissions, at 5–6 GtCO 2e/year. To limit warming to 2°C [1], we need to reduce non-CO 2 agricultural emissions by at least 1 GtCO...

Mit der Abkehr der potentiellen neuen großen Koalition vom Klimaziel für 2020 gibt Deutschland nun offiziell die Rolle als internationaler Klimaschutzvorreiter auf. Mit Ausnahme der Förderung der Erneuerbaren Energien im Stromsektor und einigen Energieeffizienzmaßnahmen im Gebäudesektor ist in allen Sektoren versäumt worden, wirksame Klimaschutzmaßnahmen umzusetzen, so dass deutsche Treibhausgasemissionen in diesem Jahrzehnt nicht weiter sinken und auf einem immer noch hohen Niveau stagnieren. Das Klimaziel nun auch offiziell aufzugeben, ist mehr als nur ein interner Kompromiss der zukünftigen...

Analysis by the Climate Action Tracker was published in Climate Policy, an international peer-reviewed journal, today. The paper identifies ten important, short-term sectoral benchmarks that key sectors need to take to help the world achieve the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C limit. This new article addresses the questions to be discussed in the Paris Agreement’s 2018 Facilitative Dialogue, to be known as Talanoa Dialogue: “Where are we?”, “Where do we want to go?” and “How do we get there?” In particular for the last question, this paper adds actionable advice to policy makers. All key sectors...

While US climate policy has been rolled back under President Trump, India and China have moved ahead, making significant progress in climate action over the past year, the Climate Action Tracker (CAT) said today. Actions in China and India have made a difference to the CAT’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions projections based on government policies currently in place, leading to a 0.2°C decrease in projected warming—to 3.4˚C by 2100, compared with 3.6˚C in November 2016. This is the first time since the CAT began tracking action in 2009 that policies at a national level have visibly reduced its...