A decade of record global heat

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♻️ This week’s sustainability news

A decade of the hottest global temperatures on record

What’s happening: A new scientific report shows that the Earth is getting warmer quickly, leading to problems like rising sea levels, melting glaciers, and extreme weather. The World Meteorological Organization's State of the Global Climate 2024 report aims to update policymakers on the current state of the climate. It describes a planet with a high and rising temperature because of record levels of greenhouse gases caused by humans.

Why it’s happening: The United Nations agency has been releasing an annual report on climate change since 1993. This report looks at important climate indicators like sea ice, glacier loss, and rising sea levels. Researchers found that from 2021 to 2024, glaciers lost more mass than ever before in a three-year period. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) also noted that the last 10 years have been the hottest on record, which is unusual since temperature records began in the late 1800s, according to Chris Hewitt from the WMO. As revealed in a NASA-led analysis we outlined in our last issue and now also confirmed by the WMO, oceans are rising faster now than they were a few decades ago, threatening coastal areas. The rate of sea-level rise has more than doubled, from 2.1 mm per year between 1993 and 2002 to 4.7 mm per year from 2015 to 2024. Additionally, ocean heat content reached a new high in 2024, showing how oceans are absorbing more heat due to human-caused climate change.

Why it’s important: The report highlights how widespread and serious the effects of climate change already are. Temperatures will keep rising as long as carbon dioxide levels go up, and warming will only stop if emissions reach net zero. The report notes that in 2024, temperatures exceeded the 1.5°C increase compared to pre-industrial times, but this hasn't happened consistently over the long term. The 1.5°C target in the Paris Agreement aims to limit global warming to reduce the risk of triggering major changes in the climate system. This target is also seen as less threatening to low-lying small island states. Some recent studies suggest that we may have already surpassed the long-term 1.5°C threshold. Additionally, the report states that the number of people displaced by extreme weather and climate events is the highest it has been in the past 16 years.

📖 Read the full report: State of the Global Climate 2024

Greenpeace hit by massive loss in court

What’s happening: A jury decided that Greenpeace must pay over $660 million for defamation and other claims made by an oil pipeline company. The case was related to protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota. Energy Transfer and its subsidiary, Dakota Access, accused Netherlands-based Greenpeace International, Greenpeace USA, and funding entity Greenpeace Fund Inc of defamation, trespass, and other wrongdoings. Greenpeace USA was found responsible for all charges, while the other groups were found responsible for some. The payment is to be divided among the three Greenpeace entities, with Greenpeace USA to pay the bulk of the damages, at nearly $404 million, while Greenpeace Fund Inc. and Greenpeace International are to each pay roughly $131 million.

Why it’s happening: The case originates from protests in 2016 and 2017 against the Dakota Access Pipeline and its Missouri River crossing upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation. The tribe has consistently opposed the pipeline for years as a risk to its water supply. About 5% of the United States’ daily oil production is carried via the pipeline which runs through multiple states since it started flowing in May of 2017. Energy Transfer’s lawyers had said Greenpeace carried out a scheme to stop the pipeline’s construction. They also alleged that Greenpeace paid outsiders to come into the area, sent supplies for the blockade, organised or led protester trainings, and made untrue statements about the project to stop it. Lawyers for the Greenpeace entities denied there was any evidence to what the company was claiming and that Greenpeace employees had little or no involvement in the protests. Furthermore, the Greenpeace organisations had nothing to do with the company’s delays in construction or refinancing.

Why it’s important: This decision could affect any public demonstration, not just environmental ones. A group of human rights and environmental lawyers formed to monitor the trial released a statement after the verdict. They said it found “problems that included a jury that was patently biased in favor of Energy Transfer, with many members working in the fossil fuel industry; a judge who lacked the requisite experience and legal knowledge to rule properly on the complex First Amendment and other evidentiary issues at the center of the case; and incendiary and prejudicial statements by lawyers for Energy Transfer that tried to criminalize Greenpeace and by extension the entire climate movement by attacking constitutionally-protected advocacy.” Greenpeace has stated they plan to appeal the decision, and according to legal experts they have a good case. North Dakota does not have an appellate-level court, so an appeal would go to the state Supreme Court. If Greenpeace loses their appeal before the state Supreme Court, the case may eventually make its way to the US Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds. The case is an example of a strategic lawsuit designed to counter free speech, often referred to as ‘SLAPP’ (strategic lawsuit against public participation) lawsuits. Greenpeace International is currently countersuing Energy Transfer in the Netherlands in an anti-SLAPP case under European law.

📖 Read the full articles: How the Greenpeace defamation trial could stifle public protest and What a $660 million verdict means for Greenpeace and the environmental movement

😇 People doing great things

Reducing food waste around the world

About 30 percent of global production of food goes to waste: This results in as much as 3.3 billion tons of CO₂ as the food rots. At 24, Lucie Basch left her job at Nestlé to create an app to reduce food waste. She didn't know how to code, had no marketing skills, and no money. But she knew that bakeries, restaurants, and grocery stores often threw away unsold food at the end of the day. She thought if someone could connect this leftover food with people looking for cheap meals, it could be sold at a discount. This would benefit businesses, customers, and the environment. Living in Norway but originally from Paris, Basch started in 2016 by talking to business owners and asking them to join an app that didn't exist yet. She promised it would be as easy as throwing food away, but instead of tossing it, they would pack it into separate bags. Soon, she teamed up with Danish entrepreneurs who had the skills to build the app she envisioned. Now, Too Good to Go is the biggest platform for leftover food in the world. It operates in 19 countries and has over 100 million users. It's also a certified B Corp. The main product is still the ‘surprise bags’, where customers get a mix of items for a third of the regular price. The company has also grown to help stores manage their stock better and to educate consumers about reducing waste.

⭐️ Weekly inspiration

Chinese EV maker unveils new fast charging platform

Possible for a full charge in as little as 5 minutes: BYD has developed a new battery and charging system that can give an electric vehicle (EV) almost 483 kilometres (300 miles) of range in just 5 minutes with its 1,000-Volt Super e-Platform, which will be used in their upcoming vehicles starting with the Han L sedan and Tang L SUV; they also plan to build over 4,000 ultra-fast chargers throughout China to support the new platform.

Innovative underwater turbines off France

NH1 tidal project from Normandie Hydroliennes: A tidal farm boasting the most powerful underwater turbines in the world is being built off the coast of Normandy after winning EU funding with four turbines used to turn the Raz Blanchard tidal flow, Europe’s strongest tidal stream, into a source of renewable energy that will supply energy to 15,000 local residents.

World’s first zero-carbon cement plant built in Canada

Global concrete sector is responsible for 7% of all emissions: Scheduled to be operating in Alberta within three years, Heidelberg's cement manufacturing facility is to be fitted with a carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) system that would absorb one million tonnes of CO₂ a year, equal to 300,000 cars, and inject it into a saline aquifer several kilometres underground, with surplus electricity fed onto the provincial grid.

EVs to save Europe 20 million tonnes of CO₂ this year

Equivalent to emissions from eight coal power plants: There will be a surge in the number of electric cars (EVs) in use in Europe, according to new analysis from campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E), with emissions in the transport sector finally falling in 2024 after being the only sector to generate more emissions than it did in 1990, lagging behind other sectors like electricity generation to produce around a third of EU pollution.

Mexico City to introduce ‘bloodless’ bull fights

A total ban had been pushed by activists: A traditional bullfight involves different lances and barbed spears to goad the bulls into charging and a slender sword to kill them at the end, but the new ‘bloodless’ events will only allow the matadors to use the capes to draw the bulls, the bull’s horns will be “protected” to prevent harm to the matador or other animals, bullfights will be limited to 15 minutes, and the bulls will now be sent back to their owners and ranches instead of being killed.

Ten US states reached their 12-year EV target

Memorandum of understanding signed in 2013: The ten signatory states agreed to work together on their respective programs to meet their collective goal of 3.3 million electric vehicles (EVs) on their roads by 2025, with investment in charging infrastructure and rebates funded by the Biden Admin’s Inflation Reduction Act, along with a more than 10x increase in the number of EV models available, helping the states reach their goal.

Former golf course now part of a 200-acre reserve

In the Houston suburb of Clear Lake: Exploration Green features a group of five connected lakes that form part of the area's stormwater system, with one having an island where birds can rest safely during migration, while walking paths go around the lakes, and over 1,000 native plants now thrive where there used to be a well-kept golf course.

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