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Neshwin Rodrigues and Duttatreya Das are energy analysts at Ember High cost of capital is a major barrier to the rollout of renewable energy across the Global South. The Alliance of Small Island States has highlighted this repeatedly, and last year the International Energy Agency (IEA) concluded that across a range of developing and emerging economies, raising capital to build utility-scale solar projects costs twice as…

The April 2024 temperature was 1.32°C higher than 1951-1980, as illustrated by the above image, created with NASA content. Local anomalies are as high as 6.2°C. The April 2024 temperature was 1.62°C higher than 1900-1930, as illustrated by the above image, created with NASA content. The red line highlights acceleration of the temperature rise (Lowess Smoothing). The image below, created with NOAA content, uses a LOESS filter (green line) to…

Mark Maslin is professor of natural sciences at University College London (UCL) and Iain Hanson is honorary professor at the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, UCL. Many of us feel guilt when we fly because it is a very obvious source of carbon emissions. Aviation causes around 2.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. But we do not perhaps feel the same guilt when we walk into…

Global heating means atmosphere can drive both extreme droughts and floods with rapid switchesClimate “whiplash” between extremely wet and dry conditions, which spurred catastrophic fires in Los Angeles, is increasing exponentially around the world because of global heating, analysis has found.Climate whiplash is a rapid swing between very wet or dry conditions and can cause far more harm to people than individual extreme events alone. In…

 “Michael Mann Wins $1 Million Verdict In Defamation Trial Victory over climate deniers sends a strong message in defense of climate science and scientists. By Diane Bernard and Adam M. LowensteinonFeb 8, 2024 @ 14:04 PST Professor Michael E. Mann’s lawyer called attacks on the scientist “vile.” Credit: Julian Meehan/Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) “In a victory for climate scientists, jurors in Michael Mann’s defamation case against Rand Simberg…

Climate change is considered the greatest single threat to humankind, and while individuals are working to minimize their carbon footprints, the overwhelming majority of climate change is caused by businesses. Through emissions, resource consumption, and waste, companies are responsible for over 80% of climate change. As the threats of climate change rapidly increase, companies in every sector and industry must take responsibility for their sustainability efforts…

Update on July 23, 2024: This false-color image shows a plume—likely an orographic cloud—streaming from near the summit of Antarctica’s Mount Siple. Colors in this image represent brightness temperature, which is useful for distinguishing the relative warmth (orange and pink) or coolness (purple and blue) of various features. Congratulations to Ivan Kordač for being the first to correctly identify the the image’s polar location. Read more about the…

John Vaillant, the author of Fire Weather, explains why fires such as those in Los Angeles are different from those beforeWhen writing about the hot, dry Santa Ana winds and how they affect the behavior and imaginations of southern Californians, Joan Didion once said: “The winds show us how close to the edge we are.”I’ve lived here my entire life. I evacuated my family’s hillside home…

Since January 5, 2025, vehicles are being tolled to enter the Congestion Relief Zone in Manhattan South, New York, under the Congestion Pricing Program of the City of New York.On February 19, 2025, the federal government, through the Department of Transportation, stated its disapproval of the program. A WhiteHouse social media post shows a TIME magazine-style cover featuring Trump wearing a crown with the text ‘Congestion pricing is…

The Kumani Bank mud volcano in the Caspian Sea suddenly manifested an island in early 2023 that had nearly disappeared by the end of 2024. Read More…

The astonishing recent rise in temperatures makes one wonder whether a Regime Change did take place in 2023. The February 2024 temperature was 1.76°C above 1885-1915, potentially 2.75°C above pre-industrial (bright yellow inset right). The image was created by Sam Carana for Arctic-news.blogspot.com with an April 2024 data.giss.nasa.gov screenshot. The red line (6 months Lowess smoothing) highlights the Regime Change that may have occurred in 2023.Meanwhile, NASA…

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has invested $100 million in a new affordable build-to-rent (BTR) strategy managed by AXA IM Alts, which aims to bring the benefits of clean energy technologies to sustainable, affordable homes across Australia’s largest cities. In its initial stages, the strategy is targeting as many as 3000 apartments in key worker employment hubs, with at least 50% offered at a discounted rate…

  Update on December 17, 2024: This Landsat image shows the Messak Settafet plateau in southwestern Libya. Congratulations to Jim Wright for being the first reader to identify the location, and to Nerissa-Cesarina Urbani for naming the plateau. Read more about the area in “Human Fingerprints on an Ancient Landscape.” Every month on Earth Matters, we offer a puzzling satellite image. The November 2024 puzzler is shown…

Scientists use satellites in orbit and boots on the ice to monitor glacial changes on the flanks of Mount Baker and elsewhere in Washington state. Read More…

By Andrew Glikson “History is a nightmare from which I am trying to wake” (James Joyce) Figure 1. Extinctions CC from: The five mass extinctions in Earth History. The rate of the current rise of greenhouse gas levels and thereby temperatures is higher by more than an order of magnitude than that of previous mass extinctions. (Figures 11.2, 11.5). Glikson. A.Y., 2023 The Trials of Gaia.War ─…

B-cycle is drawing attention to a risk in Australian homes and waste collections that increases over the holiday season: the issue of improperly stored and disposed-of used batteries. With many gifts — including toys, gadgets and decorations — relying on loose or portable batteries, homes across the country are left with a large number of used batteries by January, creating a hidden potential hazard. “Improperly stored…

Lights in Chile’s central city display an array of colors and densities, reflecting various land uses and differences between the region’s communes. Read More…

Every month on Earth Matters, we offer a puzzling satellite image. The September 2024 puzzler is shown above. Your challenge is to use the comments section to tell us where it is, what we are looking at, and why it is interesting.How to answer. You can use a few words or several paragraphs. You might simply tell us the location, or you can dig deeper and offer details about…

[ high temperatures forecast over the North Pole, click on images to enlarge ] The above image shows a temperature forecast for February 2, 2025 18z, run January 30, 2025 12Z.  The green color indicates temperatures above freezing point. The image below shows the temperature anomaly compared to 1979-2000, with the light pink color over the Arctic indicating a 30°C anomaly. [ temperature anomaly vs 1979-2000,…

Plastic products have been marketed to us as innocuous items of convenience. Plastic bags, food containers, candy wrappers, packaging of all kinds, meant to make life easier on the go, or to protect our purchases from damage. A cheap and forgettable addition to our increasingly cluttered lives. But of course, these petrochemical by-products are far from harmless and they have now been produced in such abundance…

Doug Specht is a reader in cultural geography and communication at the University of Westminster. October to April is normally considered to be the wet season in California, yet this January, the region is experiencing some of the most devastating fires it’s ever seen. As of January 14, five major fires in and around Los Angeles have burned over 40,000 acres, leading to the evacuation of…

Antarctic sea ice [ Antarctic sea ice, click on images to enlarge ]The above images, adapted from University of Bremen and ClimateReanalyzer.org, illustrate the decline in thickness (in cm) and of Antarctic sea ice between August 27, 2024, and January 9, 2025, and the sea ice concentration on January 9, 2025.The compilation image below shows the Southern Hemisphere on January 5, 2025, when the sea surface temperature off the…

Weatherization programs can help. As the leaves turn and the temperature drops, many people worry about the cost of home heating. Ariel Drehobl of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy says that for low-income families, it can cause stress around figuring out how to pay your bills and a tradeoff between keeping your heat on and being able to afford other necessities like food,…

Yet the young people that we work with @Solutions_for_the_planet in the landlocked cities of Bradford, Inner City London and Birmingham have a strong bond and passion towards the worlds oceans and how they can help to clean them of pollution. As Tom Franklyn a primary school teacher in Inner City said: “We’re never going run to out of inner-city children, but we are going to run out of…

Trade unionists and campaigners seeking a fair deal for workers whose jobs will be affected by the transition away from planet-heating fossil fuels are placing their hopes in next year’s UN climate summit in Brazil following a disappointing outcome at COP29 in Azerbaijan. From coal mines and oil refineries to car factories and construction, the global shift to cleaner sources of energy will alter the nature…

A new report from the United Nations environment program (Unep) finds that on current pledges, the world is heading for a 3.2 degree rise. Although G20 nations collectively account for 78 percent of all emissions, only five members have committed to a long-term emissions target. Of these, the UK and France are the only two to have passed legislation confirming their commitments in law. Germany, Italy…

Energy minister Chris Bowen says Peter Dutton must explain what happens to national grid over next decade if opposition stops building renewablesFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe Coalition’s proposal to cap large-scale renewable energy and eventually build nuclear power plants would lead to “massive” electricity supply shortages risking blackouts, according to analysis released…

The title of this post might seem like a truism, but for about a decade some people have claimed the opposite, and many people have spent much time and effort trying to understand why. Much of that effort was wasted. A decade ago, Nature Geoscience published Cohen et al (2014), a review paper on potential connections between the Arctic warming and extreme events (which has been…

Boral has unveiled new carbon-reducing technology at its Berrima Cement Works, with Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen officially opening the upgraded facility on 4 December. Located in the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales, Berrima Cement Works supplies 40% of cement in NSW and the Australian Capital Territory. The site is strategically important both for the company and Australia’s manufacturing capability. The…

Zimbabwe is planning to ramp up its use of coal and gas to meet its energy needs after the worst drought in decades dried out the water supply to the hydropower plant, which powers the country. As a result, the Southern African nation is failing to meet its power demand, the government wrote in a new climate plan to cut emissions by 2035 submitted to the…

Solid-state batteries are considered next-generation energy storage technology as they promise higher energy density and safety than lithium-ion batteries with a liquid electrolyte. However, major obstacles for commercialization are the requirement of high stack pressures as well as insufficient power density. Both aspects are closely related to limitations of charge transport within the composite cathode. This webinar presents an introduction on how to use electrochemical impedance…

After a brutally hot summer in 2023 that caused widespread bleaching and coral death, summer 2024 was more favorable for the state’s vulnerable reefs.  Read More…

Thirteen regional New South Wales councils have pooled their resources to make the shift to renewable energy via a power purchase agreement (PPA) coordinated by the Hunter Joint Organisation and Mid North Coast Joint Organisation. The Powering Tomorrow: Regional Councils NSW PPA will secure fixed pricing for the councils up until the end of 2030. Under the agreement, the councils will collectively receive over 390 gigawatt…

The image below shows that temperatures in the Tropics (23.5°S-23.5°N, 0-360°E) were very high during the second half of April 2024, and these very high temperatures were sustained during the first part of May 2024. The temperature was 26.9°C (or 80.42°F) on May 11, 2024, an anomaly of 1.1°C (or 1.98°F) from 1979-2000. The image below shows the average monthly temperature anomaly over the past few years through April…

Large pieces of sea ice are breaking away from the northern tip of Greenland, to be carried by ocean currents to the Fram Strait east of Greenland. On their way they will melt away, illustrating how ocean heat can make even the thickest parts of the sea ice disappear in a matter of days. The thick sea ice north of Greenland is breaking away due to…

Update on March 11, 2024: This image shows Spirit Lake, located in south-central Washington, on April 26, 2023. Congratulations to Ivan Kordač for being the first to correctly identify the lake. Special mention goes to David Sherrod, who pointed out the lake’s floating log raft and mentioned a recent debris flow in the region (which occurred several weeks after this image was acquired). Read more about…

The world’s richest people are likely to have already used their fair share of the annual global carbon budget, according to research by international NGO Oxfam. Based on data from 2019, the anti-poverty charity has estimated that the 77 million “super-rich” people in the global top 1% of earners – whose average income is $310,000 per year – use 2.1 tonnes of carbon dioxide each in…

Since January 5, 2025, vehicles are being tolled to enter the Congestion Relief Zone in Manhattan South, New York, under the Congestion Pricing Program of the City of New York.On February 19, 2025, the federal government, through the Department of Transportation, stated its disapproval of the program. A WhiteHouse social media post shows a TIME magazine-style cover featuring Trump wearing a crown with the text ‘Congestion pricing is…

Unbearable heat and worsening storms prompt residents of states such as Florida to move elsewhereAs a Rust belt town of 65,000 people in eastern Indiana, Muncie may not be the most exciting place in the world. It doesn’t have beaches, year-round warm weather or much in the way of cosmopolitanism.But for Laura Rivas, a cybersecurity engineer formerly of North Miami Beach, Florida, Muncie is perfect. Continue…

Widespread bleaching of reefs is devastating delicate ecosystemsIt is one of the least understood processes in nature. How do two very different species learn to live with each other and create a bond, known as symbiosis, which can give them a powerful evolutionary advantage?Coral reefs are the most spectacular manifestations of symbiosis – and understanding the mechanics of this mutual endeavour has become an urgent task…

How Climate Change Will Impact Global Supply Chains Global supply chain issues have hit the news recently as the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the true vulnerabilities of global supply chains dependencies and sourcing relationships. As a result, it has become abundantly clear that we cannot take global production for granted. COVID is not the only global event threatening supply chains. As climate change continues to…

As Australia ushers in a new era of climate-related financial disclosure, many organisations are gearing up for a significant shift in their reporting practices. Since 1 January 2025, the disclosure of Scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions transitioned from voluntary to mandatory, marking a crucial step in the country’s commitment to addressing climate change. Scope 3 emissions, which encompass indirect GHG emissions occurring in an entity’s…

The image below indicates that Arctic sea ice volume has meanwhile passed its annual maximum. Over the coming months, volume can be expected to decrease rapidly. The image also highlights that, over the past few months, Arctic sea ice volume has been the lowest on record for the time of year. The image below illustrates the decline of Arctic sea ice volume over the years. The…

Temperatures are risingThe NASA temperature anomaly vs. 1904-1924 shows that the temperature has been above 1.5°C for the past twelve months, as illustrated by the image below. The red line shows the trend (one-year Lowess Smoothing) associated with the rapid recent rise. Note that the 1904-1924 base is not pre-industrial. When using a genuinely pre-industrial base, the temperature anomaly has over the past twelve months also…

Around the world, sustainability has made its way to the forefront of everyone’s mind, including businesses. As governments and consumers push companies to improve their sustainability efforts, it can be challenging to keep up with the demand of the oftentimes expensive changes that sustainability requires. Luckily, advances in artificial intelligence, or AI, are helping businesses monitor and improve their facilities to not only improve environmental consciousness,…

 Climate Choir Melbourne supporting Extinction Rebellion protestors at their sit down on the busiest intersection in Melbourne City, Australia. The police were very restrained. Are they in agreement with the protestors? They do have family of their own.  

Climate economics researchers have often underestimated – sometimes badly underestimated – the costs of damages resulting from climate change.  Those underestimates occur particularly in scenarios where Earth’s temperature warms beyond the Paris climate target of 1.5 to 2 degrees C (2.7 to 3.6 degrees F). That’s the conclusion of a new report written by a team of climate and Earth scientists and economists from the Earth…

I feel like I am safe in saying that we are not thriving on our changing planet – and we will not in the coming decadesMy house in Altadena burned down in the wildfires on Wednesday. It all happened quickly. On Tuesday around 7pm, my wife and daughters went to a hotel as a precaution. I left the house with the dogs when the mandatory evacuation…

On Christmas Day in 1741, when Swedish scientist Anders Celsius first noted down the temperature in his Uppsala observatory using his own 100-point – or “Centi-grade” – scale, he would have had no idea that this was to be his greatest legacy. A newly published, engrossing biography – Celsius: a Life and Death by Degrees  – by Ian Hembrow, tells the life story of the man…

The image below, made with a screenshot from Berkeley Earth, shows an annual average temperature rise of 3°C or more in 2050 in China for each of the three scenarios looked at. China is important, it has a large well-educated population and a large part of global emissions is released in China. Some countries face even more dire prospects. Have people been told how dire the…

The Rev Sue Parfitt has lost right to conduct religious ceremonies after her arrest at a Just Stop Oil demonstrationAn 82-year-old retired priest has spoken of her pain at losing her right to conduct religious ceremonies because of her participation in Just Stop Oil protests.The Rev Sue Parfitt was arrested in May after allegedly causing damage to the glass around Magna Carta at the British Library…

Reflections after reading Sarah Milburn’s article on ‘Young People and Hope’ and Russell Brown’s article on LinkedIn – ‘Trust – building (and rebuilding)’. Although many young people think climate change is an important societal issue, studies indicate that pessimism, anxiety and fear is common. How do we communicate with young people around these issues? How do we find ways to instil hope? Will doom-and-gloom messages scare…

‘Risk’ analyses largely ignore the dangers of the climate crisis. Unless we wake up to them, they will soon outweigh all others The Irish sea captain who in 1751 discovered the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (Amoc) – closely connected with, though not identical to, the Gulf Stream – found a practical use for it: he used the frigid deeper water to cool his wine.That may seem…

Rapid progress in the use of machine learning for weather and climate models is evident almost everywhere, but can we distinguish between real advances and vaporware? First off, let’s define some terms to maximize clarity. Machine Learning (ML) is a broad term to distinguish any kind of statistical fitting of large data sets to complicated functions (various flavors of neural nets etc.), but it’s simpler to…

Sikeade Egbuwalo is the biodiversity lead at Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Environment. Here in Nigeria, we are suffering badly from forest loss and degradation. We are losing our unique wild animals and plants and suffering from encroaching deserts, failing rainy seasons, declining wetlands and diminishing food supplies. Our Indigenous communities are struggling to survive on the land where they have sustainably lived for millennia. To tackle…

Oil spills can pollute large volumes of surrounding water – thousands of times greater than the spill itself – causing long-term economic, environmental, social and ecological damage. Effective methods for in situ capture of spilled oil are thus essential to minimize contamination from such disasters. Many oil spill cleanup technologies, however, exhibit poor hydrodynamic stability under complex flow conditions, which leads to poor oil-capture efficiency. To…

Aug 18, 2022 OUR LOCAL presented by AFL Players For Climate Action, reconnects past & present AFL players with their junior clubs to talk about the importance of local footy and how renewable energy can help protect its future.AFL fans will be happy to see the massive percentage of AFL footballers pushing for greater climate action. See what they have done at their local clubs. CLICK HERE…

The image below, adapted from Climate Reanalyzer, shows the temperature in the year 2100, in a CMIP6 SSP585 scenario. The image shows how much the temperature will have risen in 2100, at 2 meters above the surface and compared to the period 1979-2000.  The image below shows a progressive temperature rise reaching 4.589°C in 2100 compared to the same period, i.e. 1979-2000 and in a CMIP6…

Sustainability Victoria is serving up reusable cups at Australian Open 2025 to reduce single-use plastic waste and encourage people to reuse. Tennis fans will be able to sip sustainably during AO 2025 with 38,000 reusable cups from Sustainability Victoria replacing single-use cups in selected bars around the precinct. It’s projected 50,000 single-use cups will be avoided at the tournament, equivalent to 400 kg of plastic. Future reuse…

Water inundates the marshes along Delaware Bay, which provide protection against flooding and erosion, as well as habitat for migrating birds. Read More…

 “Plans for two industrial pellet plants would increase carbon emissions and hurt the health of rural communities, campaigners warn. By Phoebe CookeonMar 4, 2024 @ 10:56 PST Series: Drax: The UK’s ‘Carbon Neutral’ Biomass Power Plant The wood pellets Drax produces are treated as “carbon neutral” under international accounting rules, based on an assumption that new-growth trees will capture the carbon lost by wood burnt for…

Following its win in October at the Australian Water Association (AWA) Victorian Water Awards, Victorian utility South East Water has netted two more awards at this year’s Asian Water Awards, held in late 2024. The utility’s Hydrotrak Geofencing technology received the Water Technology Excellence (Research and Development) – Australia award, as well as the Water Technology Excellence (Water Resource Management) – Australia award, at the Asian Water Awards. Developed by…

 “Michael Mann Wins $1 Million Verdict In Defamation Trial Victory over climate deniers sends a strong message in defense of climate science and scientists. By Diane Bernard and Adam M. LowensteinonFeb 8, 2024 @ 14:04 PST Professor Michael E. Mann’s lawyer called attacks on the scientist “vile.” Credit: Julian Meehan/Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) “In a victory for climate scientists, jurors in Michael Mann’s defamation case against Rand Simberg…

A report produced by World Weather Attribution (WWA) and Climate Central finds that 2024 was quite a year for extreme weather events fuelled by climate change. Several trends manifested and strengthened throughout the year, with extreme weather dominating from the beginning to the end, which scientists say is the warmest ever recorded. The impacts are pretty staggering, with the analysis finding that the climate crisis contributed…

You may have noticed that the weather where you live is getting warmer and wilder over time, and you may know this is a part of climate change. But after that, you’re a little unclear on the details. If you’re feeling guilty about not knowing everything there is to know, let’s get real. Sometimes the news about climate change seems overwhelming. Learning more about a problem…

Under the cloak of darkness, Iceberg A-83 wiggled away from glue-like sea ice and drifted farther from the Brunt Ice Shelf—but not without sustaining some damage. Read More…

This webinar will detail recent efforts in proton exchange membrane-based low temperature electrolysis degradation, focused on losses due to simulated start-stop operation and anode catalyst layer redox transitions. Ex situ testing indicated that repeated redox cycling accelerates catalyst dissolution, due to near-surface reduction and the higher dissolution kinetics of metals when cycling to high potentials. Similar results occurred in situ, where a large decrease in cell…

Update on October 30, 2024: This Landsat image shows ghost forests in North Carolina. Congratulations to Eric JF Kleijssen for being the first reader to identify the location. Read more about the area in “Ghost Forests Creep into North Carolina.” Every month on Earth Matters, we offer a puzzling satellite image. The October 2024 puzzler is shown above. Your challenge is to use the comments section to…

Unbearable heat and worsening storms prompt residents of states such as Florida to move elsewhereAs a Rust belt town of 65,000 people in eastern Indiana, Muncie may not be the most exciting place in the world. It doesn’t have beaches, year-round warm weather or much in the way of cosmopolitanism.But for Laura Rivas, a cybersecurity engineer formerly of North Miami Beach, Florida, Muncie is perfect. Continue…

  YouTube”Both Oman and the UAE, which hosted last year’s COP28 UN climate talks, have previously warned that global warming is likely to lead to more flooding.Friederike Otto, a leader in the field of assessing the role of climate change on specific extreme weather events, said it was likely that global warming played a part in this week’s rain.”It is highly likely that the deadly and destructive…

The daily average carbon dioxide (CO₂) at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, was 428.60 parts per million (ppm) on February 6, 2025, the highest daily average on record. The previous record high was 428.59 ppm on April 26, 2024. To find higher levels, one needs to go back millions of years (see inset). CO₂ typically reaches its annual maximum in May, so even higher levels can be expected…

The temperature in the Tropics (23.5°S-23.5°N, 0-360°E) reached a new record high on April 24, 2024 of 27°C (or 80.6°F). The image below shows the monthly temperature anomaly over the past few years through March 2024, when the anomaly reached a record high of 1.448°C (or 2.606°F).  Note that the anomaly in the top image is calculated from 1979-2000 as a base, while anomalies in the above image…

For academic researchers, the cell format for testing lithium-ion batteries is often overlooked. However, choices in cell format and their design can affect cell performance more than one may expect. Coin cells that utilize either a lithium metal or greatly oversized graphite negative electrode are common but can provide unrealistic testing results when compared to commercial pouch-type cells. Instead, single-layer pouch cells provide a more similar…

UN endorsed projects that slow down the rate of global warmingBuying time for the world to make the transition to low-emission economies. Projects have different standards, such as Verra and Gold Standard, and are subject to a rigorous certification and verification process, and must submit regular updates and reports. To be certified, projects must have verifiable attributes. AdditionalityThe project is justified and the the carbon emission…

Firefighters have been rescuing people stranded on their balconies and rooftops after Storm Boris triggered flooding and landslides in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. Two people were reported missing in Traversara, a hamlet in Ravenna province, and about 1,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. Storm Boris has battered parts of Italy after causing havoc in eastern and central EuropeTwo missing and 1,000 evacuated…

New research out of the University of California, Davis and Stanford University has found that storing carbon dioxide in building materials could hugely reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. The study, conducted by civil engineers and earth systems scientists, has been published in the journal Science. “The potential is pretty large,” said Elisabeth Van Roijen, who led the study as a graduate student at UC Davis. Van…

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has invested $100 million in a new affordable build-to-rent (BTR) strategy managed by AXA IM Alts, which aims to bring the benefits of clean energy technologies to sustainable, affordable homes across Australia’s largest cities. In its initial stages, the strategy is targeting as many as 3000 apartments in key worker employment hubs, with at least 50% offered at a discounted rate…

John Vaillant, the author of Fire Weather, explains why fires such as those in Los Angeles are different from those beforeWhen writing about the hot, dry Santa Ana winds and how they affect the behavior and imaginations of southern Californians, Joan Didion once said: “The winds show us how close to the edge we are.”I’ve lived here my entire life. I evacuated my family’s hillside home…

The image below shows that temperatures in the Tropics (23.5°S-23.5°N, 0-360°E) were very high during the second half of April 2024, and these very high temperatures were sustained during the first part of May 2024. The temperature was 26.9°C (or 80.42°F) on May 11, 2024, an anomaly of 1.1°C (or 1.98°F) from 1979-2000. The image below shows the average monthly temperature anomaly over the past few years through April…

The April 2024 temperature was 1.32°C higher than 1951-1980, as illustrated by the above image, created with NASA content. Local anomalies are as high as 6.2°C. The April 2024 temperature was 1.62°C higher than 1900-1930, as illustrated by the above image, created with NASA content. The red line highlights acceleration of the temperature rise (Lowess Smoothing). The image below, created with NOAA content, uses a LOESS filter (green line) to…

On May 11, 2024, the day-night band of VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) on the Suomi NPP satellite spotted the aurora borealis over the United States during the strongest geomagnetic storm in over two decades. That same night, observers on the ground captured spectacular photographs of the dazzling light. The following photos represent just a handful of those shot by citizen scientists as part of NASA’s Aurorasaurus…

Perrine Fournier is a trade and forests campaigner at the forests and rights NGO Fern The view from the highest vantage point in Kabaena island is awe-inspiring. Mountain peaks coated with thin clouds rise over a thick blanket of vegetation. But the natural beauty of this tropical island in Indonesia’s Southeast Sulawesi province, belies the human and environmental damage that’s unfolding below – and which is…

Neshwin Rodrigues and Duttatreya Das are energy analysts at Ember High cost of capital is a major barrier to the rollout of renewable energy across the Global South. The Alliance of Small Island States has highlighted this repeatedly, and last year the International Energy Agency (IEA) concluded that across a range of developing and emerging economies, raising capital to build utility-scale solar projects costs twice as…

The precise geometry of the protected area encompassing an iconic New Zealand volcano is unmistakable from space. Read More…

Hosting the conference would help us overcome our colonial mentality and the fossil fuel lobby, both of which have held us back from tackling climate changeGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAs the world grapples with the climate crisis, Australia stands at a crossroads. Our bid to co-host the UN’s climate conference, Cop31, with Pacific nations is not just a diplomatic event;…

The perpetually restless and occasionally explosive volcano in New Zealand has been emitting steam, volcanic gases, and a bit of ash.   Read More…

Several plumes billowed from Los Angeles-area fires in the days after their ignition. Read More…

There are moments in history when we are called to pause, to reflect, and to ask ourselves: What does it mean to resist? What does it mean to rise? Maya Angelou’s poem Still I Rise has long been a source of inspiration for those of us who refuse to be broken by oppression. It is more than just a poem—it is a declaration, a shield, and…

Lush green hillsides turned brown after Cyclone Chido hit the islands in December 2024. Read More…

The image below indicates that Arctic sea ice volume has meanwhile passed its annual maximum. Over the coming months, volume can be expected to decrease rapidly. The image also highlights that, over the past few months, Arctic sea ice volume has been the lowest on record for the time of year. The image below illustrates the decline of Arctic sea ice volume over the years. The…

Earth’s Energy Imbalance is now about four times as high as it was a decade ago, as illustrated by the above image, by Eliot Jacobson. As a result, feedbacks are starting to kick in with greater ferocity. Water vapor feedback One such feedback is the water vapor feedback. The temperature rise results in more evaporation, i.e. more water vapor and heat will enter the atmosphere, much…

It’s 20 years since we started blogging on climate here on RealClimate (December 10, 2004). We wanted to counter disinformation about climate change that was spreading through various campaigns. In those days it was an unusual move that prompted a welcome from Nature.  One thing that I didn’t anticipate then was the vast global scale that fake news and conspiracy theories later would attain. Neither did…

In Brief: Such high-tide flooding that inundates roads and buildings along the west coast of the Americas tends to be uncommon outside of El Niño years, but that could change by the 2030s. An analysis by NASA’s sea level change science team finds that if a strong El Niño develops this winter, cities along the western coasts of the Americas could see an increase in the…

An extratropical storm system dropped torrential rains on parts of Morocco and Algeria. Read More…

The older and newer cities of the Greater Cairo region look very different at night when viewed from above. Read More…

The above image, created with monthly mean global temperature anomalies by LOTI Land+Ocean NASA/GISS/GISTEMP v4 data while using a 1903-1924 base, has a trend added based on Jan 2016-Aug 2024 data. The image also shows that anomalies could be 0.99°C higher when using a more genuine pre-industrial base. The image below featured in an earlier post and was created with an image from the NASA website…

There is a need to make climate science more agile and more responsive, and that means moving (some of it) from research to operations. Readers here will know that the climate science community has had a hard time giving quantitative explanations for what’s happened in climate over the last couple of decades. Similarly, we are still using scenarios that were designed more than a decade ago…

San Fernando, one of the affected areas pictured on the 7th of January 2025. Image credit: By P. Rivas – CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia. By Anders Lorenzen The Southern California wildfires, burning on their sixth day since emerging on the 7th of January and have devastated large parts of Greater Los Angeles (LA), are set to be the state’s largest and most extreme weather event…

Governments should promise in their next round of climate plans, due by early next year, not to build any new coal-fired power stations and to shut down existing ones early, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said. Speaking on Monday at an old London coal power plant-turned-shopping centre, IEA head Fatih Birol said he would be “very happy” to see new NDCs (Nationally…

A razor-thin vote in favour of the EU’s nature restoration law on Monday has salvaged the bloc’s ability to restore its carbon sinks and reach its net zero goal, top officials told Climate Home. The regulation, which tasks the EU’s 27 member states with reviving their land and water habitats and planting billions of trees, was narrowly passed by EU environment ministers. The controversial law only…