"The World Bank has approved a loan of US$750 million (RM3.54 billion) to Colombia, to help the country become more resilient in the face of climate change by buoying up renewable energy efforts and reducing carbon emissions, the bank said yesterday."
That follows a December 2022 loan of US$1 billion.
Articles like this make the lender look good but almost never disclose the terms. Is it aid, or is it rent seeking?
Huge debt costs mean climate spending could make emerging nations insolvent
"Emerging countries will pay a record $400 billion to service external #debt this year, and 47 of them cannot spend the money they need for #ClimateAdaptation and #SustainableDevelopment without risking default in the next five years, according to a report released on the eve of IMF/World Bank spring meetings."
If you absolutely knew with 100% guarantee that any houses on the coast (including like all of Manhattan) will be swept away by storms in the next 20 years, what would you do?
Whatever that is, we're not doing it.
It's... like... people don't actually believe climate change is real even when they say they do. They don't ACT like they understand it, not in a concrete way, not when it means they have to change something like where they live.
In 2000, ND was estimated to have enough wind to double US electrical output. Just ND. But hey! then they discovered #tarsands and no one was willing to invest in transmission.
The primary driver of energy demand is #climateadaptation. Not AI, not crypto, although they are crazy big.
#ClimateDiary Storm #Henk has turned out to be quite bad. A fatality, storm damage and flood alerts across the country. #Floods and ongoing rain in Germany too, and maybe elsewhere? We will have more and more of all this, of course.
@NatureMC yes - it is all more extreme, less evenly distributed. I don’t know whether we will manage to “adapt”, or what this even means, given it is all going to get more and more extreme. Maybe new ways for storing water and redistributing it over larger regions and longer seasons will be developed? I have no idea what’s possible, or what’s already planned or discussed. #Water#Infrastructure#ClimateAdaptation#Aquaplanning (just made up this word, but maybe it exists 😊 )
The nation’s capital, built on water, struggles to keep from drowning
"At risk are the national treasures housed inside the Federal Triangle, the low-lying area between the White House and the Capitol, home to 39 critical government facilities, $14 billion in property and irreplaceable artifacts of America’s history."
And properties along the "zombie streams" throughout DC that are awakened increasingly often by #ExtremeRain events.
What is Australia's fair share when it comes to financing the necessary climate transition?
In a headline today, the Australian government has pledged AU$150m in #ClimateFinance for Pacific nations.
Good news, right? Isn't this PM Anthony #Albanese "ending the #ClimateWars" by actually doing what #Australia ought to have done years ago? Let's consider that assumption.
Back in 2009 at the much hyped, but ultimately deeply disappointing international climate negotiations in #Copenhagen known as #COP15, one step forward that was agreed, even as more comprehensive or ambitious agreements slipped away was that the wealthy nations of the world (including #Australia) collectively pledged to be providing US$100b each year to help the poorer nations transition away from #FossilFuels (#ClimateMitigation) and develop in ways that help societies adapt to the warming that cannot be mitigated (#ClimateAdaptation).
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The provision of US$100b in #ClimateFinance per year was promised by 2020, with a #GreenClimateFund being set up in 2010–11 and national contributions commencing in subsequent years. An updated agreement in 2012 clarified that these funds had to be "new and additional", i.e. not simply a rebranding of existing #ForeignAid. And they had to be made to the international Green Climate Fund, not via other bilateral or multilateral agreements.
Disputes over the international distribution of responsibilities for funding #ClimateMitigation and #ClimateAdaptation measures—costly measures that would benefit everyone—had long been one of the main sticking points in the decades of UN climate negotiations since 1992 when the #UNFCCC was established. (UNFCCC = United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, i.e. the international agreement to have international climate negotiations in the first place, and how to go about those negotiations.)
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I have yet properly to read the plan but I’m curious whether it’s been fully costed and if those full costs are in departmental budgets? I strongly suspect not…
"#Maladaptation is usually understood as referring to the unintended consequences of well-meant measures to reduce #ClimateVulnerability. But it also includes the fallout from decisions that favour technical fixes over more holistic approaches."
"Our goals are to illuminate and ideally correct overlooked social and ecological impacts of #ClimateAdaptation and to address the limitations of current audit systems. These often neglect local justice and wellbeing concerns in favour of centrally planned projects aimed at reducing risks identified by engineering and insurance industries."
Currently listening to the podcast from Climate One on Community Resilience to Climate Change. A great discussion on community support, mutual aid, and creating ties that bind us together in the face of disaster. Great listen from a great podcast!
" While some level of adaptation is absolutely required — climate change is, unfortunately, here to stay — the notion that it should be our front-line response is flawed at its core. Relying on adaptation as a primary strategy is a recipe for widespread misery and conflict."
Right now, could you prepare a slice of toast with zero embodied carbon emissions?
Since at least the 2000s, big polluters have tried to frame carbon emissions as an issue to be solved through the purchasing choices of individual consumers.
Yet, right now, millions of people couldn't prepare a slice of toast without causing carbon emissions, even if they wanted to.
In many low-density single-use-zoned suburbs, the only realistic option for getting to the store to get a loaf of bread is to drive. The power coming out of the mains includes energy from coal or gas.
But.
Even if they invested in solar panels, and an inverter, and a battery system, and only used an electric toaster, and baked the loaf themselves in an electric oven, and walked/cycled/drove an EV to the store to get flour and yeast, there are still embodied carbon emissions in that loaf of bread.
Just think about the diesel powered trucks used to transport the grains and packaging to the flour factory, the energy used to power the milling equipment, and the diesel fuel used to transport that flour to the store.
Basically, unless you go completely off grid and grow your own organic wheat, your zero emissions toast just ain't happening.
And that's for the most basic of food products!
Unless we get the infrastructure in place to move to a 100% renewables and storage grid, and use it to power fully electric freight rail and zero emissions passenger transport, pretty much all of our decarbonisation efforts are non-starters.
This is fundamentally an infrastructure and public policy problem, not a problem of individual consumer choice.
@ajsadauskas@green I buy foods that have been produced as close as possible to my home. It's insane to buy milk from Queensland (3000 km away) when we have dairies here in Sth Australia.
Buying local often means buying what's in season locally and doing without for the rest of the year. This is also the cheapest way to buy fresh food.
While you're right that governments have the most power to make change, individuals can signal our willingness to make change without waiting for government.
@urlyman@ajsadauskas@green Absolutely. I put it this way: we probably have enough in the way of consumer goods to last us the next 10 years. So let's stop buying new stuff - clothes, furnishings, tech gadgetry, hobby supplies, sports gear etc - for 10 years, while we wait for new technologies to get established and new infrastructure to be built. (Is 10 years enough to develop cargo-carrying airships?)
To manage the lack of employment, put the whole population on Universal Basic Income and limit working hours to 20 per week (with some obvious exceptions).
To enable repair of goods, outlaw practices like voiding warranties if repairs are made by someone other than the manufacturer. Provide incentives for people to set up small local repair businesses.