Battle of the skies as airlines fight over impact of contrails on the climate

This report summary says ‘Vapour trails conundrum resurfaces’. Cloud formation plays an uncertain part in the debate, for example. An experiment using AI found that real time route selection could play a part in reducing the supposed ’emissions’ problem. Proposed financial penalties for airlines are inevitably resisted, but they’re up against net zero climate obsession.
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Airlines are usually rather good at presenting a united face to the world, particularly when it comes to lobbying global policymakers, says The Telegraph.

But a recent move by the EU to clampdown on so-called contrails, the vapour that spews from an aircraft’s jet engines in a thin cloud-like formation, has set carriers at each other’s throats.

The International Air Transport Association (Iata), which counts most of the world’s flag-carriers among its members, has lobbied Brussels to limit the mandatory monitoring of contrails to only flights within the bloc, in an effort to ease the burden of data collection.

But it has stoked the ire of low-cost operators including EasyJet and Ryanair.

Research quantifies ‘gap’ in CO2 removal – a climate target with no viable plans?

Having been told by the UN-IPCC that nature’s own carbon cycle isn’t up to the job any more, the manufactured problem for climate-obsessed governments seems to be the lack of any ‘carbon removal’ method that is (a) affordable and (b) effective, in terms of the scale of the supposed need. Such is the strange world of climate policy today.
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New research involving the University of East Anglia (UEA) suggests that countries’ current plans to remove CO2 from the atmosphere will not be enough to comply with the 1.5ºC warming limit set out under the Paris Agreement, says Phys.org.

Since 2010, the United Nations environmental organization UNEP has taken an annual measurement of the emissions gap—the difference between countries’ climate protection pledges and what is necessary to limit global heating to 1.5ºC, or at least below 2ºC [Talkshop comment – according to unproven IPCC climate theories].

The UNEP Emissions Gap Reports are clear: climate policy needs more ambition. This new study now explicitly applies this analytical concept to carbon dioxide removal (CDR)—the removal of the most important greenhouse gas, CO2, from the atmosphere.

Net zero CO2 emissions: A damaging and totally unnecessary goal – Roy Spencer explains why

We may not believe CO2 plays a big part in global atmospherics anyway, but even if it somehow does, the full story is not being told according to this information. Quote: ‘Even though the CO2 emissions continue, atmospheric CO2 levels start to fall around 2060.’
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The goal of reaching “net zero” global anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide sounds overwhelmingly difficult.

But that’s not true, because nature doesn’t work that way, says Dr.Roy Spencer (via Climate Change Dispatch).

While humanity continues producing CO2 at increasing rates (with a temporary pause during COVID), how can we ever reach the point where these emissions start to fall, let alone reach zero by 2050 or 2060?

What isn’t being discussed (as far as I can tell) is the fact that atmospheric CO2 levels (which we will assume for the sake of discussion causes global warming) will start to fall even while humanity is producing lots of CO2.

Net zero mania update: German transport minister warns of weekend driving ban

Unsurprisingly he gets accused of ‘scaremongering through absurd proposals’. But isn’t the real issue a blind insistence on the unworkable ideology of so-called climate policy that lies behind the proposals? Muttering about pollution is just a means of confusing people into accepting the argument that CO2 is a problem.
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Germany’s transport minister has warned that driving will have to be banned at the weekends unless the country’s net zero laws are changed, says The Telegraph.

Volker Wissing’s FDP party wants the law amended so the polluting transport sector can miss carbon emissions reduction targets, as long as Germany as a whole reaches them. [Talkshop comment – carbon dioxide isn’t a pollutant].

But the change is opposed by the Greens, who are part of the three-way coalition with the pro-business FDP and the Social Democrats (SPD), led by Olaf Scholz, the chancellor.

Negotiations over the law have dragged on since September last year.

Is tree planting overrated as a climate benefit? Researchers think so

Nature’s carbon cycle carries on regardless.
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Roughly a third of the climate cooling that forests achieve by removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere is offset through changes to atmospheric composition and decreased surface reflectivity, researchers report.

The findings suggest that the benefits of wide-scale forestation efforts may be overestimated and do not represent a single solution for addressing climate change, says EurekAlert.

They also highlight the urgency of simultaneously focusing on emissions reductions. Planting trees has been widely promoted as a nature-based solution to remove anthropogenic CO2 from the atmosphere to help mitigate ongoing climate warming.

However, wide-scale forest expansion may drive feedbacks within the Earth system that lead to warming.

Temperatures are rising, but soil is getting wetter, confounding climate theorists

One overlooked factor was the CO2 fertilization effect in plant photosynthesis. The researchers found that “it’s virtually impossible to predict soil moisture in the coming decades”, contrary to some alarmist notions about future droughts.
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Soil moisture can determine how quickly a wildfire spreads, how fast a hill turns into a mudslide and, perhaps most importantly, how productive our food systems are, says Eurekalert.

As temperatures rise due to human-caused climate change [Talkshop comment – evidence-free assertion of cause], some researchers are concerned that soils will dry.

However, between 2011 to 2020, soil moisture increased across 57% of the United States during summer, the warmest time of year.

Why did soil get wetter even as the planet got hotter?

Trillions being wasted on climate emergency – reader’s letter to local paper

Commonsense from a citizen objecting to the vast sums being frittered away on futile and unachievable dogma-driven objectives in the name of somehow ‘correcting’ the global climate.
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With reference to your article Sit For Climate Protests At Station, I would like to point out an alternative view.

So begins a reader’s letter in the Newark Advertiser.
. . .
The reader concludes:
By focusing on C02 we are spending trillions on inefficient renewables and EV vehicles rather than using the money for real environmental issues and adapting to changing climatic conditions.

Source: Reader’s letter [pdf].

WMO’s missing CO2-climate correlation?

The alarmist WMO has put out a graphic on X/Twitter (Talkshop copy here) showing hardly any global warming increase (in blue) between 1940 and the 1970s, followed by a clear transition (to red) since then. This doesn’t correlate with the monotonic CO2 rise during that period. Weather expert Joe Bastardi is delighted: ‘Merry Christmas from the World Meteorological Organization’.

Another one from the WMO – “off the charts” – showing September-November temperature anomalies right back to 1850, agrees:

Where does that leave greenhouse gas theories? Joe Bastardi has a few ideas.
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Update: Net Zero Watch wades in to the debate —
2023: Global temperature, statistics and hot air

Another ‘net zero’ tax: UK to implement carbon tariff on imports by 2027

The government’s war on a vital trace gas in the atmosphere ratchets up yet again, burdening everyone with more pointless bureaucracy and costs. That includes importers of renewables and electric vehicles.
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Britain said on Monday (18 December) it would implement a new import carbon pricing mechanism by 2027, with goods imported from countries with a lower or no carbon price having to pay a levy as part of decarbonisation efforts, reports Euractiv.

The government said the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) would apply to carbon intensive products in the iron, steel, aluminium, fertiliser, hydrogen, ceramics, glass and cement sectors.

The charge applied will depend on the amount of carbon emitted in the production of the imported good, and the gap between the carbon price applied in the country of origin – if any – and the carbon price faced by UK producers.

UK climate minister mocked for 6,313-mile round trip by plane for ‘crunch’ Rwanda vote

Airport scene
[image credit: Wikipedia]

From one so-called crisis to another. Net zero CO2 obsession takes a back seat to pressing political needs.
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The UK’s minister for climate will make a 6,313-mile round trip to take part in the government’s crunch vote on Rwanda, Number 10 has confirmed.

Graham Stuart has been in Dubai for the COP28 summit, where leaders from around the world have been discussing the best ways to tackle the climate crisis, says Sky News.

But key talks have stalled over commitments to phase out fossil fuels, with negotiations carrying on through the night to try and find agreement between different nations.
. . .
NGOs (non-governmental organisations) at COP have accused the UK of going “AWOL” at a key time, claiming the British government had let millions of people down.

Confirming the decision to summon Mr Stuart, the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “Ministers have a number of roles, the negotiations continue and he will return to COP.”

The return flight is the equivalent of travelling from London to Edinburgh and back 10 times, and will emit around two tonnes of CO2, according to environmental charity Treedom.

Asked about the carbon emissions from the flights, the spokesman added: “This government is not anti-flying.” [Talkshop comment – especially if it’s illegal immigrants to Rwanda].

“We don’t lecture the public to that regard. The most important thing is the outcomes of COP, which minister Stuart is obviously leading for the UK on.”
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The return of Mr Stuart was the subject of ridicule from shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper as the debate began on Mr Sunak’s bill.

She told MPs: “The climate minister called back from the Dubai COP before the vote?

“Well, I guess they can say at least one flight has taken off as a result of this legislation.”

Full article here.

New research suggests plants might be able to absorb more CO2 from human activities than previously expected

Biology has been underestimated. Anything that relies on photosynthesis just takes whatever CO2 molecules it can get for its needs, regardless of current climate theories.
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New research published in Science Advances paints an uncharacteristically upbeat picture for the planet, says Phys.org.

This is because more realistic ecological modeling suggests the world’s plants may be able to take up more atmospheric CO2 from human activities than previously predicted.

Despite this headline finding, the environmental scientists behind the research are quick to underline that this should in no way be taken to mean the world’s governments can take their foot off the brake in their obligations to reduce carbon emissions as fast as possible. [Talkshop comment – smell the fear of losing funding].

Simply planting more trees and protecting existing vegetation is not a golden-bullet solution but the research does underline the multiple benefits to conserving such vegetation.

“Plants take up a substantial amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) every year, thereby slowing down the detrimental effects of climate change, but the extent to which they will continue this CO2 uptake into the future has been uncertain,” explains Dr. Jürgen Knauer, who headed the research team led by the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at Western Sydney University.

“What we found is that a well-established climate model that is used to feed into global climate predictions made by the likes of the IPCC predicts stronger and sustained carbon uptake until the end of the 21st century when it accounts for the impact of some critical physiological processes that govern how plants conduct photosynthesis.

“We accounted for aspects like how efficiently carbon dioxide can move through the interior of the leaf, how plants adjust to changes in temperatures, and how plants most economically distribute nutrients in their canopy. These are three really important mechanisms that affect a plant’s ability to ‘fix’ carbon, yet they are commonly ignored in most global models” said Dr. Knauer.

Photosynthesis is the scientific term for the process in which plants convert—or “fix”—CO2 into the sugars they use for growth and metabolism. This carbon fixing serves as a natural climate change mitigator by reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere; it is this increased uptake of CO2 by vegetation that is the primary driver of an increasing land carbon sink reported over the last few decades.
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Silvia Caldararu, Assistant Professor in Trinity’s School of Natural Sciences, was involved in the study. Contextualizing the findings and their relevance, she said, “Because the majority of terrestrial biosphere models used to assess the global carbon sink are located at the lower end of this complexity range, accounting only partially for these mechanisms or ignoring them altogether, it is likely that we are currently underestimating climate change effects on vegetation as well as its resilience to changes in climate.

“We often think about climate models as being all about physics, but biology plays a huge role and it is something that we really need to account for.”

Full article here.

UK sued for counting wood burning with carbon capture as ‘negative emissions’

Biomass on the move [image credit: Drax]

Denounced by one opponent as ‘an accounting gimmick’ and ‘double counting’. The whole biomass from trees industry is once more outed as little more than a giant subsidy-grabbing confidence trick, from energy-intensive conversion of wood into pellets all the way to so-called carbon capture. Where are the real world benefits in this hugely expensive system?
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Environmental groups are taking the UK government to court on Monday (13 November) over plans to spend billions on Biomass with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), a technology aimed at removing CO2 from the atmosphere that is also being promoted by the European Union, says Euractiv.

Plaintiffs say BECCS technology relies on flawed accounting assumptions because it sees the carbon captured from wood burning as negative emissions when the process is at best neutral from a climate perspective.

“The government’s rationale for BECCS as providing negative emissions violates international carbon accounting protocols underpinning the Paris Agreement, to which the UK is a signatory,” said a statement from The Lifescape Project and the Partnership for Policy Integrity (PPI), two environmental groups that are the complainants in the case.

“Burning forest biomass and relying on BECCS for negative emissions will not contribute to the government’s legal obligation to achieve net zero by 2050,” they warned.

Do human greenhouse gas emissions cause significant climate change? Two new papers have serious doubts

Climate hype

The Manhattan Contrarian takes a look at some recently published research. The author of the article says ‘Data appears to refute, and certainly does not prove the endlessly repeated claims of impending climate doom from CO2 emissions’. (First part of article omitted below. See links provided for more about the studies and further discussion).
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The climate science community calls its system for establishing causation “detection and attribution” studies, says Francis Menton (via Climate Change Dispatch).

The basic idea is to come up with a model (i.e., a hypothesis) that predicts global warming based on increased greenhouse gases, and then collect data that show a very close match between what the model predicted and the data.

Correlation with the model’s predictions is the claimed proof of causation. There are hundreds of such studies in the climate literature.

The world needs to cut ‘carbon intensity’ seven times faster to limit warming to 1.5°C – say net-zero obsessed analysts

CO2 is not pollution

It’s dangerous, *we must* do this that and the other, ambition, fight, requirements etc. When will the tedious climate ranting ever stop? Endless stats come and go, announcing the latest failures of policies supposedly intended to arrange global temperatures to some fraction of a degree. The more they complain, the faster total energy consumption rises, defeating all attempts at control by (as Bill Gates put it) ‘jerking around with renewables’.
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The world is falling dangerously short of the ambition that is needed to secure a safe future climate, according to new analysis by PwC, and as a result we need to fight to prevent every fraction of a degree of warming. [Talkshop comment – fight with what?]

PwC’s latest Net Zero Economy Index shows that a year-on-year decarbonisation rate of 17.2% (up from 15.2% last year) is now required to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels – seven times greater than what was achieved over the last year (2.5%) and 12 times faster than the global average (1.4%) over the past two decades.

To put this into perspective, since 2000, no G20 country has achieved a decarbonisation rate of more than 11% in a single year – the highest level was achieved by the UK in 2014 (-10.9%).

The Index provides a stark illustration of the growing divergence between the global ambition to tackle climate change and the reality of current progress.

EU reaches deal banning ‘climate-neutral’ product claims

Game over by 2026?
[image credit: climateneutral.org]

The nonsense of climate greenwashing takes a hit, starting 2026.
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In the wake of longstanding complaints of greenwashing by consumer advocates, EU institutions finalised a new law on Tuesday (19 September) enacting a sweeping ban to combat the misleading of its citizens through erroneous claims of sustainability, reports Euractiv.

In March 2022, the European Commission proposed a law to empower consumers, which, following the conclusion of negotiations between EU countries and Parliament, will now ban companies from claiming that their products are climate-neutral.

“We have achieved an excellent deal for consumers,” said the S&D’s Biljana Borzan, a Croatian EU lawmaker who spearheaded the negotiations on behalf of Parliament.

The law, which still requires final approval by EU countries and the parliament’s plenary assembly – a formality – will be felt from 2026, as EU countries will be given two years’ time to adopt the changes.

Experts (?) warn ‘green growth’ in high income countries is not happening, call for ‘post-growth’ climate policies

CO2 is not pollution

More climate gobbledygook from miserablists who want to impose their obsessive and negative ideas on everyone else, by insisting that tiny amounts of the essential trace gas CO2 are an enormous problem leading the world to their imaginary catastrophe.
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The emission reductions in the 11 high-income countries that have “decoupled” CO2 emissions from Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fall far short of the reductions that are necessary to limit global warming to 1.5°C or even just to “well below 2°C” and comply with international fairness principles, as required by the Paris Agreement, according to a paper published in The Lancet Planetary Health journal.

Politicians and media have been celebrating recent decoupling achievements of high-income countries as “green growth” — claiming this could reconcile economic growth with climate targets, says Phys.org.

To investigate this claim, the new study compared carbon emission reductions in these countries with the reductions required under the Paris Agreement.

“There is nothing green about economic growth in high-income countries,” says lead author of the study, Jefim Vogel, from the Sustainability Research Institute at the University of Leeds, UK.

Climate change is messing with photosynthesis, say ‘carbon neutrality’ seekers

Photosynthesis [image credit: Nefronus @ Wikipedia]

The study abstract claims ‘Their results illustrate one more way in which the adverse effects of climate warming make it more difficult to achieve carbon neutrality.’ Even good news can turn into bad news in glass-half-empty climate modelling land.
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Increases in CO2 in the atmosphere brought about by anthropogenic activity was expected to increase the rate of photosynthesis in plants and perhaps increase plant yield and growth, says Cosmos magazine.

New science has showed the rate of photosynthesis around the globe has been increasing, but now there is evidence the rate has slowed and might soon plateau.

During photosynthesis plants take water and CO2 and convert it into oxygen and carbohydrates – storing carbon inside the plant and soil. A higher availability of CO2 increases the rate of this process, acting as a sort of brake on global warming by sequestering more CO2.

However, a new modelling study, published in the journal Science, has found that the increase in photosynthesis has slowed since 2001 due to an adverse effect of climate change.

Roy Spencer: New paper pushes climate fearmongering to stratospheric heights

Credit: nationalreview.com

Once again pushback is required against scientists using climate models to promote their biased ‘human-caused warming’ agenda.
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A new paper by Santer et al. provocatively entitled “Exceptional stratospheric contribution to human fingerprints on atmospheric temperature” goes where no serious climate scientist should go: it has conflated stratospheric cooling with global warming, says Dr. Roy Spencer (via Climate Change Dispatch).

The paper starts out summarizing the supposed importance of their work, which is worth quoting in its entirety (author’s emphasis):

New study estimates global warming potential of hydrogen – 12 times CO2

Earth’s atmosphere [image credit: BBC]

That’s if we believe results from the climate models, anyway. Add this to the growing list of real and imagined hydrogen problems.
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The global warming effect of leaked hydrogen is almost 12 times stronger than CO2, shows a new study by CICERO, a climate research center, published in Communications Earth & Environment.

The study fills a gap in our knowledge about the climate effects of hydrogen, a central technology in the energy transition, says Phys.org.

Unlike exhaust from burning coal and gas that contains CO2, burning hydrogen emits only water vapor and oxygen. Rather, it is the leaking of hydrogen from production, transportation and usage that adds to global warming. [Talkshop comment – so the theory goes].

Grounded – France bans short-haul flights to cut ‘carbon’ emissions

CO2 is not pollution

France is scared of the vital trace gas carbon dioxide, or so its government leads us to believe.
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France has banned domestic short-haul flights where train alternatives exist, in a bid to cut carbon emissions, reports BBC News.

The law came into force two years after lawmakers had voted to end routes where the same journey could be made by train in under two-and-a-half hours.

The ban all but rules out air travel between Paris and cities including Nantes, Lyon and Bordeaux, while connecting flights are unaffected.

Critics have described the latest measures as “symbolic bans”.