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G20 Meeting Leaves Much to be Desired: Energy and environment ministers at the Group of 20 meeting of industrialized nations that took place in Naples, Italy late last week failed to come to a consensus on several key commitments to tackle climate change in their final communique. There were two points in particular that were not agreed upon: one was around phasing out coal-fired power generation and the other was around whether to move more quickly to decarbonize than was agreed to under the Paris Agreement. Most countries were in agreement on the first point, but several countries, including China, India and Russia objected to the language. The final communique did include an agreement that countries would boost their climate targets, known as “nationally determined contributions”, ahead of the upcoming COP26 meeting, which will take place this November in Glasgow, and the issue of coal is expected to be discussed again at another G20 summit in October. However, the failure to come to an agreement on concrete targets has experts worried about the ability of countries to make progress at COP26. “It’s a decent outcome in terms of what the expectations were. Of course, in terms of the state of the planet and the climate emergency that we’re in—the impacts that are mounting every day—it’s not adequate,” said Alden Meyer, a senior associate at E3G. (Retuers, Financial Times, Axios, The Guardian. Commentary: Justin Worland, TIME) 

Hitting Climate Target Will Create Millions of Energy Jobs: Meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement would create 8 million jobs by 2050, a new analysis published in the journal One Earth found. Currently, 18 million people globally work in the energy sector, which the study defines as only those within the energy system, not adjacent sectors like energy efficiency or electric vehicle production. If the world limited warming to well below 2°C, that number would increase to 26 million, 5 million more than if we continued on the current trajectory. Of the total energy system jobs in 2050, 84% would be in the renewables sector, 11% in fossil fuels, and 5% in nuclear. The study authors spent two years looking at data from 50 different countries, including Russia, India and China, giving a more accurate overall picture than previous studies that extrapolated data from the US and OECD countries to estimate job gains globally. There are some countries that would see net job losses, namely major fossil fuel exporters, but the majority are expected to see gains. Study author Johannes Emmerling told Fast Company that looking at the potential global job growth in the energy sector is important for “debunking some of the myths that say ‘climate policies will destroy our economy.’” (The Guardian, Fast Company) 

Hot Start to Olympics Raises Health Concerns: The 2020 Summer Olympics kicked off in Tokyo on Friday and there are already signs the toughest part of the competition may just be the extreme heat and humidity in what is expected to be the hottest Olympics on record. Temperatures in Tokyo this time of year are usually in the high 80’s, but a heat wave is pushing temperatures into the 90s. The heat index on Saturday made it feel like 100°F and humidity levels were above 80% on Sunday. Temperatures in July and August are 5.15°F/2.7°C warmer than they were last time Tokyo hosted the games in 1964, and on average, there are eight more days of 95-plus-degree weather. Athletes are feeling the heat already: ahead of the Opening Ceremony on Friday, Russian Archer Svetlana Gomboeva collapsed during a qualifying event due to the heat. The Tennis tournament, which began Saturday, was also affected by the heat, as Russian player Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova required a medical timeout after feeling dizzy due to the heat. Then, several athletes participating in the triathlon, which finished Monday morning, had to be helped off the track due to overheating. Extreme heat is now the deadliest weather event, and it is only getting worse as the planet continues warming. Despite this, currently, the International Olympic Committee doesn’t take climate change into consideration when selecting host cities. Japan’s proposal to host the 2020 games, for example, claimed “this period provides an ideal climate for athletes to perform their best” because of its “many days of mild and sunny weather.” (Overview: Wall Street Journal $, Popular Science; Weather: NBC News, Axios, Washington Post $; Gomboeva: Yahoo, Reuters $, AP; Tennis: Reuters $, AP, Insider; Health: Vox; Commentary: Dan Wetzel, Yahoo)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) INJUSTICE: A triple whammy has left many inner-city neighborhoods highly vulnerable to soaring temperatures (InsideClimate News), the Chamber of Commerce says it cares about people of color. The receipts say otherwise. (Grist), who stands to benefit most from California’s climate resilience funds? White men. (Mother Jones), “we knew who was going to die”: warnings about lower-income heat risk went unheeded (The Intercept), for families of color, climate change in New Mexico is already here, say experts (New Mexico Political Report), the heat, floods and fire we don’t hear enough about (Bloomberg $)

INDIA FLOODING: Landslides, monsoon flooding kill over 100 in western India (AP, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Reuters, Weather Channel)

WATER: Without enough water to go around, farmers in California are exhausting aquifers (NPR), marijuana farmers blamed for water theft as drought grips American west (The Guardian), the drought-stricken Western U.S. braces for ‘water wars’ (CNBC)

CORAL REEFS: Coral reef scientists raise alarm as climate change decimates vital ocean ecosystems (Salon), UNESCO angers greens on Great Barrier Reef (Reuters), Australia sees off effort to list Great Barrier Reef as endangered after whirlwind lobbying campaign (Forbes, Al Jazeera, Science)

FERC: U.S. Rep. Sean Casten Delivers Speech Inspired By Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hot Girl Summer” (AllHipHop), FERC climate reviews: CO2 solution or chaos? (E&E $)

IPCC: Climate change: Researchers begin discussions on vital report (BBC), climate scientists meet as floods, fires, droughts and heat waves batter countries (NPR)

PG&E: Most fire victims are still waiting to be paid by PG&E’s fire victim fund, investigation finds (PBS NewsHour)

BUSINESSES: Green light: a new series on the critical role of companies in the climate crisis (The Guardian)

INFRASTRUCTURE BILL(S): Infrastructure, investigation and government spending set to lead the week (Politico)

POLITICS: Industry looks to shape Democrats' clean energy plans (E&E $)

CITIES AND STATES: NYC's outdated flood maps leave thousands at risk for disaster bills (Gothamist), plan to save North Dakota coal plant faces intense backlash from Minnesotans who would help pay for it (InsideClimate News), 'there is always more we can do': TVA pauses plans to bury Allen coal ash in Memphis. For now (Commercial Appeal), West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s companies look to surging coal prices to pay off debts (Wall Street Journal $), Maryland wildlife refuge fights to protect American history from climate change (ABC)

INFRASTRUCTURE: Extreme weather events put spotlight on climate change's toll on US infrastructure (CNN), our infrastructure can’t handle climate disasters. We need to build differently (Popular Science)

EXTREME WEATHER: Extreme weather takes climate change models ‘off the scale’ (FT $), how climate change is responsible for more extreme weather events worldwide (NPR), amid summer of fire and floods, a moment of truth for climate action (Washington Post $), farmers look for ways to protect their livestock during climate change (NPR), world’s food supplies get slammed by drought, floods and frost (Bloomberg $), extreme weather renews focus on climate change as scientists update forecasts (Reuters)

MONSOON: Tucson monsoon slightly improves drought conditions (Arizona Daily Star), monsoons could break droughts in Southwest (The Hill), Colorado weather: monsoon to bring drought-relieving rains and more flash flooding in the coming days (Denver Post), overnight storms pound Tucson with heavy rain, damaging wind (Arizona Daily Star)

HEAT: US set for punishing temperatures as huge ‘heat dome’ to settle over country (The Guardian, New York Times $, Bloomberg), Athens appoints chief heat officer to combat climate crisis (The Guardian, Fast Company), recent summer heat waves offer examples of climate change business implications (Forbes) killer heat waves warrant FEMA action under new authority (Bloomberg Law), wet-bulb temperature is important, climate experts say. So what is it? (Washington Post $), meet the world's 1st chief heat officer (WBUR)

PNW HEATWAVEs: Doctors used body bags to cool off heatstroke patients in Pacific Northwest (Newsweek), Oregon reports second workplace death from June heat wave (The Oregonian)

DROUGHT: Utah’s drought and low reservoirs add up to more intense algal blooms (Deseret News), drought threatens to empty water wells in parts of Minnesota (MPR)

IMPACTS: ‘The air is toxic’: how an idyllic California lake became a nightmare (The Guardian), nothing left’: A catastrophe in Madagascar’s famine-hit south (Al Jazeera), beware summer! As climate crisis deepens, attitudes to season shift (The Guardian), mother nature, California drought, water rights (KCRW)

WILDFIRES: The West is burning. Climate change is making it worse (Vox), Russia battles with ‘catastrophic’ wildfires as scrutiny turns to lack of fire defence funding (The Independent), wildfires rage on as extreme weather conditions pummel the U.S. (CBS), wildfires reach more communities in the West (NBC), missing firefighter found safe as wildfires rage across US (CNN), how wildfires can impact soil and cause it to repel water (Yahoo)

SMOKE: Wildfire smoke blowing across the U.S. is more toxic than we thought (National Geographic), how to prepare for wildfire smoke in your home, car and while outdoors (Seattle Times), air quality in Tahoe area 'hazardous' because of smoke from nearby fires (San Francisco Chronicle)

OREGON FIRES: Climate crisis ‘a hammer hitting us in the head’, says Oregon governor as wildfires rage (The Guardian), OR Gov. on out of control wildfires: 'Climate change is here' (CNN), 400,000 acres burned in Oregon's massive Bootleg fire (CNET)

CALIFORNIA FIRES: Northern California wildfires merge, forcing more from their homes (LA Times $), California’s largest fire torches homes as blazes lash West (AP), evacuations ordered after two California wildfires converge into one (Reuters), 'the largest fire in the US continues to defy crews' efforts to tame it. And the weather isn't helping (CNN), California's largest wildfire is threatening thousands of structures (CNN), like a hammer hitting us in the head': Homes ablaze in California as Western wildfires rage (Arizona Central)

CHINA FLOODING: Flood deaths in China show road risks from climate change (New York Times $), record-breaking flooding in China has left over one million people displaced (NPR), thousands trapped after record rainfalls cause flooding in parts of China (NPR), Zhengzhou floods serve China's urban planners deadly warning (Reuters)

GERMANY FLOODING: After the floods, German winemakers look to rebuild (Reuters), after the flood, Germany battles to clear mountains of trash (Reuters), Germany floods: satellite images show the scale of damage after flooding disaster (Weather Channel), German railway: Floods caused $1.5 billion damage to network (AP), residents say flood-hit German towns got little warning (AP)

EUROPE FLOODING: Thunderstorms cause flash flooding in London, submerging roads and some train stations (CNN), Europe’s floods: How a modern warning system was overwhelmed (Politico EU), Belgians reeling from heavy flood wreckage (Reuters)

STORMS: Typhoon hits Shanghai as central China deals with flooding (NPR), Shanghai region braces for typhoon In-fa after flooding in central China (Reuters), climate change will bring heavier storms and our sewers aren’t ready (Boston Globe $)

3°C: Three degrees of global warming is quite plausible and truly disastrous (Economist), a 3°C world has no safe place (Economist)

SCIENTISTS: Is climate change happening faster than expected? A climate scientist explains. (Grist), yep, it’s bleak, says expert who tested 1970s end-of-the-world prediction (The Guardian)

LAKES: Utah's Great Salt Lake drops to lowest level ever recorded (ABC), seaweed takes over Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota (CBS)

DENIAL: Right-wing media is helping drive the GOP’s character assassination of Tracy Stone-Manning (Media Matters)

WINE: Burgundy’s wine region banks on resilient older vines to cope with climate change (Washington Post $)

BUILDINGS: Buildings are a bigger contributor to climate change than cars — these start-ups are trying to help (CNBC), sometimes a high rise is better than a park (Bloomberg $)

A/C: The cost of cooling: how air conditioning is heating up the world (The Guardian), cooling aid shifts from luxury to necessity for some in mass (WBUR), how to cool your home without relying on air conditioning (Washington Post $)

EFFICIENCY: Advocates say energy efficiency — not gas — offers Appalachia best economic prospects (Energy News Network)

OIL & GAS: U.S. natural gas exports to Mexico established a new monthly record in June 2021 (Houston Chronicle)

COAL: Climate change, a coalmine and a town that needs jobs (BBC)

GRID: A stronger electricity grid is crucial to cutting carbon. Does that make it green? (Grist)

EVs: This new study debunks one of the biggest criticisms of electric vehicles (Fast Company), gas engines, and the people behind them, are cast aside for electric vehicles (Wall Street Journal $), are electric cars ‘green’? The answer is yes, but it’s complicated (CNBC), Toyota led on clean cars. Now critics say it works to delay them (New York Times $)

ACTIVISM: Met police ‘tried to recruit ex-officer to spy on climate change activists’ (The Guardian), ‘time is ticking out’: climate activists urge Johnson to take action 100 days before COP26 (The Guardian)

ADAPTATION: The private sector starts to invest in climate adaptation (Economist), after 20 years of drought, western slope ranchers face a choice — keep adapting, or move along (Colorado Public Radio)

CARBON CAPTURE: Carbon-capture pipelines offer climate aid; activists wary (AP), want to test your carbon-capture tech? Head to Wyoming (Bloomberg $)

ECONOMY: Action on climate change can provide a shot in the arm for the global economy, economist says (CNBC)

EMISSIONS: U.S. power sector sees biggest one-year drop in emissions in more than two decades (Yale Environment 360)

NATURE: Does nature have a legal right to exist? Colorado mountain town says yes (Denver Post)

FOOD: Chef says climate change can be tackled if you cook the way your momma (really) did (CNN)

POLLUTION: Bay Area breathes easier (Grist)

GRASSLANDS: Boris Johnson urged to champion ‘neglected’ grasslands and meadows ahead of Glasgow climate summit (The Independent)

TRASH: "Ridiculous": Trash cans San Francisco may buy have $20,000 price tags (CBS)

TECHNOLOGY: The world’s worst conductor could be a game changer in the climate crisis (Popular Science)

SPACE COWBOYS: Billionaire space cowboys could become heroes by focusing on the climate crisis (The Guardian), how bad is space tourism for the environment? And other space travel questions, answered. (Vox)

RUNNING: ‘They’re a little crazy’: the ultramarathon runners crossing Death Valley – in a drought (The Guardian)

PODCAST: “Long-term disaster is the best-case scenario”: Author Nathaniel Rich sounds the alarm on climate change (Vanity Fair)

ANXIETY: How to calm your climate anxiety (New York Times $), climate doom won’t save the planet (Jacobin), meeting Google’s climate change goals ‘stresses out’ CEO Sundar Pichai (CNBC)

REAL ESTATE: Why hasn’t climate change put a dent in luxury real estate? (Bloomberg $)

GOLF: As climate change tightens its grip, are golf courses a luxury we can no longer afford? (Salt Lake Tribune)

WILDLIFE: Experts express concerns for animal safety as heat waves continue to rip through the Pacific Northwest (Washington Post $), on a trek for Arctic dinosaur footprints in Alaska preserve (Washington Post $), fears for gang-gang cockatoos as numbers plummet after fires (The Guardian), can arctic animals keep up with climate change? Scientists are trying to find out (InsideClimate News), Montana’s famed trout under threat as drought intensifies (New York Times $)

INTERNATIONAL: China’s power crunches to worsen without more nuclear and hydro (Bloomberg $), Indonesia plans to burn coal well into the 2050s, under updated climate plan (Climate Home), Russia signs deal with Dubai logistics company to navigate thawing Arctic (New York Times $), as China boomed, it didn’t take climate change into account. Now it must. (New York Times $), Israel to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to meet global target (Reuters, BBC)

• Another heat dome: Why the social cost of greenhouse gases is so important (The Hill, Ellen Rosenblum op-ed)
• This year, the weather isn’t letting us carry on as normal (The Guardian, Emma Brockes op-ed)
• Stuck in the smoke as billionaires blast off (The Intercept, Naomi Klein Column)
• The Bootleg fire is burning miles from my house — climate change has never felt more real (LA Times, Nick Johnson op-ed $)
• How severe is the megadrought in the West? (The Hill, Park Williams, Ben Cook And Jason Smerdon op-ed)
• Secretary Haaland, Colorado's epic drought highlights the need to end fossil fuel extraction (The Hill, Natasha Léger op-ed)
• Pueblo youth are at the forefront of protecting Indigenous lands (The Hill, Julia Fay Bernal op-ed)
• Jeff Bezos’s vision of life among the stars won’t mend a broken world (The Guardian, John Naughton op-ed)
• Proposed NC energy bill will benefit Duke Energy, not its customers (Raleigh News & Observer, Josh McClenney op-ed)
• As climate threats grow, what can cities do to cope? (Thomson Reuters Foundation, Brodie Boland & Milag San Jose-Ballesteros op-ed)
• The Observer view on the urgency of tackling climate change (The Guardian, Guardian Editorial)
• Investing in clean transportation will address climate change and move us forward (Las Vegas Sun, Cinthia Zermeño Moore Column)
• Why Biden's Interior Department isn't shutting down oil and gas (The Hill, Joel Clement op-ed)
• Insurers won’t save a heating world from floods and fire (Bloomberg, David Fickling column $)
• Xi Jinping should take the Zhengzhou floods as a warning from China’s history (The Guardian, Philip Ball op-ed)
• Climate change is forcing us indoors — and childhood will never be the same (Washington Post, Elliot Haspel op-ed $)
• How California can lead the way on climate-protecting technologies (LA Times, David G. Victor And Ryan Hanna op-ed $)
• Will the Drought Contingency Plan be enough to save Lake Mead? Maybe - for now (Arizona Central, Bruce Babbitt op-ed)
• As fires and floods continue, citizens must demand climate action (The Hill, Shahir Marsi op-ed)
• The London flooding makes it clear – we must now learn how to deal with extreme weather (The Independent, Chris Stevenson op-ed)
• The great outdoors is giving way to the great indoors (New York Times, Charlie Warzel op-ed $)
• Iowa has a big opportunity to pave the way for electric vehicles (Des Moines Register, Marti Anderson column)
• A water crisis is creating nightmare conditions across the Middle East (The Independent, Bel Trew op-ed)
• The Great Barrier Reef is a victim of climate change – but it could be part of the solution (The Guardian, Peter Thomson and Ove Hoegh-Guldberg op-ed)

In Denying Claim It Is An Exxon ‘Shadow Group’, Heartland Describes How It Lobbies On Climate & Took Exxon’s Money

As you may have (hopefully!) heard, recently some Greenpeace investigators posed as Middle Eastern oil interests and tricked an ExxonMobil lobbyist into spilling some of the company’s (open) secrets about its climate lobbying. 

In a recent interview at Slate, one of the Greenpeace investigators Lawrence Carter told Mary Harris the Heartland Institute was one of the shadowy groups Exxon’s lobbyist said worked with to attack climate science. He described how “they really helped shift the whole debate in the U.S. on climate change to a very bad place. Exxon played a leading role in that, spending at least $30 million on these networks, according to investigations.” 

Well apparently the Heartland Institute didn’t appreciate that being said, and on Friday published a response “to fake news about its funding” that bizarrely, confirms exactly the point Carter was making. 

Heartland’s VP and Communications Director Jim Lakely took issue with three things he describes as “libel” before going on to actually prove them correct. The first is Carter mentioning Heartland specifically as one of the “shadow groups” that the Exxon lobbyist admitted they worked with to influence the climate debate in the company’s favor. 

But Lakely asks rhetorically how it can be a shadow group when it is “a 37-year-old organization that communicates more often with more elected officials than any other think tank in the country, has a prominent presence online, produces podcasts that gained 7 million hits in 2020, is published almost daily in outlets across the world, and is endorsed by an impressive list of think tank leaders, elected officials, and other opinion leaders?” 

Hmm yes what a great point, how can Heartland possibly be a tool of ExxonMobil’s lobbying when it’s so busy doing all this lobbying for ExxonMobil’s preferred policy positions? Here’s a better question though: if Heartland’s not a “shadowy organization,” then why are you so mad about your connection with Exxon being brought to light? 

The second point Lakely disputes is expected, claiming that “Heartland is not ‘misleading’ the public on climate science.” Oh? No, instead Lakely points to the “Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change,” the group's effort to create a climate denial version of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 

So in response to being accused of misleading, Lakely points to one of their efforts so transparently meant to mislead the public that even the name is an obvious knock-off of the real deal. What other possible explanation could there be for the otherwise communications-savvy denial outfit choosing such a clunky mouthful of a name? It’s like you got sold a Sorny instead of a Sony, and then when confronted about it, the salesman just says “What, Sorny’s a great brand! Much better than Sony!” 

Lakely’s third and final dispute is over something he actually acknowledges. While admitting that “Exxon was a donor to Heartland, from 1998 to 2006,” he denies that the group’s climate denial is Exxon-oriented. 

How? Tune in tomorrow to find out! 

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