Climate Impacts Push US Uninsurable Era To Renewables Sector: Extreme weather fueled by climate change is making the investments crucial to cutting climate pollution more expensive — sometimes prohibitively — to insure, Bloomberg reports. From solar panel-pummeling baseball-size hail to flooding, wildfires, and other disasters, extreme weather has “become a giant risk for the financing of these projects,” Jason Kaminsky, head of solar data and climate insurance provider kWh Analytics, told Bloomberg. “Anything that increases costs could slow down the deployment of renewable power needed for the energy transition.” The cruel summer irony of solar energy potential being stifled by hail is especially costly. “A lot of areas that are ripe for solar energy are vulnerable to hail,” Lou Gritzo, chief science officer of FM Global (whose employees get paid to shoot ice out of a cannon at solar panels), told Bloomberg. The insurance industry is abandoning markets across the country, leaving customers even more vulnerable to climate impacts, while also insuring and investing in the fossil fuel extraction causing the climate crisis. (Bloomberg $)

Rain, Heat Hit East Asia: Multiple kinds of extreme weather are pummeling wide swaths of East Asia. In northern China, the remnants of Typhoon Doksuri dumped more rain in a 72-hour period than ever recorded since 1860 and set off the worst flooding in decades. Beijing was drenched by 744.8 mm (29.3 in) of rain over that period and one weather station to its southwest recorded 1,003.3mm (39.5 inches) of rain. Extreme precipitation events are a clear signal of climate change as hotter air holds (and can then release) more moisture — with well-above-average sea surface temperatures near the coast adding even more. Hundreds of thousands of people across the region have been displaced with numerous deaths reported but the ultimate toll is still unknown. More than 1,100 miles to the southeast, Typhoon Khanun is forecast to make a U-turn and hit Okinawa and other nearby islands — again — after hammering the archipelago earlier this week. All this comes as extreme heat boils South Korea and across 32 of Japan's 47 prefectures, both countries with rapidly aging populations especially vulnerable to heat stress. (China rain: AP, The Guardian, The Guardian; Typhoon Khanun: AP, Washington Post $; Heat: Washington Post $, Reuters; Climate Signals background: Extreme precipitation increase, Sea surface temperature increase, Extreme heat and heatwaves)

Climate Heated July Temps For 81% Of People On Earth: More than four out of every five people on the planet experienced a hotter July because of climate change, a rapid study released Wednesday by Climate Central finds. Researchers used peer-reviewed methodology to assess 4,711 cities and found climate change, mainly caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, tripled the likelihood it would be hotter on at least one day in 4,019 of them. “By now, we should all be used to individual heat waves being connected to global warming,” Gabriel Vecchi, a Princeton University climate scientist not involved in the study, told the AP. “Unfortunately, this month, as this study elegantly shows, has given the vast majority of people on this planet a taste of global warming’s impact on extreme heat.” (AP, Washington Post $, Axios, Gizmodo, The Hill, LA Times $)

GULF COAST LNG POLLUTION: ‘Death Stars on sinking land’: how liquefied natural gas took over the Gulf Coast (Grist)

COP28: UAE promises to allow climate protests at COP28 (Al Jazeera)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: Germany builds up LNG import terminals (Reuters, fact box), Europe’s LNG imports fall to 20-month low (OilPrice), Russian attacks increase pressure on global food prices (FT $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: China denies reports it obstructed G20 climate discussions (Reuters)

DENIAL & DISINFO: Daughter of WEF leader didn't call for ‘permanent climate lockdowns’ in 2020 clip (Reuters fact check)

GOP vs. ESG: GOP effort to curb ESG fails to yield concrete results so far (Bloomberg $)

CLIMATE COMMUNICATIONS: Why the climate movement doesn’t talk about polar bears anymore (Grist)

IRAN: Deadly heat triggers COVID-like shutdown in Iran, with more to follow (Bloomberg $), Iran orders two days of public holidays over ‘unprecedented heat’ (CNN), Many Iranians blame creaky power grid and gas shortage for sudden holiday (New York Times $)

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: In battleground Pa., federal climate funds will train workers (E&E $), US doubles renewable subsidies to $15.6 billion in last seven years, EIA says (Reuters)

AGENCIES: 4 things to know about Biden’s plan to value nature (E&E News), NOAA doles out $50M to upgrade 7 national marine sanctuaries (E&E $)

EPA: Feds take flight to boost enforcement for methane leaks (E&E $)

DOE: DOE ‘critical materials’ list could steer climate funding (E&E $), US withdraws offer to buy 6 million barrels of oil for the SPR (OilPrice)

DOI: Judge demands agency speed up federal recognition rule (Indian Country Today)

WHITE HOUSE: White House proposes new rule to speed up clean energy permitting (Canary Media)

THE HILL: Democrats float bill to fund hospital resiliency projects (E&E $)

HOUSE: Grijalva touts poll showing Ariz. support for Grand Canyon monument (E&E $)

SENATE: Senate Democrat says Biden team ‘failing’ on climate change (The Hill)

POLITICS: Climate group pushes Big Tech to exit nation’s largest business lobby (Washington Post $), From Washington to Warsaw, a ‘greenlash’ is picking up steam despite extreme heat (CNBC)

RULE OF LAW: Enviro cases shed light on judge handling Trump Jan. 6 case (E&E $), How the charges against Trump are linked to a century-old fight against the Klan (The Root), Legal expert: Trump indictment ‘bad news’ for Jeff Clark (E&E News)

CITIES AND STATES: Polls: Ohioans skeptical more fracking would bring benefits (Cleveland Scene), Documents reveal new details about Pennsylvania governor’s secret working group on greenhouse gas emissions (Inside Climate News), Natural gas' future is up in the air, but New Jersey isn't banning gas stoves (Politico Pro $), New Jersey BPU advances building electrification over opposition from fossil fuel supporters (Utility Dive), New York in danger of missing 2030 emissions target: report (The Hill), New York must triple its renewable capacity in eight years to meet 2030 target: state comptroller (Utility Dive), Students explore ways to make San Francisco’s waterfront more resilient (Yale Climate Connections)

IMPACTS: A look at how much less Antarctic sea ice there is this year (New York Times $), Epic, dude: Cali waves got bigger with warming (E&E $), Great Barrier Reef stays off UNESCO ‘in danger’ list but hot El Niño summer looms (CNN), Malaria cases in Florida and Texas raise prospect of greater transmission in a warmer future (Inside Climate News), Saving Spain’s ancient seagrass (Atmos), Stay or go? Rising seas threaten to chase people from UK coasts (Context), The US just saw its busiest July for severe thunderstorms on record (Washington Post $), Waves grow up to 13 feet tall in California as Earth warms, research finds (AP)

HEAT: These places baked the most during Earth’s hottest month on record (Washington Post $), Extreme heat costs the US $100 billion a year, researchers say (CBS), It’s midwinter, but it’s over 100 degrees in South America (Washington Post $), Will the hottest July on record alter views of climate change? (ABC)

OCEANS: What this year’s ‘astonishing’ ocean heat means for the planet (New York Times $)

WILDFIRES: Video shows 2017 prescribed fire in Arizona, not Rhodes (Reuters, fact check), Greece offers free holiday to tourists who fled Rhodes fires (Reuters)(The Guardian), Threatened by wildfire smoke, West Coast cities are piloting clean-air centers (Grist)

• YORK FIRE: Iconic Joshua trees burned by massive wildfire in Mojave Desert (CNN)

HURRICANES: We’re in a really odd hurricane season (Vox)

DROUGHT: Spain’s Catalonia region declares a drought emergency in 24 towns that will see water cuts (AP)

DEFORESTATION: Amazon deforestation falls over 60% compared with last July, says Brazilian minister (The Guardian)

RENEWABLES: Offshore wind could supply 25% of US power by 2050 — study (E&E $), PSEG CEO LaRossa sees offshore wind sale, other moves advancing predictability (Utility Dive)

BATTERIES: Beware a battery backlash (Heatmap $), Indigenous groups in Argentina protest lithium extraction on their land (Democracy Now)

BUILDINGS: ESG platform leverages smart meters to cut building utility costs up to 15%, Redaptive says (Utility Dive)

OIL & GAS: Big Oil’s focus on payouts leaves production short (Bloomberg $), Oil major BP posts 70% drop in second-quarter profit, raises dividend by 10% (CNBC)(FT $), Iran insists it will not give up rights to disputed gas field (OilPrice), Pioneer Natural Resources latest to report earnings slump (OilPrice), Why Big Oil isn’t worried about its falling profits (FT $)

COAL: Panama Canal transit reduction impacts thermal coal shipments in Atlantic: sources (S&P Global), Restart delayed at Texas coal unit linked to Petra Nova CCS project (Reuters)

UTILITIES: PG&E scraps tree-trimming program once seen as key to fire prevention (Wall Street Journal $), Power company completes largest US grid battery system (E&E $), TVA looks to gas as it pushes back on EPA carbon rules (E&E $)

EVs: Are EV sales really slowing down? What experts are saying. (E&E News), Ford [UK] fears a world on fire will throw up its hands on climate (Bloomberg $), Joe Biden’s EV crusade has a long way to go (FT $), UAW to show list of economic demands to automakers this week, will seek worker pay if plants close (AP)

ACTIVISM: This Atlanta duo has a theory to drive climate action: Make it cool (Canary Media)

AVIATION: EU attempt to tax polluting aviation fuel hits impasse (Reuters)

AGRICULTURE: 'I lost hope in farming': Extreme weather devastates South Korean watermelon farmer (Reuters)

CARBON OFFSETS: Carbon offsets are ‘riddled with fraud.’ Can new voluntary guidelines fix that? (Grist)

CARBON CAPTURE: Climate law will boost CCS, but not hydrogen — report (E&E $)

FINANCE: For investors, green companies still hard to find with new emissions reporting rules (Reuters), Larry Fink’s bet on Saudi oil money is also his latest ESG woe (New York Times $)

WILDLIFE: Beavers fight climate change, one wetland at a time (Yale Climate Connections)

INTERNATIONAL: At least 60 people apply to head UK government climate crisis advisory body (The Guardian), Billionaire investor threatens to pull out of UK amid global outcry at new oil rush (The Guardian), Biodiversity on the ballot in Ecuador (Yes Magazine), China's Belt and Road energy projects set for "greenest" year -research (Reuters), Australia must ready for ‘devastating’ regional disruption, MPs told (The Guardian), Drax denies use of subsidy loophole to avoid £639m payout to households (The Guardian), Eskom slaps conditions on emergency bidders to stop grid hogging (Bloomberg $), German coalition split on magnitude of increase in carbon price (Bloomberg $), Germany’s boiler ban will have ‘unintended consequences’, warns industry (FT $), Germany’s ruling coalition is divided over a carbon price hike (OilPrice), Not so fast on electric cars, says UK’s business minister (E&E $), PM Sunak says UK climate record 'better than everyone else's' (Reuters), UK adopts international climate disclosures to bolster global investor appeal (Reuters), UK can never rival Biden’s green subsidies in Inflation Reduction Act, minister says (Bloomberg $), Greenpeace demonstrators drape UK prime minister’s house in black to protest oil expansion (AP)

• The world likely just had its hottest month on record. What a time to be a climate science denier (The Guardian, Graham Readfearn op-ed)
• My husband has farmed for 4 decades. Climate change might end his run. (Washington Post, Kate Cohen column $)
• Fast charging, high costs: Eliminating demand charges won’t solve the problem (Utility Dive, Chip Silverman op-ed)
• Of pots and kettles: big oil and the anti-ESG movement are accusing banks of running ‘climate cartels’ (Fortune, Cynthia Hanawalt and Denise Hearn op-ed)
• World battles to loosen China's grip on vital rare earths for clean energy transition (Reuters, Ernest Scheyder and Eric Onstad analysis)
• Rishi Sunak becomes the wrong kind of climate radical (Bloomberg, Lara Williams op-ed $)
• Rishi Sunak came to Scotland offering more North Sea drilling and carbon capture. We reject both (The Guardian, Mary Church op-ed)
• Cut the climate doom - exponential green change is possible (Context, Nigel Topping op-ed)
• Australia is not being ‘singled out’ by Unesco’s in-danger recommendation for the Great Barrier Reef (The Guardian, Terry Hughes op-ed)

John Kerry: Boring Politician ... Or Radical Leftist & Int'l Climate Boogeyman? 

CHINA!

Did that get your attention?

You may have noticed that it’s hard these days to have a conversation on climate in Congress without repeated mentions of China. Specifically, something along the lines of, China isn’t doing anything, so why should we? 

Well, beyond that being false (China leads the world in clean energy production, with higher solar capacity than the rest of the world combined, even as they expand coal), more importantly, it’s part of the larger Sinophobic scapegoating trend used to justify a lack of climate action by the United States.

This came to a head recently during a July 13 hearing with special climate envoy John Kerry that was nominally described as a “budget overview” by the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight & Accountability. 

The hearing ran the gamut of the denier playbook. Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) and Mike Waltz (R-FL) pushed a classic example of the climate hypocrisy accusation, asking why everyday Americans should care about climate action when Kerry’s family once owned a private jet. Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) chose to go for a more direct ad hominem attack, accusing Kerry (and all scientists who agree that climate change is human-caused) of “grifting.” 

Even the committee chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) couldn’t help but get in on the action, using China’s high carbon emissions and “developing nation” status to attack China’s honesty (read: anti-Asian stereotyping) and disregard the need for engaging in bilateral climate talks to advance climate action.

Suffice to say, the facade of a budgetary overview quickly dissolved into a Republican inquisition. Though legitimate concerns about human rights abuses in Chinese supply chains were raised, Republican legislators ignored the importance of rekindling diplomatic ties to fight the climate crisis to instead focus on Kerry as a kind of “radical left” climate boogeyman, with the whataboutisms running rampant to avoid acknowledging the US as the largest cumulative emitter of greenhouse gasses. 

McCaul and Perry complained that China is “held to a different standard,” Mills felt the need to remind people that military tanks aren’t EVs (though the Army is working on that…) and Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-TX) even bemoaned the US’s inability to “force” China to cut emissions.  

Even so, after the hearing Kerry went ahead with his scheduled visit to China to restart bilateral climate talks for the first time in nearly a year. The talks marked an important rekindling for two of the largest emitters and economies in the world, but conservative disinfo outlets only focused on how it was a “failure.” These unrealistic expectations feed the Sinophobic scapegoating Republicans have come to rely on in an effort to distract from the urgent need for U.S. climate action. During the Senate Republicans' weekly press conference, House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) added to the fearmongering by describing Kerry’s visit to China as, “just another attempt to surrender American values and interests and cede our energy future to the Chinese Communist Party.” 

Do all these Republican attacks have anything to do with their pockets being lined by the fossil fuel industry? Almost assuredly: Mills, Waltz, Perry, McCaul, Moran and Rodgers have cumulatively received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry! 

So what did the hearing and Kerry’s subsequent visit really underscore for us here at the Denier Roundup? What we’ve known for a long time: personal attacks and Sinophobic scapegoating represent a growing attempt to avoid a simple and important point — the US must do more on climate.

More amusingly, it's a real sign of desperation. They're so lacking in any real reasons to oppose climate action that they're trying to make John Kerry, a politician with such a reputation for being so "profoundly boring" that even he's poked fun at himself about it, sound like an international man of mystery deftly orchestrating a sinister global conspiracy. 

John Kerry is the vanilla ice cream of climate activists, but even that is apparently too spicy! 

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