DeBriefed 2 August 2024: Deadly rains from India to Sudan; ‘Fossil-fuelled’ heat hits Olympics; Tuvalu’s plan to be first ‘digital nation’

Antara Basu

Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.

§ This week

Climate chaos 

DEADLY DISASTER: Devastating landslides have killed 167 people, with another 191 missing, in the Wayanad district in Kerala, India, reported the Indian Express. Prime minister Narendra Modi announced compensation of 200,000 Indian rupees (about $2,390) per person for the families of the deceased and 50,000 rupees (about $600) for those injured, the newspaper said. 

CLIMATE FACTOR: The Hindustan Times noted that scientists have attributed the landslide to a “combination of climate change, excessive mining and loss of forest cover in the region”. Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi called for “mapping of landslide-prone areas and…an action plan to address the growing frequency of natural calamities in the ecologically fragile region”, reported the Independent. 

FLASH FLOODS: More than 10,000 people displaced from conflict in Sudan’s Sennar state – alongside other refugee and host communities – have been severely impacted by extreme rainfall and flash floods in Kassala state, reported the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. At least five people have reportedly died, including a child, the report said. Other affected areas include Aj Jazirah, East Darfur and North Kordofan, according to ReliefWeb.

Sizzling Olympics  

HEATWAVE GAMES: A rapid attribution analysis found that the “heat dome” striking the Paris Olympics and the “scorching temperatures” across western Europe and North Africa this week would have been “impossible” without the “fossil-fuelled climate crisis”, reported the Guardian. Scientists at the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group said human-caused global warming made the heatwave “2.5C to 3.3C hotter”. Leading climate scientist Dr Friederike Otto told reporters: “Climate change crashed the Olympics on Tuesday.”.

KEEPING COOL: BBC Sport said that organisers used hoses and misters to keep spectators cool at the Paris Olympics. In Marseille, where temperatures reached around 40C, athletes taking part in sailing events wore “ice vests” to try to counteract the heat, the broadcaster added.   

TRIATHLON TIMEOUT: The men’s triathlon was postponed due to “unsafe pollution levels” in the Seine following heavy rainfall in the French capital, reported Sky Sports. The organisers blamed the postponement on climate change, with Aurélie Merle – the Paris 2024 director of sports – saying: “We are living in the 21st century where, unfortunately, there are far more meteorological events…which are beyond the control of the organisers.”

§ Around the world

  • UK RENEWABLES: UK energy secretary Ed Miliband announced an increase to this year’s renewable energy auction budget to a record £1.56bn on Wednesday, reported BBC News.
  • HARRIS APPROVED: Inside Climate News reported that Kamala Harris has clinched an endorsement from the Green New Deal Network – “a key coalition of progressive, youth-led and environmental justice-focused climate advocates” – which had previously held back its endorsement for president Joe Biden. 
  • FUND FIGHT: The EU is gearing up to pressure wealthier “emerging” economies, such as China, to pay into the climate fund at the COP29 climate summit, reported Politico. Currently, only countries categorised as “industrialised” under the 1992 UN climate treaty contribute climate finance under the Paris Agreement. 
  • OFFSETS BLOW: A review by the Science Based Targets initiative, a global auditor of corporate climate targets, has concluded that “various types of carbon credits are ineffective”, reported Bloomberg. 
  • COP16 SAFE: Reuters reported that “Colombian rebel group” Estado Mayor Central has withdrawn its threat, issued earlier this month, to disrupt the UN biodiversity summit COP16 taking place in October in the Colombian city Cali – as a “gesture of [their] will for peace”. 

§ 7,500,000

The methane emissions, in tonnes, from US oil and gas facilities – four times more than the estimates of regulators – which is equivalent to the annual energy needs of over half of US homes, reported the Financial Times.

Latest climate research

  • A new research paper published in Nature Communications found that current policies put the world on a trajectory with a 45% chance of crossing tipping points in the Earth system by 2300, even if the global average temperature is brought back to 1.5C later on. Carbon Brief had all the details. 
  • The UK would gain “benefits” worth £164bn if it meets its 2033-2037 climate targets, said a study published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences covered by Carbon Brief. 
  • A new study in BioScience proposed a way to preserve the Earth’s “increasingly threatened” biodiversity on the moon through the creation of a lunar biorepository – a storage facility for biosamples – by developing a system using cryopreserved fish fins. 

(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)

§ Captured

Deep-sea mining mapped

Image - Deep-sea mining mapped (note)

Carbon Brief published an in-depth explainer this week into what the emerging field of deep-sea mining means for climate change and biodiversity. The map, taken from the article, shows the current designated areas for deep-sea mining exploration, with each of the orange dots representing exploration contracts within four significant zones: Clarion-Clipperton Zone, Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Indian Ocean and Northwest Pacific Ocean. The colours indicate the types of deep-sea mineral resources targeted. Polymetallic nodules – formed of iron and manganese silicates and hydroxides – are in green. Polymetallic sulphides – with copper, zinc, lead, iron, silver and gold – are in blue. Cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts – with high cobalt concentration and other rare elements – are in pink. 

§ Spotlight

Tuvalu’s plan to be first ‘digital nation’

This week, Carbon Brief reports on how the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu is aiming to become the world’s first digital nation in response to climate change. 

Tuvalu, a small nation comprising a group of nine islands in the South Pacific, is among the most vulnerable to climate change. The Guardian has reported that rising sea levels are an “existential threat” for island nations such as Tuvalu. In 2023, a NASA report indicated that sea levels in Tuvalu had risen nearly six inches (15cm) over the past 30 years. 

Estimates show that, by 2050, more than half of the land area of Funafuti – the capital – could be flooded.

According to the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, less than 0.03% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from the Pacific Island region.

Yet, as Tuvaluan minister Simon Kofe noted in his address to the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in 2021 while standing knee-deep in the sea, “Tuvalu is sinking”. Invoking the issue of climate justice, he said:

“In Tuvalu, we are living with the realities of climate change and sea level rise.”

Rising sea levels in Tuvalu are already “leaching soil, killing crops and spoiling drinking water”. A recent National Geographic article also underscored food security challenges, with cultivating staple crops such as taro, breadfruit and coconut becoming difficult due to seawater infiltration. Flooding has become routine, with intense tides sweeping over the sole airstrip and homes monthly. 

Facing the possibility of becoming entirely submerged and uninhabitable, Tuvalu has developed the Future Now project and aims to become the world’s “first digital nation”, existing in the “metaverse”, a virtual reality project started by Facebook. 

Digital replicas

Addressing delegates in his COP27 speech, Kofe, standing in front of a digital replica of Te Afualiku, the first island in Tuvalu to be digitised, said:

“As our land disappears, we have no choice but to become the world’s first digital nation.” 

This serves as the model for the digital recreation of all Tuvalu’s islands and its landscape, including “the coral atolls and reefs, the lagoon, the porous sandy soil, the palm trees and what is left of the pandanus, breadfruit and taro” – before it potentially physically disappears, he said.

The plan includes using satellite imagery, photographs and drone footage capable of capturing details as fine as grains of sand on the beach and the direction of ocean currents. 

Tuvalu has completed a thorough three-dimensional LIDAR scan of all 124 islands and islets and began enhancing its national communications network – laying the groundwork for its digital nation, Kofe told delegates at COP28.

It has also started exploring a digital ID system using blockchain technology to connect the Tuvaluan diaspora, enabling their participation from across the world, the project developers said. This digital platform will allow Tuvaluans to connect, explore their heritage and engage in new business opportunities across various sectors, they added.

Additionally, the project has begun the development of a digital archive of Tuvaluan culture, with contributions from citizens who were encouraged to preserve their most valued personal items to create an evolving record of their heritage.

‘Digital sovereignty’

If Tuvalu’s physical land becomes uninhabitable, it also prompts a discussion of statehood and sovereignty. Under current international law, a defined physical territory is a prerequisite for statehood. 

In order to become the first digital nation, Tuvalu – recognising the evolving notion of state sovereignty – redefined statehood through a constitutional amendment in 2022 to say:

“The State of Tuvalu within its historical, cultural and legal framework shall remain in perpetuity in the future, notwithstanding the impacts of climate change or other causes resulting in loss to the physical territory of Tuvalu.”

Tuvalu’s permanent and digital sovereignty is now recognised by 25 countries, with the Pacific Island Forum also redefining its territory, maintaining that its statehood would continue regardless of the impacts of climate change.

§ Watch, read, listen

GLACIAL MELT: Tortoise Media’s Slow Newscast podcast talked about the “unlikely” climate activists in Switzerland who won a key climate change case, but now face backlash.

SOLARE CANTARE: The Volts podcast spoke with Joel Jean, co-founder and CEO of Swift Solar, to explain all about perovskite solar. 

NIGERIA’S ‘OIL CURSE’: A new FT Film explored the challenges facing Nigeria’s oil sector and whether ending fuel subsidies could help to break the “oil curse”.

§ Coming up

Pick of the jobs

DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to [email protected].
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