DeBriefed 23 August 2024: Bangladesh and Pakistan floods; US Democrats ‘quiet’ on clean energy; Just ‘4%’ of climate policies deliver

Ayesha Tandon

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

§ This week

Floods, fires and heat

BANGLADESH DISASTER: Flooding in eight districts across Bangladesh has left more than three million people stranded, according to Bangladeshi newspaper the Daily Star. Separately, the newspaper reported on comments by an adviser in the interim government, who said that India had shown “inhumanity” by opening a dam without giving prior notice and, therefore, “causing” flooding in Bangladesh. This was strongly denied by the Indian external affairs ministry, the Hindustan Times reported. Agence France-Presse reported that Bangladesh is extremely vulnerable to climate change, adding that it is “shifting weather patterns and increasing the number of extreme weather events”.

FLASH FLOODS: The Associated Press reported that more than 200 people have died in southern Pakistan as a result of flash flooding caused by monsoon rains. The Global Times reported that, since the start of this year’s flood season, China’s major rivers have experienced 25 significant flood events – the highest number recorded since data collection began in 1998. Reuters, Agence France-Press and the Associated Press reported on flooding in “Alpine regions of Austria”, “war-torn Yemen” and “the w​​estern Alaskan village of Napakiak”, respectively.

FIREFIGHTING: Greece and Turkey were both fighting to contain wildfires as temperatures soared to 42C, Bloomberg reported. The Greek government will hold a parliamentary debate next month on its handling of the latest wildfire season, the outlet noted. Separately, Bloomberg explained that the EU’s firefighting budget rose by 35% over 2018-22, reaching $42bn in 2022.

MEDITERRANEAN HEAT: The Mediterranean Sea recorded a maximum temperature of 31.96C and a median daily temperature of 28.90C last week, potentially breaking two temperature records, Agence France-Presse reported. BBC News is among numerous outlets noting that such high temperatures are known to fuel sea tornadoes, known as “waterspouts”, which could have played a role in the fatal capsizing of a superyacht in Sicily on Monday.

US Democrats ‘quiet’ on climate

DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION: At the US National Democratic Convention this week in Chicago, top Democrats have mostly been “quiet about climate change”, according to the Washington Post. On Monday, delegates voted to approve a party “platform” that calls for the US to be the first country to reach net-zero agricultural emissions by 2050, according to Successful Farming. National Public Radio reported climate change “got its moment in the sun” at an evening event on Thursday, when speakers including Interior Secretary Deb Haaland talked about “climate policy from the Biden administration” and “job creation”.

AD CAMPAIGN: Meanwhile, several climate groups have “joined forces” to run a $55m advertising campaign for Kamala Harris ahead of the US presidential elections, the New York Times reported. According to the paper, the adverts ​​frame Biden and Harris’s climate policies “in terms of economic benefits rather than environmental ones” and will run in six key swing states. 

§ Around the world

  • FINANCE TARGET: A group of developed nations led by the EU and the US “want other countries that have become wealthier – and more polluting – to pitch in” on the new climate finance goal set to be agreed at COP29 in November, reported Climate Home News.
  • COAL COLLAPSE: Approvals for new coal-fired power plants in China “dropped sharply” in the first half of 2024, the Associated Press reported, after “a flurry of permits in the previous two years raised concern about the government’s commitment to limiting climate change”. 
  • EV BACKSLIDE: Car manufacturer Ford has decided to invest less in battery-powered cars and to scrap its planned electric three-row sport utility vehicle, the New York Times reported.
  • OFFSHOOT CONTROVERSY: Three climate scientists have a comment piece in the Conversation arguing against claims that the world can limit warming to 1.5C while continuing to expand fossil-fuel production, by relying on carbon dioxide removal technologies. Axios noted that “experts not affiliated with the piece disagreed with some aspects”. 
  • ARCTIC BRIEF: Carbon Brief’s associate editor Daisy Dunne is joining an Arctic expedition with the British Antarctic Survey next week. Register for a free webinar hosted by Daisy live from Svalbard next Friday to ask the scientists your questions.

§ 68 million

The number of people across Southern Africa who are suffering the effects of an El Niño-induced drought, which has wiped out crops across the region, according to Reuters. 

§ Latest climate research

  • The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) should consider “a wider set of assumptions about future population” in their future warming scenarios, argued a new study in npj Climate Action. 
  • A new modelling study in the Lancet, using data on 854 European cities, found that heat-related deaths could triple in Europe by 2100 under current climate policies. This will mostly be among people living in southern parts of the continent, according to the research.
  • The Thwaites glacier in west Antarctica may be less vulnerable than previously thought to marine ice cliff instability – a theory that towering cliffs of glacier ice could collapse under their own weight into the ocean – according to a new paper published in Science.

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

§ Captured

Image - olive_oil (note)

Carbon Brief has published five charts explaining how climate change is hitting food supplies and prices. The piece explores case studies around the world, from extreme heat damaging Chinese rice crops, to hurricanes and pests curbing orange harvests in the US. The graph above shows the factors that have impacted global olive oil production over the past two decades. Global olive production dropped by one-third over 2021-24 due to droughts and heatwaves, the piece notes, driving up prices across Europe. 

§ Spotlight

Lessons from 1,500 climate policies

A new study published this week analyses 1,500 climate policies implemented over the past two decades, finding that just 4% – 63 policies – were effective at slashing emissions. 

Carbon Brief speaks to the lead author Dr Annika Stechemesser from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany..

Carbon Brief: Your study identifies 1,500 climate policies. What are the most common policy types?

Dr Annika Stechemesser: “Command-and-control” measures, such as emission standards and technology mandates, are the most frequently used policies in all sectors, except transport. Market-based policies [such as taxes] are primarily concentrated in developed economies and most prevalent in the transport sector.

CB: You identified 63 policy interventions that drove large emissions reductions. Could you share any examples of these?

AS: In the industrial sector, China’s pilot emissions trading systems significantly reduced emissions after a few years, complemented by reduced fossil fuel subsidies and stronger financing incentives for energy efficiency.

In the electricity sector, the UK achieved major emissions reductions through a minimum carbon price, subsidies for renewable energy, and a coal phase-out plan.

The US is an example of significant emission reductions in the transportation sector, resulting from a mix of tax incentives and subsidies for low-emitting vehicles and CO2 efficiency standards.

CB: You find that a mix of policies is more effective than a single policy. Why is this?

AS: Popular measures, such as bans, building codes, energy efficiency rules and subsidies, tend to have no or small effects when used alone. They only show large impacts when combined with other policies and, in most cases, pricing is the complement that enables effective emission reductions.

Among the price-based measures, taxes stand out. They are the only policy instrument that has been found to cause large emission reductions on their own.

CB: Are there differences between successful policies in developed and developing countries?

AS: Our findings suggest that the combinations of policy instruments that are complementary in mixes vary across sectors and country groups with economic development. For example, we find that, in the industry sector, pricing plays a prominent role in both developed and developing economies, but in different ways. It is most effective individually in developed economies and shows the most synergy with other policies in developing economies.

The observed differences in effective policies may partly reflect the climate policy stage. We may not observe some policies in developing economies because they are not implemented owing to interest group opposition or limited state capacity.

The study authors also introduce a dashboard that anyone can use to conduct country-by-country and sector-by-sector policy comparisons. This interview was edited for length. 

§ Watch, read, listen

CLIMATE COMMS: The British Antarctic Survey hosted a conversation on Youtube between three climate scientists about how to communicate climate science. The conversation is also outlined in this article.

‘VILIFYING’ BIG OIL: In her newsletter Heated, reporter Emily Atkin offered a rebuttal to Elon Musk stating that people should not “vilify the oil and gas industry” in his recent conversation with Donald Trump.

EV PERCEPTION: The Energy vs Climate podcast published an episode called “Buzzkill: Understanding the shift in media perception towards EVs”, featuring Carbon Brief’s deputy editor, Simon Evans. 

§ 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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