A nine-month news investigation by The Guardian, Die Zeit, and SourceMaterial, a non-profit investigative journalism organization, revealed that more than 90% of forest carbon offsets from the world’s leading provider are bogus. Indigenous and locally-controlled lands in the Amazon were storing carbon, while the rest of the rainforest was emitting greenhouse gases. Brazil’s new government confronted the “scorched earth” left behind by the Bolsonaro regime and launched its first raids against illegal tree-cutters.
Drones from a Prince Edward Island climate lab tracked “unprecedented” coastal damage from post-tropical storm Fiona, and scientists found a coral species that can withstand ocean warming. Greenland was getting hotter, a curious seal helped scientists uncover a potential new climate disaster in Antarctica, and “weather whiplash” had California facing atmospheric rivers on top of a years-long megadrought. Atmospheric carbon may be making the Great Lakes more acidic, Lake Superior is losing ice cover, and hundreds of households outside Scottsdale, Arizona had their water cut off due to drought.
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The Hertz car rental company will add 10,000 electric vehicles to the Uber fleet in London, UK, and Citroën CEO Vincent Cobee said battery weight will kill off SUVs as vehicles electrify. A state legislator in Wyoming tried to ban electric cars in a bid to protect the oil and gas industry, then said he was just kidding. A new book said individual action on climate change won’t make much difference without taking on Big Oil. The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act fuelled a fight between wind and solar, Minnesota adopted a 2040 deadline for 100% clean electricity, and the European Union planned a new law forcing companies to prove their green claims.
Italy’s senior climate diplomat resigned. African activists questioned the annual UN climate conference’s credibility, and UN Secretary General António Guterres urged business leaders meeting in Davos, Switzerland to make credible, accountable commitments to net-zero.
The average UK household paid an extra £2,150 in climate and energy costs in 2022. Some 80% of Germans lowered their thermostats this winter, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said the country’s energy crisis is under control, Chancellor Olaf Scholz laid out a roadmap to climate neutrality by 2045, and the country announced plans to build 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. European airlines vowed to fight back against France’s plan to ban short-haul flights.
The University of Calgary built a massive solar wall, and northwestern Ontario communities turned food scraps into “foodilizer”, a cheaper alternative to compost. Business Development Canada invested in a new lithium venture and community opposition scuttled a local lithium ion battery project on Staten Island. New wind, solar, and storage construction jumped 42% last year, with analysts at Rystad Energy attributing the sharp rise to Russia’s war in Ukraine. A U.S. coalition aimed for 30 gigawatts of community solar by 2030, a company in China announced the world’s biggest solar manufacturing base, Emirates Water in Abu Dhabi invited bids for 1.5 GW of solar capacity, and Korea Electric dropped its investments in two coal plants in the Philippines. Climeworks said it had removed carbon dioxide from the open air for the first time, and researchers urged more investment in CO2 removal technologies.
