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1) Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana USA

2) Kiribati, central Pacific Ocean

3) Jakarta (rapid urbanization)

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Blue: Causes leading to climate change

Green: Impacts on Singapore

Yellow: Responses SG has taken

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Blue: International & National Scale, Governments

Green: Companies & Businesses, Media, Scientific Community

Yellow: Individuals / Consumers

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S'poreans highly aware of environmental issues but adoption of green practices lags: OCBC climate index

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The average Singaporean is highly aware of environmental issues, adopts many green practices some of the time, and advocates some of these issues and practices to friends and family. Read more at straitstimes.com.

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Legal Battles Changing the course of Climate Change

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Legal Battles Changing the course of Climate Change

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The legal battles changing the course of climate change

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Governments, fossil fuel firms and airlines are increasingly becoming embroiled in climate litigation. Isabella Kaminski analyses what difference this legal action is making.

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International Court: Landmark Climate Judgment

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International Court: Landmark Climate Judgment

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An international court in France on Tuesday ruled Switzerland's failure to adequately tackle the climate crisis was in violation of human rights, in a landmark climate judgment that experts say could have a ripple effect across the globe.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France delivered rulings on a trio of separate climate lawsuits, one brought by more than 2,000 older Swiss women against Switzerland, who argued that climate change-fueled heatwaves undermined their health and quality of life and put them at risk of dying.

The court ruled that the Swiss government had breached some of the women's human rights by failing to meet previous targets to cut planet-heating pollution.

The other claims were brought by a mayor against the French government and a third by six young people in Portugal against 32 European countries. Those two claims were ruled inadmissible.

All three argued that governments' failure to adequately cut planet-heating pollution caused them harm, including violating their rights to life, their wellbeing and mental health.

These lawsuits mark the first time the court has ruled on climate litigation. There is no right of appeal and the judgments are legally binding.

While the ruling will only apply to Switzerland, experts say the case could bolster other human rights-based climate cases pending before international courts and could open the flood gates for numerous similar lawsuits to be launched in the future.

﻿A judgment against any of the countries effectively operates "like a binding treaty imposed by the court," said Gerry Liston, a lawyer at Global Legal Action Network, which supported the Portugal case.

This is a developing story...

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International court rules Switzerland violated human rights in a landmark climate judgment | CNN

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An international court in France on Tuesday ruled Switzerland's failure to adequately tackle the climate crisis was in violation of human rights, in a landmark climate judgment that experts say could have a ripple effect across the globe.

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Explainer: Why nations at COP28 are struggling to reach consensus over fossil fuels

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Around 200 of the world’s nations are having trouble coming to a consensus regarding whether or not humanity should phase out the use of fossil fuels, with ongoing discussions at the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) running overtime on Tuesday afternoon (Dec 12).

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Climate Change Migrants - What can be done?

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Climate Change Migrants - What can be done?

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Climate-change migrants: what can be done?

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The collapse of the Amazon rainforest is inevitable if Jair Bolsonaro remains president of Brazil, academics and environmental activists have warned amid a fresh government assault on protections for the forest.

Despite evidence that fire, drought and land clearance are pushing the Amazon towards a point of no return, they say the far-right leader is more interested in placating the powerful agribusiness lobby and tapping global markets that reward destructive behaviour.

The onslaught on forest safeguards has picked up pace. On Wednesday the lower house was due to vote on legislation that would reward land grabbers by legalising ownership of property that had been illegally invaded and cleared before 2014.

The previous day, the government shifted responsibility for forest fire satellite monitoring away from the National Institute for Space Research, a scientifically-robust organisation that had carried out the task for decades. Control has been given to the National Institute of Meteorology, which is under the influence of the agriculture ministry and the farming sector.

In the past few months, Congress has also diluted standards for environmental impact assessments and a committee has approved a bill - PL 490 - that has been described as the greatest assault on indigenous rights since the launch of the Brazilian constitution in 1988.

All of these measures punch holes in the Amazon's protective framework and run contrary to scientific advice and the problems on the ground. Brazil is in the midst of a widening drought that has seen water inflows at some hydroelectric plants fall to 91-year lows. This is a cause and an effect of forest clearance.

Since Bolsonaro took power in 2019, deforestation and fire in the Amazon have risen to their highest levels in more than a decade. The past three months have continued that trend, though slightly behind last year's peaks. Given the tinder-dry conditions in many parts of the Amazon, there are fears that the usual peak of the fire season in July and August could be worse than usual.

Scientists suspect the rainforest may be slipping into a series of vicious cycles. At a local level, land clearance and burning led to extended droughts and higher temperatures, which in turn weakens the resilience of the ecosystem and leads to more fire.

At a regional level, this can intensify drought because the respiration of the rainforest normally acts as a pump to drive humid weather systems across a wide area of Brazil, South America and the Atlantic. When the forest weakens, that pump is less effective.

There are also global repercussions because land clearance is turning the Amazon region from climate friend to climate foe. A study published in Nature reveals forest burning now produces about three times more CO2 than the remaining vegetation is able to absorb. This accelerates global heating.

Global market forces are partly responsible. Deforestation tends to rise when the prices of soy, beef and gold are high. No government of any stripe has completely managed to stop forest clearance in the past four decades. But government policies make a difference.

Amazon deforestation reduced 80% between 2004 and 2012 under the Workers party administration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro has steadily dismantled or discredited the mechanisms that achieved that - satellite monitoring, personnel on the ground and legislation to punish offenders and demarcate indigenous land and conservation areas.

"The main thing this government has done is to undermine the capacity of the state to tackle illegal deforestation," said Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Brazilian Climate Observatory, a network of 50 civil society organisations.

In Congress, meanwhile Bolsonaro and the "ruralista" agribusiness lobby have put more supporters in key positions: Arthur Lira as leader of Congress, Carla Zambelli as chair of the lower house Environmental Commission and Bia Kicis as chair of the Justice Commission. These politicians have enabled the ruralistas' agenda to go forward more aggressively.

"The Brazilian government is doing exactly the opposite of what needs to be done. It is actively stimulating deforestation through its policies," said Erika Berenguer, an expert on Amazon land use change at the Universities of Lancaster and Oxford. "Until recently this was through decrees and ministerial policy changes that cut budgets for combating deforestation. Now, they have taken more important roles in Congress so we are seeing even more dangerous bills being passed."

This is a global concern. The US president, Joe Biden, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, have warned of the dangers posed by the decline of the rainforest. Supermarkets and financial organisations in the UK, Norway, Germany, France and Australia have threatened to boycott Brazilian products unless supply chains can be guaranteed deforestation free.

On Wednesday, 40 companies, include Iceland, Waitrose, Lidl, Tesco and Sainsbury's issued an open letter warning that further erosions of environmental legislation and indigenous rights would force them to reconsider using Brazilian agricultural commodities. "We would like to reiterate that we consider the Amazon as a vital part of the Earth system that's essential to the security of our planet as well as being a critical part of a prosperous future for Brazilians and all of society," they said. Green groups said they now expected these companies to put their threats into effect.

Among many consumers Brazil is seen as a toxic brand, and Bolsonaro looks increasingly isolated on the world stage. But this international pressure has had little impact. Last month, Bolsonaro sacked his environmental minister, Ricardo Salles, after a tipoff by the US embassy about his alleged involvement in illegal timber smuggling. But Salles had already gutted the forest surveillance and enforcement bodies, and the real power behind him - the agriculture minister, Tereza Cristina Dias - remains in place.

This is partly because commodity prices remain high and demand is strong, particularly in China where the government puts resource procurement above environmental ethics and media pressure is limited by strict censorship. China is Brazil's biggest market by a large margin.

But the major reason is the nationalist ideology of the president. According to Astrini, Bolsonaro is so exclusively focused on domestic politics that he is indifferent to international reputation or global markets. "He is the first Brazilian president who has an overt agenda of destroying environmental protections for political gain. He is not concerned about the country, only his re-election. It's all about the electoral base," Astrini says.

On a more positive note, he sees Bolsonaro as a catalyst for change. Since he took power, the Amazon rainforest has moved to the centre of political debate. Several candidates in next year's presidential election now have zero-deforestation commitments in their manifestos.

"Even Lula is saying deforestation in the Amazon can no longer be supported by any Brazilian government. He never said this before," said Astrini. "It is now clear that a solution for the Amazon can only be possible if we change government. There is no hope if Bolsonaro is re-elected president. It is either the Amazon or Bolsonaro. There is no space for both."

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Amazon rainforest 'will collapse if Bolsonaro remains president'

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Brazilian academics and activists issue warning amid fresh assault on environmental protections

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Country's love affair with air-conditioning

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Country's love affair with air-conditioning

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When the temperature soared to 99 degrees Fahrenheit last month, Singapore resident Chee Kuan Chew saw just one option: cancel all plans and stay indoors inair-conditioned comfort.

"You can't survive without air con in Singapore," Chee said. "It's impossible with the heat."

The 20-year-old university student lives with his family in a four-bedroom flat in Ang Mo Kio, a bustling district that made headlines in the Southeast Asian city state when its temperatures hit a 40-year high in a recent heat wave. Thankfully, Chee said, his home has five air conditioners - one in each bedroom and a larger unit in the living room.

"I drank plenty of water, took cold showers and kept the air conditioning on for the entire weekend. That's my way of managing the heat," Chee said.

Taking solace in air conditioning in Singapore is hardly unreasonable behavior. Situated roughly 85 miles north of the equator, the island nation is famously hot and humid, with temperatures that stretch into the 80s year-round - a climate that has helped make it one of the most air-conditioned countries in the world, with more units per capita than any of its Southeast Asian neighbors.

Indeed, in this city, air conditioning has become almost a way of life. An office or mall without it is near unthinkable; 99% of private condominiums are air conditioned, as are the majority of public housing apartments.

Lee Kuan Yew, the country's founding prime minister, once called air conditioning "the greatest invention of the 20th century" and credited it for helping to transform the island from a backwater British colony into one of the world's pre-eminent financial centers (one that today also enjoys some of the world's highest per capita wages).

But Singapore's love affair with air conditioning has an enormous cost.

It has trapped a nation already hot - and getting hotter - in what experts describe as a "dangerous, vicious cycle." It's a climate change Catch 22 paradox that faces all nations which rely on air conditioningto make life just that little bit more tolerable.

Put simply: the warmer the world gets, the more people turn to their air conditioners. And the more they turn to their air conditioners, the warmer the world gets.

Global warming paradox

Compared to gas guzzling cars and flatulent cows, air conditioners often fly under the radar when it comes to most media coverage of global warming culprits. But the machines are a potent force in acceleratingclimate change.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has estimated that - if not reined in - air conditioning-related greenhouse gas emissions could account for up to a 0.5 degree Celsius rise in global temperatures by the end of the century.

Their effect on global warming is two-fold. Firstly, like refrigerators, many air conditioners today use a class of coolants called hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, which are harmful greenhouse gases.

Secondly, and perhaps ultimately even more problematically, air conditioners tend to use large amounts of electricity, generated by the burning of fossil fuels.

According to the International Energy Agency, air conditioners and electric fans account for about 10% of all global electricity consumption.

As a relatively compact nation, Singapore - with a population of about 5.4 million and an area a little smaller than New York City - contributes just a fraction of the HFCs and electricity demand that help drive global warming.

Even with its high per capita usage, its total emissions are dwarfed by those of Japan and the United States, for example, where about 90% of households use air conditioning according to the WEF.

Still, that doesn't mean Singapore won't suffer the consequences of a warming world just as much. And as an already hot nation that is heating up fast,it has less leeway than some others before temperatures become simply intolerable.

According to government data released in 2019, the city state has been heating up twice as fast as the rest of the globe over the past six decades. Maximum daily temperatures could also reach highs of 37 degrees Celsius by 2100, officials warned.

The heat island effect

But rising temperatures in Singapore are not just about global warming.

They are also caused by the Urban Heat Island effect, in which highly urbanized areas experience higher temperatures than their surrounding locales.

The effect is caused by urban structures such as buildings, roads and vehicles trapping and releasing heat into the environment, especially at night, and is particularly pronounced in highly developed and relatively densely packed places like Singapore.

It is made worse by the waste heat generated in cities by vehicles, factories and air conditioners, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Matthias Roth, a professor at the National University of Singapore who specializes in the subject, said that Singapore's recent temperature rise was largely the result of a combination of background global warming and the Urban Heat Island effect.

While he cautioned it was difficult to quantify the exact contribution of heat emissions from air conditioning on the Urban Heat Island effect, he said that "in selected commercial areas with much human activity and traffic, as well as tall, multi-story buildings closely spaced together and using air conditioning... this local warming can perhaps contribute 1 to 2 degrees Celsius to the environment."

While Roth noted these areas were "generally small and low in numbers and therefore would not significantly affect the average air temperature across the entire city," he also pointed out that air conditioners are "not very energy efficient and when used in large numbers and often on a continuous basis, they can make up a large part of the energy consumption in hot places."

In some ways, how much of the temperature rise is caused by global warming and how much by the Urban Heat Island effect is a moot point, as either way the result is the same: people feel hotter.

And the hotter people get, the more they use their air conditioning.

Breaking the loop

Still, experts say there are ways to break the air conditioning doom-loop.

Under the United Nations' Kigali Amendment, agreed in 2016, many countries are phasing out HFCs - those harmful coolants used in many air conditioners - and replacing them with more climate friendly options, such as hydrofluoroolefins, or HFOs.

Similar moves have worked in the past. The Kigali Amendment is an update to the Montreal Protocol that helped to phase out ozone-destroying Chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, in the 1980s.

Experts say there are also ways to cut down on the second problem with air conditioners - how much energy they use - by using other methods to keep cool.

Abundant green spaces, shading, water bodies and clever ventilation are among the more sustainable "passive cooling strategies" suggested by Radhika Khosla, associate professor at Oxford University's Smith School of Enterprise and Environment.

"While there are many instances when air conditioning is necessary, given the combination of hot temperatures and high humidity, what's important is to always consider non-air con options first instead of making air conditioning the go-to solution for providing relief from extreme heat," Khosla said.

"Singapore, with its experience of living with high heat and humidity, must set an example for other countries in identifying, promoting and scaling sustainable cooling solutions," she added.

A breath of fresh air conditioning

Fittingly, the same place that once heralded air conditioning as one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century is also at the forefront of efforts to make it fit for purpose in the 21st.

Singapore's National Environment Agency (NEA) has banned the supply of high-GWP (global warming potential) refrigerants since October 2022 and says it encourages households to use fans rather than air conditioning where possible. The government agency has also advised residents to set timers and temperatures tono lower than 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit) and service units regularly to maintain efficiency, it told CNN.

Taking environmental concerns into account, one local university built what it says is the country's "first net-zero energy building" - boasting naturally ventilated open spaces and an innovative "hybrid cooling system supplying 100 per cent fresh pre-cooled air."

Operational since 2019, the six-story SDE 4 building at the National University of Singapore's School of Design and Environment campus is testament to how thermal comfort "did not have to come at the expense of the environment," its architects told CNN. "We worked hard to ensure that it would be a net-zero building," deputy dean Heng Chye Kiang said.

Here, ceiling fans are used as alternatives to AC units. Smart senors measure and manage variables from temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide to air particles, light and sound to "further drive down energy consumption."

"We hope it will inspire other buildings and designers to achieve the same and reduce energy usage in the fight against climate change," the school said.

Heng added that after some years of operation, the building had turned out to be "energy positive" - producing more energy than it consumes - "by a large margin."

In other words, amid a troubling paradox, there's some positive energy, too.

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This country's love affair with air conditioning shows a Catch 22 of climate change | CNN

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When the temperature soared to 99 degrees Fahrenheit last month, Singapore resident Chee Kuan Chew saw just one option: cancel all plans and stay indoors in air-conditioned comfort.

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Farms here are also dealing with rising material and energy costs since Russia invaded Ukraine.

"There were times when the electricity rates were so high that the more we grew, the more the company lost," said Mr Lee Yuan Hao of GKE Agritech.

PRICE A "BOTTLENECK"

Despite these challenges, local farms and experts CNA spoke to said it is imperative Singapore builds up the capacity to grow its own food.

The country has to be ready as food prices will rise in the long run and supply will be disrupted by climate change, they said.

Price is the "bottleneck" for consumers when it comes to buying local over imported, said Nanyang Technological University's (NTU) Professor William Chen.

But this may not be the case for long. With global warming and extreme weather events on the rise, the yield of imported vegetables - grown on traditional weather-dependent farms - will decline.

This will lead to price hikes or even a shortage of vegetables that can be imported into Singapore, said Prof Chen, the director of NTU's food science and technology programme.

"It is important that we show support for our local farms, keep them in the business and make locally produced vegetables as a viable option for our own benefit."

Farms here may not be able to compete with imports on price, but there are advantages to buying local, Meod's Mr Ong said.

"In Singapore, we have a more sustainable way of growing our produce. We are mindful of electrical consumption, water consumption, chemical usage, and we are pesticide-free. These are all the standards that local firms are trying to apply to have a differentiated product from imports," he said.

The other factor is freshness, he said. "Generally we harvest on the same day and deliver within the same day ... the produce is of better quality and lasts longer, and it tastes better."

BANDING TOGETHER

With local farms already struggling with high manpower and energy costs, they would not be able to lower their prices to match those of cheap imports, said Ms Nichol Ng, CEO of FoodXervices, which supplies goods to F&B businesses.

"I continuously see many more farms shutting their doors in the last two, three years. Even those that are surviving, maybe the slightly larger ones or the ones that are well-funded, they are also finding it difficult to maintain the operations," said Ms Ng, a vocal advocate for local produce.

But she thinks that as sustainability becomes more important for businesses and consumers, they will start to see the value in having food supplies from local sources with a lower carbon footprint.

A few interviewees said one way to boost demand was to have orders from large organisations such as major hotel chains, SATS or the armed forces.

Another way forward is to promote more cooperation among local farm players, said Ms Ng. "When you look at Australia or even in France, for example - they have this co-op mentality ... They will band together to ensure that they survive, but in Singapore we have not managed to achieve that yet."

Some farms like Livfresh are in favour of this.

"I think that's a missing link today. The way I view it is we're all in this together competing with imports rather than competing with each other," said Mr Rajan.

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Support local or buy global: Will Singaporeans embrace local produce despite higher prices?

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Farms here are also dealing with rising material and energy costs since Russia invaded Ukraine. "There were times when the electricity rates were so high that the more we grew, the more the company lost," said Mr Lee Yuan Hao of GKE Agritech.

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Research projects to study impact of climate change on diseases in Singapore

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A heat warning system could help manage the impact of heatwaves on chronic diseases, say researchers. Read more at straitstimes.com.

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SINGAPORE - The persistent rain has 25-year-old Ho Shan Yu feeling sad and sluggish. Her partner, on the other hand, gets stressed out after spending just five minutes under the blazing sun.

"The wet weather has me home more, and I feel like I can understand my friends in the United Kingdom when they say they have seasonal depression from the gloomy sky," said Ms Ho, a sustainability manager.

She and her partner are not alone in feeling emotions run due to the weather. Experts warn that with hotter days, longer dry spells and much heavier rain on the horizon due to climate change, people's emotions and mental health will be impacted.

Findings from Singapore's third national climate change study reveal that Singapore could face daily temperatures exceeding 35°C for up to 351 days in a year by the end of the century.

Extreme daily rainfall is projected to increase as well, according to the study released last Friday (Jan 5).

The World Health Organization has rung the warning bell on climate change's impact on mental health, calling on countries to integrate climate change considerations into policies and programmes for mental health.

Here's how climate change will impact our mental health, and what actions we can take.

REACTION TO RISING TEMPERATURES, DISCOMFORT

Research has shown a correlation between heat waves and a wide range of psychiatric conditions, such as depression and anxiety.

"Suicides, particularly violent ones, have been observed to be more prevalent during periods of high temperature," said Assistant Professor Cyrus Ho of the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

Psychologist Dr Karen Pooh of Alliance Counselling added: "When our body experiences higher temperature and more physical discomfort, our mind and mental health will be affected, too."

For one thing, higher temperatures can lead to physical discomfort and contribute to stress and irritability, said Dr Pooh, who is also part of the adjunct faculty at Yale-NUS.

Hotter nights could also lead to poorer sleep, difficulty concentrating and impaired cognitive function.

It is not just rising temperatures that impact our mood.

"Prolonged rainy days and insufficient sun have been associated with various psychiatric disorders, including seasonal affective disorder, which predominantly manifests in the autumn and winter seasons," said Dr Ho.

"A reduction in daylight and shorter days may potentially induce a chemical alteration in the brain that results in the manifestation of depressive symptoms."

UNCERTAINTY OF CLIMATE CHANGE BRINGS ANXIETY

But beyond the weather's impact, the uncertain future due to climate change sparks anxiety in some.

For Ms Ho, this uncertainty is all too real.

"The anxiousness is something inherent when you learn about climate change, like when you think about the increased droughts, famine and bad weather that can affect our food supply chain," she said.

"It has made me really consider life choices, like if I should have children when I know these disasters will happen in the next 50, 100 years."

Such anxiety is known as eco-anxiety.

This is when someone experiences "heightened emotional, psychological or somatic distress in response to concerns about environmental issues and the impact of climate change", said Dr Pooh.

The anxiety caused by uncertainty due to climate change may not necessarily be explicit, added Ms Theresa Pong, counselling director at The Relationship Room.

With more extreme weather, plans may be disrupted and this can cause inconvenience.

For example, a family member is in charge of the laundry, but the weather may disrupt this daily chore and cause stress as the clothes need to be washed.

"The other family members are reluctant to step up with the laundry because they are not used to doing this chore which is undertaken by the family member previously," said Ms Pong.

"The sudden loss of certainty and stability adds mental and emotional burden on the individuals which would affect relationships in the long run."

Concern for the climate and environment can also cause conflict between people.

"While it is no surprise to know that typical issues couples quarrel about would include relationships with in-laws, parenting, finance and household chores, we have observed in recent months that climate change has started to emerge as one of the major issues couples fight about," said Ms Pong.

For example, one party may not be at the same level of readiness when it comes to practising sustainability, while the other feels strongly about the impact of climate change.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

The solution to climate change's mental health impact is not as simple as hiding in an air-conditioned room, experts warn.

"Research has shown that individuals are likely to experience mental health symptoms such as depression and anxiety when they stay indoors over a prolonged period," said Ms Pong.

Environmental experts also told TODAY earlier that this could worsen the impact of climate change, creating a negative cycle.

Dr Pooh said: "The impact of climate change on mental health is influenced by various factors, depending on factors like existing mental health conditions, available resources, and how well we adapt.

"Efforts to address and mitigate the mental health impacts of climate change may include a mix of personal coping skills, community support, easy access to mental health services, and policy-level strategies to deal with climate change."

On an individual level, Dr Pooh said practising mindfulness through exercises such as focused breathing can help detach people from distressing thoughts.

Beyond that, committing actions towards environmental sustainability and nature could help provide a sense of purpose, while contributing to both personal well-being and environmental conservation.

Ms Pong added that with the anxiety caused by climate change, it is important for individuals and families to communicate.

"Embrace empathy and creativity as well (when coming up with a solution) as this is a good opportunity for the family to bond and set goals to help one another," she suggested.

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Feeling the heat? Climate change worsens mental health, experts warn

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SINGAPORE - The persistent rain has 25-year-old Ho Shan Yu feeling sad and sluggish. Her partner, on the other hand, gets stressed out after spending just five minutes under the blazing sun.

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Government agencies respond to Climate Change Study

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Government agencies respond to Climate Change Study

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06 Jan 2024 06:07AM (Updated: 06 Jan 2024 08:06AM)

SINGAPORE: From choosing how to orientate buildings to deciding which trees to prune or plant, the projections from Singapore's latest regional study on climate change will aid the authorities in their plans to address the challenges of global warming.

The third Singapore National Climate Change Study released on Friday (Jan 5) sets out expected changes in key climate variables such as temperature, rainfall, humidity, wind and sea level across three scenarios with varying levels of carbon emissions.

Under its worst-case scenario, the study paints a picture of a Singapore that could get very hot most days and warm every night, set against a backdrop of extreme wet and dry weathers.

While striving to avoid such a scenario, the authorities are planning a step ahead to mitigate potential effects of global warming.

On Friday, a panel of three government representatives from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), National Parks Board (NParks) and national water agency PUB, along with a food science expert from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), gave their input on the study at a symposium where the results were announced.

They pointed out how the results will affect ongoing and future solutions.

NParks, for example, singled out the data on wind speeds, which are set to increase by up to 20 per cent by the end of the century, and its effect on trees.

"You see the trees in your parks, in your gardens ... so we need it for cooling. But all the amenities that they provide, they can also provide dis-amenities when there's a massive storm and the tree falls," said NParks director of coastal and marine Karenne Tun.

"So we need to be able to understand how climate change can impact something that is so essential for Singapore and how do we prevent that from becoming a liability?"

She pointed out that towards the end of last year, some trees became "bald" as they were pruned.

Data showed that trees that grow to a certain size or get squeezed are more vulnerable and might fall, she said. In these cases, NParks would prune the trees to prevent mishaps.

"What version three then will do is provide the kind of data that will help us refine some of these models that we are using so that we can then know where do we prune the trees, what trees should be pruned, how much should they be pruned, at what time of the year, so that they do not become dis-amenities," Dr Tun said.

Version three could also help in predicting what kinds of trees could provide shade without resulting in dis-amenities to people.

PUB's director of coastal protection department Hazel Khoo said that beyond simply detailing mean sea level rise, the study could facilitate investigations into how higher wind speeds could potentially impact coastal surges and wave events.

"That is something that we will actually study and then we will use these projections and inputs together with our coastal-inland flood model that we are currently developing, it will give us an updated insight on the flood risk arising from both rainfall as well as sea level rise," Ms Khoo said.

Singapore's mean sea levels will rise under all three scenarios depicted in the study.

By the end of the century, the mean sea level will rise by between 0.23m and 1.15m, relative to the baseline period of 1995 to 2014. However extreme weather events like high tides and storm surges can cause levels to spike by 4m to 5m.

This would put 30 per cent of Singapore's land - which lies less than 5m above the mean sea level - at risk of being submerged.

The study also details heavier rainfall, which could lead to more instances of flooding - something also under PUB's purview.

On the other extreme, longer and more frequent dry spells predicted by the study could also impact Singapore's water supply.

"That calls for us to look at this data very seriously to review our water plans to incorporate these projections ... so that we can continue to ... ensure a sustainable water supply for Singapore in the future," Ms Khoo said.

Separately, PUB told CNA that the risk of transient flooding at coastal areas due to the "combined impact of sea level rise and heavy rainfall will be heightened over the long term", as seen at East Coast Park in 2018 and early last year.

PUB, also Singapore's national coastal protection agency, was responding to questions on how measures would change given the results of version three and the key challenges Singapore will face should the worst-case scenario come to pass.

A spokesperson said that the agency will develop adaptation pathways up to a planning horizon of 2m sea level rise.

"We will implement measures required in the nearer term, while making plans and provisions for future adaptations needed," PUB said.

"These future enhancements will only be required when actual sea levels are observed to rise beyond certain thresholds."

PUB is working with the Centre for Climate Research Singapore to "put in place a continuous monitoring framework to track actual mean sea level rise and evaluate if adjustments to the planned adaptation measures would be necessary", PUB added.

Currently, Singapore has a combination of hard structures in place to protect around 70 per cent of its coasts, and is studying specific ways to protect different shorelines.

KEEPING COOL

URA's Chiu Wen Tung, the group director of research and development, said that the study provides data on how heat impacts Singaporeans, informing the cooling solutions the agency pursues.

The agency is integrating "climate-sensitive design" into its planning, for example arranging buildings in a way that increases wind speed and shade in new districts. Cool paint is another way to lower the temperatures of buildings, he said.

Trials for "cool paint", conducted by the Housing & Development Board, showed that temperatures of the blocks with such paint could be lowered by about 2 degrees Celsius, Mr Chiu told the media after the panel discussion.

According to the study, more very hot days are expected as Singapore nears the end of the century even if the world takes a path of sustainable growth. The study also predicts more warm nights and more days with high heat stress.

Singapore is expected to become warmer under all scenarios, with annual mean temperatures rising between 0.6 degrees Celsius and 5 degrees Celsius by end-century.

"Singapore has always had to deal with heat because we are in a tropical country," said Mr Chiu. "And then we have heat due to urbanisation from the urban heat island effect as well as now another maybe ... up to five degrees depending on which scenario shown from climate change based on version three, so heat is something that we always had to live with. But I think the urgency has perhaps gone up with the version three findings."

On how it would work with the private sector, Mr Chiu said URA invests in research for cooling measures but will require the private sector's buy-in for implementation.

"It requires the builders, the developers, the building owners, the architects, the landscape designers to all participate to help to build buildings that incorporate all these climate-sensitive design, where you can have higher wind flow, shade provision, more expansive greenery and implement the strategies that will help us lower the temperatures."

NTU's Endowed Chair Professor in Food Science and Technology William Chen pointed out that beyond the impact on health, temperatures would disrupt crop yields and food supplies.

However, he cautioned against an oversimplified solution to increase supplies amid a growing population.

"The simplest way is to clear more land and clear more forests to make land for farming. Along the way we actually remove a lot of carbon sink, leading to global warming. It's a vicious cycle, and in the end, there's not enough food and so on."

Instead, tightening the food cycle to reduce food waste would be a more viable way forward, Prof Chen said.

Participants of the symposium also sent their questions to members of the panel, with one asking how Singapore would help its fauna and flora cope with the warming climate.

Dr Tun said that the first step would be to understand how climate change impacted an organism's biology through research. Extreme weather, she pointed out, would affect trees both ways. The tree could get water-logged and rot, while dry spells could affect the stability of the tree.

In response to that, the authorities could find ways to help the plant adapt, she said.

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'The urgency has gone up': Singapore government agencies react to findings of third climate change study

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NParks, URA, and PUB representatives point out key findings relevant to their agencies and what they can do to mitigate the potential effects of global warming.

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Balance between mitigation and adaptation key to Singapore's climate change strategy

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Singapore can influence change, encourage improvements and implement adaptations. Read more at straitstimes.com.

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SG will not claim from Climate Loss & Damage Fund

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SG will not claim from Climate Loss & Damage Fund

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Singapore will not claim from climate loss and damage fund despite facing rising sea levels: Grace Fu

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The loss and damage fund draws from wealthier nations to help countries most vulnerable to climate change cope with its effects, and was launched on the first day of this year's COP28 talks in Dubai.

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Climate change is also having an unpredictable impact on malaria, with 5 million more cases registered in 2022 than the previous year - reaching a total of 249 million, the WHO's World Malaria Report found.

Floods in Pakistan last year, for example, led to a 400 per cent increase in malaria cases in the country, the report said.

The disease has also spread into the highlands of Africa that previously had been cold for mosquitoes.

Two new malaria vaccines expected to be available next year offer some hope of combating the scourge.

MURKY WATERS

Storms and flooding wrought by climate change are allowing other infectious water-borne diseases to proliferate as well.

After decades of progress against cholera, an intestinal infection spread by contaminated food and water, case numbers are rising again, including in countries that had all but extirpated the disease.

Without treatment, cholera can kill within hours.

In 2022, 44 countries reported cholera cases, a 25 per cent increase over 2021, according to the WHO, which noted the role played by cyclones, floods, and drought in cutting off access to clean water and helping bacteria to thrive.

Recent outbreaks have also been far deadlier, with fatality rates now at the highest recorded level in over a decade, the WHO said.

Diarrhoea, too, receives a boost from climate change, with increasingly erratic rainfall - resulting in either wet or dry conditions - yielding a higher risk, research has found.

Diarrhoea is the world's second leading cause of death among children under 5, after pneumonia, claiming the lives of more than half a million kids every year.

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How climate change is making the world sick

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DUBAI: Heat stress. Lung damage from wildfire smoke. The spread of disease-carrying mosquitoes into new regions as temperatures rise.

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Who is a climate migrant? Further info at: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/who-is-a-climate-migrant

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Many residents of destination countries consider immigrants a headache at best and a threat at worst. Yet the perils of migration are much more painful for those who are forced into them. Whether immigrants arrive via legal or illegal channels, they often begin their pursuit of happiness in a newfound land encountering discrimination.

In Kiribati, a remote island country in the equatorial Pacific, migration of I-Kiribati, as its people call themselves, has taken place as a result of rising sea levels. Half of the country's population of 111,000 people lives in South Tarawa, the capital and hub of Kiribati. The rapidly growing urban area is less than 9.8 feet (3 meters) above sea level, and yet Tarawa has an extremely high population density. Generally, the reasons for people to relocate can be divided into the categories of economic migration or non-economic migration (such as political asylum, war, and drought). Kiribati certainly fits the bill for both.

Seeking opportunities abroad, against hostility and prejudice
Kiribati is recognized as a Least Developed Country (LDC) and is ranked 170th of 186 countries on per capita GDP, according to an official paper. The economy is highly dependent on fishing licensing fees, remittances, and donor assistance. Until 1979, the phosphate rock mining industry contributed a large reserve fund with growing interest to the government. Still, along with the challenges of an increased population and rapid urbanization that are commonly seen in many other developing countries, Kiribati has to deal with alarmingly high rates of unemployment, and infant mortality resulting from insufficient healthcare.

Global warming aggravates this outgoing labor force. The sandy, tropical islands have few natural resources and are prone to drought. Joshua Keating, author of Invisible Countries, poses a poignant question: "Countries cannot be destroyed; they can only become other countries, the land they occupy now controlled by someone else. But what if there is no more land?"

As glaciers are melting, warm seawater and overfishing are bleaching coral reefs, further damaging the food chain as high up as humans. Land erosion has driven the I-Kiribati to move to higher ground or even relocate abroad. The term "climate refugees'' originates from a headline-making lawsuit surrounding I-Kiribati Ioane Teitiota. Mr. Teitiota brought a case against the government of New Zealand at the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) in February 2016 after authorities denied his claim of asylum as a "climate refugee." He had been deported from New Zealand to Kiribati six months before.

Early in January 2020, in its first ruling on climate change-related asylum seeking, the HRC stated that countries may not deport individuals who face climate change-induced conditions that violate the right to life. The landmark decision surely sets a global precedent. To developed countries, an influx of climate refugees reaching ashore to enter their boundaries of sovereignty may be akin to a migraine, especially to xenophobic leaders and citizenry.

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The migraine of migration: the tiny island-nation of Kiribati struggles for survival

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To Pacific Islanders, being called "climate refugees" equals "second-class" citizens. Yet, for many, their homeland is sinking into the ocean. The writer and recent Executive MNR alumna Karen (Songyi) Zhang talks about the impacts of climate change on this small island nation and strategies for finding practical solutions in the face of enormous challenges.

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Extreme weather, changes in precipitation and increasing temperatures driven by climate change can diminish or harm water sources, food supply and air quality. They can also strain infrastructure beyond capacity, deplete resources, increase the risks of vector-borne diseases, and so much more.

These are just a few of the effects of climate change that can disrupt or displace entire communities. But they are not felt uniformly across all geographies, communities or even neighbourhoods, particularly when it comes to people's health.

Figure 1: Changes in global surface temperature relative to 1850-1900

How does climate change affect the health of different communities?

Climate change amplifies many structural, social and environmental determinants of health, such as social policies, food security and pollution. These factors contribute to disproportionate climate exposure for the communities and nations that often bear minimal responsibility for causing climate change, such as historically marginalised communities in the United States.

Unequal exposure increases susceptibility to the health effects associated with climate events and further heightens related inequities.

Consider a heatwave. Greenhouse gas emissions have raised global average temperatures as well as the frequency, intensity and duration of extreme heat events ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2021; Perkins-Kirkpatrick and Lewis, 2020).

When a heatwave sweeps across a region, it brings with it extreme temperatures that can exacerbate certain chronic conditions and cause heat-related illnesses or even fatalities. It can also be destructive to critical infrastructure, placing extra stress on the power grid or damaging roads and railways.

Socio-economic and socio-environmental factors influenced by social determinants of health can make some communities more vulnerable to heat than others within the same region. For example, lower-income households may be unable to afford air conditioning or they may have limited access to preparedness or response resources.

Further, individuals from lower-income households often rely on public transport that requires waiting outside at bus or train stops. In addition, they are more likely to work in physically demanding or outdoor jobs, further increasing their heat exposure.

Certain neighbourhoods may also be more exposed to heat, such as urban heat islands. These are densely populated areas with fewer trees, less ground cover and more concrete or asphalt surfaces that retain heat.

Urban heat islands often experience higher temperatures than surrounding areas, and a history of housing segregation and underinvestment in the United States has made it more likely that people of colour and communities on lower incomes will live in such areas.

Communities living in these neighbourhoods are also more likely to have chronic diseases that make them more susceptible to heat-related health issues. In fact, a nearly decade-long study of extreme heat days in the United States found that non-Hispanic black adults were among those who experienced higher mortality rates associated with the heat.

The Community Resilience Estimate for Heat tool developed by the US Census Bureau and Arizona State University found that nearly a quarter of the US population would be socially vulnerable amid extreme heat exposure.

Crucially, more marginalised and disadvantaged communities typically have limited access to adequate healthcare services. They may also be less able to seek care due to challenging circumstances, such as lack of financial resources or not being able to take time off work to seek care. These factors compound health issues even before a climate event occurs and can contribute to poorer health outcomes and increased costs of care.

Social vulnerabilities can also make communities less able to recover or invest in effective adaptation or mitigation measures to protect themselves from future heatwaves and other climate exposures. This serves to widen existing disparities between communities even further.

What is the burden of extreme heat on health systems?

Health systems provide baseline care to meet the existing healthcare needs of the communities that they serve and accommodate any emergency care needs that may arise. But heatwaves can damage such systems.

Extreme heat ramps up healthcare needs. And if heatwaves become increasingly frequent and ferocious, they are likely to threaten the sustainability of healthcare systems.

Heatwaves can create excess service needs in the shorter term as extreme heat can contribute to health issues such as respiratory difficulties, heat cramps, heat exhaustion and non-fatal heat stroke ( Hondula et al, 2015).

This temporarily increased demand may overwhelm health systems' resources and staffing capacity while also driving up healthcare spending, particularly within communities that are already more at risk.

For example, Mathematica's ClimaWATCH heat vulnerability assessment tool demonstrates that healthcare spending for individuals with low incomes and resources in the United States (specifically participants in the Medicaid public health insurance programme) rises during heatwaves. This is the case even if the number of individuals using healthcare services does not increase significantly.

Figure 2: Heat vulnerability index, United States, 2019

Analysis using the tool suggests that the state of Arizona spent an additional $514 million in healthcare services to treat all non-poisonous causes (for example, respiratory, circulatory and endocrine disorders) during heatwaves in 2020 alone, despite no significant spike in use rates.

This indicates that extreme heat can complicate existing health issues, making it necessary to have more complex and costly care. In fact, ClimaWATCH also shows that the excess cost to treat an individual with any existing health condition is nine times largerthan treating someone without a health condition.

The figure is up to five times larger among people with disabilities (compared with all adults). This further demonstrates that inequities exist even within an already disadvantaged population.

Climate stressors - such as higher sustained temperatures - can also contribute to increased demand for healthcare services over time. This can change the overall profile of the baseline care required in such a way that may stretch the health system's resources and overburden staff in an unsustainable manner.

Why is a resilient health system so critical for health equity?

A resilient health system plays a crucial role in promoting health equity by ensuring sustainable care for disadvantaged communities, especially when affected by climate change.

Treating shocks brought about by climate-induced demand - for example, during an event like a heatwave - is resource-intensive and adds pressure to already overburdened health system s.

Sustained higher demand for services makes it increasingly difficult for health systems to be able to avoid interruptions to care, to maintain the quality of baseline or emergency care, or to guarantee provision of care at all. It runs the risk of insufficient resources, financial insolvency, inefficient practices and more.

These silent pressures diminish health systems' resilience and their ability to provide reliably and sustainably for the communities in need of their services. As a result, a critical first line of response to protect people's health and wellbeing amid climate change is at risk, and the most susceptible populations are likely to feel that burden more profoundly.

In fact, forthcoming analysis at Mathematica finds that the effect of heat on health in communities at higher risk to any natural hazard is magnified nine times. A non-resilient health system simply compounds existing structural and social inequities.

What could a more resilient and equitable health system look like - and how can it be supported?

A health system that could remain resilient and continue to provide equitable care amid a changing climate is possible. To understand how, we need to consider the ways in which climate change affects both the health system itself and the communities it serves.

This will help to plan and design more equitable policies and practices, which can be supported through:
Data
Health systems can leverage various technologies and data analytics tools - such as Mathematica's ClimaWATCH, Esri's heat vulnerability tool, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's heat safety tool app, and more - to gain insights that can inform decision-making.

These tools assist in predictive modelling, enabling tailored scenario planning and immediate disaster response. By analysing local vulnerability assessments, health systems can pinpoint sources of inequity and allocate resources to address them effectively.
Collaboration
Health systems would benefit from engaging and collaborating more with the communities that they serve. Working directly with the communities that feel the effects of climate change most acutely can help to develop an understanding of evolving needs based on lived experience. This can also facilitate meeting those needs with equitable solutions that address the unique intricacies that each local community faces.

To foster resilience, health systems might also consider partnering with other agencies or organisations to explore what climate actions they have successfully taken. They can learn from each other and extend their capacity and access to resources to improve responses to service demands that may arise due to a climate shock or stressor.
Flexibility
To remain resilient and provide equitable services, health systems should strive to maintain a degree of flexibility in their practices. The data they collect through any assessments that they conduct and the lessons they learn from their collaborative partners and engaged communities will support dynamic decision-making.

Health systems can make necessary adjustments based on what they learn to ensure that their services remain sustainable regardless of how the climate around them may change.

As climate change exerts a far-reaching influence on so many aspects of daily life, it has the power to exacerbate existing vulnerabilities and health disparities. By looking to the evidence and working together, we can bolster more equitable communities and systems that can remain resilient amid a changing climate.

Where can I find out more?

Who are experts on this question?

Dheeya Rizmie, Mathematica

Aparna Keshaviah, Mathematica

Michael Greenstone, University of Chicago

Shubhayu Saha, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC)

Author: Dheeya Rizmie and Colleen Psomas

Image by Jose Luis Gallego Aviles on iStock

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How does climate change amplify health inequities? - Economics Observatory

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Climate change affects many aspects of everyday life, but some groups of people feel the impact more acutely than others. Climate shocks such as higher sustained temperatures typically compound health disparities between communities - but a more resilient and equitable health system is possible.

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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Global GDP loss from climate change will increase exponentially the warmer the planet gets when its cascading impact on global supply chains is factored in, finds a new study led by UCL researchers.

The study, published in Nature, is the first to chart "indirect economic losses" from climate change on global supply chains that will affect regions that would have been less affected by projected warming temperatures.

These previously unquantified disruptions in supply chains will further exacerbate projected economic losses due to climate change, bringing a projected net economic loss of between $3.75 trillion and $24.7 trillion in adjusted 2020 dollars by 2060, depending on how much carbon dioxide gets emitted.

Senior author Professor Dabo Guan (UCL Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction) said, "These projected economic impacts are staggering. These losses get worse the more the planet warms, and when you factor in the effects on global supply chains it shows how everywhere is at economic risk."

As the global economy has grown more interconnected, disruptions in one part of the world have knock-on effects elsewhere in the world, sometimes in unexpected ways. Crop failures, labor slowdowns and other economic disruptions in one region can affect the supplies of raw materials flowing to other parts of the world that depend on them, disrupting manufacturing and trade in faraway regions. This is the first study to analyze and quantify the propagation of these disruptions from climate change, as well as their economic impacts.

As the Earth warms, the worse off economically it becomes, with compounding damage and economic losses climbing exponentially as time goes on and the hotter it gets. Climate change disrupts the global economy primarily by health costs from people suffering from heat exposure, work stoppages when it's too hot to work, and economic disruptions cascading through supply chains.

The researchers compared expected economic losses across three projected global warming scenarios, called "Shared Socioeconomic Pathways," based on low, medium and high projected global emissions levels. The best-case scenario would see global temperatures rise by only 1.5°C over preindustrial levels by 2060, the middle track, which most experts believe Earth is on now, would see global temperatures rise by around 3°C, and the worst-case scenario would see global temperatures rise by 7°C.

By 2060, projected economic losses will be nearly five times as much under the highest emissions path than the lowest, with economic losses getting progressively worse the warmer it gets. By 2060, total GDP losses will amount to 0.8% under 1.5° of warming, 2.0% under 3° of warming and 3.9% under 7° of warming.

The team calculated that supply chain disruptions also get progressively worse the warmer the climate gets, accounting for a greater and greater proportion of economic losses. By 2060, supply chain losses will amount to 0.1% of total global GDP (13% of the total GDP lost) under 1.5° of warming, 0.5% of total GDP (25% of the total GDP lost) under 3°, and 1.5% of total GDP (38% of the total GDP lost) under 7°.

Co-lead author, Dr. Daoping Wang of King's College London, said, "The negative impacts of extreme heat sometimes occur quietly on global supply chains, even escaping our notice altogether. Our developed Disaster Footprint model tracks and visually represents these impacts, underlining the imperative for global collaborative efforts in adapting to extreme heat."

For example, although extreme heat events occur more often in low-latitude countries, high-latitude regions, such as Europe or the United States, are also at significant risk. Future extreme heat is likely to cost Europe and the US about 2.2% and about 3.5% of their GDP respectively under the high emission scenario.

The UK would lose about 1.5% of its GDP, with chemical products, tourism and electrical equipment industries suffering the greatest losses. Some of these losses originate from supply chain fluctuations caused by extreme heat in countries close to the equator.

The direct human cost is likewise significant. Even under the lowest path, 2060 will see 24% more days of extreme heat waves and an additional 590,000 heat wave deaths annually, while under the highest path there would be more than twice as many heat waves and an expected 1.12 million additional annual heat wave deaths. These impacts will not be evenly distributed around the world, but countries situated near to the equator will bear the brunt of climate change, particularly developing countries.

Co-lead author, Yida Sun from Tsinghua University said, "Developing countries suffer disproportionate economic losses compared to their carbon emissions. As multiple nodes in developing countries are hit simultaneously, economic damage can spread rapidly through the global value chain."

The researchers highlighted two illustrative examples of industries that are part of supply chains at risk from climate change: Indian food production and tourism in the Dominican Republic.

The Indian food industry is heavily reliant on imports of fats and oils from Indonesia and Malaysia, Brazilian sugar, as well as vegetables, fruits and nuts from Southeast Asia and Africa. These supplier countries are among those most affected by climate change, diminishing India's access to raw materials, which will diminish its food exports. As a result, the economies of countries reliant on these foods will feel the pinch of diminished supply and higher prices.

The Dominican Republic is expected to see a decline in its tourism as its climate grows too warm to attract vacationers. A nation whose economy is heavily reliant on tourism, this slowdown will hurt tourism-reliant industries including manufacturing, construction, insurance, financial services, and electronic equipment.

Professor Guan said, "This research is an important reminder that preventing every additional degree of climate change is critical. Understanding what nations and industries are most vulnerable is crucial for devising effective and targeted adaption strategies."

More information: Dabo Guan, Global supply chains amplify economic costs of future extreme heat risk, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07147-z. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07147-z

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Supply chain disruptions will further exacerbate economic losses from climate change, finds study

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Global GDP loss from climate change will increase exponentially the warmer the planet gets when its cascading impact on global supply chains is factored in, finds a new study led by UCL researchers.

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Jakarta is sinking! - Equator from the Air - BBC

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Fossil fuel firms owe climate reparations

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Fossil fuel firms owe climate reparations

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The world's top fossil fuel companies owe at least $209bn in annual climate reparations to compensate communities most damaged by their polluting business and decades of lies, a new study calculates.

BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, Saudi Arabia's state oil company and Chevron are among the largest 21 polluters responsible for $5.4tn (£4.3tn) in drought, wildfires, sea level rise, and melting glaciers among other climate catastrophes expected between 2025 and 2050, according to groundbreaking analysis published in the journal One Earth.

It is the first time researchers have quantified the economic burden caused by individual companies that have extracted - and continue to extract - wealth from planetheating fossil fuels.

Amid growing debate about who should bear the economic cost of the climate crisis, the paper, titled Time to Pay the Piper, presents a moral case for the carbon corporations most responsible for the climate breakdown to use some of their "tainted wealth" to compensate victims.

The study considers this to be a substantial yet conservative price tag, as the methodology excludes the economic value of lost lives and livelihoods, species extinction and other biodiversity loss, as well as other wellbeing components not captured in GDP.

"This is only the tip of the iceberg of long-term climate damages, mitigation, and adaptation costs," said co-author Richard Heede, co-founder and director of Climate Accountability Institute.

The study builds on the carbon majors database, which records the emissions of individual oil, gas and coal companies since 1988 - the year the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established and industry claims of scientific uncertainty about the climate crisis became untenable.

The creation of an evidence-based "polluter pays" price tag has been welcomed as an important step towards achieving climate justice for communities and countries which have contributed the least, but are losing the most as the climate breaks down.

"As increasingly devastating storms, floods and sea level rise bring misery to millions of people every day, questions around reparations have come to the fore," said Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International, a group of almost 2,000 civil society groups across 130 countries.

"This new report puts the numbers on the table - polluters can no longer hide from their crimes against humanity and nature."

Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa, a climate and energy thinktank based in Kenya, said: "The case is clear for oil and gas companies to pay reparations for the harm their fossil fuels have caused. Not only has their dirty energy wrecked the climate, they have [in many cases] spent millions of dollars on lobbying and misinformation to prevent climate action."

In the painfully slow world of international climate talks, the question of who should pay to tackle climate impacts has predominantly focused on the role and responsibility of nation states. This view is widely held, since the richest 1% of the world's population is responsible for twice the amount of greenhouse gases as the world's poorest 50%, who suffer the brunt of the harms.

So far, the rich countries of the global north are regarded as having promised too little - and delivered even less - for climate adaptation efforts in poorer countries.

Demands for reparations have been mounting as the planet's warming climate inflicts death and destruction at an ever faster pace.

Last year at the UN's Cop27 summit, after decades of pressure from the climate justice movement, states agreed to establish a "loss and damage" financing fund that should eventually partially compensate poor countries for the irreparable and unavoidable economic and non-economic costs of extreme weather events and slow-onset climate disasters such as sea level rise and melting glaciers.

The deal in Egypt came after unprecedented floods left a third of Pakistan underwater, drought left 37 million people in the Horn of Africa facing hunger and starvation, and heatwaves across Europe were likely to have caused more than 20,000 excess deaths.

The new study, which reframes the debate on international climate funding by focusing on the financial responsibility of fossil fuel companies for climate harm, could help move the dial in the loss and damage negotiations, according to Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, associate professor of sustainability law at the University of Amsterdam.

"This evidence and the underlying methodology could provide policymakers and negotiators with a concrete framework for allocating responsibility for climate-related costs to the world's biggest historical polluters," said Wewerinke-Singh.

Overall, global economic damages to be expected from the climate crisis are estimated at $99tn between 2025 and 2050 - of which fossil fuel emissions are responsible for $69.6tn, according to more than 700 climate economists.

The study conservatively attributes one-third of these future climate costs to the global fossil fuel industry, and one-third each to governments and consumers.

This means the global fossil fuel industry is held to be to blame for at least $23.2tn of the climate-related economic losses expected over the next 25 years, or $893bn annually.

The price tag on climate damages owed by the worst 21 oil, gas and coal producers is based on each company's operations and product-related emissions since 1988 - and on the economic situation of their home countries. About half of the warming experienced so far has happened since 1988 - when Nasa scientist James Hansen testified about the human role in climate breakdown in front of the US Senate.

The companies could afford the reparations:

Saudi Aramco, the state-owned company with the largest emissions, would owe $43bn annually - equivalent to just over a quarter of its 2022 profits.

ExxonMobil would owe $18bn in annual reparations, compared with record profits of $56bn in 2022.

British oil giants Shell and BP, which together made $68bn for shareholders last year, would be collectively liable for $30.8bn in annual climate reparations, according to the study.

The authors exempt four companies in low-income countries (India, Iran, Algeria and Venezuela) and halve the liability for six producers in middle-income countries (Russia, China, Mexico, Brazil and Iraq), using the moral argument that this would permit them to pay more taxes and make other progressive contributions.

Prof Marco Grasso, a co-author at the University of Milano-Bicocca, said: " The proposed framework for quantifying and attributing reparations to major carbon fuel producers is grounded in moral theory and provides a starting point for discussion of the financial duty owed by the fossil fuel industry to climate victims."

As climate litigation moves forward in jurisdictions across the world, it is hoped that the evidence-based methodology may also assist courts in attributing blame and calculating damages, according to Erika Lennon, a senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law's energy and climate programme.

"It's a complement to - not a substitute for - climate finance being discussed in policy spaces, but would help fill the massive gap [left] by states in covering the scale and costs of climate harms," said Lennon. "This is the next step in holding fossil fuel companies accountable for their trillions of dollars of climate impacts."

The fossil fuel companies named in the study were contacted for comment. Shell said: "The energy system is the result of society's choices about everything from transport to land use over many decades. Addressing a challenge as big as climate change requires unprecedented collaboration where everyone has a role to play. For our part, we are reducing our own emissions and working closely with our customers to help them reduce theirs." Saudi Aramco declined to comment, and the others did not respond.

This article was amended on 19 May 2023 to correct the figure of annual reparations in the study. It is $209bn, not $281bn.

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Fossil fuel firms owe climate reparations of $209bn a year, says study

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The world's top fossil fuel companies owe at least $209bn in annual climate reparations to compensate communities most damaged by their polluting business and decades of lies, a new study calculates.

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2023 was the year that policymakers in Asia Pacific took cues from regulators in the West and made tentative steps to police greenwashing.

South Korea became the first Asian country to fine companies for making exaggerated green claims in February, following a law suit against an energy major that claimed it could produce "carbon dioxide-free" natural gas. But the maximum fine for greenwashing firms in Korea is US$2,300, prompting questions on whether it makes an impact at all.

Japan, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore are among the Asian countries have released guidelines for how the finance sector can avoid greenwashing in environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosures.

Singapore is considering using technology - artificial intelligence - to weed out iffy claims, and Australia's advertising watchdog is tightening its environmental claims code after a study found a jump in misleading marketing campaigns.

Asia's public relations industry association finally produced guidelines for brands on how to communicate sustainability credibly in October, more than a year after announcing it would. Singapore's advertising watchdog became the first in Asia to call an advertisement out for greenwashing in December.

Japan-based academic Kim Schumacher, who coined the term "competence greenwashing" to describe people or companies that embellish their green credentials to land a new job or contract, told Eco-Business Podcast that there have been fewer law suits and regulations that hold corporations' feet to the flame for greenwashing in Asia partly of the cultural tendency to avoid conflict.

Meanwhile, law suits against brands accused of trumping up their green credentials in the West gained momentum, and regulators started to turn the screw on companies guilty of greenwash. The European Union moved to ban the term "carbon neutral" and outlaw climate claims based purely on carbon offsetting.

At the COP28 summit, activist group Clean Creatives launched a report highlighting how advertising and public relations agencies had a part to play in the rebranding strategy of the United Arab Emirates to present itself as a leader in renewable energy in the lead-up to the climate talks. It identified 18 agencies that worked for COP28, the UAE presidency, Masdar and UAE's state-owned oil company Adnoc from 2021 to 2023, and among them 10 agencies that "double dealed" and worked simultaneously for the COP28 presidency and on fossil fuel contracts.

Though some brands retreated into their shells and stopped communicating their sustainability credentials for fear of getting accused of greenwashing - a phenomenon known as greenhushing - there were more cases of brands getting called out for greenwashing in 2023 than the previous year, when 18 cases were highlighted - up from 11 in 2021 and eight in 2020, according to Eco-Business' reporting on the issue.

Eco-Business casts a critical eye over the 22 times brands made green claims in 2023 that did not appear to pass the credibility test.

Apple: Sustainability report cherry-picking blessed by Mother Earth

September's curtain-raiser event for the iPhone 15 was interluded with a video in which Mother Earth, played by Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer, critiqued but ultimately blessed Apple's green credentials. Some praised the five-minute film for injecting a welcome dose of storytelling into the drab world of sustainability reporting, and were impressed by Apple's track record on clean energy, reforestation, soil protection and plastic reduction. Others pointed out that Apple's status update - like so many sustainability reports - cherry-picked environmental wins and glossed over the rest.

"Then stop making new phones every year. Make phones upgradable," an X user tweeted in response to Apple CEO Tim Cook's post of the video, referring to the concept of planned obsolence that critics say Apple pioneered. "You mass-produce your products in China, one of the world's biggest polluters," wrote another.

In an open letter, sustainability consultants Rajul Priyadarshini and Emma Bluck pointed to widely reported human rights and labour issues in Apple's supply chain, which were not mentioned in the video, and the fact that Apple used the video as a sales pitch - to promote its first "carbon neutral" watch.

World Coal Association: "Sustainable" makeover

When the World Coal Association rebranded to "FutureCoal: The Global Alliance for Sustainable Coal" in November, observers wondered if an April Fool's joke had landed five months early. How "sustainable" can the single biggest cause of man-made climate change be? FutureCoal argued in its launch statement that for too long the coal sector had allowed "anti-coal sentiment to dominate and fragment us, which has resulted in a lowering of the global coal IQ." By "coal IQ", it meant the general level of understanding of coal's contribution to society, and how abatement technologies can reduce pollution from burning the black stuff.

Bitasta Roy Mehta, a practitioner in the human resources sector, said the audacity of labelling coal as green was almost amusing. "What next? Coca-Cola as a health drink?" With "sustainable coal", everything now makes sense. It is about the sustainability of production that petro-associations at COP28 will be discussing," pointing to the fossil fuels lobbying army present at the climate talks in Dubai.

Indonesia's palm oil agency: Plantations are more climate-friendly than rainforests

Speaking to an audience of farmers and Indigenous peoples at an event in August, a senior executive for Indonesia's Palm Oil Fund Management Agency, the government's palm oil finance agency, suggested that the crop is a more powerful carbon sink than the natural forests that it has replaced. Experts dismissed the claim as "goofy" and "criminally misleading". The presentation was made as the Indonesian government was locking horns with the European Union over a deforestation law that makes forest-risk commodities such as oil palm, of which Indonesia's is the world's biggest producer, trickier to export.

Toyota: EV stalling

Japan's largest company seemed to have turn over a new leaf and embrace the vehicles electrification era earlier this year when it replaced its chief executive with a more pro-EV boss. New CEO Koji Sato has made some efforts to boost EV production, and Toyota has pumped US$8 billion into a new battery plant in the US. But critics say the automaker, in its marketing, is up to its "old tricks". Toyota often confuses hybrid vehicles, which run entirely on petrol and derive no energy from non-polluting sources - with electric vehicles. The company also seems preoccupied by what critics suspect are unrealistic solutions, such as solid-state EV batteries, which they say will only push EV adoption timelines back.

Lufthansa: Planetary protection posturing

An advertising campaign for Lufthansa was banned in the United Kingdom for making misleading claims about the German airline's efforts to protect the planet. Britain's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said there were no commercially viable technologies in the aviation industry which would substantiate Lufthansa's claim that it was protecting the world's future.

In its defence, Lufthansa - which has pledged to be carbon neutral by 2050 and half its emissions by 2030 - said the tagline was "open to interpretation" and argued that consumers would not see it as an "absolute promise" to protect the planet or that its planes did not cause harm. The ASA said brands in high carbon emitting sectors shouldn't make claims that give consumers a false impression about plans they can't substantiate.

Austrian Airlines: "Climate-friendly" aviation

In a bad year for the Lufthansa group's green credentials, the company's Austrian subsidiary was found guilty of greenwashing by a court in Korneuburg for leading consumers to believe that by using sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), "climate-friendly" air travel was now possible. The court reasoned that SAF still emits CO2 when burned and are blended with fossil fuels. Austrian Airlines promised to provide "clearer" information in future on the use of "sustainable" fuels. The ruling did not include any financial penalties.

S.E.A Aquarium: Can it say it is an ocean steward if dolphins are still kept captive?

An educational promotion to attract parents and their children to visit Singapore's Southeast Asia Aquarium to learn about ocean conservation in celebration of World Oceans Day omitted the fact that the tourist attraction houses more than 20 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins that were caught from the wild. The irony was not lost on animal welfare groups, who said that letting these highly intelligent mammals go would be the best way to educate kids about responsible ocean stewardship.

Petronas, Shell and Repsol: Only talk about renewables

"Chances are, you're going to need to add some balance to your ads," said Guy Parker, chief executive of the UK's Advertising Standards Authortiy (ASA) in an interview with Bloomberg Green. Parker was talking about ads by Malaysian oil giant Petronas and European majors Shell and Repsol whose campaigns were banned by the ASA for chest-beating about their investments in renewables without mentioning the extent of their businesses' overall climate impact. A September ad for Petronas claimed that it was "enriching lives for a sustainable future", but the ASA said the ad failed to mention the company's carbon emissions and gave the impression that Petronas was already having a positive environmental impact. Malaysian environmental group Rimbawatch has also questioned the accuracy of Petronas' reported emissions, pointing out that although the company said it was as yet unable to fully measure its emissions, they had in fact reported their Scope 3 in their 2022 integrated annual report based on the emissions of the companies they have stakes in.

Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association: '50% cleaner" than what?

An ad for Australia's petroleum lobby group was banned by the country's ad watchdog for claiming that natural gas is "50 per cent cleaner" without clearly specifying what it was cleaner than. In one of the ads, a worker wearing protective gear says: "As Australia shuts down coal, gas is picking up the load". Another worker later says, referring to gas: "It's 50 per cent cleaner, so together with renewables it gets emissions down." But this was problematic, complained law firm Environmental Defenders Office on behalf of non-profits Comms Declare and Lock the Gate. "It is a blanket and misleading statement that gas is 'green', when in truth the exploration, extraction, transport, processing and logistics of gas are very damaging to the environment and emit a lot of greenhouse gas - especially methane," read the complaint. Australia's ad watchdog upheld the complaint, marking a rare occasion in which an advertisement has been banned in Australia for making a misleading or unsubstantiated green claim.

Prism+: Airconditioners that save the planet

An airconditioner - one of the most energy-intensive home appliances - that can save the planet? Singapore-based consumer electronics brand ran a social media campaign in which influencer Xiaxue is called by a fictional president who asks for her help to "save Earth". In response, Xiaxue puts on winter clothing, sets the airconditioner to 23 degrees Celsius, and snuggles under a blanket. "Save Earth and electricity with 5 ticks energy saving," reads the caption. Professor Lawrence Loh, director of the Centre for Governance and Sustainability at National University of Singapore Business School, told Eco-Business that the advertisement was guilty of what a recent study found to be the most common form of greenwashing in Singapore - making vague claims unsupported by specific data sources. The video was called out by the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore - the first ad to be removed in Asia for greenwashing.

Etihad: not zero?

Activist group Flight Free Australia took issue with airline Etihad's claim in its advertising campaign in Australia that it had a credible path to net zero emissions by 2050. The group said in its complaint to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that Etihad's ads, which ran on digital ad banners during an A-League football match in February 2022, conveyed the misleading impression that flying with the Abu Dhabi-based airline does not have much of an environmental impact and that it has plans and reasonable grounds for expecting it will reach the 2050 target. Etihad advertised the words "net zero emissions by 2050" next to its logo, and in another ad, claimed "Flying shouldn't cost the Earth."

Coca-Cola, Danone and Nestlé: Plastic promises?

The three consumer good giants were accused of making misleading claims about their single-use plastic water bottles being "100 per cent recycled" or "100 per cent recycled" by the European Consumer Organisation, a consumer rights group, backed by environmental nonprofits Client Earth and ECOS. The complaint to the European Commission argued that Danone, Coke and Nestlé's packaging is never made entirely of recycled materials, and their recylability depends on factors such as available waste management infrastructure - which in many Asian countries is lacking or absent. "A '100 per cent' recycling rate for bottles is technically not possible and, just because bottles are made with recycled plastic, does not mean they don't harm people and planet," said Rosa Pritchard, plastics lawyer at ClientEarth. In response, Nestlé said it was cutting use of plastic packaging, Danone said it was continuing to invest in recycling infrastructure, and Coca-Cola said its claims can be substantiated.

City Energy: Go "green" with gas

Singapore gas company City Energy ran a campaign with local mobile phone company M1 in September offering discounts on gas-powered heaters it said would help consumers "go green". The campaign informed consumers that they could heat water more sustainably and make cost savings with gas compared to electric storage water heaters, citing data from Singapore's National Environment Agency (NEA). Critics say that marketing a fossil fuel-based product as a green solution is misleading at a time when the world is trying to wean itself off dirty energy.

Nike: Plastic-based "Sustainability" collection

Nike was sued in a US district court for its "Sustainability" collection, 90% of which the law suit alleged were not "made with recycled fibers" as advertised and are made mostly of virgin synthetic materials that are known to be bad for the environment. The lawsuit pushed for Nike to launch a "corrective advertising campaign" and reimburse consumers who the case argued were duped into believing the company's products were green.

Saudi Aramco: Oil giant plants some mangrove trees

Among the deluge of suspiciously positive comments (astroturfing?) left beneath Aramco's LinkedIn campaign to promote its mangrove-planting efforts to its 4 million+ followers were posters who were less convinced by the world's largest oil company's green crusade. "Greenwashing?! Please Aramco, show your responsibility in exiting all your polluting activities and transforming these to sustainable and respectful businesses," wrote one poster. "Greenwashing while destroying the planet. 🤦🏻‍♂️ shame on you - and fire your PR team 🤢" wrote another.

TotalEnergies: Rebranding oil expansion

In May, a landmark greenwashing legal case against French oil and gas firm TotalEnergies was allowed to proceed. The complainants, nonprofits Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and Notre Affaire a Tous, backed by ClientEarth, argue that TotalEnergies' "Reinvention" rebranding campaign violates European consumer law by misleading the public over what the company's plans really mean for the climate crisis. The main point of contention is that TotalEnergies' business plans include the expansion of fossil fuel production. The complaints also argue that the company "appears to be avoiding any significant emissions reductions all the way through to the end of the decade."

Shell: Renewables overclaiming?

The anglodutch oil major misleadingly overstated how much it is investing in clean energy, according to non-profit Global Witness, which lodged a complaint with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in February. In Shell's annual report, the company stated that 12 per cent of its capital expenditure was channelled into a renewables division in 2021. The unit's webpage says it is investing in "wind, solar, electric vehicle charging, hydrogen, and more". Global Witness argued that 1.5 per cent of Shell's capital expenditure has been used to develop genuine renewables, such as solar and wind, but much of the rest of the division's resources were being pumped into fossil gas.

JBS: Meatless green bonds

The world's largest meat producer was on the receiving end of a complaint by environmental group Mighty Earth to SEC over the company's "misleading and fraudulent" green bonds. Mighty claimed that the US$3.2 billion in debt issuances or sustainabilty-linked bonds by JBS, that were tied to the company's stated goal to achieve net-zero by 2040, were suspect because its emissions have increased in recent years, and excluded Scope 3 supply chain emissions that comprise at least 97 per cent of its climate footprint.
Have we missed any? Almost certainly. Let us know by writing to news@eco-business.com. This story is part of our Year in Review series, which journals the stories that shaped the world of sustainability in 2023.

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22 brands called out for greenwashing in 2023

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Western courtrooms grew busier processing cases of greenwashing. In Asia, regulators and policymakers also started to think seriously about how to police exaggerated sustainability claims.

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Facebook, other tech giants censor inconvenient facts about climate change

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The online world has become a free-speech battleground. People share a legitimate interest in avoiding outright falsehoods, but much censorship today — ultimately is about restricting discourse to …

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Scientists & Academics: Scientist Rebellion

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Scientists & Academics: Scientist Rebellion

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Rose Abramoff drove from her home in Knoxville, Tenn., to the nation's capital last week to chain herself to the White House fence.

The climate scientist was among seven demonstrators arrested on April 6 (and later released). Their motivation: the dire warning that time is swiftly running out to meet the world's climate goals, as detailed in a major report last week from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Two days later, Abramoff was back - this time marching with a group of climate activists down I-395 at rush hour. The group was arrested again, but not before they'd stalled traffic on one of Washington's busiest highways.

In both cases, their demands were clear: faster, stronger climate action from world governments and an end to the burning of fossil fuels.

"It was my first experience with civil disobedience for any reason," said Abramoff, a climate scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, who emphasized that her activism is conducted on her own behalf and does not reflect the positions of her institution. She also spoke with E&E News only on her own behalf.

In the past, she'd participated in marches and worked with nonprofits, community groups and educational programs on issues related to climate change. But most of her previous activities were "fitting into that regular mold of scientists as primarily non-partisan and non-activist," she told E&E News. "This was my first real departure from that."

A growing revolution

Abramoff participated in last week's demonstrations as part of the climate movement " Scientist Rebellion " - a loosely knit, international organization of scientists advocating for stronger climate action through nonviolent protests and acts of civil disobedience. (Abramoff is one of the organizers for participants in the U.S. and Canada.)

Scientist Rebellion started out as a small, largely European movement a couple of years ago, according to Abramoff. It has recently attracted greater attention from scientists around the world. Last November, it held its first coordinated international campaign with demonstrations in Glasgow, Scotland, during a major U.N. climate conference.

Most recently, participants staged demonstrations in cities around the world after the release of the IPCC climate report last week, demanding swifter and stronger global efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

In Los Angeles, four scientists were arrested after handcuffing themselves to the entrance of a Chase bank. In Germany, scientists demonstrated outside the Ministry for Economy and Climate Protection. In England, they protested outside Shell PLC headquarters. They pasted documents to government buildings in Mexico, occupied an oil and gas company's headquarters in Italy, and threw fake blood onto the facade of the National Congress in Spain.

Scientist Rebellion estimates that a total of around 1,000 scientists in 25 countries participated in last week's demonstrations, often wearing lab coats to identify themselves.

Many of them were joined by protesters from other movements and organizations. Abramoff was joined in Washington by protesters from climate activist group Declare Emergency and Indigenous activist groups Honor the Earth and Camp Migizi. Extinction Rebellion, an activist movement calling for stronger government action on global threats to the world's ecosystems and biodiversity, also staged a number of demonstrations around the world last week in response to the new IPCC report.

In an open letter signed by more than 150 scientists from around the world, Scientist Rebellion describes itself as a group of "scientists and academics who believe we should expose the reality and severity of the climate and ecological emergency by engaging in non-violent civil disobedience. Unless those best placed to understand behave as if this is an emergency, we cannot expect the public to do so."

The group has adopted, as a kind of slogan, the phrase "1.5C is dead. Climate revolution now!" It's a reference to the Paris climate agreement's goal to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, if at all possible, or "well below" 2 C.

The world has already warmed by more than a degree Celsius, meaning both targets are rapidly approaching. And the release of the latest IPCC report has called into question the world's ability to meet the 1.5 C target at all. Global emissions would have to peak within the next couple of years, fall by nearly half within the next decade and reach net zero by midcentury.

While it may be possible to lower global temperatures back down below 1.5 C later on, by physically removing carbon dioxide from the Earth's atmosphere, many experts believe that overshooting the target - at least temporarily - is extremely likely at this point.

"It is almost inevitable that we will at least temporarily overshoot 1.5," Jim Skea, an energy expert at Imperial College London and co-chair of the IPCC working group that prepared the report, said in a virtual presentation of the findings last week.

Scientist Rebellion shares many common goals and strategies with other climate activist groups, like its cousin Extinction Rebellion, including an emphasis on nonviolent civil disobedience. Organizers describe the movement - and its emphasis on participation from scientists - as an effort to draw greater attention and credibility to climate activism.

"There is a lingering public perception that activists are extremists who are exaggerating the problem and overreacting by breaking the rules," the organization's website states. "Scientists becoming more involved in activism, particularly when it involves arrestable offenses, increases the credibility of civil disobedience. As one of our members puts it: 'They can't just dismiss us as a bunch of hippies.'"

'Clear and present danger'

The scientific community has historically expressed mixed opinions about the extent to which scientists should also become activists on subjects related to their own work. But in recent years, a growing number of scientists have begun to advocate for more activism on the issue of climate change.

"There's really a paradigm shift that's starting among scientists about this idea of neutrality and remaining unbiased," Abramoff said. "I really think that this shift is just an acknowledgment of the inherent humanity of scientists and the fact that we have feelings - and unalienable rights to express those feelings."

Some scientists have occasionally posed controversial suggestions for activism.

In December, a trio of environmental scientists published an op-ed in an academic journal calling for climate scientists to stage a global strike. Scientists should refuse to conduct any more climate research - at least in areas where they are "simply documenting" the impacts of global warming on the planet - until governments agree to stronger climate action, they suggested.

The paper met with mixed reviews from other scientists voicing their opinions on Twitter. While some sympathized with the authors' frustrations, others argued that scientists have an ethical responsibility to continue their research and should work to bring about social change in other ways.

Most activists aren't calling for a moratorium on scientific research. But a growing contingent of scientists around the world are advocating for greater participation in climate activism and environmental justice movements.

"It makes no sense for scientists to stay silent when their science informs them of existential risk from a clear and present danger that's mounting very, very rapidly," said Peter Kalmus, a NASA climate scientist. Kalmus also stressed that his activism, and his interview with E&E News, are conducted only on his own behalf and don't reflect the positions of his employer. "I feel that all scientists should be speaking out like this and taking action," he said. "And not only that, but scientists have a moral responsibility to do so."

Kalmus also participated in a demonstration last week as part of the Scientist Rebellion campaign. He and three other scientists donned lab coats and gathered at Pershing Square in LA, where they chained themselves to the entrance of a JPMorgan Chase & Co. bank and called for an end to the burning of fossil fuels. According to Bloomberg, JPMorgan Chase is the world's top provider of finance to the fossil fuel industry.

On the door behind them, they posted a forest-green sign stating, "We are nature defending itself."

"The scientists of the world have been ignored, and it's got to stop," Kalmus said in an emotional speech as he stood chained to the bank's door. "It's time for all of us to stand up and take risks and make sacrifices for this beautiful planet that gives us life, that gives us healthy air."

Police eventually arrested all four scientists after they declined to clear the area. They were later released.

It was Kalmus' first experience risking arrest while engaging in civil disobedience, he told E&E News. But he has been involved in various other forms of climate activism for at least 16 years. Kalmus has two teenage sons and says he's "willing to risk everything" to ensure a livable planet for his children.

"I feel actually genuinely desperate and terrified," he said. "I can see so clearly where we're heading in terms of climate change, and I don't sense any momentum or any intention on the part of world leaders to actually genuinely take care of this planet and take care of this problem, which really does require ending the fossil fuel industry as quickly as possible."

To reach the Paris Agreement's climate goals, the IPCC has warned that global emissions should peak by the year 2025. As that milestone approaches, Abramoff said, she anticipates more activism from concerned scientists around the globe.

"Now that we're sort of a growing movement, I think you'll probably see increasing rates of actions happening all over the world," she said. "I think you'll be seeing a steady smattering, hopefully a slowly growing groundswell of action as the clock ticks down to 2025."
Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2022. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals.

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Scientists Risk Arrest to Demand Climate Action

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Rose Abramoff drove from her home in Knoxville, Tenn., to the nation's capital last week to chain herself to the White House fence. The climate scientist was among seven demonstrators arrested on April 6 (and later released).

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The Truth About Online Shopping and its Environmental Impact | Earth.Org - Past | Present | Future

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From production and packaging to the shipping of goods all over the world, we discuss the growing trends of online shopping and its environmental impact.

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For interactive graphics, visit: https://artsandculture.google.com/story/the-heritage-sites-threatened-by-climate-change-cyark/qgXBYBAGjQPtjg?hl=en

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A human rights-based approach to cultural heritage protection is an essential cornerstone for climate justice and just resilience, but it often seems completely missing from the climate policy equation. In contrast to civil, political, and economic rights, cultural rights have been side-lined and neglected in dialogues about climate policy and human rights.

Cultural rights include the right to freedom for scientific research and creative activity, and the right to participate in cultural life. The foundational document of international human rights law is the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It asserts that "everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits."

The subsequent 1966 Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights also recognizes the right of "everyone to take part in cultural life" and requires signatories to take the steps "necessary for the conservation, the development, and the diffusion of science and culture."

In 2001, the United Nations (UN) Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity affirmed that "cultural rights are an integral part of human rights, which are universal, indivisible, and interdependent...." It states that cultural diversity "is the common heritage of humanity and should be recognized and affirmed for the benefit of present and future generations." It describes the defense of cultural diversity as "an ethical imperative, inseparable from respect for human dignity," and asserts that "heritage in all its forms must be preserved, enhanced, and handed on to future generations." In 2016, the Human Rights Council declared that damage to cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, of any people, constitutes damage to the cultural heritage of humanity as a whole.

Nations have a duty, therefore, to protect and not interfere with cultural life. This includes cultural heritage, which is the tangible and intangible expressions of communities' ways of being that are developed and passed from generation to generation.

Climate impacts as human rights violations

It's widely accepted that climate change is the cause of human rights violations for millions of people, including their rights to adequate housing, healthy working conditions, safe drinking water, education, and a healthy environment. But it is less often acknowledged in climate science and policy circles that cultural heritage is a human right vital for people's sense of identity and wellbeing, and for the vitality, stability, and resilience of their communities. By recognizing and documenting the threat of climate change to cultural heritage, we add one more important layer of rights-based obligations to hold nations accountable for reducing carbon emissions.

Cultural heritage is under immediate and urgent threat from climate change worldwide. Flooding, coastal erosion, wildfires, thawing permafrost, and extreme weather events are causing unprecedented loss and damage of places and customs. Some sites and traditional practices that need protection for future generations are recognized under UNESCO's 1972 World Heritage Convention, and the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Heritage, and more are being added to the protected lists every year.

World Heritage cities such as Venice, Italy, and Hoi An, Vietnam, are threatened. Archaeological sites, including thousands in the Arctic, are being damaged or irrevocably lost. And, living cultural landscapes, such as the summer cattle pastures of the Austrian Alps and the Hani people's rice terraces in Yunnan, China, are vulnerable to climate change.

Intangible cultural heritage threatened

Historic buildings, archaeological sites, museum and archive collections, and cultural landscapes are all examples of tangible cultural heritage. But intangible cultural heritage is just as important and equally threatened. Intangible heritage includes languages and dialects, traditional knowledge and practices, foodways, festivals, rituals, crafts, art forms, folklore, oral traditions, and cosmologies. Many climate threats to intangible heritage have been identified.

For example, sea level rise and climate-driven migration from the islands threatens Vanuatu sand drawing traditions, endangering the passing down of important traditional knowledge on kinship, farming, and seasonal cycles. The drawings use complex geometric patterns which also facilitate communication among many of Vanuatu's 110 different language groups.

In the Great Lakes region of the United States, changing seasonal ice conditions are putting at risk "snow snake," a culturally important game which for many Ojibwe youth is a rite of passage. The game is traditionally played in March, the month known in Ojibwe as Onaabani-Giizis, or Crust-on-Snow Moon. Competitors use wooden poles representing the long spears that were traditionally used for hunting on the ice at this time of year.

In 2021, the UN Special Rapporteur on cultural rights, Karima Bennoune, presented a report on climate change and human rights to the UN General Assembly highlighting the lack of attention that has been paid by both human rights and climate experts to the cultural rights dimensions of climate change. She noted the existential threat to the cultural survival of entire populations, such as those of small island states including the Maldives and Tuvalu, and the special threat to Indigenous peoples at risk of having to move voluntarily or forcibly from ancestral lands, or those forced to move from unique environments such as the Arctic. She concluded that "the universality of human rights, including cultural rights, has no meaning today without a liveable environment in which they can be enjoyed."

Indigenous heritage at risk

Cultural rights have a special importance for Indigenous peoples who are often marginalized or actively persecuted, and whose cultural practices and heritage are deeply enmeshed with nature and specific places and landscapes. Native American ceremonial expressions of relationships with animal and plant species, often associated with particular places, are vital expressions of identity, with connections to creation stories, the afterlife, and seasonal and hunting rituals.

The 2023 Climate Vulnerability Assessment carried out by the inter-tribal Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission combined Traditional Ecological Knowledge and western science to look at climate risk to culturally important non-human beings in the reservations and Ceded Territories of the Ojibwe people. The assessment identified several species as particularly severely at risk from climate change, including snowshoe hare, lake white fish, tamarack, and wild rice (manoomin). Manoomin, the most climate-vulnerable species is also the most important cultural touchstone, deeply enmeshed in Ojibwe identity. As knowledge-holder Sean Fahrlander says, "There is no origin story for wild rice. It's elemental, it was there from the beginning... it's like the original berry. It always existed.... It's its own spirit and everything flows from that." Loss of wild rice would cut to the core of Ojibwe culture.

Loss and damage to Indigenous cultural heritage was the subject of the most important legal decision on climate and cultural rights to date; In September 2022, the UN Human Rights Committee found that Australia had failed to protect the cultural rights of Torres Straits islanders in the face of climate change.

Warming oceans and ocean acidification have already impacted coral reefs, crayfish, and seagrass beds that are important culturally and economically for the Torres Straits islanders. Sea level rise, coastal flooding and erosion due to more extreme storms have drastically affected traditional food gardens and plantations, and damaged coconut groves. Traditional Ecological Knowledge dependent on weather conditions has become less reliable in a changing climate. Burial grounds are being flooded, harming the islanders' ability to communicate with their ancestors. Culturally important initiation and coming-of-age ceremonies are at risk of degradation as they are only of value if performed on the traditional native lands of each community.

The UN Human Rights Committee noted the responsibility of Australia to protect the environment whose health is integral to the cultural integrity of the islanders. It called for compensation from the government, and for Australia to take more aggressive measures to prevent climate change at the national and international levels.

What's next for climate and cultural rights?

It's to be expected (and hoped) that we will soon see many more of these types of cases.

In 2023, in the U.S., courts in Montana and Hawaii ruled for the first time that people have the right to a stable climate. Also in 2023, more than 130 nations voted at the UN General Assembly to support a request spearheaded by Vanuatu for the International Court of Justice to issue an advisory opinion on the obligations of states to prevent damage from climate change caused by their emissions.

As the climate and human rights communities begin to come together to understand and address climate impacts on cultural rights, it is essential that we do a better job of monitoring and recording loss and damage to cultural heritage.

Identifying tangible and intangible cultural heritage at risk must become a priority, something the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has not yet adequately addressed. A joint meeting of experts from IPCC, UNESCO and the International Council on Monuments and Sites ( ICOMOS) has acknowledged this and has highlighted the importance of integrating cultural heritage, including Indigenous and traditional knowledge, in climate science and policy in the future.

UCS will make advocating for this a priority in the IPCC, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the World Heritage Convention. Meanwhile, the evolving frameworks of international human rights law and growing body of climate litigation will help to ensure that governments can no longer ignore the impacts of climate change on cultural rights with impunity.

Adam Markham is deputy director for climate at the Union of Concerned Scientists. He helps lead UCS efforts to persuade policymakers to rapidly and effectively respond to the climate crisis, focusing particularly on international climate policy, non-economic loss and damage, biodiversity and cultural heritage.

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Cultural Heritage is a Human Right. Climate Change is Fast Eroding It.

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Flooding, coastal erosion, wildfires, thawing permafrost, and extreme weather events are causing unprecedented loss and damage of places and customs.