The ‘profound’ consequences of the hottest year

Your guide to the political forces shaping the energy transformation

Jan 09, 2024 View in browser   By Christian Robles A wildfire burns in the hills of West Kelowna, British Columbia, on Aug. 17, 2023. | Darren Hull/AFP via Getty Images Last year was the hottest on record — and likely one of the coolest of our lifetimes. On average, 2023 was 1.48 degrees Celsius warmer than preindustrial Earth, before human-caused emissions began warming the planet, writes Chelsea Harvey. That’s uncomfortably close to 1.5 degrees — the most ambitious target that nations agreed to in the Paris climate agreement eight years ago. The finding comes from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Scientists say it’s “becoming inevitable” that the planet will at least briefly overshoot the Paris target, Chelsea writes. And already, the world is grappling with the consequences. 2023 saw deadly heat waves in cities across the globe. Waters off the Florida Keys briefly became a hot tub, devastating coral reefs. Canada experienced its worst-ever wildfire season. Dozens in China and India died in floods, and thousands died in Libya when dams failed after heavy rains. “The extremes we have observed over the last few months provide a dramatic testimony of how far we now are from the climate in which our civilization developed,” Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said in a statement. “This has profound consequences for the Paris Agreement and all human endeavors.” Scientists attribute much of last year’s hot temperatures to decades of human-caused climate change, along with the more transient impact of the planet-warming El Niño weather cycle. 2024 is likely to be even hotter. This year will also bring a presidential election that could shape the future of U.S. climate policy. Polls indicate that President Joe Biden will likely square off against former President Donald Trump, who pulled the U.S. out of Paris Agreement and has vowed to undo Biden’s green policies. Zack Colman writes that European leaders have also faced pushback over recent climate efforts, which could spell trouble for environmentalists in European Parliament elections this June. “It’s a scary time in that there are candidates on ballots across the world who haven’t really understood the full scope of climate risks and opportunities for climate actions,” Kim Cobb, a climate scientist at Brown University, told Zack.   It's Tuesday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Christian Robles. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to crobles@eenews.net. Listen to today’s POLITICO Energy podcast Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: Zack Colman offers insights on the global temperature data that's being released this week.   POLITICO AT CES® 2024: We are going ALL On at CES 2024 with a special edition of the POLITICO Digital Future Daily newsletter. The CES-focused newsletter will take you inside the most powerful tech event in the world, featuring revolutionary products that cut across verticals, and insights from industry leaders that are shaping the future of innovation. The newsletter runs from Jan. 9-12 and will focus on the public policy-related aspects of the gathering. Sign up today to receive exclusive coverage of the show.     Power Centers COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber and John Kerry, U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, pose for photos at the end of the COP28 climate summit in the United Arab Emirates last month. | Kamran Jebreili/AP COP28 could embolden lawsuits The global climate deal reached in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, last month could aid a growing number of lawsuits against oil companies and fossil-fuel-dependent nations, write Sara Schonhardt and Lesley Clark. Legal scholars say the nonbinding deal’s wording about shifting away from fossil fuels adds to evidence that burning them causes climate change that must be addressed. For example, ClientEarth v. Shell’s Board of Directors, a case accusing the oil company of failing to manage climate risks, could use the COP28 deal to make a stronger legal argument. Landowners fight pipeline projects Landowners have long complained about the damage pipelines do to their land, but their concerns have usually come behind environmentalist arguments about climate change. Now, red farm states are fighting back against new pipeline projects like Iowa’s Heartland Greenway, writes Mike Soraghan. Those fights are bad news for a core tenet of the Biden administration’s climate agenda: capture carbon dioxide and send it through pipelines to facilities to be permanently buried. Environmentalists upset about this clean energy leader In the year since Jason Grumet became CEO of the American Clean Power Association, he has drawn ire from environmentalists. As head of the nation’s main renewable energy trade group, Grumet has openly backed the fossil fuel industry. He has also made overhauling permitting standards a priority, despite opposition from some on the left, writes Timothy Cama. “We are moving from kind of a clean-versus-dirty, renewables-versus-fossil imagination of this kind of bifurcated energy industry to the reality that these are big companies with both renewable and fossil assets,” Grumet said in a recent interview. In Other News Cold New England: The possible closure of a Constellation Energy facility that imports liquefied natural gas could endanger New Englanders’ ability to stay warm in the winter. Arizona water: Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs declared water as a top issue for her administration and vowed to update the state’s groundwater policies. COP29 controversy: Azerbaijan, the host of this year’s COP29, is facing pushback from climate activists after naming a former executive of the nation’s state-run oil company as the summit’s president. Subscriber Zone A showcase of some of our best subscriber content. A power connection is seen on a solar panel inside the Hanwha Qcells Solar plant on Oct. 16, 2023, in Dalton, Georgia. | Mike Stewart/AP Microsoft agreed to purchase 12 gigawatts of U.S.-made solar panels, enough to power over 1.8 million homes, over the next eight years from South Korean solar company Qcells. Climate policy wonks spend their days reading and writing about the environment’s somber future, leading to mental health struggles commonly referred to as eco-anxiety. Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is set to endorse policies to control the expansion of the state’s gas system and change utility rules during her State of the State on Tuesday night. That's it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.   SUBSCRIBE TO CALIFORNIA CLIMATE: Climate change isn’t just about the weather. It's also about how we do business and create new policies, especially in California. So we have something cool for you: A brand-new California Climate newsletter. It's not just climate or science chat, it's your daily cheat sheet to understanding how the legislative landscape around climate change is shaking up industries across the Golden State. Subscribe now to California Climate to keep up with the changes.       Follow us on Twitter Arianna Skibell @ariannaskibell   Follow us

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