As Big Food Feels Threat of Climate Change, Companies Speak Up

Chances are, you've picked up some chatter about the new global talks on climate change.  If you can't quite see how it matters to you, personally, you might want to take a peek inside your pantry.  Or your candy jar.  Because it might just affect your access to everything from cheese to chocolate.

"It's very clear now that a changing climate will have a profound effect on agriculture," says Molly Brown, a geographer at the University of Maryland.

Take one simple example, she says:  Vermont.

Farmers in this state used to count on being able to plant corn in May, she says.  But weather patterns are shifting.  The month of May is now typically cold and wet, "so they're really not able to plant their corn until the middle of June.  That delays its harvest.  And then we might have an early frost."

The result is less corn for Vermont's cows, and less local milk for the state's dairies.  "It really changes the economic structure of how dairy products are produced in Vermont," Brown says.

This kind of thing is happening all over the world, sometimes with life-changing consequences.

In Ethiopia, Brown says, the country's traditional center of farming now isn't getting enough rain for its crops.  Meanwhile, rain is falling in another region, in the northern part of Ethiopia, where few people live because it used to be really dry.  "So the question is, do people move up north?  Can they simply move the way they farm to that new region?"

Most farmers can't really see the the big global patterns of climate change, and certainly can't change what's happening.

But big multinational companies can see it, because they buy shiploads of farm products from all over the world.

Take, for example, Mars Inc., maker of Mars bars, M&M's, Snickers, Skittles and more.

"[Climate change is] absolutely a threat," says Barry Parkin, the company's chief sustainability officer.  "And that's why we're doing all that we're doing today."
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Mars will also have representatives at the global talks in Paris, lobbying for an agreement to put the brakes on a warming climate.  It's an effort to protect their own supplies of raw materials — and the lives of small cocoa farmers in West Africa.

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Pope Francis to World Leaders at U.N. Climate Summit: "We Are at the Limits of Suicide"

Pope Francis has warned that the world is heading toward suicide if more is not done to combat climate change.  His message was directed at nearly 150 heads of state gathered in Paris for the U.N. Climate Summit to finalize pledges to make voluntary greenhouse gas emission cuts.  On Monday France and India launched an international alliance to deliver solar energy to some of the planet’s poorest even as India continues to heavily promote coal power.  India is expected to open a new coal plant every single month until 2020 as the country plans to double its coal production. Chinese President Xi Jinping called on the world’s wealthiest nations to help the developing world adapt to a changing climate, as smog in Beijing climbed to more than 35 times safety levels set by the World Health Organization and the country ordered thousands of factories to be temporarily shut down.

AMY GOODMAN:  As nearly 150 heads of state gathered here in Paris for what organizers called the largest-ever gathering of its kind, Pope Francis warned, Monday, the world is heading toward suicide if more is not done to combat climate change.  The Pope made the remark aboard a plane at the end of a six-day trip to Africa.

POPE FRANCIS: [translated] We are at the limits.  If I may use a strong word, I would say that we are at the limits of suicide.  I’m certain that almost all of those who are in Paris at COP21 are conscious of this and want to do something.

Read more at Pope Francis to World Leaders at U.N. Climate Summit: "We Are at the Limits of Suicide"

Monday, Nov 30

Obama Will Seek an Agreement that Would Boost Economies as well as Help the Planet's Environment

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday the world needs an enduring framework for addressing climate change and that he would seek an agreement that would boost economies as well as help the planet's environment.

A strong climate pact would send a signal to researchers and investors that change is necessary and will spur energy innovation, Obama said at a news conference at the U.N. global climate summit in Paris.

Obama said he expected the United States could uphold its climate commitments to help other countries meet their energy goals.

"We still need a Paris agreement," Obama said.  "So my main focus is making sure that the United States is a leader in bringing a successful agreement home."

Obama said rising seas and warming climates could be drain on economic resources.

"This is an economic and security imperative that we have to tackle now," he said.

Read original article at Obama: climate change an economic, security imperative

Can Bill Gates’ ‘Breakthrough Energy Coalition’ Become Truly Useful? - by Joe Romm

I (and others) have been critical of Gates in the past for his focus on the need for new breakthrough technologies to solve the climate problem, what he calls “Energy Miracles.”  Gates has generally downplayed the amazing advances we’ve had in the keystone clean technologies — and been investing in new nuclear power, geo-engineering technologies, and off-the-wall stuff.

And the Breakthrough Energy Coalition continues to tout Gates’ debunked claims about the need for “Energy Miracles,”

So while a boost in cleantech R&D funding is always welcome, what is most needed now is money for accelerated deployment and project financing of technologies that are now market-ready.  Low or zero-interest loans and loan guarantees can leverage money 50-to-1 (since default rates are 2 percent or less).  With $2 billion, you could create a $100 billion revolving fund for backing clean tech projects — which is getting to the scale of investment we need.

I am sure that experts in cleantech financing could come up with even a more highly leveraged way to use whatever funds the world’s billionaires put on the table.

“In terms of dollars, the real cost is deployment.  Globally, deployment costs will be in the trillions of dollars, while R&D costs might be in the tens of billions,” climate expert Ken Caldeira told me back in 2011.  “We are talking about the elephant and the mouse.”

The International Energy Agency warned back in 2009, “The world will have to spend an extra $500 billion to cut carbon emissions for each year it delays implementing a major assault on global warming.”  In 2011 the IEA did the calculation a different way, concluding, “Delaying action is a false economy: for every $1 of investment in cleaner technology that is avoided in the power sector before 2020, an additional $4.30 would need to be spent after 2020 to compensate for the increased emissions.”

That’s why the world’s top priority is to deploy the low-carbon technologies we already have commercialized as fast as possible at a trillion-dollar scale.  Unsurprisingly, deployment, rather than R&D, is a major focal point for the Paris talks.  “A key sticking point in the negotiations during the next two weeks will be finance — specifically, whether developing countries trying to green their economies will get enough of it to make the clean energy transition worth it when coal remains cheaper,” explained Greenwire in its piece on the Gates fund:

Pascal Canfin of the World Resources Institute, formerly France’s minister of development, said while the spending deal might not move specific parts of the negotiations, it helps the broader ‘Paris package’ for dealing with climate change.

To be clear, the new fund has value, especially if it focuses more on improving existing cleantech and less on breakthrough technologies and energy miracles.  We will need a steady pipeline of next-generation carbon-free technologies that perform better and cost less — so countries can continue down the path towards zero emissions post-2030.

But such funding isn’t what is most needed now.  It won’t be of much if any help to the Paris negotiators or to the folks in India who have to make a decision today between coal plants and renewables.

Let’s hope the billionaires are open to consulting with the leading experts on cleantech financing and tweaking their fund so it does the most good now.

Read more at Can Bill Gates’ ‘Breakthrough Energy Coalition’ Become Truly Useful?

Hundreds of Thousands March for Climate in Record-Breaking Day of Action

The day before the start of the U.N. climate talks in Paris, some 785,000 people joined climate marches in 175 countries across the globe in what organizers are calling the largest climate marches in history.

“Across five continents, people have taken to the streets to demand that we change the way we power our world,” Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace, said in a statement.  “In towns and cities across the globe, people have called for political leadership on climate change.”

More than 2,000 events took place on Sunday in cities like London, Sydney, Mexico City, and Vancouver.  According to the BBC, marches also took place across the equator in Kenya, across a glacier in Chile, and throughout the Marshall Islands, a South Pacific island country threatened by rising sea levels.  Ten countries broke records for all-time largest individual climate marches, with Australia and India leading the pack with some 140,000 participants each.  In terms of individual events, Melbourne and London claimed the largest marches, with 60,000 and 50,000 participants each.  By contrast, last year’s People’s Climate March in New York drew some 400,000 participants.

“As someone from Kenya, a country which is feeling the impact of climate change, it means a lot to see people from all walks of life, of every color and creed, speaking with one voice about climate change,” Mohamed Adow, senior climate adviser for Christian Aid, said in a statement. “Today’s act of solidarity is on an unprecedented global scale.  The numbers of marchers in places not known for climate change activism shows the scale of the international demand for political action.”

The heart of the global day of action was intended to be Paris, where an official march was expected to draw some 200,000 participants.  That official event was canceled, however, in the wake of the deadly November 13 terrorist attacks that killed 130.  Instead, activists placed 22,000 empty shoes outside of the Place de la République.  Meant to symbolize those who could not march, the shoes included a pair of black shoes sent by Pope Francis and a pair of running shoes from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

In addition to the shoes, 10,000 activists held hands to form a 1.9-mile human chain along the intended march route, from the Place de la République to the Place de la Nation.  According to Grist, the human chain drew a diverse group of activists, from youth to indigenous people, who held signs and banners during the peaceful demonstration.

Read more at Hundreds of Thousands March for Climate in Record-Breaking Day of Action

Why a 2°C Target for Paris?

You're likely to hear the term 2°C a lot during the next two weeks as world leaders, scientists and policymakers meet in Paris in one of the most important climate change conferences in years. They seek to come to a binding agreement that keeps the planet from warming 2 degrees Celsius from pre-Industrial temperatures.  But why that target?  And what happens if we go past it? Climate Central's chief meteorologist, Bernadette Woods Placky, has the answers.

Read original article at Why a 2°C Target for Paris?