Global climate news, January

From Wildfires to Heavy Metal Playlist

1. Los Angeles Fires

  • Insurance Premiums Spike as Natural Disasters Strike. What Homeowners Can Do.
  • Hurricanes, floods and wildfires are wreaking havoc, and property owners are paying the price.
  • Private firefighters are helping out in LA wildfires. It raises ethical questions.

https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/en-ca/knowledge/publications/fa0b3cbd/the-role-of-insurance-in-a-changing-climate-what-next

https://www.bankrate.com/insurance/homeowners-insurance/natural-disaster-costs

https://www.npr.org/2025/01/18/nx-s1-5265301/california-wildfires-private-firefighters

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/insurance-rates-2025-spike-climate-canada-1.7430472

Insurance Companies and Climate Change:

It turns out that Insurance Companies think deeply about climate change. As a regulatory priority, it is well known that the insurance sector is very well positioned and highly incentivized in relation to climate change mitigation and adaption for two reasons.

  1. The associated risk affects both the assets and liabilities of the insurance balance sheet
  2. Insurers have decades of expertise in extreme risk pooling, which is critical in relation to the management and mitigation of the catastrophic effects that arise as a result of climate change

Military

Just like global insurance companies, the professional military everywhere have grasped the impact of global warming, as it will impact the food supply causing suffering, poverty across the world especially in the tropics and sub-tropics, it will generate huge numbers of refugees, of “failed states”, and of wars between countries that must share river systems. So state military planning includes planning for climate change disasters.

2. Backtracking

So if insurance companies and the military, two of the stuffiest and most entrenched global corporate dominant society entities recognize the climate crisis why is there so much recent backtracking on climate?

  • Four of Canada’s biggest banks leave Mark Carney-led climate initiative
  • The world has ground to make up at climate summit in Dubai after a year of ‘backsliding’
  • What Trump’s exit from the climate deal really means

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/30/world/cop28-climate-backsliding/index.html

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/net-zero-corporate-climate-targets-1.7338799

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-banks-leave-net-zero-banking-alliance-1.7435273

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/20/trumps-exit-climate-deal-means-00199406

3. How is this related to President Trump’s musing about Greenland and Canada?

  • Staking a claim in Canada’s North. Reframing public perception on Arctic sovereignty and international law.
  • An ice-free Artic means more private vessels and cruise ships, more fishing, more resource extraction, mining, bioprospecting.
  • The environmental changes occurring in the north have transformed the narrative of the Arctic and its place on the geopolitical stage.

https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/society-societe/stories-histoires/story-histoire-eng.aspx?story_id=216

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/canadian-yearbook-of-international-law-annuaire-canadien-de-droit-international/article/arctic-governance-in-the-face-of-climate-change-a-case-for-inclusive-regionalism/12C215CABAAC9E83B80E2D297D13FA14

4. Doomsday Clock 2025

Link: https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/timeline/

On Tues, January 28th, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists will reveal the 2025 Doomsday Clock time in Washington, DC.

The Bulletin considers multiple global threats in the Clock setting, including the proliferation of nuclear weapons, disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence, the Russia-Ukraine war, Israel-Hamas war, Israel-Hezbollah conflict, bio-threats and the continued climate crisis.

Doomsday Clock Trivia

  • The Clock’s original setting in 1947 was 7 minutes to midnight.
  • In 2023 the Clock was reset at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest to midnight the Clock has been in its nearly 80 years of existence. Remained at 90 seconds in 2024.
  • The clock was furthest from midnight in 1991, with the end of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the first treaty to provide for deep cuts to the two countries’ strategic nuclear weapons arsenals, prompting the Bulletin to set the clock hand to 17 minutes to midnight.
  • There’s a “turn back the clock” exhibit, originally on display at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, which is now available for visitors worldwide to explore online. https://thebulletin.org/virtual-tour/
  • Probably the most important note:. Did you know that there is a DOOMSDAY CLOCK PLAYLIST? It ranges from Pink Floyd “Two Suns in the Sunset” (1983) to “Wasteland Baby” by Hozier (2019). Check it out here: https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/doomsday-clock-playlist/

Global climate news: November

1. COP 16, Colombia

https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/11/1156456

The world’s largest biodiversity summit, known as COP16, concluded this weekend in Colombia, with several landmark decisions, including first ever agreements on nature’s genetic data and on recognising people of Africa descent and Indigenous Peoples as key stewards in conservation efforts. Efforts to get a seat at the table have spanned three decades.

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Global climate news: October

1. COP 16 – Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Oct 21-Nov 1 in Cali, Colombia

The UN biodiversity summit known as COP16 officially opened in Cali, Colombia. Considered the world’s most important event to conserve biodiversity will host some 15,000 attendees, including a dozen heads of State, 103 ministers and over 1,000 international journalists.

Secretary-General António Guterres urged delegations from some 190 countries to “make peace with nature” and shore up a plan to stop habitat loss, save endangered species, and preserve our planet’s precious ecosystems

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Global climate news: September

1. United Nations Summit ‘Pact for the Future’

Sept 22-23, 2024

World leaders on Sunday adopted the Pact for the Future, a landmark declaration pledging concrete actions towards a safer, more peaceful, sustainable and inclusive world for tomorrow’s generations.

The global pact included explicit calls to phase out fossil fuels. The pact called for reaffirmed commitment to the Paris climate agreement (2015), which laid out goals to move away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/09/1154581

Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

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Global climate news: June

G7 summit, Borgo Egnazia, Apulia, Italy, 13–15 June 2024

Energy, climate, environment — The G7 reiterated its determination to address the triple global crises of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. They remain steadfast in their commitment to :

  • staying within the threshold of a 1.5°C increase in global temperature;
  • halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030;
  • holistically addressing energy security, the climate crisis and geopolitical risks.

The G7 Summit 2025 will be held in Kananaskis, Alberta!

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Spring into Food Security

Opportunities on Gabriola

As appeared in the Gabriola Sounder on 03 April, 2024

Spring, what a wonderful feeling it brings. As temperatures rise, nature comes alive with sounds, sights, and smells. This urge to grow and blossom is all part of the natural cycle. You can feel the changes in the air and watch as bulbs start blooming and trees in the forest regain their leafy canopy.

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Global climate news: March

Select items as presented to Sustainable Gabriola at our March monthly meeting, by Deb Ferens.

Earth on brink of five catastrophic climate tipping points, report warns

  • Greenland & Antarctic ice sheet loss — melting ice
  • Boreal forest permafrost thaw — methane release
  • Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) — ocean currents
  • Amazon rainforest
  • Coral reef die-off
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Global climate news: January

Here are the month’s significant climate news items, as curated by Deb Ferens and presented to the Sustainable Gabriola meeting on Sunday, Jan. 28.

COP28 – Successes & Failures

Loss and Damage Funds operationalised on day one. Agreement on “global transition away” from fossil fuels (not stronger wording of “phase-out”).
Link: https://unfccc.int/cop28

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