The Weekly Climate

By Michael Reibel Boesen

Get an overview of the past week’s climate crisis news right in your ears every monday morning.

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“Final” episode

The Weekly ClimateMar 29, 2021

00:00

00:29

“Final” episode

This is the final episode for now that will go out to major podcast publishing platforms. The reason is that nobody seem to notice that I forgot to publish an episode last week. I won’t go through fighting with Anchor.fm every week if nobody really cares 😅. So if you want to listen you can still do so in the newsletter itself. Just go to weeklyclimate.com and listen. AFAIK you can even add the stream to your podcast app.

Mar 29, 202100:29

[Mar 8-14 ‘21] Fridges and F-gases

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

I’m trying out a new recording app this week, so the episodes have a lot fewer sound effects and other stuff. I had a minor leveling issue with one part of the recording, so please bear with me while I use this otherwise much better app.

This is a podcast version of the newsletter The Weekly Climate. It is meant to be your monday morning news overview of the most important climate crisis news from last week. Each podcast episode comes with a detailed newsletter wherein you can dive deeper into each news item.

For the full shownotes please go to https://www.weeklyclimate.com

News you can’t miss:

🙀 Be careful if you try to buy an F-gas free fridge, you may still get one that contains F-gases.

😻 YoY increase in wind capacity installed was 59% in 2020

😼 A look at the roadmap for virtual power plants and what’s needed for this technology to truly make a difference.

💩 Big “green” PR firm Edelman caught with its pants down for taking fossil fuel money

Mar 15, 202115:32

[Mar 1 - Mar 7’21] Massive Earth

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

NB! Due to a bug in Anchor.fm that I’m using to record this podcast, a bug that has been persisting now for multiple months this episode might be missing the final “goodbye” sequence. If that is the case I apologize. I’m actively looking for other tools to use as they don’t seem to want to fix this bug.

For the full shownotes please go to https://www.weeklyclimate.com

News you can’t miss:

🙀 The world pledges emissions cuts, then how come we do not expect to lower emissions by more than 0.5% by 2030?!We should be at 50% there.

😻 Marine sites all across the world lock away a total of 5Gt of CO2

😼 A new study has calculated the difference in life-cycle material use between an EV and an ICE car.

💩 Japan, US and Germany was singled out by Antonio Guterres in a speech recently, because these countries have no plans to phase out coal by 2030.

Mar 08, 202117:06

[Feb 22-28’21] Wall Street shapeshifters

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!
This is a podcast version of the newsletter The Weekly Climate. It is meant to be your monday morning news overview of the most important climate crisis news from last week. Each podcast episode comes with a detailed newsletter wherein you can dive deeper into each news item.
For the full shownotes please go to www.weeklyclimate.com
News you can’t miss:
🙀 Did you know that supermarkets (in the US alone) emit 2.6Gt of CO2eq into the atmosphere due to F-gas emissions?
😻 Mining giants are saying goodbye to coal. Hopefully for good.
😼 CarbonBrief goes deep into what health benefits we can expect if we decide to solve the climate crisis.
💩 Texas suffered a lot of blackouts from the recent extreme cold caused by the polar vortex. The cause: Mainly fossil gas outages, but also other sources.

Mar 01, 202114:52

[Feb 15-21‘21] The Texas Issue

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

For the full shownotes please go to https://www.weeklyclimate.com

News you can’t miss:

🙀 Did you know that supermarkets (in the US alone) emit 2.6Gt of CO2eq into the atmosphere due to F-gas emissions?

😻 Mining giants are saying goodbye to coal. Hopefully for good.

😼 CarbonBrief goes deep into what health benefits we can expect if we decide to solve the climate crisis.

💩 Texas suffered a lot of blackouts from the recent extreme cold caused by the polar vortex. The cause: Mainly fossil gas outages, but also other sources.

Feb 22, 202115:00

[Feb 8-14’21] 8.700.000

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

For the full shownotes please go to https://www.weeklyclimate.com

News you can’t miss:

🙀 Updated numbers suggest that fossil fuel based pollution kills 8.7 million (up from 7.5M) every year.

😻 Surprisingly, a NASA-based study has shown that economic growth in Africa is not followed by a corresponding increase in emissions.

😼 A detailed look at what the average consumer can do with the pension plan to help solve the climate crisis.

💩 Shell has joined the peak oil gang and has come with a rather unimpressive planfor how to get to net-zero.

Feb 15, 202117:18

[Feb 1-7’21] The 80/18 rule of food production

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

For the full shownotes please go to https://www.weeklyclimate.com

News you can’t miss:

🙀 If you’re wondering about the negative effects the climate crisis has on your health, New York Times has a detailed list.

😻 Some things are actually going better in the fight to solve the climate crisis than the worst predictions laid out.

😼 Steel plants have a big footprint and this week Grist looks at the paths that steel plants have to decarbonize.

💩 The fossil fuel industry is busy pushing propaganda using their favorite PR companies about what Biden’s climate action really means.

Feb 08, 202115:35

[Jan 25-31’21] EU Renewables - Fossils: 1 - 0

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

For the full shownotes please go to https://www.weeklyclimate.com

News you can’t miss:

🙀 A new study has found that the annual rate of ice loss has increase 57% since 1994.

😻 Renewables (wind and solar) generation overtook coal generation just barely in 2020 in the EU.

😼 An interesting worldwide overview of different climate risks.

💩 Alberta is similar to China trying to scare journalists away from reporting on their environmental “crimes” against their own territory.

Feb 01, 202114:54

[Jan 18-24 ‘21] The Biden edition

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!
This is a podcast version of the newsletter The Weekly Climate. It is meant to be your monday morning news overview of the most important climate crisis news from last week. Each podcast episode comes with a detailed newsletter wherein you can dive deeper into each news item.
For the full shownotes please go to www.weeklyclimate.com
News you can’t miss:
🙀 50.000 lives would be spared every single year in EU if we stopped polluting our air with fossil fuels and other pollutants.
😻 Best news this week is that the U.S. Democracy managed to remove a deadly tumor. And Grist tries, perhaps a bit too soon, to make us all laugh at the ridiculous things that tumor said.
😼 Author, David Wallace-Wells while known for his quite doom and gloomy book, The Uninhabitable Earth, he wrote a quite balanced review of 2020 on the climate side in NYMag.
💩 Amy Westervelt kills the often-used argument by fossil fuel proponents that stopping fossil fuel production will kill jobs.

Jan 25, 202115:27

[Jan 11-17’21] Mother Nature is our ally

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

For the full shownotes please go to https://www.weeklyclimate.com

News you can’t miss:

🙀 The next major IPCC report goes to governments for acceptance without pointing fingers at the fossil fuel industry. Why?

😻 A new startup is offering a cheaper alternative than kerosene for lighting in non-electrified regions in Sub-Sarahan Africa: Solar powered battery packs run by women in the local community.

😼 A Danish journalist was harassed by Chinese authorities for looking into the explosion in the number of coal power plants being built in the country. (Unfortunately, article is only available in Danish, see below for more info).

💩 Total has decided not to renew it’s membership to the biggest US fossil fuel industry lobby citing disagreements over climate policy. Hey! This is not bad!

Jan 18, 202116:52

[Jan 4-10’21] 9 years

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

We go back to the original news focussed format this week but augments the newsletter with a blog that describes which actions to take based on the news items you read.

News you can’t miss:

🙀 Only 31 out of 190 countries have submitted more ambitious NDCs at the deadline of Dec 31 2020.

😻 Sale of EVs in Norway passed 66% in December 2020.

😼 Satellite look at how the climate crisis (and a few volcanoes) have changed the surface of the Earth.

💩 The Darth Vader of PR companies, FTI Consulting, are also behind the pro-hydrogen push in EU.

For the full shownotes please go to https://www.weeklyclimate.com

Jan 11, 202114:49

[Dec 28’20 - Jan 3’21] Hope and fear

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

We go back to the original news focussed format this week but augments the newsletter with a blog that describes which actions to take based on the news items you read.

News you can’t miss:

🙀 A new study is showing that large part of the ground on the Earth is literally sinking mostly due to groundwater depletion and it seems likely that sea level rise will exacerbate this problem.

😻 7 major EU truck makers have decided to stop making diesel trucks by 2040 a full decade before prior plans.

😼 A detailed look at two fertilizer plants, one in Uzbekistan and one in the US. One of them emits as much nitrous oxide as 430.000 cars. Guess which one.

💩 Exxon is trying to downplay a Bloomberg article I also highlighted last week about how they hid emissions from investors and the public. And they’re doing this by buying ads on SoMe’s in yet another propaganda play.

For the full shownotes please go to https://www.weeklyclimate.com

Jan 04, 202114:05

[Dec 21-27’20] Exxon wishes you a merry x-mas

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

We go back to the original news focussed format this week but augments the newsletter with a blog that describes which actions to take based on the news items you read.

News you can’t miss: A part from the excellent Exxon ad above, there’s more Exxon news such as the fact that it doesn’t want to tell anybody about how much it’s new projects are going to pollute. In fact it sells some of them as climate-beneficial. Former Exxon CEO, Lee Raymond steps down from the biggest fossil fuel supporter in the world, JP Morgan’s, board — yay! And shipping-gate may be underway aaand finally, the worlds ecosystems may not be sequestrating CO2 as fast as it used to. 🐙 ... also octopusses have been found guilty of punching its fish hunting buddies out of spite. The videos are adorable in some way. But also it’s kind of bullying. 🤨

For the full shownotes please go to https://www.weeklyclimate.com

Dec 28, 202013:55

[Dec 14-20’20] Offsetgate

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

We go back to the original news focussed format this week but augments the newsletter with a blog that describes which actions to take based on the news items you read.

News you can’t miss: The IEA releases its first Electricity Market report and it has some interesting numbers, some of which can be seen in the Weekly Climate Numbers. The UN Climate Ambition Summit was held last weekend and it led to number of companies upgrading their ambitions. A new UN report finds that 39% of all emissions are related to buildings. That’s close to 2x that of all modes of transportation. And the fossil fuel industry is caught in another ugly propaganda scandal (that nobody seems to care much about except those of us who are obsessed with seeing the industry die).

For the full shownotes please go to https://www.weeklyclimate.com

Dec 21, 202017:42

[Dec 7-13’20] The Emissions Gap

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

We go back to the original news focussed format this week but augments the newsletter with a blog that describes which actions to take based on the news items you read.

News you can’t miss: This week saw the release of two important reports: (1) The UN’s Emission Gap report for 2020 and (2) the Global Carbon Projects Carbon Budget for 2020. None of the reports are particularly happy reading. As Greta says, we’re still speeding as fast as we possibly be can in the wrong direction. But there’s hope. If countries chose to incorporate a green recovery plan into their COVID response and recovery plan then 2020 will mark the year where the world started taking the climate crisis serious. This week also marked the 5 year anniversary of the Paris Agreement and let’s just say there’s good and bad news surrounding that one too. Finally, a big U.S. offset company is being blamed for protecting trees that doesn’t really need protection and therefore selling useless offsets.

For the full shownotes please go to https://www.weeklyclimate.com

Dec 14, 202018:47

[Nov 30-Dec 6’20] 7 Grand Challenges

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

We go back to the original news focussed format this week but augments the newsletter with a blog that describes which actions to take based on the news items you read.

News Summary: The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres held a fiery speech at Columbia University on the State of the Planet where he cited just about all the recent major climate science news such as the Production Gap report 2020 (out this week), the news that this year is on track to be the top-3 hottest ever and Brazils deforestation of the Amazon hit a 12-year high. To fill the gap that the cancelled COP26 has left, youth activists held their own Mock-COP26 and agreed on a treaty which was submitted to the real one. Finally, an interesting study has shown that replacing fossil fuel power plant in the US might be easier than thought as 73% of all fossil fuel power plants needs to retired before 2035 anyway and much much more.

For the full shownotes please go to https://www.weeklyclimate.com

Dec 07, 202018:28

[Nov 23-Nov 29 2020] Hybridgate

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

We go back to the original news focussed format this week but augments the newsletter with a blog that describes which actions to take based on the news items you read.

News Summary: Hybridgate is rolling, Joe Biden picked John Kerry to be special climate envoy who will now go on to sign the Paris agreement for the second time. The drop in CO2 emissions this year represents a tiny blip that’s hardly measurable in the atmospheric levels of CO2. So it’s “great” that we keep up wasteful games such as Bitcoin which starves entire cities in developing countries of electricity and, you know, buying tons of stuff that we don’t need at Black Friday. And the EU has gotten a series of well-deserved bad press this week such as for running an ad that urges people to become ‘beefatarians’ and much much more.

For the full shownotes please go to https://weeklyclimate.substack.com

Nov 30, 202014:38

Special episode: Back to the basics

Just a brief episode announcing that I’m going back to a more news focussed newsletter and leaving the action items for a different blog. You can learn more about why by reading or listening to the next newsletter

Nov 30, 202000:53

[Nov 16-22 2020] Baby you can drive my car

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

This one features a new format in which we go into detail about one particular theme or news item from last week at the cost of making the news section shorter but with the same amount of news (just less comment on them).

News Summary: New initiative to stop PR and agencies from working with big fossil, climate scientists debunks “point-of-no-return“ paper, EU targets 300GW offshore wind by 2050, Agrivoltaics is the new hot topic, Bezos announces first recipients from his 10B$ fund, 1% of people responsible for 50% of aviations emissions, court gives the government of France 3 months to act on climate change and much much more.

One Action Summary: Help yourself and your friends to an EV

For the full shownotes please go to https://weeklyclimate.substack.com

Nov 23, 202015:43

[Nov 9-15 2020] The climate and health bomb in your home

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

News Summary: Climate change threaten great tits, US Central Bank acknowledges climate risk for the first time, deep dive into the consulting company that led the fossil fuels industry assault on humanity, leading climate scientists urges political leaders to do more, Korean palm oil company buys rainforest just to burn it down and much much more.

One Action Summary: Ged rid of your gas stove

For the full shownotes please go to https://weeklyclimate.substack.com

Nov 16, 202014:02

[Nov 2-8] Volume is power

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

News Summary: Biden won, electrifying a fossil-heated US home will reduce carbon footprint by 44%, Shells total twitter fail, a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty, why falling LCOE is not causing electricity prices to drop in EU and much much more.

One Action Summary: Talk talk talk

For the full shownotes please go to https://weeklyclimate.substack.com

Nov 09, 202014:50

[Oct 26-Nov 1 2020] It’s illegal to solve the climate crisis

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

News Summary: Investigation revealed Big Auto‘s (Ford & GM) work to stop climate action, US Election is next week 😱, the sleeping giant is starting to release methane, 100.000 left over oil wells threaten the entire planet, Asian countries pledges carbon neutrality, while they’re stopping EU action against fossil fuel and much much more.

One Action Summary: Put pressure on your politicians

For the full shownotes please go to https://weeklyclimate.substack.com

Nov 02, 202012:42

[Oct 19-25 2020] The Fossil Enemy

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

News Summary: Arctic Sea is not freezing at the latest date ever, divestment trends shows oil and gas will soon follow coal, ExxonMobil is attacking the authors that revealed everything about how they have misled and manipulated the public and EU voted to continue with our good old fashioned dirty agriculture and much much more.

One Action Summary: Personal divestment from fossil fuels

For the full shownotes please go to https://weeklyclimate.substack.com

Oct 26, 202014:18

The Weekly Climate #10: Oct 12-18 2020

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

Summary: Recycling plastic is largely a con perpetrated by the fossil fuel industry, letter from a waorani woman in the Amazon, Atlantic is the hottest in 2900 years and climate change has already cost over 1million lives and over 3 trillion $, and more asset managers increase pressure on their portfolios and much much more.

For the full shownotes please go to https://weeklyclimate.substack.com

Oct 19, 202016:21

The Weekly Climate #9: Oct 5-11 2020

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

Summary: Greta et. al calls bullshit on EUs climate targets, September was the hottest month on reecord, California gets its first gigafire, the Amazon is turning into a savannah and Facebook climate denial ad gets 8million views despite the company’s ”crackdown” on misinformation and much much more.

For the full shownotes please go to https://weeklyclimate.substack.com

Oct 12, 202019:48

The Weekly Climate #8: Sep 28 - Oct 4 2020

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

Summary: Lots of major carbon emitter news this week, as well as deeper dives into China’s 2060 carbon neutrality pledges and California’s ban on ICE cars.

For the full shownotes please go to https://weeklyclimate.substack.com

Oct 05, 202017:32

The Weekly Climate #7: Sep 21-27 2020

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

Summary: 2.5m of sea level rise is coming regardless of 2C is reached or not, Facebook is in the midst of a gigantic climate change scandal, China pledges carbon neutrality, California bans ICE cars in 2035 and hurry up and join Heated’s bookclub on the ”All we can save” and much much more.

For the full shownotes please go to https://weeklyclimate.substack.com

Sep 28, 202020:39

The Weekly Climate #6: Sep 14-20 2020

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

Summary: We follow BPs moves extremely carefully, wildfires are releasing records amounts of CO2, hydro + solar is a match made in heaven, more big asset managers decarbonizing, and we discuss perhaps the only benefit of COVID19. And we also look at the two main strategies for solving the climate crisis.

For the full shownotes please go to https://weeklyclimate.substack.com

Sep 21, 202018:31

The Weekly Climate #5: Sep 7-13 2020

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

Summary: Fire and water everywhere, 33 trillion € moving out of fossil fuels, more damning evidence of fossil fuel lies, and a new climate refugee report. And we also get to look at our planet from the outside.

For the full shownotes please go to https://weeklyclimate.substack.com

Sep 14, 202023:13

The Weekly Climate #4: Aug 31-Sep 6 2020

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

Summary: A number of lawsuits, fracking bankruptcies and their impact on the climate (despite them being gone), lots of startup funding news both IPOs and venture funding and anti-solar panels! Oh, and solar getting so cheap that if you looked at getting solar on your roof 5 years ago, then you may need to look again.

For the full shownotes please go to https://weeklyclimate.substack.com

Sep 07, 202019:46

The Weekly Climate #3: Aug 24-30 2020

Aug 31, 202016:59

The Weekly Climate #2: August 17-23 2020

Welcome this weeks edition of The Weekly Climate!

Summary: A couple of major news items has filled this week. First of all, Californias woes with blackouts and wildfires, the U.S. presidential election following Bidens Climate Change betrayal and later retraction and a lot of debate and articles about green hydrogen. There was a also number of developments surrounding sustainable investments, both good (from the EU) and bad (from the U.S.)

For the full shownotes please go to https://weeklyclimate.substack.com

Aug 24, 202024:42

The Weekly Climate #1: August 10-16 2020

The inaugural Weekly Climate podcast episode. This is a podcast version of the newsletter The Weekly Climate. It is meant to be your monday morning news overview of the most important climate crisis news from last week. Each podcast episode comes with a detailed newsletter wherein you can dive deeper into each news item.

Summary: It has been a week full of good, bad and weird news. Among the good news are the $89B of stranded assets recently reported by seven of the oil majors, a UK solar company beats the world record in solar panel efficiency, and a report shows that renewable energy deployment have doubled over the past 5 years. On the bad side, the week saw the death of a famous climate scientist (due to an accident), the second hottest month ever recorded on the planet and the melting of Greenland ice sheets may have reached a point of no return. Among the weird were BPs announcement of winding down oil production and the following environmental movements applause.

For the full shownotes please go to https://weeklyclimate.substack.com

Aug 17, 202025:28

Trailer

This is a brief introduction to what The Weekly Climate is all about. Checkout weeklyclimate.com to learn more and, if you want, sign up to the newsletter.

Aug 14, 202001:10