The National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee has released a draft climate assessment report for public comment. The Draft Report discusses the various aspects of climate change and specific impacts on the various regions of the United States.
The Executive Summary provides an overview of the report with cross references to topics contained in specific chapters.
Noting human contribution to climate change the Executive Summary states:
In the Environmental Research Letter released this week in IOP Science, a new study concludes that recent projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) underestimate actual sea level rise. The study concludes: ” the rise in CO2 concentration and global temperature has continued to closely match the projections over the past five years, while sea level continues to rise faster than anticipated. The latter suggests that the 21st Century sea-level projections of the last two IPCC reports may be systematically biased low. Further support for this concern is provided by the fact that the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are increasingly losing mass (Rignot et al 2011, Van den Broeke et al 2011), while those IPCC projections assumed that Antarctica will gain enough mass in future to largely compensate mass losses from Greenland (see figure 10.33 in Meehl et al (2007)).”
California has issued its third assessment of the Impacts and potential responses to Climate Change. “Our Changing Climate 2012” issued by the California Climate Change Center looks at “adaptation options in regional case studies and offers insights into regulatory, legal, socioeconomic and other barriers to adaptation so that they can be addressed effectively at the local and state levels.”
Significantly the study notes there is a range of potential changes in climate over the next century but “study findings show that the climate choices society makes today and in the coming years can have a profound impact on future conditions.”
The study goes on to find:
New York adopted a law in July that provides for local implementation of tax exemptions for improvements to property, in excess of ten thousand dollars, that obtain LEED(R) certification or meet a similar standard, based upon adoption of a local law implementing such a provision. To be eligible the construction must commence in or after January 2013 and the Statute provides for exemption, on a sliding scale, over ten years.
Chapter 188 of the Laws of 2012, which is the new section 470 of the New York Real Property Tax Law reads:
§ 470. Exemption for improvements to real property meeting certif-
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a decision this week rejecting a challenge to a series of EPA reguations aimed at curtailing GHG emissions from both vehicles and stationary sources. In Coalition for Responsible Regulation, Inc. v. Environmental Protection Agency, the Court summarized its decision as follows:
“Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497 (2007)-which clarified that greenhouse gases are an “air pollutant” subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act (CAA)-the Environmental Protection Agency promulgated a series of greenhouse gas-related rules. First, EPA issued an Endangerment Finding, in which it determined that greenhouse gases may “reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.” See 42 U.S.C. § 7521(a)(1). Next, it issued the Tailpipe Rule, which set emission standards for cars and light trucks. Finally, EPA determined that the CAA requires major stationary sources of greenhouse gases to obtain construction and operating permits. But because immediate regulation of all such sources would result in overwhelming permitting burdens on permitting authorities and sources, EPA issued the Timing and Tailoring Rules, in which it determined that only the largest stationary sources would initially be subject to permitting requirements.
Petitioners, various states and industry groups, challenge all these rules, arguing that they are based on improper constructions of the CAA and are otherwise arbitrary and capricious. But for the reasons set forth below, we conclude: 1) the Endangerment Finding and Tailpipe Rule are neither arbitrary nor capricious; 2) EPA’s interpretation of the governing CAA provisions is unambiguously correct; and 3) no petitioner has standing to challenge the Timing and Tailoring Rules. We thus dismiss for lack of jurisdiction all petitions for review of the Timing and Tailoring Rules, and deny the remainder of the petitions.”
The U. S. Geological Survey issued a press release today stating that sea level rise along a 600 mile stretch of the U.S. Atlantic coast Is at a pace three to four times that of other areas of the world. The press release states the published article in “Nature Climate Change” concludes that in the last 22 years: “…sea-level rise in the 600-mile stretch of coastal zone from Cape Hatteras N.C. to north of Boston, Mass. — coined a “hotspot” by scientists — has increased 2 – 3.7 millimeters per year; the global increase over the same period was 0.6 – 1.0 millimeter per year.”
The press release notes that “the increases in sea level rise rate that have already occurred in the hotspot will yield increases in sea level of 8 to 11.4 inches by 2100. This regional sea level increase would be in addition to components of global sea level rise.”
In a study released this week, UCLA predicts significant warming in Los Angeles and the surrounding area by mid-century. The study “shows projected climate changes down to the neighborhood level…”
Among the study’s conclusions:
“Southern Californians should expect slightly warmer winters and springs but much warmer summers and falls, with more frequent heat waves. Temperatures now seen only on the seven hottest days of the year in each region will occur two to six times as often. The number of days when the temperature will climb above 95 degrees will increase two to four times, depending on the location. Those days will roughly double on the coast, triple in downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena, and quadruple in Woodland Hills. In Palm Springs, the number of extremely hot days will increase from an annual average of 75 to roughly 120.”
The government of Scotland announced the formation of a Climate Justice Fund to aid less industrialized countries deal with the impacts of climate change.
In a press release from the government, Professor Alan Miller, Chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission is quoted as saying:
“Climate justice is a key issue for many of our sister institutions around the world, especially in developing countries where the impacts of climate change are being felt right now, and in very harsh terms, by some of the world’s most vulnerable people. Climate change impacts on rights to life, livelihoods and the ways of life of many millions of people in the developing world, and is the greatest challenge to our planet this century.
Last week the Virginia Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that an insurance carrier had no liability to cover its insured in an action claiming the insured’s activities had contributed to damages resulting from the effects of climate change. In AES Corporation v Steadfast Insurance Co., the Virginia Supreme Court noted that the action resulted from a lawsuit by a Native Alaskan Village against several companies, including AES, claiming they damaged “the village by causing global warming through emission of greenhouse gases”.
In holding that the insurance policy did not provide coverage for the claims made against AES, the Court found:
“Under the CGL policies, Steadfast would not be liable because AES’s acts as alleged in the complaint were intentional and the consequences of those acts are alleged by Kivalina to be not merely foreseeable, but natural or probable. Where the harmful consequences of an act are alleged to have been not just possible, but the natural or probable consequences of an intentional act, choosing to perform the act deliberately, even if in ignorance of that fact, does not make the resulting injury an “accident” even when the complaint alleges that such action was negligent.
A joint study by Princeton and MIT published in the journal Nature Climate Change suggests that, by the end of the century, 100 year flood events could come as often as every 3 to 20 years in New York City, as a result of increased storm surge caused by climate change. A summary of the study notes:
“The researchers found that the frequency of massive storm surges would go up in proportion to an increase in more violent storms and a rise in sea level, the researchers reported. They noted that climate models predict that the sea level around New York City could rise by 1.5 to nearly 5 feet by the end of the 21st century.”
One of the study’s co-authors Professor Michael Oppenheimer is quoted as stating
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