Who has shown some cool, green leadership this month… And who is heating up the planet?
Who’s hot and who’s not in the world of climate change?
Every month, RTCC takes a look at the heroes and villains of the news over the past 30 days.
Revolutionising the ubiquitous thermometer motif, we’ve decided “hot” means bad, because global warming is bad.
0C – Sweden
Was there anything good that Sweden didn’t do this month? It contributed $500 million to the Green Climate Fund, called on the EU to increase its emissions reduction goal to 50% and promoted a Green Party leader to vice president.
Sweden’s seventh largest city, Örebro, became the country’s first city to fully withdraw from oil, coal and gas investments.
Correspondingly, a new survey labelled Sweden as the world’s greenest country – although it also found that Germany is taking the credit…
1C – Copenhagen Cathedral
Copenhagen Cathedral was the scene of an impressive religious service to mark the release of the UN’s science report this week.
Participants were asked to deposit small white eggs into a basket in the middle of the church as a symbol of the earth’s fragility.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu addressed the congregation. He said: “Just imagine the beautiful world that our hearts know is possible. God will enable us to bring it about if we follow God’s universal laws for all of life.”
2C – Owen Paterson
The UK’s former environment secretary made a stir this month by calling on the country’s centrepiece Climate Act to be scrapped.
Owen Paterson, who was sacked from government in a July reshuffle, says the green energy path is too expensive and raises the risk of blackouts.
His view put him at odds with the UK’s climate change secretary Ed Davey, who said scrapping the Act would be “one of the most stupid economic decisions imaginable”.
3C – Poland
Coal dependent Poland was the only country left resisting a 40% greenhouse gas reduction target at EU negotiations on a package of climate measures for 2030.
All member states bar Poland were broadly on board with the goal, with some willing to go further. Its ministers expressed feared the proposed regulations would force the country to switch to more expensive sources of energy, pushing up costs for industry and consumers.
But greener countries won the day, with the EU agreeing a target of “at least” 40% at this month’s council meeting.