Concentration of CO2 in the Atmosphere
|
Headline News:
- “Tesla Troubles Mount As Musk Goes Full Rogue” • Elon Musk’s worst offense may appear for Europeans to be a Nazi salute at the inauguration. The ketamine addict is losing sales as people react to his antics. Last month, Norway recorded a 37.9% slump. Tesla sales in France fell by 63.4%; in Spain, Tesla sales plummeted by 75.4%. [CleanTechnica]
 Heil (Image by Led By Donkeys)
- “Scientists Are Racing To Discover The Depth Of Ocean Damage Sparked By LA Wildfires” • As crews work to remove what could be hundreds of thousands of tons of hazardous materials from the Los Angeles wildfires that sit on the ocean’s edge, researchers and officials are trying to understand how the fires on land have impacted the sea. [ABC News]
- “DOGE Layoffs: Nuclear Energy Experts Who Were Fired By Mistake Are Set To Be Rehired” • The US DOE is reportedly scrambling to reinstate nuclear energy specialists after hundreds were let go. Between 300 and 400 personnel from the National Nuclear Security Administration were dismissed, to the alarm of national security experts. [People Matters Global]
- “Trump Attacks Electric Vehicles; GM Claps Back With Blazer EV.R” • Amidst the backdrop of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s real-life coup of the US, signs are emerging that EVs are a battleground on which some titans of big business are willing to fight. Exhibit A is GM using the backdrop of NASCAR’s Indy 500 race to show off its new EV lineup. [CleanTechnica]
- “‘Now Is The Time’ For Giant UK Offshore Wind Farm” • A Norwegian renewable energy firm says the time is right for a large wind farm off the Devon and Dorset coast. Source Galileo is planning a 2-GW project involving at least 100 turbines, which it said could power over three million homes. It announced a deal with Portland Port for service. [BBC]
For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.
Headline News:
- “World’s Sea-Ice Falls To Record Low” • The world’s frozen oceans currently have less ice than ever previously recorded, satellite data shows. Sea-ice around the north and south poles acts like a giant mirror by reflecting much of the Sun’s energy back into space, but as the ice shrinks, the dark ocean below can absorb more heat. [BBC]
- “EU Plans Simpler State-Aid Rules To Boost Clean Tech” • The EU is reportedly planning simpler state-aid rules to boost clean tech investments and improve its industrial competitiveness against the US and China. A report from Bloomberg said that the European Commission is due to unveil the Clean Industrial Deal on 26 February. [reNews]
- “World’s Highest Altitude Solar Facility Now Generating Power In Tibet” • The world’s highest-altitude solar facility, situated at an elevation of over 17,000 feet, has begun generating electricity in Tibet. The facility is designed to supply local communities with power, particularly during winter and spring, when there are energy shortages. [Straight Arrow News]
- “Ford, GM, And Other Automakers Pushing To Keep US EV Tax Credits, Especially Leasing One” • The wheels are now in motion to kill the US EV tax credits. However, Ford, GM, and other car makers are reportedly trying to stop Republicans from killing them. One compromise would be to phase the credits out over a period of three years. [CleanTechnica]
- “Tamil Nadu ‘Key To Indian Offshore Wind Expansion'” • A study by Ocean Energy Pathway, supported by GWEC and COWI, claims that Tamil Nadu holds the key to delivering up to ₹6,500 billion (€72 billion, $75 billion) of economic growth and an additional 805,000 jobs from the supply chain for offshore wind manufacturing by 2030. [reNews]
For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.
Headline News:
- “Well-Managed Solar Farms Can Boost Wildlife – Study” • A study from the RSPB and the University of Cambridge found that well-managed solar farms can contribute to nature as well as “provide relief from the effects of agricultural intensification.” Scientists found that solar farms had a greater number of species and individual birds per hectare. [BBC]
- “Global Investment In The Clean Energy Transition Surpassed $2.1 Trillion In 2024, But More Is Needed” • Global investment in the low-carbon energy transition surged to a record $2.1 trillion in 2024, marking an 11% increase from the previous year, says the BloombergNEF report, “Energy Transition Investment Trends 2025.” But more is needed. [CleanTechnica]
- “SeAH Wind Confirms March Start For Teesworks” • SeAH Wind has confirmed it will commence commercial production at its £900 million monopile manufacturing facility at Teesworks in the UK from next month. The company rolled the first 7.5-meter diameter steel can in pre-production trials at the factory late last year. [reNews]
- “Dragados To Open Spanish Yard For TenneT Platforms” • A new production yard was added in Spain by Dragados to carry out fabrication of TenneT’s 2-GW offshore converter stations. The production site, with 400,000 sq m of space, is being built in the southern Spanish coastal town of Algeciras for production of converter platforms in the 2-GW class. [reNews]
- “Heavy Rain Pounds Fire-Ravaged Los Angeles As Severe Storms Barrel Through” • A heavy storm struck fire-ravaged Los Angeles with heavy rain, sending streams of mud and debris over roadways and sweeping a fire department vehicle off a Malibu road into the ocean, authorities said. A Fire Department member who was in it escaped. [ABC News]
For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.
Headline News:
- “Charybdis Begins Sea Trials” • The first US-made offshore wind turbine installation vessel has begun sea trials, and is to be ready for this year’s construction schedule. Dominion Energy’s Charybdis began sea trials this month off of Brownsville, Texas. It is contracted to Dominion Energy’s 2.6-GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind array. [reNews]
 Charybdis (Dominion Energy image)
- “Lucid And BMW Execs Claim Efficiency More Important Than Range For Electric Cars” • Peter Rawlinson, CEO of Lucid, and Frank Weber, the head of development at BMW, agree on a smaller battery with efficiency. “Then we can make a battery pack for about $2,500 – maybe $2,000 – instead of $20,000 or $25,000 today,” Rawlings said. [CleanTechnica]
- “Australia’s Residential Battery Installations Rise 30% In 2024” • Residential battery installations have grown 30% in Australia since 2023, according to the CEC Momentum Monitor. Its latest figures show that 121,551 household battery systems have been installed in Australia, a figure that includes the 28,262 units put in over 2024. [pv magazine International]
- “New Coal Power Plant Projects In China Hit The Highest Level In Nearly Ten Years, Report Says” • China’s power industry began construction on nearly 100 GW of new coal plant capacity last year, the most in nearly a decade, a report from two clean-energy groups said. They are concerned about China’s ability to meet its carbon reduction goals. [ABC News]
- “The Great Disappearing Data Center Demand Crisis” • A Duke University research team has developed “curtailment-enabled headroom,” a more accessible and potentially less expensive way to address data centers’ energy demands. It’s one of a growing list of solutions to the data center demand crisis, which turns out to be not much of a crisis after all. [CleanTechnica]
For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.
Headline News:
- “Terravis Energy Unveals a Heat Pump That Defies Freezing! Down to -57°F Below” • Terravis’ AetherLux heat pump system stands out from all others. This new groundbreaking system operates from -57°F to 131°F, eliminates defrost cycles, and paves the way for a new era in energy efficiency. It has no competition in its temperature range. [CleanTechnica]
 Trane heat pump test (Watkins Heating & Cooling)
- “California’s Insurer For People Without Private Coverage Needs $1 Billion More For LA Fires Claims” • The FAIR Plan, California’s plan that provides insurance to homeowners who can’t get private coverage, needs $1 billion more to pay out claims related to the Los Angeles wildfires, according to the state Insurance Department. [ABC News]
- “US Tariffs Could Spur 7% Rise In Onshore Wind Costs” • A report from Wood Mackenzie, ‘Trade war hits US onshore wind power’, warns that tariffs could threaten project viability and potentially slow growth in the wind industry. It finds that US proposed tariffs could increase US onshore wind turbine costs by 7% and overall project costs by 5%. [reNews]
- “Trump Promised to ‘Drill, Baby, Drill.’ Big Oil Won’t Let Him” • “Drill, Baby, Drill” was supposed to create an abundance of oil, bringing its price down. But it seems the realities on the ground were far different from what Trump expected, and his promises of “unleashing America’s energy” will not go far. Big Oil will drill, but only if the price is right. [CleanTechnica]
- “Why The ‘Redheaded Stepchild’ Of Renewable Energy Is Poised To Rise Under Trump” • President Trump’s call to “drill, baby, drill” may be intended to benefit the Oil & Gas industry, but Secretary of Energy Chris Wright named geothermal energy, which uses underground heat to generate clean electricity and heat, as a prime area for R&D. [The Hill]
For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.
- “Hawaiian Electric Surges To 36% Renewable Energy On Grids” • Boosted by new utility-scale and rooftop solar capacity in 2024, utility Hawaiian Electric achieved a 36% consolidated Renewable Portfolio Standard, accelerating progress toward the 2030 RPS milestone of 40%. The RPS increased by three percentage points from 2023. [Maui Now]
- “Subsidies Halved For Controversial Drax Power Station” • The government has agreed a new funding arrangement with the controversial wood-burning Drax power station that it says will cut subsidies in half. The power station, which once burned coal, now burns wood pellets, which is considered renewable. But emissions are unabated. [BBC]
- “Partners Plan Floating Solar Projects In Australia” • Renewable energy engineering company Canopy Power and Ocean Sun partnered to bring new floating solar technology to Australia. Ocean Sun’s patented circular floating solar system has a 70 meter buoyancy ring covered by a reinforced membrane to support solar modules. [pv magazine International]
- “By 2030, India Wants To Add 500 GW Renewable Energy Capacity: PM Modi” • India is set to add 500 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during his virtual address at Indian Energy Week 2025. He emphasized that the next two decades would be crucial for the goal of developing India. [Business Standard]
- “Utah’s Clean Solar Energy And Storage Boom” • There has been a boom in solar power production in Utah. What’s driving it? Meta’s (Facebook’s) huge data processing center is one thing. Meta has guaranteed powering its data centers entirely with renewable energy, and a massive new green energy project is nearly ready to go online. [CleanTechnica]
For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.
Headline News:
- “China Accelerates Reform Of Renewable Power Pricing To Promote Sustainable Development” • China is accelerating the market-oriented reform of its renewable power pricing system, in a bid to build a new power system and promote sustainable development of renewable capacity. Industry experts believe this reform is essential for sustainable growth. [Xinhua]
- “US Is Losing The Solid-State EV Battery Race, Bigly” • Now that President Trump throttled back on clean tech innovation in the US, the field is wide open for other nations to leap in. And they are. The latest example is the UK firm Ilika. Known for its micro-batteries, Ilika is heading towards commercial production of a solid-state EV battery. [CleanTechnica]
- “Juniper Green Raises $1 Billion In Debt Financing To Expand Its Clean Energy Portfolio” • Juniper Green Energy, based in India, announced that it has received $1 billion in phased debt financing. The funding will support the growth of Juniper Green Energy and its subsidiaries for wind-solar hybrid and projects for firm renewable energy. [pv magazine India]
- “Trump To Hit Steel Imports With 25% Tariffs” • US President Donald Trump has announced his intention to impose 25% tariffs on all steel as well as aluminium imports, a move that will likely impact the country’s offshore wind sector. Trump announced the tariff during a briefing with reporters as he flew from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. [reNews]
- “Despite Chilly Climate, It’s Business As Usual For Wind And Solar Energy In Wyoming“ • The climate for wind and solar power has been getting chilly in the Cowboy State, but no one in that sector appears to be freaking out yet. And that’s despite the executive orders by President Trump calling for a moratorium and review of wind leases. [Cowboy State Daily]
For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.
Headline News:
- “Brooklyn’s All-Electric Skyscraper To Be Fully Powered By Renewable Energy” • Alloy Development selected Radial Power and MaxSolar to supply 100% renewable energy to 505 State St, New York City’s first all-electric residential skyscraper. The agreement will help the tower achieve its goal of becoming the city’s first carbon-free high-rise. [BKReader]
 505 State Street (Supplied, Alloy Development)
- “China Cuts Renewable Energy Subsidies Amid Record Solar Boom” • China’s top economic planning agency announced plans to scale back subsidies for renewable energy projects after a record surge in solar and wind power installations. In 2024, China’s installed solar capacity soared by 45%, reaching 887 GW, over six times that of the US. [EconoTimes]
- “As He Helps Fight DEI, Musk’s Spacex Has A Huge Contract To Send First Woman And Person Of Color To The Moon” • As Elon Musk works to reduce government spending by cutting diversity programs and waste, his SpaceX corporation has a multibillion dollar contract to help NASA land a woman and a person of color on the moon. [ABC News]
- “New LMFP EV Battery Passes Critical Test” • Integrals Power emailed the news of its lithium-manganese-iron-phosphate EV battery formula to CleanTechnica, after receiving validation of its LMFP EV battery cathode active material from QinetiQ. The tests were conducted on pouch cells with graphite anodes and a liquid electrolyte. [CleanTechnica]
- “How Environmental Groups Are Battling The First Actions Of The Trump Administration” • Environmental nonprofits are gearing up to challenge some of the executive orders President Donald Trump since taking office. A majority of the the ones he has signed so far that affect the environment, conservation, and decarbonizing are being challenged. [ABC News]
For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.
Headline News:
- “Solar Accounts For 81.5% Of New Electricity Sources Added To US Grid In 2024” • Over 90% of new generating capacity added in the US in 2024 was renewable. Of all new capacity, solar came first, with 30,816 MW, and wind was second, with 3,128 MW. In third place, natural gas added 2,428 MW, and nuclear was fourth, with 1,100 MW. [Solar Power World]
- “RWE Offshore Wind Farm ‘To Help Balance German Grid'” • RWE has set out plans to help balance the German power grid via its 302-MW offshore wind farm, Amrumbank West. RWE plans to offer an automatic frequency restoration reserve. The transmission system operator TenneT granted the necessary pre-qualification for a capacity of 60 MW. [reNews]
- “USA Surpasses 50 Gigawatts Of Solar Module Manufacturing Capacity” • The US reached a historic manufacturing milestone, with 50 GW of domestic solar module production capacity. At full capacity, US factories can produce enough solar to meet all of its demand. This is a critical step toward building a US-based solar supply chain. [CleanTechnica]
- “Global Cost Of Renewables To Continue Falling” • A report by BloombergNEF says new wind and solar farms are undercutting new coal and gas plants on production cost already in almost every market globally. Trade barriers could temporarily stall cost declines, but BNEF still expects the levelized cost of electricity for clean technologies to fall 22-49% by 2035. [reNews]
- “Enel Switches On Hybrid Solar-BESS In Texas” • Enel North America has switched on a hybrid solar and energy storage plant in Texas. The project, Estonian Solar, combines a 202-MW PV facility with a 104-MW Battery Energy Storage System. Enel has the plant in operation. It has power purchase agreements with BXP and Capri Holdings. [reNews]
For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.
by James Hansen and Pushker Kharecha
Here we make available “Global Warming Has Accelerated,” including the Supplementary Material (SM), in one document and the webinar discussing the paper.
The SM shows that the rate of freshwater injection on the North Atlantic Ocean assumed in “Ice Melt, Sea Level Rise, and Superstorms” was realistic, averaged over the past two decades, but the rate of ice melt did not increase in the past decade. The present acceleration of global warming, which is especially great in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, makes it likely that the rate of ice melt will now accelerate, thus affecting the likelihood of shutdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and, in turn, the threat of large sea level rise.
The SM, see below, also addresses reactions to our paper. One more comment may be helpful. Why do we say that global temperature will not go down much (i.e., the world is already at +1.5°C and 2025 will be warmer than the kibitzers expect) is only partly due to the ship aerosol forcing – it is due more to high climate sensitivity. We evaluated the 1.7 W/m2 darkening of Earth as about 0.5 W/m2 ship aerosols, 0.15 W/m2 sea ice albedo, but mostly cloud feedback. The cloud feedback operates in both hemispheres and is the main reason that global SST will not fall much and will soon be rising further. The ship aerosol forcing and cloud feedback work together in the North Pacific and North Atlantic, so warming is fastest there, but warming is a global phenomenon.
We have been cooperating with David Beerling and colleagues for years on one the many things that eventually may help restore a propitious climate: actions to accelerate weathering removal of atmospheric CO2. A new paper on that is just published; we briefly discussed this once and will try to write more soon, but further information is available from the University of Sheffield.
Here are some comments from page 15 of SM:
Reactions to these papers. Given that our papers disagree with IPCC conclusions, it is not surprising that they generate reactions on social media. We generally have not responded, as it is very time consuming to respond and debate when we are outnumbered – it seems a better use of time to work on the next paper and include responses in it, if warranted, as we do here.
The first reaction was that there was no significant acceleration of global warming. This is an issue where it seems best to let others and the real world provide the response.
A second reaction was that, if there is acceleration, it is captured in the GCM simulations that IPCC employed, therefore accelerated global warming does not support our assertion that IPCC underestimated ship aerosol forcing. That reaction exposes the problem with lumping CMIP/IPCC model results into a model fog, and then treating that fog as if it is a probability distribution for the real world or even a sharp tool useful for climate analysis. The problem in this case is that many of the models in the fog did not use the IPCC aerosol forcing. For example, the fog includes GISS model runs that used Susanne Bauer’s aerosol modeling, with both her Matrix and OMA aerosol models;[1] the latter model has an even greater aerosol forcing change than the aerosol scenario that we employed. A subset of the model runs consisting of only those that use the IPCC aerosol forcing (not precursor emissions) would likely produce only a slight acceleration (due to growth of the annual GHG forcing in the past several years, which exceeds that in the prior two decades; see Fig. 15), much smaller than the observed acceleration of global warming.
A third reaction was that our estimate of high climate sensitivity is an outlier. However, many recent climate sensitivity studies include a key role for an “emergent constraint.” What is an emergent constraint, you may ask? The emergent constraint on climate sensitivity emerges from a desire to keep global warming similar to observations. Our present paper shows that there is a one-to-one relation between the trend of late 20thcentury aerosol forcing and the climate sensitivity required to match observed warming. Specifically, for the IPCC aerosol scenario, the climate sensitivity required to match observed warming is near 3°C for doubled CO2. If one accepts the IPCC aerosol scenario, the emergent constraint is that climate sensitivity cannot be far from 3°C for doubled CO2. Thus, given the one-to-one relation, the emergent constraint amounts to “if we assume that climate sensitivity is near 3°C for doubled CO2, we find that climate sensitivity is near 3°C for doubled CO2.” Not many people question the IPCC aerosol scenario, leading to a seeming consensus that sensitivity is near 3°C for doubled CO2. However, as we show in the paper, there are reasons to believe that the real-world aerosol forcing change exceeds IPCC’s estimate.
A fourth reaction, made in the New York Times and elsewhere, is that the current rapid warming falls within the range of all CMIP/IPCC climate simulations, so there is no good reason to believe that something is occurring outside of IPCC assumptions. This claim draws more attention to the big model range produced by CMIP/IPCC simulations and the assumption that it is a probability function for the real world. The problem is that the range is a combination of apples and oranges, as shown by the example above, but also of bananas and figs, because of a range of assumptions or treatments of different physical processes in the models – and, to be brutally honest, some pretty awful models. A scientist who wishes to help science writers understand the situation should do more than note that some model produces a response even more extreme than the real world; it would be more useful if the scientist looked at that model to see what caused the extreme response and assessed its plausibility.
[1] S.E. Bauer, K. Tsigaridis, G. Faluvegi et al., “Historical (1850-2014) aerosol evolution and role on climate forcing using the GISS ModelE2.1 contribution to CMIP6.” J. Adv. Model Earth Syst. 12(8) (2020): e2019MS001978
|
Canary Media  Canary Media is an independent, nonprofit newsroom covering the transition to clean energy and solutions to the climate crisis.
Sustainable Building Digest
Sustainableheating.org

Follow us on
Social Media:
Twitter: @GreenEnergyTimes
Instagram: greenenergytimes
Facebook: Green Energy Times
|