Sunny climate stormy climate | Weekly digest #68
India now has a climate finance taxonomy, a glacier collapses in Switzerland destroying an entire village and the carbon footprint of the war in Gaza.
Hello folks!
Welcome to another edition of your regular climate news digest, where I bring one sunny story that gives hope and two stormy ones that are a cause for alarm. Hope you like them!
🌞 Sunny news 🌞
1. India now has a climate finance taxonomy
What are we talking about?
The Department of Economic Affairs has released the draft Framework for India’s Climate Finance Taxonomy. It is open for public consultation till June 25.
A climate finance taxonomy is designed to help policymakers and investors identify what projects and sectors should be considered as ‘green’ or ‘climate friendly’ and use this information to direct funding or resources and towards them.
This framework outlines a system for categorizing activities and projects based on their contribution to climate goals, separating them into climate supportive and transition supportive baskets.
Climate supportive initiatives are further broken down into two tiers
Tier 1 focusing on absolute emission reduction or significant intensity improvements alongside adaptation
Tier 2 covering intensity improvements in challenging sectors, efficiency gains, and adaptation efforts with some emission trade-offs.
Transition supportive activities prioritize efficiency and intensity reduction where absolute avoidance isn't currently feasible.
Why does this matter?
Finance plays a major role in determining whether climate solutions are able to scale.
The taxonomy will shape climate finance - what project get classified as green green or climate friendly, will help bankers, funders, investors make better decisions about what projects to fund in alignment with the country’s climate goals.
Sources for further reading
🌩️ Stormy news 🌩️
2. The Birch glacier collapses in Switzerland destroying an entire village
What are we talking about?
A vast section of the Birch glacier broke apart in the Swiss Alps on Wednesday, setting off a landslide of ice, mud and rocks that almost completely destroyed a small village Blatten.
Fortunately, the 300 residents of Blatten had been ordered to evacuate just 9 days ago.
The glacier, was estimated by a government engineer to have been moving about eight to 11 feet a day toward the valley before the landslide.
Why does this matter?
In 2022 and 2023, Swiss glaciers lost 10 percent of their water volume — as much as melted in the three decades from 1960 to 1990. The Alps are in fact warming at a rate that is twice the global average and one of the impacts has been on its rapid loss of ice and deterioration of glaciers.
This is part of a larger global trend. We are losing glaciers at an unprecedented rate. Some in a flash, some over decades. Like the Yala glacier in Nepal that has lost 60% of its mass in the last 3 decades and is expected to completely disappear by 2040. In fact, The local community organized a funeral for Yala two weeks back - a tribute of sorts and hopefully a wake-up call for the world.
Sources for further reading
3. Carbon footprint of Israel’s war on Gaza exceeds that of many entire countries
What are we talking about?
A new study by UK and US-based researchers, shared exclusively with The Guardian, has analyzed the climate cost of the first 15 months of conflict, starting from the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack
The report finds that the long-term climate cost of destroying, clearing, and rebuilding Gaza could top 31 mn tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e)
The reconstruction of Gaza post the war is expected to result in most of this - almost 29 mn tonnes while direct emissions from war activities have resulted in 1.9 mn tonnes of emissions so far.
Why does this matter?
The carbon footprint from conflicts like the one in Gaza can be substantial, exceeding the annual greenhouse gas emissions of many entire countries. For instance, the emissions from the war in Gaza are more than the combined 2023 annual greenhouse gases emitted by Costa Rica and Estonia. The long-term climate cost of the Israel-Gaza war and recent regional exchanges is estimated to be equivalent to running 84 gas power plants for a year. These are not negligible amounts and contribute significantly to global emissions.
War involves widespread environmental destruction, not just emissions. It releases toxic chemicals, destroys infrastructure, pollutes soil, air, and water resources, and accelerates climate and environmental disasters
Sources for further reading
Carbon footprint of Israel’s war on Gaza exceeds that of many entire countries (Guardian)
If you are interested in the carbon impact of the Ukraine war, check out this video
You can read previous editions of the newsletter -
Sunny climate, stormy climate | News Digest #67
Sunny climate, stormy climate | News Digest #66
Sunny climate, stormy climate | News Digest #65
If you liked this newsletter, please hit like or leave a comment. If you are a climate champion and want to take this conversation to more people, please share the newsletter with a friend, family member or colleague who may like it too!