Banks Funding Fossil Fuels: The world’s leading banks are aggressively expanding loans to the fossil fuel industry, and a handful of major US banks are some of the top funders of the climate crisis, a new report finds. An analysis released Wednesday by BankTrack, Indigenous Environmental Network, Oil Change International, Reclaim Finance, and the Sierra Club looks at the investment practices of 35 global banks since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, finding that financing for fossil fuel projects expanded by 40 percent last year. Four US banks – JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi, and Bank of America – lead the pack in providing loans to extractive industries, with JP Morgan alone lending more than $250 billion since the Paris Agreement was formed. (The Guardian, The Hill)
Rich People Driving Climate Crisis: The world’s wealthiest are helping to fuel the climate crisis by expending substantially more energy than others, a new analysis shows. Researchers from the University of Leeds looked at the spending patterns of 86 countries and used EU and World Bank data to look at how populations spend their money, finding that the top 10 percent of earners consumed 20 times more energy than the lowest 10th percentile of earners. Transportation was a major gap between the two groups, with the world’s rich using 187 times more fuel – around half of the world’s fuel use for transportation – to get around. “Richer households, around the world, tend to spend their extra [money] on energy intensive products,” researcher Julia Steinberger told The Independent. (BBC, The Independent)
Activism in The Time of Corona: Climate activism is having to quickly adjust to a rapidly-changing world as a result of the coronavirus, Axios reports. After Greta Thunberg called for student strikers to stay home and do a “Digital Strike” during the crisis, other organizations are following suit and canceling rallies while pivoting to digital activism. Activists say that phone calls, texting and finding new ways to connect online will become crucial in the months to come. "Over the last decade, the climate movement has become a movement through mass action. There's no doubt that something is lost when you take that activity online," 350.org cofounder Jamie Henn told Axios. “...The moment we're in requires a different sort of activism.” (Axios)
DENIERS: President of reeling anti-climate science group forced out (E&E $)
CORONAVIRUS: The canals of Venice run clear as coronavirus halts traffic, bringing back ‘lagoon waters of ancient times’ (South China Morning Post), could the coronavirus actually be saving lives in some parts of the world because of reduced pollution? (USA Today), China's air quality is about to get a whole lot worse because of coronavirus (Vice), now isn’t the time to forget about our climate change efforts (Vogue), watch the footprint of coronavirus spread across countries (New York Times $)
AGENCIES: Adviser behind controversial EPA policies returns as agency chief of staff (The Hill)
RENEWABLES: Governments have ‘historic opportunity’ to accelerate clean energy transition, IEA says (Climate Home)
OIL & GAS: House Democrats warn against oil industry bailout (The Hill), low prices, virus cited in calls to delay US oil lease sale (AP), can shale survive another bust? (Houston Chronicle), the fallout from oil's collapse (Axios), GOP senators urge Saudi Arabia to calm rattled oil markets (Politico Pro $)
EXXONKNEW: After phone arguments, Exxon lawyers lose bid to fight climate suit in fed court (Reuters, Bloomberg)
COAL: Global turns away from coal, axing plans to build Kosovo plant (Reuters), man pleads guilty in $10M central Montana coal mine fraud scheme (Billings Gazette)
CITIES & STATES: Judge backs Minnesota’s Twin Metals mine in lease dispute (AP), Louisiana plant asks regulators to allow higher emissions (AP), hazardous waste found under housing site in New Mexico (AP), Colorado counties sue state over new air-quality regulations (AP)
INT’L: The world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases (Bloomberg), EU should scrap emissions trading scheme, Polish official says (Reuters)
BANKS: BlackRock stands by climate priorities, sees tougher shareholder votes (Reuters)
VROOM: Zoning Committee approves electric vehicle readiness mandate (Chicago Sun-Times), California county says Tesla factory cannot operate normally in coronavirus shutdown (Reuters)
Climate change could reverse falling inequality between countries (Carbon Brief, Aurélie Méjean, Nicolas Taconet, and Céline Guivarch op-ed)
How COVID-19 is like climate change (Scientific American, Ben Santer op-ed)
Coronavirus response should be a model for how we address climate change (Vogue, Jamie Margolin op-ed)
A moderate proposal: nationalize the fossil fuel industry (New Republic, Kate Aronoff analysis)
California should reset its ambition and unleash the next wave of clean energy to combat climate change (CAL Matters, Ryan McCarthy op-ed)
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