Skeptical Science New Research for Week #7 2024

The existing international architecture of climate change mitigation and adaptation policy and financing holds, in principle, the potential to address not only its main purpose of climate action, but also to contribute to development outcomes and address multiple risk drivers. Examples of this exist, but for these mutual benefits to emerge, and for climate finance to contribute more significantly to crises prevention, the agendas must become more aligned. Aligning several factors may enable coherence: i) Timeframes, from short-term response to multi-year programming; ii) Planning and targeting, moving towards conflict-sensitive area-based approaches and universal access to services; iii) Institutional arrangements and partnerships, coordinated national planning and jointly implemented local action.

Phase-Locked Rossby Wave-4 Pattern Dominates the 2022-Like Concurrent Heat Extremes Across the Northern Hemisphere, Yang et al., Geophysical Research Letters:

Concurrent heat extremes (CHEs) are becoming increasingly common in the mid-high latitudes across the Northern Hemisphere (NH), underscoring the need to comprehend their spatiotemporal characteristics and underlying causes. Here we reveal a phase-locking behavior in Wave-4 pattern, particularly after mid-1990s, giving rise to a prominent CHE mode akin to heat extreme pattern observed in 2022, which swept most NH regions. Wave-4 pattern significantly amplifies the likelihood of CHEs in Eastern Europe (∼30%), Northeast Asia (∼25%), and northwestern coast of North America (∼15%), while reducing the likelihood in central North America and northern Central Asia. During 1979–2022, the identified pattern accounted for over 69.7% of the trends in heat extremes over the mid-high latitudes of the NH, directly exposing approximately 333.5 million people to heat extremes.

The complexity of pluralistic ignorance in Republican climate change policy support in the United States, Dixon et al., Communications Earth & Environment:

Most Americans fail to recognize widespread public support for climate change action. Here we investigate how this phenomenon differs for Republican supporters versus opponents of several climate change policies. Surveying a representative sample of Republican voters (N = 1000), we find that misperception of in-group support for climate action is primarily restricted to Republicans already opposed to action. Specifically, those in the minority (i.e., Republicans opposed to climate action) were more likely to erroneously perceive other Republicans as holding views on climate change policy similar to their own. While Republican supporters recognize that most Republicans support climate change policy, they may be discouraged from expressing their support due to an information environment disproportionately portraying Republicans as opposed to climate change action.

From this week's government/NGO section:

Passive Investing in a Warming World, Connor Chung and Dan Cohn, Instutue for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis

The energy transition is beginning to leave an imprint on equity markets. Fossil fuels, once a primary driver of index returns and economic growth, are becoming an increasingly risky and speculative part of passive equity portfolios. Over the last decade, shedding oil, gas, and coal has proven a winning financial strategy — even taking the recent energy crisis into account. As the sector’s historic value thesis erodes, a few high-profit quarters have been unable to reverse a decade of underperformance. The passive investment landscape is starting to reflect this shift. In recent years, equity indices with reduced fossil fuel exposure have proliferated, passed major funds’ prudence tests, and been adopted without significant transaction costs.

Hidden Threat: The Influence of Sea-Level Rise on Coastal Groundwater and the Convergence of Impacts on Municipal Infrastructure, Habel et al, Annual Reviews

Sea-level rise (SLR) is influencing coastal groundwater by both elevating the water table and shifting salinity profiles landward, making the subsurface increasingly corrosive. Low-lying coastal municipalities worldwide (potentially 1,546, according to preliminary analysis) are vulnerable to an array of impacts spurred by these phenomena, which can occur decades before SLR-induced surface inundation. Damage is accumulating across a variety of infrastructure networks that extend partially and fully beneath the ground surface. Because the resulting damage is largely concealed and imperceptible, it is largely overlooked as part of infrastructure management and planning.

118 articles in 60 journals by 661 contributing authors

Articles/Reports from Agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations Addressing Aspects of Climate Change

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Skeptical Science New Research for Week #7 2024

Open access notables

118 articles in 60 journals by 661 contributing authors

Articles/Reports from Agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations Addressing Aspects of Climate Change

Obtaining articles without journal subscriptions

How is New Research assembled?

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Journals covered

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