Chinese President Xi Jinping with U.S Vice President Joe Biden inside the Great Hall of the People on December 4, 2013 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
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Chinese president Xi Jinping surprised the world last fall by pledging that his country’s carbon emissions would peak by 2030 and reach “net zero” by 2060. Experts said the pledge represented an enormous step forward for the world, especially given that, prior to the US presidential election, America’s commitment to climate action was far from certain. Some commentators noted, though, that meeting China’s goal would require change at a blistering pace across economic sectors.
That skepticism was validated by the new five-year plan China’s leadership unveiled last week. “Underwhelming” was the verdict of numerous independent analysts, including Swithin Lui of the NGO Climate Action Tracker, who told The Guardian that China’s plan “shows little sign of a concerted switch away from a future coal lock-in. There is little sign of the change needed [to meet net zero].” Although the plan pledged to increase use of renewable energy sources, it set no hard targets for emissions reductions. Instead, it repeated China’s practice of reducing the so-called carbon intensity of its overall economy. But that approach amounts to little more than an accounting trick, given that the Chinese economy is projected to keep growing over the next five years.
China and the United States are the world’s two climate change superpowers. Not only are they responsible for most of the emissions driving climate change, their economic might gives them unmatched influence over how markets function and how technology is deployed around the world. Both countries simply must demonstrate stronger leadership if humanity is to survive the climate emergency.
For journalists everywhere, this means holding both Beijing and Washington accountable for their climate actions through reporting that is grounded in science, not political calculations. It means conveying that climate change is the overriding challenge facing both countries and not merely, as some coverage has suggested, a convenient opportunity for cooperation amid a bilateral relationship studded with tensions over trade, human rights, and military spheres of influence. The Earth Day climate summit president Biden is convening on April 22 will give journalists a fresh chance to center climate change in their coverage of Biden, Xi, and their fellow world leaders—and to make clear to audiences how much is at stake.
New and Recent From CCNow
TOMORROW: Great Lakes Regional Training. Kicking off a series of region-specific events, tomorrow CCNow will host a webinar designed to bring for journalists in the Great Lakes region up to speed on the climate story. Similar to our February 24 Talking shop, “Boosting Your Climate Confidence on Every Beat,” we’ll offer basics on the science, politics, and economics of climate change, as well as ideas for how to tell human-centered stories that will engage audiences. We’ll flag common mistakes to avoid and best practices to emulate. Panelists will include stellar journalists from Wisconsin Watch, ProPublica, Bridge Michigan, Minnesota Public Radio, and Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television. Not in the Great Lakes area? Stay tuned for future regional events focusing on the South, Texas, and the Mountain West of the US—and, soon, overseas. The Great Lakes webinar is set for March 11 at 1pm Eastern time, 12 Central. Check out the panelists and RSVP here…
REMINDER: April Joint Coverage Week. Per our announcement in February, CCNow’s next joint coverage week is set for April 12-22, in the lead up to Earth Day and President Biden’s global climate summit. Our theme of coverage is “Living Through the Climate Emergency.” In addition to reporting the science that calls today’s circumstances a climate emergency, we encourage partners to run human-centered stories drawn from every beat in the newsroom. To help journalists prepare, we’ve created a new reporting guide, which unpacks what we mean when we say that climate is a story for every beat. Stay tuned for more details!
**Already know your plans for the coverage week? We’re putting together a preview of the week and would love to know what you’re working on! By March 12, email editors@coveringclimatenow.org. And don’t worry if you prefer to send ideas later; we’ll distribute further previews before the week kicks off.**
Got news we can use? We aim to make this newsletter a kind of “bulletin board” for climate journalists as well as other folks interested in learning more about climate change. If you have an event, job postings, an exciting project launch, or any other news that should be included here, shoot us a note at editors@coveringclimatenow.org.
Some of the Week’s Essential Climate Coverage
- In 2019, the city of Berkeley, California passed a ban on natural gas hookups in new building construction. The idea caught on elsewhere—but also prompted a backlash, with sixteen states now having passed or considering bans on bans. As a collaboration between CCNow partners Inside Climate News and The Seattle Times observes, environmental advocates and the gas industry are competing for sway, but one thing is for sure: residential and commercial buildings account for more than 10 percent of the US’s greenhouse gas emissions, and those emissions must decline to stave off the worst of the climate emergency.
- On the subject of buildings, last week local governments lost their right to have a say in setting US building codes, HuffPost reports. Following forceful input from the construction and gas industries, the nonprofit International Code Council stripped local leaders of the option to vote on building codes, effectively giving the construction and gas industries decisive influence over the codes. It’s a “technical and wonky” change, reporter Alexander Kaufman notes, but it marks “one of the most consequential roadblocks to decarbonizing the U.S. economy.”
- Two-thirds of the world’s tropical rainforests, critical as a buffer against climate change, have been degraded or fully destroyed, according to new analysis by the nonprofit Rainforest Foundation Norway, Reuters reports. More than half of the destruction since 2002 has taken place in Brazil’s Amazon and adjacent forests.
- Related: Huge amounts of American consumer goods—including ones using palm oil, rubber, and cocoa—are sourced from tropical forests, often ones being illegally stripped for their resources. Besides driving climate change, this destruction of forest habitat endangers Indigenous peoples and threatens extinction of previous plant and animal species. Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat from Hawaii, has introduced a bill seeking to bar commodities originating from illegally deforested land from entering the US market, CBS News reports.
- “I am absolutely convinced that the number one thing that any individual person can do is to use their voice,” climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe tells Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. That’s part of the reason Hayhoe and colleagues recently founded Science Moms, a nonpartisan group equipping mothers with climate information. Studies showed moms cared far more than most groups about the climate crisis but perhaps didn’t know enough about it to take action, and, Hayhoe says, they “will do anything to make sure that [their kids] have a safe and happy and healthy future.”
- In Kern County, California, north of Los Angeles, the oil and gas industry is staging a last stand, amid the state’s efforts to transition away from fossil fuels. The county is home to 70% of the state’s oil production and 80% of natural gas production, while 300,000 residents live within one mile of a well, a majority of them people of color. Now, according to a new investigation by Capital & Main, Kern county is poised to rubber stamp new wells for decades to come; money has been designated to mitigate the projected pollution impacts, but the investigation showed that most of that money won’t go to the communities most in need. This story is available for republication by CCNow partners.
Republication Recommendations
The following stories deserve special attention and consideration for republication and/or rebroadcast by CCNow partners:
- The Fossil Fuel Industry’s Last Stand in California Oil Country | Capital & Main
- ‘Smoke and Mirrors’: Indigenous groups, conservationists challenge report claiming British Columbia mines have no impact on Alaska waters | The Narwhal (Canada)
For partners, to submit stories for sharing, please use this Google Form. As always, instructions for republishing and the full list of stories available for republication can be found in our Sharing Library.
Odds and Ends
Media Matters Annual Study. Media Matters for America today released its annual look at how US TV networks covered climate change in the previous year. As was to be expected, climate coverage fell sharply in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic dominated news agendas. Total coverage of climate was at its lowest level since 2016, accounting for an infinitesimal 0.4 percent of overall coverage on corporate broadcast morning, nightly and Sunday morning news shows in 2020. There were bright spots, including strong performances by PBS NewsHour and the morning programs on NBC and CBS News, where Al Roker and Jeff Berardelli, respectively, were cited for their increased coverage. Overall, however, the numbers show the need for a much greater commitment to the climate story in 2021. Read the full report here…
Yes! Magazine’s Ecological Issue. The Spring issue of CCNow partner Yes! Magazine is all about ecological living, meaning a step away from societies currently rooted in wealth accumulation. “The hopeful news is that progress toward an ecological civilization is already in motion—and has been for years,” Yes! executive editor Zenobia Jeffries Warfield writes in the editor’s note. “The movements for climate, racial equity, economic fairness, and others all fit into this new, better world. We’re on our way.” Check out the stories here…
Bloomberg Global Coal Countdown. One-third of global carbon emissions come from coal burning. Coal is on the decline, but plants are still operational across the world, and in many countries new ones are still planned. Bloomberg Philanthropies has unveiled a new tool, the Bloomberg Global Coal Countdown, “to track and count down” these remaining plants. Check out the interactive tool here…
AGU Science Reporting Awards. The American Geophysical Union is accepting nominations for excellence in science journalism. Awards will be given for news, features, and “sustained achievement” in science reporting and storytelling. Awards submissions are open through April 15. Learn more and submit a nomination here…