Climate watch: 2022 climate record: Much progress but more needed

It is time to look back at the highs and lows of climate change during 2022. The most dramatic news was the devastating consequences of a warming climate: droughts in the western U.S. and Africa, unprecedented floods in Australia and Pakistan, and storms of greater intensity, most notably Hurricane Ian in Florida.

The fingerprints of climate change could no longer be ignored in news stories this year. Reinsurance firm Swiss Re estimated that this year’s insured losses from natural catastrophes were $115 billion, much larger than the average of $81 billion for the last 10 years.

Fortunately, governments have begun to formulate policies to bring down greenhouse gas emissions and halt this trend. Europe continues on track to impose a tariff on goods imported from countries that have not put a price on carbon emissions. The U.S. Congress passed significant legislation providing incentives for the transition to renewable energy. The CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act join the climate-related measures already included in last year’s bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. Funds from the Infrastructure Bill are already having impacts. The EPA has begun distributing rebates to buy electric school buses, including $34.6 million for 11 Pennsylvania communities. Mifflin County will buy two electric buses through this grant.

Although the transition to renewable energy has begun, it is hampered at many levels. Pennsylvania’s membership in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is being held up by court cases. Updating the grid to transport electricity from solar and wind farms to populations that need it is stymied by outdated laws and a bad case of “NIMBY” – Not In My Back Yard.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the boycott of Russian energy caused a spike in prices and a desperate search to find fossil fuel to get Europe through the winter. If the transition to renewable energy had been pursued more vigorously a decade ago, the prices would not have been so high nor the fears of a cold winter so bad.

The current crisis meant that the conclusion of the COP 27 meeting this November in Egypt was disappointing. Pledges to reduce emissions remained virtually the same, insufficient for what is required.

Most heartening has been the steady drumbeat of business and industry support for the transition to renewable energy. Almost every day, the Wall Street Journal features an article about plans by corporations to produce electric vehicles and to speed their delivery. Tesla delivered an electric semi-truck on Dec. 1, though many still doubt it will work. But smaller vehicles are eagerly adopted. Domino’s Pizza will procure 800 Chevrolet Bolts for its deliveries as a way to attract much-needed drivers, save fuel money, and fulfill climate change goals. Amazon, FedEx, PepsiCo, and others are also electrifying their fleets.

This private sector progress should not be ignored. In an excellent book entitled “Fire and Flood: A People’s History of Climate Change, from 1979 to the Present,” Eugene Linden noted that “For most of the climate change era, the business and finance community has been the biggest impediment to action.” But, he concluded, in the last decade, faced with the realities of climate change and advances in climate science, the business community has recognized the financial threat posed by climate change and has begun to realize the opportunities offered in the transition to the new energy economy.

So, our year-end review is mixed. Lots of progress is being made, but not fast enough and not with sufficient public support.