Bill Hare
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billhare.bsky.social
Bill Hare
@billhare.bsky.social

Climate science, impacts, policy and 1.5C

Environmental science 31%
Economics 28%

“Tamboran…donated $169,500 to both sides of politics ….Tamboran Resources plans to sell fracked gas to the NT government, and develop a major LNG project at the Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct in Darwin, which has been allocated $1.5 billion in equity by the Federal Labor Government.”

“Australia’s largest oil and gas company, Woodside, donated $53,775 to the Australian Labor Party and $40,140 to the Coalition prior to the 2025 Federal Election. Just 25 days after the election, the government conditionally approved extending the company’s North West Shelf LNG plant out to 2070.”

What fossil fuel companies paid to Australia’s political parties in 2025 federal election and what they seem have gotten in return.

cheekmedia.substack.com/p/dirty-data...
Dirty data: How coal and gas money fuelled 2025 election campaigns
By Claire Snyder
cheekmedia.substack.com

Bottom line: Don’t confuse “hard” with “obsolete.” The world doesn’t need permission to lower ambition. It needs governments to implement what they already agreed—at the speed and scale that 1.5°C demands.

As @joerirogelj.bsky.social put it "the PA’s goal to pursue efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C therefore endures as the legal and ethical imperative to secure a safe and livable planet for present and future generations."
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The pursuit of 1.5°C endures as a legal and ethical imperative in a changing world
As the world nears 1.5°C of global warming, near-term emissions reductions and adequate adaptation become ever more important to ensure a safe and livable planet for present and future generations
www.science.org

And let us not forget that the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C warming limit remains the world’s enduring legal, political, and moral anchor for climate action – abandoning it would only deepen injustice for vulnerable communities already bearing the brunt of climate change.

In all this that should not be forgotten that since 2015, the Paris Agreement has provided quantified targets at national and global levels consistent with limiting warming as close as possible to 1.5°C.

Whilst “Clean-energy shift” can be a useful slogan it can’t replace the temperature limit and by itself generate the time bound actionable targets needed to protect us from dangerous climate change.

The Paris Agreement provides the basis to design critical clean energy benchmarks to limit overshoot as low as possible and get warming back below 1.5° by 2100. Without the 1.5C limit it is unlikely that the right benchmarks would be calculated or chosen.

On geoengineering: the push for risky interventions grows because of delayed action not because of the 1.5oC limit. The answer is not to abandon 1.5°C—it’s to act fast enough so we don’t drift into an “anything goes” approach unguided by what we need to protect ourselves from and call it pragmatism.

This scenario shows the time bound actionable targets needed globally to strictly limit overshoot and reduce warming below 1.5° by 2100. For example, renewables capacity needs to grow significantly, with a 3.5-fold increase by 2030 – ahead of the global tripling goal agreed at COP28.

In terms of a clean energy shift this highest possible ambition scenario shows that global electricity generation needs to quadruple by 2050, with wind and solar supplying over 90% of electricity demand by then. Fossil fuels would be effectively phased out shortly afterwards.

This work shows how to minimize overshoot and return to well below 1.5°C by 2100 with renewables, electrification, efficiency, methane cuts, deforestation reduction—reaching net zero around ~2060 if governments deliver.

With colleagues at @pik-potsdam.bsky.social using the Paris Agreement's climate goals we have looked at what can be done using the highest possible ambition to absolutely minimise overshoot of 1.5°C and to get warming back below 1.5° by 2100.

climateanalytics.org/publications...
Rescuing 1.5°C: new evidence on the highest possible ambition to…
This study shows that, even after years of insufficient action, the world can still return to well below 1.5°C of warming this century if countries pursue the “highest possible ambition” in climate ac...
climateanalytics.org

If implemented the @cop28.bsky.social energy transition goals and benchmarks *** actionable targets *** would actually bend the emission curve. So we already have science actionable targets that would actually work if implemented.

climateanalytics.org/publications...
Three key near-term actions could bend the warming curve; bringing…
Tripling renewables, doubling energy efficiency and cutting methane by 2030 and beyond would cut warming rate by a third in ten years, and halve it by 2040. This would cut projected warming this centu...
climateanalytics.org

These climate targets provide the tools to design the critical time bound benchmarks for a clean energy shift to limit overshoot as low as possible and get warming back below 1.5° by 2100. Without this framework there is not real anchor for these benchmarks.

The Paris 1.5° limit provided the rigorous basis for @cop28.bsky.social in 2023 to agree 1.5C aligned clean energy targets - tripling renewables, doubling efficiency, reductions in methane and deforestation by 2030, and transition away from fossil fuels.

www.cop28.com/en/global-re...
COP28: Global Renewables And Energy Efficiency Pledge
Read the Global Renewables and Efficiency Pledge. Global leaders unite to transition away from unabated fossil fuels to meet Paris Agreement goals by 2030.
www.cop28.com

Since 2015 the Paris Agreement climate goals have provided the basis quantified renewable energy, energy, efficiency, methane reductions, and deforestation benchmarks at national and global level consistent with limiting warming as close as possible to 1.5°C.

climateanalytics.org/comment/the-...
The Paris Agreement is working. Ten years later, the world needs to…
Whether the Agreement ultimately succeeds depends on whether political leaders and their governments have the courage to close the ambition gap, phase out fossil fuels, scale up finance for a just tra...
climateanalytics.org

Overshoot management isn’t “wait until 2100 and see,” as the article suggests.

The Paris Agreement climate goals provide the indispensable scientific basis for what benchmarks for clean energy, energy efficiency, methane reductions and deforestation action are needed and by when.

We all agree we need actionable targets to guide policy.
But here is the big thing: The Paris Agreement’s climate goals - the1.5oC limit and net zero in 2nd half of the century - provide the essential and critical legal and scientific basis for what clean energy targets are needed and by when.

First: yes, we’re heading into overshoot @wmo-global.bsky.social 1.5°C in the next 5 years. This is not a geophysical accident. It is the result of policy failure. Now what's needed is action to limit the magnitude and duration of overshoot to drive temperatures back down.

wmo.int/news/media-c...
2025 set to be second or third warmest year on record, continuing exceptionally high warming trend
wmo.int

A commentary in @nature.com argues the 1.5°C temperature limit has “outlived its usefulness” because we’re headed towards overshoot and should be replaced by a “clean-energy shift” metric. That’s the wrong diagnosis. Here is why.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
As we breach 1.5 °C, we must replace temperature limits with clean-energy targets
Actionable goals are needed to guide the world towards what needs to happen most quickly: shifting economies to clean energy sources.
www.nature.com

Extreme heat is blasting eastern Australia. It’s driven by fossil fuels, development of which the Albanese government continues to support.

The Guardian Australia’s climate/environment journalist calls it out

@adammorton.bsky.social @theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Through the heatwave haze, the hypocrisy of Australia’s fossil fuel policy shines bright | Clean Air
The heatwave in Melbourne and Adelaide this week is likely to become the norm. We should prepare now
www.theguardian.com

It's difficult to fathom what the WA Envtl "Protection" Agency doesn’t understand abt the climate problem. Wilfully & deliberately authorising a massive gas development in this pristine environment must only be viewed as institutionalised climate denial.
reneweconomy.com.au/massive-new-...
Massive new Kimberley fracking industry could keep Woodside gas plant going until 2070
Federal Labor's light touch environmental review of a massive new fracking industry threatens one of Australia’s most iconic wild places – and blows out national emissions.
reneweconomy.com.au

Reposted by Bill Hare

Last year, the world added a record 582GW of #renewables energy capacity. That’s over 91% of all new power – with #nuclear nowhere. In fact, each year, nuclear adds as much net global power capacity as renewables add every two days.

Reposted by Bill Hare

Rising Tide protest: climate activists stop three ships from entering world’s largest coal port in Newcastle

NSW police arrest 141 as campaigners demand govt cancel planned fossil fuel projects + tax existing operations at 78%

By @jordynbeazley.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Rising Tide protest: climate activists stop three ships from entering world’s largest coal port in Newcastle
NSW police arrest 141 people as campaigners demand federal government cancel planned fossil fuel projects and tax existing operations at 78%
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Bill Hare

Vor fast genau zehn Jahren begann die historische Klimakonferenz von Paris. Ein guter Anlass, mal zu schauen, was sich seitdem in Deutschland verändert hat. (1/10)

Reposted by Bill Hare

"Australia cannot continue to develop and expand fossil fuel exports and pretend it’s going to be a renewable superpower supporting a 1.5C limit"
@billhare.bsky.social in @australia.theguardian.com
#auspol #COP30 #fossilfuels #climate
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
How can Australia convince the world to give up fossil fuels if Anthony Albanese is contradicting himself on gas expansion? | Bill Hare
Getting to net zero CO2 emissions globally means we can halt global warming. This requires a rapid phase-out. It’s physics
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Bill Hare

How can Australia convince the world to give up fossil fuels if Anthony Albanese is contradicting himself on gas expansion? | Bill Hare
How can Australia convince the world to give up fossil fuels if Anthony Albanese is contradicting himself on gas expansion? | Bill Hare
Getting to net zero CO2 emissions globally means we can halt global warming. This requires a rapid phase-out. It’s physics With another set of global climate talks behind us, the Australian government faces some tricky tasks before it takes over negotiations at the next round of talks next year in Turkey. Cop30 in Belém, Brazil, did not deliver the bold fossil fuel phase-out roadmap we needed, but it did nudge the system forward with more scrutiny of fossil fuel producers. And despite the weakness of the outcome, one can gain some important comfort by the fact that Bélem – and the G20 in Johannesburg at the weekend – both solidly endorsed the Paris agreement, its central goal of keeping warming to 1.5C and the importance of net zero emissions. Cop30 agreed that an “ambition accelerator” will be needed to fill the gap between what governments are planning (projected to warm the world by 2.6C) and the agreed guardrails of the Paris agreement: a limit of 1.5C. It also, crucially, began the momentum for developing a roadmap for a just transition away from fossil fuels, with more than 80 countries – including Australia – signing the “Belém declaration” on a transition away from fossil fuels. While this declaration didn’t get support from the whole conference, Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has promised to move forward on its implementation during the course of this year, until he hands over to Cop31 in Turkey. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Bill Hare

As COP30 comes to a close, read the statement from CA CEO @billhare.bsky.social. This COP did not deliver the bold fossil fuel phaseout roadmap needed, but it did nudge other goals forward.

National leaders must now close the gap between promises and reality.

climateanalytics.org/press-releas...
Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics, comments at the end of COP30
After COP30, it is now up to national leaders to close the gap between promises and reality.
climateanalytics.org