William F. Lamb

@wflamb.bsky.social

7.2K followers 2.6K following 110 posts

Climate policy researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. I work on emissions trends, policy evaluation, carbon dioxide removal and climate obstruction. Scot in Deutschland. https://lambwf.github.io/ .. more

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Environmental science 34%

Economics 23%

Posts Replies Media Videos

William F. Lamb @wflamb.bsky.social · 4d

@johnfocook.bsky.social is the man to ask!

Especially: skepticalscience.com/debunking-ha...

The Debunking Handbook 2020: Downloads and Translations

In November 2011, we published The Debunking Handbook. As the update notice on that page already shows, more research has come in since then and the time had finally come for a complete overhaul of th...

skepticalscience.com

William F. Lamb @wflamb.bsky.social · 4d

Fixed, thanks. I guess firefox doesn't like svgs :(

William F. Lamb @wflamb.bsky.social · 5d

Might be best to just exclude it from this figure next time and save writing A LOT of explanatory/hedging text that then gets lost!

Reposted by Michael E. Mann, Valerie M. Delmotte, Joeri Rogelj , and 6 more Michael E. Mann, Valerie M. Delmotte, Joeri Rogelj, Stefan Rahmstorf, Du Toit, Tatiana Ilyina, Margot C. Finn, William F. Lamb, Andrew Watkins

UN Environment Programme @unep.org · 6d

New national climate plans have barely moved the needle on limiting global warming. Yet there is hope.

According to UNEP's latest #EmissionsGap Report, accelerated adoption of renewable energy and falling costs mean we have the tools to cut emissions now: www.unep.org/news-and-sto...

Illustration of a dart missing the bullseye on a colorful target, symbolizing global temperature goals at risk due to inaction.

William F. Lamb @wflamb.bsky.social · 12d

thanks - very useful!

Reposted by William F. Lamb

PIK_climate @pik-potsdam.bsky.social · Aug 21

Expertise from the Potsdam Institute.

8 Lead Authors for @IPCC_CH #AR7:

nico bauer
Niklas Boers
Franziska Piontek
Iulii Didovets
Barbora Sedova
@wflamb.bsky.social
Jan Minx
Elmar Kriegler

First Lead Author meeting Dec 2025, report out 2028/29.

www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/late...

Reposted by Andy Purvis, Benjamin G. Wright, William F. Lamb , and 1 more Andy Purvis, Benjamin G. Wright, William F. Lamb, Hilary Robinson

Susie Dent @susiedent.com · Jan 10

Word of the Day is ‘uhtcearu’ [ucht-kay-aru, with the 'ch' as in the Scottish ‘loch']:

Old English for ‘the sorrow before dawn', when you lie awake in the darkness and worries crowd your mind.

Reposted by Diarmid Campbell‐Lendrum, Ed Hawkins, William F. Lamb , and 1 more Diarmid Campbell‐Lendrum, Ed Hawkins, William F. Lamb, Matthias Schmelzer

Prof Friederike Otto @frediotto.bsky.social · Jul 9

About 1500 of the approx. 2300 people that will have lost their lives across 12 European cities last week would still live, if it wasn't for our burning of oil, coal and gas. If we care about the right to life, we need to stop burning fossil fuels. www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/pub...

bar chart showing deaths associate with extreme heat with and without climate change in 12 European cities

Reposted by William F. Lamb

Matthias Schmelzer @matthiasschmelzer.bsky.social · Jun 24

Out today: Freedom for Capital not People: The Mont Pèlerin Society and the Origins of the Neoliberal Monetary Order @versobooks.bsky.social

Reposted by William F. Lamb

PIK_climate @pik-potsdam.bsky.social · Jun 23

Höhepunkt der Emissionen noch nicht erreicht - Tagesschau Online berichtet über Report „Indikatoren des globalen Klimawandels“. Es werde immer schwieriger, die 1,5 Grad noch zu halten, je länger Emissionen nicht reduziert würden, so PIK Forscher @wflamb.bsky.social
www.tagesschau.de/wissen/klima...

Höhepunkt der CO2-Emissionen noch nicht erreicht

Während Delegierte aus aller Welt in Bonn die nächste Klimakonferenz vorbereiten, offenbart ein neuer Bericht die fragile Lage des Weltklimas. Die Forderungen nach einem Umsteuern werden immer lauter....

www.tagesschau.de

William F. Lamb @wflamb.bsky.social · Jun 16

😆oops

William F. Lamb @wflamb.bsky.social · Jun 16

And Thailand

William F. Lamb @wflamb.bsky.social · Jun 16

Some impressively complete data from Nepal in the latest version

William F. Lamb @wflamb.bsky.social · May 20

Having said that, including LULUCF in total emissions only changes the recent trend in a few isolated cases (top left, bottom right).

But we can probably expect to see more European countries enter the "slower reductions" zone as natural disturbances cut into the land sink.

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · Apr 17

Just released: Huge revision in Germany's official estimates of emissions/uptake from the land-use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector, now reflecting the spruce bark beetle outbreaks that started in 2018. 1/2

William F. Lamb @wflamb.bsky.social · May 20

The land use change (LULUCF) sector is pretty confusing, since it can be a source of emissions (deforestation, disturbances) as well as a source of removals (regrowth, management).

Including LULUCF can speed up, slow down, or change the overall dynamic of economy-wide emissions.

A dot plot comparing the change in national GHG emissions over the past 5 years with (x axis) and without (y axis) the LULUCF sector

Reposted by Robert Falkner, Nathalie Pettorelli, Kornelis Blok , and 4 more Robert Falkner, Nathalie Pettorelli, Kornelis Blok, Brett Christophers, Nepal, William F. Lamb, David Leclère

Carbon Brief @carbonbrief.org · May 14

NEW – Analysis: Clean energy just put China’s CO2 emissions into reverse for first time | @laurimyllyvirta.bsky.social

Read here: buff.ly/6eAcjRU

Line chart – China's CO2 emissions are now 1% below their March 2024 peak: China’s emissions from fossil fuels and cement, million tonnes of CO2, rolling 12-month totals. Source: Emissions are estimated from National Bureau of Statistics data on production of different fuels and cement, China Customs data on imports and exports and WIND Information data on changes in inventories, applying emissions factors from China’s latest national greenhouse gas emissions inventory and annual emissions factors per tonne of cement production until 2024. Sector breakdown of coal consumption is estimated using coal consumption data from WIND Information and electricity data from the National Energy Administration.

Reposted by William F. Lamb

Glen Peters @glenpeters.bsky.social · Apr 25

Will Lamb @wflamb.bsky.social has pulled the troops together & submitted an article to explain why different datasets can give different estimates of GHG emissions.

My favourite: differences in accounting for fire emissions.

Article in review, please comment!

essd.copernicus.org/preprints/es...

William F. Lamb @wflamb.bsky.social · Apr 24

Greenhouse gas emissions are still mostly from fossil fuels by the way!!

lambwf.github.io/UNEP-Gap-Rep...

Reposted by William F. Lamb

Chris Smith @cjsmith.be · Apr 24

New preprint: differences in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions explained essd.copernicus.org/preprints/es...

Differences in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions estimates explained

Abstract. We examine differences in global and national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions estimates and highlight the important role of varying system boundaries and conceptual approaches in driving thes...

essd.copernicus.org

Reposted by William F. Lamb

Glen Peters @glenpeters.bsky.social · Apr 22

The EU has released its latest GHG emission inventory, with data up to 2023.

The good news, GHG emissions continue a downward trend, currently 37% below 1990 levels.

The bad news, a significant downward revision of land-use removals (LULUCF).

1/

William F. Lamb @wflamb.bsky.social · Apr 18

I tried

Reposted by Andreas Oschlies, William F. Lamb, Andy Reisinger

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · Apr 17

Reposted by Dominik Wiedenhofer, William F. Lamb

Sharon Lerner @fastlerner.bsky.social · Apr 16

So the US was supposed to report its greenhouse gas emissions to the UNFCCC yesterday.

For the first time since 1997, it didn't.

This follows last week's revelation that Trump's EPA is stopping collection of GHG emission from 40 of 41 sectors

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

Trump’s EPA Plans to Stop Collecting Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data From Most Polluters

Climate experts expressed shock and dismay at the move. “It would be a bit like unplugging the equipment that monitors the vital signs of a patient that is critically ill,” one said.

www.propublica.org

William F. Lamb @wflamb.bsky.social · Apr 16

I find these quite useful for explaining trends, but it seems to me there is a lot going on behind the scenes in counterfactual estimates. I'd like to see more literature on it, in case anyone has some leads...

William F. Lamb @wflamb.bsky.social · Apr 16

And here one on energy demand from @ember-energy.org

ember-energy.org/latest-insig...

William F. Lamb @wflamb.bsky.social · Apr 16

Interesting that people are starting to incorporate these counterfactuals in their emissions reporting. Here's a similar take from the @iea.org

www.iea.org/reports/glob...

William F. Lamb @wflamb.bsky.social · Apr 16

According to Carbon Monitor, emissions could have been 9.8GtCO2 higher in 2024... if renewable energy supply had been met with expected fossil sources instead

www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Global carbon emissions and decarbonization in 2024 - Nature Reviews Earth & Environment

Global CO2 emissions in 2024 increased 0.9% on the previous year, totalling 36.3 Gt CO2. These ongoing emissions further deplete remaining carbon budgets, with some estimates suggesting the 1.5 °C bud...

www.nature.com

William F. Lamb @wflamb.bsky.social · Apr 9

Lots more figures here: lambwf.github.io/Tidy-GHG-Inv...

William F. Lamb @wflamb.bsky.social · Apr 9

I've updated the Tidy GHG Inventories dataset, which is now complete for Annex I countries: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

This also shows the progress to date in countries submitting Biennial Transparency Reports under the Paris Agreement ⬇️

Reposted by William F. Lamb

Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · Apr 8

Prominent climate communicators continue to "joke" that what Trump is doing is "degrowth". It is not, and such claims are actively harmful. A quick🧵

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