Dr Harald Grabher

NEW: Biofuels globally emit more than the fossil fuels they replace, our latest study shows.

The first-of-a-kind study looks at global biofuels production today and the potential impacts of government biofuel targets.
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China's clean energy technology exports continued strong growth in August, increasing 33% in dollar value year-on-year, with EVs +58%, solar +18%, wind +15% and batteries +23%. Exports grew to all regions except North America, evidencing strong demand.

James Hansen photo by Don J Usner

This is the #1 climatologist in the world: James Hansen.

He’s spent 50 years studying what humans are doing to the climate.

He's gone out on a limb time and time again - and been proven right.

His message? It’s far worse than they’re telling you. 🧵

El Gobierno reparte culpas entre Red Eléctrica y las empresas por el gran apagón El Ejecutivo descarta el ciberataque y apunta a la mala planificación del operador del sistema y la actuación “indebida” de las eléctricas. El informe ve la luz 49 días después del primer cero energét...

Spanish government report on the causes of the unprecedented blackout of the Iberian peninsula points to failure of thermal power plants to respond as required, and a possible planning failure by the grid operator, as the causes.

elpais.com/economia/202...

Exclusive: US, Russia explore ways to restore Russian gas flows to Europe, sources say With a frost covering Europe's energy relations with Russia, officials from Washington and Moscow have held discussions about the U.S. helping to revive Russian gas sales to the continent, eight sources familiar with the talks have told Reuters.

This story requires a great deal more attention. The Trump administration is doing everything it can to get Russian gas back into Europe. This is Washington and Moscow now in full strategic alignment via a shared vision of a fossil fuel future.

Solar has taken off in red states. Trump’s funding freeze is causing panic On his first day in office, the president paused billions of dollars in funding for clean energy projects initiated by Biden

#Solar has taken off in US red states. #Trump’s funding freeze is causing panic.

#climate
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Vienna Embraces Heat Pumps to Ditch Russian Gas The Austrian capital has a $21 billion plan to end its dependence on imported natural gas with heat pumps, boreholes and energy efficiency.

“It’s a moonshot.”

Vienna has a $21 billion plan to end its dependence on imported fossil gas with heat pumps, boreholes and energy efficiency.

www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

The World This Weekend - Sir John Major: "We are moving into a more dangerous world" - BBC Sounds The former PM tells this programme that 'democracy is threatened' by recent world events.

Listen to this interview with John Major. Starts at ~12:25.

Just out: Solar power additions in China in 2024 exceeded expectations, again, with a whopping 277 GW installed in just one year! This was up 28% on the already towering 217 GW added in 2023.

Wind power made a new record as well, with 79 GW added to the grid, up 5% on year.

Nach BDEW-Zahlen war der Strompreis für die nicht-energieintensive Industrie 2024 inflationsbereinigt *niedriger* als zu irgendeinem Zeitpunkt seit 2015.

Wenn es der deutschen Industrie schlecht geht, dann wohl nicht wegen hoher Strompreise.

Bring it on... I am game!

China’s manufacturing pushed emissions sky high. What’s next? The manufacturing drive risks counteracting the emissions gains of China’s clean-energy drive

This is my attempt to engage with and explain the data:
dialogue.earth/en/climate/c...

How is China's EV boom affecting gasoline demand and electricity demand? It has been hard to find precise data on this so here's a thread working out some numbers.

Last week we had a chat with Empowered Futures alumni, Dr. Harald Grabher (@soecoharry.bsky.social), who recently defended his PhD in Social Ecology at BOKU, Vienna, about his research on the multifaceted benefits of biomass combustion in rural Ethiopian households and his journey with EF. 🌍🔥

Global plastics pact "hangs in balance" as petrostates block talks Major fossil fuel-producing countries are blamed at negotiations in Busan for opposing curbs on plastic manufacturing, a key market for oil and gas

Just days after scoring a win at COP29, Saudi Arabia, along with Russia and Iran, is at it again trying to weaken the global plastics treaty.

www.climatechangenews.com/2024/11/27/g...

'Global emergence of regional heatwave hotspots outpaces climate model simulations'

our new paper in @pnas.org with S. Bartusek, R. Seager. J. Schellnhuber and M. Ting investigating the tail behaviour of extreme heatwave trends.

@iiasa.ac.at @columbiaclimate.bsky.social @lamontearth.bsky.social

Homeownership and tenure (in)security in fractured urban peripheries: Ethiopia’s mass housing programme Ethiopia’s Integrated Housing Development Programme (IHDP) is among the most ambitious housing programmes in Africa, producing over 300,000 relatively low-cost condominiums. This article considers ...

New article! Zhengli Huang, Meseret Desta and I argue that the drive to generate property ownership in urban Ethiopia has actually undermined homeownership:

'Homeownership and tenure (in)security in fractured urban peripheries: Ethiopia’s mass housing programme'

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Highly recommended insights on the progress of China's energy transitions, as always with an amazing depth and expertise! Not to be missed...

Even if CO₂ emissions decreased as much as it did during COVID every year until 2030, we would still miss the 1.5°C target (emissions of 20 GtCO₂/yr by 2023) by a lot.

Elon Musk publicized the names of government employees he wants to cut. It’s terrifying federal workers | CNN Business When President-elect Donald Trump said Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would recommend major cuts to the federal government in his administration, many public employees knew that their jobs could be on ...

Musk is one of the worst bullies on the planet. He disproportionately targets women and people of colour. He is beyond nasty.

edition.cnn.com/2024/11/27/b...

People are often surprised when I tell them this: both Twitter and Facebook/insta/threads are now specifically engineered to downgrade, hide, suppress real journalism. If this platform is different, that's a huge change

Perfect, thanks! Could you pls add me?

An ERA5 animation showing the unprecedented November 2024 Typhoon outbreak in the Western Pacific Ocean.

Just incredible.

Weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation driven by subarctic freshening since the mid-twentieth century - Nature Geoscience Fresh meltwater entering the Labrador and Irminger seas has resulted in a slowing of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation since the 1950s, according to a combination of modelling approaches...

Important new study shows that current climate models underestimate the human-caused slowing of the #AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation), because they neglect freshwater influx from Greenland melt and other sources. /1 🌊
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Yep, feel i belong. Pls add.

State of the climate: 2024 will be first year above 1.5C of global warming - Carbon Brief This year is now virtually certain to beat 2023 as the hottest year on record, Carbon Brief analysis shows.

State of the climate: 2024 will be first year above 1.5C of global warming - Carbon Brief

Trump has pledged to wage war on planet Earth – and it will take a progressive revolution to stop him | George Monbiot Voters have never been swayed by ‘rational debate’. Only a genuine change in the way we do politics can prevent the march of the right, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

In this article, I argue that what we're seeing is a reversion to the default state of politics in centralised, hierarchical societies. This is the way they were run for centuries. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Graphic shows dramatic reduction in polio, rubella, mumps, measles, and hepatitis A cases after the introduction of vaccines for each disease.

Disease prevalence in US states before & after vaccine introduction

Graphic from Edward Tufte
More graphics.wsj.com/infectious-d... 🧪

Twitter is dead. Long live BlueSky. The exodus is real.

Great piece here from @iandunt.bsky.social. I very much relate to all of it.
open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/...

Dave, this may hurt. But it's time to let go...