Sustainable Switch: South America surpasses record for fires
By Sharon Kimathi
Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital
sharon.kimathi@thomsonreuters.com
Hello,
This week’s Climate Focus highlights extreme weather events around the world from wildfires in Canada, Brazil and Bolivia to heavy rainfall in Vietnam, Myanmar, Nigeria and the United States.
Fires are spreading across South America - everywhere from Brazil's Amazon rainforest to the world's largest wetlands to dry forests in Bolivia - breaking a previous record for the number of blazes seen in a year up to Sept. 11.
Satellite data analyzed by Brazil's space research agency Inpe has registered 346,112 fire hotspots so far this year in all of the continent’s 13 countries, topping the 345,322 hotspots recorded in 2007 in a data series that goes back to 1998.
Smoke billowing from the Brazilian fires has darkened the skies above Sao Paulo and other cities, feeding into a corridor of wildfire smoke seen from space stretching diagonally across the continent from Colombia in the northwest to Uruguay in the southeast.
Click here to see the image of smoke covering the region from NASA’s space observatory.
Over in Bolivia, the lowland region of Santa Cruz is facing some of its worst wildfires on record.
While the fires have been raging for weeks, in recent days the smoke over cities like Santa Cruz and Cochabamba has worsened, with images showing city monuments shrouded by the smog. The air pollution reading was among the worst in the world this week.
In Canada, the 2024 wildfire season is shaping up as one of the most destructive on record, largely due to the devastation caused by a blaze that ripped through a tourist town in the Canadian Rockies.
Based on total area scorched, the Canadian wildfire season ranks among the worst six over the last half century.
And in Los Angeles, wildfires swept through communities in the San Gabriel Mountains where people priced out of the city have built homes, showing how the effect of a warming climate often hurts the most vulnerable people.
Europe's climate change monitoring service said last week the world has had its warmest northern hemisphere summer since records began and extreme weather will become more intense if countries do not cut planet-heating emissions.
Scroll down for a report on how banks and fossil fuel companies are 'greenlaundering' trillions of dollars to hide how much money they're truly putting into fossil fuels via opaque tax havens, according to a study by the Tax Justice Network.
* Climate Buzz
- Death toll in Vietnam from typhoon impacts rises to 226, as floods ease in Hanoi
The death toll in Vietnam from Typhoon Yagi and the landslides and flash floods it triggered rose to 226, the government's disaster agency said, as flood pressure eased in the capital Hanoi. More than 100 people remain missing, while some 800 people have been injured, the agency said in a report.
- Trillions of dollars of fossil fuel finance routed via tax havens, study says
Trillions of dollars of bank finance to fossil fuel companies is being routed via opaque financial centers in several countries, including the Netherlands, according to research by the Tax Justice Network, a campaign against tax havens.
The study examined 60 global banks' $6.9 trillion of syndicated financing of fossil fuel companies, such as coal miners or shipping firms between 2016 to 2023, including loans, credit lines and bonds. Click here for the full Reuters story.
- Floods in Myanmar leave 19 dead, displace thousands
At least 19 people were killed in Myanmar after heavy rains triggered floods in and around the war-torn country's capital city, with rescuers moving some of the 3,600 people displaced to safer areas on boats, according to the national fire service.
- Francine races across US South, slamming region with rain and wind
Storm Francine barreled across the U.S. South, pounding the region with heavy rains and gusty winds while causing widespread power outages for hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses.
- Floods devastate Nigerian zoo, wash crocodiles into communities
Floods in north Nigeria have killed more than 80% of animals in a large zoo with an array of wildlife from lions and crocodiles to buffaloes and ostriches, the facility said. Floods began when a dam overflowed following heavy rains, uprooting thousands of people.
* What to Watch
Pyri, a nature-inspired device crafted from bio-based materials, can send out a radio signal alert to warn of the danger of wildfires when exposed to it. Click here to learn more.
* Climate Commentary
- If you want to forecast the future of an industry, start with the market leader. For ESG data that's MSCI, writes Reuters Sustainable Business CorrespondentRoss Kerber.
- California and Texas are leading the national charge on grid-scale power sector battery systems, writes Reuters global energy transition columnistGavin Maguire
- Click here to find out how businesses can address human rights issues in their plastics supply chains, in a comment by Raffi Schieir, founder of the Prevented Ocean Plastic programme for Ethical Corp Magazine.
* Climate Lens
Nonprofit environment watch dogs put their stamps of approval on countless wood products that get touted as responsibly produced. But Reuters found that the timber firms these groups certify are harvesting large swaths of Canada’s older forests, which are critical to containing global warming. Click here for the full Reuters special report.
* Number of the Week
71%
There is a 71% chance of La Nina weather conditions developing during the September to November period, a U.S. National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center said. The weather conditions are expected to persist through the January-March period next year, it said in its monthly forecast.
Canada clear-cuts Canada clear-cuts https://reut.rs/3X5Fi5s
Editing by Andrew Heavens
Latest News
Disclaimer: The XM Group entities provide execution-only service and access to our Online Trading Facility, permitting a person to view and/or use the content available on or via the website, is not intended to change or expand on this, nor does it change or expand on this. Such access and use are always subject to: (i) Terms and Conditions; (ii) Risk Warnings; and (iii) Full Disclaimer. Such content is therefore provided as no more than general information. Particularly, please be aware that the contents of our Online Trading Facility are neither a solicitation, nor an offer to enter any transactions on the financial markets. Trading on any financial market involves a significant level of risk to your capital.
All material published on our Online Trading Facility is intended for educational/informational purposes only, and does not contain – nor should it be considered as containing – financial, investment tax or trading advice and recommendations; or a record of our trading prices; or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instruments; or unsolicited financial promotions to you.
Any third-party content, as well as content prepared by XM, such as: opinions, news, research, analyses, prices and other information or links to third-party sites contained on this website are provided on an “as-is” basis, as general market commentary, and do not constitute investment advice. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, it would be considered as marketing communication under the relevant laws and regulations. Please ensure that you have read and understood our Notification on Non-Independent Investment. Research and Risk Warning concerning the foregoing information, which can be accessed here.
