The Year’s Big Climate Summit Is Here. No, Not That One.

Current conditions: One of South Africa’s busiest highways has reopened after an unusual heavy snowfall • The streets of Cannes turned to rivers as heavy rains swept through southeast France • It will be about 70 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy in New York City for most of Climate Week.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Thousands descend on NYC for Climate Week

Climate Week kicked off in New York City yesterday. The event, which corresponds with the 79th United Nations General Assembly, is expected to draw some 100,000 people – including entrepreneurs, financiers, CEOs, diplomats, scientists, and creatives – to discuss climate solutions. More than 900 events are planned all over the city. Climate Week has become “the unofficial climate summit of the year,” as Bloomberg put it, not just because of its size, but also because of the low expectations going into November’s U.N. COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan (expected to draw just 40,000 people). Climate Week organizers told The Wall Street Journal they’d seen more than 1,350 people apply to speak this year, up from 650 last year. Here’s this year’s official agenda. The event runs through September 29.

2. Warm waters could supercharge evolving storm in Caribbean

Forecasters are warning people in Florida’s Panhandle and along the eastern Gulf coast to prepare for a hurricane as a storm churns through the unusually warm Caribbean waters. It is expected to strengthen into Tropical Storm Helene today or tomorrow, and then become a hurricane Wednesday before making landfall Thursday. “Helene could become a formidably strong hurricane in the Gulf,” according to The Weather Channel. “That’s because heat content is one favorable ingredient for intensification, and the map below shows there is plenty of deep, warm water in the northwest Caribbean and parts of the Gulf of Mexico.”

Weather.com

3. House backs bill to block EPA tailpipe rules

The Republican-led House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill that aims to block new emissions standards for light-duty and medium vehicles that were put in place by the Environmental Protection Agency in March. The vote was 215 to 191, with eight Democrats joining 207 Republicans in support. But the bill is very unlikely to get past the Senate, and will face a veto if it somehow makes it to President Biden’s desk. The EPA estimates that the rules could see EVs make up anywhere between 30% and 56% of new light-duty sales from model years 2030 to 2032, and avoid more than 7 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions and provide nearly $100 billion of annual net benefits to society by improving public health, and reducing fuel and maintenance costs for drivers.

4. New report spotlights where net zero targets are falling short

More than 40% of “non-state entities” – that is, major companies, regions, and cities – do not have targets in place for curbing greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report from Net Zero Tracker. The group’s annual stocktake examines net zero targets “across all countries, states, regions in the largest 25-emitting countries in the world, all cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants, and the largest 2,000 publicly listed companies in the world.” It found that, while more net zero targets are being made, many of these fall short on integrity measures, like providing clarity on the use of offsets, covering all emissions scopes, annual progress reporting, and having a published implementation plan. Among the major companies that do not yet have a mitigation target are Tesla, Nintendo, and Berkshire Hathaway.

Net Zero Tracker

5. California firefighter suspected of igniting 5 fires

Police arrested a California firefighter on Friday suspected of igniting five brush fires while off duty over the last month or so. Robert Matthew Hernandez, a 38-year-old CAL FIRE fire apparatus engineer, is under investigation in connection with the Alexander Fire, the Windsor River Road Fire, the Geysers Fire, and the Geyser and Kinley fires. Luckily the blazes combined only burned through less than an acre, CAL FIRE said. But the strange development comes as the state’s firefighters have been battling fires that have charred almost a million acres, fueled by high temperatures and dry vegetation. “I am appalled to learn one of our employees would violate the public’s trust and attempt to tarnish the tireless work of the 12,000 women and men of CAL FIRE,” Joe Tyler, the agency’s director and fire chief, said in a statement. Some of this year’s biggest fires in the state have been linked to arson.

THE KICKER

There were just 1,228 mentions of “climate change” in the nearly 200,000 hours of unscripted TV that aired in the U.S. in the six months between September 2022 and February 2023. Fifty-eight of those mentions were on “paranormal/mystery” programs.