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brad plumer @bradplumer
, 8 tweets, 4 min read Read on Twitter
Wow. China accounted for 45% of the world's investment in renewables in 2017 — and built 50 GW of solar last year, as much as the entire world had built up until 2014. fs-unep-centre.org/sites/default/…
All told, the world invested about $278 billion in renewables last year. That nudged the fraction of electricity the world gets from renewables up from 11% to 12.1%
But there's a key caveat: Renewables still weren't growing fast enough to satisfy the (rapid) growth in energy demand worldwide. Fossil fuels provided the rest, which is why CO2 emissions rose in 2017: nytimes.com/2018/03/22/cli…
Also of note: European investment in renewables declined 36% last year. Some of this was just due to falling costs per MW. But the UK also scaled back subsidies for solar and wind: fs-unep-centre.org/sites/default/…
The UNEP report notes that as subsidies get scaled back, renewables are entering an era where "many projects will have to sink or swim without
any government-backed price support." Costs keep coming down, but financing will be an important question:
On that point: Check out the cost reductions for lithium-ion batteries. Pretty impressive...
And here are cost reductions over time for small solar PV systems. Note that small solar is still a fair bit more expensive in the US and Japan than it is in Germany (or China): fs-unep-centre.org/sites/default/…
Anyway, interesting report! And here's @SominiSengupta's great coverage. Exciting times for renewables — but still gotta accelerate faster to drive emissions down: nytimes.com/2018/04/05/cli…
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Okay, why not. One more thread on carbon pricing because I think this below is an important point worth expanding on. Economists and climate advocates often *do* think of carbon taxes very differently. /1
The original economic rationale for a carbon tax was that polluters should be required to pay for and internalize the damage they cause by polluting. So: Let's figure out the economic cost of global warming and tax fossil-fuel users accordingly—ie, the "social cost of carbon." /2
Importantly, this view does *not* require getting emissions down to zero. If people are willing to pay the tax and keep burning fossil fuels, fine! That just means the benefits exceed the costs. We're at an economically optimal level of emissions and warming. /3
Read 12 tweets
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This new Nature paper on solar geoengineering and crop yields is quite interesting, although some of the coverage of it has not been great: nature.com/articles/s4158… /1
The basic argument of the paper is that future global warming is expected to be bad for crop yields worldwide and those harms might be difficult to minimize through solar geoengineering alone. /2
Why? If we put aerosol particles into the atmosphere to reflect more sunlight into space, that could slow the rise in global temperatures — good for crops. But it could also lead to less sunlight hitting Earth — bad for crops. Those two effects, the study says, balance out. /3
Read 9 tweets
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Trying to think through this new California rule to require all new buildings to install rooftop solar. Some links...

1) @BorensteinS isn't a fan, says it's "a very expensive way to expand renewables" compared with utility-scale wind/solar: faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/borenste/cecwe…
2) The CEC evaluation report says the rule would add $8,000 to $17,000 to building costs, while producing benefits twice that. (Though there's no comparisons with the cost/benefit of alternatives to boost clean energy.) docketpublic.energy.ca.gov/PublicDocument…
3) That report might well overstate the costs though — @solarmj points out that installing solar upfront is much cheaper than installing solar retroactively. (Though there's still the question of what the optimal amount of rooftop solar is.)
Read 7 tweets

Related threads

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#China 🇨🇳 #AmericaFirst 🇺🇸 Looking forward to a great deal #MAGAforALL🌹
#Reciprocity is so important. The Wharton School of Business has served you well.
Read 13 tweets
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[Thread] Here’s an example of how misinformation can spread online, and then find its way into the traditional media… /1
On December 10th, UN member states are due to adopt the new Global Compact for Migration - a non-binding agreement which endorses the principle that governments should stop funding media that fuel racism & xenophobia. You can find the full text here: refugeesmigrants.un.org/sites/default/… /2
Objective 17 of the #GlobalCompactforMigration is the key bit that relates to the media. It’s a bit of a mouthful, but here’s what it says: /3
Read 27 tweets
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#RusselLowe has known @SenFeinstein for way more than 20 years, here he is helping register voters in the 1970's as Feinstein's assistant.
IMPORTANT Lowe is the name listed on distribution list of government material for Feinstein, this is a report from Department of Defense housing in 1997.
Source:
books.google.com/books?id=KeA3A…
Read 21 tweets
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hearing—"#China's Worldwide #Military Expansion" is a dramatic bellwether of growing concerns in Washington & beyond.

Now online—hard-hitting arguments + many data points, some deeply-analyzed yet hard to find elsewhere in public domain:
bit.ly/HouseIC
CAPT Jim Fanell, USN Ret, former @USPacificFleet N2:

"today, the PLA Navy consists of over 330 surface ships & 66 submarines, nearly 400 combatants. As of 4 May 2018, the @USNavy consists of 283 battle force ships: 211 surface ships and 72 submarines."
bit.ly/HouseIC
"By 2030, it is estimated [by Fanell & @SCheneyPeters in their chapter in @NavalWarCollege @ChinaMaritime Studies Institute's Chinese Naval Shipbuilding volume amazon.com/Chinese-Naval-… @USNIBooks that] the PLANavy will consist of some 550 ships: 450 surface ships & 99 submarines."
Read 71 tweets
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Was asked today What are the Security Concerns of AI? and thought I'd share my reply in a thread for the crowd:

1) Robot uprising/takeover (blech, but as the most sci fi sexy, it gets the most $ in policy research donors)
2) AI arms race lost: At center of US defense strategy for last 3 generations, is deterrence by being a generation ahead of adversaries. What about if/when China is advancing in AI research just as much as US/commercial side just as adept, which means it will proliferate?
3) AI arms race unintended consequences: Traditionally, early periods of arms races are really unstable, no one know exactly how new tech works, makes bad decisions about it, thinks it gives them a "use it or lose it" advantage etc. Essentially the story of WWI, early Cold War
Read 9 tweets
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1)WHITE RABBIT FOUND:Calling on #Q #QClearance #QAnon followers/chasers
Two words:Dan Burisch
Former s-4 Q clearance. (S-4=a.51) A.51 is airspace R-4808N aka ‘Dreamland Airspace’
That’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Guess who runs S-4? DIA. #followthewhiterabbit
Link to follow
2) I found this video via an account named Robertas Mackevicius. I was originally watching this video:
Have to give this guy some credit. His videos are quite phenomenal.

Here is the video in reference to my first tweet:
3)EG&G TERMINAL:
How do you get to s-4? The EG&G term. (Small airport next to McCarran in LV,NV.) They play a certain song on the way to s-4 for you. Know what it is?
👇👇


Your OK to land code is ‘Pyramid Pyramid Pyramid’
Read 10 tweets

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