Energy Briefs: Sea level rise accelerating

Editor’s Note Energy Briefs is a weekly recollection of local, regional and national news regarding some of the most intriguing updates regarding energy, water, and the environment.

On Monday the Washington Post reported that according to the findings of a new scientific analysis the Earth’s oceans are rising almost three times fasters than what they did for most of the 20th century.

The study was done by a collaboration of scientists from educational institutions in Germany, Spain, France Norway and the Netherlands.

The study found that before 1990, the oceans averaged a rise of 1.1 millimeters per year or 0.43 inches per decade and from the time period from 1993 to 2012 it found the rate of sea level rise sped up almost three-fold to 3.1 millimeters per year or 1.22 inches per decade.

“We have a much stronger acceleration in sea level rise than formerly thought,” said Sönke Dangendorf, a researcher with the University of Siegen in Germany who led the study, told the Washington Post.

According to Dangendorf, the sea level rise in the previous decade was driven by the melting of land-based glaciers, but now in the 21st century melting from Antarctica and Greenland are a major contributor to the rising speed observed in sea level rise.

Paris deal

Since the beginning of his administration, President Donald Trump has pondered on whether to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement signed at the end of 2015 in which most nations of the world pledged to ramp up efforts to prevent global temperature increase by more than two degrees Celsius worldwide.

He is expected to face pressure from European Leaders next week at the G-7 summit in Italy, but now oil industry leaders are also urging Trump not to drop out of the Paris Climate Agreement.

“We believe climate change is real,” CEO of Shell Ben van Beurden told NPR. “We believe that the world needs to go through an energy transition to prevent a very significant rise in global temperatures. And we need to be part of that solution in making it happen.”

Although opponents of the deal are against governments setting limits on oil and gas exploration, van Beurden said industry wants to see governments around the globe to develop consistent policy.

Other major companies such as Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and BP have also pledged their support for the Paris climate deal.

“At ExxonMobil, we’re encouraged that the pledges made at last year’s Paris Accord created an effective framework for all countries to address rising emissions; in fact, our company forecasts carbon reductions consistent with the results of the Paris accord commitments,” Exxon CEO Darren Woods wrote in a blog post.

DOE

One of the main goals of the aforementioned Paris deal is to encourage the move from fossil fuels toward renewable energy sources.

Despite outside pressure, the Trump administration has every intention to go after those renewable sources that are seen as a threat to the fossil fuel industry.

News outlets such as Axios and The Hill report that the administration wants to propose a 70 percent cut to the Energy Department’s renewable and energy efficiency program which goals include to accelerate the development and adoption of sustainable transportation technologies and increase the use of renewable energy sources.