America’s biggest rail companies—which move the majority of the country’s coal—have spent millions to deny climate science and block climate policy. Rob Jackson comments on emissions embedded in coal.

Although natural gas burns more cleanly than coal, it’s still one of the biggest sources of climate pollution. Globally, planet-warming carbon emissions from natural gas are rising more quickly than emissions from coal are falling, according to research led by Rob Jackson.

“When the good news is that emissions growth is slower than last year, we need help,” Rob Jackson says.
 

“Cows are pretty disgusting eaters, with methane coming from both ends,” says Chris Field about a claim made by Jack Black about the merits of veganism. “But most of it comes from burping.”

“Humans are really good at dealing with a variety of different conditions,” Noah Diffenbaugh said. “What climate change is doing is changing which conditions occur where.”

"Unless natural gas is replacing coal, it isn't a bridge fuel. Unless it is coupled with carbon capture and sequestration, it isn't a bridge fuel," says Rob Jackson.

"I don’t know of any other oil company that has pledged to be carbon-neutral, including the burning of their products,” says Rob Jackson about Spanish oil giant Repsol SA announcing their ambitious reduction efforts. “That is quite remarkable.”

"It's hard to view slower growth as good news. But nonetheless, compared to last year and 2017 the growth rate was down substantially. What we need is for emissions to decline, not to rise slowly," says Rob Jackson.

"The two places where renewables and natural gas are both displacing coal are here in the United States and in Europe," Rob Jackson says. But elsewhere around the world, "most of the new gas being burned isn't replacing coal – it's providing new energy for people."

“Even without knowing what the current level of greenhouse gas concentrations would be, the climate models predicted the evolution of global temperature quite well,” says Noah Diffenbaugh. “We have one planet Earth, so we can’t conduct controlled experiments on the actual climate system."

"We have to reduce emissions while providing at least a billion people on Earth with more energy,”  Rob Jackson said.
 

"Globally, most of the new natural gas being used isn't displacing coal, it's providing new energy. That's the key interaction, and that's true for renewables even," said Rob Jackson. "We need renewables that displace fossil fuels, not supplement them."

“Emissions grew more slowly than last year but we still set a global record. It’s hard to be upbeat about that,” said Rob Jackson. “The U.S. National Academy of Sciences sounded the alarm on carbon and climate 40 years ago. Since then, global carbon dioxide emissions have doubled, and the world is hurtling towards catastrophic climate change.”

“Obviously it’s a bad thing,” that this is the third year in a row that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels have increased. “It’s just one more year where we churn along emitting record levels of carbon-dioxide pollution. The years and decades are slipping by,” Rob Jackson said.

“We’re blowing through our carbon budget the way an addict blows through cash,” Rob Jackson said. “It’s troubling, because carbon dioxide pollution is higher than it’s ever been.”

“We have a clear understanding, based on the fundamental physics of Planet Earth, that stabilizing the global climate system at any global mean temperature – including the UN Paris target – will require reaching net zero global emissions,” said Noah Diffenbaugh.