The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: Trump Causes Europe to Divert Climate Funds to War Chests
Dear Diary. We all know by now the damage that Trump is doing to our climate because he has rolled back Biden’s environmental initiatives and once again pulled us out of the Paris Accords. There is a third insidious thing that Trump is doing that has a lot to do with war itself.
The process of supporting and waging a war and/or preparing for war can spew gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere from jets, guns, and diesel fueled tanks and trunks, not to mention the carbon footprint of producing these items and training soldiers. War or the threat of war makes nations divert resources away from other needs such as dealing with the climate crisis. Trump has caused Europe to divert funds away from any much-needed climate initiatives because of his stance on Ukraine. Without U.S. NATO support the European Union and Great Britain will need to get war funds from somewhere that would be from prior committed allocated items.
Oh…And the longer the Ukraine/Russian War goes on the more that conflagration dumps carbon into the atmosphere.
Here is more from Bloomberg:
Europe diverts climate funds for war chest
| By Gautam Naik Europe’s race to build a war economy has led the bloc to pull spending desperately needed for another crisis: the climate. The redirection of billions of euros away from development finance meant to fight the fallout of floods, droughts and cyclones in poorer countries has the potential to fuel European inflation, drive up immigration and weaken the bloc’s standing abroad.“ We are mutually dependent on these countries,” said Gareth Redmond-King, head of international program at Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a nonprofit. In the UK, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced plans to cut aid spending by £6 billion ($7.6 billion) to make room for increased military spending. Germany intends to scale back development finance by almost $1 billion, while the Netherlands has unveiled €2.4 billion ($2.5 billion) of cuts. Across Europe, governments including Finland, Sweden and Switzerland are releasing similar plans. |
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president, left, and Keir Starmer, UK prime minister, ahead of a summit in London on March 2. Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
Redmond-King said the pullback has implications for a whole range of soft commodities in countries that export to Europe. Fewer protections against climate disasters will likely result in higher prices on everything from coffee to cocoa and bananas, he said. He also warns that spending cuts here and now mean future climate costs may rise.
The UK imports two-fifths of its food from abroad, half of which comes from areas where crops face an increase in heat waves, floods and other impacts of climate change, according to the ECIU.
David Miliband, a former Labour foreign secretary who’s now chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, said the UK’s decision to withdraw development finance marks “a blow to Britain’s proud reputation as a global humanitarian and development leader.” Meanwhile, Anneliese Dodds, the UK’s minister for international development, has resigned in protest.
Ironically, the retreat by western governments from development finance risks ceding soft power in strategically important geographies to nations that Europe considers hostile, according to Redmond-King.
“The world has changed a lot in the last month and there’s no question we have to raise defense spending,” he said. But by cutting climate aid to developing nations “we risk withdrawing something that stabilizes those countries and opens up an opportunity for others – like Russia – to step in.”
Europe’s retreat from development finance adds to the blow delivered by the policies of US President Donald Trump, which froze foreign aid and began dismantling the US Agency for International Development. The agency managed $43 billion of foreign aid in 2023.
The hollowing out of development budgets comes just three months after the COP29 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, where rich countries finalized a hard-won agreement to provide $300 billion of annual climate aid to poorer nations.
That pledge is now in jeopardy.
“It will be much more difficult to live up to the commitments signed up to at Baku,” said Redmond-King.
Meanwhile, investors are turning their backs on stocks whose value is tied to climate spending. The S&P Global Clean Energy Index has lost about 40% of its value since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The S&P Global 1200 Aerospace & Defense Index climbed 64% in the same period.
Read and share this story on Bloomberg.com.
Here are more “ETs” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
Here is more new February 2025 and Winter 2024/25 climatology (summer for Southern Hemisphere):
Here is More Climate News from Wednesday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)