NOAA: Arctic Summer Surface Air Warmest on Record

December 15, 2023 by

A report out this week from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows the Arctic summer surface air temperatures were the warmest on record, with some areas, including northern Alaska and Canada, 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit or more above the 1991-2020 average.

The summer Arctic average temperature was a record 43 degrees Fahrenheit, which NOAA’s 2023 Arctic Report Card asserts is evidence of accelerating climate change.

The 18th annual report card is the work of 82 authors from 13 nations. It shows that sea ice extent – the area of ice that covers the Arctic Ocean at a given time – continues to decline. September extents from 2007 to 2023 were each the lowest on record.

Mean sea surface temperatures in August show continued warming trends from the period between 1982 and 2023 in almost all Arctic Ocean regions that are free of ice during the summer month, while mean sea surface temperature over regions between 65° N and 80° N is increasing at a rate of nearly 0.9°F per decade, according to the report card.

“The overriding message from this year’s report card is that the time for action is now,” NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad said in a briefing on the report card. “NOAA and our federal partners have ramped up our support and collaboration with state, tribal and local communities to help build climate resilience. At the same time, we as a nation and global community must dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are driving these changes.”

Washington Climate

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee wants Washington Legislators to spend roughly $1 billion next year to mitigate climate change.

The plan would be carried out through clean energy, environmental justice and transportation projects, with the $941-million proposal funded by a state program that charges mass polluters for greenhouse gas emissions, the Spokesman-Review is reporting.

This adds to the $2.1 billion in climate investments that Legislators allocated last year. The biggest portion of this year’s allocation would go toward projects that include distributing energy vouchers for low- and moderate-income residents, improving school air ventilation systems and cleaning up the air in low-income communities.

“Climate change is not a fair thing,” Inslee said. “It punishes the poor more than the rich. It punishes the kids who live next to a freeway, having to breathe diesel smoke their whole lives.”

Roughly $170 million of the proposed plan would fund green jobs and infrastructure, including investments in clean manufacturing and workforce development, $140 million would go toward climate resilience and adaptation programs and $52 million would go to fund clean transportation, including the installation of electric vehicle charging stations, according to the article.

Infrastructure Investors

Infrastructure investors stand to lose roughly $600 billion if countries don’t prepare for an orderly shift to a greener economy by mid-century, according to a study covered by Reuters in an article on Insurance Journal.

The study researchers described the worst-case scenario in terms of governments moving late, or unexpectedly, to impose taxes on carbon emissions. “Those abrupt moves would drive an inflation-fueling price shock that would see interest rates rise, impacting the net-asset value of the investments,” the Reuters article states.

The report comes as representatives from nearly 200 countries agreed at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, which wrapped up on Wednesday, to begin reducing global consumption of fossil fuels.

Research from the EDHEC Infrastructure & Private Asset Research Institute infrastructure portfolios could lose as much as half of their value. “There’s more risk than people think,” report co-author Frederic Blanc-Brude told Reuters. “They are going to become material sooner, and more than is expected, and people need to wake up.”

In an orderly transition, with gradual changes to the system to rein in emissions, the costs would be absorbed as part of normal business operations, according to the Reuters article.

Designers, Builders and Climate

Mitigating loss from climate change will require designers, builders and the legal profession to collaborate on risk management strategies, a panel at the recent Buildings Show in Toronto agreed.

That collaboration can come in the form of Integrated Project Delivery, a different approach to projects, panel moderator Andrea Lee, partner at in Glaholt Bowles LLP, stated.

The show’s panel was covered by Daily Commercial News reporter Don Procter.

Lee said the form for IPDs have been relatively litigation free. Andrew Wallace, general counsel with PCL Constructors Inc., reported seeing more progressive design builds a that provide a front-end agreement that engage all parties in a project.

Fellow panelist Marc Couture, director of sustainability and energy management with the University of Toronto, said green development doesn’t necessarily mean adding costs to a project. Some of the university’s energy retrofits are proof that a developer can get preferential borrowing rates on projects while shifting risk more than typical for a capital project.

“We have done $100 million-plus decarbonization-focused projects that are getting double digit guaranteed rates of return where we transferred a lot of the risk to our implementation partners.”

Past columns:

Climate Change Can Cause U.S. Households ‘Significant Financial Strain’

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