Cookies help us run our site more efficiently.

By clicking “Accept”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. View our Privacy Policy for more information or to customize your cookie preferences.

Vomiting, cramps and lethargy: As heat rises, California kids are sweltering in schools with no air conditioning 

News Feed
Tuesday, October 1, 2024

In summary An estimated 1 in 5 schools has no air conditioning and another 10% need repair. Underfunded schools struggle to keep classrooms cool as heat waves intensify. “It’s a hot mess,” one teacher says. In her fifth grade class in a Los Angeles school, on a day when outdoor temperatures reached 116 degrees, the heat gave Lilian Chin a headache. The air conditioner in her classroom was broken. Her fingers felt numb and she vomited in class, according to her mother. The nurse wasn’t available, so she was sent back to her hot classroom.  By the time the school day was over and Lilian made it to her mother’s air conditioned car, she was exhausted and red-faced. At home, she vomited again and got a leg cramp. Veronica Chin rushed her 11-year-old daughter to an emergency room, where she was diagnosed with heat exhaustion — a serious condition that leads to a life-threatening heat stroke if not treated promptly.  When Chin called the school, Haskell Elementary STEAM Magnet, to complain about the broken air conditioning, she received an email that a repair ticket had been created. The San Fernando Valley school, in the Los Angeles Unified School District, had marked the repair a “low priority.”  (School officials did not respond to CalMatters’ questions when a reporter called and visited the campus.)  Chin was furious. “I’m trusting them with my children,” she said. “I’m thinking that my children are in a safe space, when they’re not.”   As climate change intensifies heat waves, California schools are unprepared to protect their students from extreme heat. Some schools don’t have air conditioning at all, because they were built before hotter climates made it a necessity. Others have old systems pushed to their limits, with school districts struggling to keep up with repairs or replacements with limited staff and funding.  For instance, in Long Beach — which reached a record high of 109 degrees last month — all or most buildings in 13 public schools with about 14,000 students have no air conditioning systems. In Oakland, as many as 2,000 classrooms don’t have them. And in Fresno, officials have been overwhelmed with more than 5,000 calls for air conditioning repairs in the past 12 months. Between 15 and 20% of California’s kindergarten through 12th grade public schools “have no functioning heating and air conditioning systems at all, and as many as another 10% of schools need major repair or replacement for their systems to function adequately,” UC Berkeley and Stanford University researchers wrote in a report last year.  Some advocates say that is likely an underestimate.   Between 15 and 20% of California’s kindergarten through 12th grade public schools “have no functioning heating and air conditioning systems at all.”Uc Berkeley and Stanford uNiversitry report School officials say they would need tens of billions of dollars to install and repair air conditioning. Many of the worst problems are in hot, inland school districts that serve low-income communities of color, where there are fewer financial resources to replace or repair them. “If it’s too hot, just like if you’re too hungry, it’s almost impossible to learn, so the impact on students and teachers is great,” said Paul Idsvoog, the Fresno Unified School District’s chief operations officer. “If you have multiple systems that are 20 years old, sooner or later you’re not going to be able to keep up with the tide.” Voters in November will be asked to approve a $10 billion school infrastructure bond to fund repairs and upgrades of buildings at K-12 schools and community colleges, including air conditioning systems. Gov. Gavin Newsom last month vetoed a bill that would have created a master plan for climate-resilient schools, including an assessment of when air conditioning systems were last modernized. State officials currently do not collect data on air conditioning in schools. A portable air conditioning unit is used in the library of the Melrose Leadership Academy in Oakland on a hot day in late September. Photo by Laure Andrillon for CalMatters Nationally 41% of school districts need to update or replace their heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems in at least half of their schools, according to a federal study.  In California, the problems are common statewide, jeopardizing children and teachers in inland as well as coastal communities. “It’s just a hot mess,” said Aaron Kahlenberg, a teacher at Los Angeles Unified’s John F. Kennedy High School in Granada Hills. “When it was cool out, it worked, and when it got hot, it didn’t work. It got to be very frustrating.”  Absences rise and learning drops on hot days Hot classrooms lead to more student and teacher illnesses and absences, and studies show that they reduce children’s ability to learn. On a recent day in Oakland when outdoor temperatures reached 88 degrees, 8th-grader Juliette Sanchez felt sticky and hot in a stuffy room at Melrose Leadership Academy.  “For me it’s a lot harder to focus on what I’m doing,” Sanchez said. “Like, right now I’m sticking to the table. It’s uncomfortable to write. My arm is sticky and I’m just hot.” Juliette Sanchez, 13, an eighth grader, said the heat is sometimes unbearable at the Melrose Leadership Academy in Oakland. She is a member of an environmental club that advocated for more efficient heat and air conditioning systems at her school. Photo by Laure Andrillon for CalMatters Student performance on exams declines by up to 14% on hot days, according to a 2018 Harvard study in New York City. According to another study, an increase in the average temperature of 1 degree leads to 1% less learning, measured by changes in test scores.  For Black and brown students, the learning losses are even greater, said V. Kelly Turner, a heat expert at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs who has researched hot schools.  “They’re already perhaps in schools that don’t have enough teachers or enough supplies, and then put on top of that, they’re going to hot homes,” she said. “Maybe they don’t have any rights to install air conditioning systems. Maybe they live in mobile homes and have even fewer rights.”  “For me it’s a lot harder to focus on what I’m doing. Like right now, I’m sticking to the table. It’s uncomfortable to write. My arm is sticky and I’m just hot.” Juliette Sanchez, 8th grader at an Oakland school A state program, called CalSHAPE, helps public schools improve air conditioning and water systems. Between 2021 and 2023, more than 3,800 schools were awarded $421 million to assess their systems, with 11 undertaking major repairs or replacements.  However, in August, state legislators considered eliminating the program as part of a plan to give utility ratepayers small rebates. Although the bill failed, the program has been closed to new applications since July. More than a dozen school districts have urged the state Energy Commission to reopen applications.  The attempt to gut the program worries school and environmental advocates, who say the state is failing to prioritize schools as climate change raises temperatures. “For many schools, cooling is no longer just a nicety, but a necessity,” Jonathan Klein, head of UndauntedK12, an organization that supports schools transitioning to zero emissions to reduce greenhouse gasses, said in a statement. “Students and staff deserve safe, healthy, resilient school campuses that support teaching and learning amidst extreme weather.”  Fixing air conditioners: $9 billion in LA schools alone Most students return to school in mid-August or early September, when much of the state suffers its most intense heat waves. Some also operate year-round. In the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, classroom temperatures reached into the mid 90s during an early September heat wave. Teachers at several schools there told CalMatters that their requests for air conditioning repairs went unanswered or were slow to come. Portable units installed in classrooms were insufficient to keep temperatures comfortable enough for students to learn. Students were visibly lethargic from the heat. Some parents opted to keep their children home. Kahlenberg, who teaches high school architecture, said he had asked for the air conditioning in his classroom to be repaired for weeks. By the time a heat wave hit in early September, it still wasn’t fixed. His classroom temperature reached 95 degrees. “Everybody was tired,” Kahlenberg said. “I told them if they needed to take a break, that if they didn’t want to work, it was totally acceptable. I would just extend the project. But it just shouldn’t have to be like that.”  Kahlenberg said teachers told him about 20 other classrooms at his school also didn’t have working air conditioning during that heat wave.  First: A class is taught with closed blinds to keep the room cool at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland. Last: A classroom’s door is left open to maintain airflow during a hot day at the Melrose Leadership Academy in Oakland, on Sept. 23, 2024. Photos by Laure Andrillon for CalMatters Students sit in the shade in the schoolyard of the Melrose Leadership Academy in Oakland, on Sept. 23, 2024. Photo by Laure Andrillon for CalMatters A physical education teacher in another Los Angeles school said she spent weeks before the September heat wave trying to flag air conditioning problems in her office.  (The teacher wished to remain anonymous out of fear she would be disciplined for discussing the issue with CalMatters.) Then, when the extreme heat came and the gymnasium temperature was too hot for the students, she and others informed the school. She said the school responded on the last day of the heat wave that students could sit outside in shade if they needed to. The suggestion dumbfounded her: Why would she have her students sit outside, where it was even hotter than in the gym?   All schools in Los Angeles Unified have air conditioners. But Krisztina Tokes, the district’s chief facilities executive, said 50,000 faulty or aged units and pieces of equipment need to be replaced in the district’s more than 1,000 schools. LA Unified, the largest school district in the state, has invested $1 billion to upgrade heating, ventilation and cooling systems in the last two decades, including $287 million for 20 projects that are currently under construction or being designed.  “It’s really about financial resources. We do not receive enough money from the state to either repair or replace our systems.” Krisztina Tokes, Los Angeles Unified School District Tokes said officials work to keep students safe by following protocols when air conditioning breaks down, such as installing portable units or moving students to spare, air conditioned spaces. Outside, schools place portable misting fans and commercial-grade pop-up tents for shade.  School days were cut short in schools where district officials felt they couldn’t provide a safe learning environment. Air conditioning systems are also checked at the start of summer and again just before classes start. Teachers and staff are trained to identify and respond to signs of heat related illness, a district spokesperson said. “Under no circumstance should there be a child or parent thinking their health isn’t being addressed,” Tokes said. “There were conditions that were beyond the district’s control.”  Replacing all air conditioners in the district’s schools would cost at least $9 billion, according to Amanda Wherritt, Los Angeles Unified’s deputy chief of staff. “It’s really about financial resources,” Tokes said. “We do not receive enough money from the state to either repair or replace our systems.”  Even coastal schools are sweltering  While many classrooms throughout the state have air conditioning, those that don’t are often in coastal areas. Many of these schools were built in the 1950s or 60s, before the warming effects of climate change had worsened heat waves. In Long Beach less than a decade ago, 51 out of 84 schools didn’t have air conditioning in all classrooms. Since then, a $1.5 billion local facilities bond has helped the school district upgrade many of them.  But 13 schools, serving about a quarter of the district’s students, still won’t be fully air conditioned for at least another three years. One school, Polytechnic High School, which has about 4,000 students, will undergo major renovations, including adding air conditioning, that won’t be complete until 2028, said Alan Reising, Long Beach Unified School District’s facilities and operations assistant superintendent. In the meantime, officials installed portable air conditioners and outdoor shade structures in many of the schools, Reising said.  Some inland Long Beach neighborhoods experience five high-heat days a year when temperatures exceed 97 degrees. “Arguably, we haven’t needed it,” Reising said. But now, he said, “with the obvious signs of climate change, we have more hot days we have to deal with every year. There’s no thought that it’s going to get better in the future, so the need for air conditioning now has become very obvious.”  In the San Diego Unified School District, all 175 schools now have air conditioning. The district spent $460 million between 2013 and 2019 to install systems in the 118 schools that didn’t have them.  While many of the systems are newer as a result, they’re still breaking down, with students saying some classrooms reached around 100 degrees in September. Some San Diego neighborhoods have four high-heat days a year that exceed 91 degrees.  “We were definitely experiencing some air conditioning issues throughout the district. We are doing our best to respond to all repair requests as quickly as possible,” said Samer Naji, a district spokesperson.  “With the obvious signs of climate change, we have more hot days. There’s no thought that it’s going to get better in the future, so the need for air conditioning now has become very obvious.” Alan Reising, Long Beach Unified School District In the Oakland Unified School District, about 2,000 classrooms in 77 schools have no air conditioners. In late September, outdoor temperatures reached 88 degrees; some Oakland neighborhoods have seven days a year that exceed 89 degrees. Equipping those schools with air conditioning would be an expensive and complicated task that would cost at least $400 million, said Preston Thomas, Oakland Unified School District’s chief systems and services officer.  At Melrose Learning Academy in Oakland, students said the heat makes it hard to focus. Lyra Modersbach, an eighth grader who is a member of an environmental club at the school, said she has noticed temperatures getting hotter year after year. When she’s home, she can wear cool clothes and rest to beat the heat, but she can’t do that at school.  The heat “is very distracting. I’ve noticed having a harder time getting my work done or feeling frustrated.”Lyra Modersbach, eighth grader at an Oakland School Modersbach said her school has a few portable air conditioners but if too many are on at once, they shut off.  The heat “is very distracting,” she  said. “I’ve noticed having a harder time getting my work done or feeling frustrated.” As members of the Youth Versus Apocalypse environmental club, Modersbach and Juliette Sanchez advocated for their school to stop using a gas boiler and invest in an energy-efficient heat pump that will provide air conditioning. The district will use funds from a 2020 $735 million bond measure to install heat pumps at their school next year.   Inland schools have little money to invest While many inland schools are fully air conditioned, some don’t have air conditioning in their gymnasiums, cafeterias and multi-purpose rooms. Many inland school districts, where 100-degree days are common, have far fewer financial resources than wealthier coastal districts, said Sara Hinkley, California program manager for UC Berkeley’s Center for Cities + Schools.  “Most of the spending on facility upgrades is based on local bond measures, which is based on your ability to levy property taxes,” she said. “So districts that have lower levels of property values per student are able to raise less money to upgrade their facilities.”  “Districts that have lower levels of property values per student are able to raise less money to upgrade their facilities.” ara Hinkley, UC Berkeley’s Center for Cities + Schools School districts in the Central Valley and the Inland Empire are among those that have invested less money because of lower property values and a smaller voter base to tap into, Hinkley said.  “There’s no environmental justice or climate equity imperative. That would take an active regulation to change how bond disbursements are made in the state,” said UCLA’s Turner. “The state could go a long way by investing in better technical assistance to communities to apply for these funds and focusing on priority schools.”   First: The shadows of students as they stretch before cross-country practice at Norte Vista High School. Last: Junior student Isidro Leanos runs along a bike path outside the school in Riverside on Sept. 19, 2024. Photos by Carlin Stiehl for CalMatters Fresno Unified School District, where 90% of students are on free or reduced lunch plans, recently invested $60 million in federal funds to replace or install air conditioning systems in some of its gyms, cafeterias and multi-purpose rooms, said Alex Belanger, chief executive over the district’s operations.  But the district needs about $500 million to improve its heating and ventilation systems, Belanger said.  Belanger said during heat waves, it’s “all hands on deck” to keep students cool. Staff work weekends and nights to repair air conditioning systems and the school provides temporary chillers and portable air conditioning if systems break down.  Idsvoog said the Fresno school district would like to invest in energy efficient strategies such as building well-insulated schools with green space and oriented in a way that won’t absorb heat. But there’s simply no money to do so.  “The reality is it’s not going to get any cooler and resources will always be a challenge for any school district,” Idsvoog said. “Any assistance, grants or state funding that can support those efforts is more than welcome.”

An estimated 1 in 5 schools has no air conditioning and another 10% need repair. Underfunded schools struggle to keep classrooms cool as heat waves intensify. "It's a hot mess," one teacher says.

A small group of students stand underneath a table umbrella that provides some shade in a schoolyard during a hot day.

In summary

An estimated 1 in 5 schools has no air conditioning and another 10% need repair. Underfunded schools struggle to keep classrooms cool as heat waves intensify. “It’s a hot mess,” one teacher says.

In her fifth grade class in a Los Angeles school, on a day when outdoor temperatures reached 116 degrees, the heat gave Lilian Chin a headache. The air conditioner in her classroom was broken. Her fingers felt numb and she vomited in class, according to her mother. The nurse wasn’t available, so she was sent back to her hot classroom. 

By the time the school day was over and Lilian made it to her mother’s air conditioned car, she was exhausted and red-faced. At home, she vomited again and got a leg cramp. Veronica Chin rushed her 11-year-old daughter to an emergency room, where she was diagnosed with heat exhaustion — a serious condition that leads to a life-threatening heat stroke if not treated promptly. 

When Chin called the school, Haskell Elementary STEAM Magnet, to complain about the broken air conditioning, she received an email that a repair ticket had been created. The San Fernando Valley school, in the Los Angeles Unified School District, had marked the repair a “low priority.”  (School officials did not respond to CalMatters’ questions when a reporter called and visited the campus.) 

Chin was furious. “I’m trusting them with my children,” she said. “I’m thinking that my children are in a safe space, when they’re not.”  

As climate change intensifies heat waves, California schools are unprepared to protect their students from extreme heat. Some schools don’t have air conditioning at all, because they were built before hotter climates made it a necessity. Others have old systems pushed to their limits, with school districts struggling to keep up with repairs or replacements with limited staff and funding. 

For instance, in Long Beach — which reached a record high of 109 degrees last month — all or most buildings in 13 public schools with about 14,000 students have no air conditioning systems. In Oakland, as many as 2,000 classrooms don’t have them. And in Fresno, officials have been overwhelmed with more than 5,000 calls for air conditioning repairs in the past 12 months.

Between 15 and 20% of California’s kindergarten through 12th grade public schools “have no functioning heating and air conditioning systems at all, and as many as another 10% of schools need major repair or replacement for their systems to function adequately,” UC Berkeley and Stanford University researchers wrote in a report last year.  Some advocates say that is likely an underestimate.  

Between 15 and 20% of California’s kindergarten through 12th grade public schools “have no functioning heating and air conditioning systems at all.”

Uc Berkeley and Stanford uNiversitry report

School officials say they would need tens of billions of dollars to install and repair air conditioning. Many of the worst problems are in hot, inland school districts that serve low-income communities of color, where there are fewer financial resources to replace or repair them.

“If it’s too hot, just like if you’re too hungry, it’s almost impossible to learn, so the impact on students and teachers is great,” said Paul Idsvoog, the Fresno Unified School District’s chief operations officer. “If you have multiple systems that are 20 years old, sooner or later you’re not going to be able to keep up with the tide.”

Voters in November will be asked to approve a $10 billion school infrastructure bond to fund repairs and upgrades of buildings at K-12 schools and community colleges, including air conditioning systems.

Gov. Gavin Newsom last month vetoed a bill that would have created a master plan for climate-resilient schools, including an assessment of when air conditioning systems were last modernized. State officials currently do not collect data on air conditioning in schools.

A portable AC unit in the library of a school as sunlight shines through the windows nearby.
A portable air conditioning unit is used in the library of the Melrose Leadership Academy in Oakland on a hot day in late September. Photo by Laure Andrillon for CalMatters

Nationally 41% of school districts need to update or replace their heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems in at least half of their schools, according to a federal study. 

In California, the problems are common statewide, jeopardizing children and teachers in inland as well as coastal communities.

“It’s just a hot mess,” said Aaron Kahlenberg, a teacher at Los Angeles Unified’s John F. Kennedy High School in Granada Hills. “When it was cool out, it worked, and when it got hot, it didn’t work. It got to be very frustrating.” 

Absences rise and learning drops on hot days

Hot classrooms lead to more student and teacher illnesses and absences, and studies show that they reduce children’s ability to learn.

On a recent day in Oakland when outdoor temperatures reached 88 degrees, 8th-grader Juliette Sanchez felt sticky and hot in a stuffy room at Melrose Leadership Academy. 

“For me it’s a lot harder to focus on what I’m doing,” Sanchez said. “Like, right now I’m sticking to the table. It’s uncomfortable to write. My arm is sticky and I’m just hot.”

A person wearing polarized sports glasses on top of their head, sits on a chair with their back leaning against a shelf and a desk in front of them. A structure made up of wooden blocks can be seen on the desk.
Juliette Sanchez, 13, an eighth grader, said the heat is sometimes unbearable at the Melrose Leadership Academy in Oakland. She is a member of an environmental club that advocated for more efficient heat and air conditioning systems at her school. Photo by Laure Andrillon for CalMatters

Student performance on exams declines by up to 14% on hot days, according to a 2018 Harvard study in New York City. According to another study, an increase in the average temperature of 1 degree leads to 1% less learning, measured by changes in test scores. 

For Black and brown students, the learning losses are even greater, said V. Kelly Turner, a heat expert at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs who has researched hot schools. 

“They’re already perhaps in schools that don’t have enough teachers or enough supplies, and then put on top of that, they’re going to hot homes,” she said. “Maybe they don’t have any rights to install air conditioning systems. Maybe they live in mobile homes and have even fewer rights.” 

“For me it’s a lot harder to focus on what I’m doing. Like right now, I’m sticking to the table. It’s uncomfortable to write. My arm is sticky and I’m just hot.”

Juliette Sanchez, 8th grader at an Oakland school

A state program, called CalSHAPE, helps public schools improve air conditioning and water systems. Between 2021 and 2023, more than 3,800 schools were awarded $421 million to assess their systems, with 11 undertaking major repairs or replacements. 

However, in August, state legislators considered eliminating the program as part of a plan to give utility ratepayers small rebates. Although the bill failed, the program has been closed to new applications since July. More than a dozen school districts have urged the state Energy Commission to reopen applications. 

The attempt to gut the program worries school and environmental advocates, who say the state is failing to prioritize schools as climate change raises temperatures.

“For many schools, cooling is no longer just a nicety, but a necessity,” Jonathan Klein, head of UndauntedK12, an organization that supports schools transitioning to zero emissions to reduce greenhouse gasses, said in a statement. “Students and staff deserve safe, healthy, resilient school campuses that support teaching and learning amidst extreme weather.” 

Fixing air conditioners: $9 billion in LA schools alone

Most students return to school in mid-August or early September, when much of the state suffers its most intense heat waves. Some also operate year-round.

In the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, classroom temperatures reached into the mid 90s during an early September heat wave.

Teachers at several schools there told CalMatters that their requests for air conditioning repairs went unanswered or were slow to come. Portable units installed in classrooms were insufficient to keep temperatures comfortable enough for students to learn. Students were visibly lethargic from the heat. Some parents opted to keep their children home.

Kahlenberg, who teaches high school architecture, said he had asked for the air conditioning in his classroom to be repaired for weeks. By the time a heat wave hit in early September, it still wasn’t fixed. His classroom temperature reached 95 degrees.

“Everybody was tired,” Kahlenberg said. “I told them if they needed to take a break, that if they didn’t want to work, it was totally acceptable. I would just extend the project. But it just shouldn’t have to be like that.” 

Kahlenberg said teachers told him about 20 other classrooms at his school also didn’t have working air conditioning during that heat wave. 

A wide view of a school playground split into two sections; on the left side is a basketball court and on the right side is a soccer field, where group students stand or sit in a small shaded area on a hot day.
Students sit in the shade in the schoolyard of the Melrose Leadership Academy in Oakland, on Sept. 23, 2024. Photo by Laure Andrillon for CalMatters

A physical education teacher in another Los Angeles school said she spent weeks before the September heat wave trying to flag air conditioning problems in her office.  (The teacher wished to remain anonymous out of fear she would be disciplined for discussing the issue with CalMatters.)

Then, when the extreme heat came and the gymnasium temperature was too hot for the students, she and others informed the school. She said the school responded on the last day of the heat wave that students could sit outside in shade if they needed to. The suggestion dumbfounded her: Why would she have her students sit outside, where it was even hotter than in the gym?  

All schools in Los Angeles Unified have air conditioners. But Krisztina Tokes, the district’s chief facilities executive, said 50,000 faulty or aged units and pieces of equipment need to be replaced in the district’s more than 1,000 schools.

LA Unified, the largest school district in the state, has invested $1 billion to upgrade heating, ventilation and cooling systems in the last two decades, including $287 million for 20 projects that are currently under construction or being designed. 

“It’s really about financial resources. We do not receive enough money from the state to either repair or replace our systems.” 

Krisztina Tokes, Los Angeles Unified School District

Tokes said officials work to keep students safe by following protocols when air conditioning breaks down, such as installing portable units or moving students to spare, air conditioned spaces. Outside, schools place portable misting fans and commercial-grade pop-up tents for shade. 

School days were cut short in schools where district officials felt they couldn’t provide a safe learning environment. Air conditioning systems are also checked at the start of summer and again just before classes start. Teachers and staff are trained to identify and respond to signs of heat related illness, a district spokesperson said.

“Under no circumstance should there be a child or parent thinking their health isn’t being addressed,” Tokes said. “There were conditions that were beyond the district’s control.” 

Replacing all air conditioners in the district’s schools would cost at least $9 billion, according to Amanda Wherritt, Los Angeles Unified’s deputy chief of staff.

“It’s really about financial resources,” Tokes said. “We do not receive enough money from the state to either repair or replace our systems.” 

Even coastal schools are sweltering 

While many classrooms throughout the state have air conditioning, those that don’t are often in coastal areas. Many of these schools were built in the 1950s or 60s, before the warming effects of climate change had worsened heat waves.

In Long Beach less than a decade ago, 51 out of 84 schools didn’t have air conditioning in all classrooms. Since then, a $1.5 billion local facilities bond has helped the school district upgrade many of them. 

But 13 schools, serving about a quarter of the district’s students, still won’t be fully air conditioned for at least another three years. One school, Polytechnic High School, which has about 4,000 students, will undergo major renovations, including adding air conditioning, that won’t be complete until 2028, said Alan Reising, Long Beach Unified School District’s facilities and operations assistant superintendent. In the meantime, officials installed portable air conditioners and outdoor shade structures in many of the schools, Reising said. 

Some inland Long Beach neighborhoods experience five high-heat days a year when temperatures exceed 97 degrees.

“Arguably, we haven’t needed it,” Reising said. But now, he said, “with the obvious signs of climate change, we have more hot days we have to deal with every year. There’s no thought that it’s going to get better in the future, so the need for air conditioning now has become very obvious.” 

In the San Diego Unified School District, all 175 schools now have air conditioning. The district spent $460 million between 2013 and 2019 to install systems in the 118 schools that didn’t have them. 

While many of the systems are newer as a result, they’re still breaking down, with students saying some classrooms reached around 100 degrees in September. Some San Diego neighborhoods have four high-heat days a year that exceed 91 degrees. 

“We were definitely experiencing some air conditioning issues throughout the district. We are doing our best to respond to all repair requests as quickly as possible,” said Samer Naji, a district spokesperson. 

“With the obvious signs of climate change, we have more hot days. There’s no thought that it’s going to get better in the future, so the need for air conditioning now has become very obvious.” 

Alan Reising, Long Beach Unified School District

In the Oakland Unified School District, about 2,000 classrooms in 77 schools have no air conditioners. In late September, outdoor temperatures reached 88 degrees; some Oakland neighborhoods have seven days a year that exceed 89 degrees.

Equipping those schools with air conditioning would be an expensive and complicated task that would cost at least $400 million, said Preston Thomas, Oakland Unified School District’s chief systems and services officer. 

At Melrose Learning Academy in Oakland, students said the heat makes it hard to focus. Lyra Modersbach, an eighth grader who is a member of an environmental club at the school, said she has noticed temperatures getting hotter year after year. When she’s home, she can wear cool clothes and rest to beat the heat, but she can’t do that at school. 

The heat “is very distracting. I’ve noticed having a harder time getting my work done or feeling frustrated.”

Lyra Modersbach, eighth grader at an Oakland School

Modersbach said her school has a few portable air conditioners but if too many are on at once, they shut off. 

The heat “is very distracting,” she  said. “I’ve noticed having a harder time getting my work done or feeling frustrated.”

As members of the Youth Versus Apocalypse environmental club, Modersbach and Juliette Sanchez advocated for their school to stop using a gas boiler and invest in an energy-efficient heat pump that will provide air conditioning. The district will use funds from a 2020 $735 million bond measure to install heat pumps at their school next year.  

Inland schools have little money to invest

While many inland schools are fully air conditioned, some don’t have air conditioning in their gymnasiums, cafeterias and multi-purpose rooms.

Many inland school districts, where 100-degree days are common, have far fewer financial resources than wealthier coastal districts, said Sara Hinkley, California program manager for UC Berkeley’s Center for Cities + Schools. 

“Most of the spending on facility upgrades is based on local bond measures, which is based on your ability to levy property taxes,” she said. “So districts that have lower levels of property values per student are able to raise less money to upgrade their facilities.” 

“Districts that have lower levels of property values per student are able to raise less money to upgrade their facilities.” 

ara Hinkley, UC Berkeley’s Center for Cities + Schools

School districts in the Central Valley and the Inland Empire are among those that have invested less money because of lower property values and a smaller voter base to tap into, Hinkley said. 

“There’s no environmental justice or climate equity imperative. That would take an active regulation to change how bond disbursements are made in the state,” said UCLA’s Turner. “The state could go a long way by investing in better technical assistance to communities to apply for these funds and focusing on priority schools.”  

Fresno Unified School District, where 90% of students are on free or reduced lunch plans, recently invested $60 million in federal funds to replace or install air conditioning systems in some of its gyms, cafeterias and multi-purpose rooms, said Alex Belanger, chief executive over the district’s operations. 

But the district needs about $500 million to improve its heating and ventilation systems, Belanger said. 

Belanger said during heat waves, it’s “all hands on deck” to keep students cool. Staff work weekends and nights to repair air conditioning systems and the school provides temporary chillers and portable air conditioning if systems break down. 

Idsvoog said the Fresno school district would like to invest in energy efficient strategies such as building well-insulated schools with green space and oriented in a way that won’t absorb heat. But there’s simply no money to do so. 

“The reality is it’s not going to get any cooler and resources will always be a challenge for any school district,” Idsvoog said. “Any assistance, grants or state funding that can support those efforts is more than welcome.”

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

Controversial UK oil field publishes full scale of climate impact

The impact from the Rosebank oil field is estimated at nearly 250 million tonnes of planet warming CO2.

The UK's largest undeveloped oil field has revealed the full scale of its environmental impact, should it gain approval by the government.Developers of the Rosebank oil field said nearly 250 million tonnes of planet warming gas would be released from using oil products from the field.The amount would vary each year, but by comparison the UK's annual emissions in 2024 were 371 million tonnes.The field's developer said its emissions were "not significant" considering the UK's international climate commitments.Rosebank is an oil and gas field which lies about 80 miles north-west of Shetland and is one of the largest undeveloped discoveries of fossil fuels in UK waters.It is said to contain up to 300 million barrels of oil and some gas, and is owned by Norwegian energy giant Equinor and British firm Ithaca Energy.The field was originally approved in 2023, but in July a court ruled that a more detailed assessment of the field's environmental impact was required, taking into account the effect on the climate of burning any fossil fuels extracted from it.A public consultation has now been opened, and will run until 20th November 2025.The final decision on whether to approve the field will be made by the Energy Secretary.Until recently such projects were only required to consider the impact on the environment from extracting the fossil fuels.But in June last year the Supreme Court ruled that authorities must take account of the impact from also using the products, after a woman in Surrey challenged the development of her local gas project.This ruling was then used in a further challenge to the Rosebank oil field by environmental campaigners Uplift and Greenpeace - which was subsequently successful in January. Equinor was required to recalculate the "full impact" of the field and it now estimates that it will contribute an additional 249 million tonnes of the planet warming gas CO2 over the next 25 years. This is more than 50 times greater than the original figure of 4.5 million tonnes it gave from extracting the oil and gas.The UK has a target to produce no additional emissions by 2050 and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has been vocal about the need to move away from fossil fuels. On Tuesday, he told an industry conference that the UK's dependence on fossil fuels was its "Achilles' heel" and argued clean power was the only way to reduce bills.The fossil fuels for the Rosebank field are not guaranteed to be used in the UK but would be sold on the international market.As such the project is unlikely to have an impact on lowering gas prices. The UK's independent climate advisors said in 2022 that any more domestic oil and gas extraction would have "at most, a marginal effect on prices".But Arne Gurtner, Equinor's senior vice president for the UK, has previously said that: "If the UK needs Rosebank oil, it will go to the UK through open market mechanisms."

The Blue-State Governors Who’ve Gone Weak on Climate Policy

If you scroll California Governor Gavin Newsom’s press releases, a portrait emerges of a undaunted climate fighter. One day he’s “paving [the] way for climate pollution-cutting technology”; another he’s launching “new international climate partnerships as Trump unleashes unhinged UN rant.” Last month, he announced the signing of a suite of measures “saving billions on electric bills, stabilizing [the] gas market and cutting pollution.” But look under the hood, and his heroic self-image dims somewhat. That big legislative package, for instance, also increases oil drilling and sets up a regional electricity market that “could tether California to fossil-fuel states at a time when the Trump administration is moving to roll back clean energy,” CalMatters reported.With Trump in death-drive mode on climate, canceling renewable energy projects left and right and even forbidding federal agencies to use language such as “climate change,” “green,”or “sustainable,” blue-state governors are well positioned to distinguish themselves and their party on the issue. They also have a responsibility: The states are our best hope for policy at a scale to match the problem. Yet a worrying trend is taking shape: Blue-state governors are making a big show of battling the Trump administration, but on climate issues they’ve been disappointing—and sometimes downright infuriating. Last month’s climate package wasn’t the California Democrats’ first flub this year. Over the summer, in what Politico dubbed the state’s “Great Climate Retreat,” they weakened limits on the carbon intensity of transportation fuels, rolled back environmental reviews for new housing, and lifted a cap on oil industry profits. “California was the vocal climate leader during the first Trump administration,” Chris Chavez, deputy policy director for the Coalition for Clean Air, told Politico. “It’s questionable whether or not that leadership is still there.” In Maryland, a climate advisory panel appointed by Governor Wes Moore has hit the brakes on a carbon trading measure, and late last month the state Department of the Environment, or MDE, appeared to cave to the Trump administration in abandoning some environmental justice metrics, which many fear means abandoning Black and brown communities to the whims of polluters. “It just appears to me that MDE blatantly does not want to be accountable in the massive pollution and the overburden of these heavy industrial industries,” Kamita Gray, a community leader in Brandywine—a majority-Black town that’s home to gas-fired power plants, a coal ash dump, and a Superfund site—told Maryland Matters.Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania too is under fire from climate critics. As attorney general, he authored a solid road map for protecting Pennsylvanians from the harmful environmental and health effects of fracking, but in his two years as governor he has allowed companies to be secretive about the chemicals used in fracking, and has not pushed to pass any laws curbing the industry. The Environmental Health Project, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit, said “residents are still waiting for meaningful action. Our assessment concludes that the Shapiro administration has not fulfilled the commitments the governor made to Pennsylvanians in general and to frontline communities in particular.”And then there’s New York. Governor Kathy Hochul has been failing to follow the decarbonization timeline that was outlined in the state’s 2019 climate law, prompting environmental justice groups to sue her. She has delayed plans for “cap and invest” and is dragging her feet on building public renewables (despite the state’s landmark Build Public Renewables Act, which passed in 2023). She has seemingly caved to Trump by going ahead with gas pipelines she previously rejected. And it’s unclear whether she will sign a repeal of the outdated “100 foot rule,” which requires utility ratepayers to subsize the cost of connecting new customers to the gas system, a reform that has long been a priority of the state’s climate movement.Part of what’s so self-destructive here is that energy affordability is a highly salient issue for voters, taking center stage, for example in the governor’s race in New Jersey, where electricity rates have risen 22 percent. Interviewed in Friday’s New York Times on this subject, David Springe of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates described electricity as “the new eggs,” an indicator of how costly daily life is for most Americans. Republicans in New York have seized on the problem as an opportunity to blame Democrats and climate-friendly policies. Stephan Edel of New York Renews, a progressive coalition fighting for clean energy, told me the governor “has spoken really eloquently about the need to do something about affordability.” Indeed, she endorsed Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist, for New York City mayor, partly for this reason. She often uses “affordability” to justify rightward shifts or retreats from climate policy, he said, adding that, inexplicably, she also shies away from touting the affordability benefits of climate policies that she does support. For example, in the state budget last year, she agreed to invest over a billion dollars in funding for climate programs, including one that will help make homes for low-income New Yorkers more energy efficient and another that will save school districts money by shifting to electric school buses. Instead of touting those wins for affordability—or embracing the potential of publicly owned renewables to do the same—she’s embraced the Republican narrative that climate policy and affordability are at odds.By contrast, Mikie Sherill in New Jersey has been touting clean energy as a solution to energy affordability woes. If she gets elected and continues this path, more blue state governors should follow her lead. The Democratic base is desperate to see its leaders stand up to Trump on both climate and affordability. (And when Democratic governors do stand up to Trump on anything—Illinois’s JB Pritzker on the militarization of Chicago, Maine’s Janet Mills on health care—their poll numbers spike.)And the reverse is also true—failing to differentiate themselves from Trump has been political suicide for many Democrats. “Every time one of these elected officials says, ‘I’m going to stand up to Trump, I’m going to protect affordability, I’m going to address climate change,’ and then doesn’t do it,” that’s a win for the Republicans, Edel said, because it fuels low turnout for Democratic voters. Climate offers an obvious opportunity to isolate the Republicans on a matter of broad concern, renew Americans’ faith in government, and make real progress. The Democratic governors flailing so badly on this issue have not only a moral obligation to change course, but also a political one.

If you scroll California Governor Gavin Newsom’s press releases, a portrait emerges of a undaunted climate fighter. One day he’s “paving [the] way for climate pollution-cutting technology”; another he’s launching “new international climate partnerships as Trump unleashes unhinged UN rant.” Last month, he announced the signing of a suite of measures “saving billions on electric bills, stabilizing [the] gas market and cutting pollution.” But look under the hood, and his heroic self-image dims somewhat. That big legislative package, for instance, also increases oil drilling and sets up a regional electricity market that “could tether California to fossil-fuel states at a time when the Trump administration is moving to roll back clean energy,” CalMatters reported.With Trump in death-drive mode on climate, canceling renewable energy projects left and right and even forbidding federal agencies to use language such as “climate change,” “green,”or “sustainable,” blue-state governors are well positioned to distinguish themselves and their party on the issue. They also have a responsibility: The states are our best hope for policy at a scale to match the problem. Yet a worrying trend is taking shape: Blue-state governors are making a big show of battling the Trump administration, but on climate issues they’ve been disappointing—and sometimes downright infuriating. Last month’s climate package wasn’t the California Democrats’ first flub this year. Over the summer, in what Politico dubbed the state’s “Great Climate Retreat,” they weakened limits on the carbon intensity of transportation fuels, rolled back environmental reviews for new housing, and lifted a cap on oil industry profits. “California was the vocal climate leader during the first Trump administration,” Chris Chavez, deputy policy director for the Coalition for Clean Air, told Politico. “It’s questionable whether or not that leadership is still there.” In Maryland, a climate advisory panel appointed by Governor Wes Moore has hit the brakes on a carbon trading measure, and late last month the state Department of the Environment, or MDE, appeared to cave to the Trump administration in abandoning some environmental justice metrics, which many fear means abandoning Black and brown communities to the whims of polluters. “It just appears to me that MDE blatantly does not want to be accountable in the massive pollution and the overburden of these heavy industrial industries,” Kamita Gray, a community leader in Brandywine—a majority-Black town that’s home to gas-fired power plants, a coal ash dump, and a Superfund site—told Maryland Matters.Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania too is under fire from climate critics. As attorney general, he authored a solid road map for protecting Pennsylvanians from the harmful environmental and health effects of fracking, but in his two years as governor he has allowed companies to be secretive about the chemicals used in fracking, and has not pushed to pass any laws curbing the industry. The Environmental Health Project, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit, said “residents are still waiting for meaningful action. Our assessment concludes that the Shapiro administration has not fulfilled the commitments the governor made to Pennsylvanians in general and to frontline communities in particular.”And then there’s New York. Governor Kathy Hochul has been failing to follow the decarbonization timeline that was outlined in the state’s 2019 climate law, prompting environmental justice groups to sue her. She has delayed plans for “cap and invest” and is dragging her feet on building public renewables (despite the state’s landmark Build Public Renewables Act, which passed in 2023). She has seemingly caved to Trump by going ahead with gas pipelines she previously rejected. And it’s unclear whether she will sign a repeal of the outdated “100 foot rule,” which requires utility ratepayers to subsize the cost of connecting new customers to the gas system, a reform that has long been a priority of the state’s climate movement.Part of what’s so self-destructive here is that energy affordability is a highly salient issue for voters, taking center stage, for example in the governor’s race in New Jersey, where electricity rates have risen 22 percent. Interviewed in Friday’s New York Times on this subject, David Springe of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates described electricity as “the new eggs,” an indicator of how costly daily life is for most Americans. Republicans in New York have seized on the problem as an opportunity to blame Democrats and climate-friendly policies. Stephan Edel of New York Renews, a progressive coalition fighting for clean energy, told me the governor “has spoken really eloquently about the need to do something about affordability.” Indeed, she endorsed Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist, for New York City mayor, partly for this reason. She often uses “affordability” to justify rightward shifts or retreats from climate policy, he said, adding that, inexplicably, she also shies away from touting the affordability benefits of climate policies that she does support. For example, in the state budget last year, she agreed to invest over a billion dollars in funding for climate programs, including one that will help make homes for low-income New Yorkers more energy efficient and another that will save school districts money by shifting to electric school buses. Instead of touting those wins for affordability—or embracing the potential of publicly owned renewables to do the same—she’s embraced the Republican narrative that climate policy and affordability are at odds.By contrast, Mikie Sherill in New Jersey has been touting clean energy as a solution to energy affordability woes. If she gets elected and continues this path, more blue state governors should follow her lead. The Democratic base is desperate to see its leaders stand up to Trump on both climate and affordability. (And when Democratic governors do stand up to Trump on anything—Illinois’s JB Pritzker on the militarization of Chicago, Maine’s Janet Mills on health care—their poll numbers spike.)And the reverse is also true—failing to differentiate themselves from Trump has been political suicide for many Democrats. “Every time one of these elected officials says, ‘I’m going to stand up to Trump, I’m going to protect affordability, I’m going to address climate change,’ and then doesn’t do it,” that’s a win for the Republicans, Edel said, because it fuels low turnout for Democratic voters. Climate offers an obvious opportunity to isolate the Republicans on a matter of broad concern, renew Americans’ faith in government, and make real progress. The Democratic governors flailing so badly on this issue have not only a moral obligation to change course, but also a political one.

Nations Meet to Consider Regulations to Drive a Green Transition in Shipping

Maritime nations are meeting in London to discuss regulations that could shift the shipping industry away from fossil fuels

The world’s largest maritime nations are gathering in London on Tuesday to consider adopting regulations that would move the shipping industry away from fossil fuels to slash emissions.If the deal is adopted, this will be the first time a global fee is imposed on planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. Most ships today run on heavy fuel oil that releases carbon dioxide and other pollutants as it’s burned. That would be a major win for the climate, public health, the ocean and marine life, said Delaine McCullough at the Ocean Conservancy. For too long, ships have run on crude, dirty oil, she said.“This agreement provides a lesson for the world that legally-binding climate action is possible," McCullough, shipping program director for the nonprofit environmental advocacy group, said. Shipping emissions have grown over the last decade to about 3% of the global total as trade has grown and vessels use immense amounts of fossil fuels to transport cargo over long distances. The regulations would set a pricing system for gas emissions The regulations, or “Net-zero Framework,” sets a marine fuel standard that decreases, over time, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions allowed from using shipping fuels. The regulations also establish a pricing system that would impose fees for every ton of greenhouse gases emitted by ships above allowable limits, in what is effectively the first global tax on greenhouse gas emissions.There's a base-level of compliance for the allowable greenhouse gas intensity of fuels. There's a more stringent direct compliance target that requires further reduction in the greenhouse gas intensity.If ships sail on fuels with lower emissions than what's required under the direct compliance target, they earn “surplus units," effectively credits. Ships with the highest emissions would have to buy those credits from other ships under the pricing system, or from the IMO at $380 per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent to reach the base level of compliance. In addition, there's a penalty of $100 per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent to reach direct compliance. Ships that meet the base target but not the direct compliance one must pay the $100 per ton penalty, too. Ships whose greenhouse gas intensity is below a certain threshold will receive rewards for their performance.The fees could generate $11 billion to $13 billion in revenue annually. That would go into an IMO fund to invest in fuels and technologies needed to transition to green shipping, reward low-emission ships and support developing countries so they aren’t left behind with dirty fuels and old ships. Looking for alternative fuels Ships could lower their emissions by using alternative fuels, running on electricity or using onboard carbon capture technologies. Wind propulsion and other energy efficiency advancements can also help reduce fuel consumption and emissions as part of an energy transition. Large ships last about 25 years, so the industry would need to make changes and investments now to reach net-zero around 2050.If adopted, the regulations will enter into force in 2027. Large oceangoing ships over 5,000 gross tonnage, which emit 85% of the total carbon emissions from international shipping, would have to pay penalties for their emissions starting in 2028, according to the IMO. The International Chamber of Shipping, which represents over 80% of the world’s merchant fleet, is advocating for adoption. Concerns over biofuels produced from food crops Heavy fuel oil, liquefied natural gas and biodiesel will be dominant for most of the 2030s and 2040s, unless the IMO further incentivizes green alternatives, according to modeling from Transport and Environment, a Brussels-based environmental nongovernmental organization. The way the rules are designed essentially make biofuels the cheapest fuel to use to comply, but biofuels require huge amounts of crops, pushing out less profitable food production, often leading to additional land clearance and deforestation, said Faig Abbasov, shipping director at T&E. They are urging the IMO to promote scalable green alternatives, not recklessly promote biofuels produced from food crops, Abbasov said. As it stands now, the deal before the IMO won't deliver net-zero emissions by 2050, he added.Green ammonia will get to a price that it’s appealing to ship owners in the late 2040s — quite late in the transition, according to the modeling. The NGO also sees green methanol playing an important role in the long-term transition. The vote at the London meeting The IMO aims for consensus in decision-making but it's likely nations will vote on adopting the regulations. At the April meeting, a vote was called to approve the contents of the regulations. The United States was notably absent in April, but plans to participate in this meeting. Teresa Bui at Pacific Environment said she's optimistic “global momentum is on our side” and a majority of countries will support adoption. Bui is senior climate campaign director for the environmental nonprofit, which has consultative, or non-voting, status at the IMO. If it fails, shipping’s decarbonization will be further delayed.“It's difficult to know for sure what the precise consequences will be, but failure this week will certainly lead to delay, which means ships will emit more greenhouse gases than they would have done and for longer, continuing their outsized contribution to the climate crisis,” said John Maggs, of the Clean Shipping Coalition, who is at the London meeting. The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

For the first time, we linked a new fossil fuel project to hundreds of deaths. Here’s the impact of Woodside’s Scarborough gas project

The results challenge claims that the climate risks posed by an individual fossil fuel project are negligible or cannot be quantified.

Massimo Valicchia/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesGlobal warming from Woodside’s massive Scarborough gas project off Western Australia would lead to 484 additional heat-related deaths in Europe alone this century, and kill about 16 million additional corals on the Great Barrier Reef during each future mass bleaching event, our new research has revealed. The findings were made possible by a robust, well-established formula that can determine the extent to which an individual fossil fuel project will warm the planet. The results can be used to calculate the subsequent harms to society and nature. The results close a fundamental gap between science and decision-making about fossil fuel projects. They also challenge claims by proponents that climate risks posed by a fossil fuel project are negligible or cannot be quantified. Each new investment in coal and gas, such as the Scarborough project, can now be linked to harmful effects both today and in the future. It means decision-makers can properly assess the range of risks a project poses to humanity and the planet, before deciding if it should proceed. Each new investment in coal and gas extraction can now be linked to harmful effects. Shutterstock Every tonne of CO₂ matters Scientists know every tonne of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions makes global warming worse. But proponents of new fossil fuel projects in Australia routinely say their future greenhouse gas emissions are negligible compared to the scale of global emissions, or say the effects of these emissions on global warming can’t be measured. The Scarborough project is approved for development and is expected to produce gas from next year. Located off WA, it includes wells connected by a 430km pipeline to an onshore processing facility. The gas will be liquefied and burned for energy, both in Australia and overseas. Production is expected to last more than 30 years. When natural gas is burned, more than 99% of it converts to CO₂. Woodside – in its own evaluation of the Scarborough gas project – claimed: it is not possible to link GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions from Scarborough with climate change or any particular climate-related impacts given the estimated […] emissions associated with Scarborough are negligible in the context of existing and future predicted global GHG concentrations. But what if there was a way to measure the harms? That’s the question our research set out to answer. A method already exists to directly link global emissions to the climate warming they cause. It uses scientific understanding of Earth’s systems, direct observations and climate model simulations. According to the IPCC, every 1,000 billion tonnes of CO₂ emissions causes about 0.45°C of additional global warming. This arithmetic forms the basis for calculating how much more CO₂ humanity can emit to keep warming within the Paris Agreement goals. But decisions about future emissions are not made at the global scale. Instead, Earth’s climate trajectory will be determined by the aggregation of decisions on many individual projects. That’s why our research extended the IPCC method to the level of individual projects – an approach that we illustrate using the Scarborough gas project. Scarborough’s harms laid bare Over its lifetime, the Scarborough project is expected to emit 876 million tonnes of CO₂. We estimate these emissions will cause 0.00039°C of additional global warming. Estimates such as these are typically expressed as a range, alongside a measure of confidence in the projection. In this case, there is a 66–100% likelihood that the Scarborough project will cause additional global warming of between 0.00024°C and 0.00055°C. This additional warming might seem small – but it will cause tangible damage. The human cost of global warming can be quantified by considering how many people will be left outside the “human climate niche” – in other words, the climate conditions in which societies have historically thrived. We calculated that the additional warming from the Scarborough project will expose 516,000 people globally to a local climate that’s beyond the hot extreme of the human climate niche. We drilled down into specific impacts in Europe, where suitable health data was available across 854 cities. Our best estimate is that this project would cause an additional 484 heat-related deaths in Europe by the end of this century. The project would cause an additional 484 heat-related deaths in Europe by the end of this century. Antonio Masiello/Getty Images And what about harm to nature? Using research into how accumulated exposure to heat affects coral reefs, we found about 16 million corals on the Great Barrier Reef would be lost in each new mass bleaching. The existential threat to the Great Barrier Reef from human-caused global warming is already being realised. Additional warming instigated by new fossil fuel projects will ratchet up pressure on this natural wonder. As climate change worsens, countries are seeking to slash emissions to meet their commitments under the Paris Agreement. So, we looked at the impact of Scarborough’s emissions on Australia’s climate targets. We calculated that by 2049, the anticipated emissions from the Scarborough project alone – from production, processing and domestic use – will comprise 49% of Australia’s entire annual CO₂ emissions budget under our commitment to net-zero by 2050. Beyond the 2050 deadline, all emissions from the Scarborough project would require technologies to permanently remove CO₂ from the atmosphere. Achieving that would require a massive scale-up of current technologies. It would be more prudent to reduce greenhouse gas emissions where possible. ‘Negligible’ impacts? Hardly Our findings mean the best-available scientific evidence can now be used by companies, governments and regulators when deciding if a fossil fuel project will proceed. Crucially, it is no longer defensible for companies proposing new or extended fossil fuel projects to claim the climate harms will be negligible. Our research shows the harms are, in fact, tangible and quantifiable – and no project is too small to matter. In response to issues raised in this article, a spokesperson for Woodside said: Woodside is committed to playing a role in the energy transition. The Scarborough reservoir contains less than 0.1% carbon dioxide. Combined with processing design efficiencies at the offshore floating production unit and onshore Pluto Train 2, the project is expected to be one of the lowest carbon intensity sources of LNG delivered into north Asian markets. We will reduce the Scarborough Energy Project’s direct greenhouse gas emissions to as low as reasonably practicable by incorporating energy efficiency measures in design and operations. Further information on how this is being achieved is included in the Scarborough Offshore Project Proposal, sections 4.5.4.1 and 7.1.3 and in approved Australian Government environment plans, available on the regulator’s website. A report prepared by consultancy ACIL Allen has found that Woodside’s Scarborough Energy Project is expected to generate an estimated A$52.8 billion in taxation and royalty payments, boost GDP by billions of dollars between 2024 and 2056 and employ 3,200 people during peak construction in Western Australia. Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick receives funding from the Australian Research CouncilAndrew King receives funding from the Australian Research Council (Future Fellowship and Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather) and the National Environmental Science Program. Nicola Maher receives funding from the Australian Research Council. Wesley Morgan is a fellow with the Climate Council of Australia

Emissions linked to Woodside’s Scarborough gas project could lead to at least 480 deaths, research suggests

Scientists have examined the $16.5bn project’s climate impact and found it could expose more than half a million people to unprecedented heatSign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter hereGreenhouse emissions linked to a gas field being developed by Australian fossil fuel company Woodside could lead to the death of at least 480 people and expose more than half a million to unprecedented heat, new research suggests.Scientists from six universities have examined the climate impact of the $16.5bn Scarborough project, which is expected to start production off the northern Western Australian coast next year and could result in 876m tonnes of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere over three decades. Continue reading...

Greenhouse emissions linked to a gas field being developed by Australian fossil fuel company Woodside could lead to the death of at least 480 people and expose more than half a million to unprecedented heat, new research suggests.Scientists from six universities have examined the climate impact of the $16.5bn Scarborough project, which is expected to start production off the northern Western Australian coast next year and could result in 876m tonnes of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere over three decades.Emissions from the project would contribute 0.00039C to global heating, they estimate. Using recently developed techniques known as climate attribution, they suggest that fraction of warming would expose an additional 516,000 people globally to unprecedented heat, and result in the loss of an extra 16m coral colonies in the Great Barrier Reef in every future bleaching event.It would also push 356,000 people outside the “human climate niche” – the reasonable zone for human survival, with an upper limit for average annual temperature of 29C.The study, published in the journal Climate Action, forms part of a new focus in climate science that aims to quantify the impacts of individual fossil fuel projects and emitters.A Woodside spokesperson said the company would reduce the Scarborough project’s “direct greenhouse gas emissions to as low as reasonably practicable by incorporating energy efficiency measures in design and operations”.“Climate change is caused by the net global concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,” they added. “It cannot be attributed to any one event, country, industry or activity.” Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletterBut study co-author Andrew King, an associate professor in climate science at the University of Melbourne, said the research illustrated that individual projects had tangible climate impacts.“Often the argument made for individual projects that would involve greenhouse gas emissions is that they are quite small [in the global context],” he said. “But really, especially with larger fossil fuel projects, we can very clearly say that the impacts are not negligible.”Study co-author Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a professor of climate science at the Australian National University, said that given Australia’s emission reductions requirements, in the coming decades Scarborough would also constitute a greater proportion of the country’s CO2 emissions budget.“By 2049, assuming that the Scarborough project emits the same amount year on year, it’s going to be chewing up half of our emissions budget,” Perkins-Kirkpatrick said. “That’s the stuff that we burn here, let alone what we export overseas.”Beyond 2050, emissions from Scarborough would require CO2 removal from the atmosphere – “technologies that either don’t exist yet, or that we can’t scale up”, she said.skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Clear Air AustraliaAdam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisisPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionUnder a middle-of-the-road emissions scenario, warming contributed by Scarborough would cause an additional 484 heat-related deaths in Europe alone by the end of the century, the researchers calculated. Taking into account a reduction in cold-related deaths in Europe, they estimate a net contribution of 118 additional deaths.The researchers calculated the project’s climate impacts with a tool used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, called the Transient Climate Response to CO2 Emissions (TCRE). The TCRE estimates that every 1,000 gigatonnes of CO2 emissions causes 0.45C of additional global heating.Scarborough’s contribution to global heating had a likely range between 0.00024C and 0.00055C, the study’s authors estimated, but they noted “direct measurement of global mean temperature changes is not possible with this level of precision”.The approach could be used by governments and companies to assess whether future “projects fall within acceptable levels of environmental and societal risk”, the researchers suggest. The tool “could be part of the process for determining whether a project should be approved”, King said.Yuming Guo, a professor of global environmental health and biostatistics at Monash University, who was not involved in the study, said the study provided “a valuable tool for conducting environmental risk assessments”.“Considering the vast number of fossil fuel projects operating globally, the cumulative contribution of these emissions to climate change is substantial and should not be overlooked,” he said.Dr Kat O’Mara, a senior lecturer in environmental management and sustainability at Edith Cowan University, who was not part of the study, said: “With the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion a few months ago that countries need to take action to protect the climate, this new research reinforces the need to consider climate impacts beyond just how much carbon is being produced.”

Suggested Viewing

Join us to forge
a sustainable future

Our team is always growing.
Become a partner, volunteer, sponsor, or intern today.
Let us know how you would like to get involved!

CONTACT US

sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

Subscribers receive a free day pass for streaming Cinema Verde.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.