By Gero Rueter Proven technologies for a net-zero energy system already largely exist today, according to a report published Tuesday by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The report predicts that renewable power, green hydrogen and modern bioenergy will shape the way we power the world in 2050. Adopting such solutions would set world leaders […]
If governments fail to keep global temperatures within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels, much of the world’s population could live in “lethal” levels of heat and humidity, new research finds. Home to more than three billion people, the planet’s tropical band, which includes most of South and East Asia, Central America and Central Africa, […]
On Friday, China set out an economic blueprint for the next five years, which was expected to substantiate the goal set out last fall by President Xi Jinping for the country to reach net-zero emissions before 2060 and hit peak emissions by 2030. While the plan calls for a “major push” on clean energy development, […]
Lockdown measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic had the added benefit of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by around seven percent, or 2.6 billion metric tons, in 2020. This is the largest emissions reduction that has ever been recorded. But to reach the Paris agreement goal of limiting global warming to well below […]
The Biden administration announced it will use Obama-era calculations of the “social cost” of three greenhouse gas pollutants while an interagency working group calculates a more complete estimate, the White House announced Friday. Often described as “the most important number you’ve never heard of,” the “social cost” of greenhouse gases estimates the harms to society […]
By Stuart Braun We spend 90% of our time in the buildings where we live and work, shop and conduct business, in the structures that keep us warm in winter and cool in summer. But immense energy is required to source and manufacture building materials, to power construction sites, to maintain and renew the built […]
By Beverly Law and William Moomaw Protecting forests is an essential strategy in the fight against climate change that has not received the attention it deserves. Trees capture and store massive amounts of carbon. And unlike some strategies for cooling the climate, they don’t require costly and complicated technology. Yet although tree-planting initiatives are popular, […]
Gas utilities and industry trade groups are fighting across the country to prohibit municipalities from taking steps to cut greenhouse gas pollution from buildings, efforts those utilities and groups view as an existential threat, NPR and the Washington Post report. The American Gas Association, which gets its funding from ratepayers via its member utilities, is […]
Countries most vulnerable to climate change are often the ones with the least financial resources to respond, and rich countries, which are accountable for the majority of global greenhouse gas emissions, are failing to support them. In response, six climate finance experts on Thursday called for radical reform to the ways in which international climate […]