carbon emissions

IRENA Report Predicts Renewable Energy Could Power World by 2050

IRENA Report Predicts Renewable Energy Could Power World by 2050

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 […]

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    Cutting Emissions Could Save Billions of People From ‘Lethal’ Heat and Humidity, New Research Finds

    Cutting Emissions Could Save Billions of People From ‘Lethal’ Heat and Humidity, New Research Finds

    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, […]

    China’s Five-Year Plan ‘Underwhelming’ on Climate

    China’s Five-Year Plan ‘Underwhelming’ on Climate

    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, […]

    Biden Admin Sets Interim Obama-Era ‘Social Cost’ Estimates for Greenhouse Pollution

    Biden Admin Sets Interim Obama-Era ‘Social Cost’ Estimates for Greenhouse Pollution

    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 […]

    5 Things to Know About Carbon-Free Buildings and Construction

    5 Things to Know About Carbon-Free Buildings and Construction

    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 […]

    Keeping Trees in the Ground: An Effective Low-Tech Way to Slow Climate Change

    Keeping Trees in the Ground: An Effective Low-Tech Way to Slow Climate Change

    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, […]

    U.S. Gas Industry Lobbies Against Buildings Going Electric

    U.S. Gas Industry Lobbies Against Buildings Going Electric

    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 […]

    Could a Tax on International Travel Fund a Country’s Response to Climate Change?

    Could a Tax on International Travel Fund a Country’s Response to Climate Change?

    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 […]