When I heard in late December that Bill McKibben had written another article for Rolling Stone, I was thrilled. His July 2012 piece for that publication — “Global Warming’s Terrifying Math” — started a firestorm. McKibben had determined that the public was losing interest in battling climate change because there was no clear enemy. With no titanic
Companies have long engaged in risk assessment and mitigation as a core business practice. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its 2012 report “Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation” observes that heavy precipitation, heat waves, and droughts have increased over the last
Solar activity has had minimal impact on climate over the past millennium, new research from the United Kingdom indicates. The findings counter the long-held view that periodic fluctuations in the sun’s energy output have led to lengthy periods of warm or cold weather in the past.
In a recent report, The World Bank said that solar power is one of the key elements of its Country Partnership Strategy with India. The organization said it will circulate the findings of the study to central and state governments to spread an understanding of the issues and analysis presented.
The Bank said in a statement that in just three years
One of the more solid tenets of Big Oil dogma has always been that carbon pricing, whether a simple tax or a market-based cap-and-trade system, is terrible and conservatives must stand in unison against it. Daily Caller reporter Michael Bastach, a former Koch Institute Intern, confirmed this recently: “This vote against a carbon tax in the (American
We have recently seen that the European Union is already close to its climate goals, to cut its greenhouse gases emissions by 20 percent by 2020 (compared to 1990 levels). In 2012, emissions were already 18 percent lower than in 1990.
This is perhaps why a majority of European Parliament members (MEPs) have called for increased action and 30 percent cuts by 2020.
Currently, the European institutions are preparing both for the 2015 Climate conference that will take place in Paris, France, as well as the future of its climate plans.
The United Kingdom is already calling for the European Union to halve its emissions by 2030. A recent study from the WWF has stated that such a target is within reach.
All this perhaps explains why according to RTCC, the European Union could agree to 45 percent cuts by 2030.
To some analysts, the European Union has not conducted any analysis on how it could reduce its emissions by more than 45 percent by 2030.
A MEP representing the European Green Party – Bas Eickhout – has said that this lack of ambition could be explained by a failure to calculate the potential of both renewable energy sources and energy efficiency.
The 2020 strategy will be further reviewed in January. Let’s hope these targets will be set higher and that the 2030 plans will be ambitious. It is high time for the European Union to take the lead again on climate change as the threat is even clearer according to the most recent IPCC report.
For the first time, maps and summaries of historical and projected temperature and precipitation changes for the 21st century for the continental U.S. are accessible at a county-by-county level on a website developed by the U.S. Geological Survey in collaboration with the College of Earth, Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State
Eighteen prominent international climate scientists and economists have authored a paper that seeks to answer the most vexing environmental question facing the planet: How to reverse soaring carbon dioxide emissions and prevent the world from experiencing destabilizing climate change.
Their answer, presented in the journal PLOS One,
Poland, like many East European nations, relies heavily on coal. Approximately 90 percent of the country’s electricity comes from coal. Worse yet, over two thirds of Poland’s coal-fired plants are over 30 years old and thus highly inefficient.
This means Polish citizens breathe the second dirtiest air in the European Union. A recent study from the European Environment Agency noted that six of the ten most polluted cities in Europe are in the Poland.
It is no surprise that local populations want to change that. As Greenpeace reported recently, a recent poll showed that 89% of Polish citizens are in favor of increasing renewable energy production in the country and that as many as 73% want their government to be active in preventing dangerous climate change.
The New York Times recently reported that hundreds of people recently protested the dreadful air pollution in Krakow, the second largest city in Poland, whose air is the third most polluted in Europe (see study mentioned above).
Politicians however aren’t so willing to change all that.
As Julia Michalak from Climate Action Network Europe explains, “The Polish government is not listening to the Polish society. Politicians are determined to maintain Poland’s outdated coal-dominated energy model. They’re defending the interests of those benefiting from centralized energy system with state-owned large utilities controlling the market. The government is ignoring clean energy investment opportunities.”
But a breath of fresher and cleaner air could soon arrive.
A report carried out by several institutions including the European Renewable Energy Council, Greenpeace and the Global Wind Energy Council, shows that Poland could halve the quantity of electricity it generates from coal by investing massively into energy efficiency and renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, hydro and biomass.
Coal could thus account for 60 TWh in 2030, compared to 120 TWh currently. Renewable energy sources accounted in 2010 for 7.8 percent of Poland’s total primary energy demand. This proportion could rise to 26.8 percent by 2030.
Such a move would cost $264 billion (191 billion euros), or twice the money currently spent each year but would create 100,000 jobs in the next two decades and alleviate air pollution. In the long term, the country would also save money as wind and solar, once installed, are free.
Poland recently hosted the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Warsaw. It also recently hosted the International Coal Summit.
Carbon dioxide is known to contribute to climate. When levels of CO2 increase, the atmosphere reacts with rising temperatures. The linkage here is well understood, and accepted as a proven hypothesis. It follows that if we reduce our emissions of CO2 that atmospheric levels will gradually reduce and the impacts to global
After more than 36 hours of continuous negotiations, delegates at the U.N. climate talks in Warsaw agreed to two last-minute deals that kept alive hopes for staving off climate change. At talks that ended Saturday, delegates agreed to a proposed system for pledging cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
A recent article written by Jonathan M.W.W. Chu and published in the Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment takes another look at the role of intellectual property in green technology innovation.
Entitled “Developing and Diffusing Green Technologies: The Impact of Intellectual Property
The new ORION software from United Parcel Service (UPS) is helping the company further its goal to make its delivery operations more sustainable. The company has maintained a focus on optimizing delivery routes, which has helped save several millions of gallons of gas over the years. The new software is designed to institutionalize that process of