This overview sets the scene for the various modules in the Renewables 2024 Global Status Report Collection. It provides high-level trends on the status of renewables in the wider fossil fuel-dominated energy system in the context of global challenges such as climate change, development goals and the geopolitical landscape. Urgent …
Pontiff hopes to inspire action at next year’s UN meeting in Paris in December after visits to Philippines and New York He has been called the “superman pope”, and it would be hard to deny that Pope Francis has had a good December. Cited by President Barack Obama as a …
This inaugural State of Clean Transport Policy report compiles advancements in national and international regulations to reduce energy use, mitigate climate change, and control air pollution from motor vehicles and fuels across eleven major vehicle markets from January 2013 through August 2014. These eleven vehicle markets—China, the United States (US), …
Thomson Reuters released a new report – Global 500 Greenhouse Gases Performance 2010-2013: 2014 Report on Trends – revealing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data from the world’s 500 largest businesses (Global 500). The report was written in collaboration with BSD Consulting, a global sustainability consultancy. Among the data included in …
2013 saw global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use and cement production reach a new all-time high. This was mainly due to the continuing steady increase in energy use in emerging economies over the past ten years. However, emissions increased at a notably slower rate (2%) than on average in …
Countries, worldwide, have agreed that international efforts should be aimed at keeping the global mean temperature increase below 2 °C, compared to pre-industrial levels. In order to achieve the 2 °C climate target with a likely probability (>67%), cumulative global CO2 emissions over in the 2010–2100 period need to be …
THAT Americans drive brash gas-guzzling cars whereas Europeans putter around in fuel-sipping runabouts is as enduring a stereotype as any. Strangely, this divide holds true even for similar models sold on either side of the Atlantic. European cars will apparently go much farther on a tank of fuel and, as …
Better protecting the world's fast-disappearing mangroves could have big economic, social and environmental benefits, experts said at the U.N. climate talks in Lima this week. Besides protecting shorelines from extreme weather and providing fish a safe place to breed, mangroves could play a big role in trapping climate-changing carbon emissions, …
While Minister of State for Environment Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday reiterated that there was no role for any external review of targets that each country set for itself to cut carbon emissions, the head of the U.S. delegation at the Lima talks, Todd Stern, clarified that no climate deal is …
A new report published by CDP, the international not-for-profit organization that holds the largest collection of company-reported environmental data, has found that a significant scaling up of activity is required for companies in heavy-emitting industries to achieve emissions-reduction targets. In its fourth annual Carbon Action report, Why companies need emissions …
The Energy Architecture Performance Index (EAPI) provides a tool for decision-makers to holistically benchmark nations’ energy systems. The EAPI aims to support governments and other stakeholders along the energy value chain in identifying the relative performance of elements of their energy systems, in order for best practices to be diffused …
The IPCC Guidelines propose 3 Tier levels for greenhouse gas monitoring within the forest land category with a hierarchical order in terms of accuracy, data requirements and complexity. Due to missing data and/or capacities, many developing countries, potentially interested in the reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation scheme, have …
The climate talks in Lima are proving to be so difficult because the issue before the negotiators is whether the Climate Treaty of 1992 needs to be tweaked to take into account the changed context, or whether a new treaty is needed.
The Climate Change Performance Index is an instrument supposed to enhance transparency in international climate politics. Its aim is to encourage political and social pressure on those countries which have, up to now, failed to take ambitious actions on climate protection as well as to highlight countries with best-practice climate …
The introduction of mandatory CO2 standards for passenger cars in the European Union led to a significant decrease in the level of CO2 emissions for new vehicles, as well an increased deployment of vehicle efficiency technologies. This paper assesses the effect on technology innovation and deployment if mandatory CO2 standards …
BHUBANESWAR: Notwithstanding a state government directive of June 25, 2013, against setting up brick kilns on river beds, 23 such units were found operating in Khurda and Puri districts. Since such activities lead to soil erosion, the government had asked the collectors to ban them. The Odisha State Pollution Control …
It is known that carbon dioxide emissions cause the Earth to warm, but no previous study has focused on examining how long it takes to reach maximum warming following a particular CO2 emission. Using conjoined results of carbon-cycle and physical-climate model intercomparison projects, we find the median time between an …
The CDM has by now become an established mechanism for crediting climate friendly projects. Projects involving displacement or saving of grid electricity must calculate their emission reductions based on a grid emission factor which needs to be determined in accordance with the rules set by the CDM Executive Board. Central …
Carbon Pools and Multiple Benefits of Mangroves in Central Africa: Assessment for REDD+ provides the knowledge base for improving the management and reducing the deforestation rates of mangroves in Central Africa. It highlights the high ecological and economic values of mangroves, and the threats that exist from urban sprawl and …
In many places where forest carbon projects are implemented, traditional forest use has been blamed for forest loss while the drivers of large-scale deforestation remain unaddressed – and deforestation and the emissions associated with it continue. This article explores some of the controversies that arise when conservation groups or specialist …
As per analysis of the Washington DC-based global research organisation World Resources Institute (WRI) for 2011, China, comprising almost 20 per cent of the world’s population, was the world’s leading emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2), with 28 percent emissions. The United States, with less than 5 per cent of world’s …
