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 …
Proponents of curbing carbon emissions often point to the additional benefits of cleaner air and healthier families. The high cost of climate change policies, they reason, will be largely offset by health care savings. Now, a team of researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have quantified just how big that …
The world not only continues to build new coal-fired power plants, but built more new coal plants in the past decade than in any previous decade. Worldwide, an average of 89 gigawatts per year (GW yr–1) of new coal generating capacity was added between 2010 and 2012, 23 GW yr–1 …
Human conversion of forest ecosystems to agriculture is a major driver of global change. Conventionally, the impacts of the historical cropland expansion on Earth’s radiation balance have been quantified through two opposing effects: the release of stored carbon to the atmosphere as CO2 (warming) versus the increase in surface albedo …
Microsoft Corp. has left the American Legislative Exchange Council because of concerns about the lobbying group's opposition to renewable energy, a coalition of activist investor groups said. The Sustainability Group and Walden Asset Management, asset management companies that describe themselves as focused on sustainable investing, said Microsoft confirmed in e-mails …
The hiatus in the rise in global temperatures could last for another 10 years, according to new research. Scientists have struggled to explain the so-called pause that began in 1999, despite ever increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. The latest theory says that a naturally occurring 30-year cycle in …
Morrisons has become the first major UK supermarket chain to introduce the 'Green Leaf' screw cap closure to its own-brand wine as part of the group's ongoing carbon reduction initiatives. The Green Leaf screw cap, previously trialled in Italy, Australia and New Zealand, uses 64% less aluminium than a standard …
Architects across the world have signed up to a global commitment to eliminate CO2 emissions in the built environment by 2050. Member organisations representing over 1.3 million architects in 124 countries - including the UK's Royal Institute of British Architects - agreed to adopt the 2050 Imperative at the recent …
Brazil’s power sector has doubled its global warming emissions in the past two years, a new analysis found. The uptick threatens to offset some of the country’s gains in slowing deforestation – an effort that climate groups say has led to dramatic cuts in carbon dioxide pollution. That could diminish …
Just how much Arctic permafrost will thaw in the future and how fast heat-trapping carbon dioxide will be released from those warming soils is a topic of lively debate among climate scientists. To answer those questions, scientists need to understand the mechanisms that control the conversion of organic soil carbon …
A software program from Cornell researchers aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save farmers’ crops. Now the big seed companies are taking notice We have a nitrogen problem. Nitrogen is essential to our existence, a required nutrient for the plants we eat. It is the broad swath at the …
Five climate scientists warned Florida Governor Rick Scott in a meeting on Tuesday that a steadily rising ocean was a major threat to the state's future, urging it to become a leader in developing solar energy and other clean power sources. The Republican governor, who disputed the human impact on …
EU regulators are preparing draft legislation that will require vehicle fuel use to be tested on roads rather than in laboratories, looking to close loopholes that allow car makers to exaggerate fuel-saving and emissions credentials. Already from Sept. 1, slightly tougher EU testing standards will be enforced, in line with …
China's coal consumption has declined for the first time in about 100 years in the first half of 2014, as the world's second largest economy is striving to achieve cleaner growth by declaring a "war on pollution". Activist group Greenpeace International said in a blog post that China's coal use …
Major polluting companies believe a carbon price will be reintroduced in Australia some time in the future, according to the first business survey released after its repeal. The survey of major Australian energy, mining, construction and manufacturing firms also found that 77 per cent of those who responded did not …
The University of Sydney has been accused of breaking its own environmental policies by investing $1m in the company behind the controversial Maules Creek mine. Greenpeace said Dr Michael Spence, vice-chancellor of the University of Sydney, had confirmed that 0.1% of the university’s long-term investment fund was used for Whitehaven …
Guangdong, the biggest of China's seven pilot carbon trading markets, will this year hand out around 6 percent more emission permits to companies than in 2013, potentially aggravating oversupply that sent prices tumbling earlier this year. The market is meant to rein in climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions from power stations, …
As China lays down plans for a national carbon trading scheme, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases risks repeating mistakes made in carbon trading in Europe by flooding its pilot markets with free permits. The European Union's scheme, the world's largest, suffered a collapse in prices hurting its credibility …
Summer heatwaves and downpours have become more frequent in the northern hemisphere this century, apparently because extreme weather can get trapped for weeks in the same place in a warming world, a study showed on Monday. Disruptions to the jet stream, which forms huge meandering waves as it blows at …
Four of the world's emerging economies have claimed that they are far ahead of developed countries in their efforts to slow climate change. Brazil, South Africa, India and China are known as the BASIC bloc in international climate negotiations. They have also accused developed nations of keeping their carbon emission …
