Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
Germany comes in first in a new energy efficiency ranking of the world’s major economies, followed by Italy, the European Union as a whole, China, and France, according to the 2014 International Energy Efficiency Scorecard published today by the nonprofit American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). New to the …
A country that uses less energy to achieve the same or better results reduces its costs and pollution, creating a stronger, more competitive economy. While energy efficiency has played a role in the economies of developed nations for decades, cost-effective energy efficiency remains a massively underutilized energy resource. In this …
Since its inception in 2009, the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD), a European Union regulation aimed at reducing the climate impact of transport fuels, has been attacked by powerful lobby interests that do not want the EU to take action to curtail the use of particularly greenhouse gas intensive fossil fuels. …
California water regulators Tuesday approved fines for washing cars, watering lawns or hosing down sidewalks after revised figures showed that residents have increased consumption despite calls for big cutbacks amid the state's severe drought. They are the first emergency conservation measures passed to try to force Californians to wake up …
Washington DC is giving foam carry-out containers the boot in an effort to make the city more sustainable. The DC Council on Monday approved the ban as part of a broader environmental package introduced by Mayor Vincent Gray. The provision bans restaurants, cafés, grocery stores and food trucks from using …
Aid group Oxfam has called on other rich nations to follow the example of Germany, which has promised €750m ($1bn) for the UN's fledgling Green Climate Fund. "This announcement ends the deafening silence we've had so far around the empty Green Climate Fund that is supposed to support poor countries …
California’s drought is expected to cost the state an estimated $2.2 billion this year, along with a loss of more than 17,000 jobs, as farmers are forced to fallow some valuable crops, a report by scientists at the University of California in Davis showed on Tuesday. The report stressed the …
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) agreed to spend billions of euros increasing its orders of Samsung SDI Co. batteries as the world’s largest maker of luxury cars expands its line of electric vehicles. BMW is planning to increase its purchases of SDI battery cells for the electric i3 city car …
Global investment in clean energy increased to $63.6 billion in the second quarter, boosted by the biggest deal in the industry’s history, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said. Financing swelled 9 percent from a year earlier, and 33 percent from the first quarter, the London-based research company said today in an …
An Iowa Supreme Court ruling may spur the growth of solar energy in the state, accord to an industry group. The decision, “clears the air,” Ken Johnson, a spokesman for the Washington-based Solar Energy Industries Association, said in an interview today. “It’s going to make Iowa a more viable market …
The dream of pollution-free coal plants is getting a boost from growing demand for carbon dioxide used to revive old oilfields. In one of the first projects to harness the C02 waste of a coal plant for oil drilling, power generator NRG Energy Inc. (NRG) announced today that it’s beginning …
Parables help us make sense of a mysterious world. Slow and steady, the tortoise teaches the hare a lesson in overconfidence. David has a surprise for towering Goliath. Lawyers and environmental activists fighting Chevron (CVX) in a closely watched oil pollution case in Ecuador invoke an inherently appealing theme of …
A group of 12 leading companies have signed up to the Renewable Energy Buyers' Principles in an effort to better communicate their expectations of the renewables marketplace. The companies - Bloomberg, Facebook, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Mars, Novelis, Proctor & Gamble, REI, Sprint and Walmart - hope …
Intense urban and agricultural development alters habitats, increases fragmentation, and may decouple trophic interactions if plants or animals cannot disperse to needed resources. Specialist insects represent a substantial proportion of global biodiversity and their fidelity to discrete microhabitats provides a powerful framework for investigating organismal responses to human land use. …
The dispute outlined in China's panel request is one of the most extensive in the history of the World Trade Organization. China's request challenges the WTO-consistency of various aspects of 22 separate subsidy investigations, including 18 "public body" determinations; 18 determinations that the provision of inputs for less than adequate …
A drive through the sticky Florida heat into Alton Road in Miami Beach can be an unexpectedly awkward business. Most of the boulevard, which runs north through the heart of the resort's most opulent palm-fringed real estate, has been reduced to a single lane that is hemmed in by bollards, …
China may struggle to cut carbon emissions to levels that prevent the worst effects of global warming, a United Nations study of 15 major emitters showed. The UN said per-capita emissions from burning fossil fuels needs to fall to 1.6 tons in 2050 from 5.4 tons now across the 15 …
A shallow magnitude 3.3 earthquake was reported Thursday afternoon about seven miles east of the Coahuila Indian Reservation in Riverside County, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblor occurred at 1:41 p.m. Pacific time at a depth of 8.7 miles. According to the USGS, the epicenter was about about …
Fossil fuels will remain an indispensable part of the global energy supply for at least the next 50 years, so a means must be found to burn them without pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. According to Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator of the Financial Times: "(Just) as the civilisation …
The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to jettison yet another formerly popular compound used in air conditioners, vending machines and aerosol spray cans, citing its impact on global warming. In an announcement Thursday, the federal regulatory agency said that it is considering banning certain hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), compounds used in many …
