In 2019, the illegal wildlife trade reached staggering levels. Pangolin scales and ivory were being trafficked in massive quantities from Africa to Asia, exposing a network of crime syndicates operating at an industrial scale. The sheer volume of these shipments marked a disturbing milestone, one that revealed the global reach …
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the country’s first regional system for capping carbon emissions and creating a market in carbon allowances, proposed a fundamental change on Thursday to increase electrical utilities’ incentive to cut emissions from fossil-fuel plants by raising the cost of compliance. The regional group proposed a 45 …
Barack Obama is certainly talking the talk on climate change - promising to put the fight against global warming at the heart of his second term. What's more surprising is that the US - historically, the world's biggest emitter - actually seems to be walking the walk. It is on …
Germany and six other EU nations hold the key to the decision on a rescue plan for the world's biggest carbon market after prices slumped due to record oversupply, three EU officials with knowledge of the matter said. The EU proposal to help emission prices rebound from all- time lows …
The consequences of climate change are now hitting the United States on several fronts, including health, infrastructure, water supply, agriculture and especially more frequent severe weather, a congressionally mandated study has concluded. A draft of the U.S. National Climate Assessment, released on Friday, said observable change to the climate in …
New policy likely to help cut greenhouse gases in US by 17% As leaders in Washington obsess about the fiscal cliff, President Barack Obama is putting in place the building blocks for a climate treaty requiring the first fossil-fuel emissions cuts from both the US and China. State Department envoy …
Used by governments for decades, market-based policies are mechanisms to control environmental pollution at various leverage points. They work by changing relative prices – raising the cost of emissions-intensive activities and/or lowering the cost of lower-emitting alternatives – to provide producers and consumers with a financial incentive to adopt the …
President Barack Obama signed a bill on Tuesday shielding US airlines from paying for each ton of carbon their planes flying into and out of Europe emit, despite a recent move by Europe to suspend its proposed measure for one year. The carbon fee bill was the first piece of …
It had been a nervous few days. So the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which is running the state’s new cap-and-trade scheme for greenhouse-gas emissions, can be forgiven for celebrating its first big test in eccentric fashion. Barely an hour after details of the first auction of emissions permits were …
US President Barack Obama on Wednesday vowed a new push for action on climate change, saying the United States had a duty to come together to curb emissions in the wake of megastorm Sandy. In his first news conference since his decisive re-election on November 6, Obama said he planned …
California, long the national leader in clean energy policy, is poised to double down on its investments in the sector, with billions in new subsidies set to flow in over the next few years. California voters last week directed some $2.5 billion to energy conservation programs with the approval of …
California is set to unveil a new weapon in its fight against global climate change on Wednesday when it holds its first sale of carbon emissions permits - a landmark experiment that it hopes will serve as a model for other U.S. states and the federal government. The state's carbon …
President Barack Obama said he plans to work with Congress in his second term to curb human-aggravated climate change, but not at the expense of the U.S. economy. "I am a firm believer that climate change is real, that it is impacted by human behavior, and carbon emissions," Obama said …
For all their disputes, President Obama and Mitt Romney agree that the world is warming and that humans are at least partly to blame. It remains wholly unclear what either of them plans to do about it. Even after a year of record-smashing temperatures, drought and Arctic ice melt, none …
South Korea has doubled a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by local industrial and power sectors in 2013 to enhance competitiveness prior to a new cap-and-trade scheme starting in 2015, the economy ministry said on Monday. Asia's fourth-largest economy aims to cut 17.2 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent …
The European Union has yet to decide what procedural steps to take next in talks about a draft change to the bloc’s carbon law after some governments voiced uncertainty about the plan, an EU presidency official said. A number of nations expressed reservations about an amendment to the EU emissions …
Ministers from Brazil, India, China and South Africa called for an extension of the Kyoto Protocol, the world's only treaty that forces countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions, which expires at the end of the year. The emerging economies, who form the BASIC bloc, met in Brazil's capital Brasilia on …
California's top air regulator offered a stern defense of the state's forthcoming carbon cap-and-trade system, battling back against complaints from industry that it will cost jobs and drive up consumer prices at a hearing on Thursday. Industry and manufacturing groups that have opposed the carbon market said at a meeting …
The U.S. aviation industry urged President Barack Obama on Monday to file a U.N. action to stop the EU from forcing foreign aircraft to pay for their carbon emissions ahead of a U.N. meeting that will try to make progress on a multilateral solution to the ongoing aviation row. Nineteen …
California's carbon market could be 29 percent short of offset credits in its 2013-2014 pilot phase if regulators do not expand their list of allowable project types, making it more expensive for companies to achieve their required emissions cuts, a new report said. By the upcoming cap-and-trade system's third phase, …
