U.S. greenhouse gas emissions under current policy with energy market and economic uncertainty, 2005-2021 and projected to 2030. Under current trends, the U.S. will miss both of its Paris Agreement reduction targets in 2025 and 2030. Graphic: Rhodium Group

Taking Stock 2021: U.S. will miss Paris Agreement emissions reduction targets – Cheap natural gas threatens renewable energy transition

By Hannah Pitt, Kate Larsen, Hannah Kolus, Ben King, Alfredo Rivera, Emily Wimberger, Whitney Herndon, John Larsen, and Galen Hiltbrand 15 July 2021 (Rhodium Group) – For the past seven years, Rhodium Group has provided an independent annual outlook for US greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under current federal and state policy. This current policy baseline […]

FAO Food Price Index, May 2020-May 2021. The FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) averaged 127.1 points in May 2021, 5.8 points (4.8 percent) higher than in April and as much as 36.1 points (39.7 percent) above the same period last year. The May increase represented the biggest month-on-month gain since October 2010. It also marked the twelfth consecutive monthly rise in the value of the FFPI to its highest value since September 2011, bringing the Index only 7.6 percent below its peak value of 137.6 points registered in February 2011. The sharp increase in May reflected a surge in prices for oils, sugar and cereals along with firmer meat and dairy prices. Graphic: UN FAO

Global food prices rise at rapid pace in May 2021 – Food Price Index hits highest value since September 2011, only 7.6 percent below its all-time peak

ROME, 4 June 2021 (FAO) – Global food prices rose in May at their fastest monthly rate in more than a decade, even as world cereal production is on course to reach a new record high, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported today. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 127.1 points in […]

Uyghur men imprisoned at the Lop County #4 Re-Education Camp, Xinjiang, China. They are forced to listen to “de-radicalization” lectures. Photo: Weixin

Forced labor from China’s Uighur Muslims “behind global supply of solar panels”

By Sam Courtney-Guy 15 May 2021 (MetroUK) – A huge chunk of the world’s solar panels production depends on forced labour from China’ Uighur Muslims, according to new research. An investigation by Sheffield Hallam University estimates almost half of global supplies of polysilicon are produced by Uighurs under conditions ‘tantamount to enslavement’ in their home […]

Annualized global Bitcoin electricity consumption in TWh, 2016-2021. Graphic: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index / University of Cambridge

Majority of global Bitcoin energy consumption powered by non-renewable energy – Only 39 percent comes from renewables

24 September 2020 (CCAF) – The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) at the Cambridge Judge Business School today published the third edition of its Global Cryptoasset Benchmarking Studywhich highlights the industry’s efforts to address regulatory concerns over anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT), but cautions that efforts to address issues such […]

Map showing record cold temperatures across the United States on 16 February 2021 caused by winter Storm Uri, compared with the average temperatures over the 1979-2000 period. Temperatures were far colder than average and caused widespread power failures across Texas and other states. Data: National Weather Service / Global Forecast System / ClimateReanalyzer.org / Climate Change Institute / University of Maine. Graphic: The New York Times

How one Texas storm exposed an energy grid unprepared for climate change

By Josh Lederman 17 February 2021 WASHINGTON (NBC News) – A devastating winter storm that has plunged Texas into an electricity crisis offers warning signs for the U.S. as the Biden administration seeks to prepare for a future in which extreme weather is a greater risk and America is almost entirely powered by renewable energy. Generating energy is one challenge. But […]

Projected energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in the United States, 2020-2050. Graphic: EIA

EIA energy report explores impact of COVID-19 on U.S. energy mix through 2050 – Return to 2019 levels of U.S. energy consumption to take years – Energy-related CO2 emissions fall before leveling off or rising

By Ari Kahan 3 February 2021 (EIA) – The United States will likely take years to return to 2019 levels of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions following the impact of COVID-19 on the U.S. economy and global energy sector, according to projections in the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Annual Energy Outlook 2021 (AEO2021). […]

This frame grab from video provided by KK Productions shows a massive flood of water, mud, and debris flowing in the Chamoli District after a portion of the Nanda Devi glacier broke off in the Tapovan area of the northern state of Uttarakhand, India, Sunday, 7 February 2021. Photo: KK Productions / AP

Rescuers search for 171 missing people after Indian glacier causes devastating flood – “Most scholars of Himalayan rivers have been warning about these risks for decades”

By Hannah Ellis-Petersen 8 February 2021 DELHI, India (The Guardian) – Twenty six bodies have been recovered in the Indian Himalayas and scores more people are still missing after a second day of rescue efforts after a glacier break that caused an avalanche of water and debris to engulf a river valley and demolish two […]

UK emissions of PM10 (top) and PM2.5 (bottom) from road transport projected to 2030. Graphic: Air Quality Expert Group, 2019

Pollution from tire wear 1,000 times worse than exhaust emissions

OXFORD, 6 March 2020 (Emissions Analytics) – Pollution from tyre wear can be 1,000 times worse than what comes out of a car’s exhaust, Emissions Analytics has found. Harmful particle matter from tyres – and also brakes – is a very serious and growing environmental problem, one that is being exacerbated by the increasing popularity […]

Aerial view of a house in the East Yorkshire town of Snaith that been devastated by flooding in February 2020. Photo: Getty Images

Big freeze to grip Britain before weekend downpour hits – 178 flood alerts still in effect

By Dan Keane 6 March 2020 (The Sun) – Temperatures are set to drop by another -6C before another weekend of rain hits the country after weeks of heavy rainfall. Flooding alerts are still in place, and this weekend could bring more wet weather with heavy wind also expected. This will be the fifth weekend in a […]

The Blue Acceleration: global trends in human exploitation of ocean resources. Graphic: Jouffray, et al., 2020 / One Earth

The “blue acceleration”: Study shows humans’ surging incursions into the sea

By Grace Dungey 13 February 2020 (Mongabay) – Humanity has depended on the ocean for millennia. Today, however, the rush to the sea is occurring with unprecedented diversity and intensity, propelled by population growth and demand for diminishing terrestrial resources. A study published in January in the new journal One Earth analyzed 50 years of data on 18 kinds […]

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