13 October 2018 (UN News) – “Limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees will require rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society – especially how we manage land, energy, industry, buildings, transport, and cities,” Secretary-General António Guterres, at a ministerial meeting on climate finance, in Bali, Indonesia.“That means ending deforestation and planting billions […]
14 October 2018 (Desdemona Despair) – On Monday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its semi-annual World Economic Outlook report for 2018. Twice a year, Des looks forward to browsing this hefty document for the latest financial and energy data, and this year’s report, Challenges to Steady Growth, has lots of good stuff. Here are […]
By Leah Burrows 4 October 2018 (The Harvard Gazette) – When it comes to energy production, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, unfortunately.As the world begins its large-scale transition toward low-carbon energy sources, it is vital that the pros and cons of each type are well understood and the environmental impacts of renewable […]
By Tiffany Crawford 2 October 2018 (Vancouver Sun) – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada is celebrating the single largest private investment in Canadian history with the $40-billion liquefied natural-gas export terminal on B.C.’s North Coast. Trudeau was in Vancouver on Tuesday to formally announce the giant energy project’s go-ahead, along with Premier John Horgan, […]
ByJonathan Watts and Matthew Taylor 8 October 2018 (The Guardian) – World leaders have been told they have moral obligation to ramp up their action on the climate crisis in the wake of a new UN report that shows even half a degree of extra warming will affect hundreds of millions of people, decimate corals, […]
By Peter Hannam 28 September 2018 (The Sydney Morning Herald) – Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions have continued to climb, reaching the highest levels on a quarterly basis since 2010, led by a surge in gas production.For the 12 months to March 31 2018, emissions totalled 529.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent, up 1.3 per cent […]
24 September 2018 (UN News) – A “surge in financing and investments” is needed to achieve the 2030 Agenda, the United Nations plan of action agreed by Member States, to transform the world, the Secretary-General said on Monday.António Guterres was speaking at the opening of the High Level Meeting on Financing the 2030 Agenda, at […]
25 September 2018 (Desdemona Despair) – The first anniversary of the destruction of modern Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands by Hurricanes Irma and Maria brought numerous retrospectives in the media. Not many focused on the actual cost to rebuild PR. Although there are stories of recovery, a picture of widespread infrastructure failure and poverty […]
By Jason Hickel 12 September 2018 (Foreign Policy) – Warnings about ecological breakdown have become ubiquitous. Over the past few years, major newspapers, including the Guardian and the New York Times, have carried alarming stories on soil depletion, deforestation, and the collapse of fish stocks and insect populations. These crises are being driven by global […]
By Laura Paddison 31 August 2018 (Huffington Post) – As access to cheap, plentiful energy dries up and the effects of climate change take hold, we are entering a new era of profound challenge ― and free market capitalism cannot dig us out. This is the conclusion of a report produced for the United Nations […]
