The United Nations hosts another high-level event today Monday, June 29, in New York to help steer a widening coalition of global efforts to limit the damage and adapt to the challenges of ongoing climate change. This end-of-June meeting is not part of the critical negotiation process that will culminate … [continued]
“Recent decades have witnessed dramatic progress in global health,” says the US Agency for International Development. Smallpox has been eradicated within the past half century. In all but three countries (Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan), polio has been wiped out. Use of modern methods of contraception has increased from 10% in 1965 … [continued]
To accompany the Roman Catholic Pope’s blockbuster climate encyclical (Laudato Si) this week, a team from Yale and George Mason Universities published a substantial note about the views of American Catholics on climate change. One in four people in the US are Catholic, making the results important as a bellwether for … [continued]
We now have more insights into how the clean-tech economy is doing from this year’s sixth annual US Clean Tech Leadership Index. The index, prepared by Clean Edge, a research and indexing firm founded in 2000, tracks and ranks clean-tech activities in all 50 states and the largest 50 metro … [continued]
“The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.” With words and images as pointed as these, on Thursday Pope Francis I infused his Church–and all the world’s faiths–with the prevailing view of environmental scientists and heads of state: we should waste no … [continued]
Today, Pope Francis I has released his first encyclical, Laudato si (Praised be), widely anticipated for its focus on climate change and the links to human poverty and economic development. The world religious leader started off his official pronouncement by quoting the Canticle of Creatures, a favorite hymn composed by St. Francis of … [continued]
It’s hard to keep a good man—in this case, recently bereaved Vice-President Joe Biden—down. Biden resumed official duties yesterday by hosting the Clean Energy Investment Summit at the White House. You may recall that to support the President’s Climate Action Plan, the White House launched a Clean Energy Investment Initiative … [continued]
High-level officials from around the world have gathered in Masdar City to celebrate the official opening of the permanent headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency. Said IRENA Director-General Adnan Z. Amin at the official opening earlier this month: “We are delighted to finally be home in our new global … [continued]
In its latest Utility Solar Market Snapshot (2014, published last month), the US Solar Electric Power Association offers renewable energy interests some welcome news: solar energy is becoming increasingly attractive to utilities. Since the shale gas boom, solar has become the fastest-growing power source in the nation, and the Solar Energy … [continued]
Although negotiations on a draft text for December’s Paris climate talks have stalled, with very little of the 89-page document having been pared, and calls for the UN climate secretariat to winnow it further increasing, the results are in for the largest ever citizen consultation on climate change. More than … [continued]
