Global cosmetics giant L’Oréal has announced a target to reduce its carbon footprint while continuing to increase production. The company plans to become “carbon balanced” by 2020 by offsetting greenhouse gas emissions from its operations. Since 2005 the company has reduced its absolute emissions by 50% while increasing its production by … [continued]
In a whirlwind journey to meet with her counterpart Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany cemented an important climate link between the largest economies in Europe and Latin America this week. Their national ties go back centuries to the first German immigration to Brazil about 200 years … [continued]
So who’s left on the villains list — the roster of top national polluters in the developed world who have not yet made their contributions? For various reasons, Japan, Canada, Australia, South Korea, and South Africa have missed their INDC deadlines. Franz Perrez, the Swiss climate representative, told the Sydney … [continued]
Responding to a strong perceived demand from governments for current information about a green economy Africa, the United Nations Environment Program reported Thursday from Nairobi on the power of green investments in the nations of Africa. Says one international expert in green economics, “The list of successful examples of green investments … [continued]
Thanks to protracted temblors in the US (and some other English-speaking nations) over the role of fossil fuels in generating climate change, many of us sometimes forget that agriculture, deforestation, and land use change (AFOLU, for short) also emit a large proportion of greenhouse gases. Those with a rough idea … [continued]
A new report, “Halfway There? What the Land Sector Can Contribute to Closing the Emissions Gap Post-2020,” contributes some very useful measurement schemes that will benefit nations beginning to calculate their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) prior to the critical Paris UN climate change meeting (COP21) this December. These metrics will … [continued]
With the release this morning in Copenhagen, Denmark, of the final world Synthesis Report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel, it has become evident that all peoples of Earth need to take action (Sunday, November 2, 2014). Why is this important to Americans? IPCC interfaces on a global scale between science and … [continued]
Almost everyone in the media has taken a stab at summarizing, if not snap-judging, the results of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s one-day UN climate summit last week. The meeting had a real name, but Robert N. Stavins in his New York Times runup to the conference was the only writer I … [continued]
A group of nongovernmental organizations from the United Kingdom has elaborated on the elements it sees necessary for the planned 2015 Paris climate talks among 196 countries to succeed. The group calls for all governments to accelerate their approaches to decarbonization significantly by initiating much stricter emission reductions and pursuing sustainable energy policies, … [continued]
This week, the government of Chile holds a final vote on its first carbon taxation scheme, also the first in South America, a measure to make fossil fuel generators pay for emitting greenhouse gases. The Chile carbon tax is part of a larger program of wide-ranging tax revisions introduced by the country’s … [continued]
