A new report from the Oxford Martin School has warned that the world’s energy sector is “uncomfortably close” to pushing global warming above 2°C. A new study from the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School and the Smith School for Enterprise and Environment, University of Oxford, published in … [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]
Despite grindingly slow progress in the United States with decarbonization by means of energy adaptation, the world has actually moved a few steps ahead in the past year. That makes it time to revisit the simplest mechanism for greenhouse gas reversal: a phased-in, revenue-neutral carbon fee and dividend strategy. “Fee” rather … [continued]
What if we could cut city energy use by about one-fourth, from 730 EJ to 540 EJ, in 2050? The alternative is tripling it, as current urbanization trends indicate. The most urbanized areas of the globe are North America (82%), Latin America and the Caribbean (80%), and Europe (73%). Urban areas play … [continued]
A world full of numerous cities powered 100% by renewable energy may sound like something of a pipe dream (for now, anyways) but that isn’t stopping the noted campaigning organization Avaaz from aiming for just such a goal. Avaaz recently sent a petition to the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, featuring the … [continued]
Turning off my computer at a little after 3 am this morning, I gave a silent thanks to Manuel Pulgar Vidal, the Peruvian environment minister and president of the just-completed 2014 UN COP20 meeting in Lima. Now I’ll be a little louder. Much of the credit for the newest internationally … [continued]
If you’ve been following the news, you probably know that the UN’s annual mega-conference to address climate change—officially, the 20th Conference of the Parties (COP20) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change—started in Lima, Peru, yesterday morning, 1 December 2014. (For more information on the runup to the … [continued]
Originally published on Rocky Mountain Institute. By Clay Stranger and Jon Creyts, Ph.D. Yesterday the United States and the People’s Republic of China reached an historic agreement in the global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address the impending consequences of climate change through commitments by President Obama and … [continued]
By now you have surely heard of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest synthesis report and the increased clamour of claims to eradicate fossil fuels by the end of this century in a near-vain attempt to keep warming to within 2ºC over pre-industrial times. The report is the summary … [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]
