Search - environment

 
 
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 11, 2023

Turning a snowless ski resort into a national park is complicated

A dispute in Spain has become an example of the tensions that arise when efforts to restore nature clash with economic interests and even long-standing traditions.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 10, 2023

Restoration of the ozone layer is back on track, scientists say

In a report for the United Nations, scientists said Monday that China had largely eliminated rogue emissions of an ozone destroying chemical known as CFC-11.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 9, 2023

How researchers in disaster-prone Japan and the Pacific are rethinking city design

In the years following the 2011 megaquake and tsunami, seawalls have proliferated along northeastern Japan's Pacific coast. Some researchers are pushing for an alternative approach.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 23, 2022

Stories centered on climate change slowly make inroads in massive gaming industry

Activists and governments are hoping they can encourage behavioral change among gamers through green nudges, where points are awarded for protecting the environment in consumer games
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2022

Java without java? The crisis brewing in coffee

The Indonesian island is a byword for caffeine. The woes piling up for the coffee industry are on full display.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 23, 2022

Anchovies and sardines are a climate solution in a can

Tinned fish are among the lowest-carbon animal protein available, with potential to curb the world's enormous emissions from food.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 20, 2022

Nearly every country signs on to a sweeping deal to protect nature

The agreement comes as biodiversity is declining worldwide at rates never seen before in human history.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 6, 2022

U.N. says new biodiversity credits can succeed where carbon offsets failed

Studies on biodiversity offsetting programs in Canada, Australia and at a global level have found very few achieve their targets and most are unsuccessful.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Nov 30, 2022

Restoring nature could depend on how countries help farmers

Around the world, government subsidies that harm nature amount to at least $1.8 trillion each year — equivalent to 2% of global GDP.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 23, 2022

Beijing is fixing its foul air. Why can’t New Delhi?

The return of smog season in India's capital has again left residents asking why nothing has changed. The answer may be largely political.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 5, 2022

'Negotiating our future': Youth set to grab power roles at COP27

Young people have long been at the forefront of green protests and activism outside the corridors of power. Now many are striding into those corridors.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 3, 2022

The White House’s adventures in wonderland

Today's fraught geopolitical environment requires more transparency and less spin about the hard choices that governments face.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 3, 2022

The Nile is in mortal danger, from its source to the sea

Climate change, pollution and exploitation are putting existential pressure on the world's second longest river, on which half a billion people depend for survival.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / Longform
Oct 24, 2022

Battle to stop Kagoshima seawall highlights divide over coastal engineering

Seawalls are a fixture of Japanese coasts, but one beach on the island of Amami Oshima is fighting against the tide.
Thon Soukhon, who has been a ranger in Virachey since the forest became one of Cambodia’s first national parks in 1993, holds a rope as he crosses a rain-swollen river within the protected area.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Oct 29, 2023

In the name of sustainability, Cambodia risks its ‘final frontier’ of biodiversity

Virachey National Park is a rare untouched wilderness in Southeast Asia, but potential hydropower plans threaten its future.
The most relevant measure to gauge plastic bag use isn’t how many carriers get used, but how much material is consumed and how much pollution is produced in their making.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2024

Plastic bag bans have failed in every way except one

Reusable plastic bags need to be used 52 times before its environmental impact drops below that of a disposable one, according to a 2018 Danish study.
A hiker walks toward Asahidake in Hokkaido. The health and environmental issues around PFAS could be a particular problem for Japan, which boasts a number of globally renowned outdoor brands and related suppliers.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Mar 10, 2024

Japan’s revered outdoor brands face down PFAS challenge

Outdoor apparel consumers are generally more environmentally conscious, but are likely to be using products that have a big environmental footprint.
Black bears have been added to the list of "designated wildlife species for control" by the Environment Ministry.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2024

Japan adds black and brown bears to subsidized hunting list

The government is stepping up the control measures as bear attacks on humans hit a record high in fiscal 2023 that ended in March.
A rickshaw driver drinks water as he rests during ongoing heat-wave in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 1, 2024

Islamic charitable giving may offer Bangladesh a route to climate adaptation

Global faith-based finance could support poor countries whose needs for funds are 10 to 18 times greater than the financing they currently receive.
Ecuador has sought funding to fight the effects of climate change, including a June 2023 flood that followed heavy rains in Esmeraldas. So far, the developed world has offered the debt-strapped nation more loans than grants.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 23, 2024

Rich nations reap climate finance dividend, benefiting from rates and terms

Developed nations have pledged to send $100 billion a year to poorer countries to aid adaptation, but money from the deals is being funneled back into rich economies.
Flaring at the Cameron LNG export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. Flaring, a common sight at LNG plants, is a controlled burning of gas for reasons ranging from depressurizing equipment to disposing of gas that can’t be used. The practice is a "waste of money" and negatively impacts climate change and human health, says the International Energy Agency.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET
Aug 11, 2024

Japan fuels U.S. LNG boom even as climate targets and impacts loom

For over half a century, Japan has been a sizable buyer of LNG, and its government, banks and energy companies have played a key role in continued investment.
The Tomakomai carbon, capture and storage test site in Tomakomai, Hokkaido, in March 2018. The true benefits of carbon removal won’t be realized until we get close to net zero emissions.
COMMENTARY
Oct 10, 2024

Geoengineering can save the planet — if we demystify it

The percentage of Americans who say they trust scientists on the environment has declined to 67% this year from 75% in 2020.
A thermal power plant in Takasago, Hyogo Prefecture. Policymakers suggest setting a target of cutting emissions by 60% by 2035.
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2024

Japanese panel suggests 60% emissions reduction target for 2035

Japan already has a goal to reduce 2013-level emissions by 46% by 2030.
INC-5 Chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso (on screen) speaks during an open plenary session during the fifth session of the U.N. Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC-5) in Busan, South Korea, on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 2, 2024

Countries fail to reach agreement in U.N. plastic talks

Countries remained far apart on the basic scope of a treaty and could agree only to postpone key decisions and resume talks at a later date.
Corn crops affected by a long drought, near Buenos Aires in January 2022
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Dec 15, 2024

World falls short of drought deal at Saudi-hosted talks

The Riyadh talks came after a lack of progress on in other international summits regarding biodiversity, plastics pollution and climate finance in recent months.
Steam rises from a geothermal plan in Yuzawa, Akita Prefecture. Despite its long history and potential, geothermal provided just 0.3% of Japan's overall energy mix in the fiscal year from April 2023
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Dec 22, 2024

Is Japan finally ready to tap its abundant geothermal energy potential?

Japan boasts the world’s third-largest potential supply of geothermal energy, but this renewable energy resource has mostly been untapped.
Japan, which relied on coal and natural gas for more than 60% of electricity generation last year, has been slow to shift to lower-emission energy sources.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2024

Japan aims for 60% emissions cut by 2035 in target seen as lax

The target was proposed last month, and was criticized by experts who said the plans don’t align with international ambitions to curb global warming.
Susumu Hyodo, director of the University of Tokyo's Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute (right), and others announce a project to analyze seawater temperatures during an event in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 21, 2025

Japan to study sea changes using fishers' data

Japanese catches of major fish species such as salmon and saury have been slumping since around 2010, according to a national fishing industry group.
The Chip Mong Insee cement factory in Kampot province, Cambodia, on Jan. 9. An investigation has shown that the plastic credits sector relies heavily on the polluting cement industry to burn collected waste, despite concerns about health risks and carbon emissions.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Feb 20, 2025

'What would you have us do?': The plastic credits problem

Credits place no obligations on buyers to stop producing or using unrecyclable plastic that ends up in the environment.
Secondhand clothing store "Onward Reuse Park Kichijoji" in December in the city of Musashino in Tokyo
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2025

Eyeing waste, Japanese apparel industry pushes sustainable fashion

About 60% of the clothes sold in Japan are thrown away, according to the Environment Ministry.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan