Tag - emissions

 
 

EMISSIONS

Roofers sport hats to take cover from the sun during a heat wave in Eagle Pass, Texas, late last month.
WORLD
Aug 24, 2023
Heat wave led to huge release of methane from fossil fuel plants
Imagery shows operators in the largest U.S. energy basin released hundreds of tons of gas into the air as crucial equipment was forced to shut down.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 24, 2023
El Nino could doom Indonesia's rare tropical glaciers by 2026
Indonesia expects the dry season could run until October as El Nino increases the risk of forest fires and threatens supplies of clean water.
The U.S. has 8,000 km of carbon dioxide pipelines, but will need at least 50,000 to hit climate goals, according to a carbon transport engineer at the U.S. Department of Energy.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 21, 2023
U.S. Midwest is ground zero in the fight over carbon capture
The U.S. wants to greatly expand carbon capture and storage infrastructure, including pipelines, but many projects face opposition in the Midwest.
Surging populations of plant-eating insects are disrupting farms and the food supply chain, causing problems far more serious than sticky windshields from bug excrement.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2023
The insect apocalypse is coming to your neighborhood
Polar bears and sea turtles get most of the attention as victims of climate change, but when the bugs invade we're all going to feel it personally.
The Inflation Reduction Act’s tax breaks for clean energy will help mitigate climate change but they will not meet the 2050 net-zero carbon goal.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 17, 2023
Biden’s climate bill was too tame
U.S. President Biden and the Democratic Party's Inflation Reduction Act was too tame on fixing the climate.
The ocean has absorbed a whopping 90% of the warming that’s occurred in recent decades as a result of increasing greenhouse gases. Shipping is responsible for a large portion of those emissions, pumping out more than a billion tons in 2018.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 16, 2023
Shipping's quest for greener fuel runs into climate complications
Three-and-a-half years ago, a new rule was established to cut ships’ sulfur emissions. Yet some scientists have linked that to warmer ocean temperatures.
As long as coal plants are still operating, it is a good idea to make them capture their carbon dioxide emissions. But the sooner that coal is replaced by renewables, the better it will be for the planet.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2023
Carbon capture and the changing economics of power generation
Carbon capture policies could unwittingly extend the life of dirtier energy sources.
Graphite, now deemed an essential mineral by the U.S., is the single biggest ingredient by weight in the batteries that go into electric vehicles and the power grid. It is also used in a variety of defense applications.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2023
Biden deploys Pentagon to beat climate change and China
A $37.5 million grant to Graphite One acts as a relaxed form of venture capital as the White House supports nascent parts of the domestic cleantech supply chain.
An installation for The North Face Moon Parka, which uses a Spiber-produced protein material
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Aug 6, 2023
A Japanese startup is using biotech to ‘brew’ greener fashion
Fashion has a huge environmental impact, and Spiber thinks its products can help curb the industry's footprint.
A young girl drinks water from a faucet in Bamako. At a site just 55 kilometers from Mali's capital city, pure hydrogen gas seeps from the ground like crude oil or methane.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2023
Natural hydrogen could change the world, if we understood it
We know next to nothing about how natural hydrogen is produced, let alone how to extract and transport it most efficiently.
While the pace of deploying clean-energy solutions is faster than it has ever been, with climate change, the world overall is racing in the wrong direction.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2023
What the climate fight is really about
Now that a future of higher average global temperatures is inevitable, managing the problem well requires that we cut off the tail end of the extreme-weather distribution.
The emergency vacuum building sits south of the reactor site at the Darlington Nuclear generating station in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, in April 2016.
WORLD
Aug 1, 2023
Canada turns to nuclear after 30-year pause amid demand surge
There are plans to make a plant the world’s largest and a pledge to add three small modular reactors to a site where another is already being built.
The towers of Canary Wharf, in London, occupied by several major international banks, seen from Greenwich Park in the city
BUSINESS
Jul 31, 2023
Banks voted to limit accounting of capital market emissions
The plan to keep carbon emissions linked to bond and stock sales out of banks' footprints came after wrangling over the issue delayed new standards.
A woman in Vatican City on July 19 during a heat wave. Projecting temperatures is inherently imprecise because modern humans have never experienced such extremes.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 29, 2023
An overheating planet requires extreme climate solutions
Projections say warming will only get worse, but humans exert control over planet-warming pollution and can change these models’ trajectories.
Danish ambassador Peter Taksoe-Jensen hopes for a "ketchup effect" in the development of Japan's offshore wind potential.
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 27, 2023
Unlocking Japan's offshore wind potential requires change in mindset
While Japan has made progress in expanding its offshore wind power, Denmark’s ambassador to Japan says that the pace of change is still too slow.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida meets with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other officials in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday.
EDITORIALS
Jul 21, 2023
Kishida takes ‘global green’ initiative to the Middle East
Middle East countries are keen to diversify their economies, reducing their reliance on oil and gas for revenue. Japan hopes to assist in that transition.
An extreme heat warning in Death Valley, California, on July 15
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2023
Our civilization was built for a climate that’s vanishing
Weather disasters linked to climate change like those unfolding across the northern hemisphere will affect more and more of us.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 23, 2023
World’s biggest wind power projects are in crisis just when world needs them most
Costs for materials and services have spiked, while rising interest rates make it more expensive for developers and utility companies to take on debt.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 23, 2023
G20 bloc fails to reach agreement on cutting fossil fuels
Scientists and campaigners are exasperated by international bodies' foot-dragging on action to curb global warming.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 17, 2023
China-U.S. climate progress could hinge on new methane deal
China had drafted a plan with concrete measures to curb methane emissions from energy, agriculture and waste but has yet to make the plan public.

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’