Carbon

February 19, 2021

How America can rid itself of both carbon and blackouts

Andrea Ucini

Climate Change, Carbon, Energy Grid, Extreme Weather, risk, Solutions, Worst-case Scenario

Texas prides itself on being different. Yet it is in the grip of a winter storm that typifies the Snowmageddon-size problems facing energy in America. Although nobody can be sure if this particular freeze is a sign of climate change, the growing frequency of extreme weather across the country is. Texan infrastructure has buckled. The problem is not, as some argue, that Texas has too many renewables. Gas-fired plants and a nuclear reactor were hit, as well as wind turbines. Worse, Texas had too little capacity and its poorly connected grid was unable to import power from elsewhere (see article). Texas shows that America needs both a cleaner grid and a more reliable one.

February 3, 2021

Goldman joins push to democratise climate data

Carbon, Climate Change, Data

In the early, idealistic days of the open source software movement, few people would have believed you if you told them that Microsoft and Goldman Sachs would one day be taking up the cause. But here in 2021, this pipe dream has become a reality in the form of the Open Source Climate initiative (OS-Climate for short).

January 29, 2021

G.M. Announcement Shakes Up U.S. Automakers’ Transition to Electric Cars

Neal E. Boudette and Coral Davenport

Philip Cheung for The New York Times

Carbon, Climate Action, Electric Vehicles

A new president took office this month determined to fight climate change. Wall Street investors think Tesla is worth more than General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen and Ford put together. And China, the world’s biggest car market, recently ordered that most new cars be powered by electricity in just 15 years.

January 27, 2021

Why your banking habits matter for the climate

Jocelyn Timperley

Javier Hirschfeld/Getty Images

Behaviour Change, Carbon, Climate Action, Finance sector

It might not be the most obvious way of reducing your carbon footprint, but how you save, invest and give away your money can make a difference to the climate.

January 14, 2021

‘Groggy climate giant’ slowly awakening from under Arctic Ocean

Scott Sutherland

Victor Oleg Leshyk, Northern Arizona University

Carbon, Arctic, Climate Change, GHG emissions, Methane, Permafrost, Physical risks

Frozen for thousands of years in Arctic permafrost, billions of tons of carbon and methane are slowly being released into the atmosphere due to rising temperatures. A new study shows that while the release is slow, continued thawing of this permafrost will significantly impact Earth’s climate.

December 21, 2020

Guest post: How human activity threatens the world’s carbon-rich peatlands

Prof Angela Gallego-Sala and Dr Julie Loisel

Martyn Williams / Alamy Stock Photo

Climate Change, Carbon, Ecological Impacts

Peatlands are ecosystems unlike any other. Perpetually saturated, their wetland soils are inhospitable to many plants and trees, yet they are rich in carbon. But the world’s peatlands are under threat on multiple fronts. From a warming climate and rising sea levels through to land-use change and wildfires, disturbing peatland ecosystems risks releasing their long-held carbon into the atmosphere.

December 20, 2020

Forests in Brazil emitting more carbon than they absorb due to climate change: Study

Julia Jacobo

Christian Ender/Getty Images, FILE

Climate Change, Carbon, Forests

Tropical forests in Brazil have begun to release more carbon than they absorb as the warming climate kills more of the trees, researchers said. The forests play an important role in the climate fight for their ability to absorb carbon dioxide from Earth’s atmosphere, but dry and warm seasonal forests in southeastern Brazil have been progressively absorbing less carbon while releasing more over time, with the region transitioning “from a carbon sink to a carbon source” in 2013, according to a study published Friday in Science.

December 11, 2020

Ottawa to hike federal carbon tax to $170 a tonne by 2030

John Paul Tasker

Carbon, Climate Action, Governments

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today released the government’s strategy to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 — and its centrepiece is a gradual hike in the federal carbon tax on fuels to $170 a tonne by that year.

December 10, 2020

Carbon emissions of richest 1 percent more than double the emissions of the poorest half of humanity

JP Morgan

Climate Change, Carbon, Equity

The richest one percent of the world’s population are responsible for more than twice as much carbon pollution as the 3.1 billion people who made up the poorest half of humanity during a critical 25-year period of unprecedented emissions growth.

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