carbon emissions

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Amid Trials of 2020, a Silver Lining for the Planet

Lockdowns, curtailed travel spurred biggest drop in global carbon dioxide emissions on record

(Newser) - The pandemic appears to have done what years of increasingly dire warnings about climate change couldn't. Global carbon dioxide emissions fell by an estimated 7% in 2020, the largest drop on record, according to the Global Carbon Project. The emissions reduction was mainly the result of lockdowns keeping people...

Here&#39;s Another Something the 1% Do
Here's Another
Something the 1% Do
NEW STUDY
Nov 18, 2020 8:29 AM CST

Here's Another Something the 1% Do

1% of the population causes about half of air travel emissions, and researchers say it's time to rethink

(Newser) - With a 50% drop in passengers taking to the skies in 2020, there's no better time to overhaul an industry responsible for dangerous carbon emissions, according to researchers. "If you want to resolve climate change … then we should start at the top, where a few 'super...

Study: China's Forests Have Been Underestimated

New forests are a major 'carbon sink'

(Newser) - China is the world's biggest polluter—but a massive tree-planting program has helped absorb more of its carbon dioxide emissions than researchers expected. In a new study in the journal Nature , researchers say that according to ground and satellite observations, the rapid afforestation of areas of northeast and southwest...

China Makes Surprise Pledge on Climate

Promise to reach carbon neutrality by 2060 is seen as a 'game changer'

(Newser) - The world's top-polluting nation has pledged to reach carbon neutrality by 2060—"a tectonic shift in policy" that "could help significantly slow global warming," reports the New York Times . Chinese President Xi Jinping made the surprise announcement in addressing the UN General Assembly by video on...

Longest UN Climate Talks End With Glaring Omission

No deal on carbon markets after 2 weeks of talks in Madrid

(Newser) - Marathon international climate talks ended Sunday with negotiators postponing until next year a key decision on how to regulate global carbon markets. After two weeks of negotiations in Madrid on tackling global warming, delegates from almost 200 nations passed declarations calling for greater ambition in cutting greenhouse gases and...

US Could Be 'Disruptor' at Climate Change Conference

Negotiators from almost 200 countries are in Madrid

(Newser) - The annual Conference of Parties climate change talks are underway in Madrid, after a last-minute change of city. The conference was originally meant to be held in Santiago, Chile, but Spain offered to host the talks as Chile's political crisis deepened. Representatives from almost 200 countries, including around 50...

11K Scientists: 'Planet Earth Is Facing a Climate Emergency'

Declaration suggests 6 critical steps to take

(Newser) - More than 11,000 scientists from 153 countries have signed a declaration that doesn't beat around the bush: They declare "clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency." In the declaration from the Alliance of World Scientists, published in the journal BioScience , the scientists...

Protesters Storm Open-Pit Mine
Hundreds Storm Open-Pit Mine
Jun 22, 2019 11:30 AM CDT

Hundreds Storm Open-Pit Mine

Thousands took part in the protest, activist group says

(Newser) - Hundreds of climate change activists broke through a police cordon and stormed into one of Germany's biggest lignite coal mines Saturday, two days after European Union leaders disagreed on a plan to make the bloc carbon neutral by 2050, the AP reports. Police ordered protesters to leave the vast,...

Trump Administration Replaces Landmark Obama Climate Rule
Obama's Landmark
Climate Rule Is Dead
Jun 19, 2019 12:02 PM CDT

Obama's Landmark Climate Rule Is Dead

EPA chief Andrew Wheeler signed replacement rule Wednesday

(Newser) - The Trump administration on Wednesday completed one of its biggest rollbacks of environmental rules, replacing a landmark Obama-era effort that sought to wean the nation's electrical grid off coal-fired power plants and their climate-damaging pollution. EPA chief Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, signed a replacement rule that...

Humans May Be Headed for Extinction 'in Most Horrible Way'

Wars, lethal heat, water shortages could be 30 years off: authors

(Newser) - Numerous in-depth reports on climate change have failed to show in just how dire a predicament humans find themselves—essentially inches from total destruction—according to a new paper from climate researchers, one a former fossil fuel executive. They write that there is a "high likelihood of human civilization...

Here's Joe Biden's $5T 'Big Idea' on Climate

He says it will get us to net zero emissions by 2050

(Newser) - Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is pitching a $5 trillion-plus climate proposal that he says would lead the US to net zero emissions of carbon pollution by 2050, the AP reports. Biden's plan calls for $1.7 trillion in federal spending over 10 years, with the rest of the...

Buildings Go Dark Worldwide
Buildings Go Dark Worldwide
Mar 30, 2019 5:50 PM CDT

Buildings Go Dark Worldwide

As millions celebrate Earth Hour

(Newser) - Cities around the world were marking Earth Hour on Saturday by turning off lights at 8:30pm local time in a call for global action on climate change, the AP reports. Earth Hour, spearheaded by the World Wildlife Fund, calls for greater awareness and more sparing use of resources, especially...

Looks Like VW Is in Trouble Again
Looks Like VW Is
in Trouble Again
Jan 13, 2019 11:35 AM CST

Looks Like VW Is in Trouble Again

The carmaker may be helping vehicles avoid emissions standards

(Newser) - Volkswagen may be in trouble all over again for allegedly installing software in cars to help them duck emissions standards, Reuters reports. German authorities are investigating whether 1.2-liter engine Volkswagens, including the Polo, received a software update allowing them to trick emissions tests. Germany may also file charges against...

Climate Activist, 15, Tells Leaders They're Too Immature to Act

'You say you love your children above all else and yet you are stealing their future'

(Newser) - At 15, Greta Thunberg has many decades of living with the effects of climate change ahead of her—and she doesn't want to tell her grandchildren she didn't try to stop it. At an address to the United Nations COP24 conference in Poland last week, the Swedish activist...

Trump's New Plan Upends Obama Emissions Policy

And the coal industry won't be complaining

(Newser) - For President Trump, federalism and climate policy just don't mix—a fact that has environmental experts in a state of high anxiety, the Washington Post reports. Trump plans to announce this week that each state can set its own own coal-emission standards (pending EPA approval) rather than follow the...

Report: Tourism Much Worse for Planet Than Thought

Carbon emissions are around 3 times earlier estimates, researchers say

(Newser) - Globe-trotting tourists are doing a lot more damage to the planet than previously thought, according to a new study that takes more than just air miles into consideration. In the study, published in the journal Nature , researchers determined that tourism accounts for around 8% of global carbon emissions, around three...

China's Pollution Problem Just Got Much Worse

'China has been burning so much more coal than we believed'

(Newser) - We already knew China emitted a huge amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It turns out it's worse than we thought. "China has been burning so much more coal than we believed,” Yang Fuqiang, a former Chinese energy official, tells the New York Times . “This...

All Antarctic Ice Would Melt If We Burned All Fossil Fuels

Seas could rise 160 feet: study

(Newser) - If we were to burn all of the planet's fossil fuel reserves, we would be saying goodbye to the entire Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. That's the takeaway from an international study announced today, Reuters reports. "To be blunt: If we burn it all, we melt it...

Climate Deal Goes From 'Weak to Weaker to Weakest'

Delegates sign off on 'watered-down' deal in Peru

(Newser) - Climate negotiators salvaged a compromise deal in Lima early today that sets the stage for a global pact in Paris next year, but rejected a rigorous review of greenhouse gas emissions limits. More than 30 hours behind schedule, delegates from more than 190 countries agreed on what information should go...

Supreme Court Wades Into Major Environmental Case

The high court will hear arguments regarding EPA emissions standards

(Newser) - The Supreme Court is stepping into a new case about Obama administration environmental rules, agreeing to review a ruling that upholds emission standards for mercury and other hazardous air pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants. The justices today said they would hear arguments from industry groups and states that...

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