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The total number of idle turbines in China more than doubled to 15% last year, according to the China's National Energy Administration. The report said that the country added a record-breaking 33 gigawatts of installed wind capacity last year, but its idle wind generation has climbed 69% since 2014. Observers say slowing consumption rates and more coal-fired power plants have contributed to the problem.

The Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership wrote a letter to government officials around the world on Sunday asking for long-term policies that support low-carbon energy sources. The partnership is composed of CEOs and chairmen from 11 of the world's largest utilities, including American Electric Power and Iberdrola. The companies said they generated about one-third of the world's electricity in 2014, 60% of which came from clean energy sources such as wind and solar. 

The US energy landscape is swiftly transitioning away from fossil fuels in favor of renewables, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. "By the close of 2014, the United States was relying on an unprecedented amount of renewable energy from wind turbines, solar panels, and other technologies. We are bearing witness to fundamental change in the energy sector, reflecting the needs and aspirations of all who depend on it," said the report. It added that US carbon emissions have already dropped 10% below 2005 levels

JPMorgan Chase is the target of a new environmental push demanding the bank end funding for tar sands drilling, HuffPost has learned. In a new campaign set to be announced Tuesday, the San Francisco-based Rainforest Action Network criticizes the country's largest bank by assets for providing over $3.1 billion to tar sands producers between 2014 and 2016 alone.

Is the world's largest provider of cloud computing services falling down on its 2014 pledge to one day power all of its data centers entirely with renewable energy?

Research published in the American Journal of Primatology earlier this month finds that the overall Western Chimpanzee population declined by six percent annually between 1990 and 2014, a total decline of 80.2 percent. The main threats to the Western Chimpanzee are almost all man-made. Habitat loss and fragmentation driven by slash-and-burn agriculture, industrial agriculture (including deforestation for oil palm plantations as well as eucalyptus, rubber, and sugar cane developments), and extractive industries like logging, mining, and oil top the list. In response to the finding that the Western Chimpanzee population has dropped so precipitously in less than three decades, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) elevated the subspecies' status to Critically Endangered on its Red List of Threatened Species.

The Department of Defense is clear-eyed about the challenges climate change poses. "The pressures caused by climate change will influence resource competition while placing additional burdens on economies, societies, and governance institutions around the world," the most recent Quadrennial Defense Review, issued in 2014, states. "These effects are threat multipliers that will aggravate stressors abroad such as poverty, environmental degradation, political instability, and social tensions-conditions that can enable terrorist activity and other forms of violence."

NRG Energy introduced additional sustainability goals, which build on its science-based absolute GHG reduction goals set in 2014. The goals include: reducing water use 40% by 2030, reducing supply chain carbon and water intensity 25% by 2025, increasing recycling rate of coal combustion residuals 30% by 2022, and helping customers avoid 120 million metric tons of CO2-equivalent emissions by 2020.

Utility FirstEnergy, one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the US, has responded to shareholder demands and agreed to reduce its carbon emissions, the New York Times reports. The company - the eighth-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the US according to the Greenhouse 100 index - says it will study and report on what it can do to meet President Barack Obama's goal of reducing carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

Newlight Technologies is doing. Its patented technology extracts carbon from the air and converts it into long-chain polymers that can be used as substitutes for oil-based plastics.

Disney, Burberry, Adidas and other major brands tested positive for hazardous chemicals in their children's clothes and shoes, according to a Greenpeace investigation.

for the first time, emerging countries are throwing out even more electronics than we are in the U.S. Actually, the trend started in 2012.

Pacific Northwest shellfish producers are the first harbingers of a trend that may have wide ranging implications for the broader fishing industry: ocean acidification. By proactively seeking out adaptation solutions early on, the Northwest shellfish industry is attempting a self-rescue that may provide important lessons as other commercial species begin feeling the impacts of increasing acidification.

A chemical spill along the Elk River in West Virginia has left close to 300,000 people without access to tap water for the past 5 days. The spill originated from a facility run by chemical company Freedom Industries.

NASA, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the International Forum of Aviation Research are planning their first joint research flights to investigate alternative fuels for aviation.

The eco-diapers business gDiapers has reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission on allegations that gDiapers' products aren't as easily compostable as the company claimed. The company will stop posting such claims unless they are verified

Super Bowl XLVIII dining will be the "greenest in history," say MetLife Stadium and foodservice partner Delaware North Companies Sportservice.

Foodservice packaging company Pactiv has added a new line of foam cups to its EarthChoice portfolio. The new foam cup is made with up to 25 percent post-consumer recycled content material, the company says.

ug Power will develop hydrogen fuel cell range extenders for 20 FedEx Express electric delivery trucks.

The Coca-Cola Company, General Mills, Kraft Foods and the other 300-plus food companies that are members of the Grocery Manufacturers Association will soon lobby the US food safety regulator and Congress for a single federal standard covering oversight and labeling of new genetically modified foods, Reuters reports.