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U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions from natural gas are expected to exceed CO2 emissions from coal by 10% by the end of 2016, according to a U.S. Energy Information Administration report.

New data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration also highlighted another potential contradiction: Virtually every state suing to block the Clean Power Plan has itself shifted toward burning less coal to generate the electricity its residents need since the year 2007 - in some cases by very large amounts.

How do we scale up information and communication tech among consumers? Focus on direct benefits to consumers as opposed to saving the world.

Currently, SCE customers lease or own more than 12,000 plug-in electric vehicles (PEV), which represent about 10 percent of national EV sales. Because California leads the nation in EV adoption, other utilities and stakeholders in the auto industry may find the information from the white paper useful.

Shipowners are increasing pressure on the International Maritime Organization to craft carbon dioxide limits to help curb climate change. Critics contend IMO is moving too slowly, while the IMO says it needs to gather data to make an informed decision.

US energy-related carbon emissions dropped 12 percent last year, compared with 2005 levels, after increasing in 2013 and 2014, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Reduced energy-sector C02 emissions in 2015 are largely due to a decreased use of coal and increased use of natural gas in the electricity mix, the EIA says. Such fuel-use changes have accounted for 68 percent of total energy-related CO2 reductions from 2005 to 2015.

The US could cut its carbon dioxide emissions 20% more by using the Clean Power Plan, according to the Energy Information Administration. The report said carbon dioxide emissions from coal-burning power plants have been declining for a decade, but the nation could further accelerate that shift by employing the CPP. Rice University Associate Professor Daniel Cohan argues that the report emphasizes the importance of the ongoing litigation over the CPP and how far the US still has to go to meet its greenhouse gas emissions targets.

Coal production is not just declining. It's falling off a cliff - and it's barely a third of what it was just six years ago, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The worst is yet to come, as the EIA predicts 2016 will be the biggest year-on decline for coal … ever.

Late last year, devastating fires engulfed 2 million hectares of land in Indonesia, impacting the health of 43 million people and emitting as much greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as Brazil does in a year. They were driven by years of rampant, unregulated deforestation, chiefly for the expansion of paper pulp and oil palm plantations. Through global supply chains, we are all connected to Indonesia's fires and to the deforestation that led to them. It's easy to say we need to stop deforestation, but this is nearly impossible without adequate information. 

A new study reveals that consumers' demand for product transparency is on the rise - overall, they desire more product information and are inclined to be more loyal to brands that provide more detailed insights. About 40 percent say they would switch to a new brand if it offered full product transparency, and 81 percent say they would consider a brand's entire portfolio of products if they switched to that brand as a result of increased transparency.

A partnership of 12 organization is set to launch an online hub for information and solutions to reduce food waste, "Further With Food: Center for Food Loss and Waste Solutions," at FurtherWithFood.org. The site is intended to help realize the national goal to halve food waste by 2030, announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in September 2015.

But the fact is that the blockchain is building some serious credibility within the world's biggest banks and financial services firms - they helped fuel more than $1 billion in investments between 2014 and 2016. That visibility has given both established and emerging companies the confidence to experiment. In mid-October, for example, Walmart announced a collaboration with IBM and Tsinghua University in Beijing focused on using the blockchain as a mechanism for authenticating food sources and keeping tabs on all sorts of related data - including the originating farm, batch numbers, processing plant information, expiration dates and storage temperatures.

Logging emissions is an important step in securing the transparency that China needs to solve its pollution problems, Mr. Ma argues. Among the harmful pollutants are air particles known as PM2.5, which can enter deep into the lungs and even into the bloodstream. In an interview, he talked about the considerable progress he sees in the Chinese government's approach to air pollution, but also how concerns about social unrest continued to constrain discussion of pollution's damage to public health. Before 2013, levels of PM2.5 [the finest and deadliest particulate matter] were not monitored or made public in a single city. Now it's monitored and released in more than 400 cities. China has entered an era when air quality information is released. It's much more transparent. The 11th and 12th Five-Year Plans only referred to "emission reduction targets," so local governments could play games by claiming they had reduced emissions. Now, by saying by what year the PM2.5 must be below a certain amount, it's much harder to fake. The 13th Five-Year Plan is a progressive plan because it says that the public has the right to participate, to monitor, and that it's the public's right to know.

Serious labour rights violations have taken place at Brazilian farms linked to some of the largest international coffee certification systems, including Rainforest Alliance and UTZ, according to an investigation by Repórter Brasil. Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world, with about one-third of all coffee consumed planted in the country. These violations include workers' pay packets being falsely docked resulting in some receiving less than half Brazil's minimum wage, and workers being hired informally and without mandatory medical tests. One farm even promoted its output with a Fairtrade certificate it was not entitled to use.

The Energy Information Agency emphasized the growing importance of offshore wind to the US energy landscape in its year-end summary, according to this piece. The summary also touted the significance of Deepwater Wind's Block Island wind farm off of Rhode Island -- the first of its kind in the US.

The Rockefeller Foundation will collaborate with the USDA, EPA, and 10 private sector and non-profit organizations to create "Further With Food: Center for Food Loss and Waste Solutions," an online information exchange that aims to provide best practices for preventing, recovering, and recycling food loss and waste. The website will officially launch later this month (January 2017).

The company became the first within the toy industry to adopt such an 'environmentally friendly' stance towards their packaging, which took approximately six years to develop. Adam Gendell, Sustainable Packaging Coalition Associate Director told Toy & Hobby Retailer, "Disney is rising to the challenge by reinventing its long-standing practices to set a new standard across its industry that is not only more sustainable but that will inform what generations of children will expect of packaging and its environmental impact."

. As is the case with many companies who tout the magic year 2020, Hershey promises it will buy 100 percent responsible and sustainable cacao by the end of that year, and boasts it is ahead of schedule of that goal by having already met it halfway. Hershey also showcases a program that it says helped 31,000 farmers in nations such as Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria, without divulging how - while saying they are learning "information on best practices in sustainable cacao farming." Such a vague disclosure is not going to mollify critics who have long said the global chocolate industry is one that provides indulgences for wealthy citizens at the expense of some of the world's

Global oil demand will continue to grow into the 2040s even as electrical vehicle fleets expand and the low-carbon energy transition gains traction around the world, BP revealed in its annual Energy Outlook, an industry benchmark report forecasting long-term trends and informs the company's internal strategy. The predictions come as other oil companies such as Royal Dutch Shell prepare for demand to peak by the early 2030s and countries make the shift to cleaner forms of energy.

Ahmedabad, a rapidly urbanizing city in western India grappling with rising air pollution levels. In an innovative step, the city, along with NRDC and other partners, unveiled the draft Ahmedabad Air Information and Response (AIR) Plan. The first of its kind, the AIR Plan is a decisive step by Ahmedabad to protect local residents from the debilitating effects of bad air.