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Companies that own as-yet-unextracted fossil-fuel reserves could be left with stranded assets if the regulatory atmosphere changes, experts say. Expensive fossil-fuel sources, such as Alberta's oil sands, could be among the first to become uneconomic to extract. "I don't see this discussion going away. If anything, it's gaining momentum," says Ceres analyst Ryan Salmon.

A new technology called bio-energy with carbon capture and storage, or BECCS, could potentially eliminate the equivalent of China's total carbon emissions from the planet's atmosphere, dramatically slowing the rate of climate change, according to a draft U.N. report. The system, which involves capturing and burying carbon emissions from burning biomass, has not yet been tested at scale but is increasingly seen as "an essential component" of any effort to tackle climate change, the report notes.

NASA research shows Earth's atmosphere contains an unexpectedly large amount of an ozone-depleting compound from an unknown source decades after the compound was banned worldwide.

Global atmospheric greenhouse-gas levels surged last year at the fastest rate yet recorded, sparking concerns that climate change could be happening faster than expected, according to a new report from the United Nations' World Meteorological Organization. "We know without any doubt that our climate is changing and our weather is becoming more extreme. ... Time is not on our side, for sure," said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud

Now June will be the third month in a row with average carbon dioxide levels above 400 parts per million. Atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas, which helps drive global warming, haven't been this high in somewhere between 800,000 and 15 million years.

Kudzu, the invasive plant spreading across the southern U.S. at a rate of more than 120,000 acres a year, is drawing huge amounts of carbon out of the soil as it grows, researchers say. Kudzu-infested forests give up as much as a third of their soil-sequestered carbon, totaling up to 4.8 million tons of carbon a year

Chevrolet is buying up emissions credits linked to 11,000 acres of grasslands in North Dakota. In exchange for payments from Chevrolet, the ranchers who own the land agree not to till their properties, reducing carbon emissions. "The amount of carbon dioxide removed from our atmosphere by Chevrolet's purchase of these credits equals the amount that would be reduced by taking more than 5,000 cars off the road," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

The new year has only just begun, but we've already recorded our first days with average carbon dioxide levels above 400 parts per million, potentially leading to many months in a row above this threshold, experts say.

The year is young, but the planet has already had several days during which atmospheric carbon dioxide averaged more than 400 parts per million. The coming year will likely see several entire months, possibly including January, with average carbon levels above 400 ppm, researchers say. ScientificAmerican.com (1/12)

At the University of Miami's Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Brian McNoldy and other researchers have been accumulating sea level data from Virginia Key (a small island just south of Miami Beach) since 1996. Over those nineteen years, sea levels around the Miami coast have already gone up 3.7 inches.

The atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases hit a record last year, according to the World Meteorological Organization. The concentration of carbon dioxide climbed to 397.7 parts per million, and the warming effect of greenhouse gases rose 36% between 1990 and 2014, the group said

Climate negotiators in Paris are warming to the idea of "carbon farming," or sequestering carbon in soil. That's a critical adjunct to curbing emissions, since it allows the active removal of existing atmospheric carbon, experts say. "This is a game changer," said Andre Leu, president of IFOAM -- Organics International

It has already been established that climate change-specifically atmospheric carbon dioxide emitted by fossil fuel burning-has been acidifying the oceans, damaging fragile coral reefs and disturbing vulnerable marine ecosystems. But the McGill scientists discovered that carbon dioxide also has begun to drift to the ocean bottom, dissolving the very materials that help put the brakes on acidification.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released the results of what it calls the "annual checkup for the planet" Wednesday, and the patient is not doing well.

A study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Cooperative Institute for Research In Environmental Sciences (CIRES) found that emissions from personal care products commuters use before leaving in the morning were roughly equivalent in magnitude to emissions from the tailpipes of their cars.

It's good we're on our way to accepting bugs as a real option for protein, because our current diet is astonishingly resource-hungry. Livestock production takes more than 30% of the ice-free land of this planet, consumes 8% of our potable water, and is responsible for nearly 15% of the total man-made greenhouse gases put into the atmosphere every year. And demand for meat is projected to grow 60% by 2050. insects offer much more than protein. He thinks they can become bio-processing units working in fully automated, remotely controlled smart factories producing high-quality proteins, fats for the pharmaceutical industry, and biofuels-all using different kinds of waste as raw materials.

Potent, climate-warming gases are being emitted into the atmosphere but are not being recorded in official inventories, a BBC investigation has found. Air monitors in Switzerland have detected large quantities of one gas coming from a location in Italy. However, the Italian submission to the UN records just a tiny amount of the substance being emitted. Levels of some emissions from India and China are so uncertain that experts say their records are plus or minus 100%.

The story that should dominate every end of year round up from every media outlet on the planet came last month in the form of two reports released at the U.N. climate summit in Bonn. The first confirmed atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide are at their highest levels in at least 800,000 years and possibly 3 million to 5 million years. As Emily Shuckburgh of the British Antarctic Survey said, the last time concentrations of greenhouse gas were as high as they are, sea levels were around 10 meters higher. Up to two meters of sea level rise this century is now entirely plausible. However, the second report was the real kicker. The Global Carbon Project predicted carbon emissions will rise this year after four years when flat emissions fuelled hopes global economic growth and carbon emissions had been decoupled

Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere have surged past an important threshold and may not dip below it for "many generations." The 400 parts per million benchmark was broken globally for the first time in recorded history in 2015. But according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), 2016 will likely be the first full year to exceed the mark.

Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is present at 400 parts per million for the first time ever -- a level that's 44% greater than CO2 levels prior to the Industrial Revolution, says a World Meteorological Organization report. Improvements in the near future could reduce CO2 levels by the 2060s, says WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.