Group items tagged

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.

The logistics of how the world copes with its mounting waste were just thrown a wicked curve ball from the Pacific Rim. And the case for embracing a circular economy became stronger. Last week China announced that it would no longer accept many imports of garbage from other countries.

The governments of the East African Community hoping to ban imports of secondhand clothes. The logic is that by stopping the trade of used garments, the apparel industry will be revitalized, create jobs and exports, and bolster their economies. What impact would this ban have on the donating Western countries? If we could no longer offload our unwanted discarded clothing onto the poor, what would we do with those clothes?

White House officials told lawmakers this week that while President Barack Obama's climate initiatives will not, in themselves, halt climate change, they nonetheless constitute an important first step towards more sweeping solutions. "The carbon-action plan is a start, and if we do not make a start, we will never get there," says White House science adviser John Holdren.

As an ever-expanding group of U.S. businesses commit to using more renewable energy to power their operations, a new study has found that for many companies, cost savings is the single most important reason for doing so. This is according to results of the first major survey of large electricity users since President Donald Trump announced his decision to pull the U.S. out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, conducted by SED Research. The Sept. 13 report, "Post-Paris: the State of Corporate Renewable Energy Sourcing," analyzes responses from executives at 94 companies and institutions, more than 40 of which are in the Fortune 500.

BCG's seventh sustainability report in collaboration with MIT Sloan Management Review found that 75% of senior executives in investment firms see a company's sustainability performance as materially important to their investment decisions-and nearly half would not invest in a company with a poor sustainability track record. However, only 60% of managers in publicly traded companies believe that good sustainability practices influence investment decisions.

Last month, the World Green Building Council announced its ambitious new project, Advancing Net Zero, which aims to make all buildings net zero by 2050. Here are five companies that are providing first-rate technology, building products and services that have been and will continue to be important tools for the evolution of net zero buildings.

For years, clean energy advocates have pointed towards hydroelectricity as an important alternative to gas, coal and nuclear power plants. But a new study suggests that the dams and reservoirs commonly associated with this clean energy source are actually pumping a significant amount of carbon emission into the air.

McDonald's achieved its 2017 goal to phase out the use of medically important human antibiotics in its U.S. chicken supply a year ahead of schedule. The fast food chain also announced plans to remove artificial preservatives and high fructose corn syrup from select menu items.

Seventy percent of registered voters have a positive impression of wind development. "Candidates running for office on both sides of the aisle in this important election year should take note: The more wind farms we build, the stronger support from US voters grows," said American Wind Energy Association CEO Tom Kiernan.

n what has been hailed as a far-reaching victory for global shark conservation, Air China has become the first airline in mainland China to ban shark fin cargo on its flights. The airline, which is headquartered in Beijing, announced the ban on Friday. "We were one of the first airlines in China to raise the awareness of the unsustainability of the global shark trade," says a message on the carrier's website. "We understand the community's desire to promote responsible and sustainable marine sourcing practices, and this remains important to Air China Cargo's overall sustainable development goals."

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.

Protection of the natural world has been an integral part of Indian culture and heritage. The Constitution of India places responsibilities on the State as well as citizens for protection of nature and the living beings therein. The following two Articles of the Indian Constitution are noteworthy: Article 48A: The State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country; and Article 51A (g): Fundamental duty of every citizen to protect and improve the natural environment, including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures. In the face of rapid industrial development, the environmental effects were not given much importance. However, with environmental impacts becoming detrimental for wildlife, biodiversity and people, the Indian Parliament has passed legislation to keep pace with changing demands. The British had passed the Indian Forest Act, 1927, mainly to regulate timber extraction for construction purposes. From production forestry, protection forestry principles were also considered. Later, wildlife (both flora and fauna) were considered essential for sustainable forest management. The Wildlife Act was passed in 1972. The Environment Protection Act was passed in 1986 as an umbrella act to consider environment in its totality. Since then, biological wealth started to be considered as an asset of the country just as other productive assets.

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.

Global trade has made it easier to buy things. But our consumption habits often fuel threats to biodiversity - such as deforestation, overhunting and overfishing - thousands of miles away. Now, scientists have mapped how major consuming countries drive threats to endangered species elsewhere. Such maps could be useful for finding the most efficient ways to protect critical areas important for biodiversity, the researchers suggest in a new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. For example, the maps show that commodities used in the United States and the European Union exert several threats on marine species in Southeast Asia, mainly due to overfishing, pollution and aquaculture. The U.S. also exerts pressure on hotspots off the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, and at the mouth of the Orinoco around Trinidad and Tobago. European Union's impacts extend to the islands around Madagascar: Réunion, Mauritius and the Seychelles. The maps also revealed some unexpected linkages. For instance, the impact of U.S. consumption in Brazil appears to be much greater in southern Brazil (in the Brazilian Highlands where agriculture and grazing are extensive) than inside the Amazon basin, which receives a larger chunk of the attention. The U.S. also has high biodiversity footprint in southern Spain and Portugal, due to their impacts on threatened fish and bird species. These countries are rarely perceived as threat hotspots.

Most recently, social responsibility has become an issue as reports of labor abuses and unethical manufacturing practices have come to light. With growing consumer awareness of all of these issues, finding a path to sustainability is becoming increasingly important.

Recent studies have shown, for example that the loss of important predators - from wolves in boreal forests to sharks in seagrass meadows - can lead to growing populations of terrestrial and marine herbivores, whose widespread grazing reduces the ability of ecosystems to absorb carbon.

Cosmetics brand Garnier launched an awareness campaign in the U.S. to promote the importance of properly recycling beauty product packaging in bathrooms, in partnership with DoSomething.org. The initiative aims to divert 10 million beauty products from the landfill by the end of 2017.

Plastics are an important part of the global economy and have many practical applications for everyday life, but their indisputable benefits are significantly outweighed by their environmental drawbacks - namely in regards to ocean pollution. Recognizing the seriousness of the problem, Dell, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and NatureWorks are finding new and innovative ways to tackle plastic pollution both at the source and at end-of-life.

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.