EC Environmental Policy

The Paris climate agreement will likely be ratified on Earth Day, when it will be signed by more than 130 nations, the UN said on Friday. Only 55 signatures are needed to ratify the document. If approved, the climate accord is expected to encourage countries to curb their greenhouse gas emissions, ultimately holding global warming to an increase of no more than 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, through the next two decades.

The United States, China, and around 130 other nations are expected to sign the Paris Agreement on April 22 at the UN headquarters in New York City.

Adobe, IKEA North America, Mars, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts filed briefs in the U.S. Court of Appeals in support of the EPA's Clean Power Plan. The companies stated they "view the Clean Power Plan and its emissions reduction program as a component of their domestic and international business risk mitigation strategies."

The government of Quebec, Canada, has set a goal to export 60.9% of its installed renewable energy capacity to the US -- up from its current level of 46.6% -- by 2030. "With the most developed wind energy supply chain in Canada and the northeastern United States, Quebec's wind industry is in a good position to meet our continent's energy challenges," Canadian Wind Energy Association Vice President Jean-Francois Nolet said.

Some of China's provinces and companies, however, are moving into business operations that foster the growth of the circular economy, which means designing products that can be taken apart, re-blended or recycled so that waste is not an end result. This is complemented by the fact that the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation (CPCIF) recently signed on to the World Plastics Council, which also has a goal of reducing plastic waste in the environment. 

In a dystopian portrayal of the future, the landscape is rife with fires, rising seas, and thick clouds billowing from power plant smokestacks; humans must wear gas masks for their own survival. This apocalyptic vision is captured in a series of photos featuring 8 popular Vietnamese singers, actors and dance artists as part of a new anti-coal campaign. Pollution from coal-fired power plants already causes an estimated 4,300 premature deaths in Vietnam annually, yet the country has the third largest pipeline of new coal plants in the world - behind only China and India.

Companies are beginning to unleash a new generation of science-based sustainability goals, which promise to address social environmental problems at the local and global levels. 

Elsewhere, a number of high-profile companies, including Apple, Disney, Microsoft and PepsiCo, are experimenting with small renewable energy projects fueled by biogas generated through organic waste. General Electric is another vocal advocate - mainly because it provides a line of industrial generators and combined heat and power systems that can operate using this fuel source.   

Wal-Mart and Sam's Club will switch to 100% cage-free eggs by 2025, with suppliers' compliance to be checked annually by a third-party certifier. The relatively long lead time for the transition will allow the retailers to keep prices down while improving conditions for chickens, officials said.

HP has committed to powering its global operations with 100 percent renewable energy - and says it plans to reach the 40 percent renewable electricity mark by 2020 - because, as Nate Hurst, HP's chief sustainability and social impact officer says, "both cost-effective and low carbon sources of energy are essential to the future and the growth of HP's business."

Over 125 cosmetics and personal care products from 14 brands such as Beautycounter, Rejuva MInerals, and MyChelle Dermaceuticals have earned the Environmental Working Group (EWG)'s new verification. The EWG VERIFIED™ program aims to help customers quickly and easily identify products that meet strict ingredient standards and are "produced with the best manufacturing practices."

Water and waste giant Veolia has saved the city of Poughkeepsie, New York, millions while improving efficiencies throughout the city's wastewater system and facilities over the course of a 35-year environmental contract.

A dozen major retailers have joined a push for tougher restrictions on trucking emissions and are asking regulators to push for swifter and steeper reductions in fuel use by the freight sector. The firms, which include General Mills, Ben & Jerry's, Stonyfield Farm, and Patagonia, say stronger standards would help reduce their operating costs and make it easier to pass savings along to consumers.

Consolidated Edison, the utility that provides New York City's electricity, faces higher demand for power than its existing infrastructure can supply. But instead of adding a substation, which would cost $1.2 billion or more, Con Ed will deploy a mix of distributed solar, fuel cells and efficiency measures that will cost about $200 million - less than one-fifth the price of a substation, reports Inside Climate News.

Environmental advocacy organizations Earthjustice, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Friends of the Earth filed a lawsuit against the EPA to accelerate the completion of an "endangerment finding" that would allow the agency to regulate CO2 emissions from U.S. aircraft. The EPA was expected to finalize a proposal for an endangerment finding in mid-2014. 

The US Green Building Council (USGBC) has updated the LEED green building rating system in an attempt to stop illegal logging.

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil has suspended its certification for Malaysian palm oil producer IOI Group amid concerns that the company has failed to live up to its obligation to tackle deforestation. The decision has already had a big impact on IOI, which has lost business with Unilever, Kellogg and Mars. "If IOI wishes to regain its customers, it must take immediate and significant action," says Greenpeace Indonesia campaigner Annisa Rahmawati.

Tech giants Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon have submitted a joint brief to the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court in support of the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan.

The European Commission's recent assessment of the Paris Agreement on climate demonstrates that businesses and investors are crucial to implementation of the goals and the transition to a low-carbon economy. 

Economic and population growth on top of climate change could lead to serious water shortages across a broad swath of Asia by the year 2050, a newly published study by MIT scientists has found.