EC Environmental Policy

Climate change and other hurdles mean it will take more water - and potentially more taxpayer money - to save the Everglades, according to new scientific findings released Thursday. The report to Congress warns that rising seas and warming temperatures are threatening to worsen damage already done by decades of drainage and pollution, caused by development and farming overtaking the Everglades. A recent report showed that climate change, pollution and other factors could increase the cost to restore the Florida Everglades. So far, restoration costs are pegged at $16 billion, but additional efforts, such as proposed reservoirs, could add to that cost.

* We'd be remiss if we didn't mention Patagonia's landmark decision to donate 100 percent of its global Black Friday sales to nonprofits benefiting the planet. The campaign was so popular, the company beat its goal of $2 million dollars in sales by five times that amount - resulting in $10 million in donations to hundreds of grassroots environmental organizations.

A plan launched by Philadelphia City Council President Darrell Clarke and backed by the Philadelphia Energy Authority will use $1 billion on energy efficiency projects in municipal buildings, schools, small businesses and low- to middle-income homes with the goals of creating 10,000 green jobs over the next decade and reducing energy consumption. PEA's executive director, Emily Schapira, says green energy is a growing industry, and the project will spur its development in the city.

Leaders of eight major seafood companies and fish feed organizations signed a pledge for ocean sustainability after a kickoff meeting of the Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship last month in the Maldives. Signatories agreed to improve transparency in their own operations, build on and share best practices, engage in science-based efforts to improve fisheries management and productivity, work toward pollution reduction goals, and support the development of new sustainability technology and initiatives.

Seafood company Thai Union Group will ensure 100% of its tuna is sustainably sourced and plans to reach at least 75% sustainability by 2020. The company will invest $90 million in efforts to increase their supply of sustainable tuna and open 11 Fishery Improvement Projects.

Seattle - Today, Stand.earth, the environmental advocacy group leading the campaign to persuade Starbucks to make a recyclable paper cup, released a satirical video by Erika Share, former Senior Editor at The Onion and Anthony Easton, former managing editor of ClickHole.

The Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) founder is joined by some of the world's richest people in supporting a 20-year fund called Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Investors include Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, and Alibaba (BABA, Tech30) Executive Chairman Jack Ma. Gates will serve as the chairman of the fund, which is the venture arm of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a group founded last year to accelerate research and investment in clean energy.

The euphoria over rise in world tiger population early this year may have been misplaced for India as the official data placed before Parliament shows that 98 tigers died in the country by November 16, 2016, a steep 25 per cent rise over last year when 78 deaths were reported. There are many anti-poaching measures initiated by NTCA which coordinate with state forest departments, but to little avail. In fact, poaching cases increased by more than 100 per cent this year. The figures attribute nearly 30 tiger deaths to poaching this year, which is more than double of last year's figure of 14. Top forest officials that Mail Today spoke with expressed helplessness in their fight against poachers and at times cited "political pressures'' leading to more frequent man-tiger conflict.

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.

Trudeau (Chris Jackson/Getty Images) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will implement nationwide carbon emissions pricing in 2018. According to Trudeau's plan, provinces will be charged CA$10 per metric ton of carbon emissions produced, which will increase to CA$50 per metric ton during 2023.

Apple has invested in four subsidiaries of China's largest wind-turbine manufacturer Goldwind, marking its largest clean energy deal to date. The deal will reportedly add 285 MW of clean energy to China's grid across four provinces.

"Circular Economy in India: Rethinking Growth for Long-Term Prosperity" (Ellen Macarthur Foundation) finds that following a circular economy development path could unlock $624 billion in benefits annually by 2050, compared to the country's current development path. The report also finds that this development path would enable India to cut GHG emissions by an additional 44% by 2050, compared to its current development path.

"Global Forests Report 2016" (CDP) finds that up to $906 billion in revenue at companies analyzed is at risk due to deforestation; a quarter of these companies' revenues are tied to commodities linked to deforestation. However, the report finds that only 1 in 5 of these companies are assessing risks associated with deforestation beyond a six-year horizon.

Furniture retailer IKEA sold its development and supply chain division to a group set up by founder Ingvar Kamprad, and it will invest $1.06 billion of the $5.5 billion sale proceeds in forests and recycling ventures, the company said. IKEA owns forests in the Baltic region and Romania, and it uses recyclable packaging.

Microsoft's zero waste efforts have earned it the US Zero Waste Business Council's highest certification level at its Redmond, Washington campus, making Microsoft the first technology company to achieve zero waste facility certification.

President-elect Donald Trump has named Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a prominent fossil-fuel industry ally, to run the Environmental Protection Agency. Environmentalists and congressional Democrats vow to oppose the appointment.

New York City's Department of Parks & Recreation has launched a Street Tree Map that allows users to not only learn about the city's different tree species, but also about the ecological and economic benefits they offer to the city. Using figures laid out by the U.S. Forest Service, the city, along with a team of 2,300 volunteers, completed a citywide tree census and used the data to calculate the estimated annual benefit in dollars trees provide to New York City.

The UK, Denmark and Germany are leading the clean energy transformation in Europe. Since 1990, the UK has reduced its CO2 emissions by 25 percent, while other wealthy countries such as the US and Norway have increased their emissions of greenhouse gases.

Since Google declared its 100 percent commitment to renewables back in 2012, it has signed contracts that will help add almost 2.6 gigawatts of wind- and solar-generated electricity to the grid by the time all the projects are completely. While each of those installations has its own timetable for completion, at least 900 megawatts of those projects should come online within the next four to six weeks alone, according to one of Google's energy strategy executives. Over the course of next year, all the clean power that Google is adding to the grid will offset what it's using in aggregate. And moving forward, Google wants to ensure that more of the electricity it actually uses can be traced to renewable generating sources.

Agribusiness giant Olam International has for the first time published a list of the firms it buys palm oil from, part of the company's response to allegations that it is driving forest destruction in Southeast Asia and, more dangerously, perhaps, in West Africa. Almost all of the world's palm oil comes from Indonesia and Malaysia, but as those countries run out of available land, companies like Olam are turning to Africa to expand. In defending itself against the NGOs' allegations, Olam points to the "right to develop" of nations like Gabon, where a third of people live below the poverty line and a fifth are unemployed.