Climate

By James Beard and Simon Walmsley Today is a big day in efforts to tackle climate change.  At least 168 countries are expected to sign the Paris Agreement, reaffirming their commitment to tackling climate change. Once 55 countries representing 55 per cent of global emissions have done that, the Paris Agreement will truly come alive. […]

By Sandeep Chamling Rai and Sven Harmeling Scaled up national actions are essential to limit global warming to 1.5°C and to overcome poverty through the coordinated and immediate implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement (PA). Information is emerging almost daily that increases our understanding of the growing impacts of climate change, […]

By Jennifer Lenhart, Jeet Mistry and Carina Borgström-Hansson After years of disappointment and debate, in December 2015, countries did something remarkable: they came together to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement. This week nations will again gather in New York to sign the Agreement, pledging to take the next, urgent steps to address the climate crisis. […]

By Santiago Lorenzo and Mark Lutes This year countries must do much more than sign and ratify the Paris Agreement. If they are serious about meeting the goals of the Agreement, they must demonstrate a renewed willingness to accelerate actions and cooperation on various fronts, including finance. Indeed, if the year 2015 turns out to […]

The argument that high-efficiency coal-fired power plants are a viable solution for reducing CO2 emissions, the main cause of climate change, is still defended with vigour by the coal industry – and by governments that have a stake in the coal industry, in particular Japan, Germany, South Korea, Australia and Poland. Japan even goes as […]

By Josefina Braña-Varela Next week’s signing of the Paris Agreement is an important moment for reflection. The agreement itself is a remarkable demonstration of global collaboration and compromise, and the aspirations it contains provide a good foundation for the transformative work that lies ahead. What has been accomplished to date is a critical step, providing […]

By Samantha Smith Remember this number: 1.5 degrees. That’s the upper limit for global warming that our governments will try to stay under, as agreed at the global climate negotiations in Paris last year. Everything all of us do from this point on will be measured against it. Getting this agreement was a big achievement […]

By Zineb ALAOUI MDAGHRI  Morocco is setting the pace in Africa with its ambition and the speed of implementation of its renewable energy programme. It is the most ambitious country in the entire Middle East and North African region (MENA) and, with South Africa, is it leading renewable energy development on the continent. Morocco imports […]

This is the final part of a three-part essay by Dr Stephan Singer. Catch up by reading part 1 and part 2. Part 3: The economic cost of CCS Despite 15 years of advocacy by the fossil fuel industry incumbents, 10 years after a lengthy Special Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) […]

This is part two of a three-part essay on CCS by Dr Stephan Singer. Read part 1 here. Part 2 – Coal, CCS and the power sector As mentioned in part 1, while there may be a case for carbon capture and storage in the industrial sector, in the power sector, it does not contribute […]