climate change
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For the first time ever, China has agreed to limit its greenhouse-gas emissions, under a deal announced this morning between Chinese president Xi Jinping and U.S. president Barack Obama. In exchange, the U.S. set a goal of cutting its own carbon emissions more deeply by 2025, building on a previously announced goal for reductions by 2020. The news came late last night in articles by The Washington Post and other outlets. DON'T MISS: Time Running Out, Global Carbon Emission Must Fall To Zero: UN Panel China has agreed to cap its carbon emissions by 2030 or earlier, and even more challenging...
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Time Running Out, Global Carbon Emission Must Fall To Zero: UN Panel
While mankind has been pumping carbon into the atmosphere since the discovery of fire, the modern era of carbon emissions began roughly 250 years ago. Now a new report by global scientists goes further than any before: Carbon emissions must ultimately be cut to levels so low that they approach...
John Voelcker -
Rockefeller Oil Heirs Will Divest Fossil-Fuel Stocks From Family Funds
The Rockefellers will divest fossil-fuel stocks from their charity.
Stephen Edelstein -
1.2 Billion Vehicles On World's Roads Now, 2 Billion By 2035: Report
Calculating the total number of motor vehicles on the planet is an inexact science, but the number is growing rapidly. The automotive trade journal Ward's Auto had estimated that the total crossed 1 billion vehicles sometime during 2010. DON'T MISS: It's Official: We Now Have One Billion Vehicles...
John Voelcker -
Do New EPA Emission Rules Just Hasten Coal's Inevitable Death?
Take a deep breath and relax. It is highly unlikely that "millions of Americans will be freezing in the dark" (in the words of a critic) once new EPA rules lowering carbon emissions from power plants go into effect. In fact, some analyses suggest that the rules issued last week by the U.S...
John Voelcker -
Cost Of New EPA Carbon Limits? About $7 Per Car: Report
Every time a new environmental regulation is proposed in the United States, there's a predictable chorus of doom-and-gloom predictions that it will kill jobs, cause manufacturers to move their operations out of the country, and destroy the economy. Those predictions tend to be a bit, shall we say...
John Voelcker -
Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce new regulations to cut the carbon emissions of more than 600 existing coal-fired electric power plants. And many analysts suggest that this regulation--which will likely spark a major political battle--will be the most important environmental legacy of the Obama Administration. The regulation would propose cutting carbon emissions from coal plants 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, sources tell The Washington Post and The New York Times. If the regulation survives, it could close hundreds of coal plants across the...
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Atmospheric Carbon Is Higher, Faster, This Year Than Last
Atmospheric CO2 levels have already exceeded last year's annual peak.
Stephen Edelstein -
Toyota's Texas Move: Prius Maker Lands In Highest-Carbon State (Updated)
Toyota announced yesterday that it would relocate the headquarters of its U.S. arm from Torrance, California, to Plano, Texas. Left unaddressed in the announcement was the fact that the Japanese carmaker, known for its green image and its pioneering Prius hybrid range of 50-mpg cars, is moving from...
John Voelcker -
'Super Greenhouse Gas' Emissions From Air Conditioning A Climate Concern
Leaking air-conditioner refrigerant may be increasingly contributing to global warming.
Stephen Edelstein -
Even In China, Coal Consumption May Be Peaking
While use of coal for generating electricity has started to decline in the U.S., China continues to build coal power plants. With public anger at filthy air bubbling below the surface, and the costs of associated health effects more apparent, the country's government is well aware of the long-term...
John Voelcker -
Proposal: Buy Out, Shut Down U.S. Coal Industry For $50 Billion
Give Felix Kramer credit for thinking big. Twelve years ago, he and others founded CalCars, a group dedicated to promoting plug-in hybrid vehicles with large battery packs--and built the world's first plug-in Prius hybrid. Now he and coauthor Gil Friend have published an audacious proposal to buy...
John Voelcker -
These are interesting times in the automotive and electric-utility businesses. While the reasons are different, it turns out they may intersect. It's been quietly discussed among electric utilities that increasing amounts of distributed solar power and other renewable energy may destroy their business model. The worry is that if consumers can generate much or all of their own electricity, the utilities lose the revenue from selling them power--while continuing to shoulder the substantial costs of maintaining the electric distribution network as a backup. MORE: Electric Utilities Now Fighting...
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Pricing Carbon Emissions? Bring It On, Say Some Large Companies
Several large companies are prepared to pay for carbon emissions in the near future.
Stephen Edelstein -
TVA To Cut Coal Use For Energy Generation By Half
The Tennessee Valley Authority will shut down eight electricity-generating units, which account for nearly a fifth of its yearly coal use.
Stephen Edelstein -
Blood And Gore: Coal Is Becoming A Stranded Asset
In case you hadn't noticed, it's Halloween. So how could we not comment on an article whose byline reads Gore and Blood? Their topic may be slightly esoteric, but it has big implications for our energy future. It's all about stranded assets--those that lose economic value well ahead of their...
Antony Ingram -
The Next Big Emissions Battle Is Not Cars; It's About Coal
The rules for vehicle gas mileage are pretty much locked down from now through 2025. The math is complicated, but vehicles in 2025 will have to reach a fleet-wide average of 54.5 mpg by 2025--or about 42 mpg on their window stickers. So what's the next battleground over reducing emissions? It's...
John Voelcker -
Greenhouse Gases & Where They Really Come From: Infographic
We love data. And we love simple but informative graphic presentations of complex data even more. Which leads us to today's infographic, a presentation of the sources and activities that produce greenhouse gases as a result of human activity. Inspired by an earlier similar graphic from 2005, the...
John Voelcker -
The 2012 Toyota Prius gets the best EPA-rated gas mileage--50 miles per gallon combined--of any non-plug-in car sold in the U.S. But the Prius hybrid sometimes gets a bad rap. At least some of it is due to the notorious (and very funny) South Park episode in which a deadly attack of Smug afflicts the little mountain town whose residents all drive a hatchback called the Pious. With its top-of-the-list gas mileage, a Prius hybrid is clearly a step in the direction of driving green--and all journeys begin with the first step. But by itself, buying a hybrid isn't enough. Here are five reasons...
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Want To Clean Up The Planet? Spay Your Pet, THEN Buy a Prius
Cutting carbon emissions is complex. And there are a lot of myths and misinformation out there. The effective impact of some actions--reusing your grocery bags, for instance--is relatively low. Other methods, things that many people never even consider, are considerably more effective. For...
John Voelcker -
Can Condoms Curb Climate Change Cheaper Than Low-Carbon Cars?
The Frankfurt Auto Show just wound up today, and most of the concept cars focus on lowering carbon dioxide emissions. Volkswagen, for instance, launched a two-seat "1-Liter" concept car that gets a remarkable 170 miles per gallon. But suppose all the money we're investing in better gas mileage and...
John Voelcker -
Researchers: 100 Percent Green Energy Possible By 2050
We approach energy policy with care here, since GreenCarReports is largely about ... well, cars. But a recent article claims it could take just 40 years to convert the bulk of the world's global energy usage from fossil fuels to renewable energy, primarily wind and solar power. That's not only...
John Voelcker -
Report: Electric Cars Best Way To Reduce U.S. Oil Dependancy
We like it when a study confirms a common-held belief. And for hundreds of would-be electric car owners across the U.S. a recent study has done just that. Years into the Military Conflict in the Middle East, and just months after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill a team at Rice University have...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield