Reuters (May 11)
“Many net zero targets have three shortcomings: incomplete disclosure, confusing terminology, and problems with offsets. Companies serious about net zero targets should include not just so-called Scope 1 and 2 emissions, produced when they make their products, but also Scope 3, created when customers use those products.”
Tags: Confusing, Disclosure, Emissions, Incomplete, Net zero, Offsets, Shortcomings, Targets, Terminology
The Economist (March 6)
“Though understandable,” the knee-jerk reaction following the Fukushima disaster “was wrong.” Nuclear power has numerous drawbacks, but “well-regulated nuclear power is safe” and essential given the climate crisis. Nuclear provides constant generating capacity to support a reliable grid. Furthermore, “nuclear provides such capacity with no ongoing emissions, and it is doing so safely and at scale around the world.”
Tags: Climate crisis, Disaster, Drawbacks, Emissions, Fukushima, Generating capacity, Grid, Nuclear power, Reaction, Reliable, Safe, Scale, Understandable, Well-regulated
Wall Street Journal (January 15)
“Rising temperatures last year capped the world’s warmest decade in modern times.” Moreover, according to the same NASA findings, 2020 tied with 2016 as the hottest year ever. This came “despite cooling ocean currents and a drop in greenhouse gas emissions” associate with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tags: 2016, 2020, Cooling, COVID-19, Emissions, GHG, NASA, Ocean currents, Pandemic, Rising temperatures, Warmest decade, World
World Economic Forum (December 10)
“Greenhouse gas emissions reached a new high last year, putting the world on track for an average temperature rise of 3 degrees Celsius.” The UNEP report is only “the latest to suggest the world is hurtling toward extreme climate change” and comes on the heels “of sobering weather extremes, including rapid ice loss in the Arctic as well as record heat waves and wildfires in Siberia and the U.S. West.”
Tags: 3°C, Arctic, Climate change, Emissions, GHG, Heat waves, Hurtling, Ice loss, Record, Rise, Siberia, Sobering, Temperature, UNEP, Weather extremes, Wildfires
Car & Driver (November 24)
“General Motors has reversed its decision to back the Trump administration’s fight to force California, along with 12 other states, to comply with the less stringent fuel-efficiency standards Trump’s EPA put into place in 2018 for 2022 to 2025. The move signals that GM expects President-Elect Joe Biden to take a much different stance on emissions regulations…. Ford, GM’s crosstown rival, had backed California from the beginning.”
Tags: Biden, California, Comply, Emissions, EPA, Fight, Ford, Fuel efficiency, Less stringent, Regulations, Reversed, Standards, Trump
New York Times (October 21)
“The United States is home to 95 million cattle, and changing what they eat could have a significant effect on emissions of greenhouse gases like methane that are warming the world.”
Wall Street Journal (July 17)
“Germany has a patchy record in fighting corporate crime. Volkswagen AG ’s giant emissions-cheating scandal was uncovered by California. The U.S. has imposed more money-laundering fines on troubled German lender Deutsche Bank AG than Germany has. BaFin’s decadelong blind spot for Wirecard now raises questions about the country’s ability to enforce securities rules that protect investors.”
Tags: BaFin, Blind spot, California, Corporate crime, Deutsche Bank, Emissions, Enforce, Fines, Germany, Investors, Money laundering, Patchy record, Scandal, Securities rules, U.S., Volkswagen, Wirecard
LA Times (April 15)
“The worst pandemic in a century won’t solve climate change. We have to do that for ourselves.” Thanks to the pandemic, “global carbon output could fall by 5% this year,” but “emissions have to drop 7.6% per year — for decades — to stave off the worst effects of climate change.”
Tags: Carbon output, Climate change, Emissions, Pandemic
LA Times (February 24)
“Baby steps by a handful of oil and gas companies aren’t going to do much to combat overall emissions. Similarly, the Trillion Trees Initiative…won’t do an awful lot, either. In fact, it’s one of those fig-leaf solutions that offers a pretense of significant action against global warming while ignoring the most pressing problem — the burning of fossil fuels in the first place.”
Tags: Baby steps, Emissions, Fig leaf, Gas, Global warming, Oil, Trillion Trees
Washington Post (December 1)
“Experts have known for years what the United States must do: place a strong and steadily rising price on carbon dioxide emissions, invest heavily in clean-energy research and development, and make climate a top priority in international diplomacy. President Trump is instead denying the problem.”
Tags: Clean energy, Climate, CO2, Denying, Diplomacy, Emissions, Experts, Invest, Price, Priority, Trump, U.S.
