Time (January 26)
“The past year brought a number of blows for the climate fight, but there were also clean-energy wins. In the first half of 2025, for the first time, solar and wind power outpaced coal as the leading source of electricity worldwide—a promising step toward reducing emissions.”
Tags: 2025, Clean energy, Climate fight, Coal, Electricity, Emissions, First time, Leading source, Promising, Solar, Wind power, Wins
Reuters (September 25)
“Hopes that the People’s Republic would step up to be the leader in battling global warming… appeared to take a hit when Xi said the country would cut its emissions by a measly 7% to 10%. But this looks like a clear case of consciously underpromising in order to overdeliver.” China is likely to “breeze past its target. Hitting Xi’s 2035 goal of 3,600 gigawatts of solar and wind capacity would, for example, mean adding just 200 GW a year. That’s 44% lower than the 360 GW installed in 2024.” The publicly stated “climate goal also downplays the role electric and hybrid vehicles already play” with plans “that new energy vehicles would be mainstream in a decade, yet they already make up around half of all new car sales.”
Tags: 2035 goal, China, Climate goal, Downplays, Emissions, Global warming, HEVs, Hopes, Leader, Mainstream, Overdeliver, Solar, Target, Underpromising, Wind, Xi
The Guardian (August 14)
“As parts of the developing world get wealthier, people eat more meat, meaning more forest and grassland is obliterated and greater emissions are belched out by livestock and its attendant machinery, feed and chemicals. Even if we do manage to kick the habit of coal, oil and gas, modern agriculture now has enough heft on its own to shove us headlong into environmental catastrophe.” Food production remains “in a relative stone age when it comes to the climate crisis.” A revolution is necessary if we are to solve “food’s climate problem.”
Tags: Agriculture, Chemicals, Climate crisis, Coal, Developing world, Emissions, Environmental catastrophe, Feed, Food production, Forest, Gas, Grassland, Livestock, Machinery, Meat, Oil, Stone age, Wealthier
OilPrice.com (September 17)
“U.S. power-generating companies are announcing plans for the highest volume of new natural gas-fired capacity in years as the AI boom is driving demand for electricity…. The increase in gas-fired generation jeopardizes the current U.S. emissions and ‘clean grid’ goals.”
Tags: AI boom, Capacity, Clean grid, Demand, Electricity, Emissions, Generation, Highest, Jeopardizes, New. Natural gas-fired, Power-generating, U.S.
BBC (July 5)
“The world’s average temperature reached a new high on Monday 3 July, topping 17 degrees Celsius for the first time.” This marks “the highest in any instrumental record dating back to the end of the 19th century.” Scientists attribute the record high to “El Niño and mankind’s ongoing emissions of carbon dioxide.” With El Niño about to enter its hottest phase, “scientists believe that more records will be shattered as the summer goes on and El Niño gains strength.”
Tags: 17 degrees, CO2, El Niño, Emissions, High, Hottest phase, Record, Scientists, Shattered, Strength, Summer, Temperature
BBC (May 17)
“There’s now a 66% chance we will pass the 1.5C global warming threshold between now and 2027. The chances are rising due to emissions from human activities and a likely El Niño weather pattern.” This would not necessarily mean that “the Paris limit had been broken,” especially if the temperature falls back under the threshold in subsequent years. “Scientists say there is still time to restrict global warming by cutting emissions sharply.”
Tags: 1.5C, 2027, Broken, El Niño, Emissions, Global warming, Human activities, Paris limit, Scientists, Temperature, Threshold, Weather pattern
Washington Post (May 11)
The EPA is proposing “the tightest limits ever on power plants’ planet-warming pollution” in order “to meet President Biden’s pledge to halve U.S. emissions by 2030 compared with 2005 levels.” The proposal “would encourage gas- and coal-fired plants nationwide to meet tighter emission-reductions standards by either closing or adopting technology to run cleaner, accelerating one of the fastest transitions underway in energy.”
Tags: Biden, Cleaner, Coal-fired plants, Emission reductions, Emissions, Energy, EPA, Gas, Pledge, Pollution, Technology, Transitions, U.S.
The Times of India (October 30)
“The developed world’s depletion of global atmospheric commons has led to extreme climatic events across the planet. Climate change is already upon us due to industrialisation in Europe and North America in the past, and in China more recently. Countries that have contributed the least towards historical global emissions — countries that are still developing and poor — are left to fend for themselves. Global poverty has underwritten the riches of the developed world.” India cannot “be expected to pay for climate sins of the West.”
Tags: China, Climate change, Depletion, Developed, Developing, Emissions, Europe, Extreme climatic events, Global atmospheric commons, India, Industrialisation, North America, Poor, Riches
GCaptain (July 11)
“The hurdles African countries face in transitioning to gas or green energy mean millions of people are burning dirtier fuels such as charcoal instead, breathing in deadly fumes and generating more emissions. The IEA estimates that the number of people in sub-Saharan Africa without access to clean cooking fuel will grow by 6% a year from 2020 to 2030.”
Tags: Access, Africa, Breathing, Burning, Charcoal, Clean, Cooking fuel, Deadly fumes, Dirtier, Emissions, Gas, Green energy, Hurdles, IEA, Transitioning
Washington Post (April 28)
“Not since an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs—along with at least half of all other beings on Earth—has life in the ocean been so at risk. Warming waters are cooking creatures in their own habitats…. If humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase…roughly a third of all marine animals could vanish within 300 years.”
Tags: Asteroid, Dinosaurs, Earth, Emissions, GHG, Habitats, Humanity, Life, Marine animals, Ocean, Risk, Vanish, Warming waters
