Environment

A range of innovations and ideas are changing the way construction projects are carried out. Jung Getty | Moment | Getty Images Infrastructure giant Balfour Beatty is to expand its deployment of technology that can manage power use at its sites and, it’s hoped, cut carbon emissions in the process. The system, dubbed EcoNet, has

December 15th, 2020 by World Resources Institute  Originally published on WRI’s Resource Institute Blog.By Johannes Friedrich, Mengpin Ge and Andrew Pickens  A lot has happened since countries met in Paris in 2015 and agreed on an accord to combat climate change. So far, more than 189 countries ratified or otherwise joined the Paris Climate Agreement, representing more than 81% of global

Halfpoint Images | Moment | Getty Images This year, doing good for the planet can also help you trim your tax bill. That’s because a basket of provisions in the tax code reward individuals and businesses for taking steps toward energy efficiency. Whether you added a few solar panels to your roof, bought a hybrid

December 15th, 2020 by Scott Cooney  The nonprofit DearTomorrow is organizing an online campaign encouraging people to write letters, hypothetically to be read in the year 2050, about their feelings about climate change and what they hope 2050 might look like for the person they intend to read the post. I love this concept, and

“More of the same, and a lot of it,” says CFRA Research energy analyst Stewart Glickman of a newly unveiled plan from Exxon Mobil to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. But Glickman, and others analysts even more critical of Exxon, say there is a logic and consistency to the oil giant’s position that was reiterated

December 14th, 2020 by The Beam  Originally published in The Beam. Cassetex produces a solar-powered battery swapping service for electric 3-wheelers in Bangladesh. Out of 68 teams and 3,000 entrepreneurs pitching in total, the startup won the first prize in the ClimateLaunchpad annually organized by EIT Climate-KIC. As part of the competition, they went through

An aerial photograph of Keele University’s campus, taken in July 2017. David Goddard | Getty Images News | Getty Images A university campus in the U.K. will be home to two wind turbines and 15,000 solar panels as part of a plan to make it carbon neutral by the end of the decade, yet another

December 13th, 2020 by Zachary Shahan  I’ve been covering the solar power industry for more than a decade. I recall writing about the industry blowing up way back at the beginning, because annual installations did indeed climb rapidly compared to previous years. The nice thing about technology learning curves is that you can tell such

An abandoned oil rig in the U.K. during Covid-19. “We’ve been talking about this for 20 years and some of the changes we saw this week were unlike anything we’ve seen before,” said Mindy Lubber, CEO and president of sustainability nonprofit Ceres, speaking about action from investors on climate change. Jason Alden | Bloomberg via

December 13th, 2020 by Jennifer Sensiba  “You may all go to hell. I will go to Texas.” —Davy Crockett When news first broke that Elon Musk might be moving to Texas, most of the coverage was very “TMZ,” as one of my editors here said. People are often interesting (especially when their name begins with

Chevron has taken steps to lessen the oil and gas giant’s dependence on fossil fuels, laying a path to an energy system with a reduced carbon footprint, CEO Mike Wirth told CNBC’s Jim Cramer Wednesday. “We embrace a lower carbon future. We expect a lower carbon energy system,” Wirth said in a “Mad Money” interview.

December 12th, 2020 by NRDC  Originally published on the NRDC Expert Blog.By Jake Schmidt  On the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Paris Agreement — December 12th, 2020—countries are coming together for the “Climate Ambition Summit 2020” to commit to new and more aggressive climate actions as required under the Paris Agreement. We expect to see

Inside every smartphone and tablet lies a dense brick with a dark and complex history: its battery. The lithium that ferries charge back and forth likely started out in South American salt flats, where months of evaporation consumes millions of tons of water in some of the world’s driest regions. The cobalt that buffers the

United Airlines Boeing 767-400 ER Extended Range with 2x CF6-80 engines aircraft landing at Amsterdam Schiphol International Airport AMS EHAM in The Netherlands, the Dutch capital. Economou | NurPhoto | Getty Images United Airlines is turning to technology that aims to capture carbon dioxide from the air and store it underground to help offset its

acilo | E+ | Getty Images European Union leaders have agreed on a goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by the year 2030 compared with 1990 levels. The previous target had been a reduction of at least 40% by 2030. The European Council’s President, Charles Michel, confirmed the news via Twitter

December 11th, 2020 by Michael Barnard  Today, Canada’s federal government dropped its new climate change plan, led by a very big number: $170 per ton of CO2 as a carbon price by 2030. This is excellent news, and let’s hope it persists in the face of inevitable opposition. What does this mean? Map of Canada