This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
In 2021, a record-breaking heat dome enveloped Oregon , tragically claiming the lives of 72 people. In response, Multnomah County, which includes Portland, filed a lawsuit for over $51 billion against major fossilfuel entities–one of the largest claims for a climate case to date. This case is just one of dozens in the U.S.
To adjust the focus of this picture a little closer, just our passenger cars and light trucks contribute to a whopping 58 percent of total transportation emissions, placing our car-centric society in the fossilfuel spotlight. percent in 2021 to about 16 percent in 2050. Since vehicles are the largest sources of PM2.5
This year has brought new evidence of what major fossilfuel companies knew and when about the role their products play in climate change, as well as what they did in spite of what they knew. They enable us to strengthen our balance sheet and high grade or diversify our portfolio.
While at least one event provided a platform for oil and gas industry greenwashing, others centered people directly affected by fossilfuel-driven climate change who are holding bad actors accountable. I had the honor of moderating one of the latter events, Scientists & Activists vs. FossilFuel Finance.
Earlier this year, The Guardian ran a powerful article exposing the ties of Elsevier, one of the world’s largest academic publishing companies, to the fossilfuel industry. The article caught my attention because I’d never considered the ways in which an academic publisher might be perpetuating and enabling a fossilfuel economy.
Last week, I joined my colleagues at COP28 in Dubai , as negotiators and civil society push for a fossilfuel phaseout to meet climate goals. The industry is pushing a narrative that misleadingly calls out emissions , not fossilfuels as the problem. Source: IPCC Sixth Assessment Report.
In a new study released today, UCS attributes substantial temperature and sea level rise to emissions traced to the largest fossilfuel producers and cement manufacturers. Every delay in phasing out fossilfuels will burden future generations who need to adapt to rising seas and recover from loss and damage due to sea level impacts.
Replacing fossilfuels with renewable energy from wind and solar will depend on upgrading the electric power grid, which is currently plagued by planning delays and gridlock. The 2021 law allows, but does not require, PJM to plan ahead because various fossilfuel plants must reduce and then cease emissions by a specific date.
Fossilfuel power plant owners are facing increased accountability for their air and water pollution, including from a new round of environmental and public health protections that are being rolled out by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). We’ve heard these lazily disingenuous narratives before.
Utilities and grid operators prepared for the storm as it was coming down the pike, but they still underestimated the energy demand it would trigger, as well as the number of outages at fossilfuel power plants—mainly natural gas-fired, plus some coal-fired plants. Where do we go from here?
GW record from 2021. And fossilfuel power plants may not stick to their retirement schedules for a variety of reasons. Note: this is adjusted for inflation to 2022 dollars and is based on the amount those plants emitted in 2021, the EIA’s most recent year of finalized data. A bit more on those reasons later.
For almost two year now the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) is under revision and negotiations shall finish in 2021. The aim of the EU is to try to stop fossilfuel companies suing states over climate action. Then a further round is already planned for February or March 2021.
New research led by the Union of Concerned Scientists and released today quantifies the contribution of heat-trapping emissions from the world’s largest fossilfuel producers and cement manufacturers to worsening wildfires across western North America. That’s an area roughly the size of the state of Maine.
Investor-owned utilities want to protect the bottom line of their fossilfuel power plants and stave off competition from low-cost renewables that would be aided by transmission, even if those cleaner solutions would help ratepayers and boost grid reliability.
The Illinois energy landscape Illinois passed the landmark Climate and Energy Jobs Act (CEJA) in September 2021. Among many other provisions, CEJA includes carbon emission limits for coal and fossil gas plants that phase in over several years, starting in 2030.
Gas plants failed at a scale that jeopardized grid reliability for large regions of the United States during severe winter storms in 2011 , 2014 , 2018 , 2021 , and 2022. Even with the clean energy transition well underway, gas plants will be around for a while as we phase out fossilfuels.
This unprecedented warming, which began in the 19th century and has so far reached around 1.31.4C , is almost entirely driven by human activity – primarily the burning of fossilfuels. km over the past 140 years and the thawing of permafrost above the city of Huaraz in Peru.
Unless fossilfuel use declines steeply and swiftly, it will be necessary to pursue options such as removing carbon from the air or growing crops as a fuel stock. But carbon removal and fuel crops have significant tradeoffs for water supply and water quality. More water news and analysis await you at circleofblue.org.
The report stated unequivocally, for the first time, that climate change is occurring due to “human influence,” namely the burning of fossilfuels and deforestation. The post What’s Up With Water — August 16, 2021 appeared first on Circle of Blue. The report, while grim, does offer hope.
It also will save US consumers money because they will spend less on fossilfuels. First, decarbonizing the electricity sector mainly with wind and solar to replace coal and fossil gas. Second, replacing fossilfuels with clean electricity in the transportation, building, and industrial sectors. Your thoughts?
New analysis from Environmental Defence reveals that despite federal government promises, funding to the fossilfuel and petrochemical industries remains high Ottawa | Traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People – New analysis released today by Environmental Defence reveals Canada’s federal government provided at least $18.6
In 2021, 9 percent of US electricity came from those graceful kinetic sculptures, up from less than 3 percent in 2011. Wind power generation will continue to rise, including in the near term as a result of one of the US wind industry’s best years ever in 2021. Eight states generate more than 25 percent of their electricity from wind.
Communities rich and poor bore witness to horrific devastation in 2021. The events of 2021 are likely to be a prelude for tougher tests ahead. Fossilfuel subsidies could be lowered. The post What’s Up With Water – December 13, 2021 appeared first on Circle of Blue.
Two-thirds of the G20’s public finance for energy went to fossilfuels in 2019–2020. Subsidies reached new highs in 2021, even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a Climate Transparency analysis finds. In total, 63% of the G20’s public finance for energy went to fossilfuels in 2019–2020. By Catherine Early.
That 2013 headline resulted from the first effort to quantify emissions from the ‘carbon majors’ —fossilfuel companies and cement manufacturers whose businesses have contributed an outsized amount of heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere. Nearly two-thirds of industrial heat-trapping emissions can be traced to just 90 entities.
For years, fossilfuel companies have socialized the costs of their pollution while privatizing the benefits. Since local and state governments are on the frontlines of paying for worsening wildfires, they should also be on the leading edge of holding fossilfuel companies accountable.
SSP4: A divided world A highly unequal world where some adopt clean technology while much of the population remains dependent on fossilfuels. SSP5: Taking the highway A scenario driven by economic growth and high fossilfuel use, leading to rapid warming.
If society continues to burn fossilfuels and to clear forests, those dry cycles are expected to intensify and spread across wetter areas like the Caribbean and Amazon, potentially affecting hundreds of millions of people a year. The post What’s Up With Water – August 30, 2021 appeared first on Circle of Blue.
Having gained its status as an autonomous region, the fledgling Bangsamoro government has invited investors to drill under the Liguasan Marsh for fossilfuels. By Laura Gersony, Circle of Blue — November 1, 2021. Local representatives estimate that the fossilfuels underneath the marsh are valued at as much as $1 trillion. .
This move represents massive backtracking on Canada’s efforts to move beyond thermal coal the dirtiest fossilfuel. In September 2021, Minister Wilkinson re-designated the project. Last weeks move reversed the 2021 redesignation decision. Coalspur once again challenged the decision.
In its last NDC, back in 2021, the U.S. That means we’ll need to quickly add additional clean energy policies and policies to phase out fossilfuels just to meet our 2030 goals. 3 : Defending against bad-faith actions from fossilfuel interests Fossilfuel interests are a perennial threat to climate progress, at home and abroad.
Here’s a taste: Wind power , the largest single source of renewable electricity in the country, grew the most of any renewable energy source in overall generation from 2021 to 2022. Gas generation, after dropping in 2021, bounced back to its highest level yet in absolute terms, and accounted for 38 percent of US supply. It supplied 10.5
According to the Energy Information Agency , South Korea’s power sector is heavily reliant on fossilfuels. Two thirds of generation capacity is based on fossilfuels, split evenly between coal and natural gas, with 17% nuclear, and 14% hydro and other renewables. 50% coal, 26% gas, and 25% nuclear.
The UN’s 2021 Emissions Gap Report finds that under current pledges temperatures will still rise by 2.7°C In December 2020, he added further detail on commitments for 2030 (carbon intensity, non-fossil energy share, forest stock, and wind and solar installed capacity). C above pre-industrial levels. C by the end of the century.
Fossilfuels are the root cause of climate change, of long-standing environmental injustices, and are also frequently connected to geopolitical strife and violent conflicts. Other countries are dependent upon these fossilfuels, they don’t make themselves free of them. This is a fossilfuel war.
3) ExxonMobil predicted the possibility of linking rising temperatures to fossilfuels ExxonMobil researchers accurately predicted when it would become possible to attribute changes in climate to human activity. Such a constraint would clearly place a limit on the amount of fossilfuels ExxonMobil could extract, produce and market.
Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Superstorm Sandy in 2012, Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in 2017, and Hurricane Irma in 2021 were all accompanied by the same question. This has got nothing to do with climate.This is not because of fossilfuels.” A 2021 analysis of more than 88,000 studies since 2012 now finds 99.9
Communities and ecosystems continue to suffer the consequences of human-caused climate change , primarily from the burning of fossilfuels across our economy. The case for phasing out of fossilfuels and making a just and equitable transition to clean energy has never been more clear. comes from burning fossilfuels.
Their efforts have paid off: The 27 resolutions demanding increased disclosure that went to a vote in 2021 averaged approximately 40 percent support, according to investment management firm Boston Trust Walden. ExxonMobil also funded the Consumer Energy Alliance , a pro-fracking front group run by PR firms on behalf of fossilfuel companies.
Minnesotans are facing concurrent crises of climate change, high energy prices and inflation, and the inequitable public health impacts of fossilfuel air pollution. Renewable energy will help with all of that—but we need a grid that is designed for wind and solar instead of having to rely on expensive coal and gas plants.
The air quality for this report was calculated using data reviewed by EPA from 2020, 2021, and 2022. That means it includes the extreme wildfires exacerbated by the fossilfuel industry that burned more than 4% of California in 2021 and 2022. come from burning fossilfuels and pesticide use, and ultrafine particles (PM0.1)
The shift from fossilfuels in the 100-percent RES scenario reduces the amount of toxic power plant air pollution much more than what we called a “no-new-policy,” or business-as-usual, scenario. And what about fossilfuel-dependent workers and communities? Our analysis also demonstrates renewables’ power.
This year will see a smaller jump in carbon dioxide emissions from fossilfuels compared with 2021, driven partly by the continuing recovery of aviation following covid-19 travel restrictions
As countries around the world grapple with eliminating their own fossilfuel subsidies, Canada has set a strong global precedent. This is alarming given that Canada is one of the largest providers of fossilfuel financing in the G20. Canada ranks among the worst in the G20 for providing fossilfuels public financing.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 12,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content