Amid Danger Signs, A Global Energy Leader Finds Reason for Hope
For more than a decade, Fatih Birol has consistently warned that the world is moving far too slowly to wean itself off fossil fuels. Two weeks ago, the International Energy…
How to Repair the World’s Broken Carbon Offset Markets
In the wake of the Glasgow climate summit, governments must now return to the daunting challenge of making good on their emissions-reductions pledges, which at this point remain insufficient to…
Beyond Magical Thinking: Time to Get Real on Climate Change
The UN’s first climate conference took place in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, and in the intervening decades we have had a series of global meetings and countless assessments and…
In California, A Push Grows to Turn Dead Trees into Biomass Energy
Jonathan Kusel owns three pickups and a 45-foot truck for hauling woodchip bins. He operates a woodchip yard and a 35-kilowatt biomass plant that burns dead trees, and he runs…
The Oil Well Next Door: California’s Silent Health Hazard
Nalleli Cobo was nine years old when her nose started bleeding, off and on throughout the day, and often into her pillow at night. Then came the headaches and heart…
Shifting Political Winds Threaten Progress on Europe’s Green Goals
In December 2019, Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, presented with great fanfare the so-called “Green Deal.” The package consisted of new laws and directives, goals,…
Cities Confront Climate Challenge: How to Move from Gas to Electricity?
In 1836, Philadelphians mostly used whale oil and candles to light their homes and businesses. That year, the newly formed Philadelphia Gas Works caused a stir when it lit 46…
Bitcoin’s Intensive Energy Demands Are Sparking a Crypto Backlash
The first time Jackie Sawicky learned that a Bitcoin mining operation was coming to Corsicana, a rural Texas city 60 miles south of Dallas, was on April 27, when she…
In Europe, a Backlash Is Growing Over Incinerating Garbage
For decades, Europe has poured millions of tons of its trash into incinerators each year, often under the green-sounding label “waste to energy.” Now, concerns about incineration’s outsized carbon footprint…
In a Major Reversal, the World Bank Is Backing Mega Dams
After a decade of declining to finance large hydroelectric dams, the World Bank is getting back into the business in a big way. Throughout the last half of the 20th…