An emissions trading scheme is New Zealand’s main policy to tackle climate change. But to bring down emissions quickly enough, other policies will need to transform transport and agriculture.
Basil Sharp, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
Moving New Zealanders rapidly into electric vehicles is a good idea, but success will still depend on a number of difficult to predict economic forces.
Many communities in Canada currently lack intercity and regional transportation. A national public transportation system would improve connectedness between cities and access to essential services.
Peatlands worldwide are running short of water, and the amount of greenhouse gases this could set loose would be devastating for our efforts to curb climate change.
Climate change science dominated by knowledge produced in the global North cannot address the particular challenges faced by those living in the global South.
A complete switch to biofuels is neither feasible nor desirable, but they could replace some fossil fuels in transport and heating. If biofuels are produced from waste products, that’s even better.
For phascogales, tree hollows are getting harder to find. I venture into forests and study how well artificial hollows made with chainsaws can replace them.
Scientists studied charcoal layers in the sediment of lake beds across the Rockies to track fires over time. They found increasing fire activity as the climate warmed.
Heat pumps are the technology of choice for heating and cooling buildings more efficiently and with fewer carbon emissions than furnaces and air conditioning.
Scott Morrison may have found the meeting of the leaders of the world’s liberal democracies that aligning himself so closely with former US President Donald Trump was not the most prudent course.
One cold winter doesn’t negate more than a century of global warming. We need the political leadership to set the world on a safer path. Ill-informed tweets by government senators won’t help.
Hugh Saddler, Australian National University and Frank Jotzo, Australian National University
Renewables form an ever-greater share of the electricity mix. But elsewhere in the energy sector – in transport, industry and buildings – emissions reduction is very slow.