If we fail to balance the social impacts of climate change with responsible climate action, we risk substituting one kind of harm for another – and this would be a disaster of another kind.
The energy transition is already underway.
Volker Hartmann/Getty Images
Here are four ways the current electricity system favours existing, higher emitting technologies. These must be overcome to rapidly cut Australia’s emissions.
Indigenous activists have long been protesting the Belo Monte complex.
International Rivers/Flickr
Australia’s business sector has recognised the profits to be made in the hydrogen transition. Acting quickly, and powering the shift with renewable energy, is key.
U.S. President Joe Biden arrives at a COP26 session in Glasgow, Scotland.
Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Poo
Achieving zero emissions in the energy sector by 2050 is technically and economically possible. Indonesia can modernise its economy through various green projects.
The Biden administration is proposing a big increase in offshore wind power. A former state official explains how regulators find the best sites and balance competing interests.
Halving Australia’s 2030 target would see Australia become a valued and relevant party to negotiations at Glasgow, rather than a resented freeloader. Here’s how we could get there.
A coal mine in Alberta. Canada has adopted a carbon neutral target for 2050. It represents a major change Canada’s approach to reducing GHG emissions.
(Shutterstock)
The goal of carbon neutrality changes everything. Canada can no longer limit itself to solutions that partially reduce emissions here and there. The chosen solution must be zero emissions.
Less than half the population of sub-Saharan Africa had access to electricity in 2019.
Sia Kambou/AFP/GettyImages
Major international donors, including the US and UK, are pledging to stop funding fossil fuel projects overseas, but they aren’t making the equivalent cuts at home.
Women continue to fetch wood and cook over smoky fires even where there are solar home systems.
GettyImages
Developments in the energy sector shouldn’t be reduced to technological sophistication. They should be guided by how they improve the livelihoods of the intended beneficiaries.
Renewable energy is a fast-growing industry.
Oimheidi/Pixabay
Reaching net-zero emissions will require intense policy focus, private investment and clear accountability – conditions only a firm numerical target can provide.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is seeing nothing but blue skies ahead when it comes to his policies on climate change. But will the newly re-elected Liberal government follow through?
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
While the outcome of the 2021 federal election offered little in the way of change, it may have left Canada better positioned to make progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Aerial view of the 6-megawatt Stanton Solar Farm near Orlando, Fla.
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
President Biden’s proposed solar power expansion would cost $350 billion in federal support over the coming decade. An energy expert explains where that money would come from and who it would help.