It’s a good thing that cities aspire to lead the way in acting on climate change in the absence of stronger national action. But a closer look reveals the limitations of current city-based efforts.
Exxon funded climate scientists while the bulk of its public-facing advertorials argued the science and cause of climate change was uncertain.
AP Photo/Mark Humphrey
A new study confirms what many already know: Exxon for years sowed uncertainty and doubt about climate change in the public. Should scientists reject certain funding sources?
A pre-industrial climate benchmark generally indicates before the Industrial Revolution – but that still leaves a very wide field.
REUTERS/Jason Reed
Economic forces – alongside a moral imperative – are driving cities, states and companies to make changes to forestall climate change, regardless of the whims of the White House.
The 2014 People’s Climate March in New York City.
Annette Bernhardt/flickr
Messaging for the April 29 People’s Climate March is stressing collective resistance against President Trump. This theme may appeal to activists, but is unlikely to grow the movement.
After decades of sustainability initiatives, key environmental indicators keep getting worse.
The Capital Wind Farm, REUTERS/Jason Reed/File Photo
Why, after decades of international agreements, are we still damaging the environment? New research, looking at dozens of unsuccessful policies, has uncovered the basic elements of failure.
Coal train in Missouri. Assigning a social cost to carbon emissions puts a price on activities that generate them, such as burning fossil fuels.
Scott Granneman/Flickr
To weigh the economic impact of climate change policies, we need to estimate the social cost of carbon. An economist explains how it’s done and why the Trump administration shouldn’t end the practice.
Efforts to combat climate change are making extracting oil from areas like Canada’s tar sands fields more expensive.
Emily Beament/PA Wire via AP
The Trump administration may reverse a recent push to require oil companies to disclose more information about climate change risks to investors. Is that a good thing?
Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, U.S. President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon shake hands during a joint ratification of the Paris climate change agreement in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, Sept. 3, 2016.
How Hwee Young/Pool Photo via AP
Matthew E. Kahn, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Although Donald Trump has called climate change a hoax invented by China, Chinese leaders believe cutting carbon emissions will generate economic and political payoffs at home and abroad.
NASA Earth Science Division operating missions, including systems managed by NOAA and USGS.
NASA Earth Observing System
President Trump’s 2018 budget request cuts funding for NASA Earth observation research and cancels four missions. Weather forecasters, businesses, scientists and the armed forces rely on this data.
The SEC and others are pressing Exxon to disclose more climate change risks to investors. But new research suggests shareholders are already pricing in those costs on their own.
Yallourn Power Station in the Latrobe Valley is one of the emissions intensive power stations that remains open.
AAP Image/David Crosling
Environment and energy minister Josh Frydenberg said that eight out of Australia’s 12 most emission intensive power stations closed in the last five years. Is that right?
Malcolm Turnbull faces many challenges in transitioning Australia to a post-mining boom economy.
Lukas Coch/AAP
What are the key policy challenges facing the new Turnbull government in terms of economic growth and budgets, cities, transport, energy, school education, higher education and health?
Coastal communities around Australia are facing the rising threat of coastal erosion.
AAP/Dave Hunt
Coastal communities include 24 federal seats held by margins of 5% or less, and their local councils are pressing the Australian government to show more urgency about the impacts of climate change.
The Australian government seems to think fossil fuels need help, when businesses are deciding otherwise.
Coal image from www.shutterstock.com
Do fossil fuels need saving from efforts to combat climate change? The Australian government seems to think so, but that sort of thinking is out of date.
Organisations like the African Union must find a way to monitor countries’ environmental commitments.
Shutterstock
Africa has fewer resources than others when it comes to climate change adaptation. For this reason environmental agreements must be monitored by the likes of the AU.
Raise the (Thames) Barriers!
diamond geezer/Flickr
With the sea level set to rise up to 1m by 2100, cities around the world must adapt, if they’re to avoid disaster.
Has any other country achieved a greater reduction than Australia in the intensity of their emissions per unit of GDP over between 1990 and now?
AAP Image/Dan Peled
Recent comments by Federal Minister for the Environment, Greg Hunt, implied that Australia is leading the world in reduction of greenhouse gas emissions per unit of GDP. Is that right?
The price of growth? Ebola management in Guinea.
European Commission DG ECHO
If ever we wanted a reminder of how global capitalism has got things wrong, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa serves the purpose well. Our assumption that economic growth is essential is not only a feature…