Posts in the 'Energy + Climate Change' category
Amid the barrage of news about climate-related natural disasters and climate change summits, it’s important to recognize real inflection points—when there is truly cause to sit up and take note. The IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ºC, released ...
Most people don’t associate cities with trees, but urban areas are actually dependent on healthy forests. Trees within cities reduce heat, provide spaces for recreation and socialization, and increase property values. Nearby trees in the watersheds around cities filter drinking water and ...
The time has never been better – or more critical – for spurring a global building efficiency movement. Building efficiency is one of the most effective near-term opportunities for achieving climate and energy goals. Better efficiency policies for new and ...
Fireworks, block parties and barbeques: Those are the first things that come to mind when the 4th of July rolls around. But what’s least talked about is the quality of breathable air on the nation’s birthday. Data shows that levels of fine ...
Climate change is already harming people’s health. In August last year, over 45 million people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal were affected by unprecedented monsoon flooding, while last year’s Atlantic hurricane season was the costliest on record. The scale of ...
In 2010, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing began reporting data on local air quality from a monitoring station on its roof. Once the dismal numbers were shared on Twitter, a storm of public outcry was unleashed that would culminate in ...
Thousands of cities have committed to act on climate change, but few have yet turned their goals into tangible results. One of the important items that can help them begin is data from national governments. Establishing an “emissions inventory,” measuring how much greenhouse ...
Climate action is rarely a primary consideration when investments are made in cities. Roads and transport networks are built to improve mobility, homes to provide shelter, offices to create places to work. But with more than three-quarters of global emissions ...
“India has 13 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world,” says Ritwick Dutta, the managing trustee for the Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE), and Indian advocacy and law group. And yet, for the “bulk” of places ...
With CEO Mary Barra at the wheel, GM has matured their climate strategy from simply greening operations to product strategy to shared electric mobility solutions. A few years ago, GM’s energy demands came from building cars. Now they come from ...
Imagine you’re a local sustainability officer developing an initiative to reduce emissions. But you don’t know how many emissions the city produces, or where they’re coming from. You don’t know who the city’s biggest energy users are, how many cars ...
While there is growing global interest in smart city applications, there are also significant challenges in scaling implementation and impact. Building on the success of its annual Energy Efficiency Indicator study, Johnson Controls recently conducted its first Smart City Indicator ...
China has made significant achievements in environmental development, especially in controlling and preventing air pollution, over the past five years. As Premier Li Keqiang said in the Government Work Report he delivered to the ongoing first session of the 13th ...
From a small collection of fishing villages 40 years ago to a metropolis on track for a global milestone, Shenzhen has come further, faster than most cities. Already home to the largest fleet of electric buses in the world – ...
The UN climate conference in Bonn, Germany, has highlighted the importance of sub-national actors to translating commitment to action and meeting global climate goals. But as more non-state actors pledge action, how do we measure success? What is sustainability? What is ...
