Posts tagged with 'carbon'
Building for People: Towards an Equitable Transition in the Built Environment
Building for People: Towards an Equitable Transition in the Built Environment
The built environment is not on track globally to achieve its sectoral climate targets. Accounting for over a third of total energy system emissions already, the continued use of carbon-intensive materials paired with inefficient energy use throughout the built environment ...
Lessons from China’s Growing Adoption of Zero-Emission Trucks
Lessons from China’s Growing Adoption of Zero-Emission Trucks
Getting more zero-emission trucks on the road is an important transportation shift that is needed to reduce air pollution, protect public health and curb climate-harming emissions. But transforming the entire trucking industry is a challenging feat that will require the ...
Better Buildings Are Taking on the Climate Challenge 
Better Buildings Are Taking on the Climate Challenge 
In March 2024, the inaugural Buildings and Climate Global Forum convened more than 1,000 participants to spur action towards built environment decarbonization and resilience. The first-of-its-kind forum was welcome, as the sector needs a shakeup.   The big issue on the table was ...
Developing City Action Plans for Building Decarbonization
Developing City Action Plans for Building Decarbonization
City officials tasked with reducing and eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from their communities face a tricky task in estimating building emissions as they work to prevent the most harmful impacts of climate change. The biggest challenge is that there isn’t consensus ...
What to Watch at the First Africa Climate Summit
What to Watch at the First Africa Climate Summit
Climate change is already having a significant impact on Africa’s ecosystems, economy and society. This year alone, 1.8 million Africans were displaced during a prolonged drought, the Democratic Republic of Congo experienced catastrophic flooding, and Cyclone Freddy left a trail of destruction in Malawi and Mozambique. ...
A Roadmap to Achieving 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy
A Roadmap to Achieving 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy
Over the past 10 years, large energy buyers including corporations and cities have taken major strides to reduce energy-related greenhouse gas emissions by setting 100% renewable energy targets and then purchasing renewable electricity to demonstrate progress on an annual basis.  ...
Poor Air Quality Isn’t the Only Way Wildfires Affect Cities
Poor Air Quality Isn’t the Only Way Wildfires Affect Cities
Thousands of people in Quebec, Canada evacuated their homes this month due to raging wildfires. More than 400 miles away, New York City experienced its worst air quality in history, and briefly had the worst air quality of any city in the ...
Restoring Degraded Forests Could Bring Back Lost Rainfall, Cooler Temperatures
Restoring Degraded Forests Could Bring Back Lost Rainfall, Cooler Temperatures
Many people point to forest restoration as a way to curb climate change, where replanted forests sequester carbon in trees and soils. But emerging evidence shows that restoration can provide non-carbon climate benefits, too — in particular, reducing heat and regulating rainfall. Here’s what ...
4 Environment and Development Stories to Watch in 2023
4 Environment and Development Stories to Watch in 2023
What will 2023 hold for the environment and development? The end of 2022 certainly left us in an interesting — and concerning — place. The world’s three-year-old pandemic proved it was far from over, sickening millions and affecting economies. Global ...
How Forests Near and Far Benefit People in Cities
How Forests Near and Far Benefit People in Cities
A New Yorker may not think about the forested Catskills Mountain Range upstate as she pours a glass of water. Londoners probably don’t consider the Amazon rainforest as they watch the rain falling on city parks. And folks in Addis ...
5 Reasons Cities Should Include Trees in Climate Action
5 Reasons Cities Should Include Trees in Climate Action
Cities and communities around the world are stepping up to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and prevent dangerous climate change impacts. Their strategies typically focus on reducing emissions from sectors such as transportation, energy, housing and waste. But there’s one sector many communities ...
Cities Should Account for Trees in their Greenhouse Gas Inventories. New Guidance Shows How
Cities Should Account for Trees in their Greenhouse Gas Inventories. New Guidance Shows How
Responsible for more than 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, action by cities is clearly crucial to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. An important part of this effort is developing local GHG inventories and climate action ...
5 Takeaways for Decarbonizing Buildings from COP26
5 Takeaways for Decarbonizing Buildings from COP26
For the building and construction sector, COP26 in Glasgow marked a crucial moment to bring consensus around systemic change in the industry. It was the first time in COP history that the Built Environment had a dedicated day, alongside Cities ...
The Great Reset: 7 Environment and Sustainability Stories to Watch in 2021
The Great Reset: 7 Environment and Sustainability Stories to Watch in 2021
2020 upended life as we know it. The coronavirus killed almost 2 million people and counting, while roughly 100 million people fell into extreme poverty. The world entered its worst recession since the second world war. Deep-rooted racial and economic injustices were ...
The Cities4Forests Toolbox: Connecting Cities With Tools to Understand and Manage Forests
The Cities4Forests Toolbox: Connecting Cities With Tools to Understand and Manage Forests
Mérida, a city in Mexico’s lush Yucatán Peninsula, is home to 2.3 million trees, which cover more than 20% of the metropolitan area. Mérida’s officials know that these trees provide benefits to the residents, but until recently they didn’t know how ...
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