Articles 2020

L’offensive contre les politiques écologiques n’est pas qu’un simple recul transitoire. Elle s’inscrit dans une histoire longue, celle de groupes d’intérêt économiques et politiques dont la violence redouble à mesure que l’urgence d’agir s’accroît.

Exclusive interview with ex-US vice-president at Cop30 also reveals his hope around much-maligned climate summit

Que reste-t-il de l’accord de Paris, dix ans après sa signature, au moment de l’ouverture de la COP30 au Brésil, dans un contexte de tensions géopolitiques et de « backlash » climatique mené par les États-Unis ? Des signaux encourageants subsistent malgré tout, notamment l’accélération des transitions énergétiques dans les pays émergents. De quoi garder entrouverte une fenêtre, certes bien étroite, sur la voie de la stabilisation de la température mondiale.

Unless global heating is reduced to 1.2C ‘as fast as possible’, warm water coral reefs will not remain ‘at any meaningful scale’, a report by 160 scientists from 23 countries warns

Le 25 mai 1970, un mois à peine après le premier Jour de la Terre qui vit des millions d’Américains manifester pour la défense de l’environnement, le New York Times évoquait déjà l’hypothèse d’un ecological backlash, d’un retour de bâton contre l’écologie. La menace n’était pas prise au sérieux. La vague environnementaliste semblait portée par la démocratie américaine elle‑même.

Four Prime Ministers in twelve months. Social protests in the streets. Extreme parties rising in the polls. President Macron, once seen as Europe's great reformer, seems politically finished. But what if France's paralysis is not an exception - what if it shows Europe's future?

Toutes les résolutions de l'ONU relatives aux sanctions contre Téhéran pour empêcher la prolifération nucléaire en Iran ont été rétablies samedi soir. Faute d'un accord avec Téhéran, le mécanisme de rétablissement des sanctions, dit "snapback", activé le 28 août par le groupe E3 (Allemagne, France, Royaume-Uni), s'est enclenché à minuit GMT dans la nuit de samedi à dimanche.

Alors que les mesures coercitives doivent être rétablies ce samedi soir, le régime s’insurge et affirme qu’il ne cédera «jamais à la pression».

Le mécanisme inédit visant à obliger le Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU à rétablir les sanctions internationales contre l'Iran pour non-respect de ses engagements nucléaires doit intervenir samedi soir. Explications.

Trump’s dictator-like behaviour is so brazen, so blatant, that paradoxically, we discount it. But now it’s time to call it what it is

The European Commission said Friday it intends to scrap new rules against greenwashing after they hit a roadblock in the final stretch from conservative lawmakers calling them too onerous for businesses.

The human fingerprint on global warming was likely evident in Earth’s atmosphere far earlier than previously thought—even before the invention of modern cars, a new study says. Using a combination of scientific theory, modern observations and multiple, sophisticated computer models, researchers found a clear signal of human-caused climate change was likely discernible with high confidence as early as 1885, just before the advent of gas-powered cars but after the dawn of the industrial revolution.

Les financements aux industries du pétrole et du gaz repartent de plus belle. Le rapport Banking on climate chaos, signé par huit ONG, estime à près de 900 milliards de dollars les financements octroyés en 2024 par 65 banques aux industriels du secteur, en augmentation de 23%. Le backlash contre la finance durable n’est pas étranger à ce nouvel appétit de la finance pour les hydrocarbures.

On 21 April 2019, I was on Waterloo Bridge in London with my younger siblings. Around us were planters full of flowers where there were once cars, and people singing. This was the spring iteration of Extinction Rebellion, when four bridges in London were held by protesters. My siblings, then 14, had been going out on school strike inspired by Greta Thunberg, and wanted to see her speak.

Plusieurs études montrent que la baisse d’intérêt pour le sujet climatique mesurée dans les sondages ne signifie pas forcément le rejet par les citoyens des politiques en faveur de l’environnement.

Earth’s albedo (reflectivity) declined over the 25 years of precise satellite data, with the decline so large that this change must be mainly reduced reflection of sunlight by clouds. Part of the cloud change is caused by reduction of human-made atmospheric aerosols, which act as condensation nuclei for cloud formation, but most of the cloud change is cloud feedback that occurs with global warming. The observed albedo change proves that clouds provide a large, amplifying, climate feedback. This large cloud feedback confirms high climate sensitivity, consistent with paleoclimate data and with the rate of global warming in the past century.

Eat-Lancet report recommended shift to more plant-based, climate-friendly diet but was extensively attacked online [...] The report recommended that if global red meat eating was cut by 50%, the “planetary health diet” would provide nutritious food to all while tackling the harms caused by animal agriculture, which accounts for over 14% of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. It suggested individuals – particularly in wealthy countries – should increase their consumption of nuts, pulses and other plant-based foods while cutting meat and sugar from their diets.

Developing countries urge biggest polluters to act as Trump’s return to the White House heightens geopolitical turmoil

Clouds play an important role in how much the Earth warms when greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide increase. However, scientists have struggled to determine whether low-level clouds in the tropics slow down or speed up global warming, creating uncertainty in climate predictions. A new study published in Nature adds to the growing evidence that cloud feedback is very likely to amplify warming in the climate system, rather than reduce it.

As the world’s largest gathering of Earth and space scientists swarmed a Washington venue last week, the packed halls have been permeated by an air of anxiety and even dread over a new Donald Trump presidency that might worsen what has been a bruising few years for science.