Flux continu

A climate-focused report out of Europe throws serious shade at plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) cars, pointing out that they emit nearly as much carbon dioxide emissions as combustion engine-powered vehicles. In fact, it highlights how real-world emissions from supposedly greener PHEVs has increased over the years above officially recorded figures to nearly five times. Yikes! The findings come from the European Federation for Transport and Environment (T&E), a clutch of non-government organizations focused on sustainable transport policy across the continent. The report has been published ahead of a review of automotive CO2 emission standards, which would see Europe continue to sell plug-in hybrid electric vehicles beyond 2035, when they're set to be phased out in order to meet EU climate targets.

Daniel P. Aldrich (born 1974) is an academic in the fields of political science, public policy and Asian studies. He is currently full professor of political science and public policy at Northeastern University.[1] Aldrich has held several Fulbright fellowships, including a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Applied Public Policy (Democratic Resilience) at Flinders University in Australia in 2023,[2] a Fulbright Specialist[3] in Trinidad-Tobago in 2018, a Fulbright research fellowship at the University of Tokyo's Economic's Department for the 2012–2013 academic year, and a IIE Fulbright Dissertation Fellowship in Tokyo in 2002–2003. His research, prompted in part by his own family's experience of Hurricane Katrina,[4] explores how communities around the world respond to and recover from disaster.

We are an international group of researchers and practitioners interested in the emerging fields of post-growth and ecological macroeconomics. Our aim is to advance economic theory, methodology and policy in order to adequately address some of the biggest challenges of our time: climate change, rising inequality, and financial instability.

The GreenFacts Initiative is a non-profit project with an independent Scientific Board and a non-advocacy policy. Our Mission is to bring complex scientific consensus reports on health and the environment to the reach of non-specialists. GreenFacts publishes clear, faithful, and verified summaries of existing scientific reports on health, the environment and sustainable development.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has described her plan to “maximise extraction” of the UK’s oil and gas from the North Sea as a “common sense” energy policy. Politicians are using language like this increasingly often – calling themselves “pragmatic” on climate change and invoking “common sense”. It sounds reasonable, reassuring, and grownup – the opposite of “hysterical” campaigners or “unrealistic” targets.

This article examines the technocentric bias that characterizes climate mitigation literature, focusing on the reports of the IPCC's Working Group III. This bias stems from structural features of the scientific field that prioritizes innovation, leading to the overrepresentation of technological solutions in climate research. Funding mechanisms further reinforce this tendency by incentivizing collaboration with industrial R&D, creating a self-reinforcing loop in which scientific authority and industrial interests converge. The IPCC's institutional positioning—as a policy-relevant yet politically cautious body—amplifies this dynamic by favoring allegedly “cost-effective” technological pathways that lack practical feasibility.

The Trump administration is releasing its proposal to undo the “endangerment finding,” the long-standing rationale and legal imperative for regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act

Critical minerals, which are essential for a range of energy technologies and for the broader economy, have become a major focus in global policy and trade discussions. Price volatility, supply chain bottlenecks and geopolitical concerns make the regular monitoring of their supply and demand extremely vital.

DOGE is gutting federal agencies to install AI across the government. Democracy is on the line, writes Tech Policy Press fellow Eryk Salvaggio.

Actuaries are calling for more realistic climate risk assessments. This includes the “risk of ruin”: the point past which global society can no longer adapt to climate change. Today’s report from the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) and the University of Exeter – “Climate Scorpion: the sting is in the tail” – puts forward the case for using financial services risk management to evaluate and communicate climate risk. It advocates for “worst-case” scenario thinking around climate change.

Abstract. We review how the international modelling community, encompassing integrated assessment models, global and regional Earth system and climate models, and impact models, has worked together over the past few decades to advance understanding of Earth system change and its impacts on society and the environment and thereby support international climate policy. We go on to recommend a number of priority research areas for the coming decade, a timescale that encompasses a number of newly starting international modelling activities, as well as the IPCC Seventh Assessment Report (AR7) and the second UNFCCC Global Stocktake. Progress in these priority areas will significantly advance our understanding of Earth system change and its impacts, increasing the quality and utility of science support to climate policy. We emphasize the need for continued improvement in our understanding of, and ability to simulate, the coupled Earth system and the impacts of Earth system change. There is an urgent need to investiga

Le débat sur les nouveaux OGM est biaisé par les lobbies qui défendent toute une série d’intérêts économiques. A la faveur de sa présidence européenne, la Belgique doit se positionner dans ce dossier en facilitant l’élaboration d’une politique européenne qui donne la priorité à l’équité, à l’autonomie des agriculteur.e.s, à la santé publique et à l’environnement.

En une de son premier numéro de 2024, la revue américaine “Foreign Policy” donne le ton de l’année électorale à venir. Des scrutins d’importance se tiennent partout dans le monde, à commencer par les États-Unis. Et “dans de nombreux pays, la démocratie atteint un point critique”.

Ahead of the UN’s SDG Summit (18-19 September), ground-breaking analyses shows how by enacting five ‘extraordinary turnarounds’ SDGs implementation can be accelerated.

Planetary Boundaries - summary and implications for policymakers 05.12.2022 Respecting planetary boundaries is essential to preserve the stability of ecosystems and human societies, including in Switzerland. Incorporating this principle into our legal system is consistent with the pursuit of our ...

When attempting to quantify future harms caused by carbon emissions and to set appropriate energy policies, it has been argued that the most important metric is the number of human deaths caused by climate change. Several studies have attempted to overcome the uncertainties associated with such forecasting. In this article, approaches to estimating future human death tolls from climate change relevant at any scale or location are compared and synthesized, and implications for energy policy are considered. Several studies are consistent with the “1000-ton rule,” according to which a future person is killed every time 1000 tons of fossil carbon are burned (order-of-magnitude estimate). If warming reaches or exceeds 2 °C this century, mainly richer humans will be responsible for killing roughly 1 billion mainly poorer humans through anthropogenic global warming, which is comparable with involuntary or negligent manslaughter. On this basis, relatively aggressive energy policies are summarized that would enable im

In recent years, governments of several low-income countries have taken decisive action by removing fully or partially user fees in the health sector. In this study, we review recent reforms in six sub-Saharan African countries: Burkina Faso, Burundi, Ghana, Liberia, Senegal and Uganda. The review d …

More than two decades on from the protocol, country shows enthusiasm for nuclear restarts over renewables

le profil carbone de la France: In this country profile, Carbon Brief examines the state of climate and energy policies in France, a major emitter that nevertheless relies on fossil fuels less than any other industrialised nation.

Eleven of the 20 largest economies got a C or worse on a renewable energy report card, which assessed their plans to reach net zero and their targets for producing and using renewable energy

Gezonde ecosystemen met een rijke biodiversiteit zijn de basis voor ons leven. Dit wetenschappelijk feit vindt gelukkig steeds meer weerklank in de maatschappij. Meer en meer burgers ondernemen acties voor meer biodiversiteit in eigen tuin of als vrijwilliger bij Natuurpunt of andere verenigingen. Jammer genoeg blijft het moeilijk voor beleidsmakers om dit ecosysteemdenken als leidraad te gebruiken bij beslissingen, zeker op zee. Op zee is er weinig tot geen publiek protest tegen de soms grootschalige uitbreiding van commerciële activiteiten. Bovendien lijkt er nog enorm veel vrije ruimte op zee doordat er (voorlopig) weinig vaste infrastructuur is. De Noordzee dreigt de spreekwoordelijke vuilbak te worden voor activiteiten die op land moeilijker uit te rollen zijn. Daarom kan de afbakening van een marien reservaat niet langer wachten.

A new database of extreme weather studies makes clear how far policymaking is lagging behind the reality of climate chaos

Corporations and politicians edited the Policy Summary to omit the scientists’ most powerful conclusions

Researchers call for recognition of latest online strategies used to derail climate action

Alors que resurgit le spectre des bombes nucléaires, on oublie qu’il en existe d’autres, moins expéditives mais tout aussi meurtrières. On les appelle les « bombes carbone » et elles se révèlent particulièrement pernicieuses. Cerise sur le gâteau, elles agissent en toute impunité si l’on en croit une enquête menée durant 5 mois et publiée le 11 mai dernier dans la revue Energy policy et la très sérieuse rédaction britannique du Guardian.

The IPBES #PandemicsReport is one of the most scientifically robust examinations of the evidence and knowledge about links between pandemic risk and nature since the COVID-19 pandemic began - with 22 of the world's leading experts from fields as diverse as epidemiology, zoology, public health, disease ecology, comparative pathology, veterinary medicine, pharmacology, wildlife health, mathematical modelling, economics, law, and public policy as authors of the report. The expertise of the 22 authors was further augmented by contributions and knowledge resources from the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, and the World Health Organization - as well as a peer review process.

It’s time for US and European foreign policy to be reframed in the context of addressing climate change. People around the world must better understand that a healthier world where all forms of energy are appropriately utilized requires a world that focuses first on peace. Without working toward peace as the first step, international efforts to tackle global climate change and promote renewable energy and sustainable development cannot progress.

The war in Ukraine and surging oil prices are other factors that could prompt PBOC action when it announces its policy loan rates Tuesday, as the nation aims to achieve a growth target of 5.5% for the year. The Hong Kong and China stocks sold off Monday, led by losses in technology shares, due to risks from Beijing’s close relationship with Russia and regulatory concerns.

A Russian former foreign minister has joined a call for all sides in the Ukrainian war to return to diplomacy and so reduce “the dramatically elevated risk” of a nuclear conflict. The appeal co-authored by Prof Igor Ivanov, now the president of the Russian International Affairs Council, may be a sign that some in the Russian foreign policy establishment believe that pursuing a purely military solution in Ukraine is a strategic mistake.

Russia’s military offensive against Ukraine is an act of aggression that will make already worrisome tensions between Nato and Moscow even more dangerous. The west’s new cold war with Russia has turned hot. Vladimir Putin bears primary responsibility for this latest development, but Nato’s arrogant, tone‐​deaf policy toward Russia over the past quarter‐​century deserves a large share as well. Analysts committed to a US foreign policy of realism and restraint have warned for more than a quarter‐​century that continuing to expand the most powerful military alliance in history toward another major power would not end well. The war in Ukraine provides definitive confirmation that it did not.

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, ambushed his own party and coalition partners when he announced a historic 180-degree policy turn on defence spending and exporting lethal weapons, but for now he seems to be riding a wave of broad public support.

Only rarely does a book truly change the world. In the nineteenth century, such a book was Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. For the twentieth century, it was The Limits to Growth. Not only did this best-selling 1972 publication help spur the environmental movement, but it showed that the underlying dynamics of the modern industrial world are unsustainable on the timescale of a couple of human lifetimes. This was profoundly important information, and it was delivered credibly and clearly, so that every policy maker could understand it.

Onshoring critical minerals mining doesn’t address the root causes of predatory extraction.

Selon l’Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, trente-cinq des plus grandes sociétés de ces secteurs ont été responsables, en 2018, de 7 % des émissions de l’Union européenne. L’ONG appelle les gouvernements à « réglementer l’agrobusiness ».

D'après une étude publiée en 2018 par l'Institute for agriculture and trade policy (IATP), et GRAIN, une ONG internationale, les grands producteurs de viande et de produits laitiers « pourraient devenir les plus grands pollueurs climatiques de la planète » à l'horizon 2050.

In the Paris Agreement, over 200 countries decided upon limiting global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius. Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg ratified the agreement and consecutively, in November 2018, they signed the Benelux Talanoa Declaration, emphasizing their common pathway in achieving these goals. In addition, the Benelux Talanoa Declaration calls upon the creation of a platform to enhance further dialogue between the Benelux countries, as well as with stakeholders committed and working towards to the climate objectives on a policy, technical, scientific, practical or more conceptual level.

Communications from young people give me optimism. Potential leaders among young people seem to have an ability to see the forest for the trees regarding climate change policy, a desire to follow the data, and a recognition of the need to address political polarization.

This Summary for Policymakers (SPM) presents key findings of the Working Group I (WGI) contribution to the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6)1 on the physical science basis of climate change. The report builds upon the 2013 Working Group I contribution to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) and the 2018–2019 IPCC Special Reports2 of the AR6 cycle and incorporates subsequent new evidence from climate science3.

China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. While all countries face problems getting their emissions down, China is facing the biggest challenge.

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