Focus Climat

Following record-level declines in 2020, near-real-time data indicate that global CO2 emissions rebounded by 4.8% in 2021, reaching 34.9 GtCO2. These 2021 emissions consumed 8.7% of the remaining carbon budget for limiting anthropogenic warming to 1.5 °C, which if current trajectories continue, might be used up in 9.5 years at 67% likelihood.

Researchers have been able to cut their carbon footprint by jetting off to fewer international conferences, but physicists working on large-scale experiments may also have to consider the significant environmental impact of the computer power they require. Michael Allen investigates

Egypt’s Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad and Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation El-Sayed El-Kosayer met on Sunday to discuss preparations for the Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP 27), which Egypt will be hosting in Sharm El-Sheikh this year.

Wealthy companies are using the facade of ‘nature-based solutions’ to enact a great carbon land grab

Politician says droughts and climate-induced famine in the country are a result of the behaviours of rich nations

Several terms have been used to describe the negative mental health implications of environmental degradation, including ecological grief, solastalgia, climate and eco-anxiety. The American Psychological Association defines eco-anxiety as a “chronic fear of environmental doom”. Some psychiatrists describe this as an anticipated trauma or a “pre-traumatic stress disorder”.

Technologies for the removal of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere (direct air capture, or DAC for short) are already in use, but neither their actual benefits for climate protection nor their other environmental impact have yet to be investigated.

Christophe Bonneuil, directeur de recherche au CNRS, Pierre-Louis Choquet, sociologue à Sciences po, et Benjamin Franta, chercheur en histoire à l'université américaine de Stanford, ont étudié les archives du groupe pétrolier, devenu TotalEnergies, ainsi que des revues internes et des interviews, selon cet article publié dans la revue Global Environmental Change.

La colère risque de faire tache d’huile. Total avait connaissance des conséquences néfastes de ses activités pour le climat dès 1971 mais a entretenu le doute à la fin des années 1980 et cherché ensuite à contrecarrer les efforts pour limiter le recours à ces énergies fossiles, selon un article scientifique paru mercredi dans la revue Global Environmental Change. Christophe Bonneuil, directeur de recherche au CNRS, Pierre-Louis Choquet, sociologue à Sciences po, et Benjamin Franta, chercheur en histoire à l’université américaine de Stanford, ont étudié les archives du groupe pétrolier, devenu TotalEnergies, ainsi que des revues internes et des interviews.

The enormous, unprecedented pain and turmoil caused by the climate crisis is often discussed alongside what can seem like surprisingly small temperature increases – 1.5C or 2C hotter than it was in the era just before the car replaced the horse and cart.

Si la planète se réchauffe d'un demi-degré de plus, ce sont 200 millions de citadins supplémentaires qui seront ainsi régulièrement affectés par des inondations et rendus plus vulnérables lors des tempêtes, ont-ils écrit dans la revue Environmental Research Letters.

Vingt aéroports sont responsables à eux seuls de 27% du total des émissions de gaz à effet de serre du secteur du transport aérien de passagers, les aéroports dont l’activité génère la plus grande pollution étant situés aux États-Unis, en Europe et en Asie, selon une analyse réalisée par les think tanks et ONG environnementales International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), ODI et Transport and Environment (T&E).

This article argues that resource and logistical constraints weighing on low-carbon energy and CO2 capture technologies are likely to pave the way for geo-engineering solutions such as Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI), which demand negligible land, material, and energy inputs. This “climate transition without carbon transition”, though technically feasible, is far from being that simple, raising a whole new set of environmental risks as well as geopolitical, institutional, and ethical issues.

The study from the UN University, the academic and research arm of the UN, looks at 10 different disasters that occurred in 2020 and 2021, and finds that, even though they occurred in very different locations and do not initially appear to have much in common, they are, in fact, interconnected.

President Biden's climate envoy John Kerry says that unless the world’s top 20 worst emitters do not take “bold action” to tackle the climate crisis, the global environment will reach a point of no return.

Climate risk, a growing focus for environment, social and governance-minded investors, has morphed into an urgent issue for insurers as wildfires ravage the U.S. and Europe and natural disasters destroy property and cost lives worldwide.

Across the world, resting places for the dearly departed are running out of space: and it’s spelling bad news for the environment. In many countries, splashing the cash to secure a traditional grave in commercial cemeteries and columbaria (urn storage buildings) can be something of a status symbol, not least because of the increasingly limited real estate available for grave sites.

A Pandora’s box of environmental disasters has been opened, threatening the ability of the natural world to recover and humanity to survive. From devastating fires and storms to the emergence of deadly new viruses, it’s hard to deny the terrifying reality of climate change.

The European Commission just released on Friday 16 July its new EU Forest Strategy. This Strategy supplements the Fit for 55 Package (published on 14 of July) and will contribute to achieve the EU’s target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from 55% by 2030, as set out in the European legislation on Climate. This new ambitious strategy “recognises the central and multi-functional role of forests, and the contribution of foresters and the entire forest-based value chain for achieving by 2050 a sustainable and climate-neutral economy

L' Atlas de la justice environnementale documente et répertorie les conflits sociaux autour des questions environnementales. Il vise à rendre ces mobilisations plus visibles, à mettre en lumière des revendications et des témoignages et à plaider en faveur d'une véritable responsabilité des entreprises et de l'État pour les injustices infligées à travers leurs activités. Il tente également de servir d'espace virtuel pour ceux qui travaillent sur les questions de JE pour obtenir des informations, trouver d'autres groupes travaillant sur des questions connexes et augmenter la visibilité des conflits environnementaux.