The International Energy announced on Friday  that while the world economy grew there was no increase in CO2 emissions in 2014. “This was “the first time in 40 years in which there was a halt or reduction in emissions of the greenhouse gas that was not tied to an economic downturn,” said the agency.

Indeed, observations like these have driven some on the environmental left to posit that economic growth itself is incompatible with environmental protections.” [Washington Post]

China’s emissions of carbon dioxide fell last year for the first time in over a decade. ‘The finding, along with new data from the International Energy Agency, is a sign that efforts to control pollution are gaining traction.

Total carbon emissions in the world’s second-biggest economy dropped 2 percent in 2014 compared with the previous year, the first drop since 2001, according to a Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimate based on preliminary energy demand data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics.” [Bloomberg Business]

An energy drink sourced  from the Fukushima site has been promoted to highlight the contamination of water levels in the surrounding site. “Three Berlin art directors using a new digital campaign to advertise the fictitious drink also raises an important issue: Four years on from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, contaminated water – being used to cool the plant – is still leaking into the Pacific Ocean.” [The Guardian]