Today, the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 20) begins in Lima (Peru) and is widely seen – as Elias Ntungwe Ngalame in an article for Deutsche Welle (DW) rightly notes – by environmental experts “as a crucial springboard to COP 21 in Paris” next year. Naturally, the large… Keep reading →
UN negotiators are meeting in Lima, Peru to construct a draft climate change mitigation agreement that will be finalized over the next year with the goal of signing it in Paris in 2015. The plan is to allow each country to develop a greenhouse gas emissions reduction strategy that can be realistically achieved. “But while… Keep reading →
What is the Status of National Processes to Define post-2020 Emission Reduction Targets? Last week, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the so-called ‘Climate Change 2014 Synthesis Report’ of its fifth scientific climate assessment since 1990 thereby updating its 2007 climate assessment (Breaking Energy IPCC coverage here). You guessed right – according… Keep reading →
This week, the international community descended on New York City for the United Nations General Assembly’s 69th annual high-level meetings and general debate. For the first time in UN history climate change tops the agenda. In remarks at the Climate Week opening event, at the Morgan Library in New York City, US Secretary of State… Keep reading →
The good news – from a climate change perspective – is China appears to be taking steps to reduce its coal consumption, but the bad news is it’s much easier said than done. Industrialized nations have been slow to enact binding climate change mitigation strategies due to apprehension that carbon emissions from large developing nations… Keep reading →
The U.S. and 13 World Trade Organization members have committed to advance free trade of environmental goods to make green technologies more affordable. On January 24, 2014, the U.S. and 13 World Trade Organization (WTO) members – Australia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, the European Union, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland, and… Keep reading →
Despite adverse conditions, carbon market still grew by 11% in 2011 http://ow.ly/btLQ0 rioplussocial
The UN is calling on governments, businesses and civil society to double energy efficiency efforts, which could significantly reduce energy consumption, decrease greenhouse-gas emissions and save considerable sums of money.
Over a billion people people worldwide have no access to the electricity that is a crucial facilitator of modern education, human health, economic development, etc.
The UN estimates that universal access to electricity by 2030 could be achieved for less than $50 billion per year – which is roughly equivalent to a $1.5 billion annual investment per OECD member country, 0.3% of 2011 US GDP, or approximately 10% of ExxonMobil’s 2011 revenue. Keep reading →
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (C) and his wife Ban Soon-taek receive Brazil’s football team jerseys as gifts from residents during a visit to the Babilonia shantytown in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 27, 2010.
In rural villages in East Africa, nearly 150 women entrepreneurs are selling solar lamps and cell phone chargers that provide clean and reliable lighting and connectivity to remote and energy-poor communities. These women, empowered by the social enterprise Solar Sister, are the ground troops of social and economic development. Keep reading →
