Tag - carbon

 
 

CARBON

An activist holds an umbrella during a Fridays for Future movement climate strike on Friday in Stockholm.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 22, 2024
World's largest private firms fail to set climate targets: report
The Net Zero Tracker report compared 200 of the world's largest public and private companies.
JTC and Sun Electric's SolarRoof project in Singapore in July 2018
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Apr 15, 2024
Southeast Asia 'woefully off track' on green investment
Energy consumption in the region is expected to grow 40% this decade.
Japan's emissions in fiscal 2023 represents a 23% reduction from 2013 levels, but it’s still a way off from the 46% reduction the government has pledged to make by 2030.
BUSINESS
Apr 12, 2024
Japan’s annual emissions drop as industrial pollution shrinks
Emissions slipped 2.3% in the year ending March 2023 to 1.085 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, the environment ministry said.
Jera's thermal power station in Hekinan, Aichi Prefecture, recently started co-firing coal with 20% of ammonia, a technology supported by the government's "green transformation," or GX, policy.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 7, 2024
Is Japan’s green transformation investing in the past or future?
Japan issued its first green transformation bonds, but the policy breathes new life into fossil fuel-based projects rather than pulling the plug on them.
Reindeer that belong to Sami herder Nils Mathis Sara, 65, run in a winter pasture near Geadgebarjavri up on the Finnmark plateau, Norway, last month.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 3, 2024
Reindeer herders battle power line needed for Norway's climate goal
The conflict illustrates the difficult choices countries must make to cut greenhouse gas emissions and power future growth.
Around 90% of China’s increased oil demand between 2021 and 2024 comes from chemical feedstocks, driven by the manufacturing of products such as those sold by fast-fashion retailers Shein and Tamu.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2024
China's Shein and Temu are driving oil, not Toyota and GM
The cause behind recent a surge in China's oil demand is not to be found in people's transport habits, including car use, but in fast-fashion clothing.
Though renewable energy can significantly reduce carbon emissions, if growth remains the global economic imperative, increased energy use will prevent us from reaching decarbonization goals.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 25, 2024
A call for economic degrowth
To achieve the systemic change needed to tackle the climate crisis, we must abandon GDP as the measure of social progress. This is what degrowth calls for.
An ammonia tank at JERA's Hekinan thermal power station in Aichi prefecture. JERA and Exxon Mobil will jointly work on a low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia production project in the United States.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 25, 2024
JERA and Exxon to explore development of hydrogen and ammonia production project in U.S.
Exxon is developing what is expected to be the world's largest low-carbon hydrogen production plant at its Baytown Complex east of Houston in Texas.
A container ship passes at Keelung port in northern Taiwan in July 2010.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Mar 18, 2024
Pressure builds for charge on shipping sector's CO2 emissions
At an International Maritime Organization meeting, 47 countries are supporting the imposition of a fee on each ton of greenhouse gas the industry produces.
Shintaro Tajima (left) and his son, Daisuke, pose in their forest in Hita, Oita Prefecture, in January. At their feet is wasabi growing in clusters.
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Mar 18, 2024
Oita forestry firm signs carbon trade deal with Line operator
LY, which operates Line and Yahoo services, will purchase 1,500 tons of carbon credit per year from Tajima Forest for 10 years.
Smoke rises from the Posco steel mill in Pohang, South Korea.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 26, 2024
South Korea’s biggest polluters made millions from carbon sales
Seoul was one of the first in Asia to start an emissions-trading system, but it has fallen short of encouraging industrial polluters to reduce pollution.
McDonald's Japan will start charging ¥5 for plastic bags of all sizes at some stores, starting in April.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 20, 2024
McDonald's Japan announces trial ¥5 plastic bag charge to curb usage
The firm will eye expanding the fee nationwide following a trial at 23 of its stores in Nagasaki Prefecture starting in April.
Europe's climate agenda is entering a difficult phase as it begins to touch sensitive sectors, such as farming, and as traditional industries face fierce green tech competition from China.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 7, 2024
EU recommends ambitious 2040 climate target but goes light on farming
Europe's climate agenda is entering a difficult phase as it begins to touch sensitive sectors, such as farming.
According to a proposal from the EU’s executive arm, as much as 450 million tons of CO2 will need to be captured annually by 2050 to achieve net-zero goals, including 100 million tons from generators powered by fossil fuels.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Feb 5, 2024
The $2.6 billion experiment to cover up Europe’s dirty habit
The project could start as early as next year, and pave the way for a new international trade in industrial emissions.
Some 5 million people globally die of causes related to air pollution from fossil fuels each year and climate change has a huge impact on people's health and psychological well-being.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2024
We’re finally recognizing climate change’s mental health toll
Climate change's impact on health, including psychological well-being, is overwhelming. COP28 took stock of this and put youth at the center of discussions like never before.
One way to cut the steel industry’s emissions is to recycle more iron and steel products than the world currently does.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2024
What steel decarbonization needs
One way to cut the industry's emissions is by recycling more iron and steel products than we currently do.
Fishers sort scallops aboard a French fishing trawler in the English Channel in 2021.
ENVIRONMENT / Oceans
Jan 18, 2024
Trawling the bottom of the ocean is kicking up tons of carbon dioxide
Many have opposed the practice for the damage it inflicts on seabed ecosystems, but new research shows that the climate also suffers.
Climate activists install a portrait of French President Emmanuel Macron at Trocadero Square in front of the Eiffel tower to mark the fifth anniversary of the 2015 United Nations Paris Agreement, in December 2020.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 12, 2024
We need to remain true to the pillars of green wisdom
While the Group of Seven countries bear the greatest CO2 responsibility, China, which is now the second-largest emitter in history, must be fully committed, too.
Carbon capture could help mitigate emissions at polluting power plants, but with the technology largely unproven at scale, it also risks extending their lives.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 5, 2024
The world’s next big carbon capture challenge? Figuring out how to use it
Fossil fuel industry's involvement raises fears that the technology might be used to prolong oil and gas extraction, while costs and scalability could limit its utility.
Voters in countries representing more than 40% of the world’s population, including India, Indonesia and the U.S., will go to the polls between now and the end of 2024.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 18, 2023
Democracy and climate politics are set to collide next year
Voters in countries representing more than 40% of the world’s population will go to the polls between now and the end of next year.

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores