Tag - climate-change

 
 

CLIMATE CHANGE

A family prepares to plant eelgrass seedlings during a project to restore the natural ecosystem in Yokohama on April 13.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Apr 25, 2024
Battling climate change, Japan looks to seagrass for carbon capture
Japan, the world's fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has some of the longest coastlines in the world.
Delegates meet for the Development Committee Plenary during the World Bank and IMF 2024 Spring Meetings in Washington on Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2024
Negotiating a bigger, better World Bank
Recent changes at the global lender are important steps toward making the World Bank’s financial model fit for “ending poverty on a livable planet.”
Wind turbines off the coast of Zhunan Township, Taiwan. Misguided policies threaten to sink outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen’s hopes of achieving his renewable energy targets.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2024
Taiwan’s wind power ambitions are in peril
Misguided policies threaten to sink outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen’s renewable energy targets, putting a lot on the incoming administration's plate.
Cracked and dry earth in the wide riverbed of the Loire River near the Anjou-Bretagne bridge, amid a heat wave in Ancenis-Saint-Gereon, France, in 2022
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 22, 2024
Europe's record 'extreme heat stress' days in 2023 put lives at risk: report
Prolonged exposure to heat stress is particularly dangerous for vulnerable people such as the elderly or those with preexisting health conditions.
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.
Toshihiro Kinjo (center), a research support technician at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, inspects an audio recording device in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, on April 3 as Masako Ogasawara, a research support specialist at OIST, looks on.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / OUR PLANET
Apr 21, 2024
Hearing the impact of climate change in Okinawa, one bird call at a time
From Okinawa to Australia, “passive acoustic monitoring” projects are feeding scientists with data about changes to ecosystems and biodiversity.
Japanese gymnast Daiki Hashimoto attends a ceremony to unveil the official uniforms of Team Japan for the Paris Games, in Tokyo on Wednesday.
OLYMPICS
Apr 18, 2024
How green are your trainers? Team Japan uniforms to have carbon footprint labels
Japanese Olympians stepping up to the podium in Paris will have more than just a medal to be proud of this summer.
A worker inspects solar panels that provide electrical power to Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, in December 2023. High-ranking scholars and clergy have issued fatwas, or edicts, on how to rein in climate change. On a smaller scale, Muslim activists are telling their friends, family and neighbors that their duty to save the environment is embedded in the Quran.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 17, 2024
What can ‘Green Islam’ achieve in the world’s largest Muslim country?
Proponents of the movement say educating 200 million Muslims on environmental awareness could drive much needed change.
Outside of some activist movements pressing governments for more climate action, global warming is not yet at the heart of the political agenda in most countries.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2024
Climate change is political and we must treat it that way
Climate action hasn't made its way onto mainstream political agendas in most countries, to the detriment of our collective ability to solve the crisis.
Jamoliddin Makhmaliyev sits with his grandson and granddaughters in front of his new house in the village of Khuroson, some 70 kilometers south of the Tajikistan capital Dushanbe, on March 26. “We lived in fear, until the day the mountain collapsed and destroyed our house,” recalls his wife Yodgoroy. Tajikistan is the Central Asian country most vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 17, 2024
Tajikistan builds villages for climate migrants fleeing fatal landslides
The former Soviet country says it relocated 45,000 people between 2000 and 2017, and that tens of thousands of others are waiting their turn.
Coral reefs bleach in the Great Barrier Reef as scientists conduct in-water monitoring during marine heat in Moore Reef, Australia, on Feb. 27.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 16, 2024
Coral reefs suffer fourth global bleaching event, NOAA says
At least 54 countries and territories have experienced mass bleaching among their reefs since February 2023.
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.
On average between 1991 and 2020, the highest temperature in Sapporo on April 15 was 11.5 degrees Celsius, but the temperature rose above 25 degrees on Monday.
JAPAN
Apr 15, 2024
Japan's Sapporo sees earliest 25C day since records began
A city known for the 1972 Winter Olympics and hosting one of the country's biggest snow festivals saw summer-like temperatures.
Signage for MUFG Bank, Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking in Tokyo. A coalition of climate groups filed shareholder proposals with the three banks calling for stricter board oversight of climate-related risks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 15, 2024
Climate investors target board oversight of top Japan banks: sources
The proposal marks the first time climate groups have targeted bank boards as a way to pressure the lenders on climate change.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order rolling back regulations from the 2010 Dodd-Frank law on Wall Street reform at the White House in Washington in February 2017.
BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS
Apr 13, 2024
If Trump wins, he plans to free Wall Street from 'burdensome regulations'
If elected, Trump would likely cut back protections for small-scale investors and borrowers, and allow companies to raise money with less scrutiny.
An Apple store in Shanghai. Apple manufactures iPads, AirPods and Apple Watches in Vietnam and suppliers for MacBooks are also investing in the country.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 11, 2024
Activists press Apple over Vietnam's detention of climate experts
Apple manufactures iPads, AirPods and Apple Watches in Vietnam and suppliers for MacBooks are also investing in the country.
Anne Mahrer and Rosmarie Wydler-Walti talk to journalists at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 10, 2024
In landmark climate ruling, European court faults Switzerland
Experts said it was time an international court determined that governments were legally obligated to meet their climate targets under human rights law.
Japan will need new nuclear power plants to meet its 2050 net zero goal.
BUSINESS
Apr 9, 2024
Japan needs new nuclear to hit green goals, power sector says
New reactors are needed to help reduce dependence on costly fossil fuel imports and to help boost economic competitiveness.
Anne Mahrer and Rosmarie Wyder-Walti talk to journalists after the verdict of the court in the climate case at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, on Tuesday.
WORLD
Apr 9, 2024
Swiss climate policy shortcomings violated human rights, top court rules
The European court's decision on the case, brought by more than 2,000 Swiss women, could have a ripple effect across Europe and beyond.
Flames blaze from a chimney at Western Europe's largest liquefied natural gas plant, Hammerfest LNG, in Hammerfest, Norway, on March 14.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 9, 2024
Banks made big climate promises. A new study doubts they work.
Researchers found a reduction in lending to sectors targeted under the pledges was the same as for banks that had not made the same commitment.

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