Search - environment

 
 
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 28, 2021

Urgent methane cuts needed to rein in climate change, U.N. warns

Methane has a higher heat-trapping potential compared with carbon dioxide and it breaks down in the atmosphere much more quickly, meaning cutting methane emissions can have an impact sooner.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 26, 2021

Five key lessons for energy transition in the age of COVID-19

The World Economic Forum's Energy Transition Index 2021 indicates that only 10% of the 115 countries analyzed maintained a steady upward trajectory toward energy transition.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Apr 23, 2021

Japan’s new emissions goals a step forward but not enough to hit 2050 target

Climate Action Tracker analysis shows that Japan needs to reduce emissions by 62% by 2030 from 2013 levels to meet Paris Agreement targets.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 20, 2021

For South Korea's youngest 'sea women,' warming seas mean smaller catches

Every year the waters are a little less icy — warming as much as 2.6 times more than the world average — changing the undersea habitat and casting doubt on the future of the 'sea women.'
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 17, 2021

India's 'Solar Man' lights path out of poverty with clean power

Santipada Gon Chaudhuri said he gets 'great satisfaction' from seeing how solar power has changed lives in the village of Herma.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 15, 2021

Japan joins U.S. in urging China to accelerate climate action

China's 'air pollution control could directly affect our people's health and society,' said Japan's Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 14, 2021

Cows join carbon market in quest to curb planet-warming burps

Livestock farming accounts for about 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, largely from cows, sheep and other ruminants that emit methane.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 8, 2021

Amazon deforestation rose 17% in 'dire' 2020, data shows

The loss of primary forest — the clearing of old-growth, intact forest for the first time — hit its third-highest annual total on record since 2000, reaching 2.3 million hectares.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 2, 2021

For climate progressives, Biden’s $2.25 trillion isn’t enough

The fact that the bill contains extensions of a tax credit for carbon capture stood out to some as proof that the administration was addressing climate change only superficially.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 26, 2021

Japan misses the bus on decarbonization

Japan has a choice: It can be a passive spectator or an active innovator in the global shift to decarbonized industrial production.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
Mar 26, 2021

'Willful ignorance': Flood-hit Australia urged to rethink climate inaction

Currently battling its worst floods in more than half a century, the country has failed to adapt fast enough to growing threats while climate change has become 'a partisan political issue.'
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 24, 2021

Bitcoin’s carbon footprint conveniently downplayed during rally

The level of emissions, which have risen alongside a spike in Bitcoin's price, have grown by more than 40 million tons in the past two years.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 19, 2021

Biden’s solar dreams collide with outrage over China’s ‘genocide’

Factories in Xinjiang, home to the oppressed Uyghur minority, produce half the global supply of polysilicon, a metal critical for the panels that turn sunlight into electricity.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 18, 2021

What countries will fight over when green energy dominates

Some experts predict that the end of an era defined by uneven access to fossil fuel deposits will produce a security dividend, similar to the one after the end of the Cold War.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Mar 4, 2021

Mining magnets: Arctic island finds green power can be a curse

As Greenland's ice sheet and glaciers recede, two Australia-based mining companies are racing for approval to dig into deposits of rare earth metals.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2021

A ¥1 trillion Mizuho fund sparks review of ESG labels in Japan

One of the goals of the review is to prevent firms from exaggerating or misrepresenting the environmental, social or governance benefits of their funds to attract investors.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 1, 2021

This company helps roughnecks find renewable energy jobs

Alfred Burt grew up following his father across the oil patches of Texas. He carried on the family tradition, working on rigs for 26 years until the pandemic crashed oil prices in April and he lost a drilling job with Apache Corp. that paid $1,600 a day.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Feb 26, 2021

Pandemic likely made 2020 'another devastating year' for world's forests

The spread of the virus weakened environmental regulations, cut funding for protection work and forced city migrants back to rural areas.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 25, 2021

Show us the plan: Investors push companies to come clean on climate

Shareholder votes on climate are likely to win more support than in previous years from asset managers seeking clarity on how executives plan to adapt and prosper in a low-carbon world.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 23, 2021

Boon or bane? Malaysian island reclamation plan divides residents

Environmentalists say the project will wreck the lives of residents and damage the coast.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 20, 2021

With one number, Biden reverses Trump’s way of valuing climate

The president has reactivated the Obama-era approach to estimating the cost of climate change, a move that establishes a much higher dollar value for greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 10, 2021

Deep South towns are counting on Biden to keep his climate promises

Rising heat and more intense flooding are increasing the stress on all sorts of aging American infrastructure, and the impact often hits disadvantaged communities hardest.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 10, 2021

Bolder climate action could save millions of lives each year by 2040

New research highlighted how the potential health benefits of climate action could give added impetus to countries to submit more ambitious national climate plans.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health / ANALYSIS
Feb 4, 2021

Indonesia's 'green diesel,' powered by palm oil, fuels threat to forests

The country is home to the world's third-largest tropical forests but is also its biggest producer of palm oil, and is steadily increasing use of the oil in biodiesel to boost demand.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Feb 4, 2021

K-pop for the planet: Fans of South Korean stars take on climate change

From petitioning to save forests to raising cash for disaster victims, a growing army of K-pop fans worldwide has emerged as the latest force in the global fight against climate change.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 27, 2021

The battle lines are forming in Biden’s climate push

What may well stand in the U.S. president's way is political intransigence from senators from fossil-fuel states in both parties.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 24, 2021

Biden team to unveil more climate policies as it calls on China to toughen targets

John Kerry, Biden's special climate envoy, said a recent pledge by China, the world's top greenhouse gas emitter, was 'not good enough.'
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 21, 2021

Biden, in a burst of climate orders, rejoins the Paris Agreement

The moves represent a first step in healing one of the deepest rifts between the United States and the rest of the world after Trump defiantly rejected the Paris pact.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 14, 2021

Tigers stalk as storms and poverty force Indians deep into mangrove forests

Local media, which closely follow tiger attacks, have reported up to 21 deaths last year, from 13 both in 2018 and 2019.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami