Search - environment

 
 
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 14, 2021

Africa's Great Green Wall aims for fresh growth spurt after sluggish start

About a quarter of the Earth's land area is in a bad condition due to natural processes such as erosion and human practices like deforestation and overgrazing, scientists say.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 11, 2021

Pandemic delays leave nations facing climate action catch-up in 2021

Governments are being urged to show 'real climate ambition that communities will benefit from' in 2021 as their economies start to recover from the COVID-19 crisis.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 3, 2021

EU’s ‘climate leader’ explains why 2020 has left him optimistic

The author of one of the most ambitious climate plans in the European Union says 2020 was a turning point that’s left him optimistic about the future of the planet.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 26, 2020

Taiwan may face fewer typhoons, but harsher droughts, as planet warms

The island, which has historically seen three or four typhoons a year, saw not a single storm in 2020.
BUSINESS
Dec 25, 2020

Japan lays out plan to steer economy away from carbon by 2050

The home of the world's third-largest economy is also the world's fifth largest emitter of carbon dioxide.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 25, 2020

China’s green gambit and climate change

In President Xi's view, China may be able to use the promise to cooperate on climate change as a source of leverage with which to thwart Joe Biden's containment strategy
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 22, 2020

‘The whole city was dark’: China rations electricity for millions

The drastic measures point to potential longer-term problems in China's energy universe, as leaders juggle competing priorities.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 20, 2020

Biden calls climate change ‘existential threat of our time’

Biden on Saturday introduced key members of the team he is assembling to fulfill his pledge to combat climate change.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 16, 2020

How China's coal industry is fighting to survive in a greener world

Before long, an uncomfortable truth could push to the forefront: China's national target of reaching net-zero emissions might not be compatible with another generation of coal.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 14, 2020

Lofty climate goals get reality check at global summit

At the Climate Ambition Summit, one country after another failed to raise the bar, as leaders offered only incremental steps.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 9, 2020

Why Exxon Mobil is holding back on technology that could slow climate change

Even if Exxon one day completes its carbon-capture plans in Wyoming, the current delay shows that urgent climate projects can sometimes become expendable in a crunch.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 23, 2020

World leaders praise Paris climate pact as Trump slams accord

Most leaders spoke in favor of the pact and more broadly of the need to sustain momentum on climate goals even as economies around the world are ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 18, 2020

U.K. green plan backs 250,000 jobs and bans petrol and diesel car sales

Under the proposals, sales of new petrol and diesel cars will be banned from 2030 and the government will back investment in electric vehicles, hydrogen, wind and nuclear power.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 13, 2020

How one firm drove influence campaigns for big oil across the U.S.

In early 2017 the Texans for Natural Gas website went live, urging voters to "thank a roughneck” and support fracking. Around the same time, the Arctic Energy Center ramped up its advocacy for drilling in Alaskan waters and in a vast Arctic wildlife refuge. The next year, the Main Street Investors...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Nov 10, 2020

Scientists watch as glaciers in China melt at 'shocking' pace

Glaciers in China's bleak Qilian mountains are disappearing at a shocking rate as global warming brings unpredictable change and raises the prospect of crippling, long-term water shortages, scientists say.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 6, 2020

South Korean 'sparrows' try to cap surge of throwaway plastic

At a workshop in Seoul, two environmental activists melt down old plastic bottle caps that thousands of volunteers known as "sparrows" have collected in a bid to fight a tide of plastic the novel coronavirus has helped unleash.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 26, 2020

Hit by deluges and droughts, India's cities look to get climate-smart

Last year, the country experienced a longer-than-usual summer, the biggest monsoon rains in 25 years, a record number of cyclones and unusual cold waves.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 21, 2020

Singapore’s new city of the future is its greenest project yet

The project is part of the city-state's effort to reduce a carbon footprint that's bigger than some countries that are 50 times its size.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 17, 2020

Zoo closures put conservation programs in jeopardy

Animal welfare and research facilities around the world are feeling the financial pinch of the coronavirus pandemic.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 6, 2020

Political 'retreat' on Paris pact harms all nations, U.N. climate chief says

Rich nations are failing on promises to help poorer ones meet the goals of the Paris agreement on climate change, even though such help would be "not charity but a global act of self-interest," U.N. climate chief Patricia Espinosa said on Monday.

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