Tag - climate-change

 
 

CLIMATE CHANGE

New research by a U.S. climate scientists’ group reveals that extreme heat has increased the risks of preterm births and other pregnancy complications in Japan, nearly doubling the number of days that are harmfully hot for pregnant women over the past five years.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 14, 2025
Harmfully hot days for pregnant women in Japan nearly doubled over past five years
Heat stress can raise the risks of stillbirths, miscarriages, preterm births and low-weight births, as well as congenital abnormalities for the babies.
India's air conditioner market is set to grow from the current 14 million units to 30 million units in terms of volume by 2030, driven by hotter summers and rising disposable incomes.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 13, 2025
Indians buy 14 million air conditioners a year, and need many more
A record 14 million AC units were sold in India last year, with a ninefold increase in residential ownership forecast by midcentury.
Dr. Raquel Gomez flips a tortilla at the Industrial Microbiology laboratory of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City.
WORLD / Science & Health
May 13, 2025
Scientists in Mexico develop tortilla for people with no fridge
The wheat flour version developed by Raquel Gomez and her team contains probiotics — live microorganisms found in yogurt and other fermented foods.
A staff member holds a barocaloric material used by Barocal in their solid state cooling technology, at their headquarters in Cambridge.
WORLD / Science & Health
May 13, 2025
U.K. lab promises air conditioner revolution without polluting gases
Approximately 2 billion air-conditioner units are in use worldwide, and their number is increasing as the planet warms.
Supervisor David Lindsay in the chilling plant beneath the headquarters of the United Nations in New York
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 13, 2025
As world heats up, U.N. cools itself the cool way — with water
As more and more people want to stay cool in a planet that is steadily heating up, energy experts point to this kind of water-based system as a good alternative.
Scientists are increasingly exploring mechanisms that can help the body adapt to rising temperatures affecting our sleep and leading to health complications.
WORLD / Science & Health
May 13, 2025
Scientists exploring how to beat heat for better sleep
The human brain is very sensitive to heat, with higher temperatures raising the body's central thermostat and activating stress systems.
A small boat transits through the Bay of Balaklava near the Crimean Peninsula city of Sevastopol on the Black Sea coast. Plans to dump bundled biomass into the Black Sea have raised concerns about environmental risks.
COMMENTARY / World
May 13, 2025
Dumping biomass in the ocean is not a climate solution
Plans to dump bundled biomass into the Black Sea as part of a carbon-sequestration project have raised concerns about environmental risks.
The consumption and investing habits of the world's richest 10% consume and invest has substantially increased the risk of deadly heat waves and drought around the world, according to new research.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 8, 2025
World's richest 10% caused two-thirds of global warming, study finds
How the rich consume and invest has substantially increased the risk of deadly heat waves and drought.
The United Nations General Assembly Building in New York in 2015. An internal U.N. document shows the U.S. is opposing draft reforms of the world's financial system intended to help developing countries.
WORLD / Politics
May 6, 2025
U.N. document shows U.S. seeks to weaken global development finance efforts
It opposes draft reforms of the world's financial system intended to help developing countries, including around taxation, credit ratings and fossil fuel subsidies.
Imba, a clove farmer who inherited 70 trees from her parents, in Ternate, North Maluku, Indonesia. Colonial powers once warred over the cloves grown on the eastern Indonesian island of Ternate. Today, farmers say the crop's gravest threat is climate change.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 6, 2025
Climate change takes spice from Indonesia clove farms
Clove trees can take more than a decade to mature, and flowers can only be harvested in a small window that depends heavily on weather conditions.
A carbon removal plant. Direct air capture and other technologies delivered less than 320,000 tons of carbon removal credits last year.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 2, 2025
Why investors are souring on this once red-hot climate tech
Venture capital funding of U.S.-based startups developing direct air capture (DAC) was down more than 60% in the first three months of 2025.
The aftermath of a wildfire in Yeongyang, South Korea, on March 28.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 1, 2025
South Korea's deadly fires made twice as likely by climate change, researchers say
Fires blazed for nearly a week, killing 32 people and destroying around 5,000 buildings before they were brought under control in late March.
Men load solar panels on a rickshaw at a market in Karachi, Pakistan, on March 26.
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 30, 2025
Pakistan's solar revolution leaves its middle class behind
Solar made up over 14% of Pakistan's power supply last year, up from 4% in 2021.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 29, 2025
Trump administration targets scientists behind key climate assessment
Dismissal of nearly 400 contributors leaves the future of the U.S. National Climate Assessment in doubt under Trump's administration.
Stopping superpollutants like methane, which is the most potent short-lived climate pollutant, offers a fast-track opportunity to slow warming and improve public health, yet global climate plans have only recently begun to target them explicitly.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2025
The world is waking up to the dangers of superpollutants
Cutting superpollutants like methane offers a fast way to slow warming and boost public health, but climate plans have only recently begun to target them.
Pope Francis leads a prayer in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Dec. 31, 2023.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 26, 2025
Pope Francis saw defending the climate as an urgent priority for the world
Pope Francis spoke and wrote often about climate change, telling oil and gas executives in 2018 that transitioning to clean energy was a "duty” to humanity.
Brazil's Urupadi National Forest Park, in the Amazon rainforest, in June 2023
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 26, 2025
Countries could use forests to 'mask' needed emission cuts, report says
The report said overly optimistic assumptions about how much CO2 forests might draw down was "masking the scale and pace of the fossil fuel emissions cuts needed."
Emissions from industry in fiscal 2023 declined 4.0% from the previous year, and those from households fell 6.8%, according to the Environment Ministry.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2025
Japan's greenhouse gas emissions fall to a record low in fiscal 2023
The decrease came as the proportion of renewable and nuclear energy exceeded 30% of overall power sources and manufacturing activities slowed.
From 2028, all newly let U.K. properties must have an Energy Performance Certificate rating of at least C, though currently only 40% of rentals meet or exceed that threshold.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2025
London rents surge. Why are landlords miserable?
The landlord exodus story, which we’ve been hearing about for years, has evolved into a quantifiable phenomenon.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?