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May 23, 2025
 

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CLIMATE CHANGE

Over the past three years, banks with the most blended-finance transactions include SMBC, Citigroup, BNP Paribas and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 22, 2025
Sumitomo Mitsui among banks stepping up deals for blended finance
Deals blending public and private funds totaled $18 billion last year, down 21% from 2023, according to Convergence.
A partially submerged car is seen in the aftermath of Typhoon Hagibis, in Nagano Prefecture in October 2019. The Weather Attribution Center Japan, which was founded Tuesday, aims to publicize the results of its climate attribution assessment within days of a typhoon, torrential rain or extreme heat.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
May 21, 2025
When extreme weather hits, Japan scientists will have faster answers on climate links
The Weather Attribution Center will aim to publish concrete links between global warming and extreme weather events within days, rather than months.
Firefighters battle forest fires in the Turkmen mountains in the Rabiah area of Syria's western Latakia's governorate on May 11.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 21, 2025
Fires drive tropical forest loss to 'red alert' record high
The world lost 67,000 square kilometers of precious primary tropical forest last year, an area double the size of Belgium or Taiwan.
China’s prolonged real estate slump has pushed housing construction back to early 2000s levels, sharply cutting cement production and offering a rare climate reprieve from one of the world’s biggest sources of carbon emissions.
COMMENTARY / World
May 21, 2025
China’s building crash is rewinding 22 years of growth
The real estate slump may be bad for the economy, but it’s good for the planet — cement is one of the most polluting substances on Earth.
China has faced spates of extreme weather events, from searing heat and drought to downpours and floods, for several consecutive summers.
ASIA PACIFIC
May 20, 2025
Record May heat scorches north and central China
China has endured spates of extreme weather events, from searing heat and drought to downpours and floods, for several summers running.
Ocean plastic pollution is a systemic crisis that cannot be solved by a few sustainability-minded citizens recycling but requires an economy-wide solution.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 19, 2025
The true cost of ocean plastic pollution
The problem of maritime plastic-waste pollution first became apparent in the 1970s. In the half-century since then, the problem has become ever more widespread, as scientific expeditions conducted by the Tara Ocean Foundation (of which I am executive director) have shown.
Hachidori Solar President Shota Ikeda in Tokyo in January
ENVIRONMENT
May 18, 2025
A 26-year-old asked to help shape Japan’s climate goals has a warning
Shota Ikeda has called for emissions reductions of at least 75% to be considered.
The rush to electrify everything is reshaping energy, but without addressing demand, grid and supply risks, the green transition may falter.
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2025
It’s electricity realism, not climate denialism
Electrifying everything comes with plenty of risks of its own.
Ice calves off from the Perito Moreno glacier into the Lago Argentino (Argentine Lake), in the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, near the city of El Calafate in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, on April 21
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 16, 2025
Huge ice falls at Argentina's Perito Moreno glacier stir awe and concern
Recently the size of the ice chunks breaking off — a process called "calving" — has been starting to alarm local guides and glaciologists.
SeaForest CEO Sam Elsom at the company's headquarters in Triabunna, Tasmania, on March 26
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 15, 2025
Australian seaweed farm tackles livestock burps to combat climate change
While far less abundant in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, methane is about 80 times more potent over a 20-year timescale at warming the planet.
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.
Trump’s wake-up call for India’s foreign policy
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Feb. 13. Trump’s coercive use of trade threats against India during the Pakistan military crisis has undermined trust in the U.S.-India partnership and exposed Washington as an unreliable security ally.
Toyota considers making tiny trucks for U.S. market as demand booms
Toyota executives say the automaker is listening to U.S. dealer requests for a truck smaller than the brand’s best-selling Tacoma midsize and Tundra full-size pickups.
Onosato’s march to yokozuna could usher in golden age for sumo
Onosato (left) battles Gonoyama on Day 6 of the Summer Basho. With Onosato on the cusp of promotion to yokozuna, there could soon be two titans at the top of the sport fighting for titles.
Shinjiro Koizumi takes farm ministry reins after predecessor's rice gaffe
Agriculture minister Taku Eto (left), who resigned on Wednesday, and former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi
Railguns, missiles and lasers: Japan uses massive defense event to highlight shift
A mock-up of Japan's state-of-the-art railgun, which is currently undergoing testing, is displayed at the three-day DSEI Japan defense exhibition in the city of Chiba on Wednesday.
Ishiba doubles down on weapons cooperation, says no country can go it alone
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba walks past members of the Philippine Coast Guard at the coast guard's headquarters in Manila on April 30.
Nippon Ishin grapples with poor governance ahead of Upper House election
Nippon Ishin no Kai co-leader Seiji Maehara speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Friday.
Beware of dubious websites offering cheap rice, consumer watchdog warns
Questionable websites appear to be taking advantage of consumers looking for cheaper rice online amid the high prices of the staple grain in the nation.
Onosato’s march to yokozuna could usher in golden age for sumo
Onosato (left) battles Gonoyama on Day 6 of the Summer Basho. With Onosato on the cusp of promotion to yokozuna, there could soon be two titans at the top of the sport fighting for titles.
A window into the mind of Esperantist and political activist Teru Hasegawa
Teru Hasegawa, Esperanto name Verda Majo, wrote leftist political essays during WWII.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones
Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

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