Tag - environment

 
 

ENVIRONMENT

A rapid adoption of solar panels by homeowners in Japan has created new targets for aggressive sales tactics and outright scams.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 6, 2025
Consumer watchdog warns of solar panel inspection scams
The number of homes equipped with solar panels has skyrocketed in recent years, creating new targets for aggressive sales tactics.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva speaks during a press conference to members of the international media, ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), Val de Caes Naval Base, Belem, Brazil, on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 5, 2025
Brazil's Lula promises 'COP of Truth' as U.N. warns of dangerously high emissions
Despite three decades of global negotiations, countries will not prevent warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius — the main goal of the Paris Agreement brokered a decade ago.
A partial view of one of the entrances at the City Park of the COP30, the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Belem, Brazil, taken on Tuesday
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 4, 2025
Trees, targets and trillions: What’s on the agenda at COP30?
This year’s U.N. climate summit promises to be symbolic, marking a decade since the Paris Agreement and taking place in the environmentally vulnerable Amazon.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government issued a €300 million (¥53 billion) bond on Tuesday to fund flood defenses and other climate-related measures.
JAPAN
Oct 28, 2025
Tokyo Metropolitan Government issues climate resilience bond
The money will be used to upgrade coastal protection facilities for the Port of Tokyo, develop sediment prevention facilities and enhance river flood resilience.
Protesters take part in a march in The Hague on Sunday to demand more action against climate change.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Oct 28, 2025
World far off track to meeting climate goals, U.N. warns
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that slow action from nations meant it was "inevitable" efforts to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius would fail.
“Future Kid Takara,” a series of anime shorts to be aired on NHK Educational TV in November, attempts to educate children about climate change.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Oct 26, 2025
Japan’s youth are apathetic toward the climate crisis. Could anime change that?
“Future Kid Takara,” a new series set to air on NHK Educational TV, aims to empower children and encourage them to take action against climate change.
New industry minister Ryosei Akazawa speaks during an interview at the ministry on Thursday.
BUSINESS
Oct 24, 2025
Minister eyes stricter regulations on large-scale solar farms
Ryosei Akazawa has pointed out that improperly installed mega solar power plants pose challenges for local communities.
Workers in Okinawa oxidize a pool of indigo dye, one of many regional textile craft traditions examined in Charlotte Linton's new book.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 24, 2025
New book scrutinizes sustainability of traditional Japanese textiles
In “Dyeing with the Earth,” an Oxford research fellow examines how Japan’s age-old textile traditions sometimes run counter to modern ideas of eco-friendly processes.
People ride their motorbikes during rush hour in Hanoi in August.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 21, 2025
Japan warns Vietnam of job losses as Hanoi motorbike ban hits Honda
In July, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh issued a directive prohibiting gas-powered motorbikes from entering the center of the capital from the middle of 2026.
Greenpeace activists hold signs reading "COP30 act for forests,” during the ministerial preparatory meeting, ahead of the COP30 climate summit, in Brasilia, Brazil on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Oct 16, 2025
Trump’s team weighs COP attendance, but influence looms either way
Experts say whatever decision the U.S. makes, its action or inaction will have a major impact.
At least 172 out of 1,928 assessed species of wild bees face extinction in Europe, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Oct 13, 2025
Europe's bees and butterflies at risk, conservation body says
At least 172 out of 1,928 assessed species of wild bees face extinction in Europe compared to 77 in 2014, the IUCN has said.
A worker feeds shrimp in Pandeglang, Banten province, Indonesia, on July 29.
ENVIRONMENT
Oct 9, 2025
Indonesia says no to scrap metal after shrimp radiation scare
Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq said the pause aims to ensure that the local steel-recycling industry meets radiation safety standards.
U.S. President Donald Trump has dismissed climate change as "the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world" and his administration has reportedly moved to quash debate on the issue.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Oct 8, 2025
Trump calls climate change a con; science braces for more
The Department of Energy is reportedly telling staff to avoid using language that runs counter to the president's views on climate science.
Solar panels at the Gujarat Solar Park in Gujarat, India
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Oct 8, 2025
Global renewable power output overtakes coal for the first time, report says
Curbing coal power generation is regarded as vital by most scientists to meeting global climate targets.
The Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field and an adjoining solar power farm in the town of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, in March 2021. Japan's forward-looking reforms are embedding climate risk management into the core of corporate decision-making.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 6, 2025
Japan’s blueprint for climate finance sets global standard
While no country has all the answers, Japan is demonstrating what sustained, organized action on mobilizing finance for the clean energy transition looks like in practice.
Government Pension Investment Fund President Kazuto Uchida has said that an investment approach targeting environmental and social goals ultimately leads to economic and capital markets growth.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 6, 2025
World’s biggest pension fund puts impact investing on the agenda
In Japan, impact investing strategies are likely to center around climate, health care, wellbeing and inclusivity.
Kuwait, despite its vast oil wealth, is facing worsening power outages due to political gridlock, underinvestment and climate pressures — highlighting the unsustainability of fossil fuel dependence in a warming world.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2025
Why the most oil-rich country can’t keep the lights on
Electricity was cut to 30 regions in April as temperatures soared and households cranked up the air conditioning.
An aerial view shows the contrast between the green zone and the desert landscape of the Kubuqi Desert, in Ordos, in China's northern Inner Mongolia region.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 3, 2025
China's 'Great Green Wall' brings hope but also hardship
While the project has been credited with "greening" over 90 million hectares, it risks erasing the traditional nomadic practices of ethnic Mongolians.
An aerial view of Tuvalu in 2024. Rising sea levels caused by climate change have prompted the Tuvalu government to strike a climate migration pact with Australia.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 30, 2025
Developing countries accuse rich of broken climate promises at U.N.
Leaders of developing countries say rich nations must provide resources to cope with climate change, a crisis they created, but such nations have not met their commitments.
China is reshaping the global energy landscape by pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into clean energy investments across the Global South, creating jobs and long-term influence on a scale comparable to the Marshall Plan.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2025
China is winning its power play for the Global South
Beijing’s green energy projects are bringing jobs, growth and cheap electricity to the developing world.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes