Europe has always been at the forefront of global climate policy. But its landmark carbon market is on the brink of failure.
Carbon Policy
2.2 billion
— Metric tons of CO2 equivalent emitted by U.S. power plants in 2011, according to new numbers from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
As the World Keeps Getting Warmer, California Begins to Cap Carbon
Carbon emissions keep rising and the world keeps getting hotter, but there’s little progress at the U.N. climate summit in Doha. If you want hope on climate change, though, look West—to California
U.N. Global Warming Summit: Heading Over the Climate Cliff
The U.N. climate summit is beginning in Middle Eastern city of Doha—but expectations are as low as they can be. Why can’t the world take the climate crisis seriously?
Climate Action: Stopping Global Warming Through the Back Door
Real talk: when it comes to dealing with climate change—and reducing carbon emissions, the top man-made cause of warming—the international community is doing a crap job. The U.N. process is bogged down, with ambitions that …
Air War: U.S. and Europe Clash Over Proposed Carbon Reductions for Airlines
Depending on the calculations, air travel accounts for perhaps 3 to 5% of global carbon dioxide emissions, far below sources like deforestation, coal-fired electricity and automobiles. Yet I’ve always thought that airplanes play …
Carbon Capture Isn’t Dangerous. But Is It Worth It?
Solar, wind, biofuels and other renewable sources of energy get the hype, but there’s no getting around the fact that most of our electricity still comes from fossil fuels. About half the U.S.’s electricity and 40% of the world’s power comes from carbon-intensive coal. That’s bad news for the climate—coal is the single-biggest …
Can the European Union Force U.S. Airlines to Reduce Their Carbon Footprint?
As an environment writer, I’m constantly sent pitches highlighting companies that are going green, getting more efficient, shrinking their carbon footprint—and few industries talk a bigger game than the airlines. Companies like American Airlines hype their new, more fuel-efficient fleets, while other corporations like to talk about …
Why Indonesia Still Can’t Say No to Palm Oil
If you’re eating a food that came in a wrapper while reading this, you probably eating palm oil — at least there’s a 50/50 chance you are. About half the packaged food found in a supermarket contains palm oil, according to the World Wildlife Fund, and a lot of that product comes from the lush archipelago of Indonesia.
In 2007, I …
Clean Coal Canceled Thanks to Poor Policy
If Congress had the wherewithal to establish a robust energy and climate change policy, there might have been a transformative bit of construction underway right now, next to the towering Mountaineer coal power plant, in New Haven, West Va. Mountaineer, like nearly every other coal plant in the world, pours tons of carbon into the …
