Tag Archives: economics

In a report released last week, the United Nations Environmental Program projects that aggregate natural resource consumption could triple from current levels by 2050, to an average total of 140 billion tons  of ores, minerals, biomass, and fossil fuels per year.  The report warns that “the prospect of much higher resource consumption levels is far beyond what is likely sustainable” and calls on governments …

Is CCS, or carbon capture and storage, a promising technology to help the world deal with carbon emissions from coal-fired power plant, or a dangerous and unproven boondoggle offering false hope?

Michael Pawlin debates assertions made by climate skeptic Bjorn Lomborg at the British Council Office 2009 Conference.

A brief summary of Waxman-Markey energy and climate legislation. Now passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee, will it pass Congress intact this year?

Westerners instinctively think that the worst effect of global warming is the melting ice cap of the North Pole. We tend to reserve the other effects of global warming for developing nations. But now that politicians also have woken up to the fact that we’re already halfway down the path toward causing a 2 degree rise in temperatures by injecting some 520 billion tonnes …

The Europeans seem confident they’re at a competitive advantage in the current climate and economic crisis because they’ve been playing by the (environmental) book for the past decade. Brussels has just adopted an Energy and Climate Package (pdf) that insiders boast will set the scene for a “new global industrial revolution”.  Those are the very words the European Energy commissioner used to describe the …

Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, announced it will aim to become the world’s first carbon neutral capital by 2025. The city launched a new climate plan last week which incorporates 50 specific measures to reduce carbon emissions. The first stage of the plan will be to slash 20% off Copenhagen’s net CO2 output by 2015. We are launching an ambitious plan containing very specific initiatives to …