• Climate Change

“Super Emitters” to Blame for Half of Aviation Industry’s Carbon Emissions

• air travel
• airplanes
• aviation
• carbon emissions
• jet fuel

by Natasha Lasky, ODP Contributing Writer  The aviation industry is a major contributor to climate change — it was responsible for 2.5% of global carbon emissions, and in 2018, the total pollutants from commercial aviation drove about 5% of warming globally.  But the majority of this pollution is the result of frequent-flying “super emitters.” A […]

• Sustainability

Apple and Microsoft Take Big Aim at Carbon Neutrality

• Apple
• carbon emissions
• manufacturing
• Microsoft
• net zero

Yesterday, Microsoft announced that it will be teaming up with Unilever, Starbucks, Mercedes-Benz, Nike, and four other companies to form Transform to Net Zero, an initiative focused on achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. As CNET reported, the team will work with the Environmental Defense Fund to share information on the best practices for decreasing carbon […]

• Climate Change

California to Reevaluate Its Cap and Trade Program in the Wake of COVID

• California
• cap and trade
• carbon emissions
• climate change

The State of California’s 7-year-old cap and trade system is an important component of how the state plans to achieve its ambitious climate goals: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, and 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. As C2ES explained, California’s emissions trading program is […]

• Sustainability

Amazon Launches $2B Clean Tech Venture Fund

• Amazon
• carbon emissions
• corporate sustainability
• Jeff Bezos

Yesterday, online retail giant Amazon announced its  Climate Pledge Fund–a $2 billion that will invest in companies that develop innovative ways to reduce carbon emissions. As the Verge explained, The fund will help Amazon and other companies adhere to The Climate Pledge initiative it started in September 2019. That pledge committed the company, and others […]

• Climate Change

Southeast As A Region Lags In Coming To Grips With Climate Change

• carbon
• carbon emissions
• climate change
• climate crisis
• coal
• solar power

Inside Climate News published over the weekend, in collaboration with 9 newspapers across 7 Southeastern states a series of stories called “Caught Off Guard” describing how and why the region lags behind others in renewable electricity and faces some of the biggest global warming threats in the nation.  

Why This Matters:  The Southeast is particularly vulnerable on its coast due to increasingly severe storms and flooding, but the region’s problems extend far inland too.

• Forests

Top Stories of 2019: Forests on Fire All Over the World

• carbon emissions
• carbon sink
• climate change
• Fire
• trees

This year will be remembered for searing images of the Amazon burning at an unprecedented rate (there were so many fires you could see them from space), with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro alternating between downplaying the severity of them and then sending in Brazilian military troops to fight the tens of thousands of fires burning there.  As we reported, world leaders and environmental organizations — even the Pope — pushed Brazil to take action — and the worst part was most of the fires were started by people who wanted to clear land for agriculture and other development.  But fires were bad all over the planet — from the Arctic tundra in Greenland, Alaska, and Siberia, to Australia, and of course, California.