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Governments must start to distinguish between the good subsidies they need to fight the climate crisis and the bad ones that are increasing greenhouse gas emissions, the world’s trade chief has said. Subsidies and other incentives to burn fossil fuels and encourage poor agricultural practices, amounting to about $1.7tn a year, are distorting world trade and hampering the fight against climate breakdown, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the director general of the World Trade Organization, told the Guardian. “Can you imagine if we said, we are going to repurpose those subsidies into other friendly subsidies, like for research and innovation?” she said. “I don’t mind that kind of subsidy.” She gave the example of clean cooking stoves in the developing world. Instead of subsidising fossil fuels, governments could subsidise clean stoves that use solar power or electricity instead of burning wood. “These kinds of sub...

Even as human-caused climate change threatens the environment, nature continues to inspire our technological advancement. “The solutions that are provided by nature have evolved for billions of years and tested repeatedly every day since the beginning of time,” said Evripidis Gkanias, a University of Edinburgh researcher. Gkanias has a special interest in how nature can educate artificial intelligence. “Human creativity might be fascinating, but it cannot reach nature’s robustness—and engineers know that,” he told AFP. From compasses mimicking insect eyes to forest fire-fighting robots that behave like vines, here’s a selection of this year’s nature-based technology. Insect compass Some insects—such as ants and bees—navigate visually based on the intensity and polarization of sunlight, thus using the sun’s position as a reference point. Researchers replicated their eye structure to construct a...

In its joint response [1] to an earlier consultation, the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and HM Treasury has confirmed that a UK CBAM will be implemented by 2027. The CBAM will impose a levy on those importing the most greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions-intensive products into the UK, which will reflect the gap between the carbon price that would have been imposed if the good had been produced in the UK and the carbon price already applied in the country of origin, if any. In doing so, the UK government is seeking to avoid “carbon leakage”: the phenomenon of UK based entities importing emissions-intensive products from outside the UK to avoid the charges placed on emissions-intensive products produced in the UK through the UK Emission Trading System (ETS). With the EU CBAM already up and running in its transitional phase from October this year (2023), and in the absence of any internationally agreed measures, similar and respons...

As reported by Lusa, the environmental association released the results of the new report prepared within the scope of the European project “LIFE Together 1.5” in partnership with Zero. The study showed that adopting a new trajectory compatible with the Paris Agreement, which includes not allowing global warming to exceed 1.5ºC, could save the European Union approximately €1 billion by 2030, the equivalent of around four times the Portuguese GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The same study referred to “a dangerous gap between this initiative and the trajectory in which public policies are placing the EU”, stressing this should be at the center of the political debate in this year’s European elections. Zero and its partner organisations consider protecting “citizens and the planet from the devastating impacts of climate change is not just a moral duty, but a pragmatic choice”. The report quantified th...

Sea level rise has already put coastal cities on notice thanks to increasing storm surges and even sunny day flooding at high tide. These challenges will continue to grow because global projections point to a mean sea level rise of at least one foot above year-2000 levels by the end of this century. However, many cities are facing another factor making them even more vulnerable to rising waters: land subsidence. The three of us – Pei-Chin Wu, Meng (Matt) Wei and Steven D’Hondt – are scientists at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography working with the U.S. Geological Survey to research challenges facing waterfront cities. Our findings indicate that land is sinking faster than sea levels are rising in many coastal cities throughout the world. By using radar images of the Earth’s surface collected from orbiting satellites, we measured subsidence rates in 9...

The COP28 climate change conference called on all countries to move from fossil fuels in the global fight against climate change. The high-level climate summit was held amid extreme weather events linked to the climate crisis. The world witnessed the hottest summer on record, with the global average temperature reaching 16.77C (62.19F) from June to August. The hottest day in history was recorded on July 6, soaring to 17.23C. Rising temperatures linked to global warming spark deadly extreme weather events, with more than 11,000 lives lost in Libya’s recent flood disaster Israeli attacks on Gaza, causing civilian casualties, also unleashed an environmental and public health crisis with the use of banned munitions like white phosphorus. Anadolu covers key global environmental developments in 2023. El Nino adds to global warming effect The El Nino weather phenomenon took effect in May, leading to record temperatures worldwide. Between June and A...

Three-quarters of the British public have a poor understanding of commonly-used climate terminology like ‘environmentally friendly’ and ‘locally grown’. The majority of people in the UK struggle to understand key language to do with the climate crisis and environmental policy, a new study has found. Only a quarter of Brits responding to a poll said they understood clearly what was meant by ‘green’ and around the same number could not define the term ‘sustainable’. The survey, conducted by insights experts Trajectory and communication agency Fleet Street, shows key terminology for discussing climate change and climate protection is understood by a minority of people in the UK. So what do these words really mean and why are they so hard to comprehend? Three-quarters of Brits don’t understand key climate language The study, published on Wednesday, found that three-quarters of the British public have a...