Follow this tag to curate your own personalized Activity Stream and email alerts.
Sales of cars powered solely by batteries surged in the United States, Europe and China last year, while deliveries of fossil fuel vehicles were stagnant. Demand for electric cars is so strong that manufacturers are requiring buyers to put down deposits months in advance. And some models are effectively sold out for the next two years. — The New York Times
As noted by The New York Times, the rise of electric vehicles represents the largest shift in the auto industry since the introduction of Henry Ford’s Model T. Their sales account for nearly 9 percent of new cars sold last year, which is up from 2.5 percent in 2019, according to the... View full entry
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) called for an end to the use of natural gas in new buildings in a policy blueprint released Wednesday ahead of her State of the State address. — The Hill
The governor's plan will require that there be zero on-site greenhouse gas emissions from new construction by 2027. It would also require energy benchmarking, a process that requires large buildings of similar sizes or occupancy levels to compare their energy consumption. Hochul’s blueprint... View full entry
The City Council is poised to ban the use of gas in new buildings, requiring most to use electricity-powered heat and hot water. Lawmakers reached a deal late Wednesday on a bill requiring new buildings shorter than seven stories to go electric on Jan. 1, 2024, and taller ones after July 1, 2027. Projects that get their construction documents approved before those dates will be exempt. — The Real Deal
Buildings of less than seven stories and at least half of its units subject to an affordable housing regulatory agreement are exempt if construction documents are approved before December 31, 2025. New buildings that are taller with the same agreement will have two more years. The measure allows... View full entry
New York is aiming to ban the sale of all gas-powered vehicles in the state by 2035. A bill amending the state's environmental conservation law was passed by the state's Senate and Assembly and signed by Governor Kathy Hochul last week. — CBS News
At the start of this month, Assembly Bill A4302 was signed by New York Governor Kathy Hochul, which would require that all in-state sales of new passenger cars and trucks have zero emissions by 2035. The law also requires that all medium- and heavy-duty vehicles sold in New York be emission-free... View full entry
Swedish steel manufacturer SSAB has announced that it has produced the world’s first fossil-free steel. As part of a trial delivery, the steel was sent to its first customer, Swedish automaker Volvo Group. The first-of-its-kind steel was developed through HYBRIT, an initiative formed in... View full entry
Petaluma, California, has voted to outlaw new gas stations, the first of what climate activists hope will be numerous cities and counties to do so. [...]
The Petaluma effort inspired groups like the Coalition Opposing New Gas Stations — or CONGAS — which seeks to ban gas stations in Sonoma County, California.
— Axios
The ordinance will not shut down Petaluma's 16 operational gas stations but prevents them from adding more pumps and prohibits the construction of new gas stations. It is expected that the move will inspire more municipalities to follow the example, similar to Berkeley's 2019 ban on natural gas... View full entry
Air pollution worsened in the United States in 2017 and 2018, new data shows, a reversal after years of sustained improvement with significant implications for public health.
In 2018 alone, eroding air quality was linked to nearly 10,000 additional deaths in the U.S. relative to the 2016 benchmark, the year in which small-particle pollution reached a two-decade low, according to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University.
— The Washington Post
The Washington Post reports that "concentrations of the pollutant have risen about 5.5 percent since 2016," and points out several contributing factors that the Carnegie Mellon study identified: increased natural gas use and vehicle traffic, risen severity and frequency of wildfires, and the... View full entry
The push for cleaner construction methods to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution on building sites has increased in recent years due to the worsening climate crisis. Nations across the globe have expressed their intent in finding better solutions for addressing the negative impacts... View full entry
New Jersey's largest and oldest power company is pledging to deliver carbon-free electricity to fight climate change. To get there, the power company is shutting down its coal plants, betting big on offshore wind and working hard to keep its existing nuclear plant alive. PSEG said it won't build or acquire any new fossil-fueled power plants, including those running on dirt-cheap natural gas. — CNN Business
Announced in July, one of the oldest power companies in the U.S. is taking the next step towards addressing their involvement in battling climate change. The New Jersey power company PSEG has used fossil fuels to power their plants for the last 116 years. As the oldest power company in America... View full entry
General Electric Co said on Friday it plans to demolish a large power plant it owns in California this year after only one-third of its useful life because the plant is no longer economically viable in a state where wind and solar supply a growing share of inexpensive electricity. — reuters.com
GE's Inland Empire Energy Center, a 750-megawatt natural gas-fueled plant located in Riverside County, California, built in 2009 is shutting down 20 years early. The culprit? Affordable wind and solar energy, which are surging in California, and outdated technology. On most days, California... View full entry
research from American and European scientists suggests that Texas — especially the waters along its coast — could be a pretty good place to store carbon from the petroleum industry. — Grist
In an effort to find new methods for storing carbon dioxide emissions, European researchers have been experimenting with injecting liquefied CO2 into the seabed surrounding former drilling sites in the North Sea. Studies so far show that leakages are minor and carbon sequestration potential is... View full entry
This summer’s extreme weather has hit home some stark realities. Climate disaster is not slated to happen in some far-flung theoretical future. It’s here, and now. — MEDIUM
Penned by Nafeez Ahmed, investigative journalist, recovering academic, tracking the Crisis of Civilization, the article points to a more urgent than urgent times in terms of civilisation and not merely the climate change. Also an urgent quote from a friend internalizing the article for... View full entry
The City of Copenhagen will pull its investments out of coal, oil and gas companies. The city council have agreed to divest the fossil fuel holdings of the city’s €920 million investment fund
[...]
"Copenhagen decided to ban investments in companies that gain more than 5 percent of their revenue from coal, oil and gas. The criteria apply to companies that engage in prospecting, extracting or refining coal, oil and gas..."
— Cities Today
Good work Danes! For other urban efforts to curb our collective fossil fuel addiction, check out these links:What the Paris Agreement means for architectureBritain's last deep-pit coal mine closes — the end of the industrial revolution?The climate is getting hotter, and we're not... View full entry
A handful of scientists and policy makers are...grappling with the long-term environmental effect of an economy that runs increasingly on gotta-have-it-now gratification [...]
The environmental cost can include the additional cardboard — 35.4 million tons of containerboard were produced in 2014 in the United States, with e-commerce companies among the fastest-growing users — and the emissions from increasingly personalized freight services.
— NY Times
As internet retailers compete to provide as-close-to-instant services to satiate our increasing desire for rapid gratification, our collective ecological footprint grows. The problem isn't just the cardboard boxes piling up on your doorstep, but also the carbon emissions required to get that... View full entry
The last deep-pit coal mine in the U.K. plans to shut its doors here next week, heralding the end of a centuries-old industry that helped fuel the industrial revolution and build the British Empire.
The shutdown [...] represents a victory for advocates of reducing carbon emissions after world leaders gathered in Paris to discuss how to combat global warming, with coal in the cross hairs. It also reflects a glut of energy on world markets, from crude oil to natural gas and coal itself.
— wsj.com
