The watershed summit in 2015 was far from perfect, but its impact so far has been significant and measurable
Ten years on from the historic Paris climate summit, which ended with the world’s first and only global agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions, it is easy to dwell on its failures. But the successes go less remarked.
There’s much more to do, but we should be encouraged by the progress we have made
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the Paris climate treaty, one of the landmark days in climate-action history. Attending the conference as a journalist, I watched and listened and wondered whether 194 countries could ever agree on anything at all, and the night before they did, people who I thought were more sophisticated than me assured me they couldn’t. Then they did. There are a lot of ways to tell the story of what it means and where we are now, but any version of it needs respect for the complexities, because there are a lot of latitudes between the poles of total victory and total defeat.
I had been dreading the treaty anniversary as an occasion to note that we have not done nearly enough, but in July I thought we might be able celebrate it. Because, on 23 July, the international court of justice handed down an epochal ruling that gives that treaty enforceable consequences it never had before. It declares that all nations have a legal obligation to act in response to the climate crisis, and, as Greenpeace International put it, “obligates states to regulate businesses on the harm caused by their emissions regardless of where the harm takes place. Significantly, the court found that the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is fundamental for all other human rights, and that intergenerational equity should guide the interpretation of all climate obligations.” The Paris treaty was cited repeatedly as groundwork for this decision.
American officials joined Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran in objecting to language on fossils fuels, biodiversity and plastics in a report that was three years in the making.
An official report lays out different scenarios for the cost of transitioning away from fossil fuels to net zero by 2050
Britain’s official energy system operator has attempted to work out what achieving net zero carbon emissions will cost, with its figures showing surging spending in the coming years.
The scale and speed of the shift to a low-carbon economy, and how to fund it, are hotly debated by political parties.
In the Ozarks, the growing college town of Fayetteville, Ark., is using clean energy to power city facilities and embracing nature-based solutions to climate threats.
President Trump, who calls climate change a “hoax” is eliminating restrictions on coal, oil and gas while imposing new ones on renewable energy like wind and solar.
Green light intended to limit amount consumers pay for windfarms to turn off during periods of high generation
Three major UK electricity “superhighways” could move ahead sooner than expected to help limit the amount that households pay for windfarms to turn off during periods of high power generation.
Current grid bottlenecks mean there is not enough capacity to transport the abundance of electricity generated in periods of strong winds to areas where energy demand is highest.
An early grid battery was installed in the Atacama Desert in Chile 15 years ago. Now, as prices have tumbled, they are increasingly being used around the world.
Employees working on battery units at the solar project, which is owned by AES, a Virginia company that holds utilities and power plants across the world.
The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations no longer appear in an organizational chart posted by the Energy Department on Tuesday.
The Pennsylvania site, shorthand for the dangers of nuclear power after a 1979 meltdown, is set for revival under a deal to power Microsoft data centers.
Pump jacks in Russia in 2023. The energy agency’s reports are influential and often cited by energy companies and investors as a basis for long-term planning.
At this year’s climate summit, the United States is out and Europe is struggling. But emerging countries are embracing renewable energy thanks to a glut of cheap equipment.
Solar panels in China’s northern Inner Mongolia region. Rapid growth of clean energy technologies like solar panels and electric vehicles have slightly reduced forecasts of future emissions in places like China and Europe.
The Little Elk solar project in Elkton, Md., is among those owned by CleanCapital, a company that develops and operates solar and battery storage projects around the country.
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