While the world has been preoccupied with reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is generated by burning fossil fuels, sulphur dioxide (SO₂) emissions have not received the same attention. Produced by burning coal, wood, petrol, diesel or farm stubble, SO₂ forms a large part of the pollution haze enveloping cities in northern India every…
Greater energy efficiency could help China peak carbon faster than expected, new research argues China has an opportunity to peak its carbon emissions as soon as 2023, according to a recent research paper in the environmental science journal Resources, Conservation and Recycling. China accounts for one quarter of global CO2 emissions, so the timing of the country’s carbon peak…
Rising coal consumption ends three years of stable emissions, reports Charlotte Middlehurst China’s carbon emissions are projected to grow by 3.5% in 2017, ending a trend that has seen emissions plateau for the past three years globally, according to a new study launched at the UN climate talks in Bonn. Although China has set ambitious targets to…
The air quality in Delhi is so poor that a health emergency has been declared and schools have been shut down. Various regional governments are quarrelling with each other and with central government agencies. But solutions to the pollution seem elusive. The Indian environment minister, Harsh Vardhan, advised residents not to panic, saying that a Graded Response Action…
With the US backing away, other countries have no choice but to do more, say Laurence Tubiana and Zou Ji Governments are convened in Bonn this week and next for the 2017 United Nations climate conference to discuss next steps on from the Paris Agreement in 2015. At this juncture, the key questions include: how far are we from reaching the emission…
UN’s special rapporteur on human rights says UK is ‘flouting’ its duty to protect its citizens. Catherine Early reports on the likelihood of further legal action Air pollution has risen up the political agenda in the UK in recent years as medical professionals have joined forces with environmental campaigners to raise public awareness of the issue and put…
US academic and writer Judith Shapiro talks about changing attitudes to the environment and whether China can become a global green power Judith Shapiro first became interested in China’s environment while teaching English in Hunan province in the late 1970s. It was here that she was inspired to write a book on Mao-era environmental degradation. Now a professor of global environmental politics, she talked to chinadialogue about…
As talks begin in Bonn next week, we ask international experts what they want achieved at this year’s climate summit Two years after the Paris Agreement and the focus of this year’s climate talks will be on how to plug the gap in green financing, how countries can scale up their national contributions to climate action,…