All posts tagged: climate change

Private property protection limits mitigating climate change in developing countries

The Paris Agreement remains a much lauded instrument for addressing climate change. But challenges loom large when it comes to applying concepts, such as climate mitigation and climate adaptation, to practical outcomes, to places set to face the brunt of the impact of a warming world, especially developing regions. One such idea outlined in the accord is transferring technologies from developed to developing countries. Michael Davies-Venn argues that technology transfers, including renewable energy technologies, will only work when private assets, such as Intellectual Property Rights, are released to allow especially poorer countries to benefit from the technology.

When Hitting the Slopes is a Sin Against Nature

by Paul Hockenos

In so many ways, Alpine skiing is an assault on the natural world. This will only become more pronounced as our highlands see less and less snow as a result of the climate crisis. In the short run, a dying industry is trying to save itself by means that exacerbate its toll on the environment. Paul Hockenos reports.

Ensuring that energy systems remain resilient under climate change presents new challenges for the energy sector

by Laiz Souto & Matthew Wright

Energy resilience has come sharply into focus over the past year due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the associated energy crisis. But aside from geopolitical effects, extreme weather poses the greatest threat to maintaining reliable and affordable energy. Laiz Souto (University of Bristol) and Matthew Wright (University of Oxford, Royal Meterological Society) explain what is at stake.

The Caribbean’s energy conundrum

by Rebecca Bertram

Small island states tend to face a double challenge when it comes to energy: Securing sufficient energy supplies and dealing with the immediate impacts of climate change. The Caribbean – comprised of 31 individual island states – is facing the brunt of energy and climate insecurity. As the region suffers a Covid-induced economic slump in its all-important tourism industry, it is also witnessing increasing extreme weather events, rising sea levels and extremely high electricity and energy prices. The latter three phenomena have been around for years, so why has the Caribbean not adapted a more sustainable energy policy? Rebecca Bertram has the Details.

Don’t Look Up: star-studded film is a disaster-parable on climate inaction

by L. Michael Buchsbaum

The apocalyptic film has polarized critics while furthering a global debate on our collective failure to act on the climate emergency. With Hollywood stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence, since it’s release on December 24, it’s become the second-most-watched Netflix original film in the streaming platform’s history. Its popularity demonstrates a widespread hunger for climate-themed media while offering a global warning about trusting U.S. politics. Lead blogger and podcaster, Michael Buchsbaum offers his take.

Carbon markets are stalling speedy global climate action

by Michael Davies-Venn

Six years on from the cheers, claps and cries to welcome the Paris Agreement, global temperatures and emissions are rising, as dusk settles on the promise the agreement holds for planet Earth. It’s fading hope is today matched with faltering efforts to implement its Article 6. Michael Davies-Venn argues that failures to reach agreements on Article 6 illustrates an unfortunate mistake of conceiving of an imminent global environmental crisis as an economic problem. This misconception, he says, creates an illusion that an international carbon market is a suitable climate change solution.

Angry Weather: Attribution Bolsters Climate Science

by Paul Hockenos

The implications of weather-attribution methodology, which pins individual extreme weather events to human-induced global warming, are vast.

Threatened masculinity as an obstacle to sustainable change

by Kathrin Meyer

Fossil fuels are not only linked to high emissions and climate change, but are also part of a social identity that is faltering: masculinity, argues Cara Daggett, a political scientist who coined the phrase “petro-masculinity”. The transition to a more climate-friendly future is connected to the future of fossil fuels and also to challenges to (white) male privilege. This struggle is evident when talking about the current decision-making landscape, which is predominantly male and has scant room for diverse perspectives. Kathrin Meyer draws a line between threatened masculinity and the stagnation of key energy and climate issues.

A cry in the desert: Poland wakes up to climate debate

by Michał Olszewski

Too late, too slow, too stifled, but it has arrived: Climate policy is finally taking centre-stage in the public debate. Michał Olszewski reports from Poland.

The oil trap – Ecuador’s quest to clean up its energy mix