Tag - carbon

 
 

CARBON

Fossil fuels like propane and isobutane, commonly used for BBQs, are helping replace potent hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants, significantly cutting greenhouse gas emissions and showing that practical solutions can slow global warming.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 5, 2025
BBQ gas is helping to cool a warming planet
A widening array of national-level regulations, prompted by the United Nations-backed Kigali Amendment on HFCs, are gradually pushing hydrofluorocarbons out of the market.
The outskirts of Bopolu, Liberia, in 2021. Liberia’s government signed a "carbon credit" agreement with a little-known Dubai company in 2023 that promised to protect vast tracts of forests and offset big polluters' emissions.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 26, 2025
The case of Africa’s ‘vanishing’ carbon deals
Blue Carbon’s Africa venture highlights the complexity of delivering on carbon credits, plans that are often criticized for offering polluters a chance to “greenwash” emissions.
Tanks storing liquefied carbon dioxide captured at Heidelberg Materials' plant in Brevik, Norway, on June 18
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 17, 2025
Carbon capture promoters turn up in numbers at COP30, NGO says
The NGO’s list names oil and gas giants such as ExxonMobil, Shell and BP, along with Brazil’s state-owned Petrobras and China National Petroleum.
Fumes are seen rising from the cooling towers of a lignite-fired power station operated by German energy giant RWE near a field Neurath, western Germany, on Wednesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 13, 2025
World’s fossil fuel emissions to hit new record in 2025, study says
Curbing warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius from preindustrial levels — the goal outlined in the Paris Agreement — would now be essentially “impossible.”
French President Emmanuel Macron addresses a plenary session at the COP30 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Belem, Brazil, on Thursday. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is skipping the event to focus on domestic political issues.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 10, 2025
Want to fight climate change? Fight ‘climate fatigue’
The public is concerned but disengaged in the lead up to this week’s U.N. climate meeting.
International Maritime Organization Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez
ENVIRONMENT
Oct 18, 2025
U.S. sinks international deal on decarbonizing ships
Increased divisions, notably between oil-producing nations and non-oil producers, emerged this week at meetings leading up to Friday’s vote.
U.S. President Donald Trump has dismissed climate change as "the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world" and his administration has reportedly moved to quash debate on the issue.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Oct 8, 2025
Trump calls climate change a con; science braces for more
The Department of Energy is reportedly telling staff to avoid using language that runs counter to the president’s views on climate science.
The Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field and an adjoining solar power farm in the town of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, in March 2021. Japan's forward-looking reforms are embedding climate risk management into the core of corporate decision-making.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 6, 2025
Japan’s blueprint for climate finance sets global standard
While no country has all the answers, Japan is demonstrating what sustained, organized action on mobilizing finance for the clean energy transition looks like in practice.
Kansai Electric Power is preparing to decommission the No.1 and No. 2 units at its oil-fired Gobo thermal power station in Wakayama Prefecture, according to informed sources.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2025
Kansai Electric to retire two units at Gobo oil-fired power station
The two units are expected to be decommissioned around next June, sources said.
Industry minister Yoji Muto speaks during a news conference on Monday in Osaka.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2025
Countries vow to quadruple the use of sustainable fuels by 2035
Biofuels are expected to contribute to carbon reductions as plants used as their raw materials absorb carbon dioxide while growing.
An Exxon Mobil refinery at the Port of Rotterdam in Rotterdam, Netherlands
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Sep 11, 2025
Scientists link major carbon emitters to worsening heat waves
The more emissions a company releases, the bigger role it plays in worsening heat waves.
China, led by firms like BYD and CATL, dominates green tech, which is forcing the EU to choose between defensive policies or collaboration on clean trade and investment to advance climate goals.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2025
Can Europe and China forge a climate connection?
Europe should forge a shared competitiveness agenda with China, which would allow it to use its strengths.
Fumes rise from the coal-fired Hunter Power Plant in Castle Dale, Utah, in 2024. A 141-page Energy Department report challenged by more than 85 scientists in a joint analysis appeared almost in tandem with a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency to rescind a 2009 endangerment finding — the bedrock of many U.S. greenhouse gas regulations.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Sep 3, 2025
Scientists assail ‘cherry-picking’ of Trump administration climate report
The report appeared almost in tandem with a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency to rescind a 2009 finding that’s the bedrock of many U.S. greenhouse gas regulations.
Traffic along a highway in New Delhi. India, the world's third largest emitter of carbon dioxide, will be able to access Japanese decarbonization technologies at low cost under a joint crediting mechanism.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 25, 2025
Japan and India to use joint crediting mechanism in emission-cutting plan
The yet-to-be-announced plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in India using Japanese technologies will allow Japan to count part of the reductions as its own.
Bridgestone will sell Mexico Carbon Manufacturing to U.S.-based Cabot for about $70 million as part of its carbon black business restructuring.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 5, 2025
Bridgestone to sell carbon black business in Mexico to U.S. firm Cabot
In July, the Japanese tire-maker announced the sale of its carbon black operations in Thailand to Japan’s Tokai Carbon.
Sheep on the eastern shores of Lake Hawea, near the town of Wanaka on the South Island of New Zealand. New Zealand sheep farmers are fighting to stop the loss of pasture to fast-spreading pine plantations, which earn government subsidies to soak up carbon emissions.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jul 28, 2025
New Zealand farmers battle pine forests to ‘save our sheep’
New Zealand is one of the rare countries to allow 100% of carbon emissions to be offset by forestry.
Private companies are rushing into risky, profit-driven geoengineering projects to fight climate change without clear regulations, raising fears of dangerous unintended consequences.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2025
Geoengineering’s risks need to be studied more
With for-profit organizations already releasing chemicals into the oceans, it’s important for scientists with no financial stake in this industry to collect data.
Residents cool themselves in Parc Andre Citroen's fountains in Paris on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 2, 2025
Europe’s climate resolve faces big test as EU unveils 2040 goal
The European Commission is set to propose a binding law to slash emissions by 90% by 2040 as part of its overarching goal to reach climate neutrality by the middle of the century.
Japan sees liquefied natural gas as vital to energy security.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 20, 2025
Japan seeks gas past 2050, with AI and data centers set to lift demand
The government expects a boom in artificial intelligence, data centers and semiconductor chip-making factories to revive power demand.
The Environment Ministry is offering ¥60 billion ($415 million) of support for the commercialization of homegrown climate and environmental technology through the Japan Green Investment Corp. for Carbon Neutrality, a government-backed fund that invests in ventures to reduce emissions.
JAPAN
May 29, 2025
Japan bets on homegrown startups to adapt to a hotter world
The Environment Ministry is offering ¥60 billion of support through the Japan Green Investment Corp. for Carbon Neutrality.

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The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival