Although large emissions cuts are urgently needed to achieve global climate goals, it may take decades before we can measure the effect of the reductions on global temperature evolution, according to a new study by researchers at Norway’s CICERO Center for International Climate Research. In the open-access study, published in... Read more →

Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have developed a novel machine learning approach quickly to enhance the resolution of wind velocity data by 50 times and solar irradiance data by 25 times—an enhancement that had yet to be achieved with climate data. The... Read more →

The Environment Committee of the European Parliament voted to include CO2 emissions from the maritime sector in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). The European Commission had put forward a proposal to revise the EU system for monitoring, reporting and verifying CO2 emissions from maritime transport (the “EU MRV Regulation”)... Read more →

Neste, the world’s largest producer of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) produced from waste and residue raw materials, has delivered its first batch of sustainable aviation fuel to San Francisco International Airport (SFO) via pipeline, where it will be used by major airlines committed to reducing carbon emissions.... Read more →

In an open-access study in the EGU journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, an international team of researchers reports that the greenhouse gas sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) is rapidly accumulating in the atmosphere, driven by the demand for SF6-insulated switchgear in developing countries. Simmonds et al. Of all the greenhouse gases regulated... Read more →

Ford Motor Company intends to achieve carbon neutrality globally by 2050, while setting interim targets to address climate change challenges more urgently. Carbon neutrality refers to achieving zero carbon emissions by balancing such emissions with carbon removal. To achieve its goal, Ford will focus initially on three areas that account... Read more →

A preliminary analysis of global data has found that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel sources reached a maximum daily decline of 17% in April as a result of drastic decline in energy demand that have occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. Percentage change in global daily fossil CO2 emissions, Jan-May... Read more →

US energy-related CO2 emissions declined by 2.8% in 2019 to 5,130 million metric tons (MMmt), according to data in the US Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Monthly Energy Review. CO2 emissions had increased by 2.9% in 2018, the only annual increase in the past five years. Because of continuing trends in... Read more →

Audi of America (AoA) and the Audi Environmental Foundation are awarding a $100,000 grant to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the lead institution in the Climate Modeling Alliance (CliMA). The grant will fund researchers in their pursuit of a novel new climate model, a critical tool for understanding future... Read more →

The 2020 edition of US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) comprehensive annual report on nationwide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions shows that emissions increased from 2017 to 2018 by 3.1% (after accounting for sequestration from the land sector). In 2018, US greenhouse gas emissions totaled 6,677 million metric tons of carbon dioxide... Read more →

A container ship leaves a trail of white clouds in its wake that can linger in the air for hours. This puffy line is not just exhaust from the engine, but a change in the clouds that’s caused by small airborne particles of pollution. New research led by the University... Read more →

In the US, Model Year (MY) 2018 vehicle fuel economy was 25.1 miles per gallon, 0.8% higher than the 24.9 miles per gallon MY 2017, according to the annual Automotive Trends Report released by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In model year 2018, the average estimated real-world CO2 emission... Read more →

Black carbon particles absorb heat in the atmosphere. For years, scientists have known that these particles are affecting Earth’s warming climate, but measuring their exact effect has proved elusive. Researchers at Michigan Technological University and Brookhaven National Laboratory, along with partners at other universities, industry, and national labs, have now... Read more →

North Dakota-based Red Trail Energy (RTE), which since 2007 has operated an ethanol production facility with annual production of about 60 million gallons per year, is proposing sequestration of CO2 produced from starch fermentation to lower the overall carbon intensity of the fuel for the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard... Read more →

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists have identified a suite of technologies to help California to become carbon-neutral—and ultimately carbon-negative —by 2045. To achieve the goal of carbon-neutrality, California will likely have to remove on the order of 125 million tons per year of CO2 from the atmosphere. In the... Read more →

The gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine is one of the most prominent technologies car manufacturers adopted to achieve the fuel economy and carbon dioxide emission goals established in 2012 by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The market share of GDI-equipped vehicles increased from 2.3% in model year 2008 to 51%... Read more →

Despite reports that global emissions of the potent greenhouse gas, HFC-23, were almost eliminated in 2017, an international team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, has found atmospheric levels growing at record values. Over the last two decades, scientists have been keeping a close eye on the atmospheric... Read more →

The Rhodium Group, an independent research provider, estimates that, after a sharp uptick in 2018, US greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions fell by 2.1% in 2019 based on preliminary energy and economic data. This decline was due almost entirely to a drop in coal consumption. Coal-fired power generation fell by a... Read more →

A new analysis led by a team from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, estimates that on a global scale, obesity contributes to extra GHG emissions of ~49 megatons per year of CO2 equivalent (CO2eq) from oxidative metabolism due to greater metabolic demands; ~361 megatons per year of CO2eq from food... Read more →

Driven by rising natural gas and oil consumption, levels of CO2 are expected to hit 37 billion metric tons this year, according to new estimates from the Global Carbon Project (GCP), an initiative led by Stanford University scientist Rob Jackson. The findings are outlined in three new papers published in... Read more →

Cummins Inc. announced its next environmental sustainability strategy—PLANET 2050—which includes science-based goals that meet or exceed the goals in the United Nations Paris agreement on climate change. By 2050, Cummins is targeting net-zero carbon emissions. PLANET 2050 focuses on three priority areas: addressing climate change and air emissions; using natural... Read more →

Although hydropower is broadly considered to be much more environmentally friendly than electricity generated from fossil fuels (e.g., earlier post), a new study by a team at Environmental Defense Fund finds that the climate impact of hydropower facilities varies widely throughout the world and over time, with some facilities emitting... Read more →

The application period has opened for the 2020 Keeling Curve Prize, which awards $25,000 to each of 10 projects designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or increase their uptake. Each year, this prestigious competition attracts entries from around the world. The prize is named after scientist Charles David Keeling’s iconic... Read more →

Researchers at MIT have determined that growth in aviation causes twice as much damage to air quality as to the climate. In an open-access paper in the journal Environmental Research Letters, they examine how this damage can be mitigated, and provide consistent comparative assessments of aviation emissions trade-offs, considering both... Read more →

ExxonMobil and FuelCell Energy, Inc. signed a new, two-year expanded joint-development agreement to further enhance carbonate fuel cell technology for the purpose of capturing carbon dioxide from industrial facilities. The agreement, worth up to $60 million, will focus efforts on optimizing the core technology, overall process integration and large-scale deployment... Read more →

An aerial methane survey conducted by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), California Energy Commission (CEC) and NASA has found that just 10% of the point sources were responsible for 60% of the total methane emissions detected. Researchers believe that statewide, these relatively few super emitters are responsible for about... Read more →

Seeking to slash CO2 emissions from its North American manufacturing operations, Honda has entered into long-term virtual power purchase agreements (VPPAs) for renewable wind and solar power that will cover more than 60% of the electricity that Honda uses in North America. These VPPAs will enable Honda to fully offset... Read more →

Leading banks and the United Nations on Sunday launched the Principles for Responsible Banking, with 130 banks collectively holding US$ 47 trillion in assets—one third of the global banking sector—signed up. In the Principles, launched one day ahead of the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, banks commit to... Read more →

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today, with Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Air Resources Board, led a coalition of 24 state attorneys general and the cities of Los Angeles and New York in filing a lawsuit against the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The lawsuit challenges the Trump... Read more →

Audi has set the goal of successively reducing vehicle-specific CO2 emissions by 30% by 2025 compared with reference year 2015 and over the entire product lifecycle. In the long term, Audi is pursuing the vision of CO2-neutral mobility and aims to be climate-neutral throughout the company on balance by 2050.... Read more →

Volkswagen is investing in climate protection projects to compensate for unavoidable CO2. The first project, Katingan Mentaya, a forest protection project on the Indonesian island of Borneo, compensates for the currently still unavoidable CO2 emissions from the supply chain, production and delivery of the new Volkswagen e-vehicle ID.3, as well... Read more →

One view advanced in some studies attempting to model future climate is that cleaning up fossil-fuel air pollution rapidly will unintentionally lead to a near-term rise in atmospheric warming of about a half-degree Celsius, which might take up to a century to reverse. The foundational idea is that the sun-obscuring... Read more →

A new International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) report finds that aviation emissions are increasing 70% faster than UN projections that already point to a tripling of CO2 by 2050. In other words, the climate challenge for aviation is worse than expected. The report was issued in advance of the... Read more →

In a series of tweets Wednesday morning, President Trump said that his administration “is revoking California’s Federal Waiver on emissions”—a reference to the waiver of preemption under the federal Clean Air Act granted California by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Obama Administration in 2012. However, the revocation—if... Read more →

A new report by the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) finds that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from road transport in the UK rose by 6% from 1990 to 2017. The increase—albeit lower than the increase in road traffic—highlights the significant challenge in reducing emissions from road transport, the report... Read more →

by Michael Sivak. In this analysis, I examined recent changes in the contribution of transportation to total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States relative to the other sources of emissions (industry, commercial, residential, and agriculture). Also of interest were the changes in the relative contributions of various transportation modes,... Read more →

A study by a team of researchers from China, the US and Germany suggests that future climate change may worsen air quality for more than 85% of China’s population, leading to an additional 20,000 deaths each year. An open access paper on their work is published in Proceedings of the... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board’s latest state inventory of greenhouse gas emissions shows that California’s GHG emissions continue to decrease. In 2017, emissions from GHG emitting activities statewide were 424 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent (MMTCO2e), 5 MMTCO2e lower than 2016 levels and 7 MMTCO2e below the 2020 GHG... Read more →

Porsche Cars North America, Inc. (PCNA) has launched Porsche Impact, an online tool that links individual CO2 emissions to specific climate projects. The program is available to US customers after PCNA earlier this year enrolled its own Porsche Experience Center cars and its Porsche Passport subscription fleet. Impact has been... Read more →

A new study published in Nature Communications by researchers from IIASA, Boston University, and the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice found that by mid-century, climate change will increase the demand for energy globally, even with modest warming. The world is dependent on energy both for human wellbeing and society’s continued... Read more →

Year-over-year, US greenhouse gas emissions were 0.5% lower in 2017 than the prior year (after accounting for sequestration from the land sector), and power sector emissions fell 4.2%, according to the 2019 edition of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) annual report on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This decrease was... Read more →

Carbon Recycling International has been awarded a €1.8-million (US$2.0-million) grant under the EU Horizon 2020 Research Programme to increase the scale of its CO2-to-methanol technology, marketed under the trademark Emissions-to-Liquids (ETL). The grant will allow CRI to accelerate efforts to commercialize large scale production plants, expanding the market for ETL... Read more →

A new study released by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) finds greenhouse gas emissions from corn-based ethanol are about 39% lower than gasoline. The study also states that when ethanol is refined at natural gas-powered refineries, the greenhouse gas emissions are even lower—around 43% below gasoline. The study, led... Read more →

An annual ' tracking the progress of California Climate Investments, released by the California Air Resources Board and the California Department of Finance, finds that nearly $1.4 billion in new funding last year went to projects across all of California’s 58 counties—almost double the $720 million spent in 2017. The... Read more →

Carbon dioxide emissions from S energy consumption will remain near current levels through 2050, according to projections in EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook 2019. The AEO2019 Reference case, which reflects no changes to current laws and regulations and extends current trends in technology, projects that US energy-related CO2 emissions will be... Read more →

The European Parliament and the Council have reached provisional agreement on a regulation setting, for the first time in the EU, strict CO2 emission standards for trucks. Under the agreement, emissions from new trucks will have to be 15% lower by 2025 and 30% lower in 2030 compared to 2019... Read more →

In 2017, total gross U.S. greenhouse gas emissions were 6,472.3 MMT (million metric tons) CO2 equivalent, a decrease of 0.3% from 2016, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory. The decrease in total greenhouse gas emissions between 2016 and 2017 was driven in part by... Read more →

Reintroducing commercial supersonic transport (SST) aircraft into the global aviation fleet could have significant noise and climate impacts by 2035, according to a new study by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). The paper analyzes the landing and takeoff (LTO) noise, sonic boom, and CO2 implications of introducing 2,000... Read more →

Fewer soot particles in the exhaust stream of aircraft reduces the formation of ice crystals and therefore the climate impact of the resulting contrail cirrus. Halving the ice particles that form in the contrail decreases the climate-warming effect of the contrail cirrus by 20%; the effect is halved if there... Read more →

US electric power sector CO2 emissions have declined 28% since 2005 because of slower electricity demand growth and changes in the mix of fuels used to generate electricity, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). EIA calculated that CO2 emissions from the electric power sector totaled 1,744 million metric... Read more →