While it is undeniable that we are ramping up our actions against climate change, it is hard to deny that global warming is getting scarier every week. Here is a quick selection of horror stories I have collected this summer.
With the US and the EU lagging on climate action, India, China and South Korea are moving forward and showing leadership on this vital topic.
While the United States are wondering what will happen next on climate change mitigation in their country, both India and China have recently unvealed very ambitious targets to fight local air pollution and global climate change.
After reducing our trash at the source and composting and recycling what can be, waste to energy is a good way to avoid landfilling while producing both heat and electricity. China is thus turning to this solution to answer its most pressing challenges.
And these are huge steps in the right direction for both renewable energy and afforestation. This bode well for the upcoming IPCC climate talks that will take place late this year in Paris.
What if we were actually on the right track to solve world hunger ? The UN FAO has published a report recently stating that there are 200 million hungry people less than in 1990, all this while global population increased.
While some analysts thought that China would cut its emissions in 2040 it is already starting to actually take place, and in an impressive way as new analyses have shown.
In the past few weeks different news from China made me feel hopeful for our common climate and civilization. Indeed, the country’s coal consumption has started to decrease, with a 2.9 percent cut in 2014.
While India is plaggued by horrendous air pollution just like neighbouring China, it might not be the case in ten or twenty years from now. We have seen the world’s largest democracy will provide clean electricity to 400 million people thanks to renewables.
I reported in June 2011 that Bangladesh, one of the world’s poorest countries, had over a million solar roofs. A few years later and these figures have tripled as the country now has 3.1 million residential solar energy systems.
The world’s seventh carbon emitter started earlier this month the second biggest cap and trade program. As we have seen previously, South Korea is willing to cut its emissions by 30 percent by 2020. This cap-and-trade programm will enable it to do so.
We have seen that in Japan, farmers cover some of their crops with solar panels. India covers its rivers with them. The State of Gujarat is thinking of covering its 19,000 kilometers of canals with solar panels.
