Tesla Model S lithium-ion battery pack in rolling chassis Although electric cars haven’t quite taken off in the 2010s the way some had anticipated, sheer economics are pointing to the 2020s as the time when EVs will find that market fever pitch. From 2010 to 2019, lithium-ion battery prices (when looking at the battery...Read More

Combating Global Climate Change at the Regional Scale Panelists from left to right: Alex Halliday, Ruth deFries, Joshua Fisher, Lisa Sachs, Jason Bordoff, V. Faye McNeill. Photo: Eileen M. Barroso/Office of Communications and Public Affairs With climate change affecting different parts of the world in different ways, a group of Columbia University faculty members gathered...Read More

  The VMD tiny home is an eco-conscious dwelling that is built using shipping-containers Mexican architectural studios Studioroca and Taller Escape have recently joined forces to create a prefabricated housing model that is move-in ready in just 99 days from ordering. Dubbed VMD, the 30-sq-m (323-sq-ft) tiny home is an eco-conscious dwelling that is built...Read More

Downloadable Resources Open interactive popup Article (PDF-2MB) Hydrocarbons have powered economic growth for 150 years, but their emissions are destabilizing the earth’s climate. Now that the atmospheric impact of fossil fuels is widely recognized, the sector is under increasing pressure. Policy makers, investors, and society are pressing for change, threatening operators’ license to operate. Operators...Read More

Humanitarian plan aims to assist 109 million vulnerable people in 2020 A record 168 million people worldwide will need help and protection in 2020, or roughly 1 in every 45 people on the planet, the UN’s top humanitarian official said on Wednesday. Mark Lowcock was speaking in Geneva, where the UN and its humanitarian partners...Read More

As the planet warms due to excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a solution for drawing down that carbon — or at least a major part of it — lies silently below us. Soil organic matter — made of decomposing plant, animal and microbial tissue — is what distinguishes healthy, vibrant soil from just plain...Read More

MADRID (Reuters) – A surprise drop in coal use in the United States and Europe has helped to slow the growth of global carbon dioxide emissions this year, with softening demand in China and India also contributing, according to a study published on Wednesday. The report, launched at a U.N. climate summit in Madrid, showed...Read More

A technology developed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and scaled up by Vertimass LLC to convert ethanol into fuels suitable for aviation, shipping and other heavy-duty applications can be price-competitive with conventional fuels while retaining the sustainability benefits of bio-based ethanol, according to a new analysis. ORNL worked with technology...Read More

OSLO (Reuters) – Norway’s $1.1 trillion wealth fund, the world’s largest, said climate change dominated discussions about whether it should sell stakes in companies because they are considered too risky. FILE PHOTO: Emissions from a power plant chimney rise over Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia January 13, 2017. REUTERS/B. Rentsendorj/File Photo The fund, which invests revenues from Norway’s oil...Read More

The millennial appetite for social entrepreneurship isn’t simply youthful idealism, writes Russell Prior Young people today are growing up in an increasingly interconnected and borderless world. This lets them explore the world outside their own and connect to the problems that surround them. In recent months, we’ve seen the proliferation of networking groups, societies and advisory...Read More