How a “tree mortgage” scheme could turn an Indian town carbon neutral
It’s a simple incentive with big gains: plant a tree, and after three years residents can mortgage each sapling for an interest-free loan that can be renewed annually for 10 years. The money need be repaid only if the tree is chopped down. Sheeja CG, a 46- year-old farmer, has lived among coffee, coconut and […]
French court gives Macron deadline to prove he’s serious on climate
France’s highest administrative court on Thursday gave the government three months to show it is enacting climate policies that will ensure it meets its commitments on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Conseil d’Etat’s ruling raises questions about the credibility of President Emmanuel Macron’s climate plan and affirms the binding nature of greenhouse gas reduction targets […]
Net-zero by 2050: South Korea to enshrine new climate target in law
South Korean President Moon Jae-in has declared that the country will achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, bringing its climate commitments in line with the likes of the UK and Japan. Announced in July as part of the national stimulus planning for Covid-19, the package earmarks $61.9bn for sectors including renewable energy generation and distribution, electric […]
China’s carbon pledge revives hopes of a climate game change
Xi Jinping aims for carbon neutrality by 2060 but how he plans to meet that goal is still unclear. The declaration by Xi Jinping, China’s president, at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday – after Donald Trump had earlier criticised Beijing’s environmental record – has been hailed as a major step forward in international negotiations […]
Election and Supreme Court Fight Will Decide Trump’s Environmental Legacy
President Trump has selected Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court. He has initiated the most aggressive environmental deregulation agenda in modern history, but as his first term drives to a close, many of his policies are being cut down by the courts — even by Republican-appointed jurists who the […]
Africa’s Court of Human Rights on the brink of collapse
Civil society rejoiced when the Tanzania-based African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights was established in 1998. But the dream for justice within the continent risks falling apart as member states neglect the court. Within six months, three African nations – Tanzania, Benin, Ivory Coast – have revoked the right of individuals and NGOs to sue them […]
Los Cedros legal case could set a world precedent.
In a precedent-setting move, the Constitutional Court of Ecuador has announced it will take on the case of the threatened Los Cedros Protected Forest by using the Rights of Nature enshrined in the constitution. The Constitutional Court chose to hear this case recently and apply, for the first time, Ecuador’s constitutionally mandated Rights of Nature […]
‘World-first’ legal case: student accuses Australia of misleading investors on climate risk
Katta O’Donnell, 23, says her claim will put government ‘on trial for misconduct’ for failing to address climate change. A Melbourne university student has launched what has been described as a world-first legal case against the Australian government, accusing it of misleading investors in sovereign bonds by failing to disclose the financial risk caused by the […]
Australia’s ‘failing’ environmental laws will fuel further public health crises, Nobel laureate warns
Bushfires and Covid-19 highlight connection between human health and natural world, states letter by almost 200 doctors and scientists Leading health professionals, including a Nobel laureate and a former Australian of the Year, say the government must put human health “front and centre” in a new generation of environment laws in the aftermath of the […]
Climate Change: More than 3bn could live in extreme heat by 2070
Unless greenhouse gas emissions fall, large numbers of people will experience average temperatures hotter than 29C. This is considered outside the climate “niche” in which humans have thrived for the past 6,000 years. Co-author of the study Tim Lenton told the BBC: “The study hopefully puts climate change in more human terms”. Researchers used data […]
