Page 7 - Climate Change

Thermostat setting: India's move towards energy-efficient AC solutions

We often see airconditioning as a luxury that middle-class families and small businesses cannot afford

Climate change an 'existential threat', states legally bound to act: ICJ

In a historic development, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has declared that climate change constitutes an "urgent, existential threat" and that states have binding legal obligations to address it. The court's first-ever advisory opinion on climate change, unanimously adopted by all 15 judges, provides unprecedented clarity on the responsibilities of nations under international law and paves the way for a wave of climate litigation worldwide. The ICJ on Wednesday ruled that states must take all necessary steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, halt fossil fuel expansion and provide reparations to vulnerable countries suffering climate-related harm. It found that failure to act on emissions, including through fossil fuel production, subsidies and licenses, could constitute an "internationally wrongful act" attributable to the state. Judge Iwasawa Yuji, delivering the opinion, called climate change a "concern of planetary proportions that imperils all forms of life", addin

India needs $2.4 trn to build climate-resilient infra by 2050: World Bank

India needs over $2.4 trillion by 2050 to meet the infrastructure needs of its urban population, which is expected to nearly double, says the World Bank in a new report

World has only 3 years left to avert worst impact of climate change: Study

As more countries develop their climate plans, it's time for leaders across the globe to face the hard truths of climate science

How extreme weather from climate change is spiking your grocery bills

Climate change brings with it higher temperatures and extreme rains, which can lower yields and make the crops that are harvested more expensive

Best of BS Opinion: Why Sebi needs to do more on derivatives trading

Today's opinion page discusses the recent clampdown on Jane Street, government transparency, India's milk market, and the future of Mumbai's real estate because of climate change

RBI Dy Guv bats for global unity, tech transfer to fight climate change

RBI Deputy Governor M Rajeshwar Rao has called for enhanced global cooperation including technology transfer and R&D funding to deal with challenges posed by the climate change. Stressing that no country can achieve net-zero in isolation, he said climate change is the quintessential global challenge and so the response. Rao was speaking at the Conference on Green Infrastructure Finance at College of Agriculture Banking, RBI here recently. "There is a requirement of enhanced global cooperation in this regard which must also extend to technology transfer, R&D funding, and skills development to enable development of technical expertise to identify, design, and structure bankable sustainable and green infrastructure projects," he said. The Reserve Bank posted his speech on its website on Friday. The Deputy Governor said that the focus needs to shift from project-based finance to overall market development with policy reforms, development of a project pipeline, and consistent ...

Trump tariffs push Asia toward American LNG at the cost of climate goals

Asian countries are offering to buy more US liquefied natural gas in negotiations with the Trump administration as a way to alleviate tensions over US trade deficits and forestall higher tariffs. Analysts warn that strategy could undermine those countries' long-term climate ambitions and energy security. Buying more US LNG has topped the list of concessions Asian countries have offered in talks with Washington over President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs on foreign goods. Vietnam's Prime Minister underlined the need to buy more of the super-chilled fuel in a government meeting, and the government signed a deal in May with an American company to develop a gas import hub. JERA, Japan's largest power generator, signed new 20-year contracts last month to purchase up to 5.5 million metric tons of US gas annually starting around 2030. US efforts to sell more LNG to Asia predate the Trump administration, but they've gained momentum with his intense push to win trade deals. Liquefied ...

India's long overdue low-carbon development plan likely to see light

The climate strategy may pave the path to a national carbon budget, an element critical in achieving net zero, but increase costs for companies transitioning to low-emission strategies

US won't publish major climate change report on Nasa website as promised

The Trump administration has taken another step to make it harder to find major, legally mandated scientific assessments of how climate change is endangering the nation and its people. Earlier this month, the official government websites that hosted the authoritative, peer-reviewed national climate assessments went dark. Such sites tell state and local governments and the public what to expect in their backyards from a warming world and how best to adapt to it. At the time, the White House said NASA would house the reports to comply with a 1990 law that requires the reports, which the space agency said it planned to do. But on Monday, NASA announced that it aborted those plans. "The USGCRP (the government agency that oversees and used to host the report) met its statutory requirements by presenting its reports to Congress. NASA has no legal obligations to host globalchange.gov's data," NASA Press Secretary Bethany Stevens said in an email. That means no data from the assessment or t

G20 watchdog outlines climate risk plan but halts further policy work

The US has withdrawn from multiple groups dedicated to exploring how flooding and wildfires and big climate-related policy shifts could impact financial stability

Paradise lost as climate change remakes Europe's summer weather

As southern Europeans dream of fjords, the traditional hot spots and fixtures of travel agency package deals no longer seem so desirable

Life-threatening heat domes challenge forecasters amid climate change

This phenomenon has also already struck Europe and China this summer, leading to the temporary closure of the Eiffel Tower and worries about wilting rice crops, respectively

Coconut prices triple within a year in Kerala, disrupting temple rituals

Coconut output has dropped due to farming neglect and climate change, driving up prices. Temple offerings of coconut are down 30%, and oil use for lamps is being cut to cope with the rising costs

Fossil fuel combustion caused 1,500 deaths in European heat wave: Study

Human-caused climate change is responsible for killing about 1,500 people in last week's European heat wave, a first-of-its-kind rapid study found. Those 1,500 people have only died because of climate change, so they would not have died if it had not been for our burning of oil, coal and gas in the last century, said study co-author Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College in London. Scientists at Imperial and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine used peer-reviewed techniques to calculate that about 2,300 people in 12 cities likely died from the heat in last week's bout of high temperatures, with nearly two-thirds of them dying because of the extra degrees that climate change added to the natural summer warmth. Past rapid attribution studies have not gone beyond evaluating climate change's role in meteorological effects such as extra heat, flooding or drought. This study goes a step further in directly connecting coal, oil and natural gas use to people

China's blistering heat leaves workers exposed as gig economy booms

According to The Lancet, yearly heat wave-related deaths in China have now nearly doubled compared with 1986 to 2005, with more than 37,000 deaths in 2023 alone

As the world warms up, extreme rain is becoming even more extreme

Warm air holds more moisture than cool air, and as temperatures rise, storms can produce bigger downpours

Rivers as kin, not property: A powerful case for ecological empathy

There is hope that we can conserve what remains and revive what has been lost of our rivers - but it begins with acknowledging that a river is a living, breathing entity

Reports on climate change effect on US disappear from federal websites

The legally mandated assessments seem to have disappeared from federal websites built to display them, making it harder for state and local governments and the public to learn what to expect in their backyards from a warming world. Websites for the national assessments and the US Global Change Research Program were down Monday and Tuesday with no links, notes or referrals elsewhere. Searches on NASA websites did not turn them up. NASA did not respond to requests for information. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which coordinated the information in the assessments, did not respond to repeated inquiries. The White House, which was responsible for the assessments, said the information will be housed within NASA to comply with the law, but gave no further details. Scientists say the peer-reviewed authoritative reports save money and lives. It's critical for decision makers across the country to know what the science in the National Climate Assessment is, University

Heatwaves grip Europe: Red alerts, wildfires, Eiffel Tower closed

Spain sees hottest June in a century; more than 50,000 people evacuated amid wildfires in Turkiye and the Balkans