The Environment: China Has Met Its 2020 Carbon Target Three Years Early

China met its 2020 carbon intensity target — the amount of carbon dioxide it produces per unit of economic growth — three years ahead of schedule, according to the country’s top climate official, Xie Zhenhua. In 2017, China cut its carbon intensity by 46 percent from 2005 levels, a drop of 5.1 percent from the previous year, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

Xie announced the milestone at the country’s Green Carbon Summit on Monday.

As part of the Paris Agreement in 2015, China, the world’s largest emitter of CO2, had pledged to reduce its 2005 carbon intensity by 40 to 45 percent by 2020. It has a goal of reducing carbon emissions by unit of GDP by 60 to 65 percent by 2030, and to halt increasing its emissions after that point.

China has struggled to meet another Paris pledge, however, to establish a national cap and trade system by 2017 for greenhouse gas emissions. Last December, the country launched emissions trading for the power sector, covering 1,700 companies and 3 billion tons of CO2 emissions, but a broader, multi-sector system has been delayed by technical problems and unreliable data, Reuters reported.

Read more:China Has Met Its 2020 Carbon Target Three Years Early - Yale E360

Clean Air: Canada aligning with U.K. to fight global growth in coal-fired electricity - Mia Rabson

Eliminating, or at least reducing, the world's reliance on coal is a critical step in the Paris climate change accord's efforts to prevent the planet from warming more than two degrees Celsius over with pre-industrial times
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Environment Minister Catherine McKenna is on a two-day trip to the U.K. and Ireland this week, pushing Canada as a global leader on climate change action.

On Thursday she was in Ireland to be a panellist at a climate risk conference in Dublin and tour Ireland's Marine Institute in Galway.

During Wednesday's stop in London she and Claire Perry, British minister of state for climate change and industry, announced plans to use their own national commitments to phase out coal power plants as a means to convince others to do the same.

In a statement, the two said Canada and the U.K. are both committed to phasing out unabated coal use at home — Canada by 2030 and the U.K. by 2025 — and they are inviting others to jump on board during the next United Nations climate talks in Bonn, Germany in November.

Read more: Canada aligning with U.K. to fight global growth in coal-fired electricity | National Observer

US Climate Control Is Not On The Ropes: Forget Trump, it′s all about local climate action

United States President Donald Trump is negating the Clean Power Plan, widely recognized as former President Barack Obama's linchpin legislation for reducing national greenhouse gas emissions.

Trump's gutting of the Clean Power Plan is not unexpected - and barely news for those who have been following Trump's reversal of environmental standards in general, and climate protection in particular.

The Clean Power Plan was intended as the key piece of policy that would have allowed the US to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius.

"This proposal completely dismisses how US emissions contribute to global climate impacts," commented Sam Adams, director of the World Resources Institute in the US, following the Trump administration's announcement.

After it became clear Trump planned to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement, several coalitions formed in an attempt to counter this.

The United States Climate Alliance includes California, New York, Colorado and 15 other US states that are working across party lines to coordinate action in order to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions consistent with the Paris Agreement.

On the heels of that coalition, the even-broader initiative "We Are Still In" formed among US cities and counties, business leaders and investors, and tribes and universities. About 2,300 leaders have signed up to the initiative so far.

Former New York Governor Michael Bloomberg and current California Governor Jerry Brown - designated by the United Nations as special climate envoy and advisor, respectively - have also initiated America's Pledge, to drive down US emissions consistent with the Paris Agreement.

Trump sent a crystal-clear signal of his intentions when he pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement in early June this year (the US and Syria are now the only two nations to not be signed on to the treaty).

But a key question regarding climate protection follows: What does this effectively mean for US greenhouse gas emissions?

That answer may come as a bit more of a surprise.

In an analysis released this past September, the New Climate Institute found that emission reduction pledges by US states, cities and businesses currently allow the US to meet half of its nationally determined contribution under the Paris Agreement.

The report analyzed 342 commitments by 22 US states, 54 American cities and 250 businesses headquartered in the US.

It boils down to thinking about the future: "It's good for business, it's good for the public health of our citizens, and it's the only way we can turn over to our children the world that they deserve - and their children's children."

But the question remains: Is local climate action enough - that is, can it be ratcheted up, and quickly enough - to make up the difference in reducing US emissions?

Niklas Höhne of the New Climate Institute, which sponsored the analysis from September, thinks the answer is clearly yes - particularly when market forces around the expansion of renewables are considered.

He points out that the New Climate Institute report analyzed only a subset of activities: Those that are reported and easily quantifiable.

"We've only quantified 350 - but there are many more, in the order of 2,000," Höhne told DW, in the US alone.

"These have the potential to close the gap."

State, cities and business efforts will reduce emissions 12 to 14 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.

States are crucial to climate protection efforts due to the large scale of changes they can make.
Cities, it found, were more ambitious - they play a crucial role in implementing greenhouse gas emission reductions.

But businesses made the most ambitious greenhouse gas reduction commitments of all.

"Following the barrage of super-charged hurricanes, powered in part by warming seas, now is not the time to be backsliding on the country's obligation to reduce the risks of climate change," Adams added.

Read more: Forget Trump, it′s all about local climate action | DW Environment | DW | 10.10.2017

Carbon Dioxide Emission Reduction: In Europe, Greener Transit on Existing Infrastructure - by Erica Gies

Vienna is employing some old-fashioned technology to run shiny new electric buses wending their way through the narrow inner-city streets. 

The Austrian capital is switching from buses powered by liquefied petroleum gas to a novel, first-of-its-kind fleet of electric buses that run unplugged, go anywhere, and recharge their batteries using the overhead power lines of older trams. Twelve of the buses, each of which can carry 40 passengers, are in service. 

As Vienna shifts to electric buses, it is striving to be a leader in green transportation by testing new systems that can potentially create a cleaner, quieter downtown. Vienna is one of several European cities — struggling to square tight budgets with civic goals to meet climate targets — that are experimenting with new electric vehicles and infrastructure systems for buses and trains. 

With the European Union’s ambitious goals to reduce global warming, these cutting-edge technologies are part of a slow-motion revolution in urban transit. Siemens, which provided technology for the electric buses, is negotiating with at least five cities in Europe and two in South America that have existing tram lines and might adopt the Vienna system, said Andreas Laske, of the eBus program at Siemens Rail Systems in Berlin. 

The electric buses are more expensive, however, said Anna Reich of Wiener Linien, the city-owned transport company. But the city saved money by not having to build new infrastructure for the fleet. 

While electricity itself is not environmentally friendly unless it comes from renewable sources, city officials figure the buses — which are made by the Rampini company in Perugia, Italy — will reduce its carbon dioxide emissions 300 tons a year. 

At night, the batteries recharge fully at the depot. Because the buses have modest range requirements, they use a smaller battery, which makes them lighter and less expensive than those that require larger batteries.

Read more: In Europe, Greener Transit on Existing Infrastructure - NYTimes.com