Thank you for Ajit Niranjan’s article (‘But we’re just 1% of emissions’: do smaller countries’ climate efforts matter?, 30 June). This helpfully examines arguments frequently used to undermine the UK’s and other nations’ plans for emission reduction. In my opinion this article misses an important counter-argument: carbon emissions per capita. This shows that, for example, the UK emits 4.5 tonnes of carbon per person per year, China 8.7 tonnes, United States 14.2 tonnes, India 2.2 tonnes and Vietnam 3.7 tonnes. Many smaller European nations have similar or greater emissions per…
Tag: Greenhouse gas emissions
China Moves the Price of Oil, Even When It Buys Less
After the war in Iran cut off a fifth of the world’s oil supply, oil prices jumped, at one point reaching nearly $120 a barrel. But they didn’t spike higher, even though some analysts warned ominously of $200 oil, and prices have since come down. At more than $80 a barrel, oil is expensive. But it could be a lot higher. One major reason was China. The biggest oil buyer in the world, China has kept a lid on prices by rapidly reducing the amount of oil it imports. Before…
UK car sales hit post-Covid high for May as Chinese EV makers gain ground
British car sales rose in May to their strongest level for the month since before the Covid pandemic, driven in part by strong growth from the Chinese manufacturers BYD and Chery. Car registrations rose by 7% to 160,662 during the month, according to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), a lobby group. Sales of battery electric cars rose the fastest, accounting for more than 27% of the market. Chery sold 8,200 cars during May across its Chery, Jaecoo and Omoda brands, while BYD sold 5,200. Over…
Revealed: the internal BHP memo that slammed the brakes on world’s biggest miner’s climate push
In the middle of 2019, London was sweltering through a heatwave. Temperature records tumbled. Frail, ill and elderly people died in their hundreds. In a city not built for heat, trains were brought to a halt. Railway lines threatened to buckle and sagging power lines caused spot fires along the tracks. Across the channel, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany also hit record temperatures. During the hottest week in late July, the then global chief executive of one of the world’s worst polluters was preparing to take the stage at a…
BHP quietly scrapped plan to build Pilbara plant that would have drastically cut emissions
BHP quietly dumped plans for an iron ore processing facility that would have cut emissions drastically, despite internally rating it as having “excellent social value” and being “well-aligned” to its shareholder-endorsed climate plan and decarbonisation targets. In 2025 the mining giant was well advanced in its plans to build a beneficiation plant near its Jimblebar open-cut mine in the Pilbara, which would greatly improve the purity and quality of its iron ore. BHP knew higher quality iron ore was desired by steelmakers across the globe, including in China, where government…
How the Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket Upended Climate Policy
In 2016, a surprise decision from the Supreme Court “sent both climate policy and the court itself spinning in new directions,” Jodi Kantor and Adam Liptak wrote in an investigation published last week. The one-paragraph ruling halted the Clean Power Plan, President Barack Obama’s signature environmental policy, which was aimed at reducing emissions from power plants. The decision signaled the birth of the court’s modern “shadow docket,” which the court uses to issue short opinions and bypass the time-tested procedures of hearing oral arguments and publishing detailed explanation of the…
As Iran war exposes global dependence on fossil fuels, the biggest emitters are reaping the rewards
Oil stands at about $110 a barrel and some forecasts have predicted it could reach $150. Food prices are on the rise and are expected to leap further owing to the fertiliser supply crunch, leading the World Food Programme USA to warn that global food insecurity could reach record levels, with 45 million more people pushed into acute hunger. Industries from steel to chemicals have alerted markets that they face shortages and soaring costs, while households across the world are feeling the pinch – people have been told to turn…
The Guardian view on EV charging: China took the right lessons from Britain’s past | Editorial
The future of electric cars arrived this week in China. The world’s biggest car seller, BYD, unveiled a new battery giving its latest electric models more than 600 miles of range. Remarkably, the Chinese motor-maker said 250 miles of range could be injected into its new batteries in just five minutes. If true, the last remaining advantages of petrol cars – long range and quick refuelling – are beginning to disappear. But such technology requires megawatt charging points. A single charger can draw as much power as a small town…
Green energy sector drove more than 90% of China’s investment growth last year, analysis finds
China’s clean energy industries drove more than 90% of the country’s investment growth last year, making the sectors bigger than all but seven of the world’s economies, a new analysis has shown. For the second time in three years, the report showed the manufacture, installation and export of batteries, electric cars, solar, wind and related technologies accounted for more than a third of China’s economic growth. Despite the chilling effect of Donald Trump’s tariffs and support for fossil fuels, the new data highlighted the continuing momentum behind the shift towards…
Coal power generation falls in China and India for first time since 1970s
Coal power generation fell in China and India for the first time since the 1970s last year, in a “historic” moment that could bring a decline in global emissions, according to analysis. The simultaneous fall in coal-powered electricity in the world’s biggest coal-consuming countries had not happened since 1973, according to analysts at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, and was driven by a record roll-out of clean energy projects. The research, commissioned by the climate news website Carbon Brief, found that electricity generated by coal plants…