Those advocating climate change mitigation policy have hitherto wagered everything on the success of renewable energy technologies. The steadily accumulating data on energy and emissions over the period of intense policy commitment suggests that this gamble has not been successful. Pragmatic environmentalists will be asking whether sentimental attachment to wind and solar is standing in […]

Attempts to incorporate a key scientific study into global climate talks in Poland have failed. The IPCC report on the impacts of a temperature rise of 1.5C, had a significant impact when it was launched last October. Scientists and many delegates in Poland were shocked as the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait objected to […]

Three years ago, Canada joined 194 other countries in Paris to announce a landmark agreement on climate change, now informally known by the French capital’s name. This week began in Paris, however, with startlingly violent discord over fuel taxes stemming from that climate deal. The protesters, clad in the yellow safety vests France requires motorists to carry, are […]

Developed countries have asked that the Paris rulebook be adopted as dozens of separate documents, while developing countries want it to be a single comprehensive document. The debate on what format the final rulebook is adopted by the gathered 196 countries will go down to the wire. Should the Paris Agreement rulebook be one omnibus document or should […]

The “yellow vests” in France are worrying greens around the world. The worst riots in Paris in decades were sparked by higher fuel taxes, and French President Emmanuel Macron responded by scrapping them Wednesday. But taxes on fossil fuels are just what international climate negotiators, meeting in Poland this week, say are desperately needed to […]