Pollution

• [New] The IMO has put ambitious goals in place to reduce total greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2050 compared with 2008 levels and become less dependent on traditional energy sources.
• State law requires Colorado utilities to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030, and 26% below 2005 levels in the next five years.
• Earth's surface has already warmed 1.2 C on average, making extreme weather more deadly, and new research shows that a return to 2019 levels of carbon pollution would likely push the world past the 1.5 C milestone around 2030.
• Vancouver has a Greenest City Action Plan and has adopted a Climate Emergency Action Plan to reduce carbon pollution by 50% by 2030.
• India aims to have 275 GW (by 2027) from renewable / clean energy, and has pledged a 33-35% reduction in the emissions intensity of its economy by 2030, compared to 2005 levels.
• Earth's surface has already warmed 1.2 degrees Celsius on average, and new study shows that a return to 2019 levels of carbon pollution would likely push the planet past the 1.5 degrees Celsius milestone around 2030.
• Coal-fired power plant Nikola Tesla B, one of the ten largest SO2 emitters among power plants in Europe, will install a flue gas desulphurization facility to reduce the emissions of the dangerous air pollutant from 80,000 tons per year to 4,500 tons.
• Power sector efficiency can be increased by shutting down small and inefficient plants and thereby increasing the fraction of China's large power units (with capacity larger than 600 MW) to 80% in 2030.
• Boris Johnson will promise to cut Britain's greenhouse gas pollution at a faster rate than any other big economy as part of an attempt to hit net zero emissions by 2050.
• California has set new, aggressive targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 in order to combat climate change.
• A group representing investors that manage assets worth more than $47 trillion has demanded the world's largest polluters to execute carbon-neutral business strategies earlier than or by 2050.
• While Nepal's voluntary commitment sets a target to reduce coal consumption and air pollution from brick and cement industries by 2030, it does not mention how, and by how much.
• 2030 ban on polluting cars could create 32,000 new jobs and provide £4.2bn boost to economy, report finds.
• Across 17 major economies, out of the $11.8 trillion global fiscal stimulus packages, around 30% will flow into sectors that have intensive impacts on the environment - whether on climate change, biodiversity or local pollution.
• With Europe and the United Kingdom looking to cut pollution by well over half by 2030, and the United States having already agreed to cuts of 26-28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2025, five years earlier than Australia, we are becoming increasingly isolated.
• While air pollution is a major environmental and health problem - with 750,000 annual deaths in China attributable to respiratory diseases associated with poor air quality - water and soil pollution arguably pose a greater threat.
• Plastic production and pollution is expected to increase in coming years, despite increased media, government and scientific attention on how plastic pollution can harm marine ecosystems, wildlife and human health.
• Insulating the UK's draughty homes will save the NHS at least £2bn a year in preventable illness, and switching to electric vehicles will prevent some of the 40,000 deaths each year from air pollution.
• With changing attitudes to air pollution and climate change, allied to various government deadlines (a ban on new gas car sales from 2030 in the UK is expected imminently), next year looks set to be big for the European electric car market.
• Joe Biden's climate plan for the US, which as the world's second largest polluter accounts for 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, includes a goal to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
• Policy-makers are facing pressure to reverse or suspend legislation that would address plastic waste and pollution, such as Canada's proposal to ban harmful single-use plastics by 2021.

Last updated: 10 January 2021