Global/World Issues – The News Desk

Minnesota Nice Wants Minnesota Ice: Locals Crave Bone-Chilling Normal

1Jan

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World

Minnesota Nice Wants Minnesota Ice: Locals Crave Bone-Chilling Normal

‘Maybe we’ll get lucky and have a polar vortex.’ Milder weather is shaking up routines, though golfing in winter isn’t too bad.

Congo’s President Has Been Re-Elected. His Climate Policy Will Have Global Significance.

31Dec

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World

Congo’s President Has Been Re-Elected. His Climate Policy Will Have Global Significance.

Dec. 31, 2023 11:51 am ETCongolese President Felix Tshisekedi on Sunday was declared the winner of this month’s national election, handing him a pivotal role in global efforts to combat climate change thanks to his country’s vast forests and rich mineral reserves. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s electoral commission said the 60-year-old Tshisekedi won a second five-year term with 73% of the vote in the Dec. 20 presidential election, well outpacing his challengers. But the election was fraught with delays: Many polling stations didn’t get voting materials on time, which led the commission to extend the vote by an extra day. The vote also came amid a hunger crisis and the worst fighting in years in Congo’s war-torn east.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 8...

28Dec

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Business

Treasury Drops a Hydrogen Bomb

President Biden’s climate policy contradictions keep piling up. Witness the family feud that blew up late last week between the renewables lobby and green groups over the Biden Administration’s new proposed rules for the Inflation Reduction Act clean hydrogen tax credit. The IRA created a new tax credit for producing clean hydrogen from low-emissions sources. The climate lobby envisions clean hydrogen someday replacing fossil fuels in airplanes, long-distance trucking, shipping, and steel and fertilizer manufacturing. The dispute is over how the government should define “clean.” Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

22Dec

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Health

Biden’s New Forest Plan Will Backfire

The Biden Administration gave its friends in the climate lobby an early Christmas gift on Tuesday by restricting logging on tens of millions of acres of national forests. The U.S. Forest Service is proposing, for the first time, to amend simultaneously all of its forest management plans to effectively ban logging on nearly 25 million acres of “old growth” forests. This is a land grab if there ever was one. The agency claims that conserving older trees will fight climate change since they suck up and store CO2. Not if they go up in smoke. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

A Long-Shot Climate Bet Suddenly Turns Hot

16Dec

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World

A Long-Shot Climate Bet Suddenly Turns Hot

Updated Dec. 16, 2023 5:53 pm ETIt seemed like a far-fetched idea not that long ago—sucking carbon from the sky to prevent it from warming the planet. Now companies are spending billions of dollars to make it happen.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

14Dec

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Business

The Phony Climate Promises of COP28

The COP28 climate confab in Dubai didn’t end with white smoke on Wednesday, but Biden climate envoy John Kerry is nonetheless singing hallelujah after nearly 200 countries agreed to “transition” from fossil fuels. The point of the deal is to preserve the West’s illusion that its climate policies are accomplishing something.China and oil-producing countries refused to sign onto an agreement committing to “phase out” fossil fuels. But Mr. Kerry and European leaders insisted that governments at the United Nations summit demonstrate a common purpose to reduce CO2 emissions. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

COP28 Leaders Call for ‘Transitioning Away’ From Fossil Fuels in Final Push at Climate Talks

13Dec

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World

COP28 Leaders Call for ‘Transitioning Away’ From Fossil Fuels in Final Push at Climate Talks

DUBAI—Officials from the United Arab Emirates leading talks at the United Nations climate conference proposed a compromise agreement on Wednesday that calls for the world to transition away from fossil fuels, seeking to bridge differences between big energy-producing nations and countries that want to completely phase out coal, oil and natural gas.The proposed deal, circulated after all-night talks, calls for “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner.” It says the shift to clean energy for the global economy should accelerate this decade with the aim of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Scientists say that is crucial to fulfilling the Paris Accord, the landmark climate agreement that calls for governments to attempt to limit ...

11Dec

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Money

What India Needs to Ditch Coal

India’s climate ambitions are a paradox. The South Asian giant has set aggressive targets for clean energy deployment, and is seen as one of the most attractive developing markets for renewable investment. Yet it refuses to turn its back on coal.India, along with China, has opted out of the Global Renewables and Energy Efficiency pledge at the COP28 climate conference in Dubai—which included a commitment to curtail investment in new coal power. Coal currently meets nearly three-quarters of India’s growing energy needs. Moreover higher electricity capacity will, ironically, be key to survival in its increasingly hot weather as air conditioning needs rise.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

11Dec

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World

What India Needs to Ditch Coal

India’s climate ambitions are a paradox. The South Asian giant has set aggressive targets for clean energy deployment, and is seen as one of the most attractive developing markets for renewable investment. Yet it refuses to turn its back on coal.India, along with China, has opted out of the Global Renewables and Energy Efficiency pledge at the COP28 climate conference in Dubai—which included a commitment to curtail investment in new coal power. Coal currently meets nearly three-quarters of India’s growing energy needs. Moreover higher electricity capacity will, ironically, be key to survival in its increasingly hot weather as air conditioning needs rise.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

The Chinese and American Climate Negotiators Pushing for a Deal

10Dec

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World

The Chinese and American Climate Negotiators Pushing for a Deal

DUBAI—A crucial round of U.S.-China climate talks was over, but John Kerry wasn’t done. As the Chinese motorcade left for the DoubleTree hotel near the airport, the chief U.S. climate negotiator jumped into a car with his Chinese counterpart.The two men go way back and stayed in touch even when relations between the two countries were frozen. Now they are driving final negotiations at the United Nations climate conference in Dubai.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8