In The News

Attitudes to Water in South Asia

Gareth Price July 21, 2014
Per-capita water use is low and declining in Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and even Nepal and Bangladesh – and water disputes exacerbate strained relations, suggests a Chatham House report, with Gareth Price as the lead author. About 90 percent of the water is used for agriculture. Competition rather than cooperation is the norm. Challenges include wide seasonal variations, a lack of data and...

A Greener Energy Matrix for the Caribbean and Central America

Harold Trinkunas July 4, 2014
The high cost of electricity and imported manufactured goods from the US rings the alarm for a future energy crisis in the Caribbean Islands and Central America. Electricity costs in some islands are about three times higher than those in the US. An alternative proposal based on green energy and other natural resources, such as natural gas, could help reduce carbon emissions, improve living...

UN: Surging Environmental Crime Funds Conflicts, Hurts Growth

June 27, 2014
Rising wealth for middle classes around the world drives demand for status symbols, in turn spurring environmental crime. Illegal logging, elephant and rhino hunting for ivory and horns, among other practices have created instability in many countries. According to the United Nations and Interpol, illegal practices help fund armed conflicts, militias and insurgents and curtail international aid...

Rise to the Rising Sea Levels

Nayan Chanda June 26, 2014
Evidence of a warming planet is on full display – advanced degrees in science is no longer needed. Farmers cope with droughts, insurers compensate victims of violent storms, pilots on transatlantic flights point out a Greenland with massive swaths no longer white with snow and ice in springtime. “Warm weather is leading ice sheets to break up and turning glaciers into flowing streams,” writes...

The Potential Downside of Natural Gas

Matthew L. Wald June 20, 2014
The natural gas industry suggests that reliance on its fossil fuel rather than coal will reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but the effects are difficult to quantify. A US plan to control carbon emissions at power plants centers on that promise. Natural gas produces fewer emissions than coal, but may not be superior to nuclear energy. Two consequences of replacing nuclear power with natural gas:...

Big 10 Food Companies Emit as Much as the “World’s 25th Most Polluting Country”

Winnie Byanyima June 18, 2014
Weather variations have always influenced food prices, and climate change adds to uncertainty of harvests with extreme storms, floods, droughts and shifting weather patterns. The world’s big 10 food-and-beverage companies, including Associated British Foods, Coca-Cola and General Mills, are both vulnerable to climate change and responsible for the release of carbon emissions, suggests Oxfam’s “...

Obama's Climate Plan Is Already Working — in China

Ryan Cooper June 11, 2014
The United States, considered a global leader on many issues, has long shied away from a climate change policy and reduction of carbon emissions. Now US President Barack Obama’s announced plans for new regulations on power plant emissions, reducing levels by 30 percent by 2030, and the new plan could inspire other countries to “take action of their own accord,” argues Ryan Cooper of The Week....