Blog | Solving the Air Pollution Crisis in Asia: Promising Developments

Solving the Air Pollution Crisis in Asia: Promising Developments

Getting to net-zero

The scale of the obstacles facing companies is revealed in a major research programme conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by HSBC. While costs, skills gaps and supply-chain complexity are among the pain points for companies, perhaps the biggest challenge for many will be making the business-model shifts needed to achieve net-zero.

Seizing the moment: why now is the right time to ramp up action on climate change

The covid-19 crisis has aligned public interest concerns across Europe with the climate agenda like never before argues Nick Molho, executive director of the Aldersgate Group.

Podcast | Asian voices at COP27

Less than a month after COP27 took place in Egypt in November, Asian countries remain at a critical juncture in their climate journeys. Despite tabling some historic agreements this year, a lot is left to be negotiated in the coming year.

Podcast | Who will pay for climate loss and damage?

Climate talks in COP27 recently concluded with a landmark agreement to create a loss and damage fund that would provide financial assistance to poor nations stricken by climate change.

Centring water at COP27 as a key enabler of change

In early November, leaders and change-makers will convene for COP27 to tackle the world’s most pressing global challenges. Leaders must ensure that water is recognised as a foundational pillar of climate action—especially in discussions around sustainability, resilience and adaptation.

UNCTAD: 2021’s other critical conference

The UNCTAD conference took place at a crucial moment for trade and development.

Climate change and its impact on lung health: a focus on Europe

Climate change is a health issue with particular effects on respiratory health. This research summarises the direct and indirect evidence that links climate change to lung health and maps out policy priorities to prevent and curb the effects of climate change on lung health.

Leading the charge? Both China and the US have a long way to go to become green exemplars to the world

The urgency of climate change has forced the world’s diplomats into a delicate dance, one in which the co-operation required to address this existential threat must be balanced against myriad points of disagreement in other fields. Nowhere is this more apparent than for the US and China, the world’s two biggest economies and the source of nearly half of all global emissions in 2019. As both countries make a serious effort to tackle their own emissions, questions are emerging about the extent to which either of the two superpowers will be able to assume a global leadership role in accelerating the transition to net-zero emissions. Will the US be able to show the global community that it can implement a coherent domestic climate policy that will endure? And, given its position at the centre of global green-energy supply chains, is China gaining clout in international climate diplomacy?

Green Intelligence - AI could boost efforts to fight climate change

If its advocates are to be believed, artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) will some day provide an answer to nearly every imaginable question, from how proteins fold to how fast the universe is expanding. As humanity stares down the challenge of climate change, researchers and entrepreneurs are hoping to leverage AI to address one of the most pressing concerns of the modern era. Although it will not be a panacea, AI is rising in importance as a crucial tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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