Environment

WHAT'S NEXT:? Our natural environment is under ever-increasing threat. Landscape and ocean adaptation plus stabilizing biodiversity strategies will play an important role in maintaining global food productivity as climate changes. Evidence is mounting that any economic strategy that ignores carbon pollution will impose tremendous costs on the global economy and will result in fewer jobs and less economic growth over the long term. The global market for commercial "Earth observation" data is expected to hit $3.5 billion by 2024. Battles over environmental regulation could become particularly pointed in the coming years.

• [New] Moving to a zero-emission future can deliver economic benefits of $26 trillion through to 2030, create 65 million new low-carbon jobs and avoid 700,000 premature deaths from air pollution.
• [New] South Korea's new government, elected in part on its environmental policies, has announced its own $US110 billion New Green Deal, designed to boost employment and meet a target of producing net zero emissions by 2050.
• One million natural species are threatened with extinction, many in a few decades, as three-quarters of the land-based environment on earth and about 66% of the marine environment are impacted by human activity.
• Citing the COVID-19 pandemic, the B.C. government has given oil and gas companies a reprieve from making their annual contributions - worth more than $11 million this year - to a fund for cleaning up orphan wells that could pose a threat to the environment.
• New Delhi: As global oil and gas companies go back to the survival mode in a $35 per barrel oil price environment, cuts to all discretionary spend are expected across the sector and renewable energy sources are competing with oil and gas projects on returns.
• NASA's Artemis program - which has a total budget of $35 billion for 2020 to 2024 - aims to reveal new knowledge about the Moon, Earth, and our origins in the Solar System, as well as provide experience vital for any subsequent missions to Mars.
• Prioritizing investments that adhere to the Healthy China 2030 goal will not only benefit the health and safety of the Chinese public, but also yield significant economic and environmental benefits.
• Climate change is the sixth mass extinction, which threatens to eliminate 20 to 50% of all species on Earth within this century.
• In a few decades, humankind will use the low Earth orbit as a routine place for research, development and production.
• In the past decade or so, artificial intelligence has gone from the pages of science fiction novels to a very real power that has disrupted - or threatens to disrupt - nearly every process on earth.
• Benefits from reduced health and ecosystem impacts clearly overcompensate the direct economic costs of a coal exit - they amount to a net saving effect of about 1.5% of global economic output in 2050 - that is, 370 $ for every human on Earth in 2050.
• Greenhouse gas emissions and particulate pollution are being substantially reduced with global shutdown, and the greenhouse gas reductions are approaching the level (7.6% annually until 2030) needed to avoid dramatic climate disasters.
• By investing $450 billion in rooftop solar, the federal government could slash energy bills for Americans, cut air pollution, and create over 3.7 million jobs.
• Up to 60 million new jobs in the green economy could potentially be created by 2030 - if properly managed, green growth can provide an opportunity to address the youth employment challenge while simultaneously preserving the environment and increasing climate resilience.
• As big data and Social media flourishes in this environment, revolutionizing the way leaders and citizens interact with space, cities will be the biggest challenge and opportunity for the next 100 years.
• The World Bank and the IMF have taken stronger positions on climate action, while the European Investment Bank has started referring to itself as Europe's climate bank and has undertaken to devote 50% of its financing to climate action and environmental sustainability by 2025.
• Climate change continues to degrade air quality and increase the risk of air pollution harming health.
• It as a good sign that greenhouse gas emissions in Korea are expected to decrease this year: The Environment Ministry sees this year as the first year of decoupling in which greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced and the economy will be advanced.
• Many environmentalists and scientists who study air pollution are concerned that the considerable progress over the past 50 years might be stalled - or even reversed-by actions the EPA has taken during the Trump administration to weaken air pollution rules and enforcement.
• A prevailing concern is that as American enterprises enter recession-mode, they will cut back their efforts to reduce air pollution.
• Washington should see climate change not only as an environmental risk but also as a strategic opportunity and capitalize on the early U.S. lead in green technology.
• Further investment is expected under the EU's new Green Deal and a European Commission committed to more support for Africa's climate action, environment and biodiversity.

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Last updated: 23 May 2020