sustainability

Gasoline-only cars fall below half of global sales

Cars that run only on gasoline made up less than half of new cars sold worldwide in the first half of 2026. It is the first time this has happened since cars became common in the 1920s, Japan's Nikkei business…

Europe faces €500 billion climate adaptation bill through 2035

Europe faces a climate adaptation bill of roughly €500 billion ($571 billion) through 2035 as the continent shifts from treating extreme weather damage as isolated emergencies to planning for a sustained cycle of rebuilding and resilience investment, according to new…

EU proposes appliance-style energy labels for data centers

The European Commission on Monday proposed a mandatory rating scheme requiring data centers across Europe to disclose how efficiently they use energy and water, as the bloc seeks to rapidly expand its computing capacity without overwhelming power grids and water…

Electric cars top 30% of new sales in Europe for first time

Battery-electric vehicle registrations across 16 key European markets jumped 54.2% year-on-year in August to 202,833 units, pushing fully electric cars to a 30.5% share of new vehicle sales and placing the continent well ahead of industry forecasts for 2026, according…

Google signs record carbon-removal deal with Terradot in Brazil

Google Alphabet Inc. announced on Wednesday its largest carbon removal purchase to date: a partnership with climate developer Terradot to deliver 2 million metric tons of combined climate impact from rice farms across more than 200,000 hectares in southern Brazil.

Climeworks doubles CO2 capture, halves costs at Iceland plant

Climeworks, the Swiss carbon removal company, announced on September 10 that technology upgrades at its Mammoth direct air capture facility in Iceland have more than doubled CO₂ capture performance in upgraded collector containers, while cutting operating costs per ton by…

UN report finds $15 return for every $1 on clean air

A new assessment released Monday by the UN Environment Programme and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition found that tackling air pollution and climate change together could generate roughly $15 in economic benefits for every $1 invested, while preventing millions…

Watchdog says Shein’s IPO prioritizes growth over sustainability

Shein's long-awaited stock market debut is drawing pointed criticism from watchdog groups and institutional investors who say the fast-fashion giant's sustainability commitments amount to little more than rhetoric, even as the company begins selling shares ahead of its Hong Kong…

Microsoft slashes carbon removal purchases 80% amid AI spending surge

Microsoft has slashed its carbon removal credit purchases by roughly 80% in the first half of 2026 compared to the same period last year, even as the company signed a new offtake agreement with wastewater-focused startup Crew Carbon, underscoring a…

TotalEnergies appeals French court order to align with climate goals

TotalEnergies announced on Monday that it will appeal a landmark Paris court decision that ordered the French oil major to bring its business in line with climate change goals, setting up a high-stakes legal battle over the reach of corporate…

EU bans destruction of unsold clothes and shoes

A ban on the destruction of unsold clothing, footwear, and accessories took effect across the European Union on Sunday, July 19, in one of the bloc's most concrete steps yet toward a circular economy and a direct challenge to the…

MDBs hit record $163B in climate finance for 2025

Multilateral development banks committed a record $163 billion in climate financing in 2025, with funding to low- and middle-income countries jumping 21% to $103 billion, according to a joint annual report released Monday. The milestone arrives just two weeks after…

Microsoft’s carbon emissions jump 25% amid AI buildout

Microsoft disclosed on Thursday that its greenhouse gas emissions surged 25% in the past year, reaching 34 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2025, as the company's rapid buildout of AI-powering data centers continues to overwhelm its climate…

KAIST study: AI agents use 136.5 times more power than chatbots

A first-of-its-kind study from South Korea's Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has quantified the energy cost of AI agents, finding that these autonomous systems consume up to 136.5 times more electricity per query than conventional generative AI chatbots…

Google’s emissions, power use hit record highs amid AI buildout

Google's electricity consumption, water use, and greenhouse gas emissions all climbed to record levels in 2025 as the company raced to expand its artificial intelligence infrastructure, according to the tech giant's 11th annual environmental report released Sunday.

Climate finance tops $2 trillion but growth slows sharply, CPI report warns

Global climate finance surpassed $2 trillion for the first time in 2024, a milestone that nonetheless masks a troubling slowdown in the pace of investment needed to avert the worst effects of climate change, according to a report released during…

UN chief urges AI firms to disclose environmental costs

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday urged major artificial intelligence companies to publicly disclose the full environmental footprint of their data centers and commit to powering operations exclusively with renewable energy by 2030, launching a new transparency initiative during…

Nvidia says hot-water cooling approach can end AI’s data center water crisis

Nvidia used London Climate Action Week on Monday to declare that the data center industry's mounting water crisis has a solution: cooling AI chips with liquid warm enough to fill a hot tub.

WEF finds global energy transition readiness fell for first time in a decade

The global energy transition has stalled despite record investment, with transition readiness declining for the first time in more than a decade, according to the World Economic Forum's Energy Transition Index 2026 released on Wednesday.

Bezos says colonizing the Moon is key to saving Earth

Jeff Bezos took the stage at VivaTech in Paris on Wednesday to argue that colonizing the Moon is not a detour from saving Earth but the only way to accomplish it, framing Blue Origin's lunar ambitions as both environmentally necessary…

Tech giants pledge $915M more for carbon removal

Frontier, the advance market commitment backed by some of the world's largest technology companies, announced on Wednesday that it will commit an additional $915 million to carbon removal technologies, bringing total funding pledges to $1.8 billion. The coalition also welcomed…

Google, UC San Diego to build data center from 2,000 retired Pixel phones

Google Alphabet Inc. and researchers at the University of California San Diego have unveiled a joint project to repurpose thousands of retired Pixel smartphones into a functioning cloud computing platform, aiming to cut the carbon footprint of new hardware manufacturing.

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Adelaide researchers map path to turning plastic into hydrogen fuel

Researchers at Adelaide University have laid out a roadmap for converting plastic waste into hydrogen and other clean fuels using sunlight, advancing a technology they say could address both pollution and energy challenges simultaneously.

Pompeii site reveals how Romans made self-healing concrete

Researchers at Pompeii have uncovered a construction site frozen in time by Mount Vesuvius's eruption in 79 CE, confirming how ancient Romans created concrete that has endured for nearly two millennia. The discovery, published Tuesday in Nature Communications, settles a…

Canadian artist unveils sculpture at UN plastic treaty talks

Canadian artist Benjamin Von Wong unveiled a powerful 6-meter sculpture titled "Thinker's Burden" outside the United Nations office in Geneva as negotiators entered their second week of critical plastic pollution treaty talks. The artwork, a striking reimagining of Auguste Rodin's…

BIG to transform Copenhagen plazas with meteorite strike design

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has won a competition to transform three major public plazas in Copenhagen's Ørestad district with "The Impact," an innovative design that reimagines 50,000 square meters of urban space through a dramatic "crack" resembling a meteorite strike,…