Ian Morse

To jumpstart a paltry market for recycled plastic, governments across the globe are pushing companies to include recycled materials in their products. Last year, the United Kingdom introduced a tax on manufacturers that produce or import plastic packaging containing less than 30 percent recycled plastic. In 2024, New Jersey will begin enforcing similar rules, albeit with lower targets. California now requires that beverage containers be made of 15 percent recycled materials, and Washington wil...

Four reports by the International Co-Sponsored Meeting on Culture, Heritage and Climate Change highlight that human cultural heritage has a wealth of knowledge to contribute to grapple with climate change.
The reports also say that this diverse human heritage is under threat from climate change, poverty, rapid urbanization, policy, and failure to recognize land rights or grant access to resources.
The authors share a list of cultural practices and knowledge systems that can mitigate and adapt...

A tool that wields the techniques of carbon offsets is surging among companies claiming that it reduces their carbon footprints. The tool, known by some as “insetting,” had simmered for more than a decade on the fringes of climate action among brands that rely on agriculture, but is now expanding to other sectors.
Insetting is defined as company projects to reduce or remove emissions within their own internal supply chains. Proponents say it is valuable for agriculture-based firms struggling ...

Indonesia’s defence minister promotes cassava on the world stage, but in Borneo his pet project has failed
At this year’s G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia’s Minister of Defence Prabowo Subianto proposed a solution to the global food crisis. “Cassava will prove to be the saviour crop of the world,” he told a fringe meeting in November.
Prabowo has been talking up cassava since at least 2019, during his failed bid for Indonesia’s presidency. Since entering government, he has been pushing the crop ...

As fossil fuel use aggravates climate breakdown, companies and governments are looking to lithium-ion batteries to replace carbon-intensive technologies. Lithium prices have hit all-time highs, pushing the market to seek more sources to meet forecasted demand.
To fill the gap, companies have turned to Bolivia, whose 2019 election was marred by turmoil exacerbated by allegations of foreign powers seeking its lithium that some called an attempted coup.
Six foreign firms expect a decision from t...

Indonesia’s plasma scheme was designed to cut villagers in on the profits from the palm oil boom. But a decade after giving up their land, some are earning less than a dollar a day and still paying off vast debts.

As plantations rapidly expanded, communities were tied into opaque, decades-long contracts that gave companies expansive control over their land and finances.

Some of these contracts may be illegal, according to a leading government watchdog, which has investigated at least 20 cases...

At the northwestern tip of New Guinea, mangroves line rivers that wind their way through densely forested islands and capes. Roots sink into the water, providing a home for crabs, shrimp and shellfish, which filter water for snapper and shark. Higher up the riverbanks, deer, boar, birds of paradise and tree kangaroos live among sago palms and old-growth trees.
“No artist can bring to life so many trees. No one can create a river or plant mangroves as beautiful as this, with all the creatures ...

The world has been shifting away from wasteful incandescent and harmful fluorescent lights and increasingly adopting light-emitting diode (LED) technology, which promises to reduce carbon emissions.
Yet despite widespread adoption of the technology, virtually no LEDs are currently recycled or reused for their parts.
To counter this problem, researchers are exploring ways in which LEDs can be designed for reuse and repair, as well as improving the efficiency of recycling.
The past decade has s...

The carbon offset market has existed for 25 years, and experts say there are still fundamental problems in its structure. Some question the underlying concepts, and refuse to consider it a tool for climate action.
Part of the issue is that transparency is low. Buyers and sellers of carbon offsets often never meet and are separated by numerous intermediaries with their own profit incentives: registries, verifiers, and brokers. It’s not clear who buys offsets or which emissions are offset.
Most...

Cellulose fabrics are fibers extracted from plants and transformed into clothing. Fuelled in a large part by promises of higher environmental integrity, cellulose fibers are the fastest growing feedstock of the textile market.

Companies dominating the market have brought with them systemic problems that have seen primary forests felled, peatlands drained and waste management poorly managed.

Despite ongoing sustainability issues, the future of the market is promising, experts say, as new innov...

Embracing electric cars and the batteries that power them inflates the need for mining. Is this an environmental paradox? Or are there more important questions to ask?

–

In December, Serbian citizens took to the streets against a planned mine in the farming hills of the country’s west — their biggest p...

Reducing and altering consumption can quickly and efficiently slash harmful emissions. Yet a core goal in many climate policies is not reduction but an inflation of thirst for newly mined materials. Financial institutions, consultancies, and the International Energy Agency (which was formed to support the oil industry) have framed climate action as a trade-off between mining for critical minerals and reducing emissions. In the process, they have given dreamlike forecasts to mining companies and investors who scour the world for minerals.

Some scientists suggest minerals should be reorganised by the methods that make them, which would increase the known number of minerals on Earth by 75 per cent
There are 4000 more minerals in the world than previously thought, according to a new catalogue that identifies them not only by their internal make-up, but by the ways they are formed.
“Minerals are essentially time capsules that lock in their formational conditions and the subsequent weathering and alteration that they underwent,” sa...

Communities could be losing hundreds of millions of dollars each year as plantation firms fail to comply with the law.
An investigation by The Gecko Project, BBC News and Mongabay estimates that Indonesian villagers are losing hundreds of millions of dollars each year because palm oil producers are failing to comply with regulations requiring them to share their plantations with communities.
The ‘plasma’ scheme was intended to lift communities out of poverty. But it has become a major source ...