3 Sustainability News Stories You May Have Missed This Week
From carbon neutrality goals to pollution contributors, there have been exciting recent developments across the world to give us more insight into the climate change issue.
For our readers, we have selected and summarized the top three sustainability related new-stories that have emerged this week.
Japan is Going Carbon Neutral by 2050
Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga recently announced plans for the country to become carbon neutral by 2050 through the offset and mitigation of all emissions. This announcement reinforces the country’s initial pledge to become carbon neutral within the first half of the century with a more holistic vision and plan.
Although Japan’s infrastructure is heavily dependent on the use of fossil fuels, they are confident that they can harness the power of innovation and regulatory reform to help the country achieve an overhaul of their resource systems to achieve this goal.
Why this matters: Countries are picking up the pace for the climate agenda — Japan’s announcement comes right after China’s pledge in September to become carbon neutral by 2060. With Japan being the fifth largest polluter in the world, and China the first, the two largest Asian economies are committing to fight the climate change crisis.
Read more here.
The U.S. is a Top Contributor for Plastic Pollution in Coastal Environments
A new study released by the journal Science Advances reveals that the United States is one of the top contributors to plastic pollution in the ocean, ranking third in the world.
In 2010, the U.S. was ranked 20th in plastic waste pollution, however, that study did not take into account plastic exports.
The most recent research dives into U.S disposal practices and waste management methods, while also taking into account plastic exports as well as illegal dumping and littering in the country.
The findings show that although the U.S. only accounted for 4% of the total global population in 2016, it produced 16% of the total plastic waste, becoming the worst polluter.
Why this matters: Throwing your recyclables into the blue bin is simply not enough. The U.S. has successfully managed to export waste to developing countries who are less equipped to handle the plastic recycling process. This lack of responsible waste management coupled with the low-value quality of our plastics is causing more damage to the environment than previously declared before. It’s critical now for the U.S. to examine our plastic production in order to counteract our unruly global plastic footprint.
Read more here.
Used Car Exports Are A Pollution Problem
The United Nations Environment Program recently released a report on the global trade of used cars wherein they examined the environmental effects from such operations.
The report focused on four key concerns: carbon emissions and pollutants, safety, energy consumption, and operating costs of used vehicles.
Their findings suggest that the used car industry is doing more harm than good, considering most of the exports are going to underdeveloped countries who lack sound environmental regulations to deal with pollution consequences.
Why this matters: Sure, clean energy cars are currently being mandated and pushed for future use. But what will happen to used cars and what are their effects on the environment? The world is pushing in the right direction, however, it is still our responsibility to mitigate the effects of past actions, as they will be heavily detrimental to our environment.
Read more here.
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