Articles by John McPhaul

Rio Grande de Terraba Estuary. Photo by Bernard DUPONT/ Flickr.

Hydro, Nature & Environment, Policy & Strategy, Renewables February 6, 2017

Costa Rica’s Supreme Court stops hydroelectric project for failing to consult indigenous people

On November 1, 2016, the Constitutional Chamber of Costa Rica’s Supreme Court provided some good news to a Terraba (Teribe) Indigenous territory when it stopped…

Articles Policy & Strategy

Tax Driver

When we talk about decarbonization, we are talking about a blank sheet of paper where anyone can write almost anything and the opposite. The most obvious example is the Cop, the annual United Nations Conference of the Parties; the World…

Articles Hydrogen

The European Hydrogen Bank’s risky bet

Climate-friendly hydrogen is in the process of being upscaled in Europe and worldwide. However, the new technologies must still be more profitable for the industry to avoid holding Europe back in this technology race. Policymakers need new tools to promote…

Articles Climate Change

Road or Us

You probably already know that automobiles are major consumers of fossil fuels, and they produce vast amounts of the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. But are you also aware that the very streets and roads that automobiles travel…

Articles Last Exit

Kelly

It was 1866, and the area was Magdalena Mining District (New Mexico, USA), where J. S. Hutchason discovered some rich lead outcroppings and opened the Juanita and Graphic mines. Nearby, Andy Kelley staked another mine, named it after himself, and…

Articles Climate Change

Eels, Cocaine and Climate Change

This summer many media outlets smelled blood in the water and went on a feeding frenzy, publishing sensationalized reports about sharks getting high on cocaine off the coast of Florida. The story originated with a Discovery Channel “Shark Week” program,…

Articles Climate Change Nature & Environment

Why resolving how land emissions are counted is critical for tracking climate progress

The importance of the land use, land-use change and forestry sector (which is often referred to as LULUCF) is reflected in 118 of 143 countries including land-based emissions reductions and removals in their latest emissions pledges under the Paris Agreement.…

Articles Nature & Environment

Jamaica battles relentless plastic pollution in quest to restore mangroves

“All of this was mangroves,” says marine scientist Mona Webber, pointing toward a line of ghostly gray boulders separating the road from the sea. We’re standing on the side of Norman Manley Highway, a raised road that squiggles along a…

Articles Nature & Environment

Carbon freebies: How UK firms can close factories and make millions on the carbon market

A little-known government scheme designed to encourage businesses to reduce emissions allowed one company to make £32m on the carbon market after closing a factory and causing hundreds of job losses. A Labour MP has now called on the government…

Articles Biomass

A Latvian forest the size of 237 football pitches cut down for an industrial park

The municipality of Augšdaugava plans to develop an industrial park in the parish of Līksna in eastern Latvia. As part of the project, a 256–hectare forested area, owned by Latvia’s State Forests company, will be transferred to the municipality. The project is set to be financed by a mix of public and private investment as well as EU funds through the cohesion policy or the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Brazen logging of a biodiverse forest The municipality…

Articles Renewables

How could Australia actually get to net zero? Here’s how

Every bit of warming matters if we want to avoid the worst impacts for climate change, as the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows. In 2020, we released modelling showing how Australia could get to net…