International

Nearly 600 experts have been nominated to contribute to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s next report, which will look into the implications of a rise in global average temperature of 1.5 degrees Celsius. The IPCC will now dig into the nominations, announcing the selected experts by June 30. Roughly 70 experts are expected to […]

Two scrapped carbon capture and storage projects in the United Kingdom have received a total of £29.4 since the cancellation of the program intended to fund them last November. The U.K. announced on Nov. 25, 2016, the official cancellation of its CCS Commercialization competition, effectively forcing the shutdown of the two projects remaining the running, […]

Congress is reviewing a proposed agreement for cooperation between the United States and Norway on peaceful uses of nuclear energy that President Barack Obama approved last week in a presidential memorandum. The U.S. has signed nuclear cooperation deals – or 123 agreements – with a number of countries for technical exchanges, research, and other activities, […]

More than 120 delegations met this week at a ministerial meeting to call for global ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), a treaty that several key countries – notably the United States – have yet to ratify, even while calling for others to do so. Despite the “domestic political obstacles” hindering U.S. ratification of […]

Officials from the United States and Armenia on Monday conducted a review of the nations’ bilateral Joint Action Plan on Combatting Smuggling of Nuclear and Radioactive Materials, the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan said in a statement. The Joint Action Plan was signed in 2008 through the U.S. State Department’s Nuclear Smuggling Outreach Initiative, which has […]

AREVA is selling its nuclear reactor manufacturing unit as it shifts its focus to nuclear fuel cycle services in forming a new spinoff called New Co, the French company announced Wednesday. The mass restructuring is expected to raise at least 5 billion euros for the company through government investment and asset sales, according to spokeswoman […]

Canadian oil company Cenovus will take up to 50 percent less CO2 from the SaskPower Boundary Dam 3 carbon capture and storage project than previously anticipated under the two companies’ original contract, according to reports this week. The deal had called for Cenovus to buy all the carbon dioxide collected by the facility in Saskatchewan, […]

Data out this week from NASA shows that May set another worldwide temperature record, as has been the case for each month of 2016 and the end of 2015. The temperature for the month was 0.93 degrees Celsius, or 1.67 degrees Fahrenheit, above May’s average from 1951 to 1980, according to Climate Central. That, though, […]

The adoption of the Paris climate change agreement by member states to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change signaled a new era for development of carbon capture and storage, according to Julio Friedmann, former principal deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy. “It is easy to dismiss [the […]

The Calgary, Alberta-based Pembina Institute singled out British Columbia for a dose of climate shame in a Tuesday media blitz that projects the westernmost Canadian province’s carbon emissions will rise nearly 40 percent by 2030. That, according to a four-page backgrounder and companion infographic released Tuesday, puts British Columbia alone among Canada’s four most populous provinces. […]

The world’s 25 largest banks are promoting climate change by feeding hundreds of billions of dollars into “extreme fossil fuels,” contradicting global consensus on energy policy, according to a report released in San Francisco on Tuesday. In its seventh annual installment, “Shorting the Climate: Fossil Fuel Finance Report Card 2016” was delivered by Rainforest Action Network (RAN), […]

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will persist above 400 parts per million, researchers have predicted. Using emissions data, sea surface temperature (SST) data, and a climate model, researchers at the U.K. Met Office have projected atmospheric CO2 concentrations through the end of 2016, finding that this will be the first year on […]

A senior U.S. State Department official on Monday called upon a remaining handful of countries to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) despite the United States’ failure to do so. Despite the “domestic political obstacles” hindering U.S. ratification of the treaty, the CTBT is in the nation’s national security interest and “it is incumbent upon […]

Officials from the United States and Armenia on Monday conducted a review of the nations’ bilateral Joint Action Plan on Combatting Smuggling of Nuclear and Radioactive Materials, the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan said in a statement. The Joint Action Plan was signed in 2008 through the U.S. State Department’s Nuclear Smuggling Outreach Initiative, which has […]

Scientists working on the CarbFix project in Iceland have discovered a process to turn carbon dioxide into stone, potentially solving the problem of possible leakage from CO2 storage sites. According to a study published Friday in the magazine Science, the researchers injected CO2 into basaltic rock, which is both highly reactive and very common worldwide. […]

President Barack Obama has approved a proposed agreement for cooperation between the United States and Norway for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, according to a presidential memorandum issued Friday. The U.S. has signed nuclear cooperation agreements – or 123 agreements – with a number of countries for technical exchanges, research, and other activities, provided […]

Australia’s Greens political party wants to cancel resources minister Josh Frydenberg’s plan that has identified farmland in South Australia as the location for the country’s first permanent storage site for low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste, and instead maintain storage operations just outside of Sydney, allowing for an independent investigation into storage options. The Greens’ nuclear […]

A top adviser to President Barack Obama on Monday cited a lack of Russian engagement as a major obstacle in fulfilling the administration’s nonproliferation and arms control initiatives. Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, said at the Arms Control Association’s annual meeting that the administration fell short of the goals outlined […]

Nuclear material from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency’s Fast Critical Assembly reactor has arrived to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Savannah River Site (SRS) and Y-12 National Security Complex, the NNSA announced Monday. The shipment from Japan included highly enriched uranium that was sent to Y-12 in Tennessee to be eventually converted into low-enriched […]

A draft resolution opposing the Department of Energy’s (DOE) proposal to receive U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Germany for processing and disposition in Environmental Management facilities at the Savannah River Site (SRS) drew several public comments of support Tuesday during a SRS Citizens Advisory Board committee meeting. The proposal from the board’s Nuclear Materials […]

House Republicans on Thursday released a policy paper recommending an approach to U.S. foreign policy that prioritizes the nation’s nuclear deterrent, greater efforts to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and a robust U.S.-NATO alliance. The policy agenda offers Congress and the president 67 recommendations developed by the Task Force on National […]

Last year signaled a policy “U-turn” in which the United Kingdom turned away from low-carbon technology advancement, putting the nation’s economy at risk in a low-carbon future, according to a report issued Thursday by environmental groups CAFOD, Christian Aid, Green Alliance, Greenpeace, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and the World Wildlife Fund. […]

The Legislative Assembly of the Canadian province of Alberta on Tuesday passed a bill instituting a $20 (CAN) per metric ton tax on carbon dioxide emission. The tax, which passed in a 42-29 vote and will come into effect Jan. 1, 2017, will jump to $30 per metric ton in 2018. The province’s party in […]

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) has found a new forum to contest the United States’ involvement in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act. The senator, who takes issue with monetary contributions the U.S. has pledged under the UNFCCC, grabbed on to the organization’s inclusion of the “State […]

Alex Zapantis has been appointed general manager for the Asia-Pacific division of the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, the organization announced Monday. Zapantis for a decade worked with Rio Tinto Energy and Rio Tinto Coal Australia, focusing on energy and climate policy, energy efficiency, greenhouse gas management, and product stewardship as applied to coal […]

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors on Tuesday adopted new safety standards the U.N. organization says emphasize senior management roles at nuclear facilities in protecting human life, health, and the environment from radiation risks. “The safety standards are a cornerstone for nuclear and radiation safety, and they have to be updated to reflect developments,” IAEA […]

The first step toward implementing the international Paris climate change agreement is pretty straightforward, according to Nicholas Stern, chair of the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment: stop doing stupid things. Direct as that sounds, actually doing this is probably bit more complicated, as the stupid things are […]

Studying three scenarios for the phaseout of coal-fired energy generation, United Kingdom conservationist think tank Bright Blue concluded Tuesday that “[p]hasing out coal will not undermine the security of the UK’s energy supply.” In a report released Tuesday, the group studied a “base case” under which low- and no-carbon energy generation grows according to market […]

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority is moving forward with its Hassyan clean coal power project, having signed a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) and shareholders agreement with the ACWA Power and Harbin Electric consortium. “Signing this agreement exemplifies the success of Public Private Partnerships and the importance of involving the private sector in enhancing […]

While not offering an outright commitment that his nation will formally join the Paris climate change agreement this year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to the White House Tuesday at least pledged to work toward that goal. “The United States reaffirms its commitment to join the Agreement as soon as possible this […]