A letter from the editor of Bloomberg Green

Green Daily

In climate news today...

EU's climate chief is optimistic about setting a tougher climate goal.
New York pension fund pledges to be net zero by 2040.
Trump EPA makes it harder to strengthen air pollution rules.
Developing nations' investment in clean energy slows.

We'll spend the rest of our lives untangling the fallout of 2020. There's reason for expecting that, as this awful year ends and vaccination begins, what has passed shall in kinder light appear.

Emissions shrank as everyone hunkered down. BloombergNEF sees an 8% drop in global energy emissions from 2019. That would be a history-making decline and, very possibly, a turning point that puts peak emissions behind us.

The acceleration of electric cars and solar power also means peak oil is arriving sooner than expected. A no longer invulnerable industry is coming to terms with finite human appetite for its dangerous products and competition from clean supermajors that now match in market value and geographic reach the fading fossil giants.

In what may be the most consequential event in climate history, which few anticipated or noticed, China set a date by which to neutralize its enormous carbon emissions. With the dawn of Joe Biden's climate-oriented leadership and the European Union's push to define its Green Deal, next year will bring a more assertive consensus on emission end dates.

Nine of the top 10 economies will have embraced the net-zero imperative ahead of the COP26 summit in Glasgow, set for November 2021. These stronger targets create viable hope for holding warming to the 2C goal in the Paris Agreement, according to a report from Climate Action Tracker, and perhaps put even the 1.5C ambition just in reach.

Featured in Bloomberg Green, Issue Three Winter 2020

Photographer: Illustration by Nathan Levasseur for Bloomberg Green

The world hovers near 1.2C now. Which is why we can't tolerate hollow solutions. The Nature Conservancy, one of the most trusted names in carbon offsets, has been selling meaningless credits to corporate titans such as JPMorgan, Disney, and BlackRock. This latest magazine cover story finds that some of the forests being protected with climate money are already safe, which means precious time and resources are being squandered. These offsets are giving big companies an inexpensive way to claim reductions in emissions, and the result is largely devoid of help against global warming.

The people of 2100 will look back in anger at our missed chances. We can't afford more. — Aaron Rutkoff

Welcome to the third issue of Bloomberg Green's magazine.

Stories from the magazine will continue rolling out until Dec. 21, and you can find everything we've published on this collection page. Please check back for more, and subscribe today to receive a print copy of the magazine along with digital access to Bloomberg Green. Here are some of the highlights so far...

Exxon Mobil has put what would have been one of the world's largest carbon capture projects on indefinite hold, citing strain from the pandemic. Yet the oil giant is going ahead with a fossil-fuel project that costs 35 times more to build. Climate scientists agree that carbon capture is necessary to slow global warming, the oil and gas sector is its main driver, and it can even make money. But will the industry choose to really invest? (This investigation continues Bloomberg Green's in-depth reporting on Exxon's emissions.)
A Communist Party bureaucrat quietly changed climate history. This is the untold story of the man behind the man behind the end of China's enormous carbon emissions.
What should Joe Biden do first on climate change? We asked 41 creative climate thinkers from around the world to give the president-elect their best climate advice.
Thank you for smoking and saving the planet. A former Harvard professor who is a founding father of the ESG movement is now trying to get sustainable investors to embrace a tobacco company. Is the maker of Marlboros really good for life on Earth?
Peak oil is already here. All the data on how the energy future arrived, and a look four of the new clean supermajors who are replacing the fading oil titans.
France's favorite glacier is disappearing. Take a closer look before it melts away.
A secret clubs for billionaires who care about carbon-dioxide levels. This is how the mega-rich do climate investing.
More heat, swirling storms, and the air on Everest. It's our periodic guide to all the climate science you might have missed.
Hydrogen takes flight. Airbus has given itself just five years to develop an aircraft that doesn't pollute the sky.
How green is that gift underneath that dead tree? This is our climate-minded holiday gift guide.
Another mess that Covid-19 has made. All the takeout food ordered in this year has created even more waste.
Get fossil fuel out of your home. Everything you need to know about buying a heat pump.

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