When you hear the word “refugee,” you may picture Syrians in massive camps hosted by Jordan or Lebanon. Or maybe you imagine Africans in rafts trying to cross the Mediterranean to Italy. Now we’re starting to hear reports about “climate refugees.” In late April, during a trip to Canada, U.S. Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell said, “We can stem the increase in temperature, we can stem some of the effects, perhaps, if we act on climate as we are committed to do through the Paris accords. But the changes are underway and they are very rapid. We will have climate refugees.”
Is Carbon Pricing Finally Taking Center Stage?
An April 24 New York Times story by Coral Davenport quoted Roome and others on the growing momentum of carbon pricing. “There is now an overwhelmingly obvious scientific consensus that the more carbon pollution we put into the air the more impact it has on warming the massive melting of the Arctic, the cycles of droughts and flooding, the die-offs of coral reefs,” the World Bank’s president, Jim Yong Kim, told Davenport. “And to our economists, who have been studying this for quite some time, there is an equally obvious consensus that putting a price on carbon pollution is by far the most powerful and efficient way to reduce emissions.”
Michelin Leads the Way Towards 2020
Michelin has a long history of attention to and support of the environment. On the product side, Michelin invented the radial tire in 1946, which led a revolution in the tire industry, resulting in longer-lasting and safer products. In 1992, Michelin introduced the "green tire," which reduces rolling resistance — and thus increases miles per gallon —while improving safety and longevity. By 2020, Michelin intends for its tires to reduce fuel consumption by 3 billion liters and to prevent 8 million tons of carbon emissions.
Trudeau Visit Should Spur U.S. Action to Combat Climate Change
With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Obama meeting Thursday in the Oval Office and reportedly signing a continental environment and climate-change strategy, the United States should embark on a debate about how to fully meet its Paris pledge, the Partnership for Responsible Growth (PRG) said today.