The tragic extinction of species, from the black rhinoceros to plants remaining undiscovered, is unfortunately one of the hallmarks of humans on the planet. This week, the Trondheim Conference of Biodiversity celebrated its 20 year anniversary by gathering 400 scientists and  international negotiators to an exchange of knowledge and ideas.

I just returned from my weekly trip to the supermarket: in  addition to Kenyan roses, Brazilian melons, Israeli oranges, Dutch  tomatoes, Kiwis from New Zealand, and potatoes from Saudi Arabia (!), I  have, for the first time, found minced beef from Botswana, sold for just  over half the price of the

Surprisingly, a book co-written by a well-known former German  environmental activist presents a strong revisionist story and is able  to capture both headlines and spot on the best-seller list. I read the book “The  cold sun: why the climate catastrophe is not happen” by Fritz  Vahrenholt and Sebastian Lüning (VL)

It is a sad result of human civilisation that we are driving other species into extinction. A new study highlights the main driving forces – rich countries’ consumption. Humans have always affected their environment. Environmental history  is littered with stories of modifications of the environment to enhance  the growth of fruit-bearing

In the development of the international standard for product carbon footprint analysis, there are now forces arguing that so-called guarantees of origin (GO)  should be used to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions associated  with electricity. This sound innocuous, but one should not be deceived  by a misleading term! Guarantees of

It seems like we right now are running hard from facing the  truths and some associated pain, and that in at least two instances that  are striking for their similarities: the global financial crisis and  climate change. Let me begin with the financial crisis. The main problem  of the financial

The rapid proliferation of electronic entertainment and  communication equipment has eclipsed traditional household appliances  like washing machines and refrigerators as the equipment with the  highest residential carbon footprint; apart from heating, hot water and  lighting. The Norwegian state broadcaster sent a wonderful story on our new study:  a home electronics

We present now a time series of carbon footprints in the Ranking tab.  Our data lets you trace the development of carbon footprints over the  period 1990-2008. You need an Adope Flash player installed to see this.  This data represents national CO2 emissions corrected for trade and  shows that some

An increasing share of global  emissions is from the production of internationally traded goods and  services, according to a new study published today in the Proceedings of  the National Academy of Sciences. Due to current reporting practices,  this has allowed some countries to increase their carbon footprints  while reporting stabilized

NATURE recently recognized the work presented in this web page, and more specifically the Carbon Footprint of Nations paper. In the category ‘Community choice – the most viewed papers in science’, the paper was reviewed under the title Where greenhouse gases start. At the same time, we got word that the

A consumption-based account of greenhouse gas emissions reveals true climate impacts of public services. Analysis based on the environmental impacts of consumption often  focuses on household consumption. Some consumption, however, is provided  by public authorities and paid for through taxes, not prices.  Education, health care, elderly care, street cleaning and

I have the great honor to be selected to serve on the IPCC as  lead author of the fifth assessment report. It has always been my desire  to contribute to addressing environmental problems. Climate Science is  fascinating – the ways scientists have found to tease out evidence about  past climate are

It was my big day in Brussels: The deputy director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Angela Kropper, and the EU’s Commissioner for the Environment, Janez Potocnik, were there for the launch of our report, The Environmental Impact of Production and Consumption: Priority Products and Materials.  It was the

Recently, the idea of monitoring the carbon footprint of a  nation as one option for climate policy has found its way into the  legislative process in the UK. A Private Members Bill has  been put forward in the House of Lords – the Bill seeks to put in place  a consumer

A recent update of our study on the carbon footprint of nations highlights the role of China, Russia, the USA and the EU. Steven Davis and Ken Caldeira have  just published an analysis of the carbon footprint of nations using the  GTAP 7 database, allowing for a comparison of the

The Carbon Footprint of Nations has been recognized as the Top Environmental Policy Paper in 2009 by Environmental Science & Technology (announcement). It is a big honor for us to win that award. ES&T is the  most important journal in environmental science and environmental  technology, publishing 1500 papers

The Climate Conference in Copenhagen has  ended as expected: with a political declaration instead of a legally  binding agreement. Nonetheless, there seems to be wide-spread  disappointment among the public. Commentators are busy portioning out  blame for the failure of the negotiations, where the U.S., China,  and the unwieldy UN

The Guardian and industry actors call for considering Carbon Embodied in Trade as part of a climate deal at Copenhagen. On December 7, 2009, 56 newspapers from 20 countries published  a joint editorial calling world leaders to use the 14 days of climate  negotiations in Copenhagen in order to come

A new UN report emphasizes the importance of addressing land use, water, and biodiversity impacts of biofuels. The jury is now in on biofuels: Current government mandates in the  United States, Europe and other countries to blend biofuels into  ordinary car fuels cause substantial environmental damage, do little to  reduce

Economists argue that the carbon market suffices to reduce  greenhouse gas emissions and attack additional policy tools for  increasing mitigation costs. Time to look at how the carbon market works  in practice! In my last blog I have pointed to the campaign of a few Norwegian economistsagainst  climate policy tools

Some economists argue that support for renewable electricity  leads to more coal power. Their reasoning is curiously flawed and  oversees the crucial role of technological learning. A curious discussion about climate policy has arisen in Norway now that the country has agreed with Sweden to join Sweden’s  ”green certificate”

The IPCC says that we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by  at least 80 % by 2050 to achieve the goal of limit global warming to not  more than 2°C, agreed to by the EU and the G8. Recent research indicates  that the cumulative emissions in the period 2000-2050

Many people have asked how a country’s carbon footprint  compares to the territorial emissions reported to the United Nations  Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)? In hindsight, it was perhaps remiss of us not to include this data in the paper. However, it was not our motivation. Focusing on

A good week has gone since the release of the website and the online version of our article. A number of news outlets picked up the story, including the venerable Neue Züricher Zeitung (Switzerland)  and the tabloid VG (Norway). It was really interesting to discuss our  research with numerous journalists

Congratulations to Edgar Hertwich, Glen Peters and the  NTNU team for presenting the ‘Carbon Footprint of Nations’ as a  politically relevant way of accounting for greenhouse gas emissions,  based on a sound methodology. The publication and website comes at an important time – the decisive  climate policy negotiations in Copenhagen are