Greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union have been reduced by 24% compared to 1990 levels, according to the bloc’s annual climate report, but the EU said Monday it still needs to intensify efforts to keep to its target of making Europe the first climate-neutral continent by mid-century. The Associated Press reports: The EU’s executive arm said Monday that emissions in…
Tag: Gross Domestic Product
India Enters Recession as Virus Pummels No. 3 Asian Economy
India entered an unprecedented recession with the economy contracting in the three months through September due to the lingering effects of lockdowns to contain the Covid-19 outbreak. From a report: Gross domestic product declined 7.5% last quarter from a year ago, the Statistics Ministry said Friday. That was milder than an 8.2% drop forecast by economists in a Bloomberg survey, and…
Denmark: We Can Slash CO2 By 70% In a Decade And Still Have Welfare
Denmark said on Tuesday that it could reach its 2030 climate target of reducing emissions by 70%, one of the world’s most ambitious, without compromising its generous welfare benefits. Reuters reports: Last year, parties across the aisle passed a law committing Denmark to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70% from 1990 levels, or around 20 million tons of CO2 equivalent, within…
China Again Boosts Research and Development Spending By More Than 10%
China continued its yearslong run of double-digit percentage increases in spending on R&D in 2019, but the nation is likely to fall short of a long-standing goal of increasing R&D expenditures to 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) by this year. From a report: But not hitting the target “should not be considered a failure, as China has been increasing its…
US Utilities Are Cleaning Up Their Act With Emissions Down 8%
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: U.S. utilities are producing less greenhouse gases as they continue to shift away from coal. Carbon dioxide emissions from the 100 biggest U.S. electricity producers fell 8% last year, according to a report (PDF) Wednesday from the environmental group Ceres. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, two other key pollutants produced by burning coal,…
Stanford Economist Predicts Working-From-Home Continues, City Centers Decline
The new “working-from-home economy” will likely continue after the pandemic, predicts Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom, in an article shared by Slashdot reader schwit1. Bloom cites results from several nationwide surveys he’s conducted: We see an incredible 42 percent of the U.S. labor force now working from home full-time. About another 33 percent are not working — a testament to the savage…
National Mask Mandate Could Save 5 Percent of GDP, Economists Say
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Washington Post: After a late-spring lull, daily coronavirus cases in the United States have again hit record highs, driven by resurgent outbreaks in states such as Florida, Arizona and California. Hospitals in Houston are already on the brink of being overwhelmed, and public health experts worry the pandemic’s body count will soon again…
US Retail Sales Plunged a Record 16 Percent In April As Virus Hit
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Associated Press: U.S. retail sales tumbled by a record 16.4% from March to April as business shutdowns caused by the coronavirus kept shoppers away, threatened the viability of stores across the country and further weighed down a sinking economy. The Commerce Department’s report Friday on retail purchases showed a sector that has collapsed…
6GHz Wi-Fi Access Could Boost Speeds and Generate $183 Billion By 2025, Study Says
The move to expand unlicensed Wi-Fi use into the much wider 6GHz band has the potential to generate more than $180 billion in U.S. revenue over the next 5 years, according to a new new industry-funded study, which comes 10 days before the FCC votes on the proposal. CNET reports: Released Monday, the report was funded by WifiForward, an industry advocacy…
Internet Sector Contributes $2.1 Trillion To US Economy, Industry Group Says
The rapidly growing internet sector accounted for $2.1 trillion of the U.S. economy in 2018, or about 10% of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), an industry group said on Thursday. From a report: The Internet Association, a group representing Amazon.com, Facebook, Alphabet, Twitter, Uber and many other firms, released its estimate as the tech sector has come under increasing criticism,…