President Joe Biden has committed the United States to its most ambitious climate change target yet. There are, of course, several catches to these lofty goals.
Catch (carbon) and release (underground)
Without much fanfare, the world's largest post-combustion carbon capture and storage system is taking shape in Texas. This project is actually staying on budget and proceeding according to schedule, unlike some other carbon capture projects in the United States. It's scheduled to go online before the end of the year.
Move the goalposts
Many researchers and policy makers agree that climate change is a problem, but are still debating the ultimate goal. International negotiations typically focus on keeping warming below 2 degrees Celsius, but some analysts argue that this goal leaves too much wiggle room.
Instead, they argue the objective should be to race to zero carbon emissions, a goal that compels everyone to act.
Conscious Decoupling
A new report from the International Energy Agency has found that global carbon emissions from energy have stayed flat while economies have grown. Some analysts take this to mean that economic growth and carbon pollution are no longer linked.
However, others note that energy is not the only source of greenhouse gases -- agriculture and transportation are major emitters -- and that low natural gas prices in the United States have displaced dirtier coal, a feat other countries cannot replicate as easily.
A coal barge on the Rhine River in Bonn, Germany
ICY HOT
Many refrigerators and air conditioners use a class of chemicals called hydrofluorocarbons as refrigerants or in insulating foam. These compounds happen to be extremely powerful greenhouse gases, thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide, and their use is going up.
Researchers and some companies are now coming up with ways to use fewer HFCs, if any, in cooling systems. They presented some of their work as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rolled out new rules to keep these gases in check.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy (left) and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz (second from left) speak to a scientist from Oak Ridge National Laboratory about refrigeration research.
Das Auto
In diesel engines, you have to balance price, performance and pollution. Most designs can only deliver in two categories, but Volkswagen claimed to win in all three with its turbocharged direct injection diesels. The claim was too good to be true.
Scientists say diesel, with its inherently good fuel economy, could be tweaked to be efficient, quick, clean and cheap, but getting combustion right is a challenge.
Volkswagen's U.S. chief Michael Horn (center left, gray hair), faces cameras before a House hearing on the company's emissions cheating
Catch your breath
President Obama has repeatedly invoked health, including his daughter's asthma, as a reason to mitigate climate change. However, the health effects of CO2 are further removed than those of pollutants like ozone. This may be a vulnerability in the President's case for climate action.