CO2 compass

“The EU aims to be climate-neutral by 2050 – an economy with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.” So begins the European Union’s website on long-term climate action. Just since late September, East Asia’s three big powers, China, Japan, and South Korea, have joined in this goal – 2050 for the latter two, 2060 for China, whose 15th five-year plan will be public any day now with specifics. And President-elect Joe Biden has said he wants to make the US carbon neutral..

These goals, of course, are both very ambitious and essential. For a primer on how they evolved, who shares them, how rigorous or leaky they might be, and what they might mean on the ground, read these fine pieces.


This series is curated and written by retired Colorado State University English professor and close climate change watcher SueEllen Campbell of Colorado. To flag works you think warrant attention, send an e-mail to her any time. Let us hear from you.

SueEllen Campbell created and for over a decade curated the website "100 Views of Climate Change," a multidisciplinary collection of pieces accessible to interested non-specialists. She is especially interested...