Energy

World Leaders To Debate Role Of Nuclear Power At U.N. Climate Summit

7:31pm December 01, 2015

NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Matthew Bunn, a nuclear and energy policy analyst and professor of practice at the Harvard Kennedy School, about the role nuclear power will play in the future. As world leaders meet in Paris for the U.N. climate summit, they discuss if countries are moving away or toward nuclear energy and and given safety and budget concerns, whether atomic power makes sense anymore.

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A building called Sustainability Base, at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., has an energy-efficient design that allows in sunlight. So for most of the year, the interior is illuminated by natural light.

NASA Uses Lessons From Space To Design An Efficient Building

7:24pm November 30, 2015

by Joe Palca

Named Sustainability Base, a NASA facility in California is a model for energy-efficient federal buildings. It's powered by a fuel cell like those used on spacecraft and recycles water for flushing.

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Delegates from about 170 countries gathered in Kyoto in December 1997 during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This year in Paris, the stakes are even higher, negotiators say.

Kyoto Treaty Fizzled, But Climate Talkers Insist Paris Is Different

7:10pm November 30, 2015

by Christopher Joyce

The 1997 Kyoto treaty set targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions that many nations didn't meet. This time, stakes are higher and all countries will be asked to set and meet their own limits.

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Big Data Predicts Centuries Of Harm If Climate Warming Goes Unchecked

6:26pm November 30, 2015

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

It took about 30 teams of scientists worldwide, using supercomputers to churn through mountains of data, to see patterns aligning of what will happen decades and centuries from now.

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A piece of ice floats in Los Glaciares National Park in Santa Cruz province, Argentina.

10 Things To Know About The U.N. Climate Talks In Paris

5:49pm November 30, 2015

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

Here's a bit about what you should know going into the 2015 U.N. Climate Change Conference beginning Nov. 30.

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President Obama (from left), French President Francois Hollande and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates applaud a speech during the Mission Innovation event at the UN conference on climate change Monday in Paris.

Bill Gates And Other Billionaires Pledge To Take On Climate Change

5:29pm November 30, 2015

by Marilyn Geewax

Twenty countries and 28 investors promised on Monday to jointly fund the development of energy alternatives. Backers of the initiative say private money is key to the next big push in energy.

President Obama (center) and Secretary of State John Kerry (right) attend Monday's opening ceremony of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in the Paris suburb of Le Bourget.

Some 150 World Leaders Gather In Paris For U.N. Climate Conference

5:17pm November 30, 2015

by Eyder Peralta

The conference is being billed as a last-chance summit to avoid catastrophic climate change. The goal is to come to a global agreement to limit greenhouse emissions.

After a magnitude-4.5 earthquake was recorded near Cushing in October, Oklahoma regulators ordered oil companies to shut down several disposal wells. That seemed to slow the shaking — at least for a while.

National

Confidence In Oil Hub Security Shaken By Oklahoma Earthquakes

2:38pm November 30, 2015

by Joe Wertz

Oklahoma's earthquake boom is now a national security threat. No damage has been reported, but operators at the hub are on high alert for a disruption that would ripple through the U.S. energy market.

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Kyoto Treaty Fizzled, But Climate Talkers Insist Paris Is Different

3:53am November 30, 2015

by Christopher Joyce

The 1997 Kyoto treaty set targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions that many nations didn't meet. This time, stakes are higher and all countries will be asked to set and meet their own limits.

Coal fires burn early in the morning in January 2014 at a privately owned coal mine in India's Jharkand state, making the air dense with noxious smoke and dust. Forty percent of India's mineral wealth lies in Jharkhand.

India's Quandary: Climate Change And Coal

5:14am November 27, 2015

by Julie McCarthy

Coal is king in India. Some say there's little alternative. So how can this country, the world's third-largest polluter, provide energy and lift millions from poverty while trying to become "greener"?