Climate leadership and Pakistan
The writer is an international expert on poverty, climate change and food security and a Chevening Scholar with a Development Management degree from the UK. He tweets @aftabalamkan
Coronavirus or climate crisis, worldwide concerted efforts are inevitable against global challenges. President Joe Biden’s virtual Climate Conference (April 22-23) with leaders of 40 countries is an important initiative. Nonetheless, the spread, depth and urgency of the climate crisis stipulate a larger cadre of leaders. Leaving out key leaders from such events would not help.
This is a crucial year to check the pace of climate change. The world has a rare chance to correct actions in the 26th UN Conference on Climate Change (COP26), scheduled for November 1-12, in Glasgow. This would be the most important climate conference after the Paris Agreement of 2015.
President Biden signed an executive order that gives federal agencies 90 days to devise a plan for a zero-emission federal fleet in the United States. These four recommendations can help guide the federal fleet transition plan toward best outcomes.
President Biden s executive order serves as a critical step toward a major electric vehicle transition. Photo by Waldemar Brandt/Unsplash
In his first week in office, President Biden signed an executive order that gives federal agencies 90 days to devise a plan that fully transitions the federal fleet’s roughly 650,000 vehicles including about 225,000 postal vehicles, 173,000 military vehicles and 245,000 civilian vehicles into “clean and zero-emission vehicles for Federal, State, local, and Tribal government fleets, including vehicles of the United States Postal Service.” While some of these vehicles may include hydrogen, the majority will likely be electric vehicles (EVs). As such, this executive order is a critical first step to getting the on-the-ground momentum for a major electric vehicle transition.
Dec 28, 2020
The Tennessee Department of Transportation wants to plan for future needs of motorists on Interstate 40 from Memphis to Bristol.
The department has been working on a multimodal corridor study for I-40 and I-81 that will identify needs and possible improvement projects for the next 20 years, including a truck climbing lane between Cookeville and Monterey and auxiliary lanes for the interstate in the busy areas of Cookeville and Crossville.Â
During a Dec. 7 public meeting, Jean Stevens, planning manager for WSP, engineering consultant for the project, said, âThis isnât necessarily the most heavily populated area of the corridor, but Cookeville and Crossville are both significant communities that are experiencing growth. And the interstate here isnât just being used by through traffic. Thereâs a lot of cars and trucks using I-40 for local travel.â