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Destinations known | Reaching net zero: how Hawaii is fighting climate change, plus 11 countries that are ‘leading the charge on renewable energy’
- While we are reluctant to talk up emission-spewing flights, visiting a place trying to honour its climate pledges is no bad shout if you plan to fly long-haul
- Hawaii turned off its last coal-fired power plant (and the beaches are not bad); countries like China and Germany are ‘leading the charge on renewable energy’
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Why you can trust SCMP
The net-zero pledge: everyone is making one, but how many leaders or CEOs are attempting to actually live up to their promises?
Not many as yet, is our (admittedly unscientific) reckoning.
“So far only two countries, Bhutan and Suriname, have achieved negative emissions status while still few other countries have made legally binding agreements, proposals, or have only discussed action plans to take,” says net0.com, helping to confirm our suspicions.
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Hats off to Hawaii, then. America’s 50th state took the bold step of turning off its last coal-fired power plant on September 1.
“The last bits of ash and greenhouse gases […] slipped into the environment this week when the state’s dirtiest source of electricity burned its final pieces of fuel,” reported Associated Press.
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“The last coal shipment [Hawaii used coal from Indonesia] arrived in the islands at the end of July, and the AES Corporation coal plant closed Thursday after 30 years in operation. The facility produced up to one-fifth of the electricity on Oahu – the most populous island in a state of nearly 1.5 million people.”
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