‘Gas is over’: EU bank chief signals phaseout of fossil fuel finance
The European Investment Bank provides limited support for gas under its current policy and intends to end all funding for fossil fuels before the end of the year
Rich nations accused of inflating climate adaptation finance figures
Japan labelled loans for roads and bridges as "climate adaptation" finance, while the World Bank counted support for Nepal to rebuild from an earthquake
Joe Biden is sworn in as US president, promising climate action
"We will pass along a new and better world for our children," says Joe Biden as he enters the White House with the biggest climate team of any president
The Biden-Harris administration can rebuild democracy and climate action
With strong business support and an experienced team of dealmakers, Biden inspires confidence he will deliver on his climate and environmental justice plan
Exclusive: Japan uses ‘environmental’ fund to finance Vietnamese coal plant
The Japan Bank for International Cooperation approved a loan to the controversial Vung Ang 2 coal project from a facility intended for "environmental preservation"
Germany’s conservative CDU picks coal industry supporter Armin Laschet as leader
The premier of Germany's coal mining heartland could be chosen as the country's conservative alliance candidate for chancellor in a general election in September
China's biggest coal-producing province, Inner Mongolia, approved power plants and industrial installations in 2020 with an annual coal demand equivalent to Germany's
Colombia banks on forest economy to deliver climate ambition leap
Since the end of a 50-year civil war, Colombia has seen a spike in forest clearance, that the government now hopes to reverse with agroforestry initiatives
Poor and island states highlight toll of climate disasters in submissions to UN
In their updated national contributions to the Paris Agreement, vulnerable countries say they need more financial support to cope with extreme weather and rising seas
‘Star Wars without Darth Vader’ – why the UN climate science story names no villains
As the next blockbuster science report on cutting emissions goes to governments for review, critics say it downplays the obstructive role of fossil fuel lobbying
Portugal makes deal on EU climate law ‘big priority’ of its six-month presidency
Portugal aims to pass an EU 2030 climate target into law by June, says minister with a leading role in negotiations between member states and parliament
A New Way to Track Endangered Wildlife Populations from Space
Scientists have developed a new technique for remotely surveying elephants and other wildlife that is quicker and has the same accuracy as human counts done on the ground or in low-flying airplanes. The system, which uses satellite images and deep learning, could help improve the monitoring of endangered species in habitats across the globe.
Biden to Make Environment Key Priority Among First-Day Actions
Joe Biden is set for a flurry of action to combat the climate crisis on his first day as U.S. president by immediately rejoining the Paris climate agreement and blocking the Keystone XL pipeline, although experts have warned lengthier, and harder, environmental battles lie ahead in his presidency.
On U.S. Public Lands, Can Biden Undo What Trump Has Wrought?
President Joe Biden has an ambitious public lands agenda, vowing to ban new oil and gas drilling on federal territory and restore protections for key areas. But because of rules changes and a conservative makeover of the courts, reversing the Trump legacy will not be easy.
More Than 400,000 U.S. Clean Energy Jobs Have Been Lost So Far During the Pandemic
The clean energy sector in the United States lost 429,000 jobs last year due to the economic impacts of Covid-19, with the industry hitting its lowest number of workers since 2015, according to a new analysis of federal unemployment filings. Based on the industry’s current growth rates, it could take well into 2023 for clean energy jobs to reach their pre-pandemic levels.
Scientists Say They Have Solved Desalination Mystery, Improving Efficiency
Scientists believe they have solved one of the biggest mysteries about desalination — exactly how reverse osmosis membranes work to remove salt and other chemicals from water — a breakthrough they say could help make the process more efficient and cheaper.
Forest Defenders: A Panamanian Tribe Regains Control of Its Lands
With a landmark court ruling, the Naso people of Panama have won the rights to ancestral territory that includes two national reserves the tribe will now help manage. The victory comes as mounting evidence shows that Indigenous groups are often the best protectors of their lands.
As World’s Deltas Sink, Rising Seas Are Far from Only Culprit
Although climate change is often blamed for coastal inundation in places like the Bay of Bengal, other factors such as dam building and urbanization play an important role. Scientists say that more sustainable development policies can help blunt the impacts of rising seas.
Sharks Born Prematurely, Weaker in Warmer Ocean Temperatures
As ocean temperatures rise, baby sharks will be born prematurely, undernourished, and into harsh environments difficult for them to survive in, according to a new study of epaulette sharks — an egg-laying species found on the Great Barrier Reef — published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Global Warming Could Stabilize Faster than Originally Thought If Nations Achieve Net Zero
The world may be barreling towards climate disaster but rapidly eliminating planet-heating emissions means global temperatures could stabilize within just a couple of decades, scientists say.
As Big Energy Gains, Can Europe’s Community Renewables Compete?
Local wind and solar cooperatives have been instrumental in fostering Europe’s renewable energy growth. Now, as multinational corporations play an ever-larger role in efforts to decarbonize Europe’s economy, the EU is looking to bolster these grassroots clean-energy initiatives.
One-Third of U.S. Rivers Have Changed Color Since 1984
One in three large American rivers has changed color over the last 36 years, shifting from shades of blue to green and yellow, raising concerns about the health of U.S. waterways, according to an analysis of nearly 235,000 satellite images published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Study of Growth Rings in Tundra Shrubs Reveals Spread of Arctic `Browning’
As Arctic sea ice steadily disappears and temperatures rise across the region, the tundra has generally been greening, with shrubs and small trees growing more robustly. But a new study of growth rings in Arctic shrubs reveals a countervailing trend — the withering of plants in some areas because summer conditions have grown too hot and dry.
Amount of Electronic Waste Generated in the U.S. Is Shrinking
Despite Americans’ increased dependence on cell phones and other technology, the amount of electronic waste generated in the United States has shrunk 10 percent since 2015. The decline is due to the phasing out of bulky products, such as large cathode-ray tube televisions and computer monitors, according to a new study.
Wildfire Smoke Can Carry Dangerous Microbes Thousands of Miles, Scientists Warn
Scientists are warning that wildfire smoke can carry microbes that cause infectious diseases, adding another public health concern to the worsening severity of wildfires across the globe. The analysis, published in the journal Science, said there while the pulmonary and cardiovascular consequences of wildfire smoke inhalation have been well researched, the risk of potential infection from airborne microbes has not.
Biodiesel Expansion Could Worsen Deforestation in Indonesia
The Indonesian government has announced a major expansion of a program to make biodiesel out of palm oil, a move that officials say would necessitate planting 37 million acres of new palm oil plantations — an area one-fifth the size of Borneo.
Europe’s Climate Plans Challenged by Looming Decommissioning of Nuclear Plants
Dozens of Europe’s aging nuclear power plants will be decommissioned in the coming decade or two, forcing the continent to find new energy sources to power roughly 60 million homes, Reuters reports.
More Than 1 Million Barriers Are Blocking Europe’s Rivers
More than 1.2 million barriers stretch across rivers in Europe, from large-scale dams to locks to weirs — more than twice as many as previously thought, according to new research published in the journal Nature. Scientists said the artificial structures threaten some of the world’s most diverse ecosystems.
Can Geothermal Power Play a Key Role in the Energy Transition?
Aided by advances in deep-drilling technology for fracking, engineers are developing new methods of tapping into the earth’s limitless underground supplies of heat and steam. But the costs of accessing deep geothermal energy are high, and initial government support will be crucial.
Agriculture Will Threaten Habitat for 90 Percent of Animal Species by 2050
Scientists estimate that if current food production methods continue, the world will likely need between 770,000 to 3.9 million square miles of new agricultural land by 2050 to feed the planet’s growing, wealthier population. Such agricultural expansion could destroy some of the habitat of almost 90 percent of terrestrial animal species, a new study has found, leading to a widespread biodiversity crisis.
Mussels Sold in Grocery Stores Around the World Contain Microplastic Particles
Scientists have found microplastic in all of the most-consumed mussel species around the world. One gram of mussel meat purchased from a grocery store contains between 0.13 and 2.45 microplastic particles, according to a new study, with organisms harvested in the North Atlantic and South Pacific the most contaminated.
The USGCRP’s International Global Change Science Lead is responsible for coordinating and overseeing implementation, under the direction of Program leadership, of USGCRP’s interagency activities to promote international cooperation on global change research. This work includes a range of functions to help the Program coordinate Federal activities
The U.S. Global Change Research Program extends our condolences to the family and friends of Dr. Mike Freilich, a widely respected geoscientist and former director of NASA’s Earth Science Division, and shares the loss of a longtime member of the USGCRP family.
The U.S. Global Change Research Program will be presenting at the American Geophysical Union 2019 Fall Meeting from December 9-13 in San Francisco, CA. We hope you will join us for the following talks, sessions, and activities: All Week: Visit us at Exhibit Booth #512 All times local (Pacific Standard Time) Monday [1:40 - 6:00 PM] GC13E Advancing
Dr. Anthony Janetos, a longstanding member of the USGCRP community and Director of Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, passed away on Tuesday, August 6, 2019. He was 64 years old. Dr. Janetos dedicated his career to interdisciplinary, policy-relevant global change science. Prior to the Pardee
The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is pleased to announce the release of Volume II of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) and the 2nd State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR2). NCA4 Vol II NCA4 Vol II, Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States , assesses a range of potential climate change-related impacts, with an
The Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) Vol. II remains on track for a December delivery in fulfillment of the Congressional mandate. NCA4 Vol. I, the Climate Science Special Report, is available at science2017.globalchange.gov. Final agency review and comment. Authors have been revising chapters and responding to comments submitted in the
It’s been a while since our last update, but rest assured that we’ve been hard at work on Volume II of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4 Vol. II) in the meantime. Here’s a brief rundown of the goings-on: Public review and comment. This winter (November 3, 2017 through January 31, 2018), the public had the chance to weigh in on the draft
On behalf of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, we are pleased to announce major milestones in the timelines of three important reports. The first of these is the Climate Science Special Report (CSSR), which represents Volume I of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4). The final version of CSSR is released today as a step toward
Let’s start with the big news: As of last week, first drafts of all 28 chapters and five appendices of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) were submitted and are now in the hands of the editorial team at the Technical Support Unit (TSU). A huge thank you goes out to our volunteer author teams for their dedication and hard work over the
NCA4 author teams, staff, and regional collaborators have been hard at work gathering input from stakeholders across the country through regional engagement workshops, webinars, and other public events. Chapter teams have received extensive training on chapter development, scientific resources and tools, and assessment writing through a chapter leadership meeting and regular webinars with all authors. Development of full, first order chapter drafts for interagency review in June is underway and on-schedule.
The December contiguous U.S. average temperature was 35.74 degress Fahrenheit, 3.06 degress Fahrenheit above the 20th century average. The precipitation total was 1.99 inches, 0.36 inches below average.
The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for December was 0.78 degrees C (1.40 degress Fahrenheit) above the 20th century average of 15.5 degrees C (59.9 degress Fahrenheit).
As of December 29th, 48.99% of the Contiguous U.S. was experiencing drought conditions, 34.22% was in severe drought, 22.21% extreme, and 9.89% exceptional.
During December, the Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent (SCE) was 43.70 million square km (16.87 million square miles), 0.64% below the 1981-2010 average. The global sea ice extent was 22.21 million square km (8.58 million square miles), 4.47% below the 1981-2010 average.
December is typically a relatively quiet month for Northern Hemisphere tropical cyclones, and 2020 was particularly inactive. The only named storm in the Northern Hemisphere this December was Tropical Storm Burevi in the North Indian Ocean. The North Atlantic did not add any more storms to its record 30 named storms for 2020. The West Pacific averages 1.7 named storms per December, but its inactive season continued with no storms forming this December.
The dominant pattern during December 2020 was the positive phase of the Pacific/North American pattern (PNA). The associated ridge over northwestern North America extended particularly far east and brought above normal temperatures to the Northern Plains. It also suppressed precipitation across the contiguous U.S. except for two nor'easters that brought heavy snow to the Northeast. The downstream trough also brought cooler than normal temperatures to the Southeast.
According to data from NOAA's Storm Prediction Center, during December, there were 30 preliminary tornado reports. This is above the 1991-2010 average of 24 tornadoes for the month of December. The most notable tornado event of the month occurred on December 23-24 across several Southern and Eastern states including Texas, Mississippi, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia with 23 total tornadoes.
Approximately 13 percent of the contiguous U.S. (CONUS) was covered by snow at the beginning of December according to NOAA's National Snow Analysis. Higher elevations of the western mountain ranges, the northern Great Lakes and across the Ohio Valley and Appalachians were covered by snow. Snow cover waned to a minimum extent for the month of nearly 11 percent by December 9.
What (non-Covid) science is coming up in 2021? – podcast
Ian Sample and producer Madeleine discuss what science, outside of the pandemic, they’ll be looking out for in 2021. Joined by Prof Gillian Wright and the Guardian’s global environment editor Jonathan Watts, they explore exciting space missions and critical climate change conferences
Biden returns US to Paris climate accord hours after becoming president
Biden administration rolls out a flurry of executive orders aimed at tackling climate crisis
Joe Biden has moved to reinstate the US to the Paris climate agreement just hours after being sworn in as president, as his administration rolls out a cavalcade of executive orders aimed at tackling the climate crisis.
Biden’s executive action, signed in the White House on Wednesday, will see the US rejoin the international effort curb the dangerous heating of the planet, following a 30-day notice period. The world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases was withdrawn from the Paris deal under Donald Trump.
Joëlle Gergis on mourning and making sense of what we have lost on the frontlines of the climate crisis
Climate scientist and writer Joëlle Gergis speaks about the incalculable loss already suffered due to climate change and why the only way forward is to acknowledge the grief rather than ignore it
2020 was hottest year on record by narrow margin, Nasa says
Due to different methods, US Noaa judged year as fractionally cooler than 2016 while UK Met Office put 2020 in close second place
Last year was by a narrow margin the hottest ever on record, according to Nasa, with the climate crisis stamping its mark on 2020 through soaring temperatures, enormous hurricanes and unprecedented wildfires.
The average global land and ocean temperature in 2020 was the highest ever measured, Nasa announced on Thursday, edging out the previous record set in 2016 by less than a tenth of a degree.
As if 2020 could get any worse, the latest research showed that oceans hit their highest recorded temperatures, a record that keeps getting broken year after year.
Why are the oceans so important? It is quite simple: almost all of the extra heat we gain because of greenhouse gases ultimately ends up in the oceans. In fact, the oceans absorb more than 90% of the excess heat. Consequently, if you want to understand global warming, you have to measure ocean warming.
The world’s oceans reached their hottest level in recorded history in 2020, supercharging the extreme weather impacts of the climate emergency, scientists have reported.
More than 90% of the heat trapped by carbon emissions is absorbed by the oceans, making their warmth an undeniable signal of the accelerating crisis. The researchers found the five hottest years in the oceans had occurred since 2015, and that the rate of heating since 1986 was eight times higher than that from 1960-85.
New Zealand records seventh-hottest year, with extreme weather more likely
It has been nearly four years since New Zealand experienced a month with below-average temperatures, researchers say
New Zealand recorded its seventh-hottest year on record in 2020, and marked nearly four years since it experienced a month with below-average temperatures.
The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) has been collecting New Zealand’s temperature records since the early 1900s, and said on Tuesday that above-average temperatures were becoming increasingly common.
‘I see human resilience every single day’: people in tough jobs on how to stay hopeful
A hospice nurse, bereavement counsellor, firefighter, climate change lecturer and social worker share their secrets
Adam Graham, 41, hospice nurse, Newcastle upon Tyne People say: your job must be so depressing. It’s actually not. Of course there are sad moments, but they are few and far between. A hospice is not somewhere you go to die; many people return home. We specialise in palliative care, which means making the best of your life. Obviously death is a part of that. But death is a part of regular life, too.
Global heating could stabilize if net zero emissions achieved, scientists say
Climate disaster could be curtailed within a couple of decades if net zero emissions are reached, new study shows
The world may be barreling towards climate disaster but rapidly eliminating planet-heating emissions means global temperatures could stabilize within just a couple of decades, scientists say.
For many years it was assumed that further global heating would be locked in for generations even if emissions were rapidly cut. Climate models run by scientists on future temperatures were based on a certain carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. If this remained at the current high level there would be runaway climate disaster, with temperatures continuing to rise even if emissions were reduced because of a lag time before greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere.
Severe climate-driven loss of native molluscs reported off Israel’s coast
Mediterranean study finds subtidal populations of cockles, whelks and other species have collapsed by 90%
The world’s most devastating climate-driven loss of ocean life has been reported in the eastern Mediterranean, one of the fastest warming places on Earth.
Native mollusc populations along the coast of Israel have collapsed by about 90% in recent decades because they cannot tolerate the increasingly hot water, according to a new study, which raises concerns about the wider ecosystem and neighbouring regions.
There’s a simple way to green the economy – and it involves cash prizes for all | Henry D Jacoby
The ‘carbon dividend’ is so elegant that it seems too good to be true. Governments should make it a post-pandemic priority
Over the past year – when societies around the world have had to grapple with their greatest challenge in decades – climate change hasn’t been at the top of the agenda. But that doesn’t mean it’s gone away. Far from it – in fact, we just experienced the hottest September in 141 years, and extreme warmth recorded in the Arctic continues a disturbing trend. When the focus turns back to this ongoing existential threat, hopefully we’ll have learned some lessons from the pandemic about what can be achieved when imaginative thinking is brought to bear.
Our approach towards tackling the climate crisis is necessarily going to be multipronged. But one powerful tool is that of a carbon tax. So far, however, only a few nations have taken this route. Why?
How greenhouse gases are actually cooling Earth's upper atmosphere
At high altitudes, carbon dioxide releases energy into space, making the atmosphere contract
In all the discussions about climate change, one thing is often overlooked – the upper atmosphere of Earth is actually cooling while the lower atmosphere grows warmer, and this strange paradox is a clear fingerprint of greenhouse gases at work.
Carbon dioxide in the lower atmosphere helps trap heat from the sun’s solar energy reflected off the Earth’s surface and so, like a greenhouse, the lower atmosphere grows warmer. But at high altitudes it is a different story, because the upper atmosphere is so thin that the carbon dioxide releases its energy into space and so the upper atmosphere cools. And that cooling is also making the upper atmosphere contract.
Climate crisis will cause falling humidity in global cities – study
Research says planting trees in urban areas could mitigate rising temperatures
Urban regions around the world are likely to see a near-universal decrease in humidity as the climate changes, a study has found.
The research suggests that building green infrastructure and increasing urban vegetation might be a safe bet for cities looking to mitigate rising temperatures.
Fatal freshwater skin disease in dolphins linked to climate crisis
Researchers report affected animals off the coasts of the US, South America and Australia
Dolphins are increasingly dying slow, painful deaths from skin lesions likened to severe burns as a result of exposure to fresh water, exacerbated by the climate crisis.
Researchers in the US and Australia have defined for the first time an emerging “freshwater skin disease” reported in coastal dolphin populations in the US, South America and Australia.
Seabird patrols to self-healing buildings: the 15 conservation stories to watch in 2021
In their latest scan of emerging global biological conservation issues, experts assess the 15 most urgent risks society needs to address
If it did nothing else, the emergence of Covid-19 a year ago underlined for all of us the importance of anticipating and preparing for – and, as appropriate, steering the course of – things that might happen in the future.
That is, in a nutshell, the goal of the 2021 horizon scan of emerging global biological conservation issues recently published in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolutionby the Cambridge University conservation biologist William Sutherland and a team of 24 other conservation practitioners and researchers from around the world.
The most exciting scientific breakthroughs of 2020, chosen by scientists
The response to Covid-19 has been momentous but discoveries in AI, diet, conservation, space and beyond, show the power of science to improve the world post-pandemic
In 2020 the race to space changed gear. The May launch of the SpaceX vehicle Crew Dragon was the first time a private vehicle had delivered astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). It was deeply impressive, but also featureless… sleek, white inner walls replaced the complex instrument panels of old, and it was clear that the two test pilots on board were mostly passengers, with no direct control over the flight. In November, Crew Dragon became the first private spacecraft fully certified by Nasa to transport humans to the ISS and later that month delivered four astronauts to the orbiting station. This taxi may not be cheap, but it’s here to stay and it’s a game-changer.
Mountain hares at risk as winter coats fail to camouflage in snowless Scottish Highlands
Mountain hares in Scotland failing to adapt to climate change, leaving them more vulnerable to predators
When snow begins to fall, mountain hares melt into the landscape by shedding their dark fur and becoming a brilliant – but camouflaged – white.
But mountain hares in Scotland are failing to adapt to a dramatic increase in snowless days, with their white fur on dark mountainsides leaving them newly visible to potential predators.
China is scaling up its weather modification programme – here's why we should be worried | Arwa Mahdawi
Beijing is aiming to control rain and snow across half the country. But it is the reason it wants to do this that is really frightening
Remember when Donald Trump wanted to nuke hurricanes so they didn’t hit the US? Everyone laughed uproariously, but Trump’s warped little mind was actually on to something. You may not be able to bomb hurricanes into oblivion, but you can shoot things into the atmosphere in order to change the weather. It’s a process known as cloud seeding and a number of countries, including the UK and the US, have been experimenting with it for decades.
Where's the beef with a greener future that also makes us happier and healthier?
The Committee on Climate Change has shown that decarbonising is not only affordable but highly desirable
Few crises come with a users’ manual. The government’s official climate advisers, the Committee on Climate Change, have come close, however, with a new 1,000-page tome setting out a blueprint for how Britain can decarbonise its economy and cut emissions to virtually zero by 2050.
The committee’s green manifesto, published last week, brings to heel the two most pervasive myths that climate deniers have set to stalk Britain’s climate ambitions. The first is a menacing right-wing imagining of economic hardship in which the “eye-watering costs” of green investment collide with a slowdown in productivity and growth. This is a fallacy easily disproved.
The plan also deftly tackles any dark mutterings about the way ahead offering just a grim dystopia of personal sacrifice
UN chief António Guterres urges countries to declare climate emergencies – video
Every country should declare a state of climate emergency until the world has reached net-zero carbon emissions, the UN secretary general told a virtual summit of world leaders on Saturday. António Guterres said countries had a responsibility to young people to reduce and eliminate high-carbon activities after borrowing trillions to cushion the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic
From revoking the Keystone XL pipeline permit to reviewing actions that rolled back clean air and water protections, President Joe Biden’s day one actions laid a road map for the work ahead on the climate crisis. It’s an urgent plan, predicated upon Biden’s belief that there is no time to waste. He also directed federal agencies to review more than 100 rules that the Trump administration made on the environment, with an eye to potentially overturning many of them.
The president also signed an order rejoining the Paris climate agreement, signaling a critical moment for national and international climate policy. But achieving the pact’s target of capping global warming under 2 degrees Celsius will be extremely difficult, and rebuilding U.S. credibility on climate action will take time.
BY: ICN STAFF The new president moved immediately to review more than 100 Trump administration actions and restore the protection of federal lands and the regulation of greenhouse gases.
The Radical Case for Growing Huge Swaths of Bamboo in North America BY: AUDREY GRAY
The grass has a bad rap in the U.S. as an invasive nuisance, but the plant can quickly sequester at least double—and maybe even six times—the amount of carbon as a similar stand of trees.
A column highlighting climate-related studies, innovations, books, cultural events and other developments from the global warming frontier.
By Katelyn Weisbrod
Fewer than 2,000 monarch butterflies were counted overwintering this year along the California coast—a staggering drop from the 30,000 last winter and a 99.9 percent decline from the several million butterflies that once spent the winter between San Francisco and San Diego in the 1980s, a report from the Xerces Society said this week.
The plunge in numbers signifies a near collapse of the western population of the species, which spends the winter months in California. The monarchs migrate northward in the western United States during the spring, summer and fall months, producing several generations before an autumn generation migrates back to the West Coast for winter. The Xerces Society, an insect conservation nonprofit, has used community volunteers to count the monarchs at overwintering sites since the 1990s. The number of monarchs counted each year has trended downward, even though the number of sites being monitored has increased.
President Biden, vowing to restore environmental protections frayed over the past four years, has ordered the review of more than 100 environmental rules and regulations that were weakened or rolled back by his predecessor. But legal experts warn that the process could take two to three years, or Biden’s whole first term, The New York Times reports.
Some Western Republicans have launched a longshot bid to block President Biden’s executive orders to rejoin the Paris climate accord and revoke the permit for the Keystone pipeline. The lawmakers, many from big energy-producing states like Montana, plan to introduce two pieces of legislation that would give Congress a say in the decisions.
President Joe Biden will announce a second round of executive orders focused on combating climate change early next week as he rushes to reverse Trump-era environmental rollbacks, according to a memo seen by Reuters. The White House will make the announcement, including a series of climate-related regulatory actions, on Jan. 27, but didn’t provide further details.
The Biden administration is poised to name Dan Utech, who worked on climate change and energy issues during the Obama years, as the Environmental Protection Agency’s chief of staff, Bloomberg reports. His pick is the latest signal that President Biden plans to make climate change and the environment a fundamental part of his administration.
Pete Buttigieg, President Biden’s choice to lead the Department of Transportation, vowed to make climate change a top priority during his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday. But that raises a question: How much can a transportation secretary realistically do to reduce emissions from America’s vast fleet of cars, trucks and airplanes—all of which the agency oversees, to varying degrees?
American rivers have been changing color over time, according to a new study that looked at satellite images of major rivers in the United States from 1984 to 2018. About a third of those have significantly changed color in less than 40 years. The significance of the changes are still unclear but could reflect various ways in which humans are impacting the environment, the study’s authors said.
After four years of steady erosion of the nation’s climate policy, President Biden offered big plans on day one through a flurry of executive orders. The orders included moving to rejoin the Paris climate agreement, signaling a review of vehicle emissions standards and directing federal agencies to review and even reverse more than 100 rules that the Trump administration made on the environment.
With the simple stroke of a pen, the United States is officially rejoining the Paris climate agreement—after a 30 day wait. It’s a critical moment for national and international climate policy. But achieving the pact’s target of capping global warming under 2 degrees Celsius will be extremely difficult, and rebuilding U.S. credibility on climate action will take time.
The era of the United States being the world’s top oil and gas producer may have come to an end with the inauguration of President Joe Biden. The president on his first day took sweeping executive action, including rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline’s presidential permit, signaling that his administration will scrutinize fossil fuel development and swiftly move toward a carbon-free economy.
Huge shifts in climate policy are already happening on the first day of the Biden administration. But when it comes to clean energy, much of the progress this year will remain at the state level. We look at three states to keep an eye on in the latest Inside Clean Energy by Dan Gearino.
A Washington State report put it bluntly: Because of the devastating effects of climate change and deteriorating habitats, some species of salmon in the Pacific Northwest are “on the brink of extinction.” Several species of salmon and steelhead trout in Washington state are lagging recovery goals and five species are considered “in crisis,” according to the new report.
China more than doubled its construction of new wind and solar power plants in 2020 from a year earlier, government data showed, reflecting Beijing’s pledge to cut fossil fuel dependence and bring carbon emissions to a peak within a decade. But the country is still constructing new coal and gas-fired power plants, Reuters reports, threatening the country’s climate goals.
The new president moved immediately to review more than 100 Trump administration actions and restore the protection of federal lands and the regulation of greenhouse gases.
By Sabrina Shankman, Dan Gearino, David Hasemyer, James Bruggers, Judy Fahys, Marianne Lavelle, Phil McKenna
In the early hours on Wednesday, as the sun was setting on one presidency and rising on another—but long before it would actually peek over the horizon—two men did two very different things.
Committing to the pact means decarbonizing the United States by 2050 and following up on global commitments abandoned by the Trump administration.
By Bob Berwyn
On the world stage, the most significant stroke of the pen President Joe Biden used to start rebuilding U.S. climate policy after his inauguration was his formal declaration that the nation would rejoin the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
The president’s executive actions will have real world effects, but market forces have stolen some of their thunder.
By Nicholas Kusnetz
American efforts to curb climate change have long avoided measures that would rein in the production of oil and gas, instead relying on reducing consumption of fossil fuels in power plants and automobiles. This dichotomy allowed the nation to catapult into place as the world’s top oil and gas producer, even as domestic greenhouse gas emissions declined.
Even with Biden in charge, much of the action on clean energy will remain at the state level.
By Dan Gearino
The Biden administration promises to restart U.S. progress on clean energy and climate policy, after the backsliding of the last four years.
But one thing that won’t change from the Trump administration is that state governments will be the most likely to pass far-reaching legislation, considering that, on the federal level, President Joe Biden is working with a narrowly divided Congress.
This year, I’ll be watching Massachusetts and Illinois, which are poised to pass major clean energy legislation, and California, where officials will soon update their building code in a way that is likely to reduce the use of natural gas in new construction.
“Cities and states will need to continue to lead,” said Kit Kennedy,
Clean energy stories behind the headlines reported by Dan Gearino
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The Biden administration promises to restart U.S. progress on clean energy and climate policy, after the backsliding of the last four years.
But one thing that won’t change from the Trump administration is that state governments will be the most likely to pass far-reaching legislation, considering that, on the federal level, President Joe Biden is working with a narrowly divided Congress.
This year, I’ll be watching Massachusetts and Illinois, which are poised to pass major clean energy legislation, and California, where officials will soon update their building code in a way that is likely to reduce the use of natural gas in new construction.
“Cities and states will need to continue to lead,” said Kit Kennedy, senior director of the climate and clean energy program at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Her comment reflects the reality that there is only so much Biden can do, and a history that shows that climate and clean energy policies often rise up from states.
Massachusetts: The Democratic-controlled Massachusetts legislature passed a sweeping climate bill on Jan. 4, only to see it vetoed last week by Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican.
But both sides have indicated that they want to find a compromise, and soon.
The vetoed bill set a target of net-zero emissions by 2050, with interim goals every five years. It also had provisions that aimed to cut emissions in transportation and buildings, and increase the target for offshore wind energy development.
I asked Greg Cunningham, a vice president at the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation, what he expects to happen.
“It is pretty much certain to get worked out,” he said. “And I would note that it was passed in its original form by a veto-proof majority, so there is absolutely strength in the legislature’s positions on these issues, although I fully expect that they will compromise.”
Charlie Baker is a moderate Republican who has supported policies that fight climate change. But he has been wary of the costs, and he said in his veto message that parts of the climate bill were going to hurt the state’s efforts to address other vital needs.
For example, he said the bill might discourage construction of much-needed new housing because of a provision that seeks to reduce emissions from new buildings.
Baker’s criticism of this provision stings some environmental advocates because they see great opportunities for Massachusetts to be a leader in reducing the use of fossil fuels for heat, and the bill would have helped to make that happen.
Massachusetts has a reputation for being on the leading edge of progressive policies, but it has not been a leader on climate and clean energy in recent years. Some lawmakers had hoped to pass a measure in 2018 that would have set a target of 100 percent carbon-free electricity, but the bill Baker ended up signing then was a more modest package that included smaller increases in clean electricity targets.
Cunningham said one problem is that some leaders in Massachusetts seem to be resting on their laurels because of climate policies that are now more than a decade old, like the 2008 Global Warming Solutions Act, one of the first state laws to set emissions-reduction targets. Massachusetts was a leader back then, but similar laws now have been passed by many states, he said.
Still, he said, he is optimistic that the period of inaction or underwhelming action is about to end with a revised bill that would pass sometime in 2021.
One of the main beneficiaries could be Baker himself, who could shape a legacy as “a true climate leader,” Cunningham said.
Illinois: The 2016 Future Energy Jobs Act was supposed to unleash rapid growth in renewable energy across Illinois. While the law succeeded in many ways, the ride has been a bumpy one, with an imbalance between the large number of potential energy projects and limited funding.
Now the money for key parts of the law has run out, leading to what clean energy advocates call a “solar cliff,” and the potential for the loss of jobs.
The result is a strong push for lawmakers to pass the Clean Energy Jobs Act, a proposal that would extend and expand the previous law and set a target of 100 percent renewable energy by 2050.
“Nowhere in the Midwest are the stakes this high or the opportunities this meaningful,” said John Delurey, Midwest director for Vote Solar, in an email. “Illinois is overdue for comprehensive energy legislation and now, as a result, clean energy workers are losing their jobs and state agencies are on the precipice of budget shortfalls.”
Advocates have pushed for the last few years to pass an extension of parts of the 2016 law, but they have run into some big obstacles. One of the biggest is the dark cloud cast by a federal bribery investigation involving Exelon, the energy and utility company that was a leading beneficiary of the 2016 law.
The ongoing investigation continues to ripple through state politics, but Gov. J.B. Pritzker and leading lawmakers have made it a high priority to do something this year on energy policy.
Pritzker, a Democrat, has said that the bill will not be written by utility company lobbyists. That sounds good, but utility lobbyists were an essential part of passing the 2016 law, with a combination of a nuclear power plant bailout for Exelon and a wish list of items for clean energy advocates. And, Exelon now says it needs an additional bailout for nuclear plants.
I expect that something will pass, but the specifics are far from clear.
California: It’s a bit of a cheat to list California as a state to watch on clean energy and climate policy, because California is always a state to watch on those topics.
There is a lot happening in the state in 2021, but I’m going to focus on the upcoming update of the state building code, which could be a major step in reducing the use of fossil fuels in buildings.
The California Energy Commission is now working on the code update that will take effect in 2023. The commission will release its proposal and go through an approval process this year.
Officials with the commission have indicated that the new code will try to reduce the use of natural gas in new construction, which they are likely to do by providing incentives for builders to use electric heat pumps instead of gas furnaces. Leading environmental groups would like to see the code ban gas in nearly all new construction.
“This is a generational opportunity for California to align its massive residential and commercial building sector with its world-leading air pollution and carbon reduction goals, and stand up to the gas industry, which is furiously fighting efforts to reduce pollution,” said Bruce Nilles, executive director of the Climate Imperative, a project at the think tank Energy Innovation, in an email.
Nilles noted that buildings that use gas emit more asthma-causing pollution than all of the state’s cars and SUVs.
“This is California’s chance to lead America on building decarbonization—a sector that has thus far avoided emissions-reduction policy action in every state,” Nilles said.
The idea of a gas ban would have been a stretch a few years ago, but California cities have been at the forefront of passing local rules to limit or ban gas hookups in new construction.
Gas utilities don’t like the way this is going and are urging state officials to take a gradual approach. This is part of a larger fight, which includes aspects of the debate in Massachusetts, as the gas industry wants to slow down the erosion of its market.
Everywhere else: Many other states are likely to take big steps on clean energy and climate this year, completing landmark projects, passing new laws and doing the hard work to implement laws that are already in place.
Kennedy of NRDC said the clean energy economy has progressed to the point that there is substantial activity just about everywhere.
“We’re going to see that activity in purple and even red states as well as blue,” she said.
I could list dozens of examples, but here are two:
Florida Power & Light expects to complete the Manatee Energy Storage Center late this year. The project would be the largest battery storage project in the world as measured in megawatts, with 409 megawatts. The utility, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy, is embarking on a major ramp-up in solar power and storage within Florida, following a period when the state was slow to take advantage of the ability to turn its abundant sunshine into electricity.
Pennsylvania is on track to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a coalition of 11 New England and Mid-Atlantic states that participate in a cap-and-trade program to help reduce emissions. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf signed an executive order in 2019 to have his state join the coalition, and now the state is nearing the end of a rulemaking process that would make the order official. Pennsylvania would be the 12th member and the largest emitter of greenhouse gases to join the group, representing a major expansion of the cap-and-trade market.
Top Photo Credit: Tim Graham/Getty Images
Bottom Photo Credit: Paul Natkin/Getty Images
Global Spending on the Energy Transition Rose in 2020. But It Fell in the United States.
BloombergNEF has taken a broad measure—global renewable energy spending—and broadened it further, to include spending on electrifying transportation and buildings, among other things.
The result is the research firm’s first-ever report on global spending on the energy transition, showing $501.3 billion in spending in 2020, an increase of 9 percent from the previous year.
The addition of the new categories is an acknowledgement of the rapid rise in spending on electric vehicles and high-efficiency heat pumps, which are in the early stages of reshaping the transport and building sectors.
“The coronavirus pandemic has held back progress on some projects, but overall investment in wind and solar has been robust and electric vehicle sales jumped more than expected,” said Jon Moore, chief executive of BloombergNEF, in a statement. “Policy ambition is clearly rising as more countries and businesses commit to net-zero targets, and green stimulus programs are starting to make their presence felt.”
The virus was one of the chief reasons that spending was down 11 percent in the United States and down 12 percent in China. But the decrease in those two countries was more than offset by the 67 percent increase in Europe that was largely driven by clean energy policies. Europe also was the leader in dollars spent, with $166.2 billion, followed by China, with $134.8 billion, and the United States, with $85.3 billion.
If the report had focused just on the electricity-generation sector, growth would have been nearly nonexistent. Global spending on wind, solar and other electricity sector technologies totaled $303.5 billion, up 2 percent from the prior year.
The second-largest category was spending on electric transport, which was $139 billion, an increase of 28 percent from the previous year. It was followed by spending on heat pumps in the building sector, which was $50.8 billion, up 12 percent.
Reading the report, I was struck by how investment is increasing at the same time that the costs of EV batteries, solar panels and other components are falling, a compounding of growth that is incredible to see.
But it’s also clear that the United States is not the center of gravity for this investment, something the Biden administration and the states can begin to change.
Inside Clean Energy is ICN’s weekly bulletin of news and analysis about the energy transition. Send news tips and questions to dan.gearino@insideclimatenews.org.
Among incoming President Joe Biden’s Day One priorities: Begin rolling back climate and environmental policies of the Trump administration, many of which were rollbacks of Obama-era or earlier rules. Biden’s advisers have compiled a list of more than 100 rules and policies developed by the Trump administration that it sees as targets for review, CNN reports.
On President Trump’s last full day in office a federal appeals court landed a major blow to his administration’s deregulatory campaign by rejecting its boldest attempt to stymie climate regulation. The D.C. circuit court threw out Trump’s Affordable Clean Energy Rule—which replaced Obama’s far more stringent Clean Power Plan—saying it failed to adequately protect the environment and human health.
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh cut to the chase during a hearing Tuesday in a climate change case in which the City of Baltimore is seeking major compensation from the fossil fuel industry related to climate-induced extreme weather and sea level rise. The high court will rule on a narrow legal question, but the outcome will reverberate in dozens of other climate-related lawsuits nationwide.
High winds, dry vegetation and unseasonably warm weather fueled several wildfires in Northern California on Tuesday as hundreds of residents were forced to evacuate, NBC News reports. Fire crews were working on multiple fronts to contain at least five active fires that ignited within the CZU Complex Fire burn area in Santa Cruz County. Several nearby neighborhoods were evacuated.
Treasury secretary nominee Janet Yellen on Tuesday pledged to create a team to focus on climate change-related financial policy, in a move that’s likely to put the powerful agency at the forefront of the Biden administration’s efforts to combat what she called an “existential threat.” Yellen made the pledge in a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee.
Incoming President Joe Biden’s nomination of New York City Emergency Management Commissioner Deanne Criswell to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency marks the first time a woman has been selected for the position since the agency’s creation in 1979. It’s also another signal of Biden’s urgency in addressing the pandemic and climate change.
The ruling throws out the Affordable Clean Energy rule and directs the EPA to start over with its required regulation of greenhouse gases from electricity generation.
By Georgina Gustin
On President Donald Trump’s last full day in office a federal appeals court landed a major blow to his administration’s deregulatory campaign by rejecting its boldest attempt to stymie climate regulation.
Cities, counties and states suing the fossil fuel industry want state courts to award damages. But industry says it’s a federal, if not a global, concern.
By David Hasemyer
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wasted no time cutting to the chase during a hearing Tuesday in a climate change case in which the City of Baltimore is seeking potentially billions in damages from the fossil fuel industry related to climate-induced extreme weather and sea level rise.
President-elect Joe Biden is expected to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit on his first day in office, quickly reversing his predecessor’s approval of a project long opposed by environmentalists to move oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, the New York Times reports. Opponents of the pipeline regard it as a major contributor to climate change and a symbolic hurdle in the transition to a clean economy.
The Supreme Court is poised to step into the middle of a climate change lawsuit against the fossil fuel industry that could have consequences for nearly two dozen other cases seeking similar compensation. The suit, filed by the city of Baltimore, aims to hold the industry accountable for climate change by seeking damages for the impacts of hurricanes, flooding and sea level rise.
In its last couple days in power, the Trump administration is proposing to strip away protections for millions of acres of California desert, threatening damage to Joshua trees, desert tortoises and landmarks, The Guardian reports. The plan would open up to 2.2 million acres of land dedicated to conservation to mining projects.
The incoming Senate Democratic majority opens new avenues for the Biden administration to reverse a host of last-minute environmental rollbacks by President Trump. The Congressional Review Act, which can nix any regulations finalized in the previous 60 legislative days, would affect several Trump-era rollbacks and allow Democrats to sidestep the lengthier rulemaking process.
Much of the communications infrastructure built in the South is nearing the end of its lifespan, experts warn, and isn’t prepared for the effects of climate change. From electricity to internet to telephone lines, the infrastructure that keeps the region connected is increasingly threatened by extreme weather, flooding and sea level rise. And in emergency situations, that could mean life or death.
Pete Buttigieg, the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor and Biden’s pick to run the Department of Transportation, is set to have his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday—just a day after Joe Biden’s inauguration. If confirmed, Buttigieg is expected to play a pivotal role in shaping and executing the president-elect’s ambitious climate change agenda.
From staving off rising sea levels to preparing for ongoing drought, adaptation planning efforts are lagging behind just as much as efforts to reduce the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report from the United Nations Environmental Program. That gap means that many countries aren’t holding up their promises and funding isn’t always going where it’s most needed, the report says.
There was an outpouring of concern after a picture showing “Trump” etched into the algae on the back of a manatee went viral. A new podcast looks at the 400-year history of Arctic exploration and its connections to global warming. And the re-envisioning of a classic music composition serves as a warning of our hotter future. That and more in the latest Warming Trends.
The high court agreed to hear a narrow issue related to jurisdiction. But then the oil and gas industry pushed it to go further.
By David Hasemyer
What began as a narrow jurisdictional question to be argued Tuesday before the U.S. Supreme Court in a climate change lawsuit filed by the city of Baltimore could take on far greater implications if the high court agrees with major oil companies to expand its purview and consider whether federal, rather than state courts, are the appropriate venue for the city’s case and possibly a host of similar lawsuits.
