Politics & Policy Archives - Inside Climate News

At COP28, the United States Will Stress an End to Fossil Emissions, Not Fuels

By Marianne Lavelle — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 22:37:37 +0000

The Biden administration faces increasing international and domestic political pressure to endorse near-term cuts in coal, oil and natural gas.

By Marianne Lavelle

President Joe Biden will not attend the climate talks that commence this week in Dubai, but the conflict that has come to define his policy on the planetary crisis will be front and center.

“Carbon Cowboys” Chasing Emissions Offsets in the Amazon Keep Forest-Dwelling Communities in the Dark

By Sam Schramski and Cícero Pedrosa Neto — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Indigenous and traditional groups in the forest are rarely consulted about carbon credit projects they see as the latest gold rush on their lands, and question the community and climate benefits the projects promise.

By Sam Schramski and Cícero Pedrosa Neto

“The first time I heard about carbon credits, I didn’t understand what they were about at all,” says Queila Couto, a lawyer, while staring into the Itacuruçá River in the Brazilian state of Pará, “and it was bad.”

Black Women Face Disproportionate Risks From Largely Unregulated Toxic Substances in Beauty and Personal Care Products

By Victoria St. Martin — Sun, 26 Nov 2023 10:00:00 +0000

The FDA has finally proposed a ban on formaldehyde in hair straighteners, and new regulations on the cosmetics industry take effect next month. But one activist called them “a floor, not a ceiling.”

By Victoria St. Martin

Dereliction of Beauty: First in a series on how lax regulation of beauty care products victimizes women of color.

The EU Overhauls Its Law Covering Environmental Crimes, Banning Specific Acts and Increasing Penalties

By Katie Surma — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 10:00:00 +0000

The European Parliament is expected to approve the new directive early next year. It’s not clear whether the emission of greenhouse gasses at certain levels could constitute crimes.

By Katie Surma

The European Union will ban environmental destruction tantamount to “ecocide,” outlawing acts that destroy or cause substantial damage to ecosystems.

Fulcrum Bioenergy, Aiming to Produce ‘Net-Zero’ Jet Fuel From Plastic Waste, Hits Heavy Turbulence

By James Bruggers — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 10:30:00 +0000

The California company has defaulted on $289 million in Nevada bonds and put $500 million in financing for a facility in Indiana on hold. Meanwhile, U.S. senators don’t want tax credits financing plastics-to-jet-fuel schemes.

By James Bruggers

Six Senate Democrats last month sent a letter to the head of the Internal Revenue Service urging the federal tax agency to prohibit companies that make fuels from plastics and other petroleum products from qualifying for federal tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act, President Biden’s landmark climate legislation.

Is China Emitting a Climate Super Pollutant in Violation of an International Environmental Agreement?

By Phil McKenna and Peter Aldhous — Sat, 18 Nov 2023 11:00:00 +0000

Concentrations of HFC-23, one of the world’s most potent greenhouse gases, remained elevated in East Asia after China, a known past polluter, agreed to curb emissions.

By Phil McKenna and Peter Aldhous

Preliminary atmospheric monitoring data from a remote South Korean island off China’s east coast shows elevated concentrations of hydrofluorocarbon-23 (HFC-23), a greenhouse gas 14,700 times more potent than carbon dioxide on a pound-for-pound basis, according to the World Meteorological Association.

New Research Makes it Harder to Kick The Climate Can Down the Road from COP28

By Bob Berwyn — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Without immediate emissions cuts, global temperatures will breach the Paris Agreement’s goals sooner than expected, scientists say. ‘Despite decades of warnings, we are still heading in the wrong direction’

By Bob Berwyn

Research released this week raises new questions about how much more Earth may warm, or cool, if and when human carbon dioxide emissions zero out. Best estimates to date suggest that the global surface temperature would stabilize within a few decades, but the new paper in the journal Frontiers in Science examines the uncertainties around that conclusion, including how the planet’s key carbon dioxide-absorbing systems, like forests and oceans, will respond.

US Regions Will Suffer a Stunning Variety of Climate-Caused Disasters, Report Finds

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 10:15:00 +0000

Extreme temperatures; worsening wildfires, hurricanes and floods; infrastructure problems; agricultural impacts: The way you experience climate change will depend on where you live.

By Nicholas Kusnetz, Lee Hedgepeth, Amy Green, Phil McKenna, Dylan Baddour, Aydali Campa, Wyatt Myskow, Marianne Lavelle and Kristoffer Tigue

If there is one overarching message from the nation’s latest climate assessment, it is that nowhere will be spared.

Can US, China Climate Talks Spur Progress at COP28?

By Bob Berwyn, Phil McKenna and Nicholas Kusnetz — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 19:48:03 +0000

With global consensus difficult to find, some experts say smaller multilateral deals between major greenhouse gas polluters are needed to quickly cut emissions.

By Bob Berwyn, Phil McKenna and Nicholas Kusnetz

New climate talks between the United States and China could set an encouraging signal for the upcoming United Nations COP28 climate summit, but only if the world’s biggest greenhouse gas polluters follow up on their words with actions.

Report Charts Climate Change’s Growing Impact in the US, While Stressing Benefits of Action

By Marianne Lavelle, Katie Surma, Kiley Price, Nicholas Kusnetz — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 10:15:00 +0000

The National Climate Assessment sees sea level rise of 11 inches by 2050 and says the transition to wind and solar energy must go two to 10 times faster to meet U.S. goals for reducing greenhouse gases.

By Marianne Lavelle, Katie Surma, Kiley Price, Nicholas Kusnetz

WASHINGTON—In a sprawling, multimedia report that stresses it is not too late to act, the Biden administration on Tuesday delivered a sobering catalog of climate change’s impacts in every corner of the United States—from battered coasts to parched cornfields to blazing forests. It measures the human toll, including at least 700 people dying of heat-related illness each year, in a nation warming 60 percent more quickly than the world as a whole.