#Climate policy

#Climate policy

After a tumultuous year under the Trump administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has adopted a new, almost unrecognizable guise one that tears up environmental rules and cheerleads for coal, gas-guzzling cars and artificial intelligence. When Donald Trump took power, it was widely anticipated the EPA would loosen pollution rules from sources such as cars, trucks and power plants, as part of a longstanding back and forth between administrations over how strict such standards should be.

But to environmental advocates, the announcement sounded less like relief and more like a bill for working people, one that would result in higher fuel costs, increased pollution, and a slower path to clean energy. Critics warn that the decision represents a blow to the energy transition and a significant setback in the fight against climate change overall.

A few months ago, Marjorie Taylor Greene, then a Georgia representative, held a hearing on her bill to ban research on geoengineering, which refers to technological climate interventions, such as using reflective particles to reflect away sunlight. The hearing represented something of a first a Republican raising alarm bells about human activity altering the health of the planet. Of course, for centuries, people have burned fossil fuels to power and feed society, emitting greenhouse gases that now overheat the planet.

It seems possible that what will ultimately emerge is a clarified sense of principles and a deeper commitment to them (which is why part of the conflict is over American history itself). On one hand, there are the heads of the federal government and their spokespeople, whose lies are part of their disdain for the electorate and the rule of law.

Hundreds of Arctic rivers and streams are turning bright red-orange, not from chemical pollution, but from naturally occurring iron spilling from long-frozen ground as temperatures warm. The "rusting rivers" phenomenon, which has been documented across the Brooks Range in northern Alaska, offers a vivid example of the effects of climate change in a region that is warming faster than the global average. The finding was reported in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's annual Arctic Report Card, released Tuesday. NOAA has released the report for 20 years as a way to track rapid changes in the northernmost part of the planet.

The once-rigid link between economic growth and carbon emissions is breaking across the vast majority of the world, according to a study released ahead of Friday's 10th anniversary of the Paris climate agreement. The analysis, which underscores the effectiveness of strong government climate policies, shows this decoupling trend has accelerated since 2015 and is becoming particularly pronounced among major emitters in the global south. Countries representing 92% of the global economy have now decoupled consumption-based carbon emissions and GDP expansion, according to the report by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).

Can you imagine someone giving you $170,000 (129,000)? What would you buy? Can you imagine getting another $170,000 one minute later? And the handouts then continuing every minute for years? If so, you have a feel for the colossal cash machine that is Saudi Arabia's state oil company Aramco, the world's biggest producer of oil and gas last year. That tidal wave of cash keeps the authoritarian kingdom afloat,

The International Energy Agency predicts global demand for oil and gas will rise well beyond 2030, marking a sharp departure from the agency's previous forecasts that demand for oil would peak by 2030. In a new report, the IEA says low gas prices, growing concerns over energy security and a global lack of ambitious climate policies will delay the peak of the fossil fuel era until at least 2050.

China is flooding the zone and will dominate in the next great global industry,

Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has welcomed world leaders to Belém for the first climate summit in the Amazon, where conservationists hope he can be a champion for the rain forest and its people. But with a divided administration, a hostile Congress, and 20th-century developmentalist instincts, this global figurehead of the center left has a balancing act to perform in advocating protection of nature and a reduction of emissions.

The Ontario government says it wants to scrap parts of a law requiring it to set and update its emission reductions targets, wiping out legislation that's been key to a youth-led constitutional challenge of its climate plan. The government's plan to repeal parts of the 2018 Cap and Trade Cancellation Act is buried in today's fall economic statement. The government says it will repeal the sections requiring the province to establish emissions reductions targets, prepare a climate plan and issue progress reports.

Brazil's Petrobras has been given permission to drill for oil near the mouth of the Amazon River, casting a shadow over the country's green ambitions as it prepares to host UN climate talks. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the president, has come under fire from conservationists who argue his oil expansion plans clash with his image as a global leader on climate change. Brazil will host Cop30 climate talks in the Amazon city of Belem next month.

The joint Dutch-German venture, which received the green light from regional authorities last month, seeks to extract 13bn cubic metres of gas from just outside a protected area at the marine border between the two countries. Campaigners have criticised the project because it will mean drill for gas more than four years after the International Energy Agency warned that new oil and gas development was incompatible with its roadmap to stop the planet heating by 1.5C (2.7F).

The wildlife photographer has raised 1.2m for the cause in the past 10 years through her Remembering Wildlife series, an annual, not-for-profit picture book featuring images of animals from the world's top nature photographers. The first edition was published in 2015, when the Paris climate agreement was being drafted but, in the years since, efforts to tackle the climate crisis have been rolled back.

The attorneys general of more than a dozen states on Thursday sued the Trump administration over the termination of $7 billion in funding intended for affordable solar energy projects across the U.S. The coalition, which also included the District of Columbia and other stakeholders, argued in the lawsuit that the Environmental Protection Agency's cancellation of the Solar for All program violated the law governing federal agencies and the constitutional separation of powers.