#Climate policy

#Climate policy

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.

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.

Speaking by video at the UN Climate Summit in New York last week, China's president Xi Jinping laid out his country's climate ambitions. While the stated goals may not have been aggressive as some environmentalists would like, Xi at least reaffirmed China's green commitment. "Despite some countries going against the trend, the international community should stay on the right track, maintain unwavering confidence, unwavering action, and undiminished efforts," he said. Any reference to Donald Trump and the United States was surely intended (though not explicit).

Americans will pay more at the pump if Donald Trump succeeds in tossing out tailpipe pollution regulations, a new analysis shows. That's on top of job and GDP losses that could result from stifling innovation in cleaner transportation. The Trump administration wants to do away with the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, policies that have encouraged carmakers to manufacture more fuel-efficient cars and electric vehicles over time.

It might be the time for someone to remind him that the hell is the result of wars in the Middle East, a war in Afghanistan and conflicts in north and east Africa. Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Eritrea and Afghanistan are some of the countries where the US initiated, funded or clandestinely participated in fomenting mayhem and disaster. And may still be doing so.

Pledge to cut emissions by 7-10 percent does not go far enough, though renewables rollout a cause for hope, expert say.

"We wanted more time," she said. "We wanted to do more due diligence ... There were so many other issues on the docket."

The explosion of AI across every industry has seen hundreds of water- and power-hungry server farms sprout up across the US. Already, one-third of the world's internet traffic flows through data centers in just one US state: Virginia. However, until now, there has been no official record of the number of data centers in America, who owns them, or how much electricity they consume.

Over the past decade, the United States has turned technologies into tools that strengthened our economy, delivered good-paying union jobs, cleaned up our air and water, conserved our precious natural resources, and saved families money all across our country. Yet now the country is choosing to cede that leadership, letting China dominate and control the clean-energy market across the world. It's no surprise that people are scratching their heads, wondering what happened.

From Donald Trump's first day back in office, he vowed to unravel California's sway over the nation's auto-emission standards by eliminating the state's progressive zero-emission mandates.

Tropical Storm Barry developed in the Gulf of Mexico on June 29th, becoming the second named storm of the season and arriving unusually early, with significant rains leading to deadly floods.

At his behest, the GOP-controlled Congress has now passed the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' that guts the environmentally-focused provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), including tax credits for EV purchases.

For Wopke Hoekstra, the EU's climate commissioner, that era is over. Europe would still lead, he said, but other countries must come forward too.