Collected headlines from around the web, every weekday.
By 2100, billions of people are at risk of facing more flooding, higher temperatures and less food and water, a new study warns. The research found that climate change will cause the Earth’s tropical rain belt—a latitudinal area near the equator responsible for a significant portion of the planet’s precipitation—to unevenly shift in areas that cover almost two-thirds of the world.
CBS News
The White House is expected to roll out another series of environment-related actions this week. But activists are already praising President Biden for actions he took on his first day, which many say put an unprecedented focus on racial equity and environmental justice. Two executive orders will “serve as a north star” for the federal government in terms of equitable policy, one activist said.
Inside Climate News
The United States will mark its return to the global fight against climate change on Monday by joining high level talks on ways to better protect people and economies from the effects of global warming. John Kerry, Biden’s special climate envoy, will join world leaders online for the Climate Adaptation Summit less than a week after the president announced the U.S. was rejoining the Paris Agreement.
Reuters
Earth’s ice is melting faster today than in the mid-1990s, new research suggests, as climate change nudges global temperatures ever higher. Altogether, an estimated 28 trillion metric tons of ice have melted away from the world’s sea ice, ice sheets and glaciers since the mid-1990s. And the annual melt rate is now about 57 percent faster than it was three decades ago.
Reuters
Eminent domain—the government practice of taking private land for public use—has become easier for fossil fuel companies to utilize under President Trump, who removed regulatory barriers for the process. But environmentalists warned that move would disproportionately affect Black communities. That prediction already seems to be playing out in the southwest region of Memphis, Tennessee.
Inside Climate News
The most coal-dependent utilities in the United States plan to keep around 75 percent of their coal-fired power plants running for another decade, according to a new analysis by the environmental group Sierra Club. The report, which reviewed the plans of 50 utilities, reflects the challenges President Biden will face as he pursues his ambitious climate agenda, including decarbonizing the power sector by 2035.
Reuters
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.
The New York Times
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.
The Hill
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.
Reuters
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.
Bloomberg
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?
The New York Times
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.
The Guardian
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.
Inside Climate News
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.
Inside Climate News
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.
Inside Climate News
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.
Inside Climate News
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.
The New York Times
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.
Reuters
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