Collected headlines from around the web, every weekday.
Slowing global warming and stemming the loss of biodiversity have been viewed as independent challenges for years. But a new landmark report concludes that climate change and the rapid decline of natural ecosystems are intertwined crises that should be tackled together if international efforts to address either are to succeed.
Inside Climate News
Investors managing more than $41 trillion in assets are calling on world leaders to immediately step up their climate game if they don’t want to miss out on a wave of clean energy investment, CNN reports. More than 450 major investors, including Fidelity and State Street, signed a letter this week urging governments to set stricter emissions reduction goals and lay out plans on how to reach them.
CNN
Amid Democrats’ worries that President Biden may make concessions to Republicans on a bipartisan infrastructure Bill, former Vice President Al Gore called Biden to press him to maintain climate policies in the legislation, the Washington Post reports. Gore also asked Biden to stop a pipeline that would cut through a Black neighborhood in southwest Memphis.
The Washington Post
An intense drought is gripping the American West, with the U.S. Drought Monitor saying that extreme conditions are more widespread than at any point in at least 20 years. The New York Times has taken the data from over the last two decades and broken it down visually to show just how bad the parched conditions have become.
The New York Times
California risks an escalating spiral of wildfire catastrophes and rising housing costs unless it completely revamps how it rebuilds after fires and finds ways to discourage building in high-risk areas. Those are the conclusions of a new University of California Berkeley study that looked at insurance payouts over the last 60 years.
Reuters
With global shipping accounting for nearly 3 percent of global CO2 emissions, the United States has signed on to international efforts to accelerate the development of “green” shipping fuels. “By 2030, we want ships capable of running on well-to-wake zero-emission fuels,” the U.S. Department of Energy told Reuters by email.
Reuters
A Polish environmental group says five members of the public are separately taking the government to court this month to demand faster steps to reduce Poland’s greenhouse gas emissions and meet European climate goals, the Associated Press reports. The Polish government’s inaction on climate change is threatening their health and the future for their children, the plaintiffs argue.
Associate Press
The collapse of negotiations between President Biden and Senate Republicans for an infrastructure bill has complicated the prospects for Biden’s climate agenda, the New York Times reports. Republican and Democratic lawmakers continue to argue over the billions of dollars in the plan intended to help the country pivot away from fossil fuels.
The New York Times
The Biden administration intends to revive federal environmental protections for millions of streams, marshes and other bodies of water across the country that had been eliminated by former President Donald Trump, the New York Times reports. Officials announced the move Wednesday, saying the changes under Trump were found to cause “significant environmental degradation.”
The New York Times
Emissions from food production, already considered one of the biggest contributors to climate change, have been underestimated for decades, potentially skewing the pledges that countries have made under the Paris climate agreement to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, according to new research. “When you count it all up, across the food system, it’s enormous,” one of the study’s authors said.
Inside Climate News
The developer of the Keystone XL pipeline announced Wednesday that it is pulling the plug on the controversial project after the Biden administration revoked its permit in January. TC Energy, the Canadian company behind the project, said it decided to terminate the project after a comprehensive review of its options and consultation with the government of Alberta, Canada.
CNN
In just a decade, the global average price for a solar panel has fallen more than 90 percent, helping to build a case that the world could switch to clean energy and save money. But that trend flattened last summer, marking an unusually large price increase for solar. We look at that, and more, in the latest Inside Clean Energy by Dan Gearino.
Inside Climate News
More than 70 CEOs from some of the world’s biggest companies have urged governments to do much more to tackle climate change, including forcing businesses to reduce their carbon emissions, CNN reports. Chief executives at some of the world’s biggest companies, including Nestlé and Pepsi, wrote a letter asking governments worldwide to align their policies with the Paris climate accord.
CNN
Monday’s clashes between protesters and police over Minnesota’s Line 3 oil pipeline were reminiscent of the 2016 Standing Rock protests in North Dakota. As police arrested some 200 activists, Indigenous leaders vowed to keep fighting Line 3. But unless President Biden intervenes, activists worry their efforts in Minnesota will see a similar fate to what happened over the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Inside Climate News
Royal Dutch Shell will respond to a recent defeat in a Dutch court by accelerating its efforts to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions, the New York Times reports. In a landmark ruling in May, the Hague District Court ruled that Shell must cut its carbon emissions by 45 percent from 2019 levels by 2030. Shell’s chief executive said the company would “rise to the challenge,” but still plans to appeal the decision.
The New York Times
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared Tuesday that new reforms “fix all of the flaws” that caused February’s deadly winter blackout that left more than 4 million people without power in subfreezing weather, the Associated Press reports. But energy experts disagreed, saying the grid is still vulnerable, and that the reforms don’t go far enough and ignore the realities of climate change.
Associated Press
Some of the world’s biggest energy firms are having difficulties filling positions with skilled workers to advance their ambitious renewable energy growth plans, even as countries funnel billions of dollars into developing clean power, Bloomberg Green reports. Solar capacity is expected to triple by 2030, with wind capacity expected to more than double.
Bloomberg
The Biden administration will begin to explore the possibility of developing offshore wind and other renewable energy in the Gulf Coast, officials announced Tuesday. The move marks the first time the Interior Department has sought to gauge public interest in developing clean energy projects in the Gulf, The Hill reports.
The Hill
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