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).
It also has a "Belém Mission to 1.5" aimed at "enabling ambition and implementation" of nations' emissions-cutting pledges. Elsewhere, the agreement calls for efforts to at least triple finance for climate adaptation by 2035. Between the lines: The carefully word-smithed document indirectly endorses movement away from fossil fuels. The section on the "Global Implementation Accelerator" shouts out the "United Arab Emirates Consensus." That's the outcome of the 2023 UN talks in Dubai that called for "transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems."
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,
When Bill Gates published his latest essay on climate change, the response was immediate. Many critics accused him of defeatism or saw the memo as another example of billionaires bending a knee to the climate denialism of President Donald Trump. (Trump himself was a fan.) Others told him to stop opining about climate change. "Respectfully, Bill Gates Should Shut Up," read a headline by the online magazine Slate.
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.
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.
"People often think of climate change as a separate bucket at the end of a long row of other buckets of problems we're trying to fix that are wrong in the world," Hayhoe told Axios. This includes poverty, disease and access to clean water. "Climate change is not a separate bucket," Hayhoe said. "The reason we care about climate change is that it's the hole in every bucket."
One area of huge importance did not get much coverage - the administration's attack on clean energy and rollbacks of environmental regulations essential to protect the health of our communities. In California, we have the opportunity to pass the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act, AB 1243 and SB 684. Rather than relying on government funds to clean up fossil fuel pollution and climate damage like wildfires, this bill holds the largest polluters accountable.
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.
In few area does Mexicab President Claudia Sheinbaum face more contradictions than in addressing climate change. She is trained as an environmental scientist a path that led her to participate in a Nobel Prize yet champions an energy sovereignty plan that places hydrocarbons at its core. While empowering her Secretary of Environment to position herself as a regional leader, Sheinbaum allocates nine out of every 10 pesos of the budget intended to mitigate climate change
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.
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.
Faced with a lawsuit, the administration of US President Donald Trump has disbanded a panel of five well-known critics of climate science who issued a controversial draft report questioning the evidence underlying global warming. US energy secretary Chris Wright asserted that the group had accomplished its goal in publishing the first draft, which the Department of Energy (DoE) has declined to withdraw. Two of the panel's members told Nature they plan to continue the work independently.
