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May 11, 2026 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SUWA Statement on the Trump Administration’s Rescission of the BLM Public Lands Rule – 5.11.26    The Rule reiterated that conservation is one of many uses of the nation’s public lands 

Contacts:
Grant Stevens, Communications Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (319) 427-0260; grant@suwa.org

Washington, DC – The Department of the Interior has announced the rescission of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Public Lands Rule. Among other things, the Rule reiterated that conservation is a key component of the BLM’s multiple-use mission and ensured that the agency consistently managed for that use. Below is a statement from SUWA Legal Director Steve Bloch and additional information.  

“America’s wildest public lands face unprecedented threats from the Trump administration and its repeated decisions to prioritize fossil fuel development and extractive industry over clean water, wildlife habitat, and wild open spaces. This is especially the case in Utah, where Trump’s policies are having direct and irreversible impacts on the nation’s redrock wilderness,” said Steve Bloch, legal director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA). “The Public Lands Rule reiterated that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had to put conservation on equal footing with other uses and laid out a framework for the agency to restore degraded landscapes and protect intact public lands for current and future generations. Americans and Utahns widely supported the Rule and we are deeply disappointed to see the Trump administration’s shortsighted effort to undo it. Our work to Protect Wild Utah continues, undeterred.” 

Additional information:  

The Public Lands Rule established a “… framework to ensure healthy landscapes, abundant wildlife habitat, clean water, and balanced decision-making on our nation’s public lands.” It did not preclude any uses on BLM-managed public lands; it puts conservation on equal footing with grazing, mining, and energy production, and promoted restoration, provided for responsible development, and conserved intact healthy landscapes. The Rule was the product of an extensive, years-long public process with multiple in-person and online meetings and opportunities for public comment. 92% of the comments received by BLM supported the Rule. 

The Public Lands Rule is the subject of litigation brought by Republican-led states and industry groups in several federal district courts around the country; additional information can be found here. In February 2025, Congresswoman Celeste Maloy (UT-02) and Congressman Russ Fulcher (ID-01) re-introduced the Western Economic Security Today (WEST) Act; this federal legislation would require the Director of the BLM to withdraw the Rule. Senator John Curtis (R-UT) is an original co-sponsor of S.530 (WEST Act of 2025), companion legislation in the Senate, which was introduced in February 2025.  

• BLM’s webpage on the Public Lands Rule.  

• SUWA’s 9.10.25 Statement on the Trump Administration’s Plan to Rescind the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Public Lands Rule; Advocacy Action from SUWA during the public comment period 

• SUWA’s 4.16.26 Statement on the Trump Administration’s Plan to Rescind the Landmark Public Lands Rule 

• SUWA’s 2.11.25 Statement on the WEST Act and its Impact on the Public Lands Rule 

• 10.1.24 Press Release – Utah and National Conservation Groups Move to Defend Balanced Management of Public Lands from Mining and Oil Industry Lawsuit 

• SUWA’s 4.18.24 Statement when the Final Rule was announced.  

• “The BLM Public Lands Rule is a common-sense solution” June 25, 2023 Editorial from the Salt Lake Tribune 

• 3.30.23 SUWA Statement on the Proposed Rule; Advocacy Action from SUWA during the public comment period 

• Information regarding public comments received by BLM  – 92% of which were supportive.  

• Utah-specific polling data from the 2024 Conservation in the West Poll, which shows a clear and resounding preference for conservation when voters are given a choice over how public lands are used.  

### 

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) is a nonprofit organization with members and supporters from around the country dedicated to protecting America’s redrock wilderness. From offices in Moab, Salt Lake City, and Washington, DC, our team of professionals defends the redrock, organizes support for America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, and stewards a world-renowned landscape. Learn more at www.suwa.org. 

The post SUWA Statement on the Trump Administration’s Rescission of the BLM Public Lands Rule – 5.11.26    appeared first on Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

These videos include personal musings and conclusions of the creators and climate scientists Dr. Adam Levy and Dr. Ella Gilbert. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any).

ClimateAdam - Our Oceans Are Tipped To Collapse: Can we still act?

Climate change is driving a crucial ocean current close to collapse. As global warming heats our planet, it's slowing down the vast Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation - or AMOC. And scientists fear that it could reach a tipping point - effectively shutting down this ocean circulation, and causing rapid climate change and disasters across the world: brutally cold European winters; sea level surges in America; and disrupted monsoon rains. But what do we actually understand about our risks of an AMOC tipping point? How big are the risks as our climate changes? And can we still act to protect ourselves?

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Dr Gilbz - This critical climate system is tipping…. Or is it?

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation - or AMOC - is one of the world's most vital ocean currents, transporting water, heat and carbon around the planet. It's part of the "global conveyor belt" that keeps our planet moving.

And scientists are warning that it could be weakening - with terrible consequences for humanity.

But... is it?? What's behind the contrasting headlines? Let's dig in

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The so-called “Rubber-Stamp Rule”, an effort by the Trump administration to “Make America Nuclear Again”, violates key components of the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) and Energy Reorganization Act, according to comments filed this week by 13 organizations including the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) and Beyond Nuclear. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) proposed rule will allow reactor designs that the Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Defense (DOD) have approved to bypass required safety reviews by the NRC.

In a separate comment filing in March, 11 state attorneys general concurred with the organizations’ findings that the Department of Energy ‘s new policy to exclude “pilot reactors” from both NRC licensing and environmental reviews violates existing law. In that case, the Department of Energy announced, in violation of federal law, that it would exempt previously untested reactors that it approves to be built and operated from any review of their environmental impacts.

“Along with the DOE’s environmental ‘free pass’ policy, the whole ‘expedited licensing’ regime the administration is attempting to set up appears to be illegal,” said Tim Judson, executive director of NIRS and co-author of comments filed to the NRC. “The White House is trying to create a ‘regulatory tunnel’ around NRC’s safety regulations. That would mean DOE’s biases and obviously false assumptions about the safety of nuclear power plants become the new normal, exposing the public to unacceptable dangers to our health and safety.”

The NRC’s proposed regulation would allow companies that want to build a nuclear reactor of the same design as one DOE has previously approved to merely submit documentation of that approval and claim that the previously built reactor “is safe.” Such companies would likely never have to go through a detailed safety review by NRC to build and operate such reactors. In 1974, Congress amended the Atomic Energy Act to prohibit such a scheme.

“Fifty years ago, the Atomic Energy Commission was abolished because they became too much of a promoter and lost the confidence of Congress and the public over safety,” said Paul Gunter, director of the reactor oversight project at Beyond Nuclear. “The NRC was established to provide a regulator that prioritizes safety and is obligated not to take shortcuts for a production agenda. Instead, half a century later, we are on the same dangerous collision course, casting aside the NRC in favor of the DOE, which doesn’t have the experience or the staff to get the industry in line with safety and security. This capitulation to the Trump agenda could lead to the NRC being abolished altogether, because nobody will have confidence in them.”

The groups also told NRC that it cannot simply “rubber-stamp” reactors that the military builds, either. “And while the law allows the DOD to build its own nuclear reactors,” said Tim Judson of NIRS, “it does not allow the NRC to skip safety reviews for civilian nuclear plants just because they use the same designs. The military routinely exposes its personnel to dangers that civilians are supposed to be protected from.”

“In its eagerness to short-circuit reactor safeguards, the Trump administration is once again doing what it does best – demonstrating a complete disregard for the law,” said Linda Pentz Gunter, executive director of Beyond Nuclear. “But nuclear technology is too inherently dangerous to operate as an outlaw. Ignoring those dangers will put millions of Americans at risk of another catastrophic nuclear accident.”

• NIRS, BN, et al comments on NRC Proposed Rule — https://www.nirs.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DocketID_NRC-2025-1503_Comments_-BeyondNuclear-NIRS-etal.pdf
• Comments on DOE Categorical Exclusion Policy — https://www.nirs.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026.03.04-NIRS-et-al-Comments-re-DOE-categorical-exclusion-for-advanced-nuclear-reactors.pdf

For well over a year now, the Save the Gibbons Alliance, a group of small-ape conservationists and media professionals focused on protecting these long-armed primates from illegal trade, has been tracking a worrying problem. They’ve documented at least one gibbon-smuggling incident per month, either at a southeast Asian airport or an Indian one, each involving multiple gibbon babies or juveniles. News reports of these seizures in the local media are often accompanied by heartbreaking images of distressed or dead gibbon babies, stuffed into check-in or carry-on baggage.

“The level of complexity and organization that needs to be involved in this is just huge,” says Dr. Susan Cheyne, senior lecturer in primate conservation at the Oxford Brookes University and a member of the Save the Gibbon Alliance.

Some months the number of seizure incidents has gone up to three or four. These confiscations have happened either during departure from Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia or from Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand, or upon arrival at various Indian airports.

This frequency of gibbon confiscations “is not something we’ve seen commonly in the past,” says Kanitha Krishnasamy, Southeast Asia director for TRAFFIC, a nongovernmental organization monitoring the illegal wildlife trade.

A  recent report by TRAFFIC sheds light on the scale of the trade in the past decade (2016 – 2025). According to data they provided, some of which was collected after the report, 93 trafficked gibbons were confiscated across south and southeast Asia in 2025 alone.

“It’s the highest number of gibbons we’ve seen confiscated in the last 10 years,” says Krishnasamy. This number — which includes gibbons kept as pets as well as those being smuggled across international borders via air, sea, and land — amounts to a third of the gibbons seized in the previous nine years (2016-2024).

In the past decade, Indonesia has had the highest number gibbon-confiscation incidents and individuals seized, partly due to the robust domestic trade and in part due to increased attention by authorities. But more recently India and Malaysia have emerged at the heart of international gibbon-smuggling attempts.

According to TRAFFIC 33 gibbon-smuggling incidents were recorded in the past 10 years, most of which involved multiple animals at a time. Of these India was involved in 26 attempts as the destination (or possible mid-transit) country, while Malaysia was involved in 20 incidents as the source or transit point for gibbons trafficked from Indonesia and other southeast Asian range countries.

“In the past we’ve seen countless species from India being trafficked into the southeast Asian market,” says Krishnasamy. “We seem to be seeing something different now — gibbons and other mammals sourced from southeast Asia headed to the Indian market.

The Singing Apes

Gibbons are small, agile apes, found in 11 countries across Asia, from northeast India to the western islands of Indonesia. They are known for their loud, melodious calls known as “songs” that reverberate through forests. Of the 20 recognized gibbon species, the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists five as critically endangered, 14 as endangered, and one as vulnerable due to severe habitat loss and poaching for the illegal pet trade.

 

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A post shared by Dr. Jane Goodall (@janegoodallinst)

The two subspecies of siamang — the largest gibbons (in size) — are the most trafficked. “Over 30% of confiscations involve siamangs,” says Krishnasamy.

Other gibbon species that appear often in international trade include agile gibbons (Hylobates agilis), lar gibbons (H. lar), and Javan gibbons (H. moloch). “The majority of gibbons that turn up in trade are most likely to have come from Indonesia or Malaysia,” confirms Cheyne.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species lists all gibbon species under what’s known as Appendix I, which offers them the highest level of protection and prohibits their commercial trade internationally. The apes are also protected under national law in their respective countries, making it illegal to hunt, capture, own, or trade them. If people are arrested and prosecuted for violating these statutes, punishment can include fines and years of imprisonment. Yet according to experts, enforcement remains woefully weak.

“There is a lack of capacity to take these cases to prosecution and to effectively investigate the trade networks,” says Cheyne.

What Is Driving the Demand?

Krishnasamy posits two reasons for the skyrocketing demand for gibbons from India.

“Either there is some sort of a fad of people wanting to keep gibbons as pets in India, or they are heading to facilities like zoos, safaris, or potentially even breeding facilities,” she says. “Which of the two is actually happening requires deeper investigation in India.”

She shares the example of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, which influenced the turtle trade, or the Harry Potter series, which has led to an increase in the illegal trade in owls. “It’s hard to say what is driving this particular trend where gibbons are concerned,” she says.

Indian lawyer Pawan Sharma is the founder of Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare, a rescue and rehabilitation facility located on the outskirts of Mumbai that provides medical care to the gibbons and other wildlife confiscated at the city’s airport. “We have seen more than 300 species intercepted at the airport, from anacondas to Komodo dragons,” says Sharma, adding that some Indians have a voracious appetite for exotic pets.

Online marketplaces provide a major platform for wildlife trade. Social media giant Meta recently shut down nine Indonesian Facebook groups — consisting of thousands of members — which were involved in the trade of endangered wildlife, including gibbons.

However, with criminals always staying one step ahead of the law, some traffickers have moved to more discreet modes of communication. Sharma cites the example of Google Pay being used by traffickers to talk to prospective buyers.

“A large part of the illegal wildlife trade is ultimately driven by human behavior,” says Cheyne. “It is, unfortunately, just another manifestation of the human desire for something different.”

Sourcing the Gibbons

Krishnasamy elaborates on the complexity of the trafficking process.

“It takes time, effort and connections to locate the gibbons in the forest, track them, capture them, transport them to middlemen — one or several — pack them and move them across international borders,” she says. “Not just at the point of exit from Malaysia or Thailand, but also identifying the people carrying and receiving them at the other end, and how to ensure safe passage,” she adds. “All this points to organized criminality.”

Female gibbons reproduce slowly and have a single baby once every two or three years. In most cases, mothers are killed to obtain infants. “If the group is without an adult female, it may allow an opportunity for a new adult female to come in or the group may break down,” says Cheyne.

Indiscriminate shooting could also result in the death of other individuals in the group. Rescued gibbon babies have often been found with pellets lodged in them.

“Ultimately there’s a knock-on consequence for gibbons in the wild,” adds Cheyne.

With a high death rate during the smuggling process, traffickers capture multiple gibbon babies from the wild for the transaction to remain profitable.

“They calculate that 90% of the gibbon babies will die,” says Sinan Serhadli, who is affiliated with two gibbon conservation projects in Asia. Even with this high mortality rate, the trade remains profitable for the traffickers, he adds.

Modes of Trafficking

In addition to trafficking by air, smuggling across international borders also happens by land and sea, which is harder to monitor.

“We’ve seen many cases of wildlife smuggling through land borders,” says Krishnasamy, who points to the Mekong region (which includes Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia) and the Malay Peninsula (which includes southern Thailand and peninsular Malaysia).

The borders between India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh are also porous. Serhadli says about five western hoolock gibbons (Hoolock hoolock) are currently being rehabilitated at a facility in Bangladesh. They were confiscated from commuter buses and appeared to be heading to India.

The Strait of Malacca, a narrow stretch of water separating the island of Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia, is emerging as another hotspot for wildlife trade, with Medan, a city in northeast Sumatra, becoming a key transit hub.

“A lot of wildlife from Sumatra is being brought to Medan,” says Serhadli. “It then goes over the Strait of Malacca either to Thailand or to Malaysia, and then via plane to India.”

In 2025 16 gibbon babies, along with dozens of other wild animals, were confiscated from a boat in the Strait of Malacca.

“This [seizure] is just the tip of the iceberg,” says Serhadli. Only three gibbons survived the ordeal and are currently undergoing rehabilitation at a facility run by the Orangutan Information Centre in northwest Sumatra.

Panut Hadisiswoyo, founder of OIC, says that he has spoken to Malaysian authorities about the urgent need to monitor the Strait of Malacca. “We need to work together to watch the Malacca Strait and prevent the wildlife trade,” he says.

The Next Steps

Krishnasamy wants people to realize that gibbon trafficking is a crime.

“It’s a well-planned illegal operation that harms not just threatened species, but also the carriers who are caught,” she says. These carriers are often low-income people, not those who profit most from the crimes. She hopes there will be increased cooperation between the countries involved, particularly on in-depth investigations.

In an effort to curb the increasing wildlife trafficking at Malaysian airports, TRAFFIC recently conducted a training session for nearly 200 frontline airport personnel to help them identify and respond to wildlife trafficking.

Reacting to the rise in wildlife trafficking via Indian airports, the Directorate of Civil Aviation issued a directive in July 2025 placing the full responsibility — including costs — of repatriating trafficked wildlife on the airline that carries the animals into the country. This has created additional pressure on inbound airlines to improve monitoring and checks. Lawyer Sharma confirms that the repatriations are already being done.

Still, many questions remain unanswered. What happens to the gibbons once they are sent back? Do they survive the repatriation process? Do they reach a rehabilitation facility, or do they end up getting trafficked again?

“Ultimately, we have to tackle demand,” says Cheyne. “There are people that take gibbons from the wild, there are those that sell them, there are those that buy them, there are those who live next to a forest and have them — it’s important to identify the different groups because they need to be targeted differently,” she adds. “If there’s no market for these animals, people will stop taking them out of the wild.”

Republish this article for free! Read our reprint policy. Previously in The Revelator:

The Exotic Pet Trade Harms Animals and Humans. The European Union Is Studying a Potential Solution

The post Asian Forests Grow Increasingly Silent as Gibbon Trafficking Hits an All-Time High appeared first on The Revelator.

On June 5, the administration plans to move forward with a new oil and gas lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It’s a decision that, on its face, feels like a step backward—opening the door to industrial development in one of the most intact and ecologically important landscapes in the United States. 

But let’s zoom out for a moment. Because yes, the Arctic Refuge is facing a single bad decision right now. But it has also been at the center of a decades-long effort to answer a much bigger question: What do we choose to protect, and why? 

For more than 40 years, people all over the country have come together to defend the Refuge. Indigenous leaders, scientists, outdoor enthusiasts, veterans, faith communities, and everyday advocates have all played a role in shaping a shared understanding that this place absolutely cannot be measured in barrels of oil. 

At the heart of the Refuge is the coastal plain, often described as its biological core. Each spring, the Porcupine Caribou herd migrates hundreds of miles to this narrow stretch of land to give birth, drawn by the conditions that have sustained them for generations. The Gwich’in people, whose culture and food security are deeply tied to the caribou, call this place “the sacred place where life begins.” Polar bears den along its coastline, while millions of migratory birds fan out from here to every corner of the country. 

Photo: Alaska Wilderness League Staff

It’s a powerful reminder that even the most remote landscapes are connected to our daily lives in ways we don’t always see. 

That’s why this year we’re asking people to take their advocacy beyond their backyards. You don’t have to live in Alaska—or ever set foot in the Arctic Refuge—to have a stake in what happens there. If you care about public lands, local communities, clean water, wildlife, and a stable climate, this fight is yours too. Decisions made about leasing in the Arctic don’t stay contained to one place; they shape how public lands are managed across the country. And we’re already seeing that ripple effect.  

Just last week, protections for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness were rolled back, opening the door to mining in one of the most beloved landscapes in the Lower 48. When an administration is willing to put a place as ecologically rich and culturally sacred as the Arctic Refuge on the table for drilling, it sends a clear signal: no place is off-limits.  

Protecting the Arctic Refuge is about setting a standard for every wild place we value. 

Efforts to industrialize the Refuge have consistently run into real-world barriers. Previous lease sales failed to generate significant interest from the oil and gas industry. Major financial institutions have pulled back from Arctic drilling, in a sign that they are aware of both economic and reputational risks. And as energy markets continue to evolve, the long-term viability of projects like this looks increasingly uncertain. 

Which is to say, this push to lease the Refuge isn’t only at odds with public opinion, but also out of step with where the world is headed. 

That doesn’t make the lease sale any less serious. But it does remind us that change is already emerging, and that sustained public pressure has played a meaningful role in getting us here.  

For AWL, this moment is one chapter in a much longer story. For decades, we’ve worked alongside the Gwich’in people and partners across the country to protect the Refuge—through advocacy, education, and organizing that connects people to what’s at stake. 

Photo: Michael Block for the Arctic Defense Campaign

The upcoming lease sale is a reminder that progress isn’t always linear. Wins can be followed by setbacks, and protections can be challenged. But it’s also a reminder of how much has already been built: A broad, diverse movement that recognizes the Arctic Refuge is not a distant wilderness, but a shared responsibility. 

So while June 5 may mark another attempt to open this landscape to drilling, it doesn’t define the outcome. 

The future of the Arctic Refuge is still being written—by the people who care about it, speak up for it, and continue to show that some places are worth more than what can be extracted from them. 

And that’s something worth holding onto.

Hina West is managing director of Climate Strategies.

The first Global Conference on Transitioning away from Fossil Fuels, organised by Colombia and the Netherlands, in Santa Marta late last month convened nearly 60 countries, as well as activists, Indigenous peoples, the private sector and academia. The aim of this historic event was to build a “coalition of the willing” driving action for fossil fuel phase-out beyond the UN climate process.

The stakes could not have been higher. As the planet grapples with catastrophic warming, economic instability and geopolitical conflicts fuelled by fossil fuel dependence, this conference represented a rare opportunity to reshape global energy governance, putting science and justice at the core.

For decades, fossil fuel phase-out has been the elephant in the room at climate COPs. Now is finally the time to have this conversation, with Santa Marta as the starting point.

So, what’s needed for this process to succeed? In the days preceding the political conference, all the different social group chapters – including academia, labour, private sector, civil society and Peoples (including Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, peasants, frontline collectives and youth, among others) – developed ambitious recommendations to inform this new multilateral process.

As one of the co-hosts of the academic dialogue, I have learned a clear lesson on what is needed for Santa Marta to create actual breakthroughs for the global energy transition.

Looking where it matters

As someone working at the climate science-policy interface, I believe that science-based evidence is a crucial pathway towards implementing just, orderly and equitable transitions away from fossil fuels.

Yet, as Santa Marta convened colleagues from all over the world, we heard a clear call from representatives of regions directly impacted by the fossil fuel economy: We are over-diagnosed. The evidence is all here, and what we need now is action.

This is a humbling call for the research community: while we remain committed to the creation of knowledge, how can we ensure that these efforts lead to practical outcomes?

As we explored within the academic dialogue ahead of and at Santa Marta, international support for Just Transitions does not often strengthen the capacity of local actors (who are at the frontline) to develop and deliver just transition strategies. If the Santa Marta process wants to translate high-level commitments into credible and effective transition strategies, it must address this gap.

• May 8, 2026 Comment Developing countries must hold the pen to script the fossil fuel transition While the Santa Marta summit has broken the UNFCCC deadlock on phasing out fossil fuels, the new process must not be taken over by Global North nations and their institutions Read more
• Apr 30, 2026 News Santa Marta summit kick-starts work on key steps for fossil fuel transition The conference offers some 60 nations help to develop roadmaps to shift their economies away from coal, oil and gas, and make international trade green Read more

Our discussion created a series of recommendations to address the challenge. Among them, we see the need for stronger collaborative governance across all scales and regions – from the global to the local and including South-to-South partnerships – that explicitly supports the local delivery of transition pathways. This is a gigantic task, made harder by the limited resources available.

Today, climate finance remains systematically skewed towards technical and infrastructural investment, at the expense of social and justice programmes. Current regulatory frameworks and investment criteria must be redesigned so that following Just Transition goals brings financial returns, to ensure that resources are directed where they are most needed. Grant-based mechanisms and highly concessional finance must also be strengthened.

Social dialogue and public participation

Local communities and livelihoods must be placed at the centre of this process, to ensure that interventions are inclusive, aligned with territorial development strategies, and comprehensively address transition impacts (including informal and gendered work).

This requires strong mechanisms for social dialogue and public participation, to be established early on and maintained throughout the implementation of Just Transition strategies. These can take different forms, such as legally binding participation frameworks, public interest committees and community-led advisory bodies.

Grassroots communities must be recognised as co-producers of knowledge, not as consultees or receivers of information. This is also applicable to the Santa Marta process.

Climate scientists call for fossil fuel transition roadmaps

An expected highlight of this conference was the inclusion of underrepresented groups, including subnational governments, frontline communities, and Indigenous Peoples. Their active participation is crucial to ensure that the transition strategies discussed are not just technically sound, but socially just and locally relevant. These voices must be at the heart of the conference’s final outcomes.

Nevertheless, Santa Marta was only the starting point of this ambitious multilateral process, and also in itself, not free from controversies. The transition away from fossil fuels will bring many uncertainties which require continuous learning and adaptation.

What next?

Taking a ‘build the ship as we sail it’ approach to this new layer of cooperation did not come without friction – be it from balancing Global South and North representation and short input deadlines, to knowing who had charge of the pen before, during and after the creation of our chapter’s output report, intended to feed into the subsequent high-level segment.

I believe that robust, inclusive and context-specific analysis is essential for Just Transition planning and implementation. But as the expert community, we must provide this with solidarity, humility, and willingness to learn from those at the frontline of the transition.

Many learnings surfaced regarding methodology and decision-making, and enhancing overall transparency and inclusivity for the next pre-science convening (and the broader event), currently mooted to be happening in Ireland, with the diplomatic gathering in Tuvalu, at some point next year.

Türkiye’s COP31 presidency and IEA join forces on clean energy push

As we look towards the multilateral milestones ahead – Bonn, Tuvalu, Antalya – the message from Santa Marta is clear. This international momentum must be laser-focused on ensuring practical outcomes on the ground.

What we need now is not another layer of dialogue or more diagnosis, but concrete action: binding and consistent commitments, robust and accountable governance, and finance that prioritises people and the planet. The future we want is within reach, and we have more than enough evidence to demonstrate it, but we need our resources and efforts to be aligned where it matters.

The post Santa Marta was a learning moment for how to shape inclusive just transitions appeared first on Climate Home News.

For decades, the Southern Ocean defied global warming trends – until 2015

Source

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While our emissions are trapping heat near the surface of the Earth, they are having the opposite effect in the upper atmosphere. For decades, the stratosphere has been cooling. A new study helps explain why.

Read more on E360 →

Headline News:

• “Firm Solar And Storage Costs Fall To $54/MWh, Says IRENA” • Solar-plus-storage LCOE range from $54/MWh to $82/MWh in high-irradiance regions, the International Renewable Energy Agency said in its report, “24/7 Renewables: The Economics of Firm Solar and Wind.” That compares with over $100/MWh for new gas globally. [pv magazine Australia]

Solar plus battery system (Wikideas1, public domain)

• “Bolivia’s Fuel Shortages And ‘Junk Gasoline’ Drive A Surge In Electric Cars” • A small but growing number of Bolivians are switching from combustion cars to EVs as the South American country has fuel shortages and a presidential decree that ended long-standing fuel subsidies. And the gasoline is of low enough quality to damage vehicles. [ABC News]
• “Solar Is The Rising Power Source Says IEA” • Analysis from the International Energy Agency’s Global Energy Review 2026 shows global energy demand rose by 1.3% last year despite economic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions, and slowing growth in some major economies. But the biggest part of that story was not oil or gas. It was solar. [Energy Live News]
• “New Network Rail Deal To Run Sites With Wind Power” • In the UK, Network Rail took another major step towards powering all its offices, depots, and managed stations by renewable energy as it signed a deal with leading renewable energy company RWE to supply around 65% of its non-traction electricity from an offshore wind farms. [Ethical Marketing News]
• “US-Bangladesh Deal May Obstruct Bangladesh’s Renewable Energy Growth” • While a US-Bangladesh trade deal may have brought some relief from tariffs on the export-based Bangladesh garment industry, it is also a matter of debate. The provisions of the deal require Bangladesh to purchase $15 billion worth of US LNG over 15 years. [The Business Standard]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

Rapid load growth is putting tremendous pressure on PJM, the regional transmission organization covering 13 states and Washington, D.C., to deliver  necessary power while maintaining affordability and reliability. This demand surge has collided with a constrained transmission grid and a slow generator interconnection process (which PJM is making efforts to address).

Fortunately, PJM can quickly add cost-saving new generation by improving the path for “energy-only” resources to connect to the grid. Recent conversations surrounding fast, flexible load interconnection highlight a broader principle: whether connecting load or generation, faster connection can be offered in exchange for modest operational curtailment, and the interconnection process can be streamlined accordingly.

While capacity price spikes and the need for “firm capacity” have dominated headlines and PJM-led interventions to date, the reality is that energy prices remain the largest share of electricity bills. Energy market prices were up 50% in 2025 compared to 2024, driven by factors such as higher gas prices and higher demand, which results in the dispatch of less efficient, higher-cost generators.

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To meet load growth and deliver downward pressure on energy costs, PJM needs not just additional capacity, but also more low-cost energy generation on its system. Energy-only resources (those that seek energy resource interconnection service, or ERIS) are well positioned to support PJM’s needs and reduce costs, but they must have a path to come online quickly and at a scale.

Encouragingly, new Aurora Energy Research analysis shows ERIS resources are financially viable in PJM, would reduce customer bills, and even contribute to reliability.

What are ERIS resources?

ERIS is not a new concept. FERC Order 2003 (released in 2003) required transmission providers to offer two levels of interconnection service: the more comprehensive Network Resource Interconnection Service (NRIS), and Energy Resource Interconnection Service (ERIS). The latter was intended to facilitate faster, more competitive access to the transmission system.

FERC defines ERIS as a basic interconnection option that does not guarantee “firm” deliverability in all situations, including during peak load or times of grid congestion. ERIS generators are curtailed when there is insufficient transmission space, and do not qualify as capacity resources. In exchange for assuming curtailment risk and “as available” service, ERIS developers were not intended to have to pay (or wait for) larger transmission network upgrades during interconnection. ERIS was supposed to enable developers to trade firm transmission service for speed, where the value proposition made sense.

Interest in ERIS has been limited to date, due to implementation of ERIS study procedures that do not meaningfully differentiate these projects from those seeking NRIS, or capacity status. There is little upside to developers in forgoing capacity revenues and pursuing ERIS if the interconnection study timeline and costs are not significantly reduced. Additionally, grid operators and utilities have tended to prefer firm capacity resources and disfavor ERIS projects. ERIS resource uptake in PJM is particularly low.

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Yet today, with interconnection serving as a primary bottleneck to new generation supply and affordability pressures mounting, there is good reason to re-examine ERIS resources and the potential value add they could bring to customers and the grid. RMI commissioned an analysis and report conducted by Aurora Energy Research to explore ERIS resources’ viability in PJM. Aurora’s analysis indicates that the value add could be notable: consumers could realize nearly $11 billion in savings over the next decade, from deploying just 10 GW of energy-only resources in PJM.

Highlights from Aurora’s “Viability and Benefits of ERIS in PJM” analysis

• Analysis scope and set-up: In order to realize the opportunity for expanded use of the ERIS interconnection pathway in PJM, it is important to assess the financial viability of energy-only service for project developers and financiers, as well as to understand the potential benefits that a reformed study process might yield. Aurora’s recently published report undertook this analysis by adding hypothetical “ERIS resources” to four load zones in PJM with a 2028 commercial operation date. The ERIS resources analyzed were wind and solar generators, given the greater likelihood of these resource types electing ERIS service due to their lower capacity accreditation values and thus lesser reliance on capacity revenues.
• ERIS financial viability assessment: First, Aurora assessed the expected internal rate of return (IRR) for these resources across the four zones (American Electric Power, Commonwealth Edison, Dominion, and Pennsylvania Power and Light) and a range of scenarios, to account for uncertainty in future price projections and load growth. An energy generator’s expected IRR, or hurdle rate, is a key metric for project finance: investors require a certain IRR to ensure their investment will return a profit. Based on Aurora’s industry expertise, they used a 9% hurdle rate as the benchmark for a project’s financial viability.For the initial assessment, they assumed no interconnection costs beyond the point of interconnection, which would represent an ideal ERIS interconnection pathway. Aurora found that ERIS resources are financially viable in all four zones and across nearly all scenarios (with the exception of the Low scenario, which reflects low energy prices and low load growth). Central Scenario results revealed IRRs of 9%–10.2% for solar, and 9.2%–13.6% for wind. Wind resources are particularly profitable because the timing of their power output aligns well with higher-priced energy hours in the zones where they were studied.

  Unfortunately, other challenges limit development of onshore wind, even more than solar resources. This shows that ERIS resources can be profitable, even without capacity revenues, in an appropriately scoped ERIS study process.

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• System benefits of ERIS resources: ERIS resources’ value-add does not just accrue to project developers and investors. These projects could yield system benefits as well, contributing to both grid reliability and affordability. In PJM, peak system risk moments typically occur in the winter, when winter storms drive up power demand and thermal generator forced outage rates. Those thermal generator outages may free up grid headroom for energy-only resource deliverability, and wind resources in particular have relatively high output during peak winter load days. As Aurora’s analysis found, onshore wind resources in PJM had an average 39% capacity factor on peak winter load days over the past decade. During Winter Storm Elliott, PJM’s onshore wind fleet saw higher generator availability rates (the share of capacity not in outage) than both coal and gas resources.

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Finally, ERIS resources can help lower energy prices. If — in a scenario where PJM reformed and sped up its ERIS study pathway — 5 GW each of ERIS-accelerated wind and solar resources were added to PJM by 2028, PJM ratepayers could save almost $11 billion over the next decade.

 

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Necessary interconnection process reforms to catalyze ERIS uptake

Across the country, most ERIS interconnection processes remain intertwined with NRIS resources, negating the potential time savings and cost benefits of ERIS. PJM and other grid operators should update their ERIS study pathways to ensure the following:

1. ERIS resources should be studied in a separate and parallel track from resources seeking NRIS. Study timelines should be short and clearly defined, and should leverage the most advanced modeling software available. We would also expect a separate study process for ERIS to support speedier and more streamlined study of NRIS clusters, as this would reduce cluster sizes and thus the potential for dropouts and re-studies.
2. Network upgrade costs and timelines should be minimal. The scope of the study should be limited to ensuring a reliable connection to the point of interconnection, as is the process in ERCOT. ERIS resources should not trigger deeper network upgrades due to network deliverability studies. An appropriate study for ERIS resources must include realistic dispatch assumptions that reflect how ERIS resources would be treated in the market and operationally. For example, if they will be subject to operator curtailment during times of grid congestion, that should be reflected in the study models. The interconnection study could be scoped to inform the operator of typical curtailment expectation, but network upgrades beyond the point of interconnection are unnecessary, as any broader system impacts could be managed by curtailment or redispatch.
3. Transmission system needs should be addressed in existing transmission planning processes. If grid congestion results in high curtailment of ERIS resources, that should be considered in transmission planning processes, like PJM’s Regional Transmission Expansion Plan (RTEP). That is where reliability and economic drivers of new transmission needs are assessed, and where consideration of any future transmission enhancements that might deliver system-wide benefits — such as reduced curtailment and greater ability for low-cost resources to serve load — should occur.

Additionally, grid operators should undertake a full evaluation of the reliability contributions of these resources, and the ways in which they may need to adapt market rules or operations to unlock the full capabilities of ERIS resources. Importantly, if these resources contribute non-zero capacity value, as Aurora’s analysis suggests they might, the region’s resource adequacy planning paradigm might need to be adapted to accredit the resources accordingly. And if operational practices impede system operators’ real or perceived ability to perform redispatch, opportunities to enhance those should be explored at the system-wide level.

Grid operators can look to ERCOT for effective tools and processes to manage these types of resources, where their “connect and manage” approach to interconnection has enabled rapid entry of new resources onto the grid while maintaining reliability. The influx of solar resources paired with battery storage has effectively eliminated ERCOT’s evening resource adequacy concerns in the summer.

ERIS resources are more than “energy-only” — they are fast-to-deploy, low-cost resources that can be important contributors to a balanced generation mix. Reforming their interconnection process to match their speedy development potential could unlock significant benefits for grid operators seeking near-term new generation resources to meet growing load.

The post A Fast-Path to Affordability: Understanding the Benefits of Energy-Only Resources in PJM appeared first on RMI.

On Saturday, May 9th, laid-off workers at Toronto-based produce delivery service Mama Earth led a rally to protest union busting in their former workplace. The...

The post Mama Earth workers fight back against union busting first appeared on Spring.

Rate design can reduce grid costs, but first utilities need upgraded billing systems.

Improve your storm response with targeted design approaches on the distribution grid.

Storage is no longer about the breakthrough tech, but who can build and deliver a system at scale.

When cleaning crews dug deep into New Orleans’ clogged drains in 2018, they pulled up leaves, mud — and 46 tons of Mardi Gras beads. 

The sheer magnitude of waste accumulated over decades of Carnivals — and its impact on the flood-prone city’s drainage system — shocked many residents and city officials. 

“Once you hear a number like that, there’s no going back,” then-Public Works director Dani Galloway said at the time. “So we’ve got to do better.”

But nearly a decade later, New Orleans is generating more Mardi Gras garbage than ever. During the roughly five weeks of this year’s Carnival season, crews collected 1,363 tons of beaded necklaces, beer cans, plastic cups, and other refuse along the city’s parade routes — a 24 percent increase from the year before and the highest total on record. The trash tonnage is the equivalent of 741 cars. In New Orleans terms, it’s roughly the weight of the Steamboat Natchez or more than 1 million king cakes.  

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Source: City of New Orleans Dennis Dean / Verite / Clayton Aldern / Grist / Alexander Grey / Unsplash (function() { const INIT_KEY = '__grist_nola_mardi_gras_trash_initialized__'; if (window[INIT_KEY]) { return; } window[INIT_KEY] = true; const COLORS = { TEXT: 'var(--color-primary)', BAR: 'var(--color-fuchsia)', BAR_NEGATIVE: '#E57373' }; const BAR_RADIUS = 4; const svg = d3.select('#nola-mardi-gras-trash-bar-chart'); const getSvgHeight = () => parseInt(svg.attr('height')) || 450; const formatCompactWithB = (n) => d3.format('~s')(n).replace('G', 'B').replace('k', 'K'); function calculateYTicks(height, fontSize = 14) { const minSpacing = fontSize * 2; return Math.max(2, Math.floor(height / minSpacing)); } function measureYAxisWidth(svg, scale, chartHeight, formatTick) { const tickCount = calculateYTicks(chartHeight); const TICK_PADDING = 4; const tempGroup = svg.append('g') .attr('class', 'nola-mardi-gras-trash__y-axis-measure') .style('visibility', 'hidden'); const axis = d3.axisLeft(scale) .ticks(tickCount) .tickFormat(formatTick) .tickSize(0) .tickPadding(TICK_PADDING); tempGroup.call(axis); tempGroup.selectAll('text') .style('font-family', 'var(--typography-secondary)') .style('font-size', '14px'); let minX = 0; tempGroup.selectAll('text').each(function() { const bbox = this.getBBox(); if (bbox.x < minX) { minX = bbox.x; } }); tempGroup.remove(); return { width: -minX, tickCount, tickPadding: TICK_PADDING }; } const rawData = [{"Year":"2011","Tons":"930"},{"Year":"2012","Tons":"835"},{"Year":"2013","Tons":"845"},{"Year":"2014","Tons":"895"},{"Year":"2015","Tons":"905"},{"Year":"2016","Tons":"940"},{"Year":"2017","Tons":"1328"},{"Year":"2018","Tons":"1150"},{"Year":"2019","Tons":"1075"},{"Year":"2020","Tons":"1120"},{"Year":"2021","Tons":"0"},{"Year":"2022","Tons":"1145"},{"Year":"2023","Tons":"1165"},{"Year":"2024","Tons":"1065"},{"Year":"2025","Tons":"1100"},{"Year":"2026","Tons":"1364"}]; const categoryColumn = 'Year'; const valueColumn = 'Tons'; const chartData = rawData.map(d => ({ category: d[categoryColumn], value: +String(d[valueColumn]).replace(/,/g, '') })); function wrapSvgText(textSelection, width, lineHeight) { textSelection.each(function() { const text = d3.select(this); const words = text.text().split(/\s+/).reverse(); let word; let line = []; let lineNumber = 0; const y = text.attr('y') || 0; const dy = parseFloat(text.attr('dy')) || 0; let tspan = text.text(null).append('tspan').attr('x', 0).attr('y', y).attr('dy', dy + 'em'); while ((word = words.pop())) { line.push(word); tspan.text(line.join(' ')); if (tspan.node().getComputedTextLength() > width) { line.pop(); tspan.text(line.join(' ')); line = [word]; tspan = text.append('tspan').attr('x', 0).attr('y', y).attr('dy', ++lineNumber * (lineHeight / 14) + dy + 'em').text(word); } } }); } function detectLabelOverlap(labels, bandWidth) { let maxLabelWidth = 0; labels.each(function() { const bbox = this.getBBox ? this.getBBox() : { width: 0 }; maxLabelWidth = Math.max(maxLabelWidth, bbox.width); }); return maxLabelWidth > bandWidth * 0.9; } let rotatedLabels = false; function renderChart() { svg.selectAll('*').remove(); const LEFT_PADDING = 8; let needsRotation = rotatedLabels; const baseBottomMargin = 30; const rotatedBottomMargin = 42; const baseMargin = { top: 12, right: 12, bottom: needsRotation ? rotatedBottomMargin : baseBottomMargin, left: 0 }; const node = svg.node(); const styleWidth = parseInt(svg.style('width')); const attrWidth = parseInt(svg.attr('width')); const bboxWidth = node ? node.getBoundingClientRect().width : 0; const containerWidth = (bboxWidth > 0 ? bboxWidth : 0) || (attrWidth > 0 ? attrWidth : 0) || ((!isNaN(styleWidth) ? (styleWidth > 0 ? styleWidth : 0) : 0) || 600); const svgHeight = getSvgHeight(); const height = svgHeight - baseMargin.top - baseMargin.bottom; if (height <= 0) return; const yMin = d3.min(chartData, d => d.value); const yMax = d3.max(chartData, d => d.value); const yDomainMin = yMin < 0 ? yMin * 1.1 : 0; const yDomainMax = yMax > 0 ? yMax * 1.1 : 0; const y = d3.scaleLinear() .domain([yDomainMin, yDomainMax]) .range([height, 0]); const { width: yLabelWidth, tickCount: yTickCount, tickPadding: yTickPadding } = measureYAxisWidth(svg, y, height, formatCompactWithB); const margin = { ...baseMargin, left: yLabelWidth + LEFT_PADDING }; const width = containerWidth - margin.left - margin.right; if (width <= 0) return; svg.attr('height', svgHeight); const x = d3.scaleBand() .domain(chartData.map(d => d.category)) .range([0, width]) .padding(0.25); svg.append('g') .attr('class', 'axis-grid') .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${margin.top})`) .call(d3.axisLeft(y).ticks(yTickCount).tickSize(-width).tickFormat('')); const xAxis = g => { g.attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${height + margin.top})`) .call(d3.axisBottom(x)); const labels = g.selectAll('.tick text') .attr('class', 'nola-mardi-gras-trash__axis-label') .style('fill', COLORS.TEXT) .text(function() { const t = d3.select(this).text(); return t === '2021' ? '2021*' : t; }); if (detectLabelOverlap(labels, x.bandwidth())) { needsRotation = true; } if (needsRotation) { labels .style('text-anchor', 'end') .attr('dx', '-0.5em') .attr('dy', '0.25em') .attr('transform', 'rotate(-45)'); } else { const maxWidth = Math.min(80, Math.max(48, width / chartData.length - 6)); labels .style('text-anchor', 'middle') .call(wrapSvgText, maxWidth, 14); } }; const yAxisGenerator = g => g .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${margin.top})`) .call(d3.axisLeft(y).ticks(yTickCount).tickFormat(d => formatCompactWithB(d)).tickPadding(yTickPadding)) .selectAll('text') .attr('class', 'nola-mardi-gras-trash__axis-label') .style('fill', COLORS.TEXT); svg.append('g').call(xAxis); if (needsRotation ? !rotatedLabels : false) { rotatedLabels = true; return renderChart(); } svg.append('g').call(yAxisGenerator); const chart = svg.append('g').attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${margin.top})`); const defs = chart.append('defs'); // Add dashed zero line when data crosses zero if (yMin < 0 ? yMax > 0 : false) { chart.append('line') .attr('class', 'zero-line') .attr('x1', 0) .attr('y1', y(0)) .attr('x2', width) .attr('y2', y(0)) .attr('stroke', '#888') .attr('stroke-width', 1) .attr('stroke-dasharray', '4,4'); } const grayFilter = defs.append('filter').attr('id', 'nola-mardi-gras-trash-greyscale'); grayFilter.append('feColorMatrix').attr('type', 'saturate').attr('values', '0'); const barsMask = defs.append('mask').attr('id', 'nola-mardi-gras-trash-bars-mask'); chartData.forEach(d => { const barY = d.value >= 0 ? y(d.value) : y(0); const barHeight = Math.abs(y(d.value) - y(0)); barsMask.append('rect') .attr('x', x(d.category)) .attr('y', barY) .attr('width', x.bandwidth()) .attr('height', barHeight) .attr('rx', BAR_RADIUS) .attr('ry', BAR_RADIUS) .attr('fill', 'white'); }); chart.append('image') .attr('xlink:href', 'https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/mardi-gras-sequins-alexander-grey.jpg') .attr('x', 0) .attr('y', 0) .attr('width', width) .attr('height', height) .attr('preserveAspectRatio', 'xMidYMid slice') .attr('mask', 'url(#nola-mardi-gras-trash-bars-mask)') .attr('filter', 'url(#nola-mardi-gras-trash-greyscale)'); chart.selectAll('.bar') .data(chartData) .enter().append('rect') .attr('class', 'bar') .attr('x', d => x(d.category)) .attr('y', d => d.value >= 0 ? y(d.value) : y(0)) .attr('width', x.bandwidth()) .attr('height', d => Math.abs(y(d.value) - y(0))) .attr('rx', BAR_RADIUS) .attr('ry', BAR_RADIUS) .style('fill', COLORS.BAR) .style('opacity', 0.65); const labelYears = ['2017', '2026']; chart.selectAll('.bar-label') .data(chartData.filter(d => labelYears.includes(d.category))) .enter().append('text') .attr('class', 'bar-label') .attr('x', d => x(d.category) + x.bandwidth() / 2) .attr('y', d => y(d.value) - 5) .text(d => d3.format(',')(d.value)) .style('fill', COLORS.TEXT); } if (document.readyState === 'loading') { document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', renderChart); } else { renderChart(); } window.addEventListener('resize', renderChart); })();

“To see the waste go up that much, it’s just absurd,” said Brett Davis, founder of Grounds Krewe, a nonprofit group trying to make Mardi Gras more sustainable through recycling and waste reduction efforts. 

It’s a century-old tradition for riders on parade floats to shower crowds with beaded necklaces, toys, and other items — collectively known as “throws.” Most are cheap plastic trinkets. The beads are often laden with toxic chemicals, including unsafe levels of lead. Many throws are dropped moments after they’re caught, then crushed under feet and eventually swept up and hauled to landfills. 

City officials initially blamed the rise in rubbish on the popularity of this year’s festivities, which ran from January 6 to February 17 and included more than 30 float parades. An estimated 2.2 million people visited downtown New Orleans during the Carnival season, about 10 percent more than in 2025, according to the Downtown Development District, which drew on data from location analytics company Placer.ai.

“The increase from last year was directly associated with the larger crowds,” Matt Torri, the city’s sanitation director, told the City Council in March. “Anybody who was out at this year’s parades definitely took note that there seemed to be more people enjoying the Carnival season, which is great for the city.”

But a Verite News analysis of annual attendance and city cleanup records shows no clear relationship between crowds and trash levels. Overall, Mardi Gras waste tonnage has trended upward over the past decade, regardless of the year-to-year changes in attendance. The Mardi Gras season in 2020, for instance, drew more people — about 2.4 million — but produced roughly 241 fewer tons of garbage than in 2026.

In the early 2010s, trash tonnage hovered around 880 tons. It spiked in 2017, surpassing 1,320 tons, and has not fallen below 1,000 tons since. The only exception was 2021, when no trash was recorded because the city canceled parades and most Carnival festivities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

.nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash { --color-primary: #3c3830; --color-secondary: #777; --color-orange: #F79945; --color-turquoise: #12A07F; --color-fuchsia: #AC00E8; --color-cobalt: #3977F3; --color-earth: #3c3830; --typography-primary: "PolySans", Arial, sans-serif; --typography-secondary: "Basis Grotesque", Arial, sans-serif; --spacing-base: 10px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--typography-secondary); margin: 1.5rem auto; padding: 0; position: relative; width: 100%; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash * { box-sizing: border-box; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash svg text { font-family: var(--typography-secondary); } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__title { font-family: var(--typography-primary); font-size: 24px; margin: var(--spacing-base) 0; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__subtitle { font-family: var(--typography-secondary); color: var(--color-primary); font-size: 18px; margin: 0 0 var(--spacing-base); } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__axis-label { color: var(--color-primary); font-size: 14px; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash .axis-grid line { stroke: #e0e0e0; stroke-opacity: 0.7; shape-rendering: crispEdges; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash .axis-grid .domain { stroke: none; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash .domain { stroke: #3c3830; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash .line { fill: none; stroke-width: 4px; stroke-linecap: round; stroke-linejoin: round; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash .line--projected { stroke-dasharray: 6 4; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash .pulsing-dot { stroke: white; stroke-width: 1.7px; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash .data-label { font-family: var(--typography-secondary); font-size: 11px; fill: var(--color-primary); paint-order: stroke fill; stroke: white; stroke-width: 3px; stroke-linejoin: round; stroke-linecap: round; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__legend { display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 6px 16px; margin-bottom: 8px; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__legend-item { display: flex; align-items: center; gap: 6px; font-size: 13px; color: var(--color-primary); } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__legend-color { width: 16px; height: 3px; border-radius: 2px; flex-shrink: 0; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__footer { display: flex; justify-content: space-between; align-items: flex-end; margin-top: 8px; gap: 16px; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__credits { display: flex; flex-direction: column; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__source { color: var(--color-secondary); font-size: 12px; margin-top: 0; display: inline-block; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__credit { color: var(--color-secondary); font-size: 12px; margin-top: 3px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; display: inline-block; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__logo { height: auto; max-width: 62px; min-width: 50px; margin-left: auto; padding-right: 20px; margin-right: 0; margin-bottom: 0; transform: translateY(-2px); } Carnival trash hit a record even as attendance lagged behind 2020 levels Downtown attendance vs. city-wide trash collection during Mardi Gras, 2020–2026 Attendance (downtown) Trash (city-wide, tons) Source: Placer.ai / New Orleans Downtown Development District / City of New Orleans Dennis Dean / Verite / Clayton Aldern / Grist (function() { const INIT_KEY = '__grist_nola_mardi_gras_attendance_trash_initialized__'; if (window[INIT_KEY]) { return; } window[INIT_KEY] = true; const COLORS = { TEXT: 'var(--color-primary)', SERIES: ['var(--color-orange)', 'var(--color-fuchsia)', 'var(--color-turquoise)', 'var(--color-cobalt)', 'var(--color-earth)'] }; const svg = d3.select('#nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash-line-chart'); const getSvgHeight = () => parseInt(svg.attr('height')) || 400; // Format for line-end labels: 2 decimal places (e.g., 1.64M, 2.26M) const formatCompactWithB = (n) => { // For small values (< 1000), avoid SI prefix notation (which shows "m" for milli) if (Math.abs(n) < 1000 ? Math.abs(n) > 0 : false) { // Use up to 2 decimal places, trim trailing zeros return d3.format('.2~f')(n); } // Use .3s for 3 significant figures, giving 2 decimal places (e.g., 1.64M, 2.26M) return d3.format('.3s')(n).replace('G', 'B').replace('k', 'K'); }; // Format for y-axis ticks: clean round numbers (0, 500K, 1M, 1.5M, 2M) const formatAxisTick = (n) => { if (n === 0) return '0'; const absN = Math.abs(n); if (absN >= 1e9) { const val = n / 1e9; return (val % 1 === 0 ? val.toFixed(0) : val.toFixed(1)) + 'B'; } if (absN >= 1e6) { const val = n / 1e6; return (val % 1 === 0 ? val.toFixed(0) : val.toFixed(1)) + 'M'; } if (absN >= 1e3) { const val = n / 1e3; return (val % 1 === 0 ? val.toFixed(0) : val.toFixed(1)) + 'K'; } return n.toString(); }; function calculateYTicks(height, fontSize = 14) { // Limit to 4-5 ticks for cleaner appearance const minSpacing = fontSize * 4; return Math.min(5, Math.max(2, Math.floor(height / minSpacing))); } function measureYAxisWidth(svg, scale, chartHeight, formatTick) { const tickCount = calculateYTicks(chartHeight); const TICK_PADDING = 4; const tempGroup = svg.append('g') .attr('class', 'nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__y-axis-measure') .style('visibility', 'hidden'); const axis = d3.axisLeft(scale) .ticks(tickCount) .tickFormat(formatTick) .tickSize(0) .tickPadding(TICK_PADDING); tempGroup.call(axis); tempGroup.selectAll('text') .style('font-family', 'var(--typography-secondary)') .style('font-size', '14px'); let minX = 0; tempGroup.selectAll('text').each(function() { const bbox = this.getBBox(); if (bbox.x < minX) { minX = bbox.x; } }); tempGroup.remove(); return { width: -minX, tickCount, tickPadding: TICK_PADDING }; } const rawData = [{"Year":"2020","Attendance":"2400000","Trash":"1123"},{"Year":"2022","Attendance":"1900000","Trash":"1155"},{"Year":"2023","Attendance":"2100000","Trash":"1185"},{"Year":"2024","Attendance":"2000000","Trash":"1050"},{"Year":"2025","Attendance":"2000000","Trash":"1100"},{"Year":"2026","Attendance":"2200000","Trash":"1364"}]; const xColumn = 'Year'; // Dual-axis: Attendance on left, Trash on right const attendanceData = rawData.map(d => ({ x: new Date(d[xColumn]), y: +d.Attendance })); const trashData = rawData.map(d => ({ x: new Date(d[xColumn]), y: +d.Trash })); const seriesData = [ { key: 'Attendance', label: 'Attendance', color: COLORS.SERIES[0], values: attendanceData, axis: 'left' }, { key: 'Trash', label: 'Trash', color: COLORS.SERIES[1], values: trashData, axis: 'right' } ]; function renderChart() { svg.selectAll('*').remove(); const node = svg.node(); const styleWidth = parseInt(svg.style('width')); const attrWidth = parseInt(svg.attr('width')); const bboxWidth = node ? node.getBoundingClientRect().width : 0; const containerWidth = (bboxWidth > 0 ? bboxWidth : 0) || (attrWidth > 0 ? attrWidth : 0) || ((!isNaN(styleWidth) ? (styleWidth > 0 ? styleWidth : 0) : 0) || 600); const svgHeight = getSvgHeight(); const baseMargins = { top: 20, right: 20, bottom: 36 }; const height = svgHeight - baseMargins.top - baseMargins.bottom; if (height <= 0) return; const x = d3.scaleTime(); const yLeft = d3.scaleLinear().range([height, 0]); const yRight = d3.scaleLinear().range([height, 0]); // Attendance domain (left axis) — range from ~1.8M to ~2.4M like the original const [attMin, attMax] = d3.extent(attendanceData, d => d.y); const attPadding = (attMax - attMin) * 0.15; yLeft.domain([attMin - attPadding, attMax + attPadding]); // Trash domain (right axis) — range from ~1000 to ~1400 like the original const [trashMin, trashMax] = d3.extent(trashData, d => d.y); const trashPadding = (trashMax - trashMin) * 0.15; yRight.domain([trashMin - trashPadding, trashMax + trashPadding]); x.domain(d3.extent(attendanceData, d => d.x)); // Measure both y-axis widths const leftMeasure = measureYAxisWidth(svg, yLeft, height, d => formatAxisTick(d)); const rightMeasure = measureYAxisWidth(svg, yRight, height, d => formatAxisTick(d)); const LEFT_PADDING = 8; const RIGHT_PADDING = 8; const margin = { top: baseMargins.top, right: rightMeasure.width + RIGHT_PADDING + 8, bottom: baseMargins.bottom, left: leftMeasure.width + LEFT_PADDING }; const width = containerWidth - margin.left - margin.right; if (width <= 0) return; x.range([0, width]); // Each series uses its own y-scale const yScaleFor = (series) => series.axis === 'left' ? yLeft : yRight; svg.attr('height', svgHeight); const firstSeries = seriesData[0].values; const startYear = firstSeries[0].x.getFullYear(); const endYear = firstSeries[firstSeries.length - 1].x.getFullYear(); const totalYears = endYear - startYear; const minLabelSpacingPx = 60; const maxTicks = Math.max(2, Math.floor(width / minLabelSpacingPx)); const approxYearsPerTick = Math.max(1, Math.ceil(totalYears / maxTicks)); const niceSteps = [1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 25, 50, 100]; const stepYears = niceSteps.find(s => s >= approxYearsPerTick) || niceSteps[niceSteps.length - 1]; const xTickInterval = d3.timeYear.every(stepYears); // Grid lines based on left axis svg.append('g') .attr('class', 'axis-grid') .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${height + margin.top})`) .call(d3.axisBottom(x).ticks(xTickInterval).tickSize(-height).tickFormat('')); svg.append('g') .attr('class', 'axis-grid') .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${margin.top})`) .call(d3.axisLeft(yLeft).ticks(leftMeasure.tickCount).tickSize(-width).tickFormat('')); // X axis const xAxis = g => g .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${height + margin.top})`) .call(d3.axisBottom(x).ticks(xTickInterval).tickFormat(d3.timeFormat('%Y'))) .selectAll('text') .attr('class', 'nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__axis-label') .style('fill', COLORS.TEXT) .style('text-anchor', 'middle'); // Left y-axis (Attendance) const yLeftAxisGen = d3.axisLeft(yLeft) .ticks(leftMeasure.tickCount) .tickFormat(d => formatAxisTick(d)) .tickPadding(leftMeasure.tickPadding); const yLeftAxis = g => g .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${margin.top})`) .call(yLeftAxisGen) .selectAll('text') .attr('class', 'nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__axis-label') .style('fill', COLORS.SERIES[0]); // Right y-axis (Trash) const yRightAxisGen = d3.axisRight(yRight) .ticks(rightMeasure.tickCount) .tickFormat(d => formatAxisTick(d)) .tickPadding(rightMeasure.tickPadding); const yRightAxis = g => g .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left + width},${margin.top})`) .call(yRightAxisGen) .call(g => g.select('.domain').attr('stroke', '#3c3830')) .selectAll('text') .attr('class', 'nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__axis-label') .style('fill', COLORS.SERIES[1]); svg.append('g').call(xAxis); svg.append('g').call(yLeftAxis); svg.append('g').call(yRightAxis); const chart = svg.append('g').attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${margin.top})`); const defs = chart.append('defs'); const isDarkMode = (() => { const container = document.querySelector('.nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash'); if (!container) return false; const bg = window.getComputedStyle(container.closest('body') || document.body).backgroundColor; const match = bg.match(/rgb\((\d+),\s*(\d+),\s*(\d+)\)/); if (!match) return false; const luminance = (0.299 * +match[1] + 0.587 * +match[2] + 0.114 * +match[3]) / 255; return luminance < 0.5; })(); if (isDarkMode) { const glowFilter = defs.append('filter') .attr('id', 'nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash-glow') .attr('x', '-50%') .attr('y', '-50%') .attr('width', '200%') .attr('height', '200%'); glowFilter.append('feGaussianBlur') .attr('stdDeviation', '3') .attr('result', 'blur'); glowFilter.append('feMerge') .selectAll('feMergeNode') .data(['blur', 'SourceGraphic']) .enter() .append('feMergeNode') .attr('in', d => d); } const pulsingCircles = []; const labelInfos = []; seriesData.forEach((series, idx) => { const yScale = yScaleFor(series); const seriesLine = d3.line() .x(d => x(d.x)) .y(d => yScale(d.y)); if (!isDarkMode) { chart.append('path') .datum(series.values) .attr('class', 'line') .attr('d', seriesLine) .style('stroke', 'white') .style('stroke-width', 6) .style('stroke-linecap', 'round') .style('stroke-linejoin', 'round'); } const linePath = chart.append('path') .datum(series.values) .attr('class', 'line') .attr('d', seriesLine) .style('stroke', series.color) .style('stroke-linecap', 'round') .style('stroke-linejoin', 'round'); if (isDarkMode) { linePath.style('filter', 'url(#nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash-glow)'); } const last = series.values[series.values.length - 1]; const dotRadius = 5; const circle = chart.append('circle') .attr('class', 'pulsing-dot') .attr('cx', x(last.x)) .attr('cy', yScale(last.y)) .attr('r', dotRadius) .style('fill', series.color); pulsingCircles.push(circle); labelInfos.push({ series, dotX: x(last.x), dotY: yScale(last.y), dotRadius, labelText: formatCompactWithB(last.y) }); }); const LABEL_V_PADDING = 4; const MAX_VERTICAL_OFFSET = 40; const SIDE_GAP = 8; const EXTRA_HORIZONTAL_OFFSET = 12; const LINE_CLEARANCE_FACTOR = 1.5; const MIN_LABEL_HEIGHT = 14; labelInfos.forEach(info => { const temp = chart.append('text') .attr('class', 'data-label') .attr('x', -9999) .attr('y', -9999) .text(info.labelText); const bbox = temp.node().getBBox(); info.width = bbox.width; info.height = Math.max(bbox.height || MIN_LABEL_HEIGHT, MIN_LABEL_HEIGHT); info.textEl = temp; }); function resolveCollisions(labels, chartWidth, chartHeight) { labels.forEach(lbl => { const rightStartX = lbl.dotX + lbl.dotRadius + SIDE_GAP; const rightEndX = rightStartX + lbl.width; if (rightEndX <= chartWidth) { lbl.side = 'right'; lbl.anchor = 'start'; } else { lbl.side = 'left'; lbl.anchor = 'end'; } lbl.baseY = lbl.dotY + lbl.height * 0.4; lbl.y = lbl.baseY; }); function layoutSide(side) { const group = labels .filter(l => l.side === side) .sort((a, b) => a.baseY - b.baseY); if (!group.length) return; group.forEach(l => { const minY = l.height; const maxY = chartHeight - LABEL_V_PADDING; l.y = Math.max(minY, Math.min(maxY, l.baseY)); }); for (let i = 1; i < group.length; i++) { const prev = group[i - 1]; const cur = group[i]; const minY = prev.y + prev.height + LABEL_V_PADDING; if (cur.y < minY) { cur.y = minY; } } for (let i = group.length - 2; i >= 0; i--) { const next = group[i + 1]; const cur = group[i]; const maxY = next.y - cur.height - LABEL_V_PADDING; if (cur.y > maxY) { cur.y = maxY; } } } layoutSide('right'); layoutSide('left'); labels.forEach(lbl => { const dy = Math.abs(lbl.y - lbl.baseY); if (dy > MAX_VERTICAL_OFFSET) { const newSide = lbl.side === 'right' ? 'left' : 'right'; const candidateStartX = newSide === 'right' ? lbl.dotX + lbl.dotRadius + SIDE_GAP + EXTRA_HORIZONTAL_OFFSET : lbl.dotX - lbl.dotRadius - SIDE_GAP - EXTRA_HORIZONTAL_OFFSET - lbl.width; const fitsHorizontally = candidateStartX >= 0 ? (candidateStartX + lbl.width) <= chartWidth : false; if (fitsHorizontally) { lbl.side = newSide; lbl.anchor = newSide === 'right' ? 'start' : 'end'; lbl.y = lbl.baseY; } } }); layoutSide('right'); layoutSide('left'); labels.forEach(lbl => { if (lbl.side === 'left') { const lineClearance = lbl.dotRadius * LINE_CLEARANCE_FACTOR + 4; const labelCenterY = lbl.y - lbl.height / 2; const distToDot = Math.abs(labelCenterY - lbl.dotY); if (distToDot < lineClearance) { if (labelCenterY < lbl.dotY) { lbl.y = lbl.dotY - lineClearance; } else { lbl.y = lbl.dotY + lineClearance + lbl.height; } } } }); layoutSide('left'); labels.forEach(lbl => { const gap = SIDE_GAP + (Math.abs(lbl.y - lbl.baseY) > MAX_VERTICAL_OFFSET ? EXTRA_HORIZONTAL_OFFSET : 0); if (lbl.side === 'right') { lbl.x = lbl.dotX + lbl.dotRadius + gap; } else { lbl.x = lbl.dotX - lbl.dotRadius - gap; } }); return labels; } resolveCollisions(labelInfos, width, height); const strokeColor = isDarkMode ? 'rgba(26,26,26,0.9)' : 'white'; labelInfos.forEach(info => { // Position the actual label text with text stroke for readability info.textEl .attr('x', info.x) .attr('y', info.y) .attr('text-anchor', info.anchor) .style('fill', info.series.color) .style('stroke', strokeColor); }); function animatePulse() { pulsingCircles.forEach(circle => { circle.transition().duration(750).attr('r', 5 * 1.2) .transition().duration(750).attr('r', 5).on('end', animatePulse); }); } if (pulsingCircles.length > 0) animatePulse(); } if (document.readyState === 'loading') { document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', renderChart); } else { renderChart(); } window.addEventListener('resize', renderChart); })();

Since 2020, when the Downtown Development District began tracking visits in the Central Business and Warehouse districts, annual attendance has stayed within a relatively tight range, between 1.9 million and 2.4 million. Still, the trash tally has swung wildly, indicating that other factors are at play. The development district doesn’t track citywide visits, but its annual downtown tally is considered the most accurate indication of Carnival attendance. 

The office of Mayor Helena Moreno and the city’s sanitation department did not respond to requests for comment. 

Parade trash remains a problem for the city’s drainage system. After the infamous bead blockage of 2018, the city began installing temporary filter contraptions, known as “gutter buddies,” at catch basins along parade routes, but conservation groups say the outfalls still spew more litter into canals and Lake Pontchartrain during the Carnival season.

The upswing in trash is occurring alongside a seemingly contradictory trend of waste reduction. In recent years, many parade organizations, called krewes, have cut back on plastic beads and other “junk” throws. They’ve opted for higher-value items like socks, baseball caps, wooden cooking spoons, and metal drinking cups. 

Grounds Krewe and other groups have also expanded their recycling efforts. They set set up stations to collect bottles, cans, and reusable throws, and some volunteers even pick through the parade debris for recyclable items. This year, the groups diverted about 28 tons from landfills. That’s despite the city pulling back its support for recycling this year because of budget concerns. Even if the city government spent the $200,000 it initially earmarked for recycling, “it’s not going to reverse the 24 percent gain” in waste, Davis said.  

There was some hope that the volume of throws would be curbed by rising prices for beads and other trinkets, a result of higher inflation and President Donald Trump’s steep tariffs on imports from China, where most beads are made. Some parade-goers said they noticed the change, taking to social media to complain about stingier krewes.

“We are really perplexed,” Davis said. “All that is happening, with people throwing fewer beads and a lot of krewes switching to higher-quality throws, but waste is still going upward.” 

The swelling tonnage may have less to do with the throwers and more with the catchers. Davis and some city leaders say parade-goers are setting up earlier, staying longer, and bringing even more of the comforts of home: folding chairs, canopy tents, coolers, grills, and wagonloads of food. They’re also chaining together walls of ladders, erecting scaffolding, installing portable toilets, and plunking down generators and old sofas. As the season ends, many of these items are broken, dirty, or too much of a hassle to haul home. 

These abandoned items, which can range in weight from 5 pounds for a folding chair to 300 pounds for a couch, are an increasingly heavy lift for cleanup crews, City Council President JP Morrell said.

“The reality is that they get their use out of this stuff, and then it becomes a tremendous amount of debris that our workers have to deal with because these people had no intention of ever picking this stuff up,” he said. “It goes towards a sense of abject entitlement — that our entire city exists to serve other people’s whims.”

Discarded Mardi Gras beads and trash cover a street after 2014 Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, Louisiana. Gerald Herbert / AP Photo

Many of these gear-laden revelers are territorial, roping off patches of sidewalk or spreading tarps across grassy street medians, known locally as neutral grounds. These public-space appropriators have come to be known as the “Krewe of Chad,” after the name, spraypainted across a large patch of grass, went viral in 2013. 

These “Chadders,” as Morrell calls them, appear emboldened by the recent ebb in the enforcement of the city’s parade rules. Officially, early birds aren’t supposed to set up until four hours before a parade starts, but this rule is regularly flouted. In 2024, the list of banned items grew to include many of the things that have become commonplace — tents, tarps, and viewing platforms among them. A crackdown that year, which included the seizure of truckloads of encampment gear, appeared to briefly change behavior, Davis said. 

But last year, the city announced it would scale back enforcement and prioritize security after a terror attack on New Year’s Day killed 14 people on Bourbon Street. 

Enforcement was further scaled back by the city’s current budget crisis. Amid layoffs and other cutbacks aimed at reducing a $220 million deficit, Morrell admitted that efforts to clear Carnival encampments would be “spotty.”

“How are they going to enforce it? Well, to be honest, we’re hard up for cash,” Morrell said on an Instagram post in early February. He stressed that police and other city departments would “do their best,” but enforcement wouldn’t be as “robust as it could be.”

Torri, the sanitation director, said the city had the capacity to clear large items on just one day before the final cleanup on Fat Tuesday. “Mardi Gras Day was a major undertaking,” he told the council in March. Crews started working at 8 a.m. and didn’t finish until 1 a.m. “It’s a full day of cleaning because of everything that people have brought. Tarps, ladders, tents, coolers, grills are left because they’re disposable things that were only intended to last the weeks of Mardi Gras.”

Davis predicted the trend toward fewer but better throws will continue, and his organization will keep pushing for more reuse and recycling. But, he added, the policies meant to curb parade encampments — and the waste they leave behind — are only as effective as their enforcement.

“Having the krewes throw less is great, but what’s really heavy is a couch and all the stuff people brought out in wheelbarrows,” Davis said. “Unless we have police out there and the trucks to haul it away, this kind of behavior creeps back. And that’s what we’re seeing now.” 

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This story was originally published by Grist with the headline New Orleans wants to fix its Mardi Gras mess. So why is the trash pile still growing? on May 11, 2026.

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In a Q&A with Climate Home News, the head of sustainability at global lighting company Signify explains how the firm is doubling down on its efforts to protect the climate and strengthen resilience.

In March, Signify launched its latest corporate sustainability programme, “Brighter Lives, Better World 2030”.

The programme is the third iteration of a project that started in 2016, aimed at shifting how the company – and its customers – can reduce their environmental impact. 

It centres on enhanced targets to improve energy efficiency, cut greenhouse gas emissions and promote the circular economy. In addition, Signify has set itself a challenging goal to source 41% of its revenue from solutions “that support benefits beyond illumination” by the end of 2030, up from 31% in 2024. Those benefits include efficient food production and increased access to solar lighting.

Signify is aiming to save 60 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity for its customers; achieve a 35% reduction in the CO2 emissions intensity of its portfolio; and grow its circular product business from 10% to 27.5% of revenue.

Climate Home News spoke with the company’s global head of sustainability, Maurice Loosschilder, to find out how the Netherlands-based multinational plans to reach its targets despite a tough political landscape for green action.

Q: How does Signify’s new sustainability programme build on lessons learned from previous versions?

A: If we look back a little bit, it is a natural next step. Signify [formerly Philips Lighting] became a standalone company roughly 10 years ago and in 2016 we launched our first “Brighter Lives, Better World 2020” programme at the same time.

The first programme mirrored developments in the lighting industry and was very much based on our own operations: reaching 100% renewable electricity, zero waste to landfill in our manufacturing facilities, increasing the energy efficiency in our own portfolio.

Since then, we’ve moved on to think about our entire value chain and the wider social contributions we want our work to be making. But we still want to be thinking about how to improve our own business. Our continued target to double the amount of women in leadership positions is an example of that.

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Q: Looking at the political climate, both in the US and Europe, there isn’t the same concern for environmental issues as there was a few years ago. Many corporates are perceived to be rolling back on their environmental commitments. How are you as a company navigating some of these challenges?

A: This is not something new. If we look back on the last five to 10 years, we’ve seen a lot of disruption and change in the market. We’ve had a global pandemic, supply chain disruptions, energy insecurity. At the same time we’ve seen the increased impacts of climate change and all of that is changing the dynamics of doing business right now. 

I think these changes have really tested resilience – the resilience of companies, the resilience of people, the resilience of societies. We really believe that resilience is becoming more and more important to businesses right now. And if you look at what a resilient company is, it is one that decarbonises faster, invests in people, invests in circular solutions and makes its business model more circular. And that’s exactly what we have focused on. It’s about making sure we can cope, and help our customers cope, with changing market circumstances and the geopolitical tensions we see in the world.

Q: Turning to your own commitments, do you feel you have set the right balance between ambitious and achievable?

A: Yes, we strongly believe this programme is the right one for us and our customers, and has been informed by a thorough double-materiality assessment. It is built on three pillars: benefits beyond illumination, energy efficiency and resource efficiency. These are supported by new initiatives, such as Signify Circle, which will support professional customers with their circular economy ambitions.

If we just look at the first pillar, it’s about the positive impact that lighting brings, in terms of productivity, in terms of safety, in terms of food availability, health and well-being, and now we have added solar in there. This is what we mean by “benefits beyond illumination”.

A nurse is pictured in a private health clinic lit by solar power from a micro-grid in a rural village in Nigeria’s Nasarawa state, September 2022 (Photo: Megan Rowling) A nurse is pictured in a private health clinic lit by solar power from a micro-grid in a rural village in Nigeria’s Nasarawa state, September 2022 (Photo: Megan Rowling)

Q: If we take one of your targets to save 60 TWh of electricity for your customers, that seems quite hard to work out. Do you find data availability to be an issue?

A: Data is a challenge in sustainability, but we have been measuring our avoided emissions for years, so we know the data requirements behind it. We’ve done all our homework and with that we have set this target. 

The 60 TWh figure is about the annual electricity usage of Switzerland so it is a substantial amount. But it also reflects the role that lighting plays in general. If you look at a typical city, street lighting alone accounts for about 40% of electricity use. So the potential is enormous.

The International Energy Agency reports that about 8% of global electricity use comes from lighting, and this translates into 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions. That’s really significant and why the opportunity here is so big.

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Q: How has the new programme been informed by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

A: Our strategic compass is the Sustainable Development Goals. We committed to six SDGs in the previous programme. The new one has been expanded to cover eight and we conducted a mapping exercise for each of the commitments. I’m hoping that, by the end of this programme, we will see a new version of the SDGs to replace the current goals when they expire in 2030. We remain committed to making our contribution to the SDGs.

Q: Are you seeing higher demand for circular products? What is it that attracts businesses to that option?

A: Yes, we do see an increased demand. For example, we see greater interest in “remanufacturing”, which is a circular business model where we take down the lighting, send it back to our manufacturing site, and upgrade it to the latest technology, but keep the majority of the hardware intact.

I think customers are becoming more and more aware of the fact that regulation is pushing resource efficiency on businesses. And in some countries we see incentives to use circular products, and penalties around sending certain material to landfill. More businesses are becoming aware of this and we strongly believe there is a market for circular products.

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Q: Do you have customers that are facing real resource pressures, in terms of scarcity, increased costs or supply chain constraints that are making them think more about circular issues?

A: The whole market is currently impacted by geopolitical tensions and the disruptions that come as a result. Light as a Service, for example, could be a way for businesses to de-risk because there is no capital expenditure involved. Customers see real value in only having to pay to keep it running. 

If we look longer term, then resource and material efficiency is something the whole world should be thinking more about. How can we decouple economic growth from the increased use of natural resources? We believe the circular economy is the answer.

This interview has been shortened and edited for clarity.

Adam Wentworth is a freelance writer based in Brighton, UK.

The post Signify: “We believe resilience is becoming more important to businesses right now” appeared first on Climate Home News.