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This post is sponsored by Find The Right Bike.

While Find The Right Bike paid the freelancer’s fee for this article, I was confident this was a topic that would interest Streetsblog Chicago readers. I appreciate the support, as well as FTRB’s new weekly ad on this site. We’ve still got about $17K to raise to meet our 2026 budget goal. If you haven’t already, please consider making a tax-deductible donation here. Thanks! – John Greenfield, editor

In 2024, Viktor Köves began a project of interviewing and photographing Chicagoans of all walks of life with their bicycles. His goal: demystify city riding for everyday needs and get more people on bikes. The Instagram and YouTube channel for Chicagoans Who Bike is filled with personal stories of families, children and elders from all corners of the city about why they ride and what they enjoy about it.

Now Köves has a new website to further nudge Chicagoans onto two wheels. Findtheright.bike uses a very short survey to recommend a style of bike according to the user’s needs, from e-cargo bikes to good old fashioned commuter bikes. The site includes brief guides on basic gear and maintenance, and links to product reviews. Find the Right Bike also makes a compelling case for the cost savings of bike versus car, all in Köves’ affable, encouraging tone. We spoke with Köves about the new tool and how things are going so far.

Screenshot from FTRB.

Sharon Hoyer: What gave you the idea for Find the Right Bike?

Viktor Köves: I’d been working on Chicagoans Who Bike for a while and I’m about to close out that project. I want to stop when I hit 100 interviews and I’m at about 92. I wanted to do more educational content about how to bike in the city. I keep hearing people say, “There’s no bike for me because I have kids or I need to haul things.” A lot of people don’t know what options they have. I wanted to distill the knowledge I have and the knowledge of the bike community into something really simple.

The other thing was integrating some financial data. One of the values of the site is showing people just how expensive cars are. I have two e-bikes – one that was about $4,000 and one that was about $6,000. When I tell people that they say, “That’s so expensive!” But I don’t own a car. One is my minivan; I haven’t needed to take a car-share for cargo since I bought that bike. If you’re interested in riding but know nothing, you can jump in my site and find something pretty reasonable. And before I show you models of bikes, I show price breakdown. 

I kept sharing the site with the bike community for feedback. I added the gear guide: Okay, you’re getting a bike but you don’t know about locks and helmets so I share links to the best resources for those. I added the basics on maintenance. The other thing was storage. Every time I talk about cargo bikes, people say it’s going to get stolen immediately. That’s not true, there are strategies to prevent that. I worked a lot with Bunch Bikes [electric cargo cycles], which has many articles about theft prevention.

Screenshot from FTRB.

The central idea is giving people a way of seeing that a bike can fit into their life and that it’s not a big expense, but a big money saver.

A lot of sites get into frame sizes. I don’t care. What are your life needs? And go from there.

SH: The tone of the site is that this is not for gear heads, that biking is really approachable. You don’t have to measure or research anything before you take a quiz about what bike is best for you and how to get started. How did you structure the quiz?

VK: I have a lot of bikes, so I have a decision-making process for which bike I take outside. It’s a privileged position; I have a lot of experience with it. And I’ve had a lot of conversations with other people where they walk me through their needs. What problem are you trying to solve? If it’s just you riding into the wind, that’s a very different problem than moving you plus another adult. It’s a totally different class of bike. It’s my experience owning these different bikes and knowing what they’re good for, and consulting with other people. 

The other aspect was storage – some people might need a cargo bike but have to carry it upstairs. We offer a lightweight alternative but offer a storage guide for keeping it outside.

SH: You avoid endorsing any particular brand. Was that tricky in any way?

VK: Commuter e-bikes are easy, there’s so many at different price points. The one I struggled with was e-trikes because there are a bunch of cheap alternatives with mixed reviews. My goal is to build trust but not saying a specific bike to buy, but to say, “go try these, here’s some third-party reviews.” Leaning on existing resources and reviews. I give you a class of bike, but it’s not meant to be definitive. I don’t provide a purchase link. 

SH: How much traffic has the site received and what has the response been so far?

VK: The feedback has been fantastic. The most reassuring thing I’ve heard is people who already have e-bikes pulling it up and saying I recommended the type of bike they have, so it’s working well. We’ve had about 850 users over the last month and a half. I’m working on some cross-promotion with bike shops to be listed on the site. One of the cool things is that its unaffiliated so I can do partnerships like this. My goal is to play nice with everyone so everyone can promote this tool.

SH: What do you feel is key for convincing more Chicagoans to try out riding a bike or replacing more of their car trips with biking?

Screenshot from FTRB.

VK: Honestly, I think hands on stuff is the most powerful. Last year in the 40th Ward [on the Far North Side, represented by Ald. Andre Vasquez] we hosted an e-bikepalooza that was really successful. It was in partnership with my project Chicagoans Who Bike. We had J.C. Lind [Bike Co.] doing Urban Arrows. When people try out a nice e-bike and see what it can do, it opens their mind a bit. 

I think storytelling is key too. Other people just like you are doing just fine with their bike. And maybe they still have a car for weekend getaways, but they’re saying, “It’s way easier to drop off my kids at school in this Bunch Bike or Urban Arrow than sit in the car line.” If you are dropping your kids off at school in an SUV, and you see four or five of the cool parents roll by on an Urban Arrow and drop their kids off and leave before you can drop your kids off, you’re going to think about it. There’s adoption, there’s infrastructure, and there’s tools like this, that make it easy and approachable. 

I don’t think my website will get people to buy a bike, but my goal is to get them in the funnel of trying out a bike and seeing how freeing it can be.

SH: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Screenshot from FTRB.

VK: One thing is I talk about car-free living FAQs. The most common thing I hear is, “What if I need to move a couch?” Yeah. You can rent cars. I think it’s so important to use the financial lens. Look, if you use a car to haul a couch once a week, then a bike is probably not going to be sufficient for your needs. But once a year? Price that out. How much does a rental cost you? The other thing is when I talk about car ownership, people just look at the sticker prices, but that’s not the full price of a car. On my site, I use $25,000 as the initial purchase price for a used car. The five-year cost of car ownership is twice that. The bikes are more expensive upfront and then almost free to run. We forget about insurance and fuel. I talk about retirement savings a lot for my work, so I’m pretty financially literate. It was key to me to mention the investment – is your retirement funded? If you have the money for a new car that’s great for you, but put it in a 401k for ten years, my sense is you’ll have about $1.1M. I think that’s the question we should be asking people.

Visit Find the Right Bike here.

Read Streetsblog’s previous story on Chicagoans Who Bike here.

On November 12, SBC launched our 2026 fund drive to raise $50K through ad sales and donations. That will complete this year’s budget, at a time when it’s tough to find grant money. Big thanks to all the readers who have chipped in so far to help keep this site rolling to the end of 2026! Currently, we’re at $32,696 with $17,304 to go, ideally by the end of May.

If you value our livable streets reporting and advocacy, please consider making a tax-deductible gift here. If you can afford a contribution of $100 or more, think of that as a subscription. That will help keep the site paywall-free for people on tighter budgets, as well as decision-makers. Thanks for your support!

– John Greenfield, editor

Tara locals are concerned their backyards will be industrialised, after the Queensland Government today approved a coal seam gas development proposed by Origin Energy’s joint venture Australia Pacific LNG (APLNG).

This article is a brief overview.
See all of the articles from the Water Quality campaign.

Historically, the Gualala River was home to abundant coho salmon and steelhead trout populations that numbered in the tens of thousands. Today, the endangered coho salmon are all but gone and threatened steelhead are struggling to survive in the home river they evolved and adapted to over millennia. The dwindling salmonid population is a critical indicator of the declining health of the Gualala River, and its 300 square mile watershed, and continues to be at the core of Friends of Gualala River’s work.

FoGR is working with state agencies to reduce water quality impairments from both sediment pollution and pollution from stormwater run-off containing toxic tire grit (6PPD).

Adult coho salmon; photo by NOAA Fisheries Sediment (TMDL)

In 2001, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) listed the Gualala River as impaired under the Clean Water Act due to excessive sediment and high temperatures – both conditions that hamper fish spawning and create unhealthy conditions for fish throughout their lifespan. The chief sources of sediment are roads, landslides, and legacy timber harvesting practices.

California agencies failed to develop plans to reduce sediment and temperature for 20 years. In 2021, FoGR petitioned the State Water Resources Control Board and North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board to incorporate the EPA’s Gualala River Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for sediment into the North Coast Basin Plan and to develop and implement an action plan specifying how sediment pollution will be reduced throughout the watershed. That petition was successful. FoGR achieved a major accomplishment that will help improve water quality and reduce sediment pollution in the Gualala River and its tributaries – a pivotal step in assisting salmonid recovery efforts.

Now that FoGR has successfully negotiated an agreement, work can begin in earnest to restore the impaired Gualala River and its tributaries. The Regional Water Board adopted the Action Plan for the Gualala River Sediment TMDL in February, 2026, and is developing a Gualala Roads Assessment Order, a watershed-specific order that will address sediment pollution by requiring the inventory, assessment, and prioritization of sediment-generating roads.

Sediment from the remains of a timber company’s summer crossing sheds into the North Fork during winter flows. (Photo courtesy of FoGR) Stormwater (6PPD)

In 2020 FoGR learned of a chemical found in tire grit that pollutes stormwater and kills a number of different aquatic species. It is especially toxic to coho salmon— 40 parts per trillion in a quart of stormwater kills juvenile coho. Information has been pouring out of the State of Washington where the effects of 6 PPD were first discovered as scientists race to learn more about how the compound kills and what can be done about it.

In 2022, CA Urban Streams Alliance-The Stream Team (The Stream Team) expanded its long-standing watershed monitoring program and began collaborating with Friends of Gualala River (FoGR) to investigate 6PPD-Quinone (6PPD-Q)—a tire-derived pollutant highly toxic to Coho Salmon and Steelhead—in the Gualala River estuary.

In May of 2024 the team of volunteers ran their first samples and discovered that stormwater runoff from the downtown area of Gualala contains high levels of 6PPD-Q, confirming their suspicions. “It makes sense,” says Baker. “Even though Gualala is a small town in a rural area, we have concentrated traffic, especially trucks, trailers, and other heavy vehicles all using Highway 1.”

Storm-event samples were collected at four sites upstream and downstream of major road surfaces and analyzed for 6PPD-Q, zinc, oil and grease, and standard field parameters. Results show elevated 6PPD-Q (up to 170 ng/L), zinc, conductivity, and turbidity, with highest concentrations at sites influenced by Highway 1, gas stations, and parking lots.

With the incredible biodiversity of the Research Ranch comes a dauntingly long list of conservation challenges. Sure, the ranch is home to a long list of priority grassland birds, uniquely intact...

The Department of Energy wants to collaborate with states that agree to take in and possibly recycle used nuclear fuel, and some have responded positively. But practical and policy challenges remain.

In early May, Greenbelt Alliance with its partners hosted two community workshops in support of the Port of Oakland’s Waterfront Resilience Plan. The workshops were hosted in partnership with the Port of Oakland, the City of Oakland, Hood Planning Group, Ninth Root, Civic Edge Consulting, the West Oakland Cultural Action Network (WOCAN), the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project (WOEIP) and Oakland Don’t Play. During the workshops, neighbors and residents gathered to explore and weigh in on the latest flood maps, and shared input on community values for the Port of Oakland’s Waterfront Resilience Plan. 

Nearly 100 attendees joined us over two workshops that were both deeply anchored in community. The first workshop on Saturday May 2 was located at The Townderosa in West Oakland, and the second workshop on Thursday, May 7 was hosted by Oakland Don’t Play, a local clothing business located in deep East Oakland. Both locations were backyard spaces curated for building community and exchanging ideas and information.

The workshops included a poster session where community members had the opportunity to ask questions and share input with project partners. Attendees were guided through three stations. The first station welcomed attendees and outlined the public’s role in the process. The second station featured maps showing future flooding projections, and the third station captured neighborhood values and priorities. Each station sparked conversations about what matters most to the community—including what future impacts from flooding will look like, and what the community wants to see protected.

From the poster session attendees learned how climate change is causing water levels to rise, and how this will result in increased flooding, including coastal flooding (when tides or storms push water over the shoreline), groundwater flooding (when water under the soil rises toward the surface), and stormwater flooding, (when heavy rains fill streets faster than drains can move the water away). 

Community input is integral to the Port’s Waterfront Resilience Plan. As Dave Peters of WOCAN shared: 

“Even though we don’t see where I’m at in West Oakland as a flooding risk. The risk of having toxics being pushed up to the surface exists. So we want to make sure that that community knowledge gets back to the Port and gets included in the Plan. We need y’all in your neighborhood to come and talk about your experience to add to the data. We need the science, but community input makes it real.” Dave PetersWOCAN Founder

Now that these first workshops are wrapped up, the engagement doesn’t stop here. The project team will be hosting a series of smaller stakeholder meetings over the summer, and additional community workshops are slated this fall. Oakland residents also have the opportunity to share their ideas through an online survey. If you live, work, or play in Oakland, please share your ideas with us here!

Want to stay connected? Sign up here to receive email updates about the project and stay up to date on what the Oakland Alameda Adaptation Committee is working on!

The post Waterfront Voices Workshops Shape the Port of Oakland’s Resilience Plan appeared first on Greenbelt Alliance.

From superyachts to Covid conspiracies ... seven new books for people who want to change the world.

Source

Built around a 7kWh modular foundation and engineered for daily dual-cycling, the XE shatters the industry's long-standing "bigger is always better" mentality.

The post Beyond ‘Bigger is Better’: Anker Solix unveils XE, the next-gen dual-cycle home battery appeared first on Renew Economy.

New boss at Smart Energy Council, and Powerlink, board movements at Synergy, plus movements at Celero, Origin, WestWind and Arena.

The post Grid Connections 2026: Who’s going where and doing what in Australia’s green energy transition appeared first on Renew Economy.

Earlier this year, environmental advocates in New Mexico waited patiently for the outcome of a battle they’ve now relived three times in less than a year.

Victory

On February 7, 2026 after a nearly 5-hour long hearing, by a 5-4 vote, the State House Agriculture, Acequias And Water Resources Committee decided to table a bill that would have forced New Mexico to adopt rules and permit the use of oil and gas wastewater for a variety of purposes outside of the oil fields. 

Oil and gas wastewater, or produced water as the industry terms it, contains varying amounts of salts, heavy metals, hydrocarbons, carcinogens, and radioactive materials. This wastewater is part rock and salt water from underground and part chemicals and additives from the drilling and fracking processes. As a result, any use outside of the oil field can pose dangerous risks of contamination to New Mexico’s waters.

HB207, as originally introduced, required the Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC), the state’s water pollution control agency, to authorize the discharge of treated oil and gas wastewater to New Mexico’s rivers and streams along with a variety of uses outside of the oil field, including road spreading. Roadspreading is the dumping of the wastewater on roads for use as a dust suppressant. This practice, in particular, has come under heavy scrutiny recently as studies of wastewater show it to be both less effective at dust control than commercial alternatives and potentially pose risks to human health and the environment.

Just last year, the WQCC decided these were not risks worth taking. 

A through process: prohibiting wastewater discharge

In May 2025, the Commission completed a thorough rulemaking process to prohibit discharges of produced water to surface waters and groundwater (see Earthworks and partners’ comment supporting the draft rule prohibiting discharge). The rulemaking lasted 18 months and included thousands of pages of evidence and testimony from experts, scientists, and non-profits. Based on all of the available evidence at the time, the commission decided to prohibit reuse of oil and gas outside the oil field finding, “insufficient evidence exists at this time to ensure that discharges of untreated or treated produced water are protective of human health or the environment.”

The rule adopted last year did, however, allow for certain pilot projects to proceed. 

These non-discharging pilot projects allow the Commission to compile additional evidence and fill in needed data gaps to more conclusively decide whether treatment is adequate to prevent contamination. The rule also sunsets after 5 years, meaning the potential for reuse could be revisited in a few years after compiling more evidence from pilot studies in a way that does not risk contaminating New Mexico’s water resources. In other words, the commission declined to put the cart before the horse and decided to allow more time to answer some unsettled questions about the effectiveness of the treatment process.

The oil and gas industry demands a second-look

Before the ink could dry on this rule, an oil and gas industry-aligned group called the WATR Alliance filed a petition asking the WQCC to revisit the decision and allow the discharge of treated oil and gas wastewater. Having just finished a lengthy year and half long legal process, the WQCC was back answering the same question again. This time, though, the petition failed for a different reason. After initially agreeing to hear the petition, the WQCC reversed its decision.

The commission voted to vacate the decision to advance the petition due, in part, to “the appearance of impropriety.” This decision followed a public outcry after the Santa Fe New Mexican revealed emails between the governor’s office and commissioners, including one from a staffer in Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office urging commissioners to get the rule “over the finish line,” which advocates argued tainted the process.

Not long after this second attempt failed, HB 207 was introduced. This represented a third attempt to loosen restrictions on the handling of oil and gas waste in less than a year. 

‘A formidable resistance’

Despite the late introduction of the bill during the short thirty-day legislative session, community members and environmental advocates quickly formed a formidable resistance. Led by groups like Amigos Bravos, Western Environmental Law Center, Citizen Caring for the Future, Wildearth Guardians and with support from Earthworks, they compiled factsheets, answered questions from legislators, packed the committee hearing, and provided impassioned public comments, which featured dozens of contributers, including Earthworks state policy manager. 

In the end the committee ultimately decided not to move forward with the bill. In the face of relentless pressure from industry and the governor’s office, a group of dedicated advocates prevailed again and again (and again). 

But the fight continues
Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there. A couple of weeks after the 2026 legislative session ended, WATR Alliance submitted yet another petition to allow reuse of treated produced water outside of the oil field. The WQCC is expected to vote on whether to schedule a hearing on the latest petition on May 12th, and the dedicated advocates fighting to protect New Mexico’s precious water resources from contamination of oil and gas waste byproducts will have to relive this fight at least one more time.

The post ”It’s Deja Vu All Over Again”: How New Mexicans, Advocates Repeatedly Fight Back A Push to Allow Oil and Gas Waste in New Mexico Waters appeared first on Earthworks.

Russia continues to present its nuclear sector as a pillar of strength—at home, abroad, and even in war. But a closer look at developments in our March Nuclear Digest tell a different story: one of political improvisation, slipping timelines, and growing constraints. 

Three cases from our latest digest—Ukraine, Turkey, and the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant II—show a strategy that is still moving forward, but increasingly under strain. 

Ukraine: Licensing reality into existence 

Nowhere is that strain more visible than at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, occupied by Russian troops since early in the invasion. Earlier this year, Russia’s nuclear regulator announced it had issued long-term licenses for two reactors at the besieged plant. On paper, Rosatom wishes to indicate progress. In practice, it’s something else entirely. 

There is no real license today that would allow these units to be put into operation—let alone operated for 10 years, writes Bellona expert Alexander Nikitin. 

Under normal conditions, reactor licenses are the final step in a long process of construction, testing, and safety validation. None of that has happened at Zaporizhzhia. The reactors remain in cold shutdown, dependent on fragile external power lines that continue to be disrupted by nearby fighting.  

So what are these licenses for? According to Nikitin, they are less about engineering than optics: “a forced step taken under pressure to legitimize Russian control over the station.”  

That effort may already be working. Subtle changes in how international organizations refer to the plant—dropping explicit mention of Ukraine—suggest that language is beginning to shift alongside reality. But the risks to the plant remain unchanged. Military activity continues near nuclear facilities, power supply remains unstable, and safety margins are thin. 

Even beyond Zaporizhzhia, the long shadow of war is growing. Repairs to the damaged confinement structure at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant—which was struck by a Russian drone—are expected to cost €500 million. But for now, those plans may be more aspirational than practical. 

“There is no real threat from these facilities today—and no resources to carry out such work during the war,” Nikitin notes. In other words: even nuclear safety is being triaged. 

Turkey: The Limits of Export Power 

If Ukraine shows how Russia uses nuclear tools politically, Turkey shows where the limits of that strategy begin. The Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant—Rosatom’s flagship export project—is now years behind schedule. Its first reactor was supposed to be running by 2025, but it’s not. 

Rosatom blames sanctions. Its CEO, Alexey Likhachev, has described the project as stuck in a “sanctions meat grinder.” But the consequences go deeper than delays. 

The delays are not just technical—they have legal and economic implications, writes Bellona analyst Dmitry Gorchakov.  

Akkuyu is built under a model that leaves Rosatom carrying most of the financial risk while relying on long-term electricity purchase agreements to make the numbers work. The longer the delays, the weaker Rosatom’s bargaining position becomes. 

Turkey is clearly taking note. In March, Ankara moved forward with talks on alternative nuclear technologies, including a deal with Canada’s Candu Energy. Negotiations are also ongoing with South Korea and China. What was once expected to be Rosatom’s next big win in Turkey—the Sinop project—is no longer a given. 

As Gorchakov puts it, “Sinop is now effectively an open project, without any obligations toward Rosatom.”  

Kursk II: When Dates Don’t Line Up 

Back in Russia, the story is less about geopolitics and more about transparency. 

At the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant II, the first unit has reached full power—a milestone the industry likes to highlight. At the same time, international databases list the start of construction on Unit 3 as January 31, 2026. 

But Bellona’s analysis suggests that date may not be accurate. Evidence from regional sources and site imagery indicates the “first concrete” milestone likely occurred weeks earlier, in late December 2025. That discrepancy may seem minor. But in nuclear construction, it’s not. 

“This case shows that information about the construction of Kursk-II units is being deliberately concealed,” Gorchakov writes. 

The start of construction is one of the most closely tracked benchmarks in the nuclear industry. Moving it—even by a few weeks—can obscure delays, reshape narratives, and complicate oversight. And it raises a broader question: if even basic milestones are unclear, what else is? 

Read our full article on the strange data from Kursk II here.  

The Bigger Picture 

Taken together, these cases point to a nuclear strategy that is still active—but increasingly reactive. In Ukraine, Russia is trying to regulate its way into legitimacy. In Turkey, it is losing ground in a market it once seemed to dominate. And at home, it is struggling to maintain transparency even on its own projects. 

None of this means Rosatom is in retreat. Its global footprint remains large, and its projects continue to move forward. But the corporation’s narrative of steady expansion is becoming harder to sustain. Read this and more in the new digest.  

The post Questionable licenses, delays, and obscured construction data and more in Bellona’s new nuclear digest  appeared first on Bellona.org.

The Center for Birds of Prey is calling all haiku writers and passionate poets to celebrate International Vulture Awareness Day with haikus celebrating the two vulture species found in Florida:...

AI image concept: A giant Shell logo-shaped cash register sitting on an oil-slicked shoreline, ringing up “$6.9bn” while distant tankers pass through a smoky, war-lit Strait of Hormuz. In the foreground, a tiny green sapling labelled “transition” is being watered with a golden petrol pump nozzle

DISCLAIMER: This article is opinion/commentary. It is not financial advice, investment advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. It relies on publicly available reporting, company statements, and cited sources. Site wide disclaimer also applies.

The war dividend nobody wants to call a war dividend

There are quarters when an oil major merely makes money, and then there are quarters when the geopolitical horror show performs like an unpaid member of the trading desk.

Shell’s first quarter of 2026 appears to sit firmly in the second category. The company reported adjusted earnings of about $6.9 billion, more than double the previous quarter and above analyst expectations, helped by market volatility linked to the Iran war and disruption across global energy routes. The Times reported that Shell’s adjusted profits rose 23% year-on-year and were more than double the previous quarter, with trading, refining, marketing and gas-market volatility doing much of the heavy lifting.

So there it is: another majestic chapter in the sacred corporate scripture of “operational performance”, where instability becomes opportunity, crisis becomes margin, and the planet is invited to admire the spreadsheet.

Shell’s official line, naturally, was polished to a boardroom shine. In its first-quarter release, chief executive Wael Sawan said the company delivered “strong results” in a quarter marked by “unprecedented disruption in global energy markets”.   Translation, for those without a refinery-grade euphemism filter: the world shook, prices swung, traders pounced, and shareholders got another warm bath.

The company also raised its dividend by 5% and announced a $3 billion share buyback, though that buyback was smaller than some previous rounds.   The result is a familiar tableau: public anxiety over energy security on one side, private capital returns on the other, and Shell standing in the middle looking solemn while counting.

The war dividend nobody wants to call a war dividend

Let us be precise. Shell did not cause the Iran war. Shell is not being accused here of causing the conflict. But when oil and gas markets convulse, companies with enormous trading operations can benefit from the volatility. That is not a conspiracy theory; it is the business model doing yoga.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Shell’s chemicals and products division, which includes oil trading, produced $1.93 billion in adjusted profit in the first quarter, compared with $449 million a year earlier, with trading boosted by volatile markets.   Bloomberg had already reported in April that Shell said its oil trading results were “significantly higher” than in the previous quarter as the Middle East conflict disrupted global energy markets.

This is the part where the industry asks everyone to be mature. Energy markets are complicated. Supply security matters. Traders provide liquidity. Pipelines do not run on hashtags. All true. Also true: the spectacle of a fossil-fuel giant harvesting bumper earnings from war-driven volatility while continuing to brand itself as a steward of the energy transition is the sort of thing satire struggles to improve upon.

Even Shell’s operational side took hits. Reports noted damage and disruption affecting Shell’s Middle East-linked gas operations, including the Pearl gas-to-liquids facility in Qatar, with production impacts expected to continue.   Yet the earnings machine still roared. Apparently, if one part of the fossil empire catches fire, another part can sell tickets to the flames.

The transition that keeps finding new oil and gas to love

Shell’s climate messaging remains an exquisitely engineered balancing act: one foot planted on “net zero by 2050”, the other pressing firmly on the accelerator of oil, LNG and gas expansion.

Shell says its target is to become a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050, and its 2024 Energy Transition Strategy says the company aims to provide energy today while building the energy system of the future.   It also says it will continue efforts to halve Scope 1 and 2 operational emissions by 2030 compared with 2016.

Fine. But the climate problem is not limited to the emissions from Shell’s own boilers, platforms and office lights. The really vast emissions come when customers burn the oil and gas. And this is where the corporate choreography gets less Swan Lake and more oil tanker reversing into a wind farm.

In April 2026, Shell announced an agreement to acquire Canadian gas producer ARC Resources, a company focused on the Montney shale basin in British Columbia and Alberta.   The Times characterised the deal as a strategic move to strengthen Shell’s shale portfolio and reserves, in a context where investors were watching reserve life and future production closely.

Shell buying more gas assets while talking about transition is not a contradiction, according to Shell. It is “energy security”. It is “resilience”. It is “value”. It is every corporate noun in the drawer except the obvious one: expansion.

This is an old Shell habit. The Reuters source supplied for this piece points back to Shell’s 2007 move to buy out minority shareholders in Shell Canada, then one of Canada’s major oil, gas and oil-sands producers and refiners. Reuters reported at the time that some minority shareholders argued the offer undervalued the Canadian unit’s prospects.   Nearly two decades later, the geography changes, the buzzwords evolve, and the gravitational pull remains the same: hydrocarbons, preferably in large quantities.

Investors: the silent choir in very expensive seats

No discussion of Shell is complete without mentioning the institutional money standing quietly behind the curtain, applauding with spreadsheets.

MarketScreener’s shareholder data for Shell lists major holders including Norges Bank Investment Management at about 3.24%, The Vanguard Group at about 3.23%, BlackRock Investment Management (UK) at about 2.69%, BlackRock Advisors (UK) at about 1.56%, and SSgA Funds Management at about 1.54%.

These are not fringe investors. These are the heavy furniture of global capitalism: pension money, index money, sovereign wealth money, passive money that somehow manages to be very passive until dividends arrive.

This matters because Shell’s strategy is not performed in an empty theatre. It is performed for investors who have often rewarded discipline, buybacks, dividends and fossil-fuel cash generation. In plain English: Shell is not improvising alone. It is dancing for an audience that knows the steps.

And the steps are obvious: keep the oil-and-gas engine profitable, trim or discipline lower-return green ventures, talk about net zero at a safe altitude, and return cash aggressively enough that major shareholders do not start throwing chairs.

The courtroom wobble and the climate credibility gap

Shell’s climate record is not merely a matter of campaign slogans. It has been fought over in court.

In 2021, a Dutch district court ordered Shell to cut its worldwide aggregate net carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 compared with 2019 levels. In November 2024, The Hague Court of Appeal overturned that specific order. Shell welcomed the ruling, saying its 2050 net-zero target remained central to strategy and that it continued work to halve operational emissions by 2030.

Shell’s legal win, however, did not magically decarbonise its business model. It removed a specific court-imposed target. It did not remove the atmosphere, the carbon budget, the physics, or the awkward fact that “we’ll get there by 2050” has become the corporate climate equivalent of “the cheque is in the post”.

The court appeal ruling gave Shell breathing room. Shell appears to have used some of that breathing room to inhale more gas.

Energy security: the industry’s favourite magic cloak

The phrase “energy security” now performs heroic labour for the fossil-fuel sector. It can mean keeping homes heated, factories powered and supply chains functioning. It can also mean giving oil and gas companies a gleaming moral vocabulary for doing what they already wanted to do.

Shell’s 2025 Annual Report page says the report covers financial, operational, strategic and sustainability performance, and Shell’s chair said the company was becoming more competitive and resilient in a “fragmented and complex” world.   That language is not accidental. Fragmentation and complexity are now the corporate weather system in which oil majors thrive: storm clouds above, buybacks below.

The company’s defenders will say the world still needs oil and gas. They are not wrong. The world does still consume vast quantities of both. But that argument becomes rather less noble when used to justify every fresh fossil investment, every new gas basin, every LNG growth narrative, and every shareholder payout wrapped in a transition ribbon.

At some point, “meeting demand” begins to look suspiciously like preserving demand.

The green costume, the black liquid

Shell has invested in lower-carbon businesses, EV charging, biofuels, hydrogen and carbon capture. Shell itself says it planned to invest $10–15 billion in low-carbon energy solutions between 2023 and the end of 2025, and that it invested $5.6 billion in low-carbon solutions in 2023.

But the question is not whether Shell has any green spending. The question is whether the company’s overall direction is compatible with the speed and scale of decarbonisation required. A fossil-fuel giant can place solar panels in the brochure while continuing to build its future around gas, trading and hydrocarbon extraction. The brochure may be greener. The business model still smells of crude.

The Q1 2026 numbers sharpen the point. Shell’s profit surge did not come from a sudden global outbreak of wind turbines. It came from fossil markets doing what fossil markets do in crisis: spiking, convulsing, rewarding those positioned to profit from scarcity and fear.

Shell did not invent that system. It merely sits magnificently inside it, polishing the brass.

Conclusion: Shell’s transition is going exactly where the money tells it to go

Shell wants to be seen as pragmatic. In a sense, it is. It is pragmatically following the cash. It is pragmatically rewarding shareholders. It is pragmatically using “energy security” as the all-purpose password for continued fossil-fuel relevance.

The problem is that climate stability is not impressed by pragmatism measured in quarterly returns. Nor is the public likely to be charmed forever by the spectacle of oil majors banking billions from volatility while asking everyone else to admire their net-zero mood board.

Shell’s first quarter of 2026 is not just a financial event. It is a morality play with an investor deck: war volatility, bumper profits, shareholder payouts, gas acquisitions, climate pledges and a transition strategy that seems permanently stuck in the departure lounge.

Shell says it is building the energy system of the future. Perhaps. But judging by the cash register, the future still has a very large oil slick underneath it.

Spoof Shell PR Spin: “Please Stop Calling It a War Windfall, We Prefer ‘Geopolitical Value Creation’”

Shell today proudly confirmed that it remains fully committed to delivering more value with fewer awkward questions.

In a quarter marked by unprecedented global disruption, Shell’s world-class trading teams demonstrated the company’s unique ability to transform market chaos into shareholder comfort. While some observers have described this as “profiting from volatility linked to war”, Shell prefers the more responsible phrase: resilience-led monetisation of unfortunate events beyond our control.

We remain deeply committed to the energy transition, which is why we continue to say “net zero by 2050” at regular intervals while investing in the oil and gas required to keep civilisation, industry analysts, and dividend expectations functioning.

Our recent Canadian gas acquisition should not be misunderstood as fossil-fuel expansion. It is a carefully calibrated act of transition-adjacent hydrocarbon stewardship. Gas, as everyone in our investor relations department knows, is not really a fossil fuel when described in a soothing enough voice.

Shell thanks its shareholders, including major global asset managers and institutional investors, for their continued confidence in our strategy of balancing climate ambition, energy security and extremely large sums of money.

Spoof Bot-Reaction / Comment Section

@DividendDruid: Amazing quarter. Thoughts and prayers to volatility, the unsung hero of shareholder returns.

@NetZeroByWhenever: Shell’s transition plan is very clear: transition from last quarter’s profits to much bigger profits.

@FossilFuelFan1978: People complain, but without oil companies, who would bravely monetise geopolitical instability?

@GreenwashDetector: I love when companies say “lower emissions” while buying more gas. Very minimalist climate policy. Barely there.

@IndexFundGhost: As a passive investor, I passively receive the benefits and actively deny responsibility.

@EnergySecurityEnjoyer: Every time someone says “energy security”, a buyback gets its wings.

@PlanetaryBoundaries: I have reviewed the quarterly results and would like to resign from Earth.

@ShellPRIntern: Please remember: it is not a fossil-fuel expansion strategy. It is a molecule-forward resilience platform.

@CashRegisterAtHormuz: Ding.

@ActualClimateScience: This comment has been delayed due to insufficient investor enthusiasm.

Shell’s War-Volatility Jackpot: Nothing Says “Energy Transition” Like $6.9 Billion and Another Fossil-Fuel Shopping Trip was first posted on May 7, 2026 at 7:46 pm.
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May 4, 2026: Read letter from San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, Greenaction, California Environmental Justice Coalition and allies demanding closure of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant

Click Here to Read The Letter to Senator Laird

 

For decades, the U.S. Forest Service has actively managed public lands to reduce wildfire risks by clearing underbrush and trees, or employing prescribed burns — something Indigenous nations have practiced for centuries. Scientists have generally lauded the ecological benefits of what is also known as “fuel treatment.” Now, they say there’s another reason to support this approach: It saves money. 

According to a study published today in the journal Science, every dollar that the agency spent on such tactics avoided $3.73 in smoke, property, and emissions harm. “A lot of people have suggested that there could be potential economic benefits,” said Frederik Strabo, the lead author of the paper and an economist with University of California, Davis. “But it’s been a pretty understudied area.”

The study analyzed high-resolution data from 285 wildfires across 11 Western states between 2017 and 2023 that burned through areas where the Forest Service had reduced the fuel load. On average, the treatments decreased the total area burned by 36 percent and cut the amount of land burned at moderate to high severity by 26 percent. Researchers then modeled the economic benefits of those reductions. 

The paper estimated that fuel treatments prevented $1.39 billion in health and workforce productivity losses tied to wildfire smoke, $895 million in structural damage, and $503 million in carbon dioxide emissions. Overall, that amounted to an average savings of about $3.73 for every dollar the government spent. The research also found that larger treatments — those covering more than 2,400 acres — were the most cost effective. 

“It’s a significant number, but when you compare it to the total cost of wildfires it’s small,” caveated Strabo, noting that the cost of the worst disasters can reach hundreds of billions of dollars. But he also said the boon could be even greater than calculated. The research didn’t, for example, examine any savings or benefits for the multibillion dollar outdoor recreation industry. “We’re only capturing a specific subset of benefits.”

Morgan Varner, the director of fire research at the conservation nonprofit Tall Timbers, called the work “the missing link for a lot of fuels treatment research,” and said that data like this can be extremely helpful in guiding decision-makers. “Studies like this round out the story and provide more evidence for the benefits of these treatments.” 

David Calkin, who until last year was a Forest Service research scientist, also applauded the analysis, calling it “novel.” But he does not find the math entirely convincing, and questions the notion that such an intangible public good can, or should, be assigned a monetary worth. “A lot of the values of fuel management are non-market,” said Calkin, who wasn’t involved in the study. Ecological benefits, for instance, can be hard to quantify, as can things like public recreation access. 

“I’m not trying to reduce the importance of fuel management and the value of it. It’s just highly uncertain,” he said. “I worry about trying to monetize the value of treatments on public lands.”

One issue Calkin notes is that such work on federal lands may not significantly mitigate the costliest fires, which ignite near communities and destroy homes and buildings. “The best way to protect a structure is at the structure itself,” he explained. That means the study could be overestimating the amount of property damage that clearing and prescribed burns avoid.

Strabo disagrees, saying that an unpublished portion of the analysis found that fires that interacted with fuel treatments accounted for a disproportionately large share of structure losses and suppression costs. “That suggests [those fires] were often among the more economically consequential wildfires,” he said, pointing to the 2021 Caldor Fire near Lake Tahoe as an example. “The fire still caused substantial damages, but treatments helped prevent it from becoming even more catastrophic.”

One thing the paper explicitly didn’t account for was the smoke and carbon dioxide emissions that intentional fires produce. “We’re finding that’s not a non-trivial amount in our research,” said Mark Kreider, a Forest Service researcher. Because wildfire is unpredictable, he explained, you inherently have to treat more of the landscape than will actually encounter flames. How to best factor those emissions in is part of Kreider’s ongoing work, but he says it could potentially even flip an analysis like the one in Strabo’s paper. Still, he said, that doesn’t undermine the core point that fuel treatments are effective.

“It’s very clear,” he said, “that on the whole they are very beneficial.”

Not everyone supports such tactics. Critics argue they can harm ecosystems, disproportionately target larger trees, and open forests to logging under the guise of fire prevention. Some opponents also contend that this approach is less effective against extreme fires, while others question whether public funds would be better spent hardening homes and communities.

The federal government’s approach to forest management has shifted since President Donald Trump returned to office. In 2022, the Forest Service released a 10-year wildfire plan that increased forest management and prescribed burns. The Trump administration, which has announced plans to radically remake the agency, has placed greater emphasis on fighting wildfires than preventing them. According the Forest Service, in 2025, the agency reduced vegetation on about 1 million fewer acres than in 2024.

A Forest Service spokesperson attributed most of that decline to elevated wildfire activity in the Southeast. The agency also called 2025 “one the most successful wildfire years in recent history.” But critics worry it is moving away from proactive forest management.

“The takeaway that I really got from this article was that it provides further evidence that the administration’s current policy of full suppression in Western wildfire situations is misguided,” said Heather Stricker, a climate and lands analyst with the Sierra Club. While that approach might sound protective, she said a large body of research shows that it can often backfire. “This paper reiterated a lot of that previous research, but then took it a step further to quantify the cost savings.” 

The Trump administration has also announced plans to increase logging on federal lands. This has added to long-standing fears from environmental groups that instead of thoughtful, well-managed fuel treatment, the government could resort to clear-cutting. Even the paper notes this resistance. “Public pressure and risk aversion,” it reads, “skew wildfire management resources toward fire suppression rather than prevention.”

Strabo is hopeful that by adding to the range of evidence supporting forest management, his paper could help guide policymakers. “We could have these economic and ecological benefits if we scaled it up,” he said. “It’s a critically underfunded public good.”

This story was updated to include a response from the U.S. Forest Service.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline How controlled burns can help save taxpayers billions on May 7, 2026.

Last week we asked you to take action to protect the Labyrinth Canyon area from a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) proposal to authorize the Keg Knoll backcountry airstrip for private aircraft takeoffs and landings. Now, the BLM’s Canyon Country District is proposing to designate ten additional backcountry airstrips in the Moab and Monticello areas and authorize periodic machine maintenance in remote locations. Once again, we need your help to keep these quiet, wild places free of aircraft noise and mechanical intrusions.

These airstrips, most of which show no signs of recent use, are scattered across some of the most remote and ecologically sensitive landscapes in southern Utah—including the Gemini Bridges/Labyrinth Canyon area and the remote backcountry immediately adjacent to Bears Ears National Monument.

Please tell the BLM to protect wilderness-quality lands, wildlife habitat, and Bears Ears National Monument by rejecting six of the ten proposed airstrips: Spring Canyon, Big Flat, Castle Creek, Nokai Dome, Piute, and Red Canyon.

 
Click image to enlarge

None of these airstrips have ever been officially designated, and despite past use, many of these locations are essentially reclaimed and no longer functional for takeoff or landing. Reopening them would require removal of mature native plants like blackbrush, rabbitbrush, and junipers, fragmenting habitat and degrading wilderness characteristics that took years to recover. Several locations sit within BLM-identified wilderness-quality lands or directly adjacent to Bears Ears National Monument, where aircraft noise and visual intrusions would diminish the solitude, natural soundscapes, and cultural landscapes these areas were meant to protect.

The Spring Canyon and Big Flat airstrips lie within bighorn habitat along the Green River corridor and near Canyonlands National Park—the same landscape where the BLM already restricts other recreation activities to protect these important species during lambing season. Similarly, raptors nesting near Big Flat, Nokai Dome, and other sites are highly sensitive to aviation noise, which discourages use of otherwise suitable nesting habitat.

Click here to urge the BLM to reject designation of the most sensitive airstrip locations.

These remote canyon country landscapes deserve protection, not rubber-stamping of aircraft use that degrades recovering ecosystems and introduces chronic noise into some of Utah’s last remaining quiet, wild places. The BLM has decided not to open a formal public comment period on this action, so please submit your comments as soon as possible to ensure they’re taken into account.

Thank you for your support!

P.S. If you haven’t taken action yet on the Keg Knoll backcountry airstrip, please click here to submit a separate comment to the BLM’s Price field office.

The post Tell BLM: No More Airstrips in Utah’s Wild Places! appeared first on Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

This is the third such deal between EDP Renewables and Meta, bringing the total procured energy between the two companies to 545 MW.

Most avid birders might be more interested in the incredible diversity of avian species which visit and inhabit the Bay Area than in the rocks beneath. But the two are part of the same story:...

May 7, 2026 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SUWA Statement on BLM’s Intent to Expand Destructive Motorized Use in the San Rafael Swell and San Rafael Desert – 5.7.26  Proposal would damage cultural sites, wildlife habitat, and non-motorized visitors at the behest of Utah politicians and extreme off-road vehicle groups

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

Washington, DC – Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced that it would be reconsidering the San Rafael Desert and San Rafael Swell Travel Management Plans. Those two plans were finalized in 2022 and 2025, respectively, and guide where motorized vehicle use is allowed across more than 1.5 million acres of BLM-managed lands in central Utah’s redrock country.  Those plans designated hundreds of miles of new motorized vehicle routes and authorized public motorized use on them. Now the Trump Administration’s BLM plans to go even further, increasing motorized recreation at the expense of all other public lands users. Below is a statement from SUWA Staff Attorney Laura Peterson and additional information.  

“This is yet another naked political decision to appease radical off-road vehicle groups and Utah politicians. Their vision for public lands in Utah is one where landscapes are blanketed by off-road vehicle routes, transforming quiet, wild places into motorized playgrounds and ignoring significant damage to cultural sites, desert waterways, and wildlife habitat,” said Laura Peterson, Staff Attorney with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA). “The San Rafael Swell and Desert are beloved southern Utah redrock landscapes with endless opportunities for hiking, camping and spending time with family and friends. These areas should be known for their stunning vistas, cultural sites and opportunities for solitude, not off-road vehicle damage.” 

The San Rafael Swell: 

The San Rafael Swell Travel Management Area (TMA) encompasses roughly 1,150,000 acres of BLM-managed lands within the Price and Richfield field offices. A much-loved backcountry area, the Swell is home to irreplaceable cultural and historic resources, important wildlife habitat, and outstanding recreation opportunities. The Swell’s sinuous slot canyons, soaring red rock cliffs, and prominent buttes provide countless opportunities for hikers, canyoneers, campers, river runners, climbers, bikers, photographers, and other visitors. This TMA also encompasses designated wilderness areas and the San Rafael Swell Recreation Area.  

In December 2024, the BLM released the final San Rafael Swell Travel Management Plan. Rather than selecting an alternative that would have balanced motorized recreation and non-motorized recreation while also minimizing damage to natural and cultural resources, the agency chose an alternative that prioritized motorized vehicle use. The plan designated nearly 1,500 miles of routes and opened a substantial number of new routes to motorized vehicle use. While the BLM’s plan got many things wrong, one thing it did right was not opening roughly 650 miles of trails in places like stream corridors and wash bottoms, cultural sites and where use would lead to serious documented environmental damage. It also included “routes” that are simply lines on a map that do not exist on the ground.  

Despite a plan that expanded ORV use in the Swell, the Idaho-based BlueRibbon Coalition and others sued the BLM in March 2025 alleging the agency did not go far enough. The group sought a preliminary injunction to stop the BLM from implementing the San Rafael Swell plan. The court has not granted the preliminary injunction. The case has been stayed at the request of the Trump Administration.  

The San Rafael Desert: 

The San Rafael Desert Travel Management Area (TMA) encompasses more than 375,000 acres of sublime Utah backcountry, including the designated Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness and wilderness-quality lands such as Sweetwater Reef and the San Rafael River. It features stunning redrock canyons, important cultural sites, and an outstanding diversity of native bee species, many found nowhere else but this corner of Utah.  

In the last few months of the first Trump Administration, the BLM approved a destructive travel management plan that—by the agency’s own account—emphasized maximum mileage available for off-road vehicle recreation and more than doubled the miles of dirt two-tracks and trails for motorized use from 300 miles to more than 765 miles. SUWA challenged that unbalanced plan in federal court. SUWA and the BLM ultimately settled that lawsuit in February of 2022 and the BLM agreed to reconsider the designation of certain routes. The BLM eventually took corrective action and revised the San Rafael Desert TMP to close 120 miles of erroneously designated routes – routes the BLM acknowledged were reclaimed, redundant or non-existent on the ground and with no public purpose or need.  

In 2024, the state of Utah and others challenged BLM’s San Rafael reconsideration decision in federal court. That case has been stayed for over a year. 

Travel Management Plans:  

The San Rafael Swell and San Rafael Desert Travel Management Plans are two of 11 travel plans the BLM is completing as part of a court-supervised settlement agreement between the agency, conservation, and ORV groups. Covering more than 6 million acres of BLM-managed lands in eastern and southern Utah, these plans will determine where motorized vehicles will be allowed on some of Utah’s wildest public lands. Including this plan, the BLM has completed five of the 11 plans. Read more about SUWA’s litigation to ensure these travel plans follow federal laws to protect public lands and resources. 

### 
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 BLM’s Intent to Expand Destructive Motorized Use in the San Rafael Swell and San Rafael Desert – 5.7.26  appeared first on Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

Open access notables

Emerging low-cloud feedback and adjustment in global satellite observations, Ceppi et al., Atmospheric chemistry and physics

From mid-2003 to mid-2024, a global decrease in low-cloud amount enhanced the absorption of solar radiation by 0.22±0.07 W m−2 per decade (±1σ range), accelerating the energy imbalance trend during that period (0.44 W m−2 per decade). Through controlling factor analysis, here we show that the low-cloud trend is due to a combination of cloud feedback and adjustments to greenhouse gases and aerosols (respectively 0.09±0.02, 0.05±0.03, and 0.03±0.03 W m−2 per decade), which jointly account for 74 % of the trend. The contribution of natural climate variability is weak but uncertain (0.01±0.08 W m−2 per decade), owing to a poorly constrained trend in boundary-layer inversion strength. Importantly, the observed low-cloud radiative trend lies well within the range of values simulated by contemporary global climate models under conditions close to present day. Any systematic model error in the representation of present-day global energy imbalance trends is thus likely to originate in processes unrelated to low clouds.

When Thunderstorms Reach the Stratosphere: Why Storm Structure May Matter for Climate, Cairo, Journal of Geophysical Research Atmosphere

Deep convection that overshoots the tropopause provides one of the fastest pathways for exchanging air between the troposphere and the stratosphere. Using extensive in situ observations from the dynamics and chemistry of the summer stratosphere (DCOTSS) campaign, Shepherd et al. (2026, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025JD045514) showed how storm-scale characteristics and environmental conditions shape the magnitude, depth, and pathways of stratosphere-troposphere exchange in the midlatitudes. Their analysis indicates that storms producing above-anvil cirrus plumes, as well as large mesoscale convective systems, are associated with disproportionately strong stratospheric perturbations, particularly in water vapor. This Commentary places these results in a broader context, highlights the main conceptual advances enabled by DCOTSS, and discusses remaining uncertainties while outlining priorities for future work. In particular, it argues that the main significance of these results lies not in resolving the large-scale stratospheric water vapor budget, which remains uncertain, but in helping identify which storm classes and physical pathways are most likely to matter if such impacts are to be quantified more robustly.

Record-Breaking Marine Heatwaves Across Global Coral Reefs in 2024, Yao & Wang, Geophysical Research Letters

The record-breaking annual mean global sea surface temperature in 2024 fueled extensive marine heatwaves (MHWs) across global coral reef zones, yet their spatiotemporal characteristics have not been comprehensively quantified. Here, we show that during the 2024 warm-season, MHW total days and cumulative intensity exceeded the historical mean by more than 3 standard deviations. Widespread and persistent MHWs occurred across major coral reef regions, particularly in the Red Sea, Coral Triangle, Fiji, the Caribbean, and Brazil. Most coral biogeographic provinces experienced significant increases in the frequency of Moderate, Strong, and Severe MHW categories relative to the 1985–2024 climatology. These extreme events were associated with substantial accumulation of ocean heat content in the Indo-Pacific warm pool and tropical Atlantic following the transition from the triple-dip La Niña (2020–2023) to the 2023–2024 El Niño. Regional oceanographic conditions further modulated the intensity and drivers of warm-season MHWs in 2024.

Beyond post-truth: Projecting the future trajectory of climate misinformation, Rice, PLOS Climate

Climate misinformation represents one of the most significant barriers to effective climate action in the 21st century. Building upon Yotam Ophir’s comprehensive framework in Misinformation & Society, this essay examines the evolving landscape of climate misinformation and projects its future trajectory. Ophir’s interdisciplinary approach, which integrates historical, psychological, and technological perspectives, provides crucial insights into how climate misinformation operates within broader systems of information disorder. This paper extends Ophir’s arguments by examining critical dimensions of his work, including the shift from outright denial to more sophisticated delay and deflection tactics, the role of emerging technologies including artificial intelligence in amplifying misinformation spread, and the political economy of climate misinformation characterized by asymmetric epistemic relationships. Drawing on recent research, I project that climate misinformation will increasingly manifest through narratives of technological futurism and transformation, the pretense of economic crisis through environmental catastrophe, and the social implications of international weaponized uncertainty inflamed by misinformation. The essay concludes by proposing an integrated intervention framework that reviews proposed solutions including psychological inoculation, systemic media literacy, and structural reforms to digital and online platform governance. Understanding these trajectories is essential for developing resilient communication strategies that can withstand the evolving tactics of climate action obstruction.

From this week's government/NGO section:

European State of the Climate – Report 2025, Emerton et al., World Meteorological Organization and European Union, represented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts

Rapid warming in Europe is reducing snow and ice cover, while dangerously high air temperatures, drought, heatwaves and record ocean temperatures are affecting regions from the Arctic to the Mediterranean. Europe, along with many other regions of the globe, is exposed to increasing impacts – from record heatwaves on land and at sea, to devastating wildfires, and continuing biodiversity loss – with consequences for societies and ecosystems across Europe.

Climate Change in Central Finland, Kühn et al., Finnish Meteorological Institute

Climate change is progressing in Finland faster than the global average, and its impacts are already clearly observable in Central Finland. The authors examines the current state of the climate in Central Finland and the Jyväskylä region, observed changes, and the projected development of the climate throughout the current century. The assessments are based on long?term observational datasets, the latest climate model simulations, and SSP emission scenarios.

PwC’s Third Annual State of Decarbonization Report, PwC

The authors draw on AI-enabled insights of millions of data points from across thousands of corporate disclosures and related documents. Many companies changed how they talk about sustainability, but not what they do about it. Commitments were persistent even as the ground shifted beneath them. Eight in ten (82%) companies held steady or accelerated the timeline they needed for achieving their ambitions. More companies are increasing ambitions (23%) compared to those decreasing (18%). Progress held, with more organizations on track to meet their targets than in prior years. 87 articles in 49 journals by 717 contributing authors

Physical science of climate change, effects

Atlantic meridional overturning circulation slowdown modulates atmospheric rivers in a warmer climate, Mimi et al., Nature Communications Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-026-72555-w

Emerging low-cloud feedback and adjustment in global satellite observations, Ceppi et al., Atmospheric chemistry and physics Open Access 10.5194/acp-26-4153-2026

Stratospheric polar vortex shapes Arctic surface climate via a radiative pathway, Xia et al., Nature Communications Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-026-72698-w

When Thunderstorms Reach the Stratosphere: Why Storm Structure May Matter for Climate, Cairo, Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres Open Access 10.1029/2026jd046663

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Drivers and mechanisms of heatwaves in South West India, Climate Dynamics, 10.1007/s00382-024-07242-x 16 cites.

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Observations of climate change, effects

Climate-driven upward spread of forest fires in European mountain regions, Beloiu et al., Nature Communications Open Access 10.1038/s41467-026-72551-0

Quantitative attribution of climate change effects on the 2023 North China heatwave, WAN et al., Advances in Climate Change Research Open Access 10.1016/j.accre.2026.04.016

Spatial and temporal variability of snow in the Andes using MODIS snow product 2000–2025, Saavedra et al., Frontiers in Earth Science Open Access 10.3389/feart.2026.1564035

Strengthening of the out-of-phase relationship between Eurasian winter and summer temperature anomalies since the early 1990s, Zhu et al., Atmospheric Research 10.1016/j.atmosres.2026.109057

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Increasing Fire Activity in African Tropical Forests Is Associated With Deforestation and Climate Change, Geophysical Research Letters, 10.1029/2023gl106240 36 cites.

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Instrumentation & observational methods of climate change, effects

Dynamically-Informed Extreme Event Attribution Using Circulation Imprints, Dorrington & Messori, Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2025gl116869

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Towards Energy-Balance Closure with a Model of Dispersive Heat Fluxes, Boundary-Layer Meteorology, 10.1007/s10546-024-00868-8 13 cites.

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Modeling, simulation & projection of climate change, effects

Atlantic meridional overturning circulation slowdown modulates atmospheric rivers in a warmer climate, Mimi et al., Nature Communications Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-026-72555-w

Future heatwave hotspots in India from climate projections, Lakshman et al., Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 10.1002/qj.70220

Increased shallower tropical cyclones under extreme warm climates, Zhang et al., Nature Communications Open Access 10.1038/s41467-026-72386-9

Robust Responses of Tropical and Post-tropical Cyclones to Climate Warming in WRF and CAM Storyline Ensembles, Li et al., Weather and Climate Extremes Open Access 10.1016/j.wace.2026.100909

Storyline-Based Climate Attribution Reveals Strong Intensification of 2018–2022 Multi-Year Droughts in Europe, Kettaren et al., Earth s Future Open Access 10.1029/2025ef007547

The pace of meeting carbon emission targets alters regional climate risks, Park et al., Science Advances Open Access 10.1126/sciadv.aec4566

The Role of Tropical Cyclone—Ocean Interactions in Future Changes in Hurricane Katrina, Forbis et al., Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2026gl122126

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
High-resolution modelling identifies the Bering Strait’s role in amplified Arctic warming, Nature Climate Change, 10.1038/s41558-024-02008-z 17 cites.

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Advancement of climate & climate effects modeling, simulation & projection

A Sea-Ice-Enhanced KPP Parameterization: Impacts on AMOC Simulation and Physical Pathways, Tseng & Wang, Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans 10.1029/2025jc023767

Attributing Upper-Tropospheric Warm Biases in CMIP6 Models to Ice Cloud-Radiation Interaction Deficiencies Over Tropical Oceans, Li et al., Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2025gl120130

Heavy precipitation simulation in non-hydrostatic CESM modeling over the Western US, Huang & Medeiros, Atmospheric Research 10.1016/j.atmosres.2026.109058

Sources of Uncertainty in Ocean Net Primary Productivity Projections Under Climate Change, Grix & Tagliabue, Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2025gl119652

Uncertain dynamic response of mid-latitude winter precipitation, Gu et al., Nature 10.1038/s41586-026-10474-y

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Understanding the Cascade: Removing GCM Biases Improves Dynamically Downscaled Climate Projections, Geophysical Research Letters, 10.1029/2023gl106264 36 cites.

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Cryosphere & climate change

Comprehensive Assessment of Six Snow Depth Products and Trends across the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, Li et al., Journal of Climate 10.1175/jcli-d-25-0263.1

Global glacier-free topography reveals a large potential for future lakes in presently ice-covered terrain, Frank et al., Nature Communications Open Access 10.1038/s41467-026-72548-9

Spatial and temporal variability of snow in the Andes using MODIS snow product 2000–2025, Saavedra et al., Frontiers in Earth Science Open Access 10.3389/feart.2026.1564035

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
An Intercomparison of Snow Mass Budget over Arctic Sea Ice Simulated by CMIP6 Models, Journal of Climate, 10.1175/jcli-d-22-0539.1 2 cites.

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Sea level & climate change

Climate-driven depopulation and adaptation realities in America’s coastal ground zero, Törnqvist et al., Nature Sustainability 10.1038/s41893-026-01820-z

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Determining sea-level rise in the Caribbean: A shift from temperature to mass control, Scientific Reports, 10.1038/s41598-024-60201-8 7 cites.

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Paleoclimate & paleogeochemistry

Mid-Holocene retreat of the Greenland Ice Sheet indicated by subglacial methane release, Hatton et al., Nature Geoscience Open Access 10.1038/s41561-026-01976-5

Temperature-Driven Silicate Weathering Feedbacks Terminated the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum, Ma et al., Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2026gl121765

Tight regulation of Earth’s long-term temperature over Phanerozoic time, Zheng et al., Nature Communications Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-026-72672-6

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
High-frequency climate forcing causes prolonged cold periods in the Holocene, Communications Earth & Environment, 10.1038/s43247-024-01380-0 26 cites.

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Biology & climate change, related geochemistry

A few key species drive community thermophilization under experimental warming, Dobson et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences pdf 10.1073/pnas.2533434123

A Functional Trait-Based Approach to Mapping Climate-Driven Changes in Temperature-Dependent Feeding Suitability, Marchessaux et al., Ecology and Evolution Open Access 10.1002/ece3.73623

Climate Change Alters Elevational Distribution Patterns of Cormus domestica Habitat, Li et al., Ecology and Evolution Open Access 10.1002/ece3.73602

Climate Change Shapes Suitable Habitat and Ecological Niche Overlap Between Hyphantria cunea and Its Parasitoid Chouioia cunea in China, Ouyang et al., Ecology and Evolution Open Access 10.1002/ece3.73469

Climate-Driven Habitat Suitability Modeling for the Vulnerable Species Euryops pinifolius A. Rich in Ethiopia: Implications for Conservation, Birhanu et al., Ecology and Evolution Open Access 10.1002/ece3.73566

Coral Reefs in the Indonesian Seas Threatened by Heat and Cold Stress, Watanabe et al., Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2025gl121003

Geographical differences in marine heatwaves across global coral reef zones, YAO & WANG, Advances in Climate Change Research Open Access 10.1016/j.accre.2026.04.015

Hemisphere-Level Comparison of Climate-Driven Humpback Whale Breeding Migrations to the Eastern Pacific Off Costa Rica, Pelayo-González et al., Ecology and Evolution Open Access 10.1002/ece3.73594

PondNet – towards a global network of experiments on the effects of climate change on aquatic ecosystems, Matias et al., Ecography Open Access 10.1002/ecog.07450

Potential Geographic Distribution of the Rare and Endangered Plant Sauvagesia rhodoleuca in China Under Climate Change Scenarios, Wei et al., Ecology and Evolution Open Access 10.1002/ece3.73295

Prevalent Greening Conceals the Forgone Ecological Potential of Forest Loss in Southeast Asia, Zhao et al., Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2025gl121593

Projected Future of African Marine Ecosystems Under Climate Change and Stratospheric Aerosol Injection, Awo et al., Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans Open Access 10.1029/2025jc022687

Record-Breaking Marine Heatwaves Across Global Coral Reefs in 2024, Yao & Wang, Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2026gl122086

Sources of Uncertainty in Ocean Net Primary Productivity Projections Under Climate Change, Grix & Tagliabue, Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2025gl119652

Spatial Distribution of Topmouth Gudgeonis Pseudorasbora parva Under Climate Change by Ensemble Models, Li et al., Ecology and Evolution Open Access 10.1002/ece3.73612

Warming climate amplifies vapor pressure deficit limits on gross primary productivity, Xu et al., Nature Communications Open Access 10.1038/s41467-026-72549-8

Warming temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns may exacerbate pest damage in North American forests, Clipp et al., Nature Ecology & Evolution 10.1038/s41559-026-03039-9

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Coastal ecological disasters triggered by an extreme rainfall event thousands of kilometers inland, Communications Earth & Environment, 10.1038/s43247-024-01418-3 31 cites.

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GHG sources & sinks, flux, related geochemistry

A Global Comparison of Direct and Legacy Effects of Drought on Ecosystem Productivity, Liu et al., Ecology Letters Open Access 10.1111/ele.70390

Atmospheric oxygen constraints on Southern Ocean productivity and drivers of carbon uptake, Jin et al., Nature Geoscience Open Access 10.1038/s41561-026-01944-z

Current understanding of viral contributions to soil carbon cycling, Mei & Balcázar, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment 10.1038/s43017-026-00774-2

Ecosystem-Scale Methane Emissions From Peatlands of the Hudson Bay Lowlands, Bieniada & Humphreys, Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeosciences Open Access 10.1029/2025jg009439

Incorporating methane isotopologues alters tropical and subtropical methane emission estimates, Yu et al., Nature Communications Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-026-72668-2

Methane intensity and emissions across major oil and gas basins and individual jurisdictions using MethaneSAT observations, Williams et al., Atmospheric chemistry and physics Open Access 10.5194/acp-26-5961-2026

Mid-Holocene retreat of the Greenland Ice Sheet indicated by subglacial methane release, Hatton et al., Nature Geoscience Open Access 10.1038/s41561-026-01976-5

Nitrogen Release From Permafrost Thaw May Partially Offset Future Soil Carbon Losses, Gaillard et al., PubMed pmid:42068065

Phytoplankton and Temperature Control Seasonal Dynamics of Greenhouse Gases in a Large River, Koschorreck et al., Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeosciences Open Access 10.1029/2025jg009300

Soil microbes are the tiny bioengineers running Earth’s underground factory, Hassan-Dalléac et al., Communications Earth & Environment Open Access 10.1038/s43247-026-03544-6

Soil pH Amelioration Fosters Persistent Carbon Sinks Through Mineral Stabilization and Aggregate Protection, Dong et al., Global Change Biology 10.1111/gcb.70896

Tree diversity reduces the temperature sensitivity of soil carbon release, Yan et al., Journal of Ecology 10.1111/1365-2745.70333

Warming climate amplifies vapor pressure deficit limits on gross primary productivity, Xu et al., Nature Communications Open Access 10.1038/s41467-026-72549-8

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
The Total Carbon Column Observing Network's GGG2020 data version, Earth system science data, 10.5194/essd-16-2197-2024 94 cites.

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CO2 capture, sequestration science & engineering

Articulating conditions for geological carbon storage: Conditional acceptance in three European communities, Oltra et al., Energy Research & Social Science 10.1016/j.erss.2026.104739

Managed rainforests support higher carbon density and sequestration in the Congo Basin, Sagang et al., Nature Communications Open Access 10.1038/s41467-026-72399-4

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
The carbon dioxide removal gap, Nature Climate Change, 10.1038/s41558-024-01984-6 75 cites.

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Decarbonization

A multi-criteria assessment of decarbonization pathways for heavy-duty trucks, ?ahin & Özekinci, Environmental Research Infrastructure and Sustainability Open Access 10.1088/2634-4505/ae62a1

A multi-dimensional framework for comparing zero-carbon energy sources in the energy transition, Park, Energy Research & Social Science 10.1016/j.erss.2026.104721

Integrated planning of net-zero power systems for all, Zhu et al., Nature Energy 10.1038/s41560-026-02054-1

Photovoltaic Modelling Within the Pan-European Climate Database v4.2: Capturing PV Diversity for a Climate-Resilient European Grid, Silva et al., Advanced Energy and Sustainability Research Open Access 10.1002/aesr.202500387

The electrifying moment? Electric vehicles and the rural-urban divide in Germany and the U.S., Gabehart & Stefes, Energy Policy 10.1016/j.enpol.2026.115356

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Evaluating microgrid business models for rural electrification: A novel framework and three cases in Southeast Asia, Energy Sustainable Development/Energy for sustainable development, 10.1016/j.esd.2024.101443 21 cites.

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Geoengineering climate

Projected Future of African Marine Ecosystems Under Climate Change and Stratospheric Aerosol Injection, Awo et al., Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans Open Access 10.1029/2025jc022687

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Dependency of the impacts of geoengineering on the stratospheric sulfur injection strategy – Part 2: How changes in the hydrological cycle depend on the injection rate and model used, Earth System Dynamics, 10.5194/esd-15-405-2024 11 cites.

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Aerosols

Atmospheric warming contributions from airborne microplastics and nanoplastics, Liu et al., Nature Climate Change 10.1038/s41558-026-02620-1

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Impacts of spatial heterogeneity of anthropogenic aerosol emissions in a regionally refined global aerosol–climate model, Geoscientific model development, 10.5194/gmd-17-3507-2024 2 cites.

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Climate change communications & cognition

Beyond post-truth: Projecting the future trajectory of climate misinformation, Rice, PLOS Climate Open Access 10.1371/journal.pclm.0000916

Climate dissonance: Examining the relationship between climate beliefs and attitudes toward fossil fuel activities in Norway, Nadeau et al., Energy Research & Social Science 10.1016/j.erss.2026.104750

Identifying Flawed Reasoning in Contrarian Claims about Climate Change, Flack et al., Environmental Communication 10.1080/17524032.2026.2663476

Polarizing figures in polarized times: presidential involvement and public opinion on climate policy, Childree, Environmental Politics 10.1080/09644016.2026.2666997

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Scientists’ identities shape engagement with environmental activism, Communications Earth & Environment, 10.1038/s43247-024-01412-9 22 cites.

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Agronomy, animal husbundry, food production & climate change

Improved management reduces carbon losses in semi-arid grasslands: An analysis of upscaled CO? fluxes from portable chambers, Carrascosa et al., Agricultural and Forest Meteorology Open Access 10.1016/j.agrformet.2026.111215

Locally led climate adaptation: Business unusual for agricultural research, Hellin et al., PLOS Climate Open Access 10.1371/journal.pclm.0000910

Low Climate Benefit of Nordic Coastal Marshes: Site Conditions Outweigh Grazing Effects and Shape Trade-Offs Between Carbon Storage and Its Stability, Leiva-Dueñas et al., PubMed pmid:42068073

Managed rainforests support higher carbon density and sequestration in the Congo Basin, Sagang et al., Nature Communications Open Access 10.1038/s41467-026-72399-4

Rainfall Dynamics in Sri Lanka Over Five Decades (1970–2023): Implications for Agricultural Adaptation to Climate Change, Abeysingha et al., International Journal of Climatology 10.1002/joc.70415

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Crop rotational diversity can mitigate climate?induced grain yield losses, Global Change Biology, 10.1111/gcb.17298 41 cites.

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Hydrology, hydrometeorology & climate change

Are Changes in Seasonal and Annual Precipitation in the Balkan Peninsula Driven by Increases in Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gases or by Teleconnection Variability?, Buri?, Journal of Hydrometeorology 10.1175/jhm-d-25-0184.1

Atlantic meridional overturning circulation slowdown modulates atmospheric rivers in a warmer climate, Mimi et al., Nature Communications Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-026-72555-w

Projected runoff responses to climate and vegetation changes on the Tibetan Plateau, FENG et al., Atmospheric Research 10.1016/j.atmosres.2026.109024

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Hidden delta degradation due to fluvial sediment decline and intensified marine storms, Science Advances, 10.1126/sciadv.adk1698 38 cites.

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Climate change economics

Climate finance challenges and solutions for global climate change, Park, Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences Open Access pdf 10.1007/s13412-021-00715-z

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Empirical testing of the environmental Kuznets curve: evidence from 182 countries of the world, Environment Development and Sustainability, 10.1007/s10668-024-04890-1 17 cites.

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Climate change mitigation public policy research

Beyond technical and financial feasibility: The role of collaborative governance in renewable energy adoption at municipal wastewater treatment plants in the United States, Gupta et al., Energy Research & Social Science 10.1016/j.erss.2026.104729

The politics and governance of phase-out: a framework for empirical research, Rinscheid et al., Environmental Politics 10.1080/09644016.2026.2666995

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
The differential impact of climate interventions along the political divide in 60 countries, Nature Communications, 10.1038/s41467-024-48112-8 77 cites.

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Climate change adaptation & adaptation public policy research

Climate change-related migration and displacement: addressing the adaptation gap, Marcus, The Lancet Planetary Health Open Access 10.1016/j.lanplh.2026.101462

Decision to stay in climate-risk areas: cognitive biases and preferences in coastal Bangladesh, Vollan et al., Figshare Open Access 10.6084/m9.figshare.32168527.v1

“Global significant trends and countermeasures pertaining to climate change adaptation: Translating ambition into action post-COP29”, Liu et al., Environmental Science & Policy 10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104391

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Wildfire risk management in the era of climate change, PNAS Nexus, 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae151 43 cites.

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Climate change impacts on human health

Climate health: an emerging transdisciplinary field, Rifai, Frontiers in Climate Open Access 10.3389/fclim.2026.1837784

Future age-specific exposure to heavy rainfall disasters under climate and demographic change, Matsuura et al., Climate Risk Management Open Access 10.1016/j.crm.2026.100817

Reclassifying lethal heat, Rouse et al., Apollo Open Access 10.17863/cam.128895

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Effects of climate vulnerability on household sanitation access, functionality, and practices in rural Cambodia, Environment Development and Sustainability, 10.1007/s10668-024-04881-2 6 cites.

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Climate change & geopolitics
Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
China at COP27: CBDR, national sovereignty, and climate justice, Climate and Development, 10.1080/17565529.2024.2349652 1 citation.

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Other

Evolving Fire Frequency in the Western United States and Its Links to Human Influence, Madakumbura et al., Earth s Future Open Access 10.1029/2025ef007077

Transient tracer observations in the Gulf of St. Lawrence reveal shift from younger to older inflow waters, Gerke et al., Ocean science Open Access 10.5194/os-22-1391-2026

Articles/Reports from Agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations Addressing Aspects of Climate Change

2026 Value of Water Index, Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates, and New Bridge Strategy

Half of voters say they have been impacted by a major weather event, e.g., wildfire, flooding, a hurricane, a deep freeze, or drought, in the last five years. Roughly one in five say that they lost water service after a major weather event.

2030 Climate Action Plan, City of Boston, Environment Department, City of Boston

The plan is grounded in two core and interconnected areas of work: mitigation and resilience – which frame every strategy and action included. Mitigation efforts focus on rapidly reducing emissions from the sectors that contribute most to Boston’s carbon footprint, particularly buildings, transportation, and energy. Resilience strategies are designed to protect people, infrastructure including new, existing, and historic assets, open space, and neighborhoods from the growing impacts of climate change, while strengthening the City’s ability to adapt over time and creating pathways to good green jobs that support resilience and mitigation investments. In addition to tracking progress on mitigation and resilience, we acknowledge the broader impacts of climate work across three deeply interconnected areas: public health outcomes, climate justice, and the intersection of mitigation and resilience benefits. This approach recognizes that effective climate action must deliver healthier living and working environments, address historic inequities, and maximize co-benefits, ensuring that investments reduce emissions while also protecting communities most exposed to climate risks. Climate justice is embedded throughout the plan, recognizing that the impacts of climate change will not affect neighborhoods equally and that climate action presents an opportunity to correct past harms. Communities that have been and will be adversely affected by climate change must be prioritized in both decision-making and investment.

Where rising climate risks and insurance costs will hit hardest, Manann Donoghoe, The Brookings Institution

One concept to help understand how climate-related risks could differentially affect households across the U.S. is adaptive capacity, or the ability of a household or community to plan for and respond to the impacts of climate change. By analyzing adaptive capacity in relation to instability in the homeowners insurance market, the author identifies which regions and demographic groups that instability is likely to adversely affect. Drawing on data from the U.S. Treasury Department on homeowners insurance, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Risk Index, and Census Bureau demographic data on wealth, race, and ethnicity, the author shows the insurance premium increases and nonrenewal rates (the proportion of policies that an insurer decides not to extend at term’s end) that different demographic groups and regions faced between 2018 and 2022.

Critical Minerals, Water Insecurity and Injustice, Nunbogu et al., United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment, and Health

The investigation finds that systemic global failures are allowing the costs of critical minerals extraction to fall disproportionately on some of the world's most vulnerable communities, while the benefits accumulate elsewhere in the form of electric vehicles (EVs), renewable energy systems, and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. The authors do not question the need for clean energy systems or the digital infrastructure underpinning them. Instead, it asks who is paying for and benefitting from humanity’s progress in those areas, and finds a deeply unjust answer.

European State of the Climate – Report 2025, Emerton et al., World Meteorological Organization and European Union, represented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts

Rapid warming in Europe is reducing snow and ice cover, while dangerously high air temperatures, drought, heatwaves and record ocean temperatures are affecting regions from the Arctic to the Mediterranean. Europe, along with many other regions of the globe, is exposed to increasing impacts – from record heatwaves on land and at sea, to devastating wildfires, and continuing biodiversity loss – with consequences for societies and ecosystems across Europe.

Climate Change in Central Finland, Kühn et al., Finnish Meteorological Institute

Climate change is progressing in Finland faster than the global average, and its impacts are already clearly observable in Central Finland. The authors examines the current state of the climate in Central Finland and the Jyväskylä region, observed changes, and the projected development of the climate throughout the current century. The assessments are based on long?term observational datasets, the latest climate model simulations, and SSP emission scenarios.

PwC’s Third Annual State of Decarbonization Report, PwC

The authors draw on AI-enabled insights of millions of data points from across thousands of corporate disclosures and related documents. Many companies changed how they talk about sustainability, but not what they do about it. Commitments were persistent even as the ground shifted beneath them. Eight in ten (82%) companies held steady or accelerated the timeline they needed for achieving their ambitions. More companies are increasing ambitions (23%) compared to those decreasing (18%). Progress held, with more organizations on track to meet their targets than in prior years.

France's Roadmap for Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, Climate Interminsterial Team, Government of France

Since 2017, France has committed to a gradual phase-out of fossil fuels, mobilizing a broad range of ecological planning tools. The 2017 Climate Plan introduced a legislation to phase out hydrocarbon production in France by 2040, notably by ending the granting of new exploration permits and by not renewing existing exploitation concessions. This plan has also led to a significant reduction in fossil fuel consumption in buildings which fell by 42% between 2017 and 2022. It further aimed at accelerate the electrification of the transport sector in order to reduce its dependence on oil, by setting a end-of-sale target for thermal passenger vehicles by 2040. France will also address five environmental challenges including mitigation of global warming, adaptation to the inevitable consequences of climate change, preservation and restoration of biodiversity, conservation of resources, and reduction of pollution that impacts health.

How import rules can cut global methane emissions, Anna Kanduth and Claudio Forner, Climate Analytics

Methane is one of the quickest levers available to slow warming in the near term, yet current policies are nowhere near enough to deliver the cuts needed by 2030. As governments look for ways to narrow that gap, methane import standards are emerging as a powerful new tool. This briefing explores how the European Union’s new rules for imported oil, gas, and coal could drive emissions cuts far beyond its borders – and how, if other major importers follow, they could help close more than 40% of the gap to a 1.5°C-consistent methane pathway. At current trade levels, an EU standard of 0.2% methane intensity could reduce emissions by more than 3 Mt CH? annually from its imports alone. Wider adoption by six other major importers could cut global methane emissions by over 10 Mt CH?, driven in particular by Russia and the United States, which have the largest excess methane emissions relative to a 0.2% intensity standard.

Water Supply Systems, Fire, and Finance: A Workshop Synthesis Report, Pierce et al., UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation

A new UCLA-led convening highlights how wildfire risk could reshape water system planning and finance. Water systems were designed to provide drinking water and fight structure fires — not urban wildfires. Expanding system capacity to fight extreme events creates tradeoffs with water quality and affordability. Fire-related water use is often not fully paid for, straining system finances. Coordination between water and fire agencies is inconsistent and often informal. Recovery of wildfire-related costs raises equity concerns for ratepayers.

Massachusetts Carbon Dioxide Removal Study, Mittelman et al., Massachusetts Clean Energy Center

The authors build on Massachusetts’ prior planning to assess which carbon dioxide removal (CDR) pathways are most feasible and scalable in the state’s policy, economic, and natural resource context. The outcomes of this effort will inform future iterations of the state’s Clean Energy and Climate Plans (CECPs), which are the flagship climate planning documents, to provide an assessment of best practices and policy options that Massachusetts should consider when responsibly integrating CDR into its net-zero strategy. The authors describe and assess 23 CDR and storage pathways across several characteristics, analyzing their suitability for deployment and research and development (R&D) leadership in Massachusetts.

Diesel Reduction Progress II, Bledsoe et al., Pembina Institute

Clean electricity projects in remote communities grew 20 times faster between 2016 and 2026 than the previous decade, with most of this progress (about 92%) occurring between 2020 and 2025. Roughly three quarters of community-scale clean electricity projects built in remote communities are wholly or majority Indigenous-owned. Altogether, remote communities have added more than 65 megawatts (MW) of clean electricity capacity over the past decade, and now produce over 126 GWh clean energy annually, with 35% from wind, 33% from hydro, and 30% from solar. Remote renewable electricity generating projects have reduced annual diesel consumption by more than 31 million liters, and now account for 7% of total electricity supply in remote communities. Since 2016 these projects have displaced over 142 million liters of diesel, more diesel than all three territories use to generate electricity in an entire year.

Credit Where Credit is Due. Strengthening carbon markets to protect Ontario steel and mobilize low-carbon investment, Chloe McElhone and Richard Mullin, Clean Prosperity

In order to protect Ontario’s steel sector and signal to other industries that Ontario is open for business, the authors recommend strengthening Ontario’s carbon market in the following ways; recognize real emissions reductions from fuel-switching investments in the steel sector; award carbon credits to clearly signal that the Ontario carbon market recognizes and values real emissions reductions achieved through low-carbon investments; support predictable and stable credit values by redistributing credit revenues among all regulated emitters and opening the market to third-party investors; and publish market data frequently and create a centralized marketplace to build investor confidence and incentivize investment.

2026 State of the Water Industry, American Water Works Association

The industry survey respondents reveal a sector facing growing pressure across infrastructure, financing, and long-term water supply reliability. While overall sector health remains stable, the five-year outlook has declined to its lowest level in nearly a decade, signaling growing concern about the future. Aging infrastructure remains the most pressing challenge, closely followed by the need for sustainable funding and long-term water supply reliability. Many utilities are struggling to fully recover costs through rates and fees, creating a widening gap between revenues and rising expenses. External pressures, including economic uncertainty, political dynamics, natural hazards, and supply chain disruptions, are compounding these financial challenges and complicating long-term planning.

Oil Fund Vote Watch: Climate 2025. Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) voting at fossil fuel AGMs, Lucy Brooks, Framtiden i våre hender / Future in Our Hands

The author evaluates Norges Bank Investment Management's (NBIM) 2025 active ownership activities at 12 priority portfolio companies. These firms were selected because they are the world’s largest investor-owned upstream oil and gas developers currently expanding production in defiance of scientific pathways to net-zero. The author examines whether NBIM used its voting power and escalation tools to signal accountability for these firms' climate failings. Despite NBIM’s stated position that "climate risk is fundamental financial risk," the fund’s actions in 2025 at these high-priority firms reveal a significant implementation gap. Of the 23 priority votes analyzed across 12 companies, NBIM signaled disapproval of management in only three instances—with just one potentially linked to climate concerns.

Stop Greed, Build Green. A Working Class Climate Agenda, Climate and Community Institute

The climate crisis is a core driver of the cost-of-living crisis and instability we see across the economy. Electricity and gas bills are the highest drivers of inflation, rent gouging and skyrocketing insurance premiums are making housing unaffordable, extreme weather is driving food prices up, and the last three summers have been the three hottest on record. And while prices go up, the quality of our health care, goods, and homes is getting worse. Amidst all of this, billionaires are becoming richer, Big Tech firms are spending trillions on energy-hungry data centers, and a majority of U.S. residents are profoundly disillusioned with the political system. A Working Class Climate Agenda would quickly relieve the cost-of-living crisis and transform the economy to stem future climate-fueled affordability crises. More importantly, it puts the majority of voters in the driver’s seat of economic and climate transformation

The Reuse Dividend: Unlocking Economic Growth from Britain's Existing Buildings, Nelson et al., Don't Waste Buildings

The authors analyzed financial incentives used across eight developed economies — including France, Germany, the United States and Ireland — and found a proven blueprint that Britain has failed to adopt. The authors recommends four complementary measures to address building reuse including levelling the value added tax playing field, tax credits or relief, such as introducing capital gains tax relief and stamp duty discounts for bringing vacant buildings back into use while meeting sustainability quality measures, creating targeted grants for struggling high streets and derelict buildings; and subsidized finance by establishing long-term low-interest loans with repayment grants for deep reuse projects through the National Wealth Fund, or a similar institution About New Research

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