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Türkiye’s COP31 chief has condemned backsliding on global climate action as “unacceptable”, but said efforts to cut emissions in the coal-reliant nation should not come at the expense of economic growth.

Murat Kurum, Türkiye’s environment minister, warned countries that flexibility in implementing climate targets “is now at zero”, speaking in Istanbul on Thursday after a first strategy meeting with officials from Australia – the summit’s co-host – and joined by last year’s COP presidency Brazil and the UN climate body.

But when pressed about Türkiye’s own reliance on fossil fuels, Kurum said it was important to keep a balance between growth and climate action in developing nations.

“We are exerting efforts to reduce emissions on one hand, but continue the growth and development of our country on the other,” Kurum said, speaking through an interpreter.

“We cannot simplify things down to only fossil fuels,” he added, emphasising that while “one branch of the struggle [in the climate crisis] is oil, there are 80-85 topics including renewable energy, organic agriculture [and] resilient cities”.

Fossil fuel dependence

Burning fossil fuels is the primary cause of global warming, responsible for nearly 68% of global human-made greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2025, coal generated around a third of Türkiye’s electricity – a slight decline compared to 2024 – followed by fossil gas, which rose to 23% of the power mix, and hydropower at 15.8%, according to figures published by the country’s energy ministry.

• Feb 12, 2026 News Climate action is “weapon” for security in unstable world, UN climate chief says With geopolitical tensions rising, Simon Stiell urges leaders to accelerate global climate cooperation in pursuit of a safer world Read more
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Days before the COP31 meeting in Istanbul, state oil company Turkish Petroleum signed new oil and gas exploration deals with Chevron and ExxonMobil in an effort to increase production from the Gabar field in the country’s southeast, as well as in the Black Sea.

Clean energy has been growing in Türkiye in recent years, with record installations of wind and solar. But experts have warned that Ankara is still failing to seize its “huge” renewables potential and instead keeps on heavily subsidising coal power.

Kurum said the Mediterranean country “will continue taking steps regarding renewable energy” and enhance its nuclear energy capabilities so that it will “no longer need fossil fuels in time”.

‘Safeguard development priorities’

After countries disagreed at COP30 on starting a formal process to craft a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels, Brazil promised to deliver a blueprint through an informal initiative before this year’s climate summit in Antalya.

Referring to the roadmap, the COP31 incoming president said his team “would focus on topics that enable us to maintain those efforts”. He added that “in our consultations, we will safeguard the development priorities of the countries because the needs of developed and developing countries can vary”.

Late last year, Australian climate minister Chris Bowen – who will formally hold the title of “President of Negotiations” at COP31 – said he would “continue to argue” for a transition away from coal, oil and gas.

Türkiye is officially classed as a developed nation under the UN climate regime, but when it signed up to the Paris Agreement, it said it would pursue emissions-cutting efforts as a developing country.

The COP31 incoming president said Türkiye is battling the negative impacts of climate change, like floods and droughts, and is “approaching the point where we are experiencing water scarcity”.

“We always talk about fossil fuels,” he added, “but water will become more valuable and more significant than oil.”

The post COP31 chief slams climate backsliding, but rejects priority focus on fossil fuels appeared first on Climate Home News.

President Donald Trump’s approach to climate change rests on one key premise: Greenhouse gases are not that bad.

This is a simple argument — albeit one that flies in the face of the scientific consensus on climate change — but it could have profound consequences. If carbon dioxide and the other greenhouse gases spewed by cars and trucks are not particularly dangerous, the logic goes, then they can’t be considered air pollutants as defined by the Clean Air Act. That means that the Environmental Protection Agency can’t regulate them, and landmark federal rules that cracked down on vehicle tailpipe exhaust and improved fuel efficiency are invalid.

The Trump administration took a major step toward advancing this argument on Thursday. The EPA formalized its repeal of the so-called endangerment finding, a federal rule from 2009 that found greenhouse gas emissions can endanger “public health and welfare.” This finding provides the legal basis for almost every major climate regulation, from auto exhaust standards to caps on emissions from power plants. While the Trump administration has already initiated individual repeals of many of those rules, the latest move seeks to go much further by preventing future presidents from reestablishing any such regulations to combat climate change.

“This is a big one if you’re into environment,” President Trump said at the White House on Thursday. Joined by EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, he called the repeal “the largest deregulatory action in U.S. history” and claimed, without providing evidence, that the action would eliminate $1.3 trillion in regulatory costs and would cause car prices to come “tumbling down.” He described prior climate regulations as a “green new scam” and blamed them for blackouts and inflation.

“That’s all dead, gone, over,” he said.

But the administration’s move may well backfire. Legal experts say that regulating carbon dioxide is well-supported by the text of the Clean Air Act — a fact that even the conservative Supreme Court has recognized in multiple cases, suggesting the court could rule against the administration if the repeal winds up on their docket. (A coalition of health groups has already announced its intent to sue.) And even if the court did affirm that the federal government can no longer regulate greenhouse gases under existing law, states and private parties would have an open lane to set their own greenhouse gas rules or sue over the harms caused by climate change, respectively, given that they would no longer be preempted by federal authority. That would create regulatory chaos, potentially forcing Congress to restore the EPA’s authority.

“I think this is where there is an incredible overreach from this administration, and I think that this is when they will be held to account in the courts,” said Rachel Cleetus, the senior policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental advocacy organization. “It’s just throwing spaghetti at a wall.”

The Clean Air Act requires the federal government to regulate “any air pollutant” that “endangers … public health or welfare.” In the landmark 2007 case Massachusetts v. EPA, the Supreme Court ruled that this mandate includes greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, even though those gases mix in with the global atmosphere rather than lingering in high concentrations at ground level, like most pollutants targeted by the law. Moreover, the act specifically states that danger to public welfare could include effects on ”weather” and “climate.” 

The late Justice Antonin Scalia dissented from the 2007 decision, and current conservative justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have urged a reconsideration of the case, saying the Clean Air Act should only apply to “local” pollutants. Trump’s EPA revived that logic in its early proposals to repeal the endangerment finding.

Still, the Supreme Court has upheld its Massachusetts decision in several other cases. Even in 2022’s West Virginia v. EPA, when the current court overruled an ambitious program to phase out coal-fired power, the conservative justices did not argue that the EPA lacked the authority to regulate carbon. A few months later, when Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, it amended the Clean Air Act to create grant programs “that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants,” a strong implication that the act does cover those gases. The Supreme Court refused to hear a legal challenge to the endangerment finding as recently as late 2023.

“It seems to me unlikely that the court would say that the EPA has no power to regulate carbon,” said Michael Lewyn, a professor of environmental law at Touro Law Center and critic of environmental regulations.

Read Next Trump’s EPA wants to demolish the bedrock of US climate regulation. It won’t be easy. Naveena Sadasivam

Other legal experts expressed more uncertainty, noting that none of the members of the 2007 majority are still on the court, and that at least one newer conservative justice, Brett Kavanaugh, has expressed skepticism about using the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases.

“Predicting the outcome of any Supreme Court case is difficult these days,” said Romany Webb, deputy director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. “I think it’s especially hard here.”

The EPA has delayed publication of its final repeal for months following the release of a draft proposal in July. In its draft repeal, the Trump administration cited a contrarian report drafted by its Department of Energy, which argued that responsibility for global warming isn’t certain and that its harmful effects may be overstated. A federal judge recently ruled that the report was drafted illegally, but did not strike it from the federal record, meaning the EPA could still cite the climate skeptics to argue that greenhouse gases don’t endanger public health.

“[The Obama administration] claimed new powers over the vehicles we drive, even though the best reading of the Clean Air Act clearly states otherwise,” said Zeldin at Thursday’s press conference. “The endangerment finding and the regulations that were based on it didn’t just regulate emissions, it regulated and targeted the American dream.” He condemned mileage improvements and efficient start-stop capabilities as “climate participation trophies.”

The agency chose to repeal the endangerment finding for “mobile sources” such as cars, but it did not repeal its separate endangerment findings for emissions from “stationary sources” like power plants and oil wells. Several groups representing polluting industries, including the American Petroleum Institute, or API, had urged the administration to focus on cars — likely because of the increased legal liability they’d face if carbon pollution is no longer subject to federal regulation. It’s unclear if this distinction holds water, though, since the other endangerment findings rely on the original 2009 finding for emissions from vehicles.

In response to questions from Grist about the consequences of the repeal, a spokesperson for the EPA defended the move as part of an effort to lower consumer costs.

“EPA is actively working to deliver a historic action for the American people,” the spokesperson said. “Sixteen years ago, the Obama administration made one of the most damaging decisions in modern history. … In the intervening years, hardworking families and small businesses have paid the price as a result.”

Read Next The consequences of Trump’s war on climate in 7 charts Grist staff

If the Supreme Court upholds the EPA’s argument that it can’t regulate greenhouse gases, it would open a Pandora’s box of complications. The Clean Air Act requires states to seek a special waiver from the EPA in order to set emissions standards that are different from the federal government’s, which is why California needed special permission to impose its now-cancelled phaseout of gasoline-powered cars. But if the Clean Air Act no longer applied to carbon, states could theoretically set their own vehicle greenhouse gas emissions standards without approval from the feds. 

The EPA tried to write around this difficulty in its filing, arguing that the Clean Air Act both prevents it from regulating carbon and also gives it the authority to preempt states from doing the same.

“I think that that’s going to be hotly contested,” said Amanda Lineberry, a senior associate at the Georgetown Climate Center and former environmental lawyer in the Department of Justice. “That’s a delicate needle to thread.”

State-led regulation of carbon pollution would mean regulatory chaos. Automakers could be required to sell electric vehicles in California, the nation’s largest car market, but would have freedom to sell gas-guzzling pickups in nearby Idaho. Trucks in Massachusetts might need to be ultra fuel-efficient, but neighboring New Hampshire might not. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, an auto industry trade group, has already worried over this possibility. In official public comments on the draft of the endangerment finding repeal, it said that the end of federal preemption “[raises] the risk that automakers would be subject to multiple inconsistent regulatory regimes.”

“California and others that have been acting to promote the transition to hybrid and fully electric transportation will not back down,” said Mary Nichols, an EPA official during the Clinton administration and former chair of the California Air Resources Board, the state’s climate change regulator. “But this is the most significant official roadblock the feds can set up to protect the oil industry’s dominance of transportation.” 

If the federal government does stop regulating carbon, it could unleash a barrage of lawsuits. The Supreme Court ruled in 2011’s American Electric Power v. Connecticut that the Clean Air Act bars climate-related lawsuits against corporations under federal common law. As long as EPA regulates greenhouse gases, individuals can’t sue oil companies and power plants over their contributions to climate change in federal court. That’s why most climate lawsuits from states and individuals have played out in state courts, and why oil companies have long sought to move them to federal courts. In a Supreme Court brief last year, the American Petroleum Institute cited “the inherently federal nature of emissions regulation,” invoking the liability shield provided by the Clean Air Act. The endangerment finding repeal could shatter that shield.

Nevertheless, API pioneered many of the arguments now wielded against the endangerment finding. In 1999, the group held a meeting of industry lobbyists who strategized challenges to an early EPA proposal to regulate greenhouse gases, according to documents first reported by DeSmog and compiled by Fieldnotes, a research group focused on the oil and gas industry. At the meeting, the API circulated a legal analysis noting that there is “no clear-cut, explicit answer in statute” on the greenhouse gas question, and that “CO2 does not endanger public health and welfare and there are no cost-effective systems of emission control.” In 2008, after the Massachusetts decision, the group argued that the EPA had not produced “sufficient evidence of potential effects and harm,” and it opposed reducing tailpipe emissions in the U.S. on the grounds that this would not end climate change on its own. 

Trump’s EPA used many of these same arguments in its proposed endangerment finding repeal, demonstrating how much his deregulatory agenda owes to the oil industry’s work. But now the API is taking a different stance, seeking to protect itself from federal lawsuits. In its comments to the EPA last September, it stated that it “believes EPA has authority to regulate [greenhouse gases]” under the Clean Air Act.

“There’s a reason industry directly regulated by these rules hasn’t been clamoring for the ideological extremes,” said Hana Vizcarra, a senior climate attorney at the environmental nonprofit Earthjustice. 

If the flood of lawsuits and state regulations does become a threat to the industry, Congress could resolve the entire debate with a single line of legislative text, affirming in unambiguous terms that the Clean Air Act gives the EPA the power to regulate greenhouse gases. Republican lawmakers have no incentive to do such a thing now, but the unintended consequences likely to follow from the endangerment finding repeal could someday force the legislature’s hand. 

“It’s going to be chaotic,” said Vizcarra.

Naveena Sadasivam and Zoya Teirstein contributed reporting to this story.

Editor’s note: Earthjustice is an advertiser with Grist. Advertisers have no role in Grist’s editorial decisions.

toolTips('.classtoolTips3','Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and other gases that prevent heat from escaping Earth’s atmosphere. Together, they act as a blanket to keep the planet at a liveable temperature in what is known as the “greenhouse effect.” Too many of these gases, however, can cause excessive warming, disrupting fragile climates and ecosystems.'); toolTips('.classtoolTips7','A powerful greenhouse gas that accounts for about 11% of global emissions, methane is the primary component of natural gas and is emitted into the atmosphere by landfills, oil and natural gas systems, agricultural activities, coal mining, and wastewater treatment, among other pathways. Over a 20-year period, it is roughly 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.');

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Trump just killed the EPA’s ability to fight climate change. It may backfire. on Feb 12, 2026.

After rallying through 2025 (not without some deep troughs) and into this year driven by supply disruptions in Indonesia and South America alongside tariff disruptions, copper prices are pulling back again. 

Copper for March delivery fell over 3% in New York to $5.78 a pound or $12,740 a tonne on Thursday and is now trading 12% below highs hit just over two weeks ago. 

Uncertainty on copper markets was heightened after satellite data showed January smelter activity was the lowest on record since tracking began nearly a decade ago.

Earth-i’s latest SAVANT Global Copper Smelting Index shows that 14.3% of global smelting capacity was inactive in January. Activity fell 2.5% from December, a notable drop during what is typically the industry’s most active period. 

It was also the first January in seven years to show a double‑digit inactivity rate and is now 6.8% above the three‑year average. Earth-i’s satellites cover some 95% of global capacity. 

The global headline number masks significant regional divergence. China, home to 45% of smelting capacity tracked by SAVANT, reported an inactive‑capacity reading of just 7.5%. 

Active tonnage ex-China is now 1.2 million tonnes lower than the same period a year ago, highlighting the severity of the slowdown outside China. 

The steepest year‑on‑year drop came from Asia and Oceania, which accounted for more than 850,000 tonnes of the decline, despite a month-on-month increase over December (the only region to do so). 

The region continues to reel from major disruptions, including the closure of the Isabel Leyte (PASAR) smelter in the Philippines and the temporary shutdown of the Gresik and Manyar smelters in Indonesia. Both Indonesian plants were forced offline after the mud‑rush at the Grasberg mine in September, which curtailed upstream and downstream operations. 

South America and Europe each recorded declines in active tonnage of more than 100,000 tonnes. In South America, much of the decline stems from the ongoing outage at Salvador (Potrerillos) in Chile, which has remained offline following a chimney collapse in June 2025. 

Africa, meanwhile, saw the most pronounced deterioration in January. The continent’s inactive‑capacity reading jumped 12.9% to 28.4%, the sharpest relative monthly drop of any region. Yet Africa also delivered one of the month’s few bright spots: the first operating signals from the 500,000 tonne per year Kamoa‑Kakula smelter in the DRC. 

While still in ramp up and not yet included in the Earth-i index, its addition will eventually lift Africa’s active smelting tonnage to around 1.45 million tonnes.

The historic weakening in global smelter activity is intertwined with an unprecedented collapse in treatment and refining charges, or TCRCs, which are the fees miners pay smelters to convert concentrate into refined copper. 

Mine disruptions have tightened concentrate supply forcing smelters, many of which have come online in recent years after aggressive Chinese build out, to compete for feedstock. 

As a result, spot TCRCs have plunged into deeply negative territory, with recent spot market tenders closing near –$45 per tonne and – 4.5¢ per lb. The benchmark annual contract market has followed this collapse. Antofagasta’s 2026 benchmark agreement with a Chinese smelter settled at zero dollars,  the lowest annual TC/RC terms ever recorded.

These levels effectively eliminate smelter processing margins and explain why many facilities outside China are curtailing output. The Chinese industry is less exposed to market forces with many refiners and smelters across the country backed by local governments that can keep operations running even when margins disappear.

Sandvik said on Thursday it is acquiring South Africa’s ThoroughTec Simulation and will integrate it into the parts and services division of the group’s mining business unit.

ThoroughTec develops OEM-agnostic training simulators and offers a training management system, enabling mining customers to strengthen productivity and operator safety, and reduce equipment maintenance costs.

The combination of ThoroughTec’s training simulators and Sandvik’s digital solutions will “enable data-driven, customized operator training programs based on real machine performance insights,” Sandvik said in a statement.

The parties did not disclose the purchase price. The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of 2026, subject to customary regulatory approvals.

“ThoroughTec is a great addition to Sandvik. Their solutions will strengthen our aftermarket offering and help customers enhance both productivity and safety in their operations through advanced training technologies,” Sandvik CEO Stefan Widing said.

Headquartered in Durban, South Africa, ThoroughTec has more than 200 employees and a broad-based sales and support network. In 2025, it generated revenues of around SEK 170 million, with a strong EBITA margin.

The impact on Sandvik’s EBITA margin will be accretive, the Swedish group said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced its final rule to undo the agency’s 2009 foundational scientific finding that global warming emissions endanger public health and the environment—referred to as the Endangerment Finding. EPA also today repealed standards that reduce the dependence of cars and trucks on fossil fuels, which were among the strongest policies the United States had in place to combat climate change, curb toxic fossil fuel pollution, and save drivers money at the pump. This announcement was made via a press conference, and the final rule has yet to be posted to the federal register.

Below is a statement by Dr. Gretchen Goldman, president and CEO of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

“Today, Administrator Zeldin took a chainsaw to the Endangerment Finding, undoing this long-standing, science-based finding on bogus grounds at the expense of our health. Ramming through this unlawful, destructive action at the behest of polluters is an obvious example of what happens when a corrupt administration and fossil fuel interests are allowed to run amok.

“The science establishing harm to human health and the environment from heat-trapping emissions was clear in 2009. More than fifteen years later, the evidence has only mounted as have human suffering and economic damages. Meanwhile, the continued burning of fossil fuels is causing global warming emissions to rise. The science, the facts and the law are unassailable: EPA has the obligation and the authority to regulate this pollution under the Clean Air Act, an act of Congress it’s now blatantly violating.

“The transportation sector is the single largest source of U.S. global heat-trapping emissions. By scrapping vehicle global warming pollution standards today, the Trump administration has co-signed the release of more than 7 billion tons of planet-warming emissions nationally in the decades ahead.

“Communities across the country are routinely enduring the consequences and costs of climate change, including deadly heat waves, accelerating sea level rise, worsening wildfires and floods, increased heavy rainfall, and more intense and damaging storms. EPA’s attempts to delay climate action come at a time when scientists warn that the world is on the cusp of breaching 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming—a crucial guardrail to help limit some of the worst climate harms.

“Instead of rising to the challenge with necessary policies to protect people’s wellbeing, the Trump administration has shamefully abandoned EPA’s mission and caved to the whims of deep-pocketed special interests. Sacrificing people’s health, safety and futures for polluters’ profits is unconscionable. We all deserve better and this attack against the public interest and the best available science will be challenged. UCS stands ready to defend the Endangerment Finding in court and beyond.”

UCS filed comments on behalf of its half a million supporters and its network of more than 22,000 scientists to voice strong opposition to repeal of the endangerment finding and vehicle standards. It also submitted a letter to EPA Administrator Zeldin that was signed by more than 1,000 scientists opposing the repeal of the endangerment finding and urging Administrator Zeldin to stop dismantling critical climate regulations and fulfill the mission of the agency to protect public health.

A federal judge recently declared the Trump administration violated federal law when it secretly formed a “Climate Working Group” and tasked it with writing a dangerously slanted report that the administration then used as a basis for its proposal to overturn the Endangerment Finding last year. As part of that lawsuit—brought by UCS and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)—the administration was compelled to turn over more than 100,000 documents, which UCS and EDF plan to make available to the public in early March.

More UCS Resources:

• UCS comments submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy strongly opposing their commissioned Climate Working Group report and testimony delivered at a hearing on Endangerment Finding repeal.
• An op-ed authored by UCS experts that ran in Scientific American titled “Why EPA’s Latest Move Could Worsen the Climate Crisis.”
• UCS blog posts on the endangerment finding, vehicle standards, scientific integrity, and disinformation.
• UCS statement on the United Nations Environment Programme’s annual Emission’s Gap Report showing that, without rapid corrective action, the world is on track for temperature rise of between 2.3 and 2.8 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels over this century.

Since the IIJA appropriated about $21.5 billion of “no-year appropriations” for clean energy demonstration projects, DOE will “have an ongoing need to solicit and review applications for additional projects,” the U.S. Government Accountability Office said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today revoked its long-standing, science-based conclusion that planet-warming greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare. Known as the “endangerment finding,” the scientific conclusion gave the EPA the authority and duty to regulate greenhouse gases. If allowed to move forward, the repeal of the endangerment finding will allow the Trump administration to undermine key safeguards that protect clean air, while giving free reign to industries that generate planet-warming emissions. In response, David Arkush, director of Public Citizen’s Climate Program, issued the following statement:

“If left to stand, this action will hamstring the government’s ability to combat the most terrible environmental threat in human history, harming Americans and the world for decades to come.

“Abundant scientific evidence supports the EPA’s prior conclusion that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare. And Americans feel the effects of climate change constantly, as we experience more dangerous hurricanes, furnace-like heat domes, walls of water slamming into our children’s summer camps, raging wildfires, and other extreme weather driven by greenhouse gases.”

The post Joint Press Release | Health Leaders: Endangerment Finding Repeal Fundamentally Disregards Health Harms appeared first on ANHE.

Our December Nuclear Digest, reported by Bellona’s Environmental Transparency Center, is out now. Here’s a quick taste of three nuclear issues arising in Russia, France and worldwide that our analysts have been discussing. Stay tuned below for the entire digest and a lot more nuclear news.

Surprising non-surprises among nuclear wrecks in the Arctic

After a 20-year search, Russian scientists have established the precise location of two sunken vessels laden with solid radioactive waste off the coast of Novaya Zemlya—an event cited widely in Russian media, but largely unsurprising to Bellona’s experts, they write in Bellona’s newest Nuclear Digest.

The discovery came during an expedition of the Akademik Ioffe, a research vessel that regularly conducts surveys of sunken radiation hazards in the Kara and Barents seas in cooperation with the Kurchatov Institute. The mission also unveiled a previously uncharted radioactive waste dump near Techeniye Bay on Novaya Zemlya’s northeast coast.

According to archival data, that site hosts 146 containers of solid radioactive waste from Soviet nuclear subs and nuclear icebreakers that were dumped there in the 1980s. Also scuttled at the location was barge loaded with the reactor compartments of the K-22 Soviet nuclear submarine. Previous expeditions had failed to locate these finds at the coordinates appearing in the Soviet archives.

While Russian media greeted reports of these finds with fanfare, Bellona’s Alexander Nikitin writes that these wrecks and containers have already been documented by numerous Bellona reports—particularly our 1996 report on the Russian Northern Fleet. But because the dumping locations were often recorded by Soviet officials in only an approximate manner, contemporary expeditions, like the one carried out by the Akademik Ioffe, continue to unveil discrepancies between the recorded coordinates the actual locations of the submerged radiation-hazardous finds, Nikitin writes.

Despite the scale of Soviet-era dumping, the Akademik Ioffe expedition noted that the water column surrounding the submerged items it inspected—which also included the sunken K-27 Soviet nuclear submarine—was free of contamination by cesium 137. This, too, says Nikitin, came as no surprise.

“This is hardly a new finding, let alone a sensational one,” Nikitin writes. “Solid radioactive waste submerged at great depths fifty years or more ago is unlikely to be a source of radioactive contamination in the Arctic Ocean’s water column today.”

Rosatom sending out for Chinese turbines

Reactor turbines traditionally produced by Russia’s Power Machines might get upstaged by turbines made in China at two new reactors under construction at the Leningrad nuclear power plant, the Russian business daily Kommersant reported.

If true, the report could indicate that Rosatom is having a hard time independently supplying its own projects with domestic equipment, Bellona’s Dmitry Gorchakov writes. In general, Rosatom much prefers to use its own equipment—or, prior to the war, that produced in Ukraine.

But recent mishaps arising from Power Machines produced turbines—particularly at the Leningrad and Novovoronezh plants—are making them a little less desirable. In those instances, turbines operating in Rosatom’s flagship VVER-1200 reactors broke down, leading to tedious repairs and persistent delays in bringing the affected reactors online.

It’s already proven that Chinese turbines interface with the Russian VVER-1200. They’ll be used to outfit the reactors at the Tianwan nuclear plant, which Russia and China are jointly building on the VVER-1200 design, Gorchakov writes. So, from a technical standpoint, there’s no special reason not to use Chinese turbines at the Leningrad plant.

Gorchakov also observed, however, that discussions of using Chinese turbines may merely be a bargaining chip mean to spur more domestic production at Power Machines.

A French twist for Soviet reactors in Europe

Framatome, the French nuclear services company, has announced plans to manufacture, under Russian license, fuel assemblies that can be used in Soviet-built VVER reactors operating in European countries, possibly providing an off-ramp from Russian fuel dependence for some 18 power units in the EU.

The company applied for a permit to produce the hexagonal fuel assemblies used in VVER-1000 models at its site in Lingen, Germany in 2023, but German authorities have thus far been reluctant to license the project given Russia’s involvement in the arrangement. A decision on the matter from the German environmental ministry is expected in days.

Should that decision be a “no,” writes Gorchakov, it’s likely that Framatome will simply move VVER-1000 fuel production to France.

Regardless of how that situation evolves, Framatome executives say the company will move forward with producing fuel assemblies for VVER-440-model reactors, also under license from Russia. They’ll be delivered by at the firm’s Romans-sur-Isère facility in France, starting in 2027, with the aim of fueling Soviet-built reactors in Slovakia and Hungary.

Other European nations operating Soviet reactors include Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Finland, all of which have expressed hopes of diversifying away from Russian fuel producers.

But Gorchakov observed that delivery deadlines of VVER-1000 fuel for Bulgaria and the Czech Republic may already have been missed, or are in danger of being missed, due to the delays in launching production at the Lingen facility. Previous reports suggested that Bulgaria was to receive its first shipments last year, and the Czech Republic sometime this year.  Should that be the case, writes Gorchakov, both plants will have to stick it out a bit long on Russian fuel. For our complete coverage of international nuclear industry issues though December, read the whole digest. Subscribe to our mailing list to stay informed about future issues.

The post Charting more Arctic nuclear wreckage and giving Soviet nuclear fuel a French twist—the new Nuclear Digest is out appeared first on Bellona.org.

Gold again dropped below the $5,000-an-ounce level on Thursday as new US economic data firmed expectations that there won’t be a Federal Reserve rate cut soon.

Spot prices fell as much as 4% to $4,880 per ounce, before recovering some losses. By midday, it traded above $4,900 an ounce for an intraday loss of 3%. Silver, meanwhile, continued its volatile run with a near 10% decline.

Click on chart for live prices.

Bullion zigzagged throughout the week as investors weighed rising geopolitical risks against the prospect of elevated interest rates, which would reduce the appeal of assets like precious metals.

The move down follows Wednesday’s release of US labour data that came in better than markets expected, reinforcing the view that policymakers may keep rates elevated for longer. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 130,000 jobs in January, following a downwardly revised 48,000 increase in December, while the unemployment rate edged down to 4.3%, new data showed.

‘Risk-out’ move

Some investors also took profits on gold and silver, which have risen 40% and 160% respectively over the past year, to cover losses in other asset classes.

“It all happened so quickly and feels like a ‘risk-out’ move,” said Nicky Shiels, head of metals strategy at MKS PAMP SA, in a note to Bloomberg. In times of extreme market stress, haven assets like gold will also be sold by investors in dire need of liquidity, she added.

Gold and silver’s ferocious run since 2024 accelerated last month, with momentum-driven buying helping the metals hitting successive highs. That came to an abrupt halt on January 29, with gold plunging the most in over a decade and silver tumbling the most on record.

“Due to previous heightened volatility, a lot of people would have placed their stops either below $5,000 or above the $5,100 level just to preserve their stop positions,” Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index and FOREX.com, told Reuters.

“Because of the downward move, those stops have been triggered below the $5,000 level, and that caused a cascading-like effect, causing prices to slump in a short period of time,” he added.

Inflation in focus

Investors now await the US inflation data due on Friday for more cues on the Fed’s monetary policy path.

“It looks like the expectation is that headline CPI is going to slow from 2.7% to 2.5%, perhaps as low as 2.4%. That may revive some rate cut bets, and that would probably be favourable for gold,” said Peter Grant, vice president and senior metals strategist at Zaner Metals.

Despite the historic selloff seen in January, gold remains up by 17% on the year. Many banks are projecting prices to reach $6,000 an ounce this year amid strong retail investments on top of continued central bank buying.

BNP backs gold price to hit $6,000 as rally ‘makes sense’

(With files from Bloomberg and Reuters)

India’s zero-emission trucking (ZET) market is on the brink of accelerated growth, reaching approximately 1,000 electric truck sales by the end of 2025. However, the supporting infrastructure has not kept pace: only about 5 percent of chargers in India can meet the power needs of zero-emission trucks, and high charging costs remain one of the most significant barriers to scaling the electric trucking market in India today. RMI analysis shows that electricity costs alone can account for 30–50 percent of an electric truck’s total cost of ownership (TCO) over 7 years.

As a result of high electricity prices, electric trucks remain 14–22 percent more expensive than diesel trucks without additional subsidies. Fleets and charging point operators (CPOs) are therefore actively exploring strategies to reduce charging costs. Among these, the use of renewables has emerged as a promising pathway, with the potential to both provide affordable charging and ensure that electric truck deployment delivers real climate and air quality benefits.

Today, only a small number of electric truck charging stations use renewables as part of their electricity supply mix. However, CPOs in India have begun to announce plans to deploy charging stations fully powered by renewables at scale, signaling market demand and growing readiness. This article breaks down the cost structure of charging, and explores how renewable-powered charging can reshape the charging economics.

The post Powering India’s Electric Trucks with Clean and Affordable Electricity appeared first on RMI.

As climate accountability lawsuits move closer to trial across the country, Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) announced this week that she is working with House and Senate colleagues to craft legislation aimed at “tackling” state climate superfund laws and climate deception lawsuits against fossil fuel companies.

Her announcement follows widespread reports that oil industry lobbyists have been pressing Congress for some form of liability shield. In January, the American Petroleum Institute made clear that stopping state climate lawsuits is a top 2026 priority, pledging to “stop extreme climate liability policy.”

Eleven states and the District of Columbia, along with dozens of cities, counties, and tribal governments, have active lawsuits seeking to hold major oil and gas companies accountable for deceiving the public about the climate harms of their products. Several of those cases — including in Minnesota, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Colorado — are advancing toward discovery and trial after courts denied motions to dismiss.

The push for federal legislation marks the most concrete attempt yet to shield fossil fuel companies from mounting legal exposure.

Efforts to limit liability are not unique to the oil industry. In recent months, other industries including pesticide manufacturers and segments of the tech sector have sought similar protections when litigation risks increase. But the scale of the climate cases, and the public costs at stake, make the fossil fuel industry’s immunity push especially consequential.

Statement from Cassidy DiPaola, Communications Director, Make Polluters Pay Campaign:

“Rep. Hageman’s announcement confirms that the fossil fuel industry is escalating its effort to avoid accountability.

As more than a dozen states and communities move closer to putting Big Oil on trial, and as climate superfund laws begin to take hold, the industry is turning to Congress for protection. API has said plainly that stopping climate liability is a top priority and now we are seeing legislation take shape to do exactly that.

If these companies believe they did nothing wrong, they should be willing to defend that position in court. Instead, they are asking lawmakers to block the cases altogether.

A federal liability shield for fossil fuel companies would not lower energy prices or ease the cost of living. It would simply shift more of the financial burden onto working families and local governments while insulating one of the most profitable industries in history from accountability.

Congress should not close the courthouse doors to communities seeking redress. Big Oil is not entitled to special immunity from the consequences of its conduct.”

February 12, 2026 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SUWA Announces 2026 Stewardship Season Project Calendar – 2.12.26  Trips begin in March and registration is live now 

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

Salt Lake City, UT – The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) has released its 2026 Stewardship Season Project Calendar. The Stewardship Program, now in its 11th season, offers service-learning opportunities that allow volunteers to experience firsthand the public lands SUWA is working with its members and supporters to protect. This year’s calendar includes 27 projects, with several projects in designated Wilderness areas such as Dark Canyon and Red Mountain, as well as Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments. Review the full project calendar and application form; additional projects will be added to the calendar as the season progresses. 

“For over a decade, SUWA’s Stewardship program has been a steady presence on the ground, ensuring the protection of public land though hands-on restoration work while building a passionate community of wilderness stewards, said Jeremy Lynch, SUWA Stewardship Director. “Whether it’s a multi-day backpacking trip deep in a National Monument, a short weekend in the West Desert, or a half-day rehabilitating public lands close to Salt Lake City, this year’s project calendar highlights the diversity of public lands (and public lands volunteers!) and the many different ways volunteers help protect these remarkable places. I hope we see you on a trip this year, deepening your relationship with public lands in Utah.” 

During the 2026 project season (March through early November), trips will vary from half-day excursions, to two-to-three-night campouts, to weeklong backpacking trips. This year, there will be trips focused on designated Wilderness Implementation, as well as trips focused on Wilderness Study Area (WSA) Protection and Monitoring; WSAs are eligible as wilderness under SUWA’s signature legislation, America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act. Several trips address protecting cultural resources or the impacts of increasing recreation. 

Every listing on the project calendar provides a rundown of the project scope and level of difficulty, as well as the general application and acceptance process. Individuals may apply for up to two projects for the 2026 season. Interested individuals can complete a general application here. Registration will fill up quickly so we encourage interested individuals to apply ASAP. SUWA has select scholarships available for qualifying individuals and groups who would like to join a stewardship project. If you have any questions about a scholarship or a project, please reach out to Stewardship Director Jeremy Lynch at jeremy@suwa.org.  

Additional Resources: 

• SUWA Web Page on Stewardship Program 
• 2026 Project Calendar and Application Form 
• Stewardship Program Scholarship Information and Application 
• 2025 Stewardship Season Year in Review 
• Less-than-a-minute explainer video about the Stewardship Program. 

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The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) is a nonprofit organization with members and supporters 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 Announces 2026 Stewardship Season Project Calendar – 2.12.26  appeared first on Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

Thiès, Senegal, 12 February 2026 The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), in collaboration with civil society organisations and farmers from West and Central Africa, has expressed deep concern about the sub-regional workshop on the seed sector organised in Abidjan by CORAF (West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development) and FAO […]

The post PRESS RELEASE: Civil Society Organisations Raise Alarm Over Exclusion of Farmers from Regional Seed Strategy Discussions in West and Central Africa first appeared on AFSA.

i-80 Gold (TSX: IAU) (NYSE-A: IAUX) surged to its highest in nearly three years on Thursday after securing a $500 million financing package to fund its mine development plans and erase its debt obligations.

Together with its equity offering in the second quarter of 2025, the Reno, Nevada-based gold developer said it has now raised $800 million to support its objective of achieving mid-tier producer status.

To meet that objective, the company announced in 2024 a three-phased plan that aims to increase its production to 600,000 oz. per year across its three underground mines and one oxide open pit operation, all in Nevada. Currently, it produces around 50,000 oz. a year.

Initial phases funded

The $500 million package, according to i-80 Gold, will fund the first two phases of that plan, which are expected to bring its annual production up to approximately 300,000–400,000 oz. — for a potential six-to-eight-fold increase.

Phase 1 — which is underway and expected to last until 2029 — focuses on the ramp-up of the Granite Creek mine and development of the Archimedes project. Phase 2, currently slated for 2030-2031, comprises an expansion of the Cove underground mine and the Granite Creek open pit. The third and final phase would be driven by Mineral Point, a large-scale oxide open pit heap leach project.

i-80 Gold kicks off underground development at Archimedes

In a press release Thursday, i-80 Gold CEO Richard Young reiterated that the three-phased plan provides “a clear and achievable path” to positioning the company as a mid-tier gold producer. He added that with the new financing, it now has a “clear financial path to fully fund Phase 1 and Phase 2.”

Shares of i-80 Gold jumped as much as 8% to C$3.04 apiece in Toronto, its highest since June 2023. The company, which spun out of Premier Gold Mines following its acquisition by Equinox Gold (TSX, NYSE-A: EQX) in 2021, has a market capitalization of C$2.4 billion ($1.8 billion).

Funding details

The $500 million funding package comprises a $250 million royalty sale to Franco-Nevada (TSX, NYSE: FNV). The agreement is for a 1.5% life-of-mine net smelter return royalty covering all mineral properties in the i-80 portfolio, stepping up to 3% on January 1, 2031.

Of the total amount, $225 million is expected to be available at closing in March. The remaining $25 million is expected to be made available later in 2026 to advance the Mineral Point project following its early-stage permitting activities.

The company has also secured commitments for a gold prepay facility with National Bank and Macquarie for an initial advance of $150 million, with a $100 million accordion feature.

i-80 Gold estimates that the total ounces to be delivered for the full $250 million facility would represent approximately 15% of its gold output over the projected period of January 2028 to June 2030. Closing of the facility is anticipated to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2026.

Extinguished debt

The proceeds, according to the company, would not only help fund all five gold projects through various stages of development, but also extinguish the company’s existing debt obligations of approximately $175 million.

“The commitments from Franco-Nevada, National Bank and Macquarie, following a detailed due diligence process, underscore the quality of our asset base, the depth of our team and the credibility of our execution plan,” i-80 Gold’s CFO Ryan Snow said.

The Nevada miner also noted that it selected the facility with National Bank and Macquarie with a goal of transitioning the gold prepay into a corporate revolver following the completion of Phase 1 to fund the development of Mineral Point, which hosts the company’s largest gold-silver resources at about 4.6 million oz. of gold-equivalent (measured and indicated).

A preliminary economic assessment filed in early 2025 outlined a 17-year mine life with a LOM gold equivalent output of 282,000 ounces annually.

This morning, White House Border Czar Tom Homan announced ICE and CBP will vacate Minnesota, after Minnesotans fought tirelessly to protect their communities against lawless immigration enforcement.

Public Citizen Co-President Lisa Gilbert issued the following statement:

“The people of Minnesota set the example of bravery, compassion and strength against masked, lawless federal agents who vastly underestimated the power of community and peaceful protest.

“Tom Homan’s announcement that the administration will scale back the surge of immigration operations in Minnesota is a crucial win. That said, with billions still to spend on immigration enforcement from the “big ugly law,” the Trump Administration is still stripping families from their homes and throwing them into unlivable conditions in detention centers across the country in a militarized mass detention campaign. And there is no sign from the Trump administration that it plans on doing anything – including arresting and persecuting small children – differently. The victory in Minnesota should galvanize our efforts to fight these atrocities.

“Just as Minnesotans fought back, Congress must now follow suit and refuse to fund DHS agencies that enable such reckless and dangerous acts that, in some cases, have killed people in broad daylight. We need drastic reforms now.”

There have been a number of claims that the rebuilding of four reactors at the Darlington Nuclear Station was completed "on time and on budget."  This factsheet provides evidence that this is simply not true.  In fact, the project will be, at best, 25% over budget when it is actually complete, which will be at

The post Darlington refurbishment: Not on time, not on budget appeared first on Ontario Clean Air Alliance.

The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (MWAC) is looking for a passionate Spanish-speaking organizer to join our Migrant Farmworker team. We are searching for dedicated organizers to work with Migrant Agricultural Workers, particularly in South and Southwestern Ontario, to address injustices at work and in immigration and to build collective power.

Deadline: Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis and we are interviewing on an ongoing basis. Please apply as soon as possible

Click here for job description and how to apply

The post Job Posting: Spanish-Speaking Farmworker Organizer first appeared on Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.

The post Job Posting: Spanish-Speaking Farmworker Organizer appeared first on Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.

Aprender en libertad: construyendo un tapiz de alternativas radicales Fecha y hora * Fecha: 27 de febrero de 2026 * Hora: de 14:30 a 15:30 GMT / de 9:30 a 10:30 EST * Formato: evento en línea * Acceso al enlace de zoom * Registro aquí * Este evento contará con interpretación en inglés y español

Learning in Freedom: Building a Tapestry of Radical Alternatives Date and time * Date: February 27th * Time: 2:30pm to 3:30pm GMT / 9:30am to 10:30am EST * Format: Online event * Access the Zoom link * Register here * This event will have interpretation in English and Spanish