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Celebrating 10 years of climate progress with the Oregon Clean Fuels Program Brett Morgan Thu, 02/19/2026 - 11:42 am

All Pueblo Council of Governors Endorses America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act – 2.19.26 

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

Albuquerque, NM – The All Pueblo Council of Governors, the collective voice of the 20 Pueblo Nations of New Mexico and Texas, voted on December 4, 2025, to support America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act (ARRWA). The Council’s resolution endorses congressional wilderness designation for lands within the Act, which would protect more than 8 million acres of federal public lands in Utah. This is the fifth tribal endorsement of ARRWA, following endorsements by the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe (2025), Zuni Tribe (2024), Hopi Tribe (2023), and Navajo Nation (2021).  

“The protection of cultural landscapes, traditional cultural properties and sacred sites of Pueblo people is paramount to each Pueblo’s cultural preservation now and into the future,” said All Pueblo Council of Governors Chairman Dominic Gachupin. “The lands in America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act are aboriginal lands, containing the testimony of Ancestral Puebloan occupation and use for thousands of years, and should be permanently protected.” 

ARRWA would add more than 8 million acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public lands in Utah to the National Wilderness Preservation System; this includes remarkable places like the Book Cliffs, the Dirty Devil, and parts of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments. As the ancestral home of all Pueblo peoples, the region contains abundant and significant cultural resources.  

This spectacular landscape is a key component of what scientists say is urgently needed today: wild lands set aside to exist in their natural state to protect ecosystems and prevent catastrophic climate change. Protecting it would also keep climate-disrupting fossil fuels in the ground and provide a vital corridor for the movement and adaptation of western wildlife species. 

“We are honored to have the All Pueblo Council of Governors endorsement of America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act and their support in protecting public lands throughout Utah,” said SUWA Executive Director Scott Braden. “Lands in America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act are the ancestral homelands of the Pueblo peoples and it is a privilege to be able to work together to ensure that these culturally and ecologically important landscapes remain in their natural state for current and future generations.” 

ARRWA has been introduced in the US House of Representatives since 1989 and the Senate since 1997. The current sponsors are Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Representative Melanie Stansbury (D-NM-01); the bill has 18 cosponsors in the Senate and 61 in the House. The bill is supported by SUWA, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and more than 200 other organizations belonging to the Utah Wilderness Coalition. 

“As the sponsor of America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, which would protect millions of acres of lands that are ancestral and culturally important to Tribes and Pueblos across the west, I’m grateful to the All Pueblo Council of Governors for endorsing this legislation,” said Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM). “Protecting these extraordinary landscapes is an important step in honoring our commitments to Tribes, helps address climate change, and safeguards the lands and waters of the West for future generations.” 

“The endorsement of America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act by the All Pueblo Council of Governors continues the momentum of support from Tribal Nations to protect wilderness in the West,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL). “I’m grateful that my bill has this support, as it’s only together that we are able to protect these important places for future generations.” 

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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 All Pueblo Council of Governors Endorses America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act – 2.19.26  appeared first on Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

State Senator Jerry McNerney announced today the introduction of SB 872, legislation that would direct $300 million annually from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) toward critical levee repairs in the Delta and other subsidence repairs along State Water Project canals. 

Many of the Delta’s essential levees date back to the 1800s and no longer meet the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers safety standards, leaving them vulnerable to failure. Half of the $300 million in annual funds from SB 872 will go towards levee improvement projects, including those that restore habitat.

Restore the Delta supports this important bill to protect the longterm health and vitality of the Delta and the millions of Californians who depend on it. 

“Delta levees have been historically disinvested in, putting the Delta economy and its 4 million county residents at risk. We are proud to support SB 872, because it prioritizes funding for the Delta, investing in our levees in a commitment to protect our communities,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta.

“We are also committed to working to protect the future health and vitality of the Delta and the tribes and communities that depend on it while remaining committed to reducing reliance on the Delta and exploring other strategies for stabilizing California’s water supply.”  

You can read the full release from Senator McNerney’s office here.

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Join Electrify Now for a live demo and a discussion on how these new appliances compare on ease of use, energy efficiency and reliability.

Washers and dryers account for anywhere from 8-10% of the energy use in our homes and a significant amount of our water use. Heat pump dryers are rated ENERGY STAR’s most efficient dryers on the market, using roughly 75% less energy than a typical electric resistance or gas dryer. They use heat pump technology to move heat rather than create it, and have many benefits.

Manufacturers from GE to Samsung to LG offer combo washer + heat pump dryers that wash and dry a complete load of laundry in the same machine. They’re lauded for their space saving, convenience, and energy efficiency, as well as the advanced wash cycles and smart features they offer.

As the market for this technology grows, we’ll take a look at the big advantages and minor challenges of switching to a combo unit. Not only do combo washer + heat pump dryers have the potential to save time and improve a homeowners’ washing/drying experience, they greatly reduce energy use required to dry clothing. Most also plug into a 120-volt outlet, helping homes with gas dryers electrify this end use more easily.

This 45-minute webinar includes a live demo exploring:

• What is a combo washer + heat pump dryer and how does it work?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of combo washer + heat pump dryers?
• What models are on the market?
• How are these appliances performing from a service and warranty perspective?
• How did the current models of combo washer + dryers overcome challenges to create a new way of doing laundry?
• What are the expected time and energy savings from combo washer + heat pump dryers?

Learn how an energy audit can best prepare you to lower your energy bills, phase out fossil fuels, cut your home’s carbon emissions, improve your home’s indoor air quality, and make your home more comfortable year-round.

This webinar is part of the Electrify Now “Go Electric!” series developed in partnership with LEARN. 

Register

The post Webinar: Ventless Washer-Dryer Combos 2.0 first appeared on NW Energy Coalition.

Western voters are concerned about the Trump administration’s approach to public land management, and these concerns will likely influence their voting decisions in the 2026 elections, according to the 16th annual Conservation in the West Poll from the Colorado College State of the Rockies Project.

The annual bipartisan poll, which surveyed voters in eight Mountain West states, found widespread concern about rollbacks of protections for land, water, and wildlife. Key findings from the survey include:

• Eighty-five percent of respondents say issues involving public lands, waters, and wildlife are important in deciding whether to support a public official.

• Eighty-six percent of voters across party lines—including 75 percent of MAGA supporters—are concerned about recent funding cuts and reduced staffing at public land agencies.

• Seventy-six percent—the highest level in the poll’s history—prefer that their member of Congress place more emphasis on conservation and recreation on public lands over maximizing energy production.

“At a time of growing pressure on land and water in the West, the call to action from voters is clear and bipartisan: Westerners want funding and stewardship for public lands and natural resources,” said Ian Johnson, Director of Strategic Initiatives & Sustainability at Colorado College.

Maintaining protections for public lands remains a priority for Western voters. Ninety-one percent believe that existing national monument designations should be kept in place. Even amid economic pressures, 76 percent of voters oppose selling public lands for housing, and 74 percent oppose selling them for private oil, gas, and mining development.

You can read the full poll results and look back at previous years at the Colorado College State of the Rockies website.

Quick hits Poll: Western voters are worried about budget cuts, legal rollbacks on public lands

E&E News | Re:Public | Arizona Republic | KUNM | Grand Junction Daily Sentinel | Colorado Newsline

NPS drops reservation system at Yosemite, Arches, and Glacier

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Wyoming senators vote to defend public lands from large federal selloffs

Cowboy State Daily | Jackson Hole News & Guide

Lake Powell forecast to reach critical lows, threatening hydropower generation

Colorado Sun

Opinion: A Utah monument comes under attack—again

Writers on the Range

Trump admin dynamites national park site as part of immigration crackdown

SFGate

Indian Affairs regional employees have more work and fewer people to do it, watchdog reports

Government Executive

Colorado’s ski resorts face an existential threat — and growing call for climate action

Denver Post

Quote of the day

This is a bad precedent that will inhibit the ability of the National Park Service to prevent excessive visitation and will harm the very places the agency is mandated to protect. If the Administration doesn’t begin to take the care of our parks seriously, we run the risk of squandering America’s greatest treasures.”

—Emily Thompson of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks on eliminating the reservation system at three national parks

Picture This @yellowstonenps

You hate to hear someone exclaim, “You are what you eat,” while you toss a bag of frozen tots into your air fryer—but I’ve never developed a flaky, perfectly golden crust after eating them, so it seems to be okay.

Bohemian waxwings don’t have that excuse, though. During the nonbreeding season, they feed almost exclusively on fruit. The red, waxy tips on their wings and the yellow bands on their tail feathers come from carotenoid pigments found in that fruit—pigments the birds can’t directly synthesize. The number and size of those waxy droplets increase with age.

Pretty cool, right? But I’ve got to go…air fryer timer just went off.

Featured photo: Stevens Arch in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, John Fowler

The post Western voters oppose Trump cuts to public land agencies appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

National Nurses United is sounding a “RED ALERT” warning to hundreds of communities nationwide that face a drastic reduction in quantity and quality of health care services as a result of H.R. 1, the Republican bill passed last year. Nurses condemn these cuts to health care funding and denounce the funnelling of this money into ICE and Customs and Border Patrol.

On March 8, we raise our voices in all territories against imperialism, fascism, racism, and the rollbacks of historical rights, and we say enough to structural violence, dispossession, displacement, and femicides.

The post March 8 | International Day of Struggle for Working Women | Call to Action appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Last week, TotalEnergies announced a donation of food and hygiene kits to communities affected by devastating floods in Mozambique. Framed as an act of corporate responsibility, the company presented this support as proof of its commitment to people facing climate-driven disasters.

But let’s be clear: this is not climate justice. It is climate impunity, disguised as generosity.

A small donation doesn’t undo the destruction

The company’s contribution, worth around $500,000, amounts to less than one dollar per person for the more than 700,000 people affected by flooding. Families who have lost their homes, farmland, livestock, and livelihoods are being offered symbolic relief from a corporation whose core business model is driving the very crisis destroying their lives.

TotalEnergies is leading a $20 billion liquefied natural gas project in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique. This project has already displaced communities, intensified insecurity, and locked the country into decades of fossil fuel dependence. Over its lifetime, the project is expected to produce 3.3 to 4.5 billion tonnes of carbon pollution  more than the yearly emissions of every EU country added together.It was suspended after violent attacks in 2021 and has now been restarted, despite serious human rights and environmental concerns.

At the same time, Mozambique is on the frontlines of the climate emergency. Floods, cyclones, droughts, and extreme heat are becoming more frequent and more deadly. Over 450,000 hectares of farmland have been destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of animals have died. Communities are being pushed deeper into poverty.

The aerial view of the flooded village in Mozambique after a cyclone. Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

$500,000 in humanitarian aid cannot outweigh the harm these projects cause. Limited investments in renewables or selective humanitarian gestures are often presented as evidence of transition, while overall fossil fuel expansion continues. This pattern, sometimes described as transition-washing, allows companies to preserve social licence while delaying the structural changes that climate science requires. And Mozambique is just one among many examples.  And yet despite overwhelming harm, the companies like Total, who are most responsible for fuelling this crisis continue to extract massive profits. This is the pattern we see everywhere: profits are privatised and protected, while the damage is socialised and borne by ordinary people

Climate disasters are not unexpected side effects of fossil fuel extraction. They are foreseeable, scientifically documented consequences of continued oil and gas expansion.

For decades, companies like TotalEnergies have known that their products destabilise the climate. They have funded misinformation, lobbied against regulation, and delayed action while expanding production. When a fossil fuel company offers emergency aid after a climate disaster, it is responding to harms that are built into its own business model.

Polluters must pay, not pretend

What Mozambique needs, and what communities across the Global South are demanding are not occasional donations, dependent on corporate goodwill. They need guaranteed, predictable, and adequate funding for loss, damage, and adaptation.

That is why 350.org and our partners are calling for binding climate levy and damage contribution mechanisms. These would require major polluters to pay, in proportion to their emissions and profits, into global funds that support communities before and after disasters. In other words: the costs must be upstreamed.

Instead of communities paying with their lives, land, and futures, polluters must pay as part of doing business.

This is the principle behind “Make Polluters Pay.” And it is the only fair response to a crisis they helped create. Today (19th of February) sees the opening of France’s first major climate trial against an oil and gas multinational, as proceedings begin at the Paris Court of Justice.

Since 2020, a coalition of advocacy organisations, Notre Affaire à Tous, Sherpa, France Nature Environnement  alongside the City of Paris, has asked French courts to require TotalEnergies to drastically cut its greenhouse gas emissions and reduce hydrocarbon production. 

As one of the world’s largest historical emitters and among the top global oil and gas companies, TotalEnergies continues to plan production growth of around 3% per year, while maintaining the majority of its investments in fossil fuels until at least 2030. The company is linked to dozens of major new fossil fuel projects worldwide, despite clear scientific consensus that no new expansion is compatible with limiting warming to 1.5°C.A ruling in this case could mark a turning point, helping shift climate litigation from a focus on governments alone to cases capable of reshaping the business models of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies. What the Paris court decides may influence similar cases far beyond France.

Beyond promises: ending fossil fuels for real

A genuine phase-out is not a distant net-zero pledge. It is a planned and enforceable decline in fossil fuel production, starting immediately and continuing year after year.

According to the joint analysis by 350.org and Observatoire des multinationales in “This is what a total phase-out looks like,” ending fossil fuel expansion requires more than voluntary commitments. It requires governments to reclaim control over companies whose business models depend on continued extraction.

That means binding regulation aligned with climate science, strict limits on new approvals, and mandatory production decline pathways. It means removing shareholder primacy from decisions that determine the fate of communities. And where companies refuse to comply, governments must be prepared to use public-interest tools — including stronger regulatory intervention or public control — to redirect corporate capacity toward renewable energy and climate repair.

Phase-out also means accountability for past harm. Transparency through independent climate and human rights audits, and enforceable contributions toward loss and damage, are essential. Stopping future extraction does not erase decades of damage already inflicted.

Responsibility means:

• • Ending new oil and gas projects
  • A binding production decline plan with annual reduction targets
  • Full transparency on climate & environmental impacts
  • Ending fossil fuel lobbying and political interference
  • Redirecting capital expenditure from fossil expansion to renewable energy at scale
  • Mandatory contributions into global loss and damage mechanisms proportional to emissions and profits
  • Respecting community land and consent rights
  • Supporting a just transition to renewable energy
  • Being held legally and financially accountable for climate harm

 

Locals stand outside TotalEnergies in Kenya to demand an end to fossil fuel projects. Photo: 350.org

Thats why 350.org has launched our petition, momentum is building to finally move beyond coal, oil, and gas. The shift now underway internationally recognises that voluntary corporate pledges are insufficient. Governments are increasingly acknowledging that fossil fuel phase-out must be coordinated, binding, and enforceable, not left to corporate discretion. More than 80 countries are now working together on concrete plans to phase out fossil fuels and accelerate clean energy. This is exactly the kind of leadership that communities on the frontlines have been demanding for decades.

A critical international meeting in Colombia this April could help turn these commitments into binding action. If governments step up, it could mark the beginning of the end for fossil fuels, while speeding up the affordable renewable solutions that cut energy bills, create jobs, and protect our shared future.

Some major emitters, including Canada, Japan, Indonesia, South Africa, and Türkiye, have yet to join this effort. They must do so.  The choice before us is stark. We can allow companies like TotalEnergies to continue profiting from destruction while offering token gestures in return. Or we can seize this moment to build a system where polluters pay, communities are protected, and clean energy serves the public good.

 

The post Greenwashing in plain sight appeared first on 350.

For years, baboons have roamed Cape Town suburbs, entering yards and houses in search of food. Now officials have a conservation plan aimed at reducing conflicts between the large primates and people — but like most things baboon-related here, it is sparking heated controversy.

Read more on E360 →

The operator of the Balcombe oil site in West Sussex has said it will submit a new planning application after permission lapsed last week.

Local opposition to the Balcombe well test in 2021. Photo: Helen Savage

In a statement to investors this morning, Angus Energy said:

“Following extended delays associated with the planning process at Balcombe, the Company intends to resubmit its planning application in due course and will provide further updates as appropriate.”

Planning permission expired on 13 February 2026 when Angus failed to meet a condition to begin work on a well test by the required deadline.

West Sussex County Council’s planning committee unanimously refused permission for the well test in March 2021.

But Angus Energy successfully appealed against the refusal in February 2023.

A condition of the planning permission required Angus to begin work on the test within three years of the appeal decision.

Debt restructuring

Angus also announced today that “positive discussions” “remain ongoing” with creditors on restructuring its debt.

But the company warned:

“While the Board is encouraged in respect of the continued progress in these discussions, the Company cautions that if a suitable agreement is not reached, it would create a material uncertainty around the Company’s ability to continue to operate as a going concern.”

Talks have been going on for nine months on restructuring the £20m loan, agreed with a subsidiary of the Trafigura Group two years ago (22 February 2024).

In early May 2025, Angus announced the first principal repayment of £1.25m had been deferred because of “production variability” at the Saltfleetby gas site in Lincolnshire.

Share trading was suspended on 19 May 2025.

The company said today:

“The Company’s shares are expected to remain suspended from trading on AIM pending the conclusion of its financial restructuring.”

Saltfleetby workovers

Angus Energy announced that workovers on two wells had been completed successfully at Saltfleetby, the UK’s largest onshore gasfield.

The company said “initial results are encouraging”.

The programme included perforation of sections of tubing, as well as cleaning and well stimulation.

Angus reported that total field production over the past week had been 6.3mmscfd (million standard cubic feet per day), an increase of about 30% on the average achieved during the final quarter of 2025.

More people in the UK are buying electric vehicles and heat pumps than ever before. But those EVs and heat pumps might not be making a meaningful dent in the UK’s carbon emissions, according to a new analysis.

The UK has focused on electrification as a big part of its decarbonization efforts. But because the UK grid doesn’t get much power from renewable sources, EVs and heat pumps still rely on dirty power from fossil fuels, the study states. Instead, the nation needs to urgently focus on increasing renewable energy generation in addition to expanding nuclear energy and carbon capture.

In other words, argue the researchers, the UK needs to decarbonize its energy supply first and then push electrification. And this argument applies to other countries, says David Dunstan of Queen Mary University of London, who published the analysis in the journal Environmental Research: Energy.

“For all countries, we can safely say that if their average renewable generation is less than their average fossil-fuel generation, they should expand the renewables without any hesitation, and not waste resources on increased electrification,” he says.

What’s at play here is the mix of renewables on a country’s power grid and how easy it is to get that clean energy where and when it’s needed. The variability and intermittency of wind and solar generation have been grossly underestimated in the UK government’s plans to decarbonize British electricity generation, write Dunstan and Alan Drew in their paper. On cloudy or windless days, gaps in supply are still met by gas‑fired power stations.

 

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Meanwhile, when electricity demand is low, there is nowhere for surplus renewable energy to go. Often wind farm owners are paid to shut down turbines because the grid can’t hold all the excess energy.

So in addition to increasing renewable generation, which “is the only effective way we have at present to cut our carbon emissions,” Dunstan says, there is another effort that “really hasn’t been a focus, but needs to be. Introduce technologies that can absorb the large surplus of renewable energy, such as green hydrogen production or synthetic fuel generation.”

The UK government has also talked about expanding nuclear energy and carbon capture and sequestration. “We applaud this but we would rather see serious action rather than just talk,” Dunstan says.

Cost, technological, and policy barriers stand before these steps. For instance, it’s not clear yet whether carbon capture and sequestration could scale up to the extent required. But, says Dunstan, policymakers should concentrate on what is unquestionably needed and feasible, such as nuclear power, grid capacity, and energy storage at the scale required.

“Increasing electrification by encouraging EVs and domestic heat pumps has made zero contribution to cutting our carbon emissions so far,” Dunstan says, “and even in 2030 will be making a much smaller contribution than is claimed, both by government and by the relevant industries and their lobbyists.”

Source: David J Dunstan and Alan Drew. Reappraisal of paths to decarbonising British electricity generation in 2030. Environmental Research: Energy.

Image: ©Anthropocene Magazine

Uganda’s plan to use future revenues from its emerging oil industry to drive economic development may not work as expected, because evidence so far shows that the government’s effort to extract and export its crude oil may not produce the returns it is counting on, analysts have warned.

A new report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) found that Uganda stands to benefit far less from oil production than previously projected, with revenues set to be half of earlier estimates if the world transitions away from fossil fuels on a path to reaching net zero emissions.

Uganda’s oil ambitions involve developing two oilfields on the shores of Lake Albert – Tilenga and Kingfisher – and constructing the 1,443-km East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), with the aim of transporting 230,000 barrels of crude per day to Tanzania’s Tanga port for export. 

Gas flaring soars in Niger Delta post-Shell, afflicting communities

Led by oil major TotalEnergies and China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC), alongside the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) and Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation, the project was given the financial go-ahead in 2022.

Will Scargill, one of the IEEFA report’s authors, told an online launch this week that oil may have seemed a historically attractive option for Uganda but the benefits it could yield are very sensitive to major risks, including cost overruns around the project and in the refining sector, which it also plans to enter.

“The EACOP project is expected to cost much more than the original expectations, so it’s a major project risk in Uganda as well,” he said. 

The start of oil production and exports through the East Africa pipeline had been expected by 2025 – nearly 20 years after commercially viable oil was first discovered in the country – but has now been delayed until late 2026 or 2027.

Meanwhile, the cost of construction – particularly for the EACOP part of the project – has continued to rise, reaching around $5.6 billion, a 55% increase from the $3.6 billion projected shortly before it got financial approval, the report said.

Ugandan riot police officers detain an activist during a march in support of the European Parliament resolution to stop the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline in Kampala, Uganda October 4, 2022. REUTERS/Abubaker Lubowa US tariffs, China’s EV boom to curb oil revenues

Beyond delays and cost overruns, “there’s the risk the impact of the accelerating shift away from fossil fuels will have on the oil market,” Scargill said.

The report said the most significant factors for the Ugandan oil industry – which are beyond its control – have been the reduced outlook for international trade spurred by recently imposed US tariffs and the growing uptake of electric vehicles (EVs), particularly in China – which has led to a peak in transport fuel demand and an expected peak in overall oil consumption by 2027. 

The 2025 oil outlook from the International Energy Agency (IEA) shows that growth in global oil demand will fall significantly by the end of the decade before entering a decline, driven mainly by electrification in transport which will displace 5.4 million barrels per day of global oil demand by the end of the decade.

In addition, structural changes in global energy markets, including oil supply growth outside the OPEC+ bloc – a group of major oil-producing countries including Saudi Arabia and Russia that sets production quotas – particularly in the US, Brazil and Guyana, are lowering prices.

“It’s a particularly bad time to be taking single big bets on particular sectors that are linked to external markets,” said Matthew Huxham, a co-author of the IEEFA report. 

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To make matters worse, Uganda’s public finances have been weakened in the past decade by external shocks including higher US interest rates and commodity prices, resulting in downgrades of the country’s sovereign credit rating, he added.

“What that means is, generally speaking, there is less fiscal resilience to shocks,” Huxham said.  

Lower global demand for oil would likely see lower prices, profits and revenues for the Ugandan government, the report authors said. In addition, a global shift to renewable energy would mean Uganda selling even fewer barrels into international markets.

All of these factors suggest that investment in Uganda’s oil industry “would unlikely be as transformational as expected” for its development, Scargill said. 

Climate Home News reached out to the Uganda National Oil Company and EACOP but had not received a response at the time of publication.

Foreign investors to recover costs while Uganda faces risks

Uganda has invested a significant amount of government funds not only in the oil pipeline but also in supporting infrastructure such as a planned refinery. The report authors raised concerns about revenue-sharing agreements under which foreign investors are entitled to recover their costs first, taking a larger share of oil revenues in the early years of production.

IEEFA estimates that while TotalEnergies’ and CNOOC’s returns could fall by 25-34% as the world uses less oil and moves from fossil fuels to clean energy, Uganda’s expected revenues could decline by up to 53%.  

Explainer: What is the petrodollar and why is it under pressure?

Uganda is pursuing a $4.5-billion oil refinery project in Hoima District, with the country’s oil company UNOC due to take a 40% stake. To finance part of this investment and other oil-related infrastructure, UNOC has secured a loan facility of up to $2 billion from commodity trader Vitol.

Under the deal, Vitol gains priority access to oil revenues, placing it ahead of the Ugandan government when money starts flowing in, the report said. The IEEFA analysts warn that this will likely displace or defer planned use of the revenues for other government spending on things like health, education and climate adaptation, especially if oil production and the refinery construction are delayed or profits disappoint. 

“Even if the refinery project is on time and on budget, the refinery and loan repayments could consume 40% of Uganda’s oil revenues through 2032,” Scargill noted. 

Pointing to recent cost overruns at oil refinery projects in Africa, the report authors said Nigeria’s
Dangote refinery ended up costing more than twice the original estimate – jumping from $9 billion to over $18 billion.

Climate action is “weapon” for security in unstable world, UN climate chief says

They said analysis shows the Uganda refinery will cost 25% more than planned, on top of an expected overrun of over 50% on the EACOP project, cutting the annual return rate to 10%.

“This means there is a high chance the project, by itself, will not make any money,” the report added.

Responding to the report, the StopEACOP coalition said the analysis confirms that beyond causing ongoing environmental harm and displacing hundreds of thousands, the project “does not make economic sense, especially for the host countries”.

They called on financial institutions, including Standard Bank, KCB Uganda, Stanbic Uganda, Afreximbank, and the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector, which are backing the “controversial” EACOP project, “to seriously engage with the findings of the IEEFA reports and reconsider their support”.

Prioritise climate-resilient investments instead

In another report released alongside the one on oil project finances, IEEFA argued that Uganda could achieve stronger and more effective development outcomes by redirecting its scarce public resources towards climate-resilient, electrified industrialisation rather than doubling down on oil.

Uganda is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, yet ranks low in readiness to cope with its impacts. The report authors urged the government to apply stricter criteria when deciding how to spend public funds, focusing on things like improving access to modern energy services and climate adaptation.

The IEEFA report recommended investments in off-grid and mini-grid solar electrification, agro-processing, cold storage, crop irrigation and better roads as lower-risk alternatives to investing in fossil fuels.

Africa records fastest-ever solar growth, as installations jump in 2025

Investments that take climate risks into account could also attract concessional climate finance and align with Uganda’s fourth National Development Plan and Just Transition Framework, the report said.

“They also take less long to construct, are easy to deploy, pay back over a shorter period and they also put less pressure on the system,” Huxham added. 

The post Uganda may see lower oil revenues than expected as costs rise and demand falls appeared first on Climate Home News.

The first thing Andy Barrientes noticed when he showed up for his shift at RMS Foods on Valentine’s Day, 2005, was the cloud of black smoke emanating from the building. 

A fire had started in the factory around 4:20 p.m., not long before Barrientes was scheduled to clock in as maintenance manager at the food manufacturing plant in southeastern New Mexico. The blaze had caught his coworkers coming off the day shift by surprise; they reported smelling the smoke before seeing the flames. When Barrientes arrived, he saw the staff huddled together at the park across the street. “Everyone was holding hands,” he said. “And we were just … the fire was so big.”

Barrientes had only been working at the factory for a few years. The job was something of an odd one: RMS Foods had once been a prominent meat processor in Hobbs, New Mexico, supplying local hotels and restaurants with cuts of beef and pork. But the company had recently started producing soy-based veggie burgers under the Boca Burger brand — an unlikely pivot for a part of the country better known for its cattle ranches, steakhouses, and dairy farms. Barrientes was hired around the same time as this change, and in the years since, veggie burger production had taken off. 

On the day of the fire, the entire staff evacuated without injuries, allowing the fire department — which arrived within four minutes of receiving the call — to immediately set to work containing the inferno. 

By 5:30 p.m., the clouds of smoke had mostly dissipated, but the building was gone. The roof of the factory had collapsed, and all but three pieces of food-processing equipment were damaged beyond repair.

Among those standing across the street in the middle of Humble Park were Sam Cobb, president of RMS Foods, and his wife, Rhonda. Cobb’s father had founded the company 46 years prior, and the plant had been standing proudly on North Grimes Street for nearly as long. The family business all but burned to the ground in about an hour. Cobb, who had taken over after working under his father for years, promptly began thinking about how to support his employees in the face of such a loss, but he had few details for what came after that. “We’ll assess the damages and see what we can do to get back in business,” he told a local reporter for the Hobbs News-Sun.

His uncertainty didn’t last long. The following day, Cobb informed the News-Sun that he was at work on a plan to continue paying his nearly 100 employees for as long as it took to rebuild the facility — although he had yet to meet with the insurance company or inform them of such a plan.

In less than a week, Cobb had negotiated a deal between the insurance company, a local construction company, and his staff. All RMS Foods employees would immediately be eligible for state unemployment benefits, and roughly a third would also be hired back to assist with the reconstruction. “From the day we started, we were actually building: running wires, putting up red iron, putting up walls, pouring concrete, doing 17 hours a day,” said Barrientes, who worked on the factory reconstruction and is still employed at RMS Foods today. “We got it done quick,” he added. The arrangement was typical of Cobb, according to Barrientes and other current employees. “He’s never said no to us. He’s always taken care of every one of his employees, and that’s why we’re all so dedicated to him,” he said, “because he’s dedicated to us.”

Just eight months later, the facility was operational again — and Boca Burgers were flying down the factory line.

Tucked away in the southeastern corner of New Mexico, just minutes from the Texas state line, Hobbs lies in the middle of the Permian Basin. Most jobs in the city of about 40,000 residents are in mining, quarrying, or oil and gas extraction, according to the local economic development council. Animal agriculture — both cattle ranching and dairy farming — also figures significantly in the region’s economy and culture. 

These industries shape local attitudes toward eating; barbeque joints abound in the area and steak dinners are common. “Here in oil patch/cattle country, it is probably difficult to find people who will give any type of endorsement to any burger labeled vegetarian, or worse yet, vegan,” Robert Hamilton, a local Hobbs librarian who doesn’t eat red meat, told me.

Against a backdrop of pumpjacks and stretches of desert sky, RMS Foods is a total anomaly. “You would be surprised how many people don’t know that this is here,” said Arnold Langley, a production manager at RMS Foods who has been with the company since 2006. Langley is something of a food-manufacturing veteran — having previously worked at a french fry factory that shut down in Washington state, he was hired by RMS to help scale Boca Burger production. “I’d say I came down to Hobbs to go to work for Sam,” said Langley, “and I never looked back.”

The RMS Foods factory, which produces the meat-free Boca Burger, sits in a nondescript building in Hobbs, New Mexico. Frida Garza / Grist

Seated in his office, in the same building his employees helped rebuild more than 20 years ago (now dedicated to Rhonda, who died in 2018), Cobb wears a crisp button-down with his salt-and-pepper hair combed back neat. On the walls are photos of friends and family, plaques for business accolades, and black-and-white shots of his days in college at Texas Tech University. An official portrait of Cobb at City Hall sits on a nearby table; Cobb served as the mayor of Hobbs from 2012 to this past January. To illustrate the evolution of RMS Foods, he pulls out various marketing materials he’s kept from over the years. There are promotional catalogs of beef and pork products, followed by cheeky magazine ads for Boca Burgers. (One reads: “The way Bob devoured his burger, you’d think no one told him it’s meatless with 70 percent less fat.”) 

How Cobb reconciles his relationship to these dueling food industries is curious — his venture into the plant-based burger space only came about because of his expertise with meat processing. Cobb is aware of the paradoxes inherent to his career’s trajectory. In our first phone call, over a year ago, he conceded that non-animal sources of protein will become crucial to food security in years to come. “There’s no way that as our global population grows, everybody can have a T-bone steak every night,” he said. Additionally, greenhouse gas emissions from animal agriculture, particularly beef production, are a major contributor to climate change. Research has shown more people embracing a plant-based diet is a crucial step to reducing global emissions. But for Cobb, animal agriculture and plant-based protein have long existed alongside each other, and in his case, one supports the other. He likes to say: “I make veggie burgers for a living so I can afford to be a cowboy.”

A gallery wall in Sam Cobb’s office illustrates his life’s story, from his relatives in the meat industry (top), to his college education in animal science (right), to the factory and employees of RMS Foods (left). Frida Garza / Grist

Cobb himself is a fourth-generation rancher. In the late 1880s, his great-grandfather Gatlin Hall Cobb acquired land and started a ranch in Haskell County, Texas, which is still in the family today. Sam Cobb’s father, S.G., lived through the Great Depression and a drought in the 1950s, two events that showed him the financial precarity of raising cattle for a living. It soon became clear that the Cobb family didn’t make enough money off of the family ranch to support both generations. So S.G. left Texas and headed west to New Mexico in 1959, with the hope of one day buying his own ranch. 

S.G. had a no-nonsense way about him, according to his son, and when he arrived in Hobbs, he opened a franchise of Rich Plan Corporation, a frozen-food company that sold and delivered bulk orders directly to households and even offered freezers to hold months’ worth of food. According to Cobb, when the national Rich Plan Corporation went bankrupt, S.G. maintained his relationships with livestock farmers and rebranded his company as Rich Meat Services. The company transitioned into a meat processing business, selling beef and pork products to a number of hotels, restaurants, fast-food chains, and food service distributors around the country.

But the dream of starting another family ranch never left his father, said Cobb, and in 1978, after nearly 20 years in New Mexico, S.G. and a business partner bought some land off a “longstanding ranching family,” in Lea County, where Hobbs is located. That family, too, was struggling with the economics of their chosen profession. “What happens with ranches is the families grow, but there’s not enough ranch income to feed everybody,” said Cobb. “So then they start selling it off.” For Cobb, raising cattle is still a family affair: His oldest son lives on the ranch and Sam comes out on weekends to help with branding, castrating, and corralling cattle. His granddaughter from Austin occasionally comes into town for workdays, too. The ranch, along with the family land in Texas, holds tremendous symbolic value to Cobb, whose father instructed him never to sell it.

After graduating from Texas Tech in 1976 with dual degrees in animal science and business, Cobb came back to New Mexico to work for his father at Rich Meat Services — first as a salesman, and then in operations. He had a knack for keeping clients happy by staying level-headed in a crisis. David Pyeatt, who was once a customer of Rich Meat Services, said, “Sam’s incredibly intelligent and witty as heck. And he always takes a complex problem and comes up with a very obvious and simple solution.” But the move away from sales may have been for the best; Pyeatt suggested that Cobb can be buttoned-up to the point of coming across as awkward. Tall, careful with words, and with near-perfect posture, Cobb sometimes has the air of a chaperone at a school dance. “When you first meet Sam, you may think he’s a turd, you know?” said Pyeatt, who, it must be said, considers Cobb a dear friend. “Am I saying that nicely?”

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As a businessman, Cobb’s superpower is his pragmatism. In 1980, he took over RMS Foods as president, and the company soon became the largest supplier to Dairy Queen franchises in the Southwest. Years later, Cobb struck a deal with a Japanese trading company to export high-quality cuts of beef and pork to Japan — taking the company he inherited from his dad to new heights. 

But he always had an eye on growing the business even more, and in the late ’90s, that meant looking beyond red meat. The company Boca Burger, started by a natural-food restaurateur in Boca Raton, Florida, was successful at capturing the public’s attention with a better-for-you veggie burger, at a moment when diet culture ran rampant. In 1995, then-president Bill Clinton made headlines for stocking Boca Burgers on Air Force One, after reportedly being introduced to the vegetarian product by a heart specialist. The trend caught Cobb’s attention, too.

In 1997, through a fortuitous chain of connections — and on the strength of his reputation as a meat purveyor — an invitation to join a group of investors and purchase Boca Burger came to Cobb’s desk. According to him, it was a no-brainer. RMS already had most of the necessary manufacturing equipment to get started. The titular Boca Burger — made primarily of soy protein concentrate and wheat gluten — essentially comes together using “the same manufacturing process as a ground-beef burger,” said Cobb. The only difference is the ingredients. “Instead of blending animal protein, we’re blending plant protein.”

Sam Cobb in the RMS Foods factory in 1980. Courtesy of Sam Cobb

Initially, Cobb became an employee of Boca Burger, sold off his Dairy Queen business, and ceased producing meat products at RMS Foods. When production of Boca Burger moved to Hobbs, RMS was manufacturing about 60 percent of the brand’s soy patties. “We started growing exponentially,” said Cobb, enough for the conglomerate Kraft Foods (now Kraft Heinz) to notice. Sales went from $20 million in 1998 to $40 million the following year. On the strength of that growth, Kraft bought Boca Burger in 2000 for an undisclosed amount. “I saw an opportunity in the plant-based category,” said Cobb, and it paid off. By 2002, Boca Burger sales reached $70 million. 

After the 2005 fire, representatives from Kraft Foods visited Hobbs and were so impressed by Cobb’s operations that they decided to designate RMS the exclusive manufacturer of Boca Burgers. “Sam got a letter from Kraft telling him that,” said Barrientes, and the company president read it out loud to his staff in the newly rebuilt office conference room. His father stood beside him for the announcement. “They were in tears, because they were coming back,” said Barrientes.

Every morning Cobb is in the RMS office, he eats whatever plant-based product is being made at the moment for breakfast. It’s a daily ritual shared by many of the staff members, who sample the veggie patties all day to inspect the quality. The faux-meat burgers are good, employees admit, but of course, they aren’t … well, meat. (“I mean, I love my steaks,” said Barrientes.) Cobb isn’t planning on giving up meat anytime soon, and doesn’t expect others to immediately do so, either. “I’m an omnivore,” he said. 

As a planet, we dedicate roughly half of all our habitable land to growing food. But the majority of that land — nearly 80 percent — is ultimately in service of raising livestock. That’s because livestock need pasture land to graze, but they also depend on animal feed — and growing enough corn and soy for all those farmed animals also takes a lot of land. Cattle and other ruminants pose a big problem for the planet in the form of greenhouse gas emissions; these animals have stomachs with multiple compartments, and their digestive process produces methane, which is then released when the animals burp. But the amount of land needed to raise animals for human consumption also means the global demand for meat drives a tremendous amount of deforestation and biodiversity loss. That’s why so many plant-based protein advocates argue mitigating the effects of the climate crisis rest on everyone eating less meat.

Read Next The sneaky way even meat lovers can lessen their climate impact Frida Garza

When it comes to matters of persuasion, however, Cobb understands that nobody has ever changed their diet unless they themselves wanted to. “I’ve got friends that wouldn’t put a plant-based burger in their mouth with a gun to their head,” he said. This awareness may be a business advantage for someone like Cobb — even if the uncomfortable truth may strike fear into the hearts of plant-based evangelists and climate advocates. 

In the 2010s, Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods went all-in on developing veggie patties that supposedly tasted and bled like real beef. At the time, much of their messaging touched on the environmental case for swapping out beef for soy. “I know it sounds insane to replace a deeply entrenched, trillion-dollar-a-year global industry that’s been a part of human culture since the dawn of human civilization,” said Impossible Foods founder Pat Brown in a TEDMED talk, referring to animal agriculture. “But it has to be done.”

Impossible Foods founder Pat Brown speaks at an event in 2019. While companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat experienced double-digit growth during the pandemic, demand for meat alternatives has been falling dramatically in recent years.
Amanda Edwards / Getty Images

The plant-based protein category enjoyed double-digit sales growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the Good Food Institute, a think tank that tracks the alternative protein industry. But since 2022, demand for these products has been falling. For Brown and others, this style of practically pleading with consumers to change their habits spectacularly backfired. Beyond Meat’s stock price tanked by more than 99 percent in 2025 compared to five years prior. The company reported a net loss of $110.7 million in the fiscal third quarter of last year, its most recent earnings report. Its total outstanding debt is $1.2 billion. Beyond has never once turned an annual profit. There are a number of theories as to why Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods’ gamble on ultra-realistic fake meat failed so hard — including their inability to compete with beef on price and taste. 

“Our thesis is that a bunch of products launched during the pandemic that weren’t ready for mainstream adoption,” said Caroline Cotto, head of NECTAR, an organization that runs taste tests with plant-based and animal-protein products in order to help the former achieve taste parity. “A lot of consumers tried those products and had a really negative experience because they were paying more for a product that didn’t deliver,” she added. “So they really soured on that category and have stopped revisiting it.”

Cotto argues that the plant-based meat industry is something of a “valley of disillusionment,” and it’s hard to disagree. This stunning market failure carries a lesson for the plant-based industry that the broader climate movement and environmental experts have long known: Information alone, even a lot of it, even the really dire stuff, is insufficient to lead to a change in how most people behave. Some industry leaders may now be actively running in the opposite direction of mentioning climate and sustainability: Peter McGuinness, the former CEO of Impossible Foods who stepped down last month, argues this sector struck out with consumers by becoming too “woke” and “partisan.” The future of Impossible, now, is cloudy. The company recently announced it is experimenting with protein-packed grains and pastas.  

The plant-based burger category as a whole has slumped, and as a result, RMS is also producing fewer units of Boca Burgers these days. Barrientes estimates the plant makes less than 4 million pounds of soy-based burgers for Kraft Heinz every year, when in previous years, it was moving almost 20 million. Based on all his experiences in Hobbs, Cobb understands that part of selling plant-based food comes down to how you talk to people. “It’s the old adage. You can lead a horse to water, but you’re not making him drink,” he said. But he also reckons that the answer is simpler — that the role flavor plays cannot be understated. “If you want a hamburger, and you want a big old greasy hamburger, it’s hard to duplicate that with a plant-based product,” said Cobb. Cotto agrees — but thinks these product categories can achieve taste parity, or even become something consumers prefer over meat, with more research and development. “The biggest opportunity across the board is just making sure that these products taste great,” she said.

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Cobb regularly goes out to eat with a small group of friends, including David Pyeatt, his former customer from his meat-supplier days. For someone in the food business, even casual meals can function as informal, but telling, focus groups. 

At a dinner last October, when I asked the group whether they like faux-meat burgers, nervous laughter sputtered around the table. John, a rancher based in Hobbs, said there was nothing about “synthetic meat” that appealed to him, and said he didn’t think he would ever try it. 

Pyeatt shared a story about how his wife had recently made two versions of sloppy Joes — one with ground beef, and another for his mother-in-law that used vegan crumbles from Boca. Pyeatt tried both, and loved the plant-based one more than the tried-and-true original. It simply, in his words, “tasted better.” But ultimately, he said, “if you put a steak in front of me, I’m going to like a nice steak.”

“Nobody here eats Boca Burger,” said Cobb, though his guests quickly contradicted that. Someone suggested that Boca Burger patties aren’t bad if served with a bit of mayo. The conversation underscored how, at the end of the day, people want to eat things that taste good — and the promise of something truly delicious can tempt even the staunchest meat-eaters among us. The servers began to bring out people’s orders, and when the last plate dropped, Cobb and his guests picked up their forks and knives and began to cut into their steak dinners.

Cobb believes the plant-based burger is functionally dead. Back at his office, speaking from behind his desk, he explained his view that faux-meat patties will never fully go away, but that demand is unlikely to return to the levels it reached during the pandemic. 

Whether or not vegan brands should try to replicate the taste and texture of meat is “a really big debate right now in the space,” Cotto said. But breaking free of conventions set by meat-eaters and industrial animal agriculture will demand new ways of thinking, cooking, and dining. “We don’t have a name for it,” said Cotto, but the plant-based protein industry could also explore “a third-space product that’s sort of like — the closest equivalent I can think of is tofu, right? It’s a center-plate protein, but it’s not fitting into a narrow box for consumers.” 

Whether or not plant-based brands will pursue that route, for now, remains to be seen. Either way, Cobb isn’t out of the game. When I asked him about the future of the industry, I was struck by his pragmatism. Ever the entrepreneur, he is still out looking for opportunities to bring in new plant-based manufacturing business. He argues that the concept of swapping veggies for meat could catch on “as long as it’s price competitive.” Last year, on top of its Boca Burger production, RMS began a new partnership with the Seattle-based Rebellyous Foods, a brand of plant-based chicken patties and nuggets that sells directly to food service and school districts. (Disclaimer: Former Grist CEO Brady Walkinshaw is an investor in Rebellyous Foods. He had no editorial role in this story.) The ingredients are nearly identical to those in Boca Burgers, employees told me, but the manufacturing process varies slightly, giving the faux chicken products a juicier, more delicious texture. Employees at RMS seem to love it: “It’s actually good stuff,” one told me.

Cobb said he’s interested in exploring the so-called emerging product category of “blended proteins” — think: sausages and hot dogs that replace some of their meat content with whole-cut veggies or soy. Plant-based advocates like these products because they help lower consumers’ overall meat consumption, even if they never give up meat entirely. But Cobb noted this practice is nothing new. “I used to put soy in hamburger patties. We used to do that for cost savings,” he said. 

He reminded me that all of the technical equipment and expertise that RMS has acquired over the decades of being in the food-manufacturing business means the company is well-positioned to produce other vegetarian appetizers and snacks, like falafel. These, he reckons, can appeal to meat-eaters, as long as they taste good. 

When it comes down to it, Cobb has been successful because he pays attention to what consumers want and, quite simply, makes it. When I asked Cobb if he would ever go back to processing meat, he answered: “I would if the opportunity presented itself and it created jobs for my employees and people in Hobbs.” He paused and added, “Yes, I’ve considered that.”

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This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The cowboy who got rich selling veggie burgers on Feb 19, 2026.

By Mariel Vilella, February 13, 2026

GAIA (Global Alliance for Incineration Alternatives) today welcomed the COP31 Presidency’s decision to make zero waste and waste methane reduction a top climate priority. The announcement underscores the urgent need to tackle methane—a super-pollutant over 80 times more potent than CO₂ over 20 years—and accelerate near-term climate action under the Paris Agreement, while ensuring a just transition for frontline communities.

“Zero waste is a practical, fast, and equitable climate solution”

Waste methane is one of the fastest and most cost-effective emissions sources to address. Proven solutions—like composting, recycling, waste separation, and biological treatment—can reduce methane emissions by up to 95% and cut total waste-sector emissions by more than 1.4 billion tonnes, while delivering cleaner air, jobs, healthier communities, and stronger local economies. Crucially, these solutions must be implemented in ways that ensure a just transition for waste workers and marginalized communities.

Türkiye has a unique opportunity to lead
Türkiye can elevate zero waste as a core climate solution, mobilizing finance toward local implementation, demonstrating scalable models, and integrating equity and community-led approaches. This sets a powerful precedent for global ambition, practical delivery, and a just transition.

Local communities are already showing what works
Across Latin America, Africa, and Asia, local governments and community organizations are demonstrating that zero waste systems can deliver rapid, equitable climate action. Key examples include:

• Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: 4,500 households in Bonyokwa ward divert 100% of organic waste, cutting 16.4 tonnes of methane annually. World Bank funding supports scaling, led by local GAIA member, Nipe Fagio.
• Brazil: 20+ waste picker organisations in São Paulo and Brasília implement organic waste recycling under the National Strategy for Municipal Biowaste, supported by over US$ 70M.
• Philippines: The Zero Waste Cities Network includes 37 cities committed to reducing 70% of methane from waste by 2030. The Philippine National Waste Workers Alliance (PNWWA) unites 1,000+ workers advocating for safe working conditions.
• Durban, South Africa: Food waste from Warwick markets is composted for the Durban Botanic Garden, reducing landfill costs (~US$ 93/tonne) and creating jobs. The project is expanding to three markets and eventually all nine city markets.
  Accra, Ghana: Green Youth Africa Organization (GAYO) integrates 600 informal waste workers into municipal systems, reducing burning and improving livelihoods.
• Europe: Nearly 500 municipalities are committed to zero waste through the Zero Waste Cities Certification. Highlights include Milan collecting 95 kg of organics per person annually, Salacea (Romania) increasing separate collection from 1% to 61% in three months, and Partizanske (Slovakia) reducing residual waste by 57 kg per person within a year.
  

Financing zero waste solutions is key to a just transition
To scale these proven approaches, GAIA calls on governments, multilateral climate funds, and private investors to:

• Shift finance away from high-emitting, harmful waste disposal practices, such as waste-to-energy incineration, toward community-led zero waste initiatives.
• Support frontline waste workers and local organizations to ensure equitable and effective implementation.
• Provide inclusive access to finance for marginalized communities, ensuring a just transition and that no one is left behind.
  

Zero waste is not only a climate solution—it is a justice-centered development opportunity. The time to act is now. COP31 must ensure finance and support to reach those already delivering results on the ground, so local successes can scale to global impact, while advancing a just transition for all communities involved.

For more information, and case studies of community-led zero waste solutions, visit: GAIA Zero Waste Business Models

The post GAIA Welcomes COP31 Zero Waste Priority, Calls for Climate Finance to Scale Community Solutions and Support a Just Transition first appeared on GAIA.

Most Ugandans whose land and livelihoods were affected by the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) are dissatisfied with training programmes provided by developers which were designed to stop them being left worse off, a survey has found. 

The Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO) asked 246 people in seven communities affected by the project for their views on the developers Resettlement Action Plan (RAP).

It found that while most affected households have received some form of support, most were dissatisfied with the quality of food security programmes and training on alternative vocations and financial literacy.

Dickens Kamugisha, AFIEGO’s CEO, said that while the Ugandan government claims it is developing the oil sector to create lasting value for everyone, this study shows that this is not the case especially for the people that were displaced for the project. 

“They lost their land, were under-compensated and now an inadequate livelihood restoration programme is being implemented. Instead of creating lasting value for the project-affected people, the government and the EACOP company could create lasting poverty for the people”, he added.

• Jul 12, 2024 Investigations Where East African oil pipeline meets sea, displaced farmers bemoan “bad deal” on compensation The oil export project has pushed up the price of land, so compensation is too low to maintain affected villagers’ standard of living Read more
• Feb 17, 2026 Investigations As Louisiana bets big on ‘blue ammonia’, communities brace for air pollution Carbon capture hasn’t delivered major climate benefits — and the plants would still emit thousands of tons of pollution. Read more

EACOP is being built by a coalition led by the French company Total, along with China’s National Offshore Oil Corporation and Uganda and Tanzania’s state-owned oil companies.

The 1,400 km pipeline will take oil from Uganda’s Tilenga and Kingfisher oil fields through Tanzania to the East African coast, where the oil can be put on ships and exported.

Inadequate training

Nearly four-in-five of those surveyed described vocational training programmes, designed to give displaced people new professions like bakers, welders and soap makers, as inadequate. They cited short training periods, absentee trainers and limited hands-on learning.

One participant said he was trained in catering for four months in 2024. “I did not understand what I was taught. We were not learning most of the time”, he said. 

The young man said that he only cooked once in the four months and that trainers told them that they would be sent home if they complained.

The financial literacy programme, aimed at training people to use their compensation wisely, was also described as inadequate by nearly four-fifths.

They said the training was only one day and was conducted by a commercial bank, which pushed them to open bank accounts rather than improving their money management practices.

“They were interested in business, and not in people learning”, one woman said, “no wonder when people got money, some married more women. The compensation was also too little!”

EACOP-affected people during a community sensitisation meeting in Hoima district, 2025. Photo: AFIEGO Not enough food

Those who were physically displaced by the pipeline or who lost more than a fifth of their land to it were supposed to be entitled to food assistance for up to a year or more.

While three-quarters of respondents received some food assistance, just a third said it was adequate. They complained that they did not understand why some people were getting food and others not.

There were also complaints about the quantity of beans, rice, cooking oil and salt provided, particularly from those with big families. One woman said her family of 30 used up the 4 kg of rice and beans in one meal.

• Dec 2, 2025 News Tanzania pushed African nations to oppose fossil fuel transition at COP30 While chairing the African group at the summit, the gas-dependent nation advised the continent’s ministers to block language on transitioning away from fossil fuels Read more
• Mar 28, 2025 Finance African banks back oil export pipeline despite climate commitments Lenders including Afreximbank are backing Uganda’s EACOP project, while publicly talking up their support for a just energy transition. Read more

An agricultural recovery programme aimed to help people transition but, while many confirmed receiving seeds, seedlings or fertilisers, they complained that the seeds were poor quality and distributed too late – after the rains – for crops to grow.

In Kyotera District, one participant recounted receiving 70 coffee seedlings, of which only 20 survived. “We were given very young coffee seedlings. They were also poor quality with some having no roots,” the participant said. “I watered those coffee seedlings, but they did not grow. They were poor quality!”

Some of the affected communities also complained about not getting the livelihood options they wanted, adding that those who wanted livestock were given seeds instead because they did not have a building to house the livestock. 

On the other hand, the survey found that about two-thirds of affected people were satisfied with the distance between their homes and the pipeline. The third who were not satisfied said they feared accidents like oil spills and noise and dust pollution as the pipeline is built.

“I fear for my life,” said one man in Hoima, “the pipeline can burst, spill and affect us. We have also been told that the pipeline will be heated. The heat from the pipeline could affect our soils”.

At the time of publication, the Petroleum Authority of Uganda and Total had not responded to a request for comment.

The post Ugandans living near new oil pipeline let down by compensation programmes appeared first on Climate Home News.

The IPC urges governments to move beyond voluntary commitments and adopt binding, measurable actions to ensure redistributive land reform, equitable access to natural resources, democratic governance, and agroecological rural development.

The post IPC releases its position paper on agrarian reform ahead of ICARRD+20 appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

EWG: Trump’s glyphosate executive order a ‘big middle finger to every MAHA mom’ Anthony Lacey February 18, 2026

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump today signed an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act to guarantee the supply of glyphosate-based herbicides, claiming it is critical to national security.

“If anyone still wondered whether ‘Make America Healthy Again’ was a genuine commitment to protecting public health or a scam concocted by President Trump and RFK Jr. to rally health-conscious voters in 2024, today’s decision answers that question,” said EWG President and co-Founder Ken Cook. 

“I can’t envision a bigger middle finger to every MAHA mom than this,” he added. “By granting immunity to the makers of the nation’s most widely used pesticide, President Trump just gave Bayer a license to poison people. Full stop.”

“It’s a shocking betrayal to protect all of us but especially the people who live and work near farm fields where glyphosate is used,” said Cook.

For years, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – now Health and Human Services secretary – publicly attacked glyphosate and built a national profile suing its maker, Bayer-Monsanto, over health harms tied to the herbicide. 

On the campaign trail, both Kennedy and Trump pledged to confront pesticides like glyphosate and clean up the food supply to win the trust of health-conscious voters worried about pesticide exposure.

“Elevating glyphosate to a national security priority is the exact opposite of what MAHA voters were promised,” said Cook. “If Secretary Kennedy remains at HHS after this, it will be impossible to argue that his past warnings about glyphosate were anything more than campaign rhetoric designed to win trust – and votes.”

“First President Trump sided with Bayer-Monsanto on glyphosate at the Supreme Court, and now he’s elevating it through the Defense Department,” said Cook. “At this rate, maybe the National Cancer Institute will be next to bless the safety of this notorious weedkiller at his urging. 

“MAHA supporters were promised reform, and instead, they’ve been treated by MAGA like a convenient group of useful idiots ever since Kennedy joined Trump on the campaign trail,” he added.

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The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action.

Areas of Focus Farming & Agriculture Farm Pollution Family Health Women's Health Children’s Health Glyphosate Pesticides Press Contact Alex Formuzis alex@ewg.org (202) 667-6982 February 18, 2026

Utah Grassroots Organizer

Location: Salt Lake City, Utah (on-site, full-time, exempt) 
Salary Range: $54,000-$58,000 commensurate with experience 
Application Deadline: March 4, 2026 

Download the Utah Grassroots Organizer Job Description as a PDF

About SUWA

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) is the only nonprofit organization working full-time to protect Utah’s redrock wilderness—some of the most spectacular public lands in America. Since 1983, SUWA’s staff, board, and members have worked to defend this landscape from threats like fossil fuel development, unnecessary road construction, and destructive off-road vehicle use. With offices in Salt Lake City, Moab, and Washington, DC, and a membership base of over 12,000 across the country, SUWA has secured lasting protections for more than 5.5 million acres of wild public lands. 

Our mission is to preserve the outstanding wilderness at the heart of the Colorado Plateau and ensure these lands remain in their natural state for the benefit of all. We are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in our work and in our organization, knowing that the redrock is for everyone. 

Position Summary 

The Organizer recruits, trains, and mobilizes volunteers, students, community members, Tribal partners, and allied organizations to protect Utah’s wildlands. This role combines base-building, campaign organizing, rapid response mobilization, coalition leadership, and public education. 

The Organizer represents SUWA at community events, rallies, conferences, and in coalition spaces, and works closely with staff to implement strategic campaigns responding to federal land management plans, national monument threats, and legislative proposals. 

Key Responsibilities 

• Build and sustain a statewide network of grassroots leaders and activists. 

• Organize public comment campaigns, call-in days, rallies, town hall mobilizations, and educational events. 

• Coordinate SUWA’s outreach at festivals, conferences, and community gatherings. 

• Deliver presentations to student groups and community organizations. 

• Train activists to write effective public comments and media pieces. 

• Hire and supervise organizing interns. 

• Represent SUWA in statewide and national coalitions. 

• Help plan annual leadership retreats and national advocacy fly-ins. 

Qualifications 

• Organizing experience in public lands or environmental campaigns preferred. 

• Strong public speaking, writing, and relationship-building skills. 

• Ability to recruit and motivate volunteers and develop emerging leaders. 

• Organized, self-directed, adaptable, and comfortable with flexible hours. 

• Commitment to wilderness protection and public lands advocacy. 

• Proficiency with common digital tools (Microsoft Suite, Google Docs, Zoom, social media). 

If you are energized by building community power, organizing under challenging political conditions, and protecting some of the most iconic wild landscapes in the country, we encourage you to apply. 

To Apply 

Email a cover letter, resume, and writing sample to jobs@suwa.org. Application deadline is March 4, 2026. Applications will be reviewed and interviews offered starting mid-March. No phone calls, please.  

The post Now Hiring: Utah Grassroots Organizer appeared first on Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

Working in the climate and environmental agendas is a daily commitment to renew hope and act for change, even when the ground keeps shifting beneath us. As we witness the dismantling of regulations that are meant to protect people and ecosystems from the growing threats of the climate crisis, we are also seeing daily actions by the federal government that are undermining our democratic institutions and constitutional protections. In this atmosphere, our mission to prepare communities to become resilient to climate-related threats is more needed than ever.

The latest blow came when President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) repealed the scientific finding that greenhouse gas emissions can endanger “public health and welfare.” This 2009 federal rule is the legal foundation for virtually all major climate regulations. Despite the overwhelming global scientific consensus that greenhouse gas emissions are driving climate change, the current administration is sending a clear message that it is stepping away from federal climate protections.

However, no amount of denial will prevent worsening wildfires, flooding communities, sweltering heat, and profound social and ecological disruption. In California and across the US, we are experiencing more devastating disasters every year, with mounting costs and lasting trauma for our communities and ecosystems. The cost of inaction is much higher than acting decisively and urgently now.

While this announcement may not be entirely surprising, it is deeply alarming and will have profound consequences for our lives. As the federal government continues to pursue the path of denial, state, regional, and local entities—all of us—must step up in our commitment to climate action and ensure our democratic frameworks and processes can withstand these attacks. 

Moments like this can spark outrage, but they must also accelerate our willingness to fight back! 

Advocacy and policy work don’t happen in a vacuum; they live in relationships. Over the years, Greenbelt Alliance has built lasting connections with communities throughout the region, including the people most affected by climate-related hazards, the lack of affordable housing, the neighborhoods and residents who face the greatest risks from unchecked development, environmental degradation, and the steady erasure of open space. 

We have worked in coalition with organizations representing farmworkers, communities of color, low-income renters, and others whose voices have too often been excluded from the table where land use decisions are made. These partnerships are not peripheral to our mission. And all of our voices are critical to shape our future. The strong civic fabric that our work knits together helps build not just a physical resilience to a changing climate but also the social resilience we need to fight back against injustice

We have learned that policy victories are fragile without the community roots to defend them. Laws get enforced when people are organized enough to demand it. Protections hold when those they protect have both a seat at the table and the relationships to sustain pressure over time. And when democratic institutions themselves come under threat—as we are witnessing today, in attacks on immigrant communities, on federal agencies, on the independence of the courts—it is those same community bonds that allow people to resist, to shelter one another, and to keep going.

We see this in communities across the country living under the shadow of federal overreach and immigration enforcement that has sown fear and fractured civic trust. When people are afraid to show up, to speak out, or to engage with public processes, democracy doesn’t just weaken—it can be eliminated, along with the accountability for actions that harm people and nature.

Greenbelt Alliance stands with all communities whose ability to participate freely in civic life is under threat, because their freedom to engage is bound up inseparably with our own.

The post Acting for Change on Shifting Ground appeared first on Greenbelt Alliance.

Data centers, electrification, and manufacturing facilities are driving a surge in US electricity demand. Following years of only needing to maintain electricity levels, utilities and regulators now need to find an additional 270 GW of power in the next decade. This is due to an expected increase of 150 GW of national peak demand and an estimated retiring of 120 GW of existing power generation.

Thankfully, there are cost-effective solutions that can be deployed quickly to strengthen the grid and make up 95 percent of the difference. Below we list five solutions with the percentage of demand each can reduce.

Energy efficiency: The fastest, lowest-cost resource (20 percent)

Improving energy efficiency helps make the most of every electron, reducing costs while also improving comfort and resilience in homes and other buildings. Creating energy efficiency programs for new loads and expanding existing programs aligned with system needs can unlock over 50 GW of electricity for the grid.

Energy efficiency has traditionally meant replacing older technologies or appliances with newer versions that perform better with the same amount of energy or less. Looking at energy efficiency from a systems perspective, not just a product-focused approach, it becomes evident that many efficiency opportunities are interconnected across the buildings, transportation, and industry sectors, creating multilayered opportunities for greater efficiency and cost savings.

Virtual power plants: Fast, flexible capacity without new infrastructure (22 percent)

Virtual power plant (VPP) programs coordinate distributed energy resources like smart thermostats, home batteries, and electric vehicles to provide grid services. By 2030, 60 GW of VPPs could be deployed.

VPPs are unique in their flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and speed — programs can be created and launched in under six months. VPPs can allow utilities to more efficiently use existing, underutilized grid infrastructure, which often results in a lower cost capacity for incremental demand. They are also highly modular and can be scaled up or down on short notice, making them a useful solution for managing the risk associated with uncertain demand forecasts — meaning no stranded assets.

Advanced transmission technologies: An efficiency upgrade for the grid (30 percent)

Advanced transmission technologies (ATTs), including grid enhancing technologies (GETs) and advanced conductors, are essentially an efficiency upgrade for the grid: they can help existing infrastructure transport more electricity, which relieves congestion, lowers customer costs, and improves reliability.

GETs and advanced conductors can unlock over 80 GW of incremental peak capacity by reducing transmission and interconnection constraints. ATTs are also less expensive than new transmission and can be installed in a shorter time than it takes to site, permit, and build new lines. Modernizing the grid with ATTs can help quickly get more out of the existing grid, but ATT uptake has been slow despite successful small-scale deployments in the United States.

Clean repowering: Using existing grid connections to get clean energy on the grid faster and cheaper (5 percent)

Clean repowering is an elegant and efficient solution that builds new clean energy resources where grid connections already exist to circumvent the lengthy interconnection queues that have emerged as the primary barrier to launching new energy resources. It can take up to 15 years or more to plan, permit, and build transmission lines in the United States, leaving energy projects languishing in limbo as they wait to connect to the grid.

Although some planned retirements have been delayed, the US Energy Information Administration predicts that coal generating capacity will decline by 13 GW over the next two years.

Building new renewable energy and storage where fossil generation is retiring or alongside exiting fossil plants could speed up the deployment of energy resources while reducing system costs because we don’t have to build as much new infrastructure.

Power Couples: Powering new large loads without straining the grid (19 percent)

Powering new large electricity loads with wind, solar, and battery systems built near existing, underutilized generators with approved interconnections — a strategy we call “Power Couples” — can deploy the energy needed for data centers and other consumers without putting additional strain on the grid or raising prices for other ratepayers.

These new clean energy resources are sized to meet the demand of the new load and can send surplus energy to the grid.

As of 2025, there are more than 30 GW of opportunity to deploy Power Couples under $100 per megawatt-hour (MWh), and over 50 GW of opportunity under $200/MWh.

Power couple co-located at site of existing natural gas generator

We can meet demand growth with solutions available now

Proven solutions exist to provide utilities and regulators with options to support economic growth in the near term without risking massive investments in infrastructure that could be stranded if the data center, manufacturing, and electrification booms don’t pan out as expected.

These existing technologies can be quickly implemented to get the most out of our energy infrastructure, strengthen our existing grid, and prepare the system for the deployment of future energy generation resources.

 

The post Fast, Efficient Solutions to Meet Electricity Demand Growth appeared first on RMI.