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Vizsla Silver (TSX, NYSE: VZLA) said it remains determined to develop the Panuco silver-gold project in Mexico’s strife-torn Sinaloa state after an armed group kidnapped 10 company workers, killing at least five of them.

Five of the kidnapped employees remain unaccounted for, almost three weeks after their abduction, Vancouver-based Vizsla said Thursday in a statement. Authorities in Sinaloa said this week they had found 10 bodies in a clandestine grave, though the Mexican attorney general’s office said it had only identified five of them, local media reported.

“This is an incredibly painful time for the families of our colleagues, for our team and for the community of Concordia,” CEO Michael Konnert said in Thursday’s statement.

Mexico makes arrests after Canadian miner’s workers found dead

“We are taking the steps necessary to navigate this period responsibly,” he added. “We will continue to support the affected families and our team, remain fully engaged with the relevant authorities, and ensure safety continues to guide all decisions. At the same time, we remain committed to safeguarding the long-term value and strength of Vizsla Silver to benefit all stakeholders and the community of Concordia.”

Remote engineering

The workers were abducted Jan. 23 by members of a criminal group as they were traveling from the camp where they lived in the city of Concordia to their work at the mine, about 15 km away, Mexican media reported last weekend. The victims included engineers and technical personnel working for Vizsla, El Financiero said.

Vizsla shares fell 0.6% to C$5.21 Thursday morning in Toronto, giving the miner a market value of about $1.75 billion ($1.3 billion). The stock has lost about 44% of its value since Jan. 28, the last trading day before the company disclosed the kidnappings.

Vancouver-based Vizsla said work on Panuco is continuing even as site operations remain suspended. Much of the project’s near-term advancement is engineering-based and can be conducted remotely.

Vizsla “remains committed to responsibly developing the Panuco district over the long term and maintaining its investment in the community of Concordia,” it stressed.

Armed conflict

For months now, Sinaloa has been caught up in an armed conflict between rival factions of the namesake drug cartel. This has led to a surge in homicides.

Mexico’s government sent more than 1,000 troops to Sinaloa to try to locate the missing miners, Reuters reported this week. The deployment included elite marines.

“The magnitude and breadth of the government’s response are aimed at protecting lives, as well as upholding the country’s reputation and the viability of the mining industry in Sinaloa, and, in our view, serves as a deterrent to recurrence,” National Bank Financial mining analyst Don DeMarco said in a note Tuesday. He predicted that the heavy military, surveillance and police presence would continue “indefinitely.”

Security review

Besides cooperating with Mexican authorities as their investigation and search continues, Vizsla said it’s “thoroughly reviewing” the circumstances surrounding recent tragic events.

Vizsla said it operates in compliance with applicable Mexican and Canadian laws while maintaining a “zero-tolerance approach” toward bribery, corruption, extortion and any form of unlawful or unethical conduct.

Employee and contractor safety and security remain a top priority, Vizsla also said. Since inception, the company says it has made significant investments in security and risk management, with active leadership oversight including regular site visits.

Key project

Panuco hosts the world’s largest undeveloped, high‑grade silver resource. It’s the cornerstone of Vizsla’s goal of reaching production of 50 million silver-equivalent oz. by 2035.

The company has been saying it wants production at Panuco to start in the second half of 2027. With permitting and project financing efforts advancing, it’s targeting a construction decision as soon as it has received the required approvals – probably in this year’s second half.

Vizsla sees 7-month payback for Panuco silver-gold project

Following the kidnappings, Vizsla will probably “take a step back to assess the security situation, better understand the motives, if possible, and work with the government to implement a security protocol to mitigate risk to all parties involved,” analyst DeMarco wrote.

DeMarco said he expects the mine’s startup to be pushed back until early 2030 “to allow time for a fulsome investigation, implementation of security and monitoring programs, a potentially extended hiring period and to allow volatility in Sinaloa to moderate.”

Higher costs

Panuco holds 12.8 million proven and probable tonnes grading 2.01 grams gold per tonne and 249 grams silver for contained metal of 829,000 oz. gold and 102.7 million oz. silver, according to a 2024 resource.

Vizsla is projecting a mine life of 9.4 years for Panuco. The operation is expected to produce 17.4 million silver-equivalent oz. a year over the life of the project at an all-in sustaining cost of $10.61 per silver-equivalent ounce. This includes more than 20 million silver-equivalent oz. annually during the underground mine’s first five years.

All-in sustaining costs could be as much as $5 per tonne higher because of increased security expenses, labour escalation and inflation, DeMarco said.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission should approve a framework that supports open, competitive participation, writes Coalition for Community Solar Access CEO Jeff Cramer.

States must stand up to Trump's reckless deregulation Meredith Connolly Thu, 02/12/2026 - 7:30 am

This article How 3 local BDS campaigns won the divestment of millions in Israeli bonds was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

On Nov. 19, 2025, members of Break the Bonds NC, a coalition of Palestine Solidarity organizations, spoke at a North Carolina Investment Authority board meeting to demand the state pension fund divest from all Israeli government bonds. Immediately after the meeting, the state treasurer’s office emailed a link of the pension’s holdings to Ari Rosenberg, a lead Break the Bonds NC organizer. The $6.7 million in Israeli bonds that had been there in June were no longer in the portfolio. 

Rosenberg was in disbelief that only five months since the campaign’s launch, the state had already completely divested. But after receiving another email from the treasury confirming that the state pension fund no longer held any Israeli bonds, her disbelief gave way to elation. “I cried really hard,” Rosenberg said. “And then I recorded a message to my comrades being like, ‘You won’t believe this.’” 

She wasn’t alone. A few weeks prior, organizers in Minnesota and Michigan received the same good news: that state investment bodies had divested from or declined to reinvest in Israeli bonds. In total, the three states dropped approximately $27 million in bonds. 

But Israeli bonds remain a contentious issue in many parts of the country, including New York City, where organizers are pressuring comptroller Mark Levine not to reinvest after former comptroller Brad Lander divested in 2023. Mayor Zohran Mamdani opposes reinvestment, setting the stage for a potential showdown.

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While the North Carolina campaign targeted sovereign debt bonds, which are issued directly by the Israeli government, organizers in New York, Michigan and Minnesota targeted another financial instrument, known as “Israel Bonds.” 

This investment vehicle originated in the aftermath of the 1948 Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe,” when Israel was founded on the rubble of ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages. During a time of economic insecurity, Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, conceived of a financial instrument designed specifically for American Jews to materially support Zionism. 

Militarized occupation and genocide are expensive: The Israeli Defense Forces have spent $60 billion on military operations since Oct. 7, 2023. To foot the bill, the Development Corporation for Israel, or DCI, a de facto wing of the state that brokers Israel Bond sales, sold more than $1 billion in bonds during the 30 days following Oct. 7. Sales totaled a record $5.7 billion by October 2025, and just last month, Palm Beach County purchased another $350 million in DCI Bonds, boosting its Israel Bonds portfolio to $1 billion. Additionally, between October 2023 and January 2025, the Israeli Ministry of Finance raised $19.4 billion for its war chest through sovereign debt bonds — the financial instrument that the North Carolina State Treasurer divested from.

Israel Bonds “offer a slush fund that insulates the Israeli military and government from the logical, legal and righteous nonviolent economic pressure that institutions can act on to abide by international law,” said Dani Noble, national campaigns manager of Jewish Voice for Peace, or JVP. 

Previous Coverage

New Jersey’s Break the Bonds campaign adds pressure on states to divest from Israel

The DCI website describes Israel Bonds as “an invaluable and strategic national resource, especially since bonds clients have proven time and again that when Israel is in the midst of a crisis, they do not walk away.” However, at least in some parts of the U.S., that seems to be changing.

Israeli bonds — both DCI and sovereign debt — have become a primary target for organizers seeking an end to local complicity in the Gaza genocide. According to Noble, there are at least 14 different divestment campaigns focused on Israeli bonds around the country, 13 of which started after Oct. 7, 2023. Public opinion is with them: An October 2025 IMEU Policy Project poll found that 76 percent of Democrats support a ban on purchasing Israel bonds.

While they differed in their organizing arena and the type of bonds targeted, the Michigan, Minnesota and North Carolina divestment campaigns shared some common features.

Finding the money

Before these campaigns launched publicly, divestment organizers developed research strategies that included public records requests and conversations with government officials. This research helped them hone in on specific targets.

Break the Bonds North Carolina — a coalition consisting of Muslims for Social Justice, Palestinian Youth Movement-North Carolina, Durham Educators for Abolition and Liberation, and two local chapters of JVP — formed in February 2024 on the heels of a series of municipal ceasefire resolution wins. Organizers initially conceived of municipal-level campaigns in order to maximize pressure on elected officials. But when they researched state investment laws, they learned that municipalities do not manage their own investments; instead, the State Treasurer manages them. Despite their eagerness to focus locally, Rosenberg said this research revealed they “had to do a statewide campaign, and so we switched to the state pension plan.” 

In Michigan, Matt Clark, a labor lawyer and longtime organizer in the Palestine solidarity movement, led the charge on researching Israeli bond holdings, starting in July 2024. He built rapport with a Michigan Treasury Department public relations liaison by presenting himself as a citizen curious about the state pension fund’s international bond holdings. “I didn’t say anything about why I wanted it; I didn’t say anything about Israel Bonds,” Clark said. “I just asked for any information on international bonds.” The treasury department offered to send the entire 90-page pension fund portfolio. Upon digging through it, Clark found Israel Bonds. 

The portfolio revealed that the pensions of 550,000 former and current state employees were invested in a $10 million DCI Bond, purchased November 2023 and expiring November 2025. Subsequent FOIA requests showed that the Michigan treasury had invested in Israel Bonds for 30 years. 

After receiving this information, Clark began talking with people across Michigan about a potential divestment campaign. He found it difficult to explain the abstruse nature of the Michigan retirement system and of Israel Bonds. “It’s hard to get people’s attention, especially when you’re trying to get your own head around it, but I knew that if I got into this it would become my life,” Clark said.

Eventually he connected with a group called Lansing for Palestine, based in Clark’s hometown. “I showed up to their meeting and didn’t know a single person,” Clark said. “I pitched them on an Israel Bonds campaign and was pleasantly surprised at how enthusiastic they were. And things really went from there. I was lucky enough to find people who were willing to also make this their life for a while.” 

Matt Clark speaks at the Michigan Investment Board quarterly meeting in Lansing, Michigan on Jan. 8, 2025. (Michigan Divest)

Michigan Divest launched in October 2024 with a clear one-year timeline and a simple demand for the Michigan treasury: not to reinvest in Israel Bonds when they expired in November 2025. “It was pretty ambitious; you have to be kind of half out of your mind to think that you can even do this,” Clark said.

While these state-level campaigns were forming, a behind-the-scenes national network of Israeli bonds divestment organizers had coalesced to deepen each other’s research capabilities and share strategy tips, facilitated by JVP, the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the Internationalist Law Center.

Matt Clark credits this network with helping Michigan organizers understand the different types of Israeli bonds, which was crucial to building a statewide strategy. “The technical knowledge about Israel Bonds was really essential,” Clark said. He learned that DCI Bonds are “illiquid,” meaning they are exceedingly difficult to trade before the bond’s maturity date — in this case, November 2025. Organizers knew they had a firm deadline to pile on the political pressure. 

Unlike the one-year campaign in Michigan, Minnesotans have been organizing for Israeli bonds divestment for almost two decades. Inspired by the launch of the BDS movement by Palestine civil society groups in 2005, an autonomous group of organizers in Minnesota got to work looking for a suitable target. Through public records requests, they found out that the Minnesota State Board of Investment, or SBI, which manages the state’s three largest public pension funds, held both types of Israeli bonds. A divestment campaign called Minnesota Break the Bonds launched in 2008. 

Building the base

For all three campaigns, signaling sweeping support for divestment was essential. Organizations in the Minnesota-Palestine solidarity ecosystem spent decades building a base of opposition to the state’s Israel holdings, including hosting teach-ins about the SBI.

Break the Bonds NC assembled a statewide coalition in just under one year. At events ranging from political rallies to farmer’s markets, they gathered 4,600 signatures for a petition to State Treasurer Bradford Briner demanding state divestment from Israeli government bonds. They also received 41 organizational endorsements, including from UE Local 150, a public service workers union representing thousands of pension holders. 

NC Break the Bonds delivers a petition to Treasurer Briner’s Chief of Staff Eric Naisbitt, demanding the Michigan state pension fund divest from Israeli bonds on Oct. 29, 2025. (Jon Warlick Media)

Labor played an important role in Michigan as well. Michigan Divest was endorsed by multiple local labor unions, including AFT 681 (Dearborn Federation of Teachers), AFT Local 2000 (Wayne County Community College Federation of Teachers), AFT Local 4751 (Lansing Community College Administrative Association) and UAW Local 6000 Region 1A Retirees Subchapter, which all represent state pensioners.

Clark also spoke about Israel Bonds at a Metro Detroit DSA meeting, where he collected signatures for a petition calling on the Michigan treasury to allow the DCI Bonds to mature without reinvesting. Michigan Divest flyered at multiple No Kings rallies across the state in October and collected signatures at a 2025 Pride event in Ferndale. Overwhelmingly, the campaign received positive responses from the public. 

“We felt like we really tapped into something, because people are watching this horrible thing happen on their cell phones and wondering, ‘What the hell can I even do?’” Clark said. “I feel like we were able to answer that question.” 

Inside-outside strategies take shape

All three campaigns pursued some combination of an inside-outside strategy. Michigan Divest emphasized “building a warm working relationship with key decision makers,” said campaign organizer Anna Martinez-Hume. The organizers’ warmth paid off, she said, and “they wanted to meet with us again and again. We had a laundry list of key questions, and worked with our coalition in strategizing meetings about what information we wanted to know.” Through these meetings, Michigan Divest learned that the chief investment officer, Jon Braeutigam, is solely responsible for managing assets that represent 1 percent or less of the state pension portfolio and that Israel Bonds fell within those parameters. 

That information helped them understand which official they had to convince and guided their outside strategy toward public investment board meetings. “When we showed up to the first investment board meeting, there was not an empty seat in the room,” Clark said. In subsequent meetings, support for Israel Bonds divestment was so widespread that the board had to book a bigger room.

In Minnesota, organizers began by pursuing a lawsuit against the state, on the grounds that the investments funded war crimes and made Minnesota complicit in Israel’s violations of international law. When the lawsuit was thrown out based on lack of standing in November 2012, the group shifted its strategy to a full-blown public pressure campaign targeting the four elected officials helming the SBI: the governor, attorney general, secretary of state and state auditor. MN BDS Community, a statewide clearinghouse for BDS information, formed in 2015 and adopted Minnesota Break the Bonds as its first campaign. 

“We had state employees and pensioners testifying before the State Board of Investment for years,” said Bob Goonin, a MN BDS Community organizer. Speakers from American Muslims for Palestine, JVP, the MN Anti-War Committee and other groups made the same case the lawsuit had — that the investments made the SBI complicit in international law violations, genocide and apartheid. 

“Especially since we’ve seen starvation used as a weapon of war, teachers have been calling out to the state board saying they don’t want to see children starving in Gaza when they are teaching children here,” Goonin said. 

During one of the last fully in-person SBI meetings, Minnesotans hold up signs depicting Palestinian children killed by Israel and demand divestment. (Minnesota Free Palestine Coalition)

Others appealed to the SBI’s fiduciary responsibility, citing recent credit downgrades that make Israeli bonds a risky investment. “Groups across Minnesota came at this from different angles, but it was really a coordinated effort,” Goonin said. As Israel’s genocide in Gaza escalated over the past two years, more and more Minnesotans protested at SBI meetings.

The SBI reacted by moving its public meetings to a smaller space without live public comment in December 2024. During the March 2025 public meeting, dozens of state troopers guarded the building entrance and blocked parking lots. Goonin saw all of this as a sign that the pressure campaign was working.

Beyond public comment meetings, some organizers focused on meeting with legislators and SBI board members, while others organized actions outside of the governor’s mansion.

In June 2025, before Break the Bonds North Carolina publicly launched, three pension holders with the campaign met with the state treasurer to develop a relationship and express their concern about Israeli bonds. “The treasurer said he was unaware of Israeli bonds and asked for info on them,” Rosenberg said. After organizers sent him information, “he said that he didn’t find the bonds compelling from a risk reward perspective.” Immediately after that meeting, NC Break the Bonds launched its campaign publicly and in October, the treasurer fully divested.

Bonds broken

Despite the Minnesota SBI, the North Carolina treasurer’s office and Michigan treasury each claiming the divestment moves were purely financial, organizers in all three venues claim they are a clear response to public pressure. “The community’s opposition to the state board holding these Israel bonds was a primary driver in their decision,” Minnesota organizer Bob Goonin said.

In Michigan, victory came in November when the chief investment officer decided not to reinvest in the $10 million Israel Bonds after they expired. Public records requests by Michigan Divest revealed that DCI’s national managing director, Larry Berman, had repeatedly emailed the treasury, pleading with the state to reinvest and even offering rates higher than those publicly available. 

“When I saw [the emails], my hair stood up, it was so creepy,” Clark said. “I felt like we saw a shark fin breaching the surface for just a minute. … We know that they’re paying attention. They realize we’re a threat.” The divestment movement in Michigan was threatening enough to break the 30-year financial relationship between Michigan and the state of Israel.

The win in North Carolina was equally significant, considering that the treasurer actively decided to sell the sovereign debt bonds. “I think it shows that these pressure campaigns work,” Rosenberg said. “Investing in Israel is just a bad investment for all the reasons. It’s a bad financial and a bad moral investment.” Rosenberg also believes that the consecutive wins across state lines suggest that state pension managers are communicating with each other. 

Making that financial argument was also critical in Minnesota, where organizer Karen Schraufnagel believes the most important factor was appealing to the SBI’s fiduciary responsibility. In October, public records received by the MN BDS Community showed that the SBI had sold or let expire all but $470,000 in Israeli bonds — from a peak of $13.3 million — at a loss of $830,000. 

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Rosenberg acknowledged that these state divestment wins are “a blip” in comparison to the multi-billion Israeli bonds portfolio,“but every penny matters in this divestment strategy.”

“We recognize it’s really just a little bit of good news, but we needed it,” she added. “You really have to say this is a victory,” Schraufnagel concurred. “But it’s hard to feel enthusiastic when your feed is full of starving children. We have to say good work and go on to the next thing. Five minute celebration and then back to work.”

Across the United States, there are at least 11 other active Israeli bonds divestment campaigns, focusing on a range of institutions. Some campaigns are just launching publicly, such as in Maryland; others have been simmering for years, such as in New York state. “In the wake of the recent victories, we’re seeing unprecedented breakthroughs and possibilities in a variety of communities, from Miami-Dade County, Florida to Indiana, to New York City,” said Dani Noble, the JVP national organizer.

The three victorious campaigns are currently planning the next stage of their divestment strategy. The Michigan Divest coalition is scouring other institutions invested in Israel Bonds, while Minnesota and North Carolina are focused on their state pension funds’ investments in weapons manufacturers and other companies targeted by the BDS Movement for complicity in apartheid and genocide. Regardless of where it turns next, it is clear that the divestment movement is building momentum across the U.S. 

This article How 3 local BDS campaigns won the divestment of millions in Israeli bonds was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

It’s unclear if the U.S. Department of Energy will help fund a set of 345-kV projects in the Great Plains region, leaving Ameren Missouri in doubt about potential interconnection costs for its project.

PHILADELPHIA, PA (February 12, 2026) – Today, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the repeal of the Endangerment Finding and greenhouse gas standards for vehicles. This 2009 finding solidified that greenhouse gases endanger human health and safety by worsening climate change. The finding, based on decades of scientific consensus, is a ruling that has been the basis for the U.S. federal government’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. By repealing the Endangerment Finding and greenhouse gas standards for vehicles, the Trump administration is acting on its climate chaos agenda and undercutting EPA’s ability to protect health and the environment. 

Lawrence Hafetz, Clean Air Council’s Legal Director, issued the following statement:

“The Endangerment Finding has been the backbone of climate policy for 17 years, protecting us from air pollution that endangers public health and welfare — including greenhouse gases that are driving climate change. By repealing the finding, we are sweeping the single deadliest type of pollution, climate pollution, under the rug. Deadly floods, droughts, wildfires, and hurricanes are harming our health, our communities, and our economy. This climate chaos plan is decimating the EPA’s ability to act when we need protections more than ever.”

There has been a “significant change in the regulatory outlook, particularly for coal, and that creates both the opportunity and the need for us to revisit these decisions,” said TVA CFO Tom Rice.

In an increasingly unstable world of “strong arms and trade wars”, climate action is the “not-so-secret weapon” that can deliver security, the UN climate chief said in his first speech of the year.

Speaking in Istanbul alongside Turkiye’s COP31 president on Thursday, Simon Stiell warned that, while security is on most leaders’ lips at the moment, “many cling to a definition that is dangerously narrow”.

“For any leader who is serious about security, climate action is mission critical, as climate impacts wreak havoc on every population and economy,” he added. “Climate cooperation is an antidote to the chaos and coercion of this moment, and clean energy is the obvious solution to spiralling fossil fuel costs, both human and economic.”

Stiell’s remarks aim to reframe the global security debate at a time when climate change has slipped down the global political agenda.

Climate dropping down priority list

In much of the Western world, governments’ attention has shifted towards geopolitical tensions and spending redirected towards defence build-up following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and, more recently, US President Donald Trump’s military action in Venezuela and renewed pursuit of Greenland.

Climate change has also fallen sharply in public risk perception among advanced economies, according to the Munich Security Conference’s annual survey on national threats, released ahead of the annual gathering of leaders – including those of most European nations – which starts on Friday.

In 2021, respondents in the G7 industrialised nations ranked climate change as the top risk facing their countries. This year, it has slipped to sixth place, overtaken by worries about cyberattacks, financial crises and disinformation.

By contrast, climate-related threats continue to dominate risk perceptions in major emerging economies. In China, India, Brazil and South Africa, respondents consistently rank climate change, extreme weather and forest fires among the most serious dangers facing their countries, the survey found.

“Antidote to the chaos”

The shift in sentiment comes as global temperatures are on course to breach the 1.5C warming threshold widely regarded as a critical guardrail. Scientists warn surpassing that limit would significantly increase the likelihood of more frequent and severe climate impacts worldwide, from droughts to floods and storms.

“Growing greenhouse gas pollution means escalating climate extremes fuelling famine, displacement and war,” said Stiell on Thursday, adding that “climate adaptation is the only path to securing billions of human lives, as climate impacts get rapidly worse”.

Clean energy, meanwhile, is the best way to protect energy supplies and communities from fossil fuels’ volatile costs, he added.

“The fact is renewables are the clearest, cheapest path to energy security and sovereignty – shielding countries and economies from shocks unleashed by wars, trade turmoil and the might-is-right politics that leave every nation poorer,” the UN climate chief said.

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

Ahead of the Munich Security Conference, energy analysts are warning that Europe should be wary of its reliance on US gas, which has become a growing energy source across the continent following restrictions on supplies from Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

Chris Aylett, research fellow at Chatham House’s Environment and Society Centre, said Trump’s pursuit of geopolitical energy dominance seeks to lock countries, including EU member states, into long-term oil and gas dependencies.

“During peace, this vulnerability to an unreliable – if not actively hostile – supplier would be a major constraint on Europe’s strategic autonomy,” he added. “During war it would be catastrophic”.

What role for climate diplomacy?

UN climate head Stiell met this week with officials from the Turkish and Australian governments – co-hosts of this year’s COP31 summit in Antalya – as well as Brazil’s COP30 presidency to kick-start climate diplomacy efforts for the year ahead.

The ability of UN climate negotiations to keep up with the urgency of the climate crisis is coming under increasing question. The deepening divisions seen in Belém last November have stalled meaningful progress on key issues such as the transition away from fossil fuels and climate finance.

• Jan 27, 2026 News COP30 chief calls for two-tier climate system to speed up action beyond consensus COP30 president André Corrêa do Lago argued in a new letter to countries that the Belém conference “shed light” on climate diplomacy’s limitations Read more
• Feb 9, 2026 News Vanuatu pushes new UN resolution demanding full climate compensation The Pacific island nation wants the UN General Assembly to enforce last year’s landmark court decision on states’ climate responsibility, a first draft shows Read more

In his speech, Stiell acknowledged that climate cooperation is “under unprecedented threat” from those determined to use their power to increase dependency on polluting coal, oil and gas.

But climate action needs to enter a new “era of implementation” with the UN process moving closer to the real economy and countries deepening cooperation with businesses, investors and regional leaders, he added. Stiell noted he has convened experts to advise on this, and will say more about it in the months ahead.

Stiell’s remarks on the evolving UN climate regime echo the words of COP30 president André Aranha Corrêa do Lago. In a letter last month, he said climate multilateralism needs to “mature” and called for a shift to a two-speed system, where new coalitions lead fast, practical action alongside the slower, consensus-based decision-making of the annual COP climate summits.

The post Climate action is “weapon” for security in unstable world, UN climate chief says appeared first on Climate Home News.

Australian iron ore producer Fortescue (ASX: FMG) has commissioned two battery electric locomotives in Western Australia’s Pilbara, marking a key step in its plan to achieve real zero emissions across its iron ore operations by 2030.

The locomotives, delivered by US-based Progress Rail, a subsidiary of Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), are the first of their kind globally and form part of a $6.2 billion push by the Andrew Forrest-chaired company to fully decarbonize its Pilbara operations, which it says are the most comprehensive in the global mining sector.

Speaking in Port Hedland on Thursday, Fortescue Metals and Operations CEO Dino Otranto said rail remains one of the hardest sectors to decarbonize.

“We push 40,000 tonnes up 400 metres, 300 or 400 kilometres away, multiple times a day,” he said. “The forces and energy that’s behind that have been worked on for more than 200 years in the combustion two-stroke engine that has historically powered all of our fleet, but today, this is a turning point.”

Each locomotive houses a 14.5 megawatt-hour battery, the largest fitted to a land-mobile application, and can recover 40% to 60% of energy through regenerative braking. Together, they will eliminate about one million litres of diesel a year and operate on renewable electricity supplied through Fortescue’s Pilbara Energy Connect program.

Fortescue operates a fleet of 70 locomotives and will now test the first two units before transitioning the remainder over the next few years.

Full electrons ahead

The rail rollout sits within a broader electrification push across Fortescue’s 760-kilometre Pilbara network, which links five mines to its port and towage infrastructure in Port Hedland. The company expects to produce 195 million to 205 million tonnes of iron ore in the 12 months to June 30, 2026.

Otranto said 2026 would be a year of delivery for several major renewable energy projects. At North Star Junction, which supplies the Iron Bridge magnetite mine, Fortescue operates a 100 megawatt solar farm supported by a 250 megawatt-hour battery energy storage system capable of delivering up to 50 megawatts for five hours.

Construction of the 190 megawatt Cloudbreak solar farm is about two-thirds complete. The company has secured primary approvals for the proposed 644 megawatt Turner River solar farm, with construction expected to start later this year, and expects a decision on the 440 megawatt Solomon solar project within days.

Fortescue is installing about 3,600 solar panels a day and is deploying automation technology to increase that rate, Otranto said.

The company has begun building its first Pilbara wind project at Nullagine and recently acquired Nabrawind to support future wind developments. Across its operations, Fortescue now runs one electric drill and 12 electric excavators and has started taking deliveries of electric wheel dozers and trucks.

While the shift requires significant capital, Otranto said every investment must meet strict financial hurdles.

“We are not doing this out of charity. We need these machines to be economic. We want them to compete on the open market against the old technology,” he said, adding that the Pilbara’s climate offers strong renewable energy potential.

Beyond decarbonizing its mining operations, Fortescue aims to produce its first green iron by the end of June. The company is building a plant at Christmas Creek and expects first metal this financial year.

“For us, that’s the next chapter of growth in the Pilbara,” Otranto said.

Following widespread reports that the oil and gas industry has been lobbying Congress for a liability waiver that could give fossil fuel companies complete legal immunity, a U.S. House Representative said yesterday that she is working to “craft legislation” aimed at “tackling” climate lawsuits and climate superfund bills that seek to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for their role in the climate crisis.

“Multiple climate lawsuits are now advancing toward trial,” U.S. Rep Harriet Hageman (R-WY) said to Attorney General Pam Bondi during a hearing yesterday. “Clearly this is an area in which Congress has a role to play. To that end, I am working with my colleagues in both the House and Senate to craft legislation tackling both these state laws and the lawsuits.”

In January, the American Petroleum Institute announced that killing state climate lawsuits is a top 2026 priority for the oil lobby. Last year, 16 Republican attorneys general proposed creating a “liability shield” for fossil fuel companies modeled on a 2005 law protecting gun manufacturers from lawsuits. Lawmakers in Utah and Oklahoma have also introduced state-level immunity bills for the fossil fuel industry. Nearly 200 groups have urged Democratic leaders in the House and Senate to oppose these efforts.

Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, released the following statement:

“As communities across the U.S. move closer to putting Big Oil companies on trial to make them pay for the damage their climate lies have caused, the fossil fuel industry is panicking and pleading with Congress for a get-out-of-jail-free card.

“Let’s be clear: you don’t need immunity unless you are in fact responsible for the damages claimed in these lawsuits. A liability shield for Big Oil would bar the courthouse doors for communities across the country and stick U.S. taxpayers with the massive and growing bill for climate damages, while bailing out corporate polluters from having to pay for the mess they made.

“It’s time for leaders in Congress to speak out and make clear that Big Oil is not above the law.”

Background on U.S. Climate Accountability Lawsuits Against Big Oil

Eleven U.S. states — California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai`i, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont — and the District of Columbia, along with dozens of city, county, and tribal governments in California, Colorado, Hawai`i, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Puerto Rico, have active lawsuits to hold major oil and gas companies accountable for deceiving the public about their products’ role in climate change. These cases collectively represent more than 1 in 4 people living in the United States.

A growing number of cases — including those brought by Boulder, Colorado, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, the District of Columbia, and the states of Massachusetts, Vermont, Minnesota and Connecticut — are advancing toward discovery and trial after courts denied the oil companies’ motions to dismiss them.

Contact: Kayla Ritchie, kayla@unbendablemedia.com (CJA) / Ashley Sullivan, ashley.sullivan@weact.org, (917) 837-1183 (WE ACT/EJLF) / Isella Ramirez, info@movingforwardnetwork.com, (323) 854-1857 / (MFN) / Prerna Sampat, press@ceed.org (CEED/Platform for a Just Climate) / Stephanie Herron, sherron@comingcleaninc.org, 802-251-0203 ext.707 (EJHA)

Coalition of environmental justice networks representing millions of frontline and fenceline communities demand justice: Revoking the Endangerment Finding and vehicle standards is unacceptable and we will keep fighting for our rights.

NATIONWIDE – Today, the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its final decision to revoke the Endangerment Finding and vehicle emissions regulations. In response, the coalition made up of, the Moving Forward Network (MFN), Climate Justice Alliance (CJA), Platform for a Just Climate (formerly referred to as the Equitable & Just National Climate Platform), Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA), and the Environmental Justice Leadership Forum (EJLF) shares that the injustice shown through this decision only strengthens our resolve to hold the EPA accountable to its mission to protect human health and the environment, while continuing to fight to protect the communities we represent across the U.S.

Last September, the coalition submitted written comments to the proposed repeal- signed by 100 organizations and individuals, alongside a powerful collection of testimonies that capture the real-world impacts of climate and transportation pollution, and frontline and fenceline communities’ need for robust environmental and health protections. As the coalition underscored, the EPA must be held accountable for violating its mission, by prioritizing the corporate polluter agenda while putting millions of lives at risk. This administration must answer for its betrayal of the public, especially environmental justice communities, who continue to be put in the greatest danger. With this decision on the heels of the EPA’s  55th anniversary, the coalition furthers our call on the Agency to renew its commitment to environmental justice, restore essential funding, and ensure protections for current and future generations.

“The Endangerment Finding ensures that the EPA can do its job to protect our health and well-being by curbing pollution. By revoking this, the administration continues to show that their priorities are grounded in sacrificing our health, endangering communities and commodifying the Earth for more corporate extraction and profits, at the expense of our future.” -Mar Zepeda Salazar, Legislative Director, Climate Justice Alliance

“One year ago, Trump rolled into office with a barrage of executive orders tearing down environmental protections and making corporate polluters’ toxic wishlist into his top priority. Now, Trump’s EPA is rolling back a critical scientific determination, the endangerment finding, opening the door to more pollution, more asthma attacks, more heat‑related illnesses, and more fires and storms fueled by climate change in our communities. But here is what this Administration needs to know: we’re still here, we’re still united, and we are still resisting these attacks on environmental justice communities. We refuse to accept a future where our communities are turned into sacrifice zones so corporate polluters can profit.” -Byron Gudiel, Executive Director, Center for Earth Energy & Democracy (CEED), convener of the Platform for a Just Climate.

“The EPA’s repeal of the Endangerment Finding is a harmful step backward for communities that have shouldered the greatest pollution burdens for generations. Environmental justice communities remain on the frontlines of air and climate hazards, and this rollback threatens to deepen those inequities. The EPA’s mission is to protect human health and the environment, and that responsibility must be fulfilled equitably across all communities. We will continue to speak out and organize for a safe, just, and healthy future where our communities can truly thrive.” -Denise Patel, Director of Organizing, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, Environmental Justice Leadership Forum 

“The revoking of the Endangerment Finding and the vehicle standards puts American lives at risk. We will continue to uplift the EPA’s mission to protect human health and the environment. We continue to be committed to fighting for clean air and a healthy environment. Justice is in the air.” -Isella Ramirez, Moving Forward Network

“EPA has the authority and moral obligation to do more, not less, to reduce the harms from toxic air pollution and climate change, both of which are disproportionately concentrated in poor and primarily of color neighborhoods. Instead of protecting public health, protecting the environment and creating a 21st century economy based on innovation and collective care instead of extraction and sacrifice zones, this administration wants to take us back to a time before the EPA existed– when rivers caught on fire, children were poisoned by lead, smog choked communities, and average life expectancy in the U.S. was about five years shorter. Communities like the ones that make up EJHA who are poisoned by industrial and vehicle pollution are sick and tired of sacrificing our families’ health for the profits of corporate polluters”. -Stephanie Herron, Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA)

Additional Background:

The comments shared by this coalition provide a specific rationale for opposing the EPA’s flawed decision rescind its 2009 Endangerment Finding and GHG Vehicle Standards. This includes that:

1. This decision denies the lived experience, backed by science, of the effects of pollution on public health, the environment, and the climate. 
2. This decision does not consider the targeted and harmful effects that this “historic deregulation” effort will have on workers. 
3. This decision is based on flawed science. 
4. This decision is unlawful. 
5. This decision does not consider the benefits of climate and environmental protection.

The EPA was built 55 years ago in response to the organizing and advocacy efforts from communities across the country as a call to protect human health and the environment, and serves several critical functions, including developing and enforcing regulations, providing grants, and studying environmental impacts. Since the beginning of the second Trump administration, we have witnessed dozens of unprecedented EPA rollbacks of hard-fought, peer-reviewed, research-based, and life-saving regulations, as well as the termination of millions of dollars in critical grants. For these reasons, the coalition demands that the EPA be held accountable for its deadly decision to rescind the Endangerment Finding and vehicle emissions standards.

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The post As EPA Revokes Endangerment Finding, EJ Orgs Continue to Fight to Protect Communities from Climate Chaos & Hold EPA Accountable appeared first on Climate Justice Alliance.

In China, the rapid buildout of wind and solar power is pushing coal into decline. China is now upgrading its vast fleet of coal plants to serve as a complement to wind and solar, rather than as a source of baseload power. Analysts say the country is on track to retrofit almost every coal plant by the end of next year.

Read more on E360 →

Donald Trump has overseen more retirements of coal-fired power stations than any other US president, according to Carbon Brief analysis.

His administration’s latest efforts to roll back US climate policy have been presented by interior secretary Doug Burgum as an opportunity to revive “clean, beautiful, American coal”.

The administration is in the process of attempting to repeal the 2009 “endangerment” finding, which is the legal underpinning of many federal climate regulations.

On 11 February, the White House issued an executive order on “America’s beautiful clean coal power generation fleet”, calling for government contracts and subsidies to keep plants open.

On the same day, Trump was presented with a trophy by coal-mining executives declaring him to be the “undisputed champion of beautiful clean coal”.

These words are in sharp contrast to Trump’s record in office, with more coal-fired power plants having retired under his leadership than any other president, as shown in the figure below.

This is because coal plants have been uneconomic to operate compared with cheaper gas and renewables – and because most of the US coal fleet is extremely old.

Capacity of coal-fired power plants retiring under recent US presidents, gigawatts (GW). Source: Carbon Brief analysis of data from Global Energy Monitor.

In total, some 57 gigawatts (GW) of coal capacity has already been retired during Trump’s first and second terms in office, compared with 48GW under Obama’s two full terms and 41GW under Biden’s single term.

Even in relative terms, the US has lost a larger proportion of its remaining coal fleet for each year of Trump’s presidencies than for either of his recent predecessors.

Trump’s record hints at the many practical and economic factors that have driven US coal closures, regardless of the preferences of the president of the day.

Indeed, Trump made variousefforts to prop up coal power during his first term in office. These were ultimatelyunsuccessful, as the figure below illustrates.

Coal-fired power capacity in the US, GW. Source: Global Energy Monitor.

Coal plants have been retiring in large numbers over the past 20 years because they were uneconomic relative to cheaper sources of electricity, including renewables and gas.

These unfavourable market conditions, alongside air pollution regulations unrelated to climate change, have resulted in a steady parade of coal closures under successive presidents.

By 2024, wind and solar were generating more electricity in the US than coal.

More recently, analysis from the US Energy Information Administration shows that surging power prices have improved the economics of both coal and gas-fired power plants.

These rising prices have been driven by increasing demand, including from data centres, and by higher gas prices, due to increasing exports at liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals.

These factors saw coal-power output increase by 13% year-on-year in 2025, only the second rise in a decade of steady decline for the fuel, according to the Rhodium Group.

Nevertheless, many utilities have still been looking to shutter their ageing coal-fired power plants.

The vast majority of US coal plants are nearing retirement. Three-quarters of US coal capacity is more than four decades old and only 14% is less than 20 years old, as shown in the figure below.

Capacity of US coal plants by age group, GW. Source: Global Energy Monitor.

In response, the Trump administration has recently invoked legislation designed for wartime emergencies to force a number of uneconomic coal plants to remain open.

Despite Trump’s efforts, clean energy made up 96% of the new electricity generation capacity added to the US grid in 2025. None of the new capacity came from coal power.

Analysis: Coal power drops in China and India for first time in 52 years after clean-energy records

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The aviation industry, which is responsible for 2.5% of global carbon dioxide emissions, according to the International Energy Agency. Zero carbon fuels for airplanes are an important part of decarbonizing flying. And while many are looking to making sustainable aviation fuels from biomass, it remains expensive and often competes with agriculture.

But now, researchers in Korea have come up with a way to convert landfill gases into liquid aviation fuels. Their integrated process is based on a special hybrid cobalt catalyst that they reported in the journal Fuel.

To take the research out of the lab, they built a pilot plant that can produce 100 kg of SAF a day, according to a press release.

Companies make SAF today mainly from used cooking oil and waste animal fats. These resources are limited. The team at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) instead turned to landfill gas, the methane-rich gases produced when bacteria consume organic waste in landfills and animal manure pits. It offers a cheaper, more abundant feedstock for making biofuels.

There is a well-known way to produce convert greenhouse gases into drop-in fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. Called Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS), the method relies on catalysts to convert syngas—a mix of carbon monoxide and hydrogen—into hydrocarbon molecules that are found in liquid fuels.

 

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The synthesis process is energy-intensive because it requires high-temperature heat. Low-temperature FTS over cobalt-based catalysts produces a higher share of waxy hydrocarbons as opposed to liquids.

So the researchers developed a hybrid catalyst by combining cobalt with zeolite, common aluminum-and-silica minerals that have a porous structure. They fine-tuned the structure of the catalyst particles at the microscopic level so that the cobalt and zirconia atoms are close to each other. This boosted the production of liquid fuels over waxy products, increasing overall efficiency of the process. In tests, the catalyst selectively produced more than 79% liquid hydrocarbons in 900-hour runs.

For the reactor, the researchers came up with a microchannel design composed of alternating layers of catalyst and coolant channels. This allows the large amounts of heat generated during the chemical reaction to quickly be removed so that the catalyst is not destroyed. Because of the integrated design, the reactor has a smaller footprint compared to conventional systems.

Source: SeongWoo Jeong et al. Comprehensive study of cobalt-based hybrid catalysts for selective liquid fuel production via Fischer–Tropsch synthesis. Fuel, 2026.

Image: ©Anthropocene Magazine

 

Tempest: For those tracking the housing issue during the election campaign, there were at least two notable moments pre-election which presaged Mayor Mamdani’s emerging housing policy. A “technocratic pivot” to a stated openness to working with private, for-profit developers, and, as your article details, the late endorsement of three ballot measures that had been proposed by Mayor Adams’ charter revision commission and which were meant to fast-track the construction of “affordable” housing. In backing the ballot measures, Mamdani lined up with significant forces within the mainstream of the Democratic Party, including Andrew Cuomo and Governor Kathy Hochul, as well as private developers and real estate industry advocacy groups. How do you assess these developments? Why the evolution within the campaign, including the very last minute endorsement of the ultimately successful ballot measures?

Ben Rosenfield and Holden Taylor: First, it’s important to note that the framing of ballot proposals 2-4 necessarily narrowed and abstracted the processes, dynamics, and relationships underlying the crisis tenants in New York City have been facing for years. The framing of the proposals was such that a ‘yes’ vote meant making changes to the status quo, whereas a ‘no’ vote meant a continuation of the status quo. In the context of an ongoing crisis, it’s easy to see why many may have thought or felt that some change is better than no change.

The problem is that this isn’t the case, and the aim of proposals 2-4, namely to build more and build faster, does nothing to empower tenants or create actual affordable housing. On the contrary, the proposals will not only give more power to the Mayor (Mamdani and future Mayors), but also a gift to developers and real estate more generally. Increased production (and the fast-tracking of said production) does nothing in and of itself to address the current crisis; the logic that it does is based in supply/demand economics.

It’s not particularly surprising that Mamdani ultimately came out in favor of these proposals. First, the proposals will facilitate the implementation and realization of his campaign goals. His campaign platform, released on February 3rd, 2025, mentions “creating 200,000 new units over the next 10 years, fast-tracking affordable developments, and increasing zoned capacity.” His goals and the aim of these ballot measures are entirely consistent with one another.

Secondly, a no vote would have pitted Mamdani against not only developers and real estate, who unsurprisingly were deeply in favor of these measures, but also, crucially, the right-wing of the socialist tenant movement in New York City, which is the pole that is most in line with Mamdani’s politics. Whereas in the past the socialist tenant movement would have been less likely to support these proposals, there is a growing ‘yimby socialist’ whose power and influence has been increasing. While the politics and ideology of this pole are not entirely hegemonic in the movement, they have taken advantage of the relative weakness of the autonomous and more radical wing of the movement. Accordingly, Mamdani had the backing of a not insignificant portion (in size and influence) of the socialist tenant movement in supporting the ballot measures.

Tempest: One of the targets of your article is what you describe as YIMBYism (“yes in my back yard”). It argues for an imperative on building more and more housing and that “obstacles to construction are problems to be solved, removed, or overcome…the target is “red tape”—a catchall term for any policy or state mediation that prevents construction.” You describe YIMBYism being adopted wholesale by social democrats and the right-wing of DSA whose theory of change rests on its belief that effectively administering the bourgeois state at various levels via governing coalitions and pressure campaigns will gradually improve material conditions for a broad sector of working people, thereby winning working class favor, thereby making more significant reforms possible. In the specific context of NYC’s housing crisis what is wrong with this approach?

BR & HT: A comrade puts it simply: “The fundamental division in the housing debate is not whether you support or oppose higher density, but if you view the market as the solution to the housing crisis or as the cause of it.” We’ve showed how the “affordable housing” that gets built through the market a) is not affordable and b) does not bolster our class power, our working-class organizations, whatsoever. Socialism is the double movement of improving our conditions and our class power.

Tempest: You clearly, if depressingly, chart the lines of continuity between the emergent housing policy of Mamdani and his two predecessors as Mayor (Adam and DeBlasio). You specifically point to: zoning and charter changes that further entrench market frameworks and “solutions”; a continuity of personnel (for example, Leila Bozorg the executive director of housing in the Mayor’s office under Eric Adam will serve as Mamdani’s deputy mayor for housing and planning); and a policy focus on the production of housing stock for middle-income and higher income New Yorkers resulting in less production or rental stock for more vulnerable, lower income NYers. Is it still possible for Mamdani to chart a different path? What do you see as the best ways to fight for an alternative housing policy?

BR & HT: The possibilities for Mamdani to chart a different path largely, if not entirely, depend on the ability of the autonomous/radical wing of the socialist tenant movement to put forth a clear and compelling alternative to that of the status quo generally and the YIMBY socialists more specifically. In order to accomplish this, we will need to (continue to) organize and build power in the movement so that those both inside and outside of the socialist tenant movement will have to engage and contend more seriously with our politics, ideas, and strategies.

In the article we spend only one paragraph (out of so many!) discussing where Zohran may mark a break from the past. This brevity is in part because those breaks–which are concerned more with the city government’s relationship to working-class and community organizations and the ‘masses’ than the capital-intensive world of real estate development–are still very much taking form. But the brevity is also because this was a point on which we disagreed most thoroughly.

Ben, for example, is much more skeptical regarding the possibilities of Zohran’s Office to Protect Tenants and his Office of Mass Engagement as it relates to the development of working-class tenant self-activity and the construction of independent working-class organizations. For Ben, demobilization and cooptation are not merely possibilities the socialist tenant movement will face as it navigates its relationship with the Mamdani administration–they are likely outcomes if the movement is not intentional regarding its strategy and politics and how it builds power. The movement is still relatively weak and lacks developed organizations and infrastructures; while there is exciting and meaningful organizing happening on these fronts, this reality increases the temptation of hitching our wagon to the Mamdani administration in a way that will undercut the very important work the movement is doing. This is not to say that we should not engage with these projects, but rather are an attempt to emphasize the importance of independence and autonomy as we navigate the contradictory terrain moving forward.

Holden thinks there are novel opportunities ahead, and that these offices–and the administration more broadly–might offer strategic tools. For example, the Office of Mass Engagement contacted thousands of Pinnacle tenants and gathered hundreds of them onto one call with the Mayor. While this obviously doesn’t equate to militant self-activity, it did give Union of Pinnacle Tenant organizers the opportunity to bring in dozens of tenant leaders into the union. It is a tricky balance, navigating these opportunities while maintaining class independence but it is, in Holden’s estimation, what must be done. But! As we say in the piece, there is the monumental risk (to take Ben’s view), of these offices to function as social justice veneers to a fundamental project of market entrenchment.

In short, we (Ben and Holden) agree that the Mamdani administration will present opportunities, obstacles, and dangers for the socialist tenant movement. We disagree, perhaps, on what exactly the balance sheet looks like and to what extent we should engage with the administration and its projects. We will have more substance to concretely engage with and struggle over as we move forward.

In the article, we outline four planks of a prospective program that the socialist tenant movement can and should cohere around; an immediate eviction moratorium, the expansion of rent stabilization, tenant-led, democratic expropriation, and the preservation and expansion of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). Some of these will be more difficult to win than others, and some will be more palatable to both Mamdani and the right-wing of the socialist tenant movement.

Tempest: You argue that on the housing question, most socialists agree that our end goal should be decommodified, publicly-owned, democratically-controlled housing for all. Is this a goal that is shared by the Mamdani administration? In other words, is it an issue of strategic differences among socialists, i.e. how we get there,  or is there a different goal being prepared by Mamdani?

BR & HT: This is not the goal of the Mamdani administration. It may be what he personally desires, but, as we know, he and his administration will have to navigate the limitations and contradictions of the capitalist city and state. Mamdani will advocate for and support reforms, some of which will have the ability to meaningfully materially improve the conditions that tenants in New York City face.  That said, their goal is not to completely transform the state of housing and tenancy, and even if it were they are not in a position to be able to do so.

I think the majority of the socialist tenant movement (both the left and right poles) embrace this goal in theory. In practice, however, we argue that embracing yimbyism is simply incompatible with the realization of these goals.

Accordingly, it is our task as the left-wing of the socialist tenant movement to organize with the aim of building power and popularizing our strategies and politics such that they become hegemonic within the movement. The development of independent organizations committed to class struggle will be both the means and the end to carrying out this task.

It is our task to recenter and redefine what is possible for our movement and what our north star should be (decommodified, publicly-owned, democratically-controlled housing for all); to create a compelling, genuine alternative around which the movement rallies and coheres.

Tempest: Especially for those outside the day-to-day activism and organizing of the tenants’ movement, your article provides a much appreciated deep-dive into the political dynamics, tensions, and developments within this movement in NYC, including its different organizational forms and competing strategic outlooks. How would you draw a balance sheet to assess the impact of the Mamdani campaign and his election on this movement?

BR & HT: There’s a double movement; on one hand, there’s this tidal wave of the tenant-as-political-actor–which is something to channel and cultivate. On the other hand, we have nonprofit directors celebrating the moment as the horizon has been reached–on a recent coalition call, one director declared outright that “mass governance is here.” Sobriety is the remedy.

I think, if anything, within the left flank of the tenant movement there’s been a maturation, both in orientation and politics. Zohran’s election has raised the stakes for what we do. There are more eyes watching but also more people dedicating their energies to these efforts. There is, in this movement, more clarity in what matters and what doesn’t–and I think there is also trust among the different factions that our future is shared. Though there are political differences–as there is in any formation of any consequence–I think they are subordinated to a shared structural analysis, at least on the Left. How this Left asserts itself, both amid the broader housing movement coalitions as well as independent actors on their own, is incredibly consequential. Because of the right of the movement’s submission to the administration, there are crucial openings for political leadership by the Left, by the rooted and grounded. This right-wing, the non-profit coalition, will hesitate to critique or clash with Zohran, and will be nervous to be seen undermining his agenda. But there are issues that necessitate this; particularly, the questions of the Fulton & Elliott-Chelsea Houses (their demolition, conversion from Section 9 to Section 8) and, as we articulate in our article, pushing for an eviction moratorium until ICE leaves the city. These issues expose the contradictions of municipal socialism.

Opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editors or the Tempest Collective. For more information, see “About Tempest Collective.”
Featured Image credit: SnippyHolloW; modified by Tempest.

The post Mamdani, the market, and the NYC housing crisis appeared first on Tempest.

In the cavernous halls of the US State Department last week, something unusual was on display: earnest cooperation rather than the usual diplomatic theatre. The inaugural Critical Minerals Ministerial wasn’t about tariffs, trade tantrums, or chest-thumping press releases. It was, quite simply, a collective admission that the West is behind, China is ahead, and time is not on our side.

For the United States, the stakes are no longer academic. Critical minerals aren’t just inputs for batteries and wind turbines. They are strategic building blocks for modern defence, advanced manufacturing and economic independence. This is not a commodities story anymore. It’s a power story. And Washington gets it.

The Trump administration is backing ambitious measures, including a proposed $12-billion (C$16.3-billion) stockpile of essential raw materials – “Project Vault” – meant to shield US industry from shocks and reduce reliance on Beijing’s dominance. The Americans have discovered, rather late in the game, that you cannot build fighter jets, EVs, or the next industrial economy off of Chinese processing plants.

Closing the gap

The shift in tone at the Ministerial, from coercion to collaboration, reflects something deeper than diplomacy. It reflects anxiety. Because for all the tough talk of trade wars, the United States knows that to close the gap between the West and China it will take collaboration on a grand scale coupled with an internal build-up of Ameria’s own intellectual and physical capacity. 

One senior US official captured the moment perfectly: the goal now is to persuade America’s brightest young minds not to join the next Silicon Valley startup, but to enter mining and minerals engineering. It seems mining is back, not as nostalgia, but as necessity.

Trump launches $12B project Vault to cut China reliance

Of course, the question lingers: after a year of transactional American diplomacy, are allies skeptical? More than likely. But reality has a way of concentrating minds. China’s dominance – roughly 60% of mining and nearly 90% of processing in key sectors – is not something you diversify away from with a well-worded communiqué. Western nations know they cannot afford inaction, even if coordination occasionally requires holding one’s nose.

For Canada, the implications are profound.

Sleeping giant hitting snooze?

Canada is blessed with world-class deposits: gold, lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, copper, rare earths. These raw materials will determine who leads the next industrial era. Geologically, we are sitting at the grown-ups’ table. Strategically, we too often act like we’re still waiting in the lobby.

Because geology is not strategy. Reserves alone do not confer power. Processing and refining do. And that is where Western supply chains, Canada included, still lag badly.

Canada’s Critical Minerals Strategy, backed by nearly C$4 billion and coordination across 15 federal departments, aims to build resilient value chains from mine to midstream to manufacturing. Ottawa has also helped unlock 26 investments and partnerships worth billions under the G7’s Critical Minerals Production Alliance. Canada is looking better on paper. The question is whether we can be good in practice. And at speed.

Three initiatives matter most: the Critical Minerals Strategy and infrastructure funds meant to build domestic supply chains rather than exporting raw rock and importing finished product; the G7 Production Alliance investments mobilizing capital into graphite, rare earths and scandium; and emerging national funding mechanisms, including proposals for a Critical Minerals Sovereign Fund to back equity and offtake agreements. 

The policy wheels are turning, but Canada will not get where it needs to go on the back of good intentions and interdepartmental working groups. Too often, political leadership excels at saying the right things and then falls down on execution. Canada’s chronic weakness is not vision. It is velocity.

Sharp minds but who’s moving fast?

To Ottawa’s credit, there are now some serious economic minds closer to the centre of power. Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, brings senior experience from Goldman Sachs and Ontario Teachers’ pension fund. He’s earned strong marks from the resource sector so far.

Michael Sabia is the Clerk of the Privy Council, Canada’s highest-ranking civil servant, who manages the government’s agenda. Sabia is a rare figure whose credibility resonates as strongly in boardrooms as in ministries. He has been shaped by leadership roles at Bell Canada, Hydro-Québec and Quebec’s largest pension, CDPQ.

Both men understand the stakes. But the question remains: Do they have the willingness and the support to accelerate critical mineral development at the pace that this moment requires?

From the sidelines of the Ministerial, the scuttlebutt was that high-ranking US officials are talking about single-month permitting timelines for strategically important projects. Single-month. In Canada, we call that “the early stages of preliminary consultation.” Even if Washington’s timeline is aspirational, next to Canada’s glacial system it should be deeply uncomfortable. Permitting reform is not a bureaucratic detail. It is a strategic imperative.

Canada’s Arctic, long treated as a distant abstraction, is becoming a frontier of real geopolitical value. Like Greenland, its mineral wealth is suddenly coveted. And rightly so.

But sovereignty is not flag-planting. Sovereignty is capacity. To unlock the North, Canada needs infrastructure: ports, rail, grids, logistics, and the ability to assert presence. Canada’s current plans remain incremental where the moment demands boldness. We must ask ourselves: are we building what’s needed for resource security, or watching opportunities pass while others consolidate alliances and claims?

Closing the window

Canada has the geological assets, the intellectual capital, and the partnerships to lead in the era of critical minerals. Our strategies appear sound. Our intentions are sincere. But intention is not a supply chain.

In this competition of geopolitics and economics, hand-wringing will spell victory for our rivals and a dangerous loss for Canada. Canada must streamline permitting drastically, scale industrial infrastructure, and harness the full force of government, capital markets, and industry. The stakes – sovereignty, economic independence, and global influence – are too high to settle for anything less.

History does not reward countries that move slowly while the world scrambles for leverage. And right now, leverage is buried in the ground.

_____________________
Anthony Vaccaro is President of the TNM Group, which includes MINING.COM, The Northern Miner and Canadian Mining Journal.

Headline News:

• “Trump Orders Pentagon To Invest In ‘Beautiful, Clean’ Coal Power” • President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed to sustain the US coal industry through federal funding, directing the Pentagon to purchase electricity from coal plants. He recently directed the DOE to distribute $175 million to fund upgrades at six coal plants. [ABC News]

USS Texas, the last coal-burning US warship, converted to oil by 1926 (USN employee, public domain)

• “Scientists Sound Alarm As Multiple Climate Systems Near Critical Tipping Points” • Scientists say multiple critical Earth systems appear closer to destabilisation than previously believed. This is putting the planet in increased danger of following a “hothouse” path driven by feedback loops that can amplify the consequences of global warming. [Euronews]
• “China Coal Power Output Falls 1.9% In 2025 Amid Renewable Surge” • China had a 1.9% decline in coal-fired power generation in 2025, signalling a significant shift in the country’s energy mix as the expansion of non-fossil fuel sources outpaced electricity demand growth for the first time in a decade, according to a report by Wood Mackenzie. [BioEnergy Times]
• “Trump EPA To Repeal Key Climate Finding” • The Trump administration will revoke a scientific finding that long has been the central basis for action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change, the White House said. By contrast, the National Academy of Sciences says the growing harm of climate change is beyond dispute. [Euronews]
• “Haugland And Watson Terminal Services Ink NY Pact” • The Haugland Group, based in New York, signed a memorandum of understanding with Rhode Island’s Waterson Terminal Services to collaborate on port development in the state of New York to support offshore wind development. The project will draw on the expertise of both. [reNews]

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

The Popular Agrarian Reform program is a collective construction resulting from many years of organization and praxis.

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