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Measure O would modernize Albany’s zoning process, support housing availability, and restore transparent citywide decision-making. 

In 1978, Measure D created a special requirement for zoning changes in Albany’s Residential Single-Family (R-1) areas: before the City Council could act, at least 50% of resident voters within 300 feet of a proposed change had to sign a verified petition. After nearly five decades, this outdated rule makes it harder for Albany to respond fairly and effectively to today’s housing needs.

Measure O allows the City Council to consider future updates through the same processes to apply across Albany (such as public hearings and environmental review when required).

Measure O also brings the City into compliance with its 2023-2031 Housing Element, which commits the City to pursue repeal of Measure D’s neighborhood petition requirement. Greenbelt Alliance joins other partners in supporting this measure, including the League of Women Voters of Berkeley, Albany, and Emeryville.

Why It Matters

As an organization that advocates for climate SMART development and sensible land-use policies, we are excited to endorse Measure O.

Decisions about citywide housing policy should be made through a standardized, public process, not controlled by a narrow petition requirement limited to voters living within 300 feet of a project. Measure O is a good governance measure and a sensible approach to land use that expands participation and supports equitable housing opportunities.

Vote YES on Measure O for a fair, modern, and accountable zoning process that helps Albany plan responsibly for housing today and in the future.

The post Vote Yes on Measure O To Modernize Zoning and Unlock Housing in Albany appeared first on Greenbelt Alliance.

Following the appearance of a second television ad boosting the image of President Donald Trump and paid for by government funds, Public Citizen filed a complaint with the FCC, FTC, individual broadcasters urging media companies to immediately stop airing the ad.

Public Citizen also filed a second complaint with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) alleging that the new ad violates laws prohibiting the use of government resources for propaganda, the Hatch Act, and other related laws. The ads, which are airing in two media markets containing key districts in the upcoming midterm elections, include a disclaimer: “Paid for by the U.S. government.” Public Citizen previously submitted a complaint to GAO and OSC after the first Trump-promoting government-funded ad appeared on air last week.

“That the Trump administration not only failed to acknowledge and investigate last week’s illegal ad, but instead doubled down and released a second piece of taxpayer funded political propaganda during the mass-viewing moment of Sunday football is appalling and alarming,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen. “These illegal ads should immediately be pulled from the air, and the White House’s many apparent violations of the law should be investigated.”

“This administration’s repeated and flagrant violations of the law, including the Hatch Act, are an affront to taxpayers and our democracy,” said Craig Holman, Ph.D., a government ethics expert with Public Citizen. “The FCC and other oversight agencies are charged with ensuring this type of abuse of taxpayer funds does not happen. But that system only works if they take action.”

The letter to broadcasters notes that they should refrain from airing advertisements that they know are otherwise illegal under the law, and that broadcasters must maintain a public file on any political ads they air. Failing to uphold this duty can result in broadcast license revocation.

The FCC/FTC complaint is available to read here, and the second OSC and GAO complaint can be found here.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate is expected to vote on a resolution (S.Res.852) that would force the government to issue an official report on Israel's human rights abuses in the West Bank. The resolution—led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-MD, and co-sponsored by 24 senators—would require the State Department to issue a report detailing the killings committed by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank, abuses of Palestinian children and other gross human rights violations by Israel. If the resolution is adopted, the government would have 30 days to issue the report. If that fails to happen, certain covered security assistance programs for Israel would be halted until the report is submitted. Demand Progress is leading a campaign in support of the resolution and has also led campaigns that have driven more than 1.5 million contacts to Congress this year opposing military action in the Middle East and military aid to Israel.

The following is a statement from Demand Progress Senior Policy Advisor Cavan Kharrazian:

“We know that Americans have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers and that Palestinian children face detention and abuse in Israeli military custody. U.S. taxpayers deserve answers about what happened and what our government is doing to prevent its military aid from fueling human rights violations and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. Demanding transparency and enforcing U.S. laws governing military aid should be the bare minimum for any senator. This resolution is a long-overdue first step. Every senator should support it, then follow through by supporting resolutions to block any new arms sales to Israel.”

The market for commercial systems will grow 27% over the next five years, say American Clean Power and Wood Mackenzie.

Shortages of skilled labor and equipment, as well as local opposition, are threatening even high profile projects backed by big tech companies. Developers are responding by embracing flexibility and alternative technologies once considered too unwieldy.

The Trump administration has scouted sites inside Grand Teton National Park to build a Major League Baseball field, the Washington Post reported Saturday, after MLB asked about staging a regular-season game in a national park.

National Park Service Deputy Director Frank Lands toured three potential locations, including one the Post described as “already disturbed land.” WyoFile, reporting from the park Sunday, noted that while a baseball field can cover about four acres, a stadium can take 25. A full complex with parking can occupy hundreds more. The park’s recently disturbed land is roughly 10 acres of sagebrush bulldozed for a trailhead parking expansion.

Visitors WyoFile spoke with in the park greeted the news with disbelief. “Keep America’s pastime in our baseball parks, not in our national parks,”said David Kelly, an Angels fan from L.A.

National parks are among the country’s most protected national public lands. Constructing a baseball field at Grand Teton could set a dangerous precedent for the entire park system.

“America’s national parks are already in a league of their own,”said Aaron Weiss, executive director at the Center for Western Priorities. “We have a responsibility to care for them, not turn them into a TV spectacle.”

Quick hits Increased traffic, shrunken monuments headline policy shifts on public lands

CPR News

More mining claims staked at Bears Ears

The Land Desk

Burgum brought Venezuelan gold bars to the Roosevelt Room

New York Times

After Trump opened Bears Ears land to business, prospectors swooped in

Grist

Trump admin eyes major BLM restructuring

Politico

The coal industry asked for a rescue. Trump obliged

New York Times

Peaches put this town on the map. The Colorado River drought could wipe it all away

Washington Post

A private ranch that wants 2,000 acres of federal land in Colorado has spent $200,000 to lobby a congressman

Denver Post

Quote of the day

MLB you should know that Grand Teton National Park, home to free ranging wildlife, including grizzly bears, bison, wolves, moose, cougars and elk, is not an appropriate or safe venue for your baseball fantasy.”

—Joan Anzelmo, former superintendent of Colorado National Monument, WyoFile

Picture This @nationalparkservice

Katmai’s brown bears are among the largest bears on Earth. Standing 3–5 feet at the shoulder and stretching 7–10 feet long, they are less “large animal” and more “walking pile of muscle with a snack agenda.”

By mid-summer, adult males are already tipping the scales at 600–900 pounds. But as winter approaches, they enter their annual transformation phase: less “bear,” more “professional food storage unit.”

By October and November, some large males can weigh over 1,000 pounds. Adult females are typically about one-third smaller than males, but still impressively chunky because in the bear world, “getting ready for winter” means turning calories into a luxurious layer of portable insulation. Same.

 

(Featured image: Grand Teton National Park near Jackson Lake Lodge. Photo by Chascar, Wikimedia Commons)

The post Burgum considers building MLB ballpark in Grand Teton National Park appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

The energy project developer sees opportunities in Texas, PJM Interconnection and the Southwest Power Pool, but officials say they must carefully navigate an uncertain regulatory backdrop.

The Stay Grounded network has launched a new project called ‘Red Lines for Airports’. It seeks to unite and support groups campaigning against airport expansion projects and build power for a reduction of air traffic. As part of it we’re running a European Tour, visiting members, and supporting with workshops and skill-shares. In September 2026, we joined local groups campaigning against the…

Source

Brazil’s environment minister says he is “very optimistic” that the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) – a new rainforest fund to channel private and public finance to developing nations – can meet a key $10 billion funding target this year, and is not at risk from his country’s elections next month.

The TFFF, launched by Brazil at COP30 in the Amazon last November and co-led by Norway, is intended as an alternative to traditional grant-based forest finance. The fund aims to raise $125bn in public and private capital, invest it in bond markets, and then pay countries that keep their forests standing from the annual returns. Donor contributions needed to get it going have tailed off after an initial burst.

Speaking to Climate Home News on the sidelines of Climate Week in New York, Brazilian environment minister João Paulo Capobianco pointed out that in less than a year since its official launch, the TFFF has already secured $7.3bn from governments.

“How many other initiatives can say that?” he asked. “Of course, if you have $7 billion, it’s easier for more countries to consider their own contribution. And not just countries – non-governmental organisations also. We are expecting even more support.”

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As its initial target, the TFFF aims to raise $10bn in seed capital from governments by the end of 2026, and still needs to fill a gap of $2.7bn. Its backers say that for each dollar in public funding, they can secure $4 from the private sector. Critics say the $10bn goal barely covers the fund’s expenses and would not allow it to make any significant payments to forest countries.

Because setting up its financial architecture, raising the starting capital and making the first investments will take time, experts say the TFFF is unlikely to generate any payments for developing countries before 2028.

Seeking new pledges

Capobianco told Climate Home News that Brazil is still in talks with potential new contributors to the fund, among them China, Korea and Japan, and said he hoped to see more pledges announced at the upcoming biodiversity and climate COPs in October and November. The Netherlands is expected to up its first small contribution and Canada may also come in, according to other sources close to the TFFF.

Because the fund was not created as part of the UN climate talks and is hosted by the World Bank, developing countries can contribute without taking on wider donor responsibilities for climate finance. Brazil and Indonesia – both large emerging rainforest nations – have each pledged $1bn to the TFFF.

Earlier in September, the UK became the latest country to pledge funding – promising a loan of £400 million (about $540 million). Capobianco welcomed the contribution and noted that Britain has also said it will keep “under review” the possibility of putting in more.

Currently the largest donor is Norway, which announced a $3bn pledge last year at COP30 in Belém. However, that pledge came with conditions, among them that the fund must reach $10bn in sponsor capital by 2026, and that Norway’s contribution can’t make up more than 20% of that total. Over the longer term, this means the fund must raise $15bn from governments to unlock Norway’s full investment.

Comment: UK’s budget juggling trick with rainforest loan for bus-fare cap needs transparency

Speaking at a forest finance event in New York, Norway’s environment minister Sigrun Aasland said the country’s pledge was made not “only out of solidarity but because of shared interests”, adding that protecting rainforests is critical for climate and biodiversity goals as well as for national security.

“Tropical deforestation matters to people in the Amazon and in the Congo. But let’s not forget that it also matters to global food production and to the cost of living in Oslo or in London,” she said.

At the event, Guyana’s minister of natural resources Vickram Bharrat said the TFFF is “one in a menu of options” to finance forest protection in developing countries. He added that to boost its capital “maybe we should put some amount of pressure on oil companies to contribute to the fund”.

Upcoming election “not a risk”

Brazil, which has been pivotal to getting the fund off the ground, is now heading into a national election that could see the country swing back to an anti-climate stance if right-wing candidate Flávio Bolsonaro beats current left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Capobianco, however, said the election result does not pose a risk to the TFFF.

“It’s a global initiative, not a Brazilian initiative. We proposed the first idea, but nowadays it’s a global initiative,” he said. “We believe the investor countries and the tropical countries together have the possibility to continue this process.”

In Brazil, the first round of voting is scheduled for Sunday, October 4. If no candidate wins more than 50% of valid votes, a run-off ballot will take place on October 25.

COP30 roadmap to end deforestation will invite countries to draft domestic plans

In July, the TFFF board adopted a charter, which outlines the instrument’s objectives and values, including that 20% of the payments made to tropical countries will go directly to Indigenous people and local communities.

The charter also says the TFFF board may comprise up to 12 member countries during the initial phase. Currently, seven seats are filled by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Germany, Brazil, France, the Netherlands, Norway and Indonesia.

The board has also formally incorporated the Tropical Forest Investment Fund (TFIF) – the TFFF’s investment arm that will trade bonds in financial markets – hosted in Luxembourg.

The post Brazil confident new rainforest fund will reach $10bn donor milestone appeared first on Climate Home News.

Inclusive investment is a mechanism enabling distributed resources to scale beyond affluent early adopters, creating a broader pathway for virtual power plants, writes Zuha Maryam Shaikh at Clean Energy Works.

Agrarian reform is historical reparation. It is not only about economic restitution, although that is also important. We want the right to access land to be guaranteed.

The post Brazil: Agrarian Reform is Historical Reparation and a Condition for Democracy appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Many improved their performance through building upgrades and energy-efficiency measures like lighting upgrades, envelope work, installing heat pumps or implementing energy management systems, a city official said.

Internal emails show a department administrator stating “let’s let the comms shop find . . . the rationale behind their statistics” when asked to substantiate anti-solar claims underpinning the policy changes, the complaint says. 

LONG ISLAND – The National Audubon Society in New York has been awarded $1,631,254 through the EPA Long Island Sound Partnership Supplemental Grant Program to advance the next stage of the Sunken...

The average child born in the UK in the 1950s was toilet trained by the age of two years and four months. Five decades later, the average child wouldn’t reach that milestone until after their third birthday.

Those statistics are more than just a curious reflection of changing parenting practices. They also shed light on the growing plastic waste crisis. Later toilet training means more used diapers, and since the diaper market also shifted from mostly cloth to mostly disposable over the same decades, that all adds up to a lot more diapers being tossed in the trash.

Today, more than 300,000 diapers are thrown away every minute around the globe. In wealthy countries, the vast majority of disposable diapers and other absorbent hygiene products such as incontinence products and menstrual supplies wind up in a landfill or incinerator. In parts of the world that lack good waste collection systems, diapers are often dumped or burned, resulting in plastic pollution, contaminated water, and the risk of disease.

Absorbent hygiene product waste amounts to somewhere between 160 and 200 million metric tons each year and makes up nearly one-tenth of municipal solid waste by weight globally, according to a new paper in Nature Sustainability. “With a growing and ageing population this problem is only getting worse, so it is important we act now to reduce the waste, and find more sustainable solutions for the waste that is inevitable,” says study team member Elze Porte, a materials sustainability researcher at University College London.

Porte and her collaborator, UCL materials scientist Mark Miodownik, spent two and a half years (if their study were a child born in the 1950s, it would be toilet trained by now) talking with manufacturers of cloth and disposable diapers, government agencies, waste collection and processing companies, and caregiving and healthcare professional organizations. They even visited a factory and a diaper recycling facility.

The result is three broad strategies for making absorbent hygiene products more sustainable. (Their strategies focus on diapers but are more broadly applicable, they say.) One is to reduce the use of disposable hygiene products. That could be accomplished by switching to reusable diapers or earlier toilet training – or, more precisely, reversing the trend towards later toilet training.

Changes to workplace and childcare systems are needed to make this more feasible for parents, the researchers say. But earlier toilet training can also be better for children’s bladder and bowel health. “For us, this was interesting to learn, because it means that reducing diaper waste by bringing back down the toilet training age can save money for families, support children in their development, and is better for the environment,” Porte says. “It is rare to find such a win-win-win solution.”

 

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A second strategy is developing technologies to recycle absorbent hygiene products. This is challenging because disposable diapers are a complex mix of materials: different kinds of plastics, fibers, superabsorbent gels. So there needs to be a way to collect used diapers separately from other municipal waste, then separate the different materials and then recycle each one.

But recycling diapers isn’t as pie-in-the-sky as it might first sound. There are several diaper recycling facilities already operating in multiple countries, although they generally only recycle part of the diaper and often result in downcycling of materials.

The final strategy is developing fully compostable absorbent hygiene products. The challenge here is making products that will break down in an industrial composter, but not when exposed to the similarly warm, moist environment of the human body.

A separate group of researchers have developed a biodegradable material based on cellulose and citric acid that could replace the fossil-fuel based absorbent gels used in conventional disposable diapers.

Both recycling and composting will require new technologies to remove pathogens and medicine residues from used hygiene products. Some jurisdictions restrict composting of human waste, so regulatory changes may also be necessary. In the meantime, “We are now doing more work on understanding worldwide toilet training practices in the Big Toilet Project,” Porte reports. “We ask parents and carers around the globe to help us by sharing their toilet training journey, helping us to gain insights into how and when they toilet train their children, understand best practices and identify where support is lacking.”

Source: Porte E. and M. Miodownik. “Research priorities for addressing global absorbent hygiene product waste.” Nature Sustainability 2026.

Image: ©Anthropocene Magazine (baby photo: AndriyPorokhnenko/iStock.com)

As president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro not only weakened environmental regulations and gutted agencies charged with protecting the Amazon, he also railed against conservation. An analysis of his tweets and those of his ministers finds a link between their rhetoric and the acres of forest lost. 

Read more on E360 →

Earthworks begins on key substation for the Copperstring transmission line that will unlock some of the country's biggest renewable energy projects and mining province.

The post Earthworks begin on key substation for inland transmission line that could unlock Queensland renewable riches appeared first on Renew Economy.

Headline News:

• “Germany Sets PV Record, Produces Three Times As Much Solar Power As Australia So Far This Year” • By 27 September, Germany’s net electricity from solar had reached 90.2 TWh, exceeding the total of 90 TWh for last year, according to data from Fraunhofer ISE. This is almost triple the amount from solar in Australia in the same time. [Renew Economy]

German solar farm (Hansainvest Real Assets image)

• “US Renewables Additions Hit 89 GW” • US renewable energy and utility-scale battery storage capacity increased by more than 88.7 GW between 1 February 2025 and 31 July 2026, according to the SUN DAY Campaign. The combined capacity of renewable energy sources expanded by 14.6%, or 62 GW, while grid battery energy storage doubled. [reNews]
• “Solar Surpasses Nuclear Power Globally For First Time” • The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2026, overseen by French nuclear energy consultant Mycle Schneider, shows that the wind surpassed nuclear generation for the first time in March, 2025. This was followed by solar in April, so for the first time world solar generation exceeded nuclear. [pv magazine Global]
• “Electric Trucks Cheaper To Operate Than Diesel For Almost Half Of Trucks Sold In The EU” • Electric trucks have a lower total cost of ownership in six out of nine major EU markets, a T&E report shows. In the Netherlands and Germany, electric trucks reach their payback time after only two years, and savings can be over €85,000 in five years. [CleanTechnica]
• “Trump Administration Rolls Back Fuel Economy Standards For Automakers” • The Department of Transportation is easing fuel economy standards that were put in place during the Biden administration. DOT Secretary Sean P Duffy said that changing CAFE standards will make vehicles more affordable by creating “commonsense” guidelines for automakers. [ABC News]

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

In many rural and remote Indigenous communities, the buildings that matter most are often the ones under the greatest strain. These buildings – including schools, arenas, daycare centres, and supportive care homes – provide critical services to...

Patrick Schröder is a senior research fellow at Chatham House’s Environment and Society Centre.

A climate summit serious about implementation cannot afford to leave major emissions reductions off the table. Yet, that is the risk COP31 faces unless it makes reducing raw material use central to the way countries decarbonise their economies. 

On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York last week, COP31 host Türkiye laid out proposals to accelerate emissions cuts in the next decade. Its plans include global goals to increase the share of recycled products in material use to at least 15% (up from 6.9% in 2025) and halve waste generation by 2035.

COP31 offers an opportunity to connect efforts to improve material circularity with stronger national climate commitments and mitigation pathways. But these targets could be a lot more ambitious.  

The case for circularity  

The Paris Agreement cannot be delivered through cleaner electricity alone. We must also reduce the emissions that are embedded in the way we extract resources, manufacture products, build infrastructure and dispose of waste.  

Circularity principles are pivotal to credible mitigation pathways: designing technologies and products to last, repairing and reusing them, and reducing demand for virgin resources.

The scale of the opportunity is striking. A recent European Environment Agency review found that adopting such principles could deliver average global emissions reductions potential of 52% in the waste sector against a business-as-usual scenario, 48% in construction and buildings, 28% in transport and mobility, 26% in industry and 24% in agriculture.  

• May 27, 2026 Clean Energy Frontier Recycling could meet half of Europe’s critical mineral needs by 2050 A new report by an EU-funded research project says the bloc could harness its “urban mines” to reduce its dependence on China for energy transition minerals Read more
• Feb 9, 2026 Clean Energy Frontier China maximises battery recycling to shore up critical mineral supplies Beijing is bracing for a tsunami of spent EV batteries by taking steps to boost recycling – a strategy that could also cut its reliance on imports of clean energy minerals Read more
• May 28, 2024 Clean Energy Frontier The Canadian city betting on recycling rare earths for the energy transition As countries scramble to secure critical minerals, Kingston’s burgeoning clean tech ecosystem is attracting startups to create circular supply chains and reduce reliance on China Read more

These figures make a compelling case for raising circularity ambitions across the economy, offering the promise of far more than better recycling bins.

In fact, recycling minerals used in cleantech equipment, for example, illustrate the extent of the emissions savings available. The carbon footprint of minerals and metals recovered from secondary sources is up to 80% lower than those produced from new mining and processing, according to the International Energy Agency.

A major EU-funded project estimates that recovered materials could substitute up to 56% of Europe’s primary critical raw material requirements by 2050, provided they achieve the necessary quality. The main takeaway goes beyond Europe: yesterday’s products can become tomorrow’s strategic resources while mitigating climate change. 

In this light, a target to increase the share of recovered material use to 15% isn’t enough.

The evidence-based Circularity Gap Report found a 17% target by 2032 is possible and could unlock additional emissions reductions amounting to several gigatonnes of CO2.

Reducing material demand  

A higher circularity metric is only part of the answer, however. An economy can increase its recycling rate at the same time as extracting more primary materials if total material demand keeps growing.   

The tougher issue governments need to address is identifying what reductions in primary material use are needed.  

The Circularity Gap Report uses an indicative benchmark of eight tonnes of virgin materials consumed per person annually. This is already being translated into policy: Germany’s 2024 circular economy strategy aims to reduce primary resource consumption, with the German Federal Environment Agency identifying six to eight tonnes per person as an ambitious target. 

An engineer walks past a pump at the battery recycling pilot plant installed in the Eramet Research & Innovation center in Trappes, near Paris, France (Photo: REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes)

Reducing primary material demand will require a closer integration of energy and resource policies. Efficient EVs charged with solar power can complement better public transport and walkable cities, while batteries designed to be repaired and reused for stationary energy storage before being recycled will reduce the materials footprint of transport and clean energy services.

Coordinated infrastructure development and urban planning can prevent unnecessary overbuild, while renovating existing building stock reduces demand for new steel, cement and aluminium, which are emissions-intensive to produce. Connecting industrial waste heat to district heating networks can further reduce energy demand and emissions.

What governments should agree at COP31 

COP31 can translate this approach into three concrete commitments. 

First, governments should agree a stronger circularity ambition, supported by material-footprint indicators and milestones. The presidency should seek recognition of these priorities in negotiated outcomes, alongside concrete delivery partnerships under its COP31 Action Agenda. 

Second, countries should include quantified circular economy measures in their updated nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and implementation plans. Such measures should include reuse, material efficiency and circularity targets, as well as transparent estimates of emissions savings that avoid double counting across sectors. By the end of 2025, countries had developed 101 national circular economy roadmaps and action plans, yet these often remained disconnected from their NDCs.

• Nov 3, 2025 Clean Energy Frontier Self-taught mechanics give second life to Jordan’s glut of spent EV batteries As EV sales boom in Jordan, a lack of formal infrastructure for dealing with end-of-life batteries is leading to some innovative solutions Read more
• Jan 21, 2025 Clean Energy Frontier Indian start-ups mine e-waste for battery minerals but growing industry has a dark side Recycling e-waste can unlock a vast and sustainable supply of transition minerals but in India the sector relies on a neglected informal economy Read more

Third, climate finance should support the delivery of circular solutions such as material recovery at scale, investments into circular critical mineral value chains beyond mining, developing a circular plastics economy, and designing buildings and cities that support material reuse. Developing countries need technology, affordable finance and support to deliver these ambitions, including for the informal workers whose livelihoods depend on recovering and recycling materials.

The test for COP31 is to reach an agreement that can start the transformation of our production and consumption systems and how they are financed.  

A headline circularity target will achieve little without policies that address absolute resource demand and deliver measurable emissions cuts. But COP31 offers an opportunity to make circularity a central element of climate policy, with targets strong enough to matter and institutions equipped to deliver them.

The post COP31 must aim higher to cut emissions from the use of materials   appeared first on Climate Home News.