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A former Navy sailor and union laborer from Local 1298 on Long Island, William “Billy” Bishop jumped at the chance to work on the water again when he learned two years ago about job opportunities on offshore wind construction projects. 

After earning a safety certification from the National Offshore Wind Training Center — a collaboration between Long Island’s Suffolk County Community College, the Long Island Federation of Labor, and multinational wind farm developer Orsted — Bishop worked on a wind farm near Rhode Island. Now he’s doing structural inspections and maintenance on Sunrise Wind, which is under construction off the coast of Long Island in New York. 

But the Trump administration’s efforts to crush offshore wind projects, part of its broader assault on clean energy, have created deep uncertainty for training programs like NOWTC and workers like Bishop.   

“I would definitely do this forever, and I’ve looked into it since getting the job. But I see contracts are falling through nonstop now in America,” said Bishop. “This might be the last one for a while.”

In 2021, the Biden administration set a target to generate 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by the end of the decade, starting from almost zero, which jump-started a massive effort to train people for jobs in the industry. That rapid ramp-up would have required an estimated 77,000 workers — to build the wind farms, connect the turbines to the grid, operate and maintain the facilities, manufacture the rugged steel components, and more. 

Instructor Ian Champlin (second from left) demonstrates rescuing an unconscious casualty as part of a safety training at the National Offshore Wind Training Center onJuly 21 in Brentwood, New York.
Annie Grossinger for The Hechinger Report

To that end, several states and energy developers collaborated with universities, unions and community workforce groups on a variety of offshore wind education and training initiatives, including safety certifications for skilled laborers, apprenticeships for turbine technicians, and graduate programs in offshore wind planning and policy.

But since President Donald Trump took office for his second term, an offshore wind industry that seemed primed to explode has been pummeled by legal, administrative, and economic challenges. While the Trump administration has also taken aim at solar and onshore wind, it has the most leverage over projects offshore, where the federal government is the landlord. The onshore wind industry in the United States already dwarfed its offshore cousin and continues to grow, for now, despite federal pushback. But the near-term outlook for offshore wind is bleak, and there could be more lasting consequences if wind developers shy away from investing in a market they perceive as risky. 

When it comes to energy policy, “the pendulum always swings from one president to another,” said Timothy Fox, managing director of ClearView Energy Partners, an industry research firm based in Washington, D.C. “But now the swings are so dramatic that the pendulum’s going to fall off the clock.”

For now, offshore wind training programs are staying afloat by downsizing, focusing on skills that are also useful for careers outside of offshore wind, or sending graduates to work on the handful of offshore projects already under construction when Trump took office. The leaders of these training initiatives insist that an energy-hungry nation still needs offshore power and that the wind boom isn’t dead, just delayed. 

“We’re not making any decisions right now,” said Roger Clayman, a NOWTC director and the retired executive director of the Long Island Federation of Labor. “Offshore wind will be back.” 

Dan Ramos, let, and Pedro Costa practice using the 24-volt emergency rescue kit during training at the National Offshore Wind Training Center.
Annie Grossinger for The Hechinger Report

The domestic offshore wind industry is still in its infancy; the first commercial-scale wind farm, off the Long Island coast, only started delivering power in December 2023. Back then, the industry seemed poised for exponential growth spurred by billions in federal grants, tax credits, loans, and other spending under Biden. Several much larger wind farms were already under construction and dozens more were in the permitting pipeline. 

A March 2024 report by the Department of Energy estimated that the nation would face a massive deficit of qualified wind workers by 2030. “We anticipated not only expanding but that there would be multiple centers,” said Matthew Aracich, another NOWTC director and the president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Nassau and Suffolk Counties in New York.

Instead, the wind rush came to a screeching halt on January 20, 2025. One of Trump’s first actions of his second term was to sign the “wind order,” pausing all new leases and permit approvals for both onshore and offshore projects. Later that year, the government issued emergency stop-work orders on the five offshore wind projects under construction, arguing that they raised national security concerns. 

Both the stop-work orders and the wind order were eventually overturned in federal courts. But the Trump administration’s war on offshore wind continued on other fronts. 

The government rolled back renewable energy tax credits, which it labeled “market distorting subsidies for unreliable, foreign controlled energy sources,” and rescinded hundreds of millions in grants earmarked for offshore wind and related projects. Meanwhile, the administration has tried to revoke existing permits for offshore wind and slow-walk permitting reviews for new wind projects. Earlier this year, the administration started paying wind energy developers to abandon their offshore leases. 

Union member Joe Mascio adds his signature to a wall signed by everybody who earns a safety certification at the National Offshore Wind Training Center. Annie Grossinger for The Hechinger Report

The combined effects have dimmed offshore wind’s near-term prospects. There are about 6 gigawatts of offshore wind online or under construction off the U.S. coast — less than a third of what the Biden administration had approved for construction. And no new offshore wind farms have broken ground since he left office. That could leave the programs preparing skilled laborers for offshore construction jobs in the lurch when all existing wind projects are complete.

“I think we’re going to be busy into 2027. How deep into 2027, we don’t know,” said Clayman. That’s when Orsted’s Sunrise Wind off the coast of Long Island is scheduled for completion. (Orsted declined to be interviewed for this story, as did Equinor, another major wind-farm developer in U.S. waters that invested in workforce development.) 

Similar questions are facing other unions that upskilled their members for offshore wind jobs, including the Pile Drivers Local Union 56 in Boston, whose workers needed extra training to handle the massive offshore piles that can weigh about 1,800 tons. The heavy-lift training was supported by the international offshore energy company Deme, and grants from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, a state economic development agency. These workers helped build Vineyard Wind 1, completed this March off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, and Revolution Wind, off the coast of Rhode Island, which was just finished.   

“Right now, our projects are on the tail end,” said John Dunderdale, business manager for the pile drivers’ union. He said the trained workers assisted with projects off the coast of New York, and the union had been approached about sending workers to help build overseas wind farms. 

Read Next Offshore wind power projects are flailing, just when the East Coast needs them most Austin Corona

With or without new offshore wind projects, there’s plenty of work for pile drivers and other skilled labor on normal building and infrastructure projects. But Dunderdale mourns the missed opportunities, notably the New England Wind and SouthCoast Wind projects, both of which were on the cusp of starting construction when Trump took office but are now on indefinite hold. 

“We should have been on to the next one,” he said. “The jobs were there. The training was there. The money, you know, everything was there.”

Other training programs are trying to adapt to the new realities of offshore wind, too. A half-hour drive from the NOWTC, on the campus of Stony Brook University, about a dozen undergraduates recently gathered in a lab for a lesson on wiring high-voltage direct current, or HVDC. Huddled around docking stations the size of vending machines, they attempted different wiring setups with simulated HVDC, which, because it transmits electricity efficiently over long distances, is often used for energy sources like wind and solar that are far from population centers. 

The class was one of several started in 2024 on State University of New York campuses as part of an effort called the Offshore Wind Training Institute, funded with $20 million from the state and the SUNY system. The class was designed to prepare people specifically for the emerging offshore wind industry. But more recently, it has shifted to focus on a wider range of HVDC applications, such as connecting solar farms to battery storage and integrating regional grids.  

Read Next Trump destroyed offshore wind. The Northeast can’t live without it. Jake Bittle

“Luckily, we have a skill and a discipline that we’re teaching these students that does not entirely rely on offshore wind,” said Derek O’Connor, senior workforce development manager in Stony Brook’s Office for Research and Innovation. 

A similar pivot occurred within “A Taste of the Trades,” a paid summer training program for local high schoolers created two years ago by Stony Brook, Suffolk County Community College, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and a company working on the Sunrise Wind project. The program offers hands-on learning for a wide range of jobs in the energy sector, including welding and microgrid development. The first summer, networking events and visits to job sites were designed to introduce students to opportunities in offshore wind, but more recently, students have been exposed to a wider range of electric grid operations and infrastructure jobs.   

The more you look at the variety of skills needed for work in offshore wind, the more you see overlaps with what’s needed in the nation’s energy sector writ large, said O’Connor. “We’ve been flexible and agile in responding to some of the changes, being less focused on the power generation source and more about grid stability and reliability.”

Indeed, despite the political attacks on offshore wind and the diminishing opportunities, the clean energy sector overall faces a big and growing shortage of workers. Wind turbine technicians and solar installers, for example, are among the fastest growing occupations in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

“The industry continues to grow, even with the uncertainty that we’re experiencing,” said Abby Huston, vice president of programs for the Clean Power Institute, the nonprofit workforce development arm of the American Clean Power Association, a national advocacy and trade organization. “What we’ve found is there’s a lot more adaptation in terms of how to build workforce programs rather than closing them down, because there’s still such a huge need.”

Other examples: Her group is partnering with schools and community colleges to build awareness of clean energy and its career opportunities broadly; the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center has shifted some of its funding focus from offshore wind to a new, broader portfolio in “ocean tech,” such as improving coastal resilience and monitoring the health of marine ecosystems by analyzing traces of DNA in the water; and a Maryland state job training program created in 2022 to bolster the offshore wind industry has placed thousands of people in fields requiring similar skills such as shipbuilding and aerospace. 

Meanwhile, energy industry experts say there are plenty of reasons to believe that offshore wind could eventually make a comeback; the surging demand and cost of energy is putting more pressure on policymakers to tap every available source. 

Back at the NOWTC, workers are still signing up for training, but they are increasingly people renewing their certifications, which last two years, rather than first-timers, according to Clayman. 

This summer, one of those workers renewing their certificates was Bishop. He estimates that he has another year on the Sunrise project before it’s completed. At that point, he’ll likely return to working construction onshore — unless there’s a dramatic shift in offshore wind’s fortunes.    

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This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Offshore wind job training built for a boom is facing down a bust on Sep 22, 2026.

Donald Trump used his platform at the UN General Assembly to brag about the U.S’s fossil fueled imperialism. From Iran, to Venezuela, to Greenland, Trump’s actions follow a familiar path: use military force to dominate sovereign nations, let Big Oil cash in, and leave ordinary people to bear the costs through war, pollution, rising energy bills, and worsening climate disasters.

Governments have a choice: Follow Trump into a future of conflict and economic volatility, or build prosperity and energy independence and political stability through clean, renewable energy. On the road to COP31, governments must reject Trump’s attempt to build a fossil fuel empire and show that his agenda will not dictate our shared future.

For the past three years, I’ve helped lead Audubon’s Texas Women in Conservation program, working with colleagues and honorees to recognize women who have made significant contributions to...

Lights… Camera… Food system action!

Storytelling is a powerful catalyst for education, connection, and transformation, and filmmakers and documentarians are highlighting inspiring people and unsung innovations in food systems across the globe.

“Stories and food are what make us human,” says Haven Worley, Director of “Irish Farmers: A Love Story,” at the All Things Food & Agriculture Film Festival, hosted by Food Tank in partnership with Kat Taylor, President of TomKat Foundation; Halter; The Henry Ford; The Rockefeller Foundation; and Groundswell during Climate Week NYC.

Watch the livestream recording on Food Tank’s YouTube channel. 

“As conveners, as storytellers, we can share what’s working across the country,” says Spence Medford, Senior Vice President and Chief Advancement Officer at The Henry Ford, after screening the foundation’s new “Farm to School Lunch Across America” film. “There’s innovation that’s happening in the food system right now; people just don’t know about it.”

At Climate Week, the packed audience also enjoyed a screening of clips from the documentary short “Language of the Land,” produced by Halter. The film follows 5th-generation ranchers Kacie and Zach Scherler-Abney of Scherler-Abney Land & Cattle, as they transition their Oklahoma farm to regenerative practices. 

“It’s a beautiful thing to see producers from different parts of the world who share this goal and really want to work with one another,” says Helen Moore, VP of Commercial Strategy at Halter.

“Especially with our generation, there’s a huge interest in agriculture and…a real genuine interest in connecting with food sources,” Zach Scherler-Abney added.

In introducing the “Powered By Community” film series, a grassroots project highlighting local changemakers, Big Green president Madeleine Nelson reminded the crowd that “Small can scale.”

“These local projects are part of the solutions that we need to change the food system for the better,” she says.

Jennifer Sherman, Program Director at the Alice Waters Institute, echoed this sentiment.

“There is no change that is too small,” she says.

Then, Kat Taylor, Founder of TomKat Ranch and TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation, and director and producer Rebecca Harrell Tickell took the stage with clips from “Groundswell,” the feature-length documentary that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

“The farmers are not only right; we should be listening to them more often and enabling them more, and giving them more agency,” Taylor says. 

When pitching the film project, back in 2013, the team faced pushback from producers who didn’t believe regenerative agriculture was actually transformative, Harrell Tickell recalled. The film has been its own proof-of-concept. 

“They laughed us out of Hollywood,” Harrell Tickell says. “We were filming a movement as it was coalescing. … It feels like we’re just getting started even though it’s been over a decade to get to this point.”

Stories like these, filmmakers said, only reinforce the importance of storytellers following their passions and telling true stories.  

“We have to fight to curate and support and bubble up hope,” says Sara Farley, Regenerative School Meals Co-Lead and Vice President for the Food Team at The Rockefeller Foundation. She presented clips from “Food 2050,” which she described as a radical listening project. 

“The future isn’t written,” she continued. “Use the creative part of your brain to imagine the future.”

Explore the entire Food Tank event schedule during Climate Week NYC 2026, and live-stream every Summit on FoodTank.com and Food Tank’s YouTube channel.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo by Ryan Rose for Food Tank.

The post Storytelling As A Catalyst For Change at Climate Week NYC Film Festival appeared first on Food Tank.

Today, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on governments at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City to “adopt a national plan to transition away from fossil fuels aligned with 1.5 degrees”.

In response, Romain Ioualalen, Global Policy lead at Oil Change International, said:

“The message from UNSG Guterres is clear: continued fossil fuel dependence is the pathway to climate and economic chaos. It exposes people to price shocks, geopolitical conflict, and devastating climate impacts, while fossil fuel billionaires reap the profits of the crisis they created.

“It’s time for countries to act, and it starts by developing their national roadmaps to achieve prosperity beyond fossil fuels. Their credibility is on the line. We need publicly led plans, with clear and time-bound plans for a fair fossil fuel phaseout that protects workers and communities, strengthens energy sovereignty, and mobilizes the necessary public funding. We need governments to step up.

“The newly published IEA report makes it clear that at the core of these roadmaps must be a commitment to electrifying economies. But this must come with a clear commitment to dismantling fossil fuel infrastructure and generating electricity through renewable energy.

“Oil and gas companies cannot be allowed to take in billions in profit while families struggle to pay skyrocketing energy and food bills. Taxing excessive oil and gas profits is an urgent step needed to make fossil fuel companies pay for the energy crisis they created, and for countries to mobilize public finance needed for climate action.”

As UN Secretary-General makes final UN General Assembly speech, global campaigners say the call to “Make Polluters Pay” has gone mainstream. In his powerful speech, he reaffirmed the importance of national governments adopting national plans to transition away from fossil fuels, aligned with the 1.5°C goal, and made a clear call for those most responsible for the climate crisis to be held accountable:

“Those who polluted the most – and profited the most – must do far more to repair the damage they caused. Polluters must pay. And to the leaders, cities, civil society and citizens working to hold them accountable: you are on the right side of history. Keep going,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

The call for greater accountability from the fossil fuel industry driving the climate crisis came just 1 day after campaigners presented 2 million signatures demanding that governments “Make Polluters Pay” to the United Nations.

Throughout his tenure, Guterres has been among the forceful voices calling on the fossil-fuel industry to be made to answer for the damage their products cause, from urging windfall taxes on record oil and gas profits, to endorsing ‘solidarity levies’ to close the international climate finance gap owed to Global South countries, and calling for action to tackle those he called the “godfathers of climate chaos”. Campaigners say his intervention today shows how far that argument has traveled, and voice their hope that his successor will carry it forward at a moment when the case has never been more urgent.

Earlier this week, members of the Make Polluters Pay International coalition, alongside frontline campaigners and communities, gathered in New York to highlight the growing public demand for fossil-fuel companies to pay for the costs of the climate damage their industry has caused. They presented at the UN petitions with a combined total of over 2 million signatures calling on governments to Make Polluters Pay.

This comes after a year marked by devastating wildfires, floods and deadly climate disasters, and continuing global energy insecurity linked to dependence on oil and gas. Campaigners say the message to governments is simple: we are breaching 1.5°C, a limit governments swore to hold, and the need for urgent action has never been clearer. As fossil-fuel companies keep raking in colossal profits, ordinary people are left paying the price through higher energy and food bills, and losses that can never be fully repaired: homes, harvest, lives.

The Make Polluters Pay campaign has mobilised millions of people around the world behind a demand for governments to introduce binding measures requiring fossil-fuel companies to contribute to the costs of climate damage, and shifting the financial incentives that keep money flowing towards coal, oil & gas.

Campaigners are calling for measures including climate damages taxes, surtaxes on fossil-fuel profits and fines, with revenues directed towards recovery, adaptation, loss and damage and a just transition to renewable energy.

The campaign saw members of the Make Polluters Pay International coalition come together including 350.org, Greenpeace International, Fossil Free Media and Oxfam International, alongside frontline campaigners and communities affected by climate change.

Louise Hutchins, Co-Convenor of the Make Polluters Pay International Coalition, said:

“When the UN Secretary-General calls for fossil-fuel companies to pay, you know this demand has become impossible to ignore. Millions of people around the world are calling for it and governments are starting to listen. After months of super-profits from the oil and gas industry, finance ministers are putting windfall taxes back on the agenda.

“This is a sign of how quickly the politics are changing. The movement is growing, the public is behind it, and governments need to catch up.”

Anne Jellema, Executive Director of 350.org, said:

“For years, campaigners and communities on the frontlines have been saying the same thing: the companies that profited from fossil fuels must pay their fair share of the costs of the crisis they helped create.

“Today, that demand is moving into the mainstream. The Secretary-General’s call for polluters to pay reflects what millions of people are demanding around the world.

“We have watched homes burn, communities flood and families struggle with the costs of climate and energy crises, while fossil-fuel companies continue to make extraordinary profits. We pay. They profit. It’s time to change that.

“The voices of more than 2 million people are now being brought to the UN. Governments have the power to make polluters pay , and they must use it.”

Mads Christensen, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, said:

“Guterres has spent years warning leaders where fossil-fuel dependence leads, and this year proved him right. From deadly heat to devastating fires and floods, the very dependence driving these disasters is shaking entire economies and leaving families exposed to volatile energy and food prices, while the companies behind it keep raking in the profits. The worse the crisis grows, the more they make: the very instability that empties people’s wallets fills theirs.

“That is the system permanent surtaxes on fossil-fuel profits start to break. New rules forcing governments to align their taxes and spending with global climate goals would raise hundreds of billions of dollars to support the countries and communities least responsible, while incentivising money out of fossil fuels and into secure, renewable energy that actually protects people. As long as destruction stays profitable, the transition to a safer, fairer future will keep being held back. Guterres has named the solution, governments must now act on it.”

Amitabh Behar, Executive Director of Oxfam International, said:

“The people who have contributed least to the climate crisis are paying the highest price. They are losing homes, livelihoods and access to food and facing an increasingly uncertain future, while fossil-fuel corporations and their billionaire backers continue to profit.

“The call to Make Rich Polluters Pay is about justice. It is about ensuring that those who have benefited most from the fossil-fuel economy pay for the damage it has caused.

“Today the Secretary-General joined millions of people around the world in demanding that ‘polluters must pay’. It’s time for governments to listen and ensure that new sources of finance reach the communities on the frontlines of this crisis.”

Rev. Fletcher Harper, Executive Director, GreenFaith

“Every religion teaches the same moral principle: you do not get to harm your neighbor and walk away from the damage. That simple truth is why religious leaders from around the globe – Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish and many others – are calling for polluters to pay for the harm they’ve caused. Communities around the globe are suffering the mounting costs of climate damage – costs that have not been paid by the polluters. They have been pushed onto families, communities, and taxpayers. In moral terms, that is theft. And it must stop.”

Jamie Henn, Spokesperson for the US Make Polluters Pay Campaign

“Yesterday, more than two million people brought the Make Polluters Pay demand to the United Nations. Today, Secretary-General Guterres made clear that he stands with them. Around the world, people are paying the costs of a climate crisis fueled by a handful of wealthy fossil fuel corporations, while those same companies continue to rake in enormous profits. The Secretary-General has been a powerful voice for holding polluters accountable, and his message today shows just how far this demand has traveled. Now other world leaders need to follow his lead and make polluters pay.”

Campaigners say the Secretary-General’s intervention marks an important moment in the growing push to hold fossil-fuel companies financially accountable for climate damage. The call comes as governments gather in New York to discuss global security, economic stability and resilience. Campaigners argue that these conversations cannot be separated from the climate and fossil-fuel crises.

Continued dependence on oil and gas leaves economies exposed to volatile global markets while accelerating climate disruption. They say the real route to energy security is to rapidly reduce fossil-fuel dependence, accelerate clean electrification and ensure that fossil-fuel companies contribute to the costs of the transition, adaptation and loss and damage.

The campaigners are calling on governments to:

• Make fossil-fuel companies pay through climate-damages taxes, permanent surtaxes on fossil fuel profits and meaningful fines.
• Direct the revenues to communities, including funding adaptation, recovery and loss and damage.
• Accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels towards clean, affordable and secure energy.
• Ensure polluters are held accountable through progressive fiscal policy, rather than allowing the costs of climate damage to continue falling on ordinary people.

Oil and gas operators reported more than 2,400 spills across Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico in 2025, releasing a combined 5.8 million gallons of liquid, according to the annual Western Oil and Gas Spills Report from the Center for Western Priorities.

New Mexico operators reported 1,277 liquid spills, up 13 percent from 1,133 the year before, totaling 3.56 million gallons. A single OXY USA water storage tank failure accounted for nearly half of that volume on its own. Gas releases from venting and flaring fell eight percent, but operators still wasted 9.8 billion cubic feet of gas, in a state that produced 16 percent of the nation’s crude oil in 2025. Colorado spills fell 11 percent to 338, though volume nearly doubled to 794,000 gallons. Wyoming was the only state where both spill count and volume declined, dropping to 786 spills and 1.43 million gallons.

This year, CWP also analyzed Colorado’s historical spill filings and found 6,084 records between 2016 and 2025, with annual filings jumping more than fifteen-fold since 2020, from 125 that year to 1,948 last year. These are spills that were missed by operators for years before a well was plugged. Most of these spills surfaced only when companies plugged wells or tore down old equipment. This reveals that most spills go unreported despite the state’s strong reporting requirements, and implies the actual scale of spills and leaks is much bigger than this report captures, not just for Colorado, but in all three states.

“With the Trump administration pushing even more oil and gas drilling on public lands, this problem is set to increase rather than improve,” said Kate Groetzinger, CWP communications director. “We could be building out clean energy. Instead, we’re doubling down on dirty oil and gas production.”

Why submitting a public comment still matters—and how to write a good one

On a new episode of The Landscape, Kate and Aaron talk to Nick Holshouser, a data analyst with Wandering Nature, LLC, who is analyzing the public comments coming in on the Trump administration’s proposal to repeal the 2001 roadless rule in real-time at roadless.org, and Blaine Miller-McFeeley, a senior legislative representative at Earthjustice, about public comment periods under the Trump administration. We cover why you should still submit public comments (even though the Trump administration probably isn’t interested in your opinion) and how to write a comment that requires an agency response and helps build the legal record against bad agency actions.

Quick hits Trump administration says developers, loggers can kill endangered species

Stateline

Another flash flood hit the Grand Canyon, setting back recovery from a deadly flood weeks ago

Outside

Colorado agencies call for removal of Roan Plateau parcels from federal oil and gas lease sale

Summit Daily

St. Mary’s Glacier, a Colorado landmark, has melted amid a record-hot summer

Aspen Times | Colorado Sun

Leaked documents reveal Trump’s plan to take control of your national parks

Wes Siler’s Newsletter

National park rangers have a mental health problem. Could it get worse?

Scienceline

The roadless rule is facing repeal, experts want to be clear about wildfires and roads

WXPR

Opinion: Montana mines and how we move forward

Flathead Beacon

Quote of the day

Unless you’re wearing a T-shirt that says, ‘I’m here to draw the blood of endangered species,’ you’re basically off the hook.”

—Brett Hartl, Center for Biological Diversity government affairs director, Stateline

Picture This
@usinteriorSome places remind you just how vast and extraordinary this country really is.

At Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in Arizona, layers of sandstone twist, fold and sweep across the landscape at White Pocket, creating a scene that hardly looks real.

Managed by @mypubliclands, this remarkable landscape is part of the millions of acres of public lands that belong to all Americans.

You may never stand in this exact spot, but images like this give all of us a chance to appreciate the incredible beauty of our country.

Photo by BLM

 

Featured photo: BLM truck and oil and gas infrastructure. Source: BLM Colorado

The post At least 2,400 oil and gas spills occurred across Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico in 2025 appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

DENVER—The Center for Western Priorities today published an interactive map of the 133 National Park Service partner agreements that were disapproved by the Department of the Interior on August 7, blocking $25.9 million in funding. Parks and their partners had already secured the funding for these programs from congressional appropriations, existing federal programs, and internal funding. The Interior department review was the final step before the agreements could be signed and the money released.

The disapproved agreements were first reported on by the Washington Post earlier this month. Interior told the Washington Post it had disapproved agreements with groups “actively working against the best interests of the American people and the priorities of this administration.” NPS staff reported they received no explanation beyond a note in the records reading “Disapproved by DOI.”

Explore the map

Every agreement appears on the map with the park or office that requested it, the partner organization that would have carried out the work, the dollar figure attached to it, and the National Park Service’s own written statement of what disapproval means for that site. The complete dataset is available to download as a CSV.

The Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Center for Western Priorities Communications Director Kate Groetzinger:

“Revoking funding for organizations that support America’s national parks shows how much disdain Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has for America’s public lands. The Interior department says these groups were ‘working against the best interests of the American people.’ That makes no sense. Anyone working to make our parks better, safer, and cleaner is clearly working in America’s best interest.

“Every one of these projects had its funding secured, and parks were counting on the work getting done. Blocking these agreements did not save a dollar. It pushed the work down the road and likely made it even more costly in the future. At Joshua Tree, for example, national park staff wrote that without approval for their projects, wildfires there will be larger and cost more to fight. Let’s hear the Interior department explain why that’s a good thing for the American people.”

Methodology:

The map draws on data from the National Park Service’s Financial Assistance Submission Tracker, with status as of September 9, 2026 and subsequently provided to the Center for Western Priorities. The August 7 batch held 140 requests; seven have since moved to another status and are excluded. Project descriptions and impact statements appear as written in the records. Full methodology, a data dictionary, and the source code are published at github.com/Center-for-Western-Priorities/2026-NPS-Agreement-Disapprovals.

Learn more:

• Trump administration blocks $25 million in funding for national parks — Washington Post

• Gold statues and staff cuts: How Trump has disrupted America’s parks — New York Times

The post STATEMENT: New map tracks $25.9 million in NPS projects blocked by Trump administration appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline.

Does wind power require backup from fossil fuels?

Most power grids still combine fossil fuels with renewables, but some already run entirely on renewable energy and offer models others could follow.

The majority of 100% renewable grids rely primarily on hydropower, though certain nations have significantly incorporated wind in their portfolios. Costa Rica and Uruguay have achieved 99-100% renewable power with around 17% and 35% coming from wind, respectively.

Several U.S. municipalities meet electricity demands using diverse portfolios of renewables, including wind. Burlington, Vermont’s 2024 supply was 99.9% renewable, mainly via hydropower, biomass, and wind; Seattle, Washington was 95% renewables powered in 2024. In Kansas and South Dakota, wind alone comprises 60% of generation.

Energy storage is also rapidly expanding as a solution to intermittency, with the U.S. ranking second globally and achieving record growth in 2025. Such combinations of renewable resources, storage, and transmission continue to enable more reliable, renewable grids.

Go to full rebuttal on Skeptical Science or to the fact brief on Gigafact

This fact brief is responsive to quotes such as this one.

Sources

Climate Council 11 countries leading the charge on renewable energy

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark Denmark #1 in share of renewables in net electricity generation for 2024 in the EU

IEA Lithuania

City of Burlington Electric Department Our Energy Portfolio

City of Seattle Power Supply and Delivery

Analysis of EIA data Share of electricity gen by wind, by state, 2025

U.S. Energy Information Administration Electricity Data Browser

U.S. Grid Energy Storage Factsheet University of Michigan

Princeton University Net-Zero America

NREL NREL Report Redefines Wind as a Grid Stabilizer, Not a Liability 

Columbia Law School Sabin Center for Climate Change Law Rebutting 33 False Claims About Solar, Wind, and Electric Vehicles

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Registered nurses at Carondelet St. Mary’s and St. Joseph’s hospitals will hold informational pickets to demand that Carondelet management address serious staffing, patient care, and nurse recruitment and retention issues. The nurses are deeply concerned about eroding patient care conditions and the lack of experienced staff to adequately care for patients safely.

For millions of people around the world, rising sea levels are already reshaping economies, livelihoods and cultures.

The world’s oceans are currently rising at a faster rate than at any time in at least the past three millennia, with human influence the “dominant cause” of sea level rise since at least 1970.

At the UN general assembly in New York this week, world leaders are set to adopt a high-level declaration on the “existential threats” posed by sea level rise. 

The declaration notes: “Sea level rise is not a distant scenario, but a real and lived experience for many.”

On average, global sea levels rose by 20 centimetres (cm) between 1901 and 2018. 

This is due to both the melting of glaciers and ice sheets and the expansion of seawater as it warms, as well as changes in land-water storage.

The rate of the rise has accelerated in recent years, with ocean levels rising 10.6cm since 1993. 

Sea level rise can vary locally due to seismic and volcanic activity, groundwater extraction and changes to the Earth’s surface resulting from ice melt. 

Under a moderate-emissions scenario, scientists predict that global average sea level will rise an additional 56cm by 2100, relative to a 1995-2014 baseline. 

Here, Carbon Brief unpacks some of the key ways that sea level rise threatens both societies and ecosystems. 

• Cities and coastal communities
• Biodiversity and coastal ecosystems
• Small island developing states
• Coral reefs
• Heritage sites

Article Contents Expand menu

• Cities and coastal communities
• Biodiversity and coastal ecosystems
• Small island developing states
• Coral reefs
• Heritage sites

Cities and coastal communities

Around 770 million people – 10% of the world’s population – are at “acute risk” of negative impacts from sea level rise, according to a report from the UN secretary general released last month. 

(The report defines locations at acute risk as those that are less than five metres above the high-tide line.)

The people at risk include the residents of several of the world’s largest cities, including Mumbai and Kolkata in India and Shenzhen and Guangzhou in China. It also encompasses the entire populations of many island nations. (See: Small island developing states.)

There are two ways to consider sea level rise. 

Global-average sea level rise is the amount the ocean surface has moved upwards, on average, relative to a baseline. 

Relative, or local, sea level rise, is how much the ocean has risen in a given place. This can vary from the global average due to a number of factors, including land motion and ocean circulation, as well as changes to the Earth’s surface, rotation and gravitational pull due to the melting of the ice sheets.

Higher sea levels bring with them myriad dangers for coastal communities: they can increase persistent flooding and inundation, strengthen dangerous storm surges and erode beaches and cliffs. Sea level rise also causes the water table of coastal land to rise, which exacerbates flood risk.

The frequency of 100-year “extreme sea level events” has already increased 12-fold since 1900. These are events where high tides, storm surges and relative sea level rise combine to produce exceptionally high sea levels. Under a moderate-emissions scenario, these events are likely to occur at least annually – and, potentially, even more frequently – in many places by the end of the century.

In addition to damage to homes and other buildings, critical infrastructure – such as water systems and wastewater management projects – is increasingly vulnerable to flooding as a result of sea level rise. Flooding can cut communities off from essential services, such as hospitals and markets, with low-income and other marginalised groups disproportionately affected.

Inland encroachment of seawater leads to the saltwater intrusion and threatens agriculture in low-lying coastal areas.

Vertical land motion can also amplify the risk of rising seas. This includes a shifting of the land in response to seismic or volcanic activity or to land sinking, known as subsidence. The changes in local sea level due to these types of vertical motion can equal or surpass the contributions of climate-driven sea level rise.

Many of the coastal cities experiencing the largest changes in their relative sea level are located in east and south-east Asia. One notable example is Jakarta, Indonesia, which has been sinking by up to 15cm per year over the past decade, due largely to the overextraction of groundwater, which leads to the collapse of underground aquifers. 

But even as the risks from sea level rise increase, population growth in coastal areas continues to outstrip that of inland areas. Between 2000 and 2018, the global population grew by slightly more than 23%. The population living within 5km of a coast increased by 28% over that same time.

The associated development of coastal areas means that, even without future sea level rise, global losses from flooding in the world’s largest 136 coastal cities could reach up to $52bn per year by 2050 – up from $6bn in 2005.

In response to the growing threats posed by sea level rise, communities around the world have implemented a number of adaptive actions. 

Venice’s MOSE 1 flooding protection system, Italy. Credit: James Hancock / Alamy Stock Photo

In 2003, the Italian city of Venice began a years-long project to construct three floodgates that could be raised during high tide events to protect the city’s lagoon from the encroachment of the Adriatic Sea. The system was engaged for the first time in October 2020 and then another 48 times in the following two years. 

Other communities have opted for less technologically intensive adaptations, including constructing seawalls, restoring mangrove forests and marshes, disincentivising development in high-risk areas and relocating residents, buildings and infrastructure to higher ground or inland areas. 

However, existing adaptations may not be sufficient to protect communities. Under a low-emissions scenario, these protections may be breached 10 times as frequently over the next 30 years as they currently are.

Biodiversity and coastal ecosystems

The world’s coastal ecosystems are rapidly being destroyed due to both development and sea level rise. 

This combination of pressures is called “coastal squeeze”, where ecosystems that may have otherwise shifted inland in response to sea level rise find their paths blocked by human-made structures. 

Coastal squeeze has contributed to the widespread loss of the world’s wetlands.

Globally, nearly 28m hectares of coastal wetlands – including estuaries, tidal flats, mangroves and seagrass – have disappeared since 1970, according to the 2025 “global wetland outlook” report. This is an area equivalent to roughly the size of Ecuador. 

Although the report names conversion to agriculture as the largest driver of wetland loss, it notes:

“Climate change is increasingly exacerbating the impact of other drivers on wetlands and human wellbeing through changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, associated fires, floods and droughts and through sea level rise.”

In the continental US, just 16% of coastal wetlands are migrating inland at rates that exceed local sea level rise. Nearly three-quarters of sites are moving at rates that do not outpace sea level rise, while 11% are submerging. 

Low-lying islands are particularly threatened by sea level rise, due to their large amounts of coastline relative to their land areas. At the same time, islands are often “hotspots” of biodiversity, with many home to species found nowhere else in the world. More than 20% of the Earth’s known plant species are found only on islands.

A 2013 study modelled the impact of different amounts of sea level rise on 10 island biodiversity hotspots, comprising nearly 4,450 individual islands. It found that in a future with one metre of sea level rise, around 6% of the island habitat area would be completely submerged, while more than 11% of the hotspot islands would see their land area reduced by at least half. This could put dozens of species at risk of extinction, the study said.

Beach spectaclepod (Dithyrea maritima). Credit: piemags/nature / Alamy Stock Photo

In 2024, researchers documented the first known extirpation, or local extinction, of a plant species in the US due to sea level rise. Hurricanes and storm surges – amplified by sea level rise – began to kill off the only US population of the Key Largo cactus in the 2010s. 

The remaining cacti suffered from soil erosion and saltwater intrusion and the final remaining specimens were removed in 2021 in an effort to cultivate them in greenhouses. (Other Caribbean islands, including Cuba, do still have surviving populations of the cactus.)

As native flora and fauna are diminished or even eliminated by rising sea levels, coastal ecosystems may become vulnerable to colonisation by invasive alien species, further harming biodiversity. 

And as coastal communities are forced to relocate due to sea level rise, there are knock-on effects for biodiversity as they develop on new lands. These secondary biodiversity impacts are likely to be particularly prevalent in south-east Asia, due to the large number of people living in low-lying areas who may be forced to migrate due to sea level rise.

Small island developing states

Sea level rise poses an “acute and disproportionate” threat to small island developing states, says the recent UN report. It adds:

“Even under moderate scenarios, rising seas will render many low-lying coastal zones and small island developing states increasingly uninhabitable without extraordinary adaptation.”

Climate change is already resulting in loss and damage to small island nations, which are particularly vulnerable to both climate change in general and sea level rise specifically.

This vulnerability is in large part due to the geography of these countries. Several small island Pacific states are made up of atolls – ring-shaped coral or sandy islands that encircle lagoons. These often have average elevations of 1-2 metres above sea level and maximum elevations of 3-5 metres above sea level. 

Panoramic aerial view of Kanton Island. Kiribati. Credit: Galaxiid / Alamy Stock Photo

Some modelling evidence has shown that reef islands can grow vertically in response to sea level rise, as waves washing over the islands transport sediment from the ocean onto the surface. However, the strength of such waves would likely make these islands unsuitable for building on.

Other research has shown that Pacific islands respond in many different ways to rising sea levels, with “complex” outcomes, both positive and negative.

In addition, most of the small-island nations in the Pacific Ocean are located in a region where relative sea level rise from the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet is projected to be 11-33% higher than the global average rise in 2100 – regardless of emissions scenario.

The effects of this higher-than-average sea level rise is already evident.

In 1999, Kiribati lost two small, uninhabited islands to the rising seas. Several uninhabited islands in the Solomon Islands had vanished by 2014, while a further six islands had been severely eroded by the ocean, necessitating the relocation of some communities. 

In addition, most small island developing states are located in parts of the ocean that are often hit by tropical cyclones. Sea level rise can enhance storm surge, leading to greater destruction during such storms.

However, small island developing states are also vulnerable “because they lack the means to address the impacts on their own”, reads the UN report. 

According to the UN, these countries will require up to $6bn annually by 2035 in order to adapt to climate change. However, they received just $1.2bn in public adaptation finance in 2022-23.

Aerial view of the damage caused by hurricane Dorian, Bahamas. Credit: AC NewsPhoto / Alamy Stock Photo

Currently, small island developing states experience “expected” annual climate damages of $1.64bn due to coastal flooding, equivalent to 0.13% of their cumulative GDP. But, even if warming were limited to 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures, these annual damages are projected to grow to $24bn.

In the international policy arena, questions have arisen over what should happen to island nations’ maritime boundaries as their land is enveloped by the sea. This is because maritime holdings, such as exclusive economic zones, are determined based on a country’s land borders.

However, a 2025 report by the UN International Law Commission considered the legal implications of sea level rise. It concluded that international law allows for countries’ borders to stay the same, “notwithstanding changes to the coastline as a result of climate change-related sea level rise”. It also noted:

“There is a need to develop legal and practical solutions to better protect persons affected by sea level rise, including those who remain in situ and those who are internally or externally displaced by it.”

Other small islands also face similar issues in their exposure to threats posed by sea level rise.

Coral reefs

Coral reefs are among the ecosystems that are most vulnerable to climate change.

They are also being visibly affected already – almost entirely due to ocean warming. Even though these ecosystems are completely submerged to begin with, they are also impacted by sea level rise. 

As the ocean rises, the water over shallow ecosystems deepens. 

The effects of this are twofold. Deeper water reduces the temperatures experienced by reefs. This can act as a buffer against marine heatwaves and global ocean warming. 

At the same time, the increased depth reduces the amount of light that can reach the coral communities, which can impact their survival.

In addition, sea level rise-assisted erosion will add more sediment to the near-shore waters. These particles can settle on corals, impeding their ability to feed and reproduce, as well as interfering with photosynthesis by the zooxanthellae algae that live symbiotically with corals. Together, this leads to slower coral growth and increased stress on reefs. 

So far, reefs in some parts of the world have been able to “keep pace” with sea level rise, growing vertically at accelerated rates and therefore maintaining suitable levels of light availability.

However, modelling has shown that few reefs have the capacity to continue to maintain their distance from the surface under a moderate-emissions scenario. 

Coral reef. Credit: imageBROKER.com / Alamy Stock Photo

As coral reefs degrade, the seafloor below them can wear away. This erosion is contributing to greater apparent levels of sea level rise on coral reefs in the Caribbean, as well as the US states of Florida and Hawaii. 

Sea level rise may also have the ability to spur reef growth in shallow environments previously thought to be uninhabitable for corals. In Sanya Bay in the northern South China Sea, sea level rise since the mid-1980s has allowed for the recolonisation of a reef that had been dormant for more than five millennia. 

But the opportunities for such recolonisation are far outstripped by the loss of coral elsewhere. Since 1980, the world has lost nearly 10% of its coral cover due to climate change-induced ocean warming. The UN declaration reads:

“Every fraction of a degree of global warming increases the risks to coral reefs.”

Heritage sites

Throughout human history, many societies developed along rivers and coastlines, due to the abundance of food and ease of transportation. However, their proximity to the sea means that many of these sites are now at risk of being damaged or destroyed by sea level rise.

Cultural heritage includes “physical sites, living heritage, traditional lands, burial grounds, underwater cultural heritage, archaeological and sacred sites and culturally significant coastal landscapes”, according to the UN sea level rise report. 

Tongariki, Rapa Nui, Chile. Credit: Robert Wyatt / Alamy Stock Photo

Several studies have mapped the cultural and natural heritage sites that are most at risk from flooding and erosion due to sea level rise. 

There are 49 Unesco world heritage sites located at low elevations along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Nearly every one of these is already at risk from erosion or severe flooding events – 42 face issues with erosion, while 37 are at risk from a 100-year flood event. Both of these risks will increase over the remainder of the century as sea levels continue to rise. 

The locations at risk include the archaeological sites of the ancient cities of Carthage in present-day Tunisia and Ephesus in Turkey, the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy and the medieval Cathedral of St James in Šibenik, Croatia. 

The sea level rise associated with warming of 3C above pre-industrial temperatures would impact nearly one-fifth of all Unesco cultural world heritage sites. The sites at risk include Japan’s Hiroshima Peace Memorial, South Africa’s Robben Island, Chile’s Rapa Nui and the Sydney Opera House. Many of these become vulnerable at lower levels of global warming.

In Africa, 56 out of 284 cultural and natural heritage sites already face threats from flooding or erosion due to sea level rise. This number is expected to nearly triple – to 191 threatened sites – by 2050 under a moderate-emissions scenario. However, mitigating emissions could reduce the number of very-highly exposed sites – those with at least 75% of their area vulnerable – by one-quarter.

Globally, there are 386 Unesco heritage sites along the coast that are, at most, 20 metres above sea level and are therefore potentially affected by coastal erosion and flood hazards.

These threatened sites include 289 cultural heritage sites and 91 natural heritage sites, as well as six “mixed” sites that are recognised for both their cultural and natural significance.

The UN declaration calls for action to mitigate damage to significant sites, saying:

“Protection, preservation and documentation of cultural heritage is a priority.”

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The post Explainer: How sea level rise poses an ‘existential threat’ to humans, heritage and nature appeared first on Carbon Brief.

National Nurses United announced its endorsement of Justin Pearson for Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District. Pearson has spent his life fighting for justice for his community, including holding polluters and corporate-backed politicians accountable. If elected, he will bring that same bold leadership to Congress.

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• Nepal’s needs
• Requests vs pledges
• ‘Rapid response’

The Nepali government has requested $20m from the UN fund for “loss and damage”, following the devastating floods that hit the country in late August.

This amounts to just 0.7% of the $2.7bn it has estimated in “physical damage” to infrastructure and “economic losses” from the flooding, according to Carbon Brief analysis.

The $20m request would, nevertheless, make Nepal the fourth-largest claimant to the UN loss-and-damage fund, which is intended to help deal with climate-related disasters.

Developing countries have already made 176 applications to the UN fund for responding to loss and damage, requesting, in total, $2.8bn to help recover from a variety of damaging events, such as drought, floods and storms.

Yet, to date, predominantly developed nations have only pledged $0.8bn to support the fund.

This means requests to the fund are already three times larger than the total amount pledged, raising questions about its potential to respond to emergencies.

As yet, no funding has been paid out of the fund to developing countries grappling with intensifying and more frequent climate change-induced disasters since it was established in 2023.

Nepal’s needs

On 26 August, Nepal was hit by flash floods following a catastrophic rock-ice avalanche in the Himalayan border region. The flooding has killed more than 1,400 people, with thousands still missing. 

Days later, the Nepali government sought an “urgent response” from the board of the UN fund for climate-driven loss and damage. 

It subsequently requested $20m in “financial compensation” from the fund. This is the maximum amount that can currently be requested for a single project.

“Loss and damage” is a term used to describe how climate change is causing serious and, in many cases, irreversible impacts around the world. Nations established the UN fund in 2023, after decades of effort by climate-vulnerable nations.

Nepal’s national disaster management authority has now released an extensive rapid preliminary assessment of “damage and needs” from the floods.

As the chart below shows, Nepal’s $20m loss-and-damage claim would only cover 0.7% of what authorities describe as $2.7bn in “total damage and loss” from the floods.

When accounting for another $4.8bn in “recovery and reconstruction” costs – part of how loss and damage is internationally defined – then Nepal’s $20m claim would be just 0.3% of the needs it estimates.

Reacting to the analysis, Nepal’s climate negotiator Raju Pandit Chhetri tells Carbon Brief that the country’s $20m request was for “rapid response”, adding: 

“That money is going to be a peanut if it was to be invested into reconstruction.”

Requests vs pledges

Vulnerable, developing countries have long argued that developed nations should be held responsible for loss and damage, while countries such as the US have blocked moves that could have led to them being liable for climate-related damages

From December 2025 until July 2026, developing countries made 176 applications to the loss-and-damage fund, requesting over $2.8bn in assistance.

So far, predominantly developed countries have pledged only $822m to the fund. (Some nations that are not categorised as “developed” under the UN, such as the UAE and South Korea, have also committed funds.)

Funding requests from developing countries to date are, therefore, more than triple what has been pledged.

Apart from Nepal’s new request, “requested” data is based on the project pipeline as of 29 June 2026. Analysis by Carbon Brief.

Moreover, only around half of the money pledged so far has been paid into the fund by donor nations, with large sums from France, Italy and the UAE still outstanding.

The fund has made $342m available in its initial funding round in July 2026. However, as of September, no money from the fund has been distributed to any countries facing climate-related disasters.

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According to Carbon Brief analysis, off the 176 loss-and-damage fund requests received from 118 countries, more than 60% are from least developed countries  – such as Nepal – and small-island nations. So far, each individual funding request is capped at $20m. 

The flood-related request is Nepal’s fourth appeal to the fund and, as the chart below shows, this makes it the fourth-largest claimant overall. 

Apart from Nepal’s new request, data is based on the project pipeline as of 29 June 2026. Analysis by Carbon Brief.

Nine other countries have made multiple requests to the fund. Madagascar – hit by back-to-back cyclones after a prolonged drought – has made six requests in total. 

Drought-ravaged Suriname, Ecuador, Brazil and Barbados have specified that their funding requests are part of an “emergency response”.

‘Rapid response’

Nepal’s $20m claim has sparked a conversation on climate justice and the ability of the loss-and-damage fund to deliver, in the face of increasingly frequent extreme-weather events.

In a letter sent five days after the disaster, Nepal’s finance minister Dr Swarnim Wagle appealed to the fund’s board to mobilise an “urgent response” that would “signal” that the fund:

“[I]s capable of responding with humanity, speed, flexibility and solidarity when climate-vulnerable countries face losses and damages beyond their capacity to address alone.”

Board members from Asia-Pacific and African countries wrote a letter in support of the Himalayan country in crisis, urging the board to convene and “potentially agree to a provisional set-aside allocation of resources to support rapid response funding for Nepal”. 

They pointed out that the board’s response to Nepal could offer “procedural lessons” in how to strengthen its “rapid-response” to sudden-onset extreme-weather events. Such support is explicitly part of the fund’s mandate.

On 14 September, developed-country members of the fund’s board wrote that they supported a “consultation” on Nepal, but made no commitments in terms of actual funding. 

Harjeet Singh, loss-and-damage expert and global convenor of the Fill the Fund campaign, tells Carbon Brief that the fund’s board deals with most funding requests as regular projects, rather than emergencies. Singh continues: 

“Developed countries gave a really cold response to Nepal’s request. They have not addressed it because they know that if this happens once, they are going to be under pressure all the time. This is unacceptable.” 

Meanwhile, BBC News reported that Nepal plans to use climate attribution studies to strengthen its claim.

According to a rapid attribution study by World Weather Attribution and climate experts who spoke to Carbon Brief, factors such as glacial retreat and permafrost thaw that played a key role in the disaster have been linked to climate change. A full attribution study is pending. 

Nepal’s prime minister Balendra Shah will address the UN general assembly on 24 September and is expected to raise issues around climate justice, loss and damage and the vulnerability of mountain countries.

The next board meeting of the loss and damage fund is on 15 December, two months from now, and a fortnight after the conclusion of COP31 in Turkey.

Pandit Chhetri tells Carbon Brief:

“It’s a shame that, until now, the fund has not been able to even give a penny to developing countries. And, starkly, the event in Nepal only demonstrates why this kind of fund is so important for highly vulnerable, poor, developing countries.”

Pandit Chhetri adds that, after nearly three weeks since the disaster, there is yet to be a decision on the request and that the country has “only received messages of solidarity”, with no assurance of rapid response funds. He says that it is “quite an interesting scene for [us] to observe”, adding:

“If the fund cannot respond in a crisis like this for a country like Nepal – when you have this massive destruction and devastation – then what is the use of the fund itself? That’s why it is a test for the fund, though the resources are limited.”

Related Analysis: India’s power-sector emissions flat for two years due to clean-energy surge 17.09.2026 Emissions World falling short on 22 of 23 nature targets for 2030, says draft UN report 29.07.2026 International policy Analysis: 84% of nations miss deadline to identify ‘nature-harming’ subsidies by 2025  28.07.2026 International policy Access to finance ‘strengthens climate resilience’ among sub-Saharan women 24.07.2026 International policy

The post Analysis: Nepal’s $20m ‘loss-and-damage’ claim only covers 0.7% of flood costs appeared first on Carbon Brief.

Wetland plants grown on the surface of wastewater treatment lagoons can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from these water bodies by more than one-quarter, according to a new study. These so-called “floating wetlands” may be an elegant solution that works with existing infrastructure to address a growing emissions hotspot.

Wastewater treatment is responsible for 1.6% of global greenhouse gas emissions. As economic development brings better sanitation to more of the world’s population, this climate impact is also increasing. “Wastewater treatment solves one environmental problem by cleaning dirty water, but creates another by emitting greenhouse gases,” says study team member Lukas Schuster, who studies nature-based climate solutions at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.

Floating wetlands, in which native reeds and other marsh plants are planted on buoyant artificial structures with their roots dangling in the water, are becoming a widespread tool for soaking up excess nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus in wastewater lagoons. These open-air ponds temporarily store treated water before it is released into adjacent waterways, reused for irrigation, or undergoes further treatment to be recycled into drinking water.

Researchers have suspected that floating wetlands might also reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the surface of wastewater lagoons. In the first large-scale, real-world test of this hunch, Schuster and his collaborators constructed a floating wetland the size of one-and-a-half tennis courts on portion of a wastewater lagoon in southeastern Australia. They monitored water quality and greenhouse gas emissions from the surface of the water for two years.

The floating wetlands reduced carbon dioxide emissions off the surface of the lagoon by up to 36%, methane up to 66%, and nitrous oxide by up to 18% compared to an adjacent portion of the lagoon without a floating wetland, the researchers found. Overall greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by up to 31%.

 

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“One of the biggest surprises was how quickly greenhouse gas emissions declined after the floating wetland was installed,” Schuster says. The researchers expected that emissions would only be dampened after nutrients were removed from the water. In fact, greenhouse gas emissions declines were seen four to seven months into the experiment, but nutrient reductions only emerged after about a year.

It’s not yet clear exactly how the plants work their magic. “We suspect that interactions between plant roots, microbial communities, and greenhouse gas production and consumption may be important, but targeted measurements are needed to test these mechanisms,” says Schuster.

And there are still some kinks to be worked out. Trimming the plants—necessary to promote regrowth and maximize nutrient uptake—tends to trigger spikes of methane release, so the researchers want to figure out how to minimize that result. The harvested material, which amounted to nearly one metric ton in the current study, also needs to be converted into some form of longer-term carbon storage to make sure the system truly benefits the climate (the researchers suggest biochar).

Schuster and his team are now looking at adding floating wetlands to farm ponds. “These systems receive substantial inputs of nutrients and organic matter from livestock and can have high greenhouse gas emissions relative to their size,” Schuster says. The new study will help assess whether floating wetlands are a climate solution that could be applied to various types of aquatic systems, he says.

Sources: Schuster L. et al. “Constructed floating wetlands cut greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater lagoons.” Journal of Environmental Management 2026.

Image: Courtesy of Lukas Schuster.

 

AI data centre growth presents an opportunity for Ontario to build the electricity system it needs for the future. With the right policies, private investment from this emerging industry can help bring new clean power, storage, and grid...

Headline News:

• “Final Turbine Installed At Revolution Wind” • Ørsted has installed the final turbine at the 704-MW Revolution Wind array off the coast of Connecticut and Rhode Island. The 65-turbine wind farm began exporting power to the grid in March of this year, and Ørsted plans on reaching full commercial operation later this year. [reNews]

Revolution Wind ( Ørsted image)

• “Kallas Urges EU Countries To Bolster Red Sea Mission As Houthi Threats Mount” • EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has asked EU countries to strengthen the Aspides mission in the Red Sea, as threats from Houthis to navigation in the Bab el-Mandeb increase. The strait is crucial for trade routes between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. [Euronews]
• “Tackling Contrails Could Avoid Ten Years of Aviation-Related Climate Warming” • Contrails left by planes reflect heat back to the Earth, adding to global warming at a similar level to the CO₂ emissions of aviation. A report by Klima Consulting finds that preventing their formation could delay aviation-related global warming by ten years. [CleanTechnica]
• “Nvidia Chip-Use Emissions Match That Of A Russian State Coal Producer, Report Says” • Emissions from the use of Nvidia’s chips could equal those of burning coal sold by Russian Coal, a Russian state-owned company, a report says. Nvidia’s supply chain emissions have risen by 725% since 2020, an increase of about 9.4 million tonnes of CO₂. [Euronews]
• “Donald Trump Loses In Court, Solar Energy Funds To Be Reinstated” • A Trump-appointed judge on the US District Court for the District of Rhode Island ruled against the Trump regime’s attempt to withhold $7 billion of funding for projects for solar energy. The funding had been for the Solar For All program. The Sierra Club commented. [CleanTechnica]

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

During the military dictatorships, Mejía faced political persecution because of her trade-union and organizational activities. She died on August 29, 2026, at the age of 77.

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Amtrak and Canal Edge are building a modern maintenance facility to support passenger rail in Chicago and across the Midwest. Read more.

Beneath the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, and the deserts in between, lies a massive energy source — and it isn’t a fossil fuel. The smashing and separating of tectonic plates that produced many of the West’s most dramatic landscapes have also allowed heat from the planet’s core to rise nearly to the surface. Now, an explosion of new geothermal energy companies wants to drill into the Earth and capture that heat for clean electricity. These companies have new technologies to better reach the heat, and a massive new customer base: energy-hungry data centers.

Tech giants seeking to build data centers while meeting their climate goals see geothermal as a promising option because it can produce consistent power around the clock, unlike solar and wind. Meta and Google have signed agreements with geothermal start-ups in New Mexico and Utah, including a deal announced this month in which Google agreed to buy 396 megawatts from Fervo’s soon-to-come-online Cape Station facility in southwest Utah, enough to power around 430,000 households. The federal government also received record per-acre bids from developers seeking to build geothermal on public lands in the Mountain West this year. New geothermal technology borrowed from the oil and gas industry, along with California’s renewable-energy goals, have helped drive the boom, but experts say demand from tech companies is a major factor. 

“A lot of these companies have clean power goals, though they are not firm goals when other factors are on the line,” said Wilson Ricks, who manages the electricity program at the climate-focused nonprofit Clean Air Task Force. “Constant power, the kind that geothermal can provide, is really key to supplying data center growth as cleanly as possible, and specifically for providing an alternative to just building lots of gas turbines.”

These new geothermal projects are located in dry Western states because of their geology, but they face an ironic practical challenge: Most new geothermal technologies need water to produce power. If they’re serving data centers, that water use comes on top of the water that data centers pipe in to prevent their servers from overheating. Meeting Western data centers’ demand with geothermal may require careful planning, given the region’s limited water resources, and innovations to make geothermal wells less thirsty. 

Geothermal’s tech and business boom is all about water. Traditional geothermal power works by punching a well into a super-hot pocket of underground water and bringing that water to the surface, like an artificial hot spring. The water either becomes steam or turns another fluid into steam, which spins a turbine to generate electricity. The water is then sent back into the ground to heat up again.

This method requires the perfect combination of heat and naturally occurring water to function, so it’s limited to a few small areas of the map. Newer, “next-generation” geothermal technologies try to get around this problem by bringing their own water to dry, hot rocks and circulating it. The amount of water developers have to introduce, however, can vary widely depending on the method.

A company called XGS Energy is trying to provide geothermal energy that requires nearly no water to New Mexico, which is currently suffering a decades-long drought. XGS uses “closed loop” technology that cycles water through the Earth in a continuous pipe, transferring the Earth’s heat to that water through a special material it layers onto the pipe, and then heating a secondary fluid that vaporizes and runs a turbine. The system recycles the same water over and over again without losing it to evaporation or seepage. In 2025, Meta agreed to support XGS’s project to produce 150 megawatts of power at a yet unspecified location in New Mexico.

XGS said its water savings are what sets it apart from other geothermal systems, and that its simple design yields benefits in terms of scalability, operating cost, and performance predictability.

“For geothermal to broadly scale across the United States, communities need geothermal systems that actively conserve water,” XGS said in a statement. “This design enables us to develop in more locations across the West, and consistently win competitive contracts.”

A cyclist rides across the dry bed of the Rio Grande River in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in July.
Susan Montoya Bryan / AP

But XGS’s type of water-efficient technology may not be well suited to produce power on the scale of data centers’ power needs, according to Roland Horne, who leads the geothermal program at Stanford University. Closed-loop systems generally produce less power per well, and their wells have shorter lifespans than with other approaches, Horne said. Unless technology improves or tech companies absorb the higher costs, water-free geothermal may struggle to produce large amounts of power economically. 

A more popular approach is “enhanced geothermal,” which uses oil-and-gas-style fracking to circulate water through hot rock, manufacturing the kind of underground reservoir traditional geothermal relies on. Inevitably, this method involves losing some water underground. Enhanced geothermal can use less water than natural gas power, which uses it for cooling and steam generation, but the comparison varies by project.

At Fervo’s Project Red site in Nevada — the first enhanced geothermal project to produce commercial power — operators have reported losing 30 percent of the water they inject underground. Fervo says losses will be much lower at its Cape Station project in Utah, which is contracted to supply power to Google, because of its different design; but even at a 5 percent loss rate, large-scale deployment could consume substantial amounts of water. 

For instance, the software company Oracle recently proposed building up to 2 gigawatts of new renewable energy generation, possibly including geothermal, in New Mexico. (The announcement came in response to criticism over the climate impacts of a gas-powered data center Oracle is constructing that could become one of the state’s largest greenhouse gas emitters.) Rough calculations by Kristie McLin, principal investigator at the government geothermal laboratory Utah FORGE, suggest that supplying those 2 gigawatts entirely with enhanced geothermal could consume 42 million gallons of water per day — about half of Albuquerque’s average daily water demand.

“This is a real problem that the industry absolutely needs to try to figure out,” said McLin. “When it’s additive and all your other water sources are already allocated to other uses, it can be challenging to find the volume of water you need to start up and sustain enhanced geothermal.”

Protesters gather outside the New Mexico Environment Department to voice opposition to the Project Jupiter data center during a demonstration in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on August 21.
Susan Montoya Bryan / AP

Fervo isn’t using potable water at Cape Station; it uses salty brackish groundwater. But in a landscape where drought has made any water source valuable and potentially hard to find — and amid public outcry over data centers’ own water usage — a reliance on constant available water supplies could add another hurdle to geothermal’s spread. 

Water is one of several uncertainties, including transmission access, geology, and drilling costs, that can scare investors away from geothermal projects. The unusual combination of oil-and-gas-style exploration and electric generation has already made it hard to attract capital in some cases. Data center interest has eased that strain, but not solved it, according to Mike O’Connor, director of the Mountain West Geothermal Consortium, a nonprofit research organization. O’Connor is researching new funding mechanisms for geothermal to overcome some of these challenges.

Meanwhile, Utah FORGE researchers, whose facility is located next to Cape Station, are testing ways to reduce water losses, including changing how wells are spaced and how water is injected and recovered.

“Utah FORGE is going to demonstrate these different opportunities to reduce water losses and see what performance looks like long term,” McLin said.

The geothermal industry’s ability to answer these questions doesn’t just matter for data centers. California needs clean firm power like geothermal if it wants to meet its goal of 100 percent clean electricity sources by 2045. California already gets more than half its electricity from renewables like solar and wind, but it needs reliable power that can fill the gaps when those sources and batteries aren’t operating. The state’s utility regulator has required power providers to procure a gigawatt of clean firm power by 2026, prompting a California utility to promise to buy 320 megawatts of geothermal power from Cape Station.

“There was an argument for geothermal power before data centers, and there will be an argument for geothermal power after these data centers are built,” said O’Connor.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline A clean energy source is buried under the desert, but it takes water to use it on Sep 22, 2026.