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At Audubon Florida, our policy expertise and science-based policy solutions protect raptors across the Sunshine State. We are especially known for our long history of Bald Eagle protection, starting...

“In Las Vegas, one of the fastest warming cities in the country, you cannot live without electricity,” said protest organizer Leslie Vega, who said she’s lost loved ones to heatstroke.

Rebecca Pearce is building a model of something nobody can see: the intense heat trapped kilometres beneath Canada. It’s also a model of a better future for all. 

Pearce is a geophysicist and the science lead for the Cascade Institute’s Ultradeep Geothermal program. She studies a resource tucked so deeply out of sight that most people don’t realize it’s there. Pearce is modelling an inexhaustible zero-carbon resource that could power Canada’s prosperity for generations. 

“Geothermal energy is our next energy revolution,” she says. She and her Cascade Institute colleagues have conducted research and published reports demonstrating that existing Canadian technology and expertise (inherited from the oil and gas industry) can quickly spark big advances in geothermal.  

The Cascade Institute studies the polycrisis: the tangled web of compounding climate, energy, economic and geopolitical crises we’re living through. The Institute identifies high-leverage interventions (well-timed nudges that can ripple outward to address numerous problems at once) and works with governments and frontline actors to act on them. Geothermal energy is among the most promising of those interventions.  

Just as multiple crises can interact and snowball in pernicious cascades, so too can the right intervention at the right time spark a virtuous cascade of improvement toward a better future.  

Research shows that geothermal energy can significantly ease some of the pressures straining the global energy system while accelerating the shift to clean energy sources in response to climate change.  

Pearce aims to translate the complex geophysics of geothermal into language that resonates with the policymakers and communities who stand to benefit from it. To that end, she delivered an impassioned TEDx Talk at Royal Roads University in 2025: 

 “Beneath us lies an infinite supply of heat,” she says in the talk. Energy from just the top 10 kilometres of crust, she explains, “could supply our current global energy needs for over 200 million years.” 

Pearce has chased underground heat round the planet since pursuing her PhD at University College London. She is an expert in applied magnetotellurics (think X-rays for the ground, which allow scientists to locate geothermal hotspots deep below the surface). 

“Geothermal can truly be found anywhere,” says Pearce, who lives in Victoria, BC.  

Her fascination with the underground began early, during childhood hours spent gazing at the Royal Ontario Museum’s volcano exhibit. She was fascinated by the hidden forces that shoved continents together and pushed up mountains.  

Although the geophysics Pearce pursues is complex, the basic principles behind geothermal energy are simple: heat from underground makes steam, which spins a turbine to make electricity. It’s similar in that regard to oil and gas, with a key differentiator—geothermal doesn’t burn anything, so there are no emissions. The power is constant and clean.  

The heat beneath Canada, and much of the world, has been largely inaccessible until recent advances have made geothermal both widely achievable and affordable.  

But there’s a problem: large swaths of Canada’s underground remain unmodelled. Without a model, there’s no government support, no drilling, no progress.  

The goal, Pearce says, is for the model to be “akin to a wind or solar map, so we can illustrate to policymakers that geothermal resources exist across Canada.” 

Pearce and her Cascade Institute colleagues will be part of the World Geothermal Congress, which is being held this June in Calgary. Hosting the event on Canadian soil is a rare opportunity to showcase the incredible potential for geothermal energy in the country.  

Pearce points out that in 2023, the world invested $2 billion in geothermal technology; wind power, by comparison, received $200 billion That kind of money could have funded 400 full-scale geothermal demonstration projects, Pearce says, “but we currently have four.”  

“Geothermal isn’t failing us,” she told her TEDx audience. “We are failing geothermal.” 

Pearce is convinced this can change, and that Canada is unusually well-placed to change it. The country’s decades of oil and gas drilling expertise transfer almost directly to geothermal. She hopes to change that, and believes geothermal energy is on the cusp of a boom for those who seize the opportunity.   

“It will sustain us for thousands of generations to come,” she says. “That is our return on investment.” 

The post Meet the rock doctor modelling Canada’s geothermal opportunity appeared first on Cascade Institute.

Emily Smejkal is on a mission to unveil what she calls Canada’s “invisible resource.” This month, the world arrives in Canada to see it.  

Smejkal is a Cascade Institute researcher and an organizer of the World Geothermal Congress, which, from June 8 to 11, will host global experts and innovators seeking to accelerate the adoption of the clean energy resource.  

Deep underneath Canada, in rock pressure-cooked by seismic forces, is a limitless supply of non-polluting energy just waiting to be accessed.  

“It’s an invisible resource because it is hiding beneath our feet,” says Smejkal. “Most Canadians aren’t even aware we have it, let alone the important role it could play in unlocking abundant, clean energy to power our future.” 

Unlike solar and wind power — which you can feel warming your face or messing up your hair — deep geothermal energy lies so far underground that its mere existence isn’t obvious. Its potential benefits, however, are widely understood by experts like Smejkal, who hopes the World Geothermal Congress will help turn the tide of public awareness.  

As policy lead for the Cascade Institute’s Geothermal Energy Office and a research fellow on Cascade’s Ultradeep Geothermal team, Smejkal is one of the scientists working to pull geothermal energy out of obscurity and into production. 

Emily Smejkal is one of the driving forces behind the World Geothermal Congress.

Smejkal has been instrumental in pulling together the 2026 World Geothermal Congress in Calgary. The triennial event is an opportunity to showcase Canada’s largely untapped geothermal potential on a global stage — and, she hopes, demonstrate to Canadian policymakers that geothermal should be an essential part of Canada’s clean energy transition.  

The Cascade Institute views geothermal energy as a vital intervention for addressing and mitigating the polycrisis – the web of interconnected crises afflicting the world. Smejkal’s role involves demonstrating to policymakers, regulators, and the public that geothermal energy can power a better future.   

Smejkal spent the first decade of her career as a geologist in Canada’s oil and gas industry, studying the hidden architecture of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin kilometres below the prairie.  

“What’s below the Earth’s surface really fascinates me,” she says, “but I really wanted to lean into using those skills in a more environmentally sustainable way.” Geothermal was the natural fit. 

Although geothermal energy requires complex science and technology to unlock, the basic idea behind it is stunningly simple.  

“Geothermal energy literally just means earth heat,” she explains. “You bring the planet’s own warmth to the surface, run it through a turbine, and you get electricity that is renewable, carbon-free, and always on.”  

For most of history, that heat was only accessible where it was right up at the surface of the Earth, at volcanoes and hot springs. This was great for places like Iceland, but not for places where heat is trapped much deeper, like most of North America.  

Thankfully, Smejkal explains, Canada already has enormous drilling expertise from the oil industry, which translates almost perfectly to geothermal exploration. 

“Canadians are really good at drilling wells,” she says. Canada is the world’s sixth-largest oil and gas producer, and the International Energy Agency estimates that about 80 percent of oil-and-gas skills transfer directly to geothermal. 

At a time when energy is quickly becoming the world’s most contested currency, Canada sits on vast geothermal reserves while remaining reliant on energy from elsewhere. Clean electricity accessible almost anywhere in Canada is about more than climate policy, Smekjal says — it’s about sovereignty too. 

Unlike solar and wind, whose supply chains were long ago captured by China and the United States, geothermal is nascent and the supply chain is still largely up for grabs. The overlap with oil and gas also means that much of that supply chain already exists in Canada. 

“If we don’t do it now, we’re going to be a technology taker instead of a technology maker,” says Smejkal.  

Canada’s signature energy achievements of the past — the CANDU reactor, the oil sands, the unconventional gas boom — were no flukes. Each was a made-in-Canada technology driven by industrial strategy, public research, and implementing partnerships. 

There’s a lot of work ahead. Only three provinces have geothermal regulations in place. Renewable tax credits, written for wind and solar, exclude the cost of drilling. The last federally funded national geothermal energy program ended in the 1980s. 

So Smejkal does the essential work of drafting model regulations, speaking with policymakers, and coalition-building with like-minded scientists and entrepreneurs.  

The World Geothermal Congress in June is the biggest opportunity Smejkal — and Canada’s entire geothermal coalition — has ever had to showcase the invisible resource that could revolutionize clean energy.  

As vice-president of Geothermal Canada, the group hosting the conference, Smejkal has invited the world’s experts to a country that, historically, has underestimated the opportunity that lies beneath it. She believes this June in Calgary will mark a turning point for her field, especially in Canada.  

“My ultimate goal,” she says, “is for Canada to be a geothermal leader. We have the resources and skill — we just need the collective will.” 

 

The post An energy scientist invites the world to Canada appeared first on Cascade Institute.

Across Florida Bay, the Audubon Everglades Research Station team kayaked, boated, and hiked through mangroves to monitor 244 Roseate Spoonbill nests in 22 active colonies.157 nests fledged at least...

Sometimes, you have to take the long view, so this week, we’re joined by Ryan Avent, author of, “In Good Faith: How the Nature of Belief Shapes the Fate of Societies” to discuss The Big Issues: human evolution, the impact of collective knowledge and culture, and the need to create a new story about the future of society. It gets deeper than that: We also discuss grass-is-greener thinking on infrastructure, the nature of belief without the need for evidence, and the fact that there is no perfect past.

This is a “Talking Headways” for the Ages, so let’s review all the ways you can enjoy this spirited content:

• Click here for a full transcript, albeit with some AI typos.
• Click the player below to listen.
• Or check out the lightly edited excerpt below the player.

Jeff Wood: Usually when I’m thinking about cities and reading a book like “The City History” by Lewis Mumford or whatever it might be, it’s always usually going back 5,000 years. It’s not going back 100,000 years, which I got from reading your book.

That was a really important part of it, because this slow process is building upon itself and all of the cell creation and whatever was happening to apes led to civilization as it is now. And that process was really interesting because usually we think about civilization as like a point that we started building cities, and then we went from there. But actually it goes back even further to this idea of care and caring.

Ryan Avent: As humans, as historians, people love to chop things up into eras and say, “Oh, this sort of revolution unfolded here, and thereafter we were completely different.”

And we do this all the time. We do it with agriculture and the first cities and states and with the Industrial Revolution. And I think it’s important to realize a couple things. One, that these big moments come together slowly out of a lot of accumulating changes in the past, and we can only understand them in that way, right?

As much as it might seem like there are specific individuals or societies or civilizations that figure something out that no one ever figured out before, change is generally evolutionary. But the other side of that is the question of whether there is this process of cultural adaptation that’s going on throughout our whole history, right?

And we have to learn to develop the ideas and the stories that allow us to kind of exploit particular niches, right? So agriculture, when we first became dependent on it, was awful. It was way worse than hunting and gathering. People did back-breaking labor all the time and were, were malnourished and, and it sucked.

And for this to be sustainable, there had to be the emergence of ideas and ways of understanding our place in the world that made sense to people, and that somehow made it OK for them to keep doing this really arduous work. And I think the same thing is true of early settlements. Like, we weren’t born ready to inhabit an urban environment as a species.

We had to come up with the modes of thinking that allowed that to work. And so you have this process of trial and error where early settlements don’t last very long. They kind of flash in and out of existence. And it’s only over time that we come to figure out how to be urban by coming up with the ideas and the sort of cultural touchstones that allow us to adapt to that existence.

And the book sort of follows this line of thought throughout our history. And that’s kind of how we should think about how we got to modern economic growth. And I think if we want to enjoy future prosperity that’s greater than what we enjoy now, we might have to do some similar sort of adapting in terms of our ideas about what we’re doing here.

Jeff Wood: The cultural explosion was interesting as well, and you mentioned the DNA aspect of it, where you’re passing along information through DNA. But then you have this cultural kind of aspect of it, where apes can teach each other how to use a stick to get ants, those types of things. And then you share it, and then you learn it together, and then it gets shared throughout culture, and then you specialize, and then you move forward with that.

I’m wondering if you could kind of explain that a little bit in more detail. It’s really important, especially until we get to the point where Christianity and religion kind of creates this larger cultural experience throughout Europe and the Mediterranean.

Ryan Avent: This is really the heart of the book. I think when we kind of think about humans and what makes them special, we tend to focus on the fact that we’re these big-brained creatures who can reason and use logic to solve difficult problems. We can do calculus!

But I think, actually, if you look back at our history, the thing that’s really allowed us to become such technologically capable animals is this capacity to support culture. We’ve got a genetic inheritance — a lot of information that’s useful to us that gets passed to us through our genes, and that’s driven our long-run biological evolution.

But the thing that really sort of marked us off as different as we split off from our ape ancestors was this emerging capacity to use a collective knowledge and collective information processing in the form of culture. And culture, in a nutshell, is a body of information that is passed down over time socially rather than genetically, and sort of lives in the heads of all the people who are helping this process along.

And it includes instructions for all sorts of things. You know, I think when humans occupy an ecosystem, the thing that allows us to adapt and really exploit that ecosystem effectively is not, as with many animals, these biological tricks. It’s these cultural tricks that allow us to figure out when to hunt and gather and what things to take out of the ecosystem and how to prepare them and how to survive the hardships associated with that ecosystem.

But cultural knowledge also includes other things beyond sort of these kind of, you know, practical moment-to-moment things. And it’s what’s really allowed us to scale up and become the amazing creatures that we are, is the way that our social technologies evolve over time. And we’ve found ways to operate, to cooperate, I guess, in larger numbers to better purposes.

We’ve found ways to generate and preserve knowledge at enormous scale, and I think that’s kind of the fascinating part of our history, and it’s not something that individuals authored sort of using their own brains is something that kind of we stumbled on and that’s led us here, and, and now we’ve sort of forgotten that that was kind of our special trick, even though it’s still holding our societies together today.

The report, prepared for the Natural Gas Council, applauded reforms introduced following Winter Storm Uri in 2021 but said better coordination between the gas and electric sectors is still needed.

A complaint at FERC seeking to limit competition among transmission developers would inject uncertainty into the process and spur regulatory delays, writes Will Hazelip from National Grid Ventures US.

Open access notables

Historical Volcanic Eruptions Mitigated the Expected Rapid Arctic Sea Ice Decline Prior to 2000, Wang et al., Geophysical Research Letters

Arctic sea ice has declined at sharply contrasting rates over the past four decades—modest before 2000 and rapid thereafter. Using observational and model evidence, we show that large tropical volcanic eruptions can trigger decade-long Arctic sea ice recoveries, and that without the 1982 El Chichón and 1991 Pinatubo eruptions, Arctic sea ice would have declined approximately 1.5 times faster before 2000. We further show a model's sensitivity to volcanic aerosol forcing scales with its sensitivity to GHG forcing across CMIP6 models, offering a new strategy to identify models with realistic climate response to radiative forcing. Following this, a selected subgroup of models that accurately simulate long-term warming trend and decade-long post-Pinatubo recovery project ice-free Arctic summer up to 20 years earlier than the full ensemble. These findings underscore the critical, yet underappreciated, importance of evaluating climate models against anthropogenic and volcanic forcing when projecting the future of Arctic sea ice.

Legacy wells supporting net zero by screening carbon storage and geothermal potential in the United States, Rajput et al., Communications Earth & Environment

Depleted oil and gas reservoirs provide an opportunity to repurpose underperforming wells and reuse existing subsurface infrastructure to support Net Zero transitions. Here we present a United States wide screening analysis of underperforming wells to estimate upper bound technical potential for carbon storage and geothermal heat. Using public well inventories, county level carbon removal cost datasets, national scale storage resource maps, and geothermal resource data, and accounting for well integrity attrition and field scale constraints, we estimate carbon storage potential of approximately 0.024–1.17 gigatonnes per year and geothermal heat potential of approximately 1–35 gigawatts thermal across high potential regions. Avoided drilling and deferred abandonment may indicate upper bound cost benefits, although repurposing costs remain site-specific. Key constraints include well integrity and cooling during injection; a retrofittable downhole choke is evaluated to mitigate this during startup. These results highlight conditional potential and the need for site-specific assessment.

Northern permafrost represents a limit on the northward shift of climatically feasible agricultural frontiers under future warming, Xu et al., Communications Earth & Environment

Global warming is expected to shift crop suitability northward, but the role of permafrost remains unclear. Here we integrate permafrost degradation impacts to project the suitability of seven major crops across the Northern Hemisphere (30°N–83°N). By the end of the century, the northern boundary of crop climatic suitability zones shifts northward by ~331 km and ~739 km under the SSP1–2.6 and SSP5–8.5 scenarios, respectively. Considering this shift and permafrost degradation, zones with persistent near-surface permafrost remain limited (~5%) but vary widely (3–19%) across different permafrost degradation assumptions. By the end of the century, newly emerging frontiers of climatically feasible agriculture reach 4.86 and 11.64 million km² under SSP1–2.6 and SSP5–8.5, respectively, of which 29% and 18% may remain unsuitable for cultivation due to persistent permafrost thaw disturbances. Our results indicate that permafrost is a non-negligible constraint on the northward shift of climatically feasible agricultural frontiers.

Caught in the Fray. How Climate Scientists Navigate the Public Sphere, Abramov et al., Environmental Communication

Climate scientists are increasingly drawn into a polarized public sphere, challenging relations between science and society. In this study, we interviewed thirty-five climate scientists – diverse in discipline and seniority – working in the Netherlands about their perceptions of, and experiences with public engagement. Based on our empirical material, we construct an analytical framework with a politization and participation axis on which we position their statements. Demarcating their public activities along these dimensions, climate scientists highlight concerns for scientific credibility, political efficacy, normative responsibility and individual capacity. While there is a clear opposition between those compelled to advocate for stringent climate policies or tackle misinformation and those who believe their main role is to provide solid knowledge and leave the normative choices to activists or politicians, only few scientists collaborate with stakeholders. Letting different stakeholders speak and participate in knowledge productions, we argue, may provide a solution to the science vs politics stranglehold.

Widespread intensification of global river hydrograph flashiness under climate change, Zhu et al., Communications Earth & Environmen

Flooding poses an increasing threat to lives and infrastructure worldwide, yet how river flow responds under climate change remains uncertain. Here we assess future changes in river hydrograph flashiness, defined as the rate of increase in streamflow normalized by time and drainage area, using a numerical hydrological model driven by multiple climate model projections. We analyze 520 major river basins globally. Results show that flashiness is projected to increase by about 14%, 30%, and 79% by the late twenty-first century under low-, intermediate-, and high-emission scenarios, respectively, relative to 2014. Increases are greater in low-latitude basins than in high-latitude regions. These changes are mainly associated with larger differences between peak and base flow and shorter times to reach peak discharge. Overall, our findings suggest that river floods are likely to become faster and more intense in a warming climate, posing growing challenges for flood risk management and infrastructure design.

From this week's government/NGO section:

UPDATE: Colorado River Basin Storage Continues Slide Toward System Crash, Castle et al., Getches-Wilkinson Center, University of Colorado Law School

If the Colorado River Basin (Basin) experiences another dry year, similar to Water Year 2025, it is likely that reasonably accessible storage in Lake Powell and Lake Mead would be mostly depleted, even if consumptive uses and losses are at or near historic lows. Run-of-the-river operations would shortly ensue. This would be an outcome with devastating consequences. In contrast, if next year is very wet, similar to Water Year 2023, the Basin’s largest federal reservoirs would recover somewhat, but would provide only about two years of cushion before we find ourselves again in the same position we are in today, unless consumptive use decreases further. This recovery would be welcome but would provide only a brief reprieve from crisis. Both scenarios demonstrate the need to adopt significant additional measures to permanently decrease consumptive uses across the entire Basin.

Americans Are Increasingly Pessimistic About Avoiding the Worst Effects of Climate Change, Brian Kennedy and Isabelle Pula, Pew Research Center

About six-in-ten Americans say countries around the world, including the U.S., will not do enough to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Among Democrats, this share has increased from 51% in 2022 to 69% in 2026. About half of U.S. adults say tech companies can do a lot to address climate change, but few expect technology to actually solve problems caused by climate change in the future. A majority of Americans, especially Democrats, say the federal government is doing too little on climate change. This overall share is slightly higher than it was during the Biden administration. 117 articles in 63 journals by 940 contributing authors

Physical science of climate change, effects

Canadian wildfires are losing their climate-cooling influence from postfire snow albedo, Gerrevink et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Open Access pdf 10.1073/pnas.2600434123

Observed Linkages Between Marine Heatwaves and Extreme Weather Over Land: A New Zealand Case Study, Chinappa et al., International Journal of Climatology Open Access 10.1002/joc.70457

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Divergent Impacts of Evapotranspiration by Plant CO2 Physiological Forcing on the Mean and Variability of Water Availability, Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres, 10.1029/2023jd040253 2 cites.

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Observations of climate change, effects

An attribution study of the impactful extreme heat across Asia in 2024, Marghidan et al., Weather and Climate Extremes Open Access 10.1016/j.wace.2026.100919

Asymmetric warming and rising atmospheric water demand in southern Zambia: long-term temperature change in the Ngwezi River Basin, Wankie et al., Frontiers in Climate Open Access pdf 10.3389/fclim.2026.1837008

Deoxygenation in inland freshwater systems, Shi et al., Nature Reviews Earth & Environment 10.1038/s43017-026-00795-x

Historical Increase in Hourly Heavy Precipitation Across Japan and Its Attribution to Anthropogenic Climate Warming, Sato et al., Atmospheric Science Letters Open Access 10.1002/asl2.70036

Warming and Aridification Amplify Extreme Fire Weather Elevating Population Exposure in China, Bai et al., International Journal of Climatology 10.1002/joc.70440

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Climate change impacts on Central Asia: Trends, extremes and future projections, International Journal of Climatology, 10.1002/joc.8519 51 cites.

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Instrumentation & observational methods of climate change, effects
Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Direct observational evidence from space of the effect of CO 2 increase on longwave spectral radiances: the unique role of high-spectral-resolution measurements, Atmospheric chemistry and physics, 10.5194/acp-24-6375-2024 6 cites.

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Modeling, simulation & projection of climate change, effects

21st century change in precipitation on the Greenland Ice Sheet using high resolution regional climate models, Boberg et al., cryosphere Open Access pdf 10.5194/tc-20-2947-2026

A strengthened and southward-shifted westerly jet mitigates warming-induced drying across Asian drylands, Jiang & Zhou, Science Advances Open Access 10.1126/sciadv.aed7890

AMOC slowdown amplifies North Atlantic salinity variability to unprecedented levels, Iwakiri et al., Nature Communications Open Access 10.1038/s41467-026-73838-y

An Ensemble Projection of ENSO to the End of 21st Century, Zhou et al., Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2026gl121816

Anthropogenic climate change accelerates the onset of global flood timing, Qi et al., Nature Communications Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-026-73839-x

Changes in ENSO Oscillatory Dynamics Associated with Zonal Shifts in Air–Sea Coupling Region, Molina et al., Journal of Climate 10.1175/jcli-d-25-0074.1

Forced Response in the Mean State and Interannual Variability of the Indian Summer Monsoon in Future Projections, Nithya et al., International Journal of Climatology 10.1002/joc.70449

Future changes of coastal extremes from the regional wave-ocean coupled model system for the Northern European continental shelf, Nguyen et al., Frontiers in Climate Open Access 10.3389/fclim.2026.1782346

Future drought intensification and socioeconomic exposure in Pakistan under different SSP scenarios, Baig et al., Advances in Climate Change Research Open Access 10.1016/j.accre.2026.05.019

Hailstorms are predicted to hit harder with climate change, [authors did not process], Nature Open Access 10.1038/d41586-026-01639-w

High-Impact and Low-Likelihood Compound Hot and Dry Extremes in India, Malik et al., Journal of Climate 10.1175/jcli-d-25-0277.1

Hybrid Model–Based Forecasting of Temperature and Precipitation Changes in Iran, Ezati et al., Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 10.1016/j.jastp.2026.106852

Lake sediment heatwaves under global warming, Woolway et al., Nature Geoscience Open Access 10.1038/s41561-026-01986-3

Widespread intensification of global river hydrograph flashiness under climate change, Zhu et al., Communications Earth & Environment Open Access 10.1038/s43247-026-03681-y

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Heat index historical trends and projections due to climate change in the Mediterranean basin based on CMIP6, Atmospheric Research, 10.1016/j.atmosres.2024.107512 20 cites.

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Advancement of climate & climate effects modeling, simulation & projection

A modified stratiform cloud microphysics parameterization: evaluation using the Community Atmosphere Model version 6 single-column model, Pant et al., Atmospheric chemistry and physics Open Access 10.5194/acp-26-7407-2026

Development of Grid Corrections to Mixing Parameterizations with Potential Application to Arctic Climate Change, McNider & Pour-Biazar, Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology 10.1175/jamc-d-25-0124.1

Exploring the impact of climate model accuracy and baseline conditions on estimates of future climate change, Power, Theoretical and Applied Climatology Open Access pdf 10.1007/s00704-026-06227-6

Machine learning workflows in climate modelling: design patterns and insights from case studies, Zheng et al., Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences Open Access 10.1098/rsta.2025.0254

Process-based evaluation of Eastern Mediterranean heatwave development in the CMIP6 models, KLIF et al., Weather and Climate Extremes Open Access 10.1016/j.wace.2026.100918

Sensitivity of Northern Hemisphere Extratropical Cyclone Properties to Atmospheric Resolution in the GFDL SPEAR Model, Lee et al., Journal of Climate 10.1175/jcli-d-24-0770.1

Soil Organic Matter Reduces Persistent Nighttime Surface Warm Bias in Convection-Permitting U.S. Simulations, Lin et al., Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2026gl123274

Using Energetic Frameworks to Assess Artificial Heating in Coupled Model Sea Ice Loss Experiments, Kang et al., Journal of Climate 10.1175/jcli-d-25-0746.1

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
A perspective on the next generation of Earth system model scenarios: towards representative emission pathways (REPs), Geoscientific model development, 10.5194/gmd-17-4533-2024 39 cites.

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Cryosphere & climate change

Climate Warming and Ice Weakening Trigger Alpine Glacier Collapses: The Marmolada Case, Baroni et al., Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2025gl121279

Estimating the thermodynamic contribution of post-industrial warming to recent Greenland ice sheet surface mass loss, Preece et al., cryosphere Open Access 10.5194/tc-20-2871-2026

Historical Volcanic Eruptions Mitigated the Expected Rapid Arctic Sea Ice Decline Prior to 2000, Wang et al., Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2026gl123968

Identifying Energy Balance Drivers of Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Melt Using Causal Discovery, Yin et al., Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2025gl119928

Increasing precipitation due to climate change could partially offset the impact of warming on glacier loss in the monsoon-influenced Himalaya until 2100 CE, Schlich-Davies et al., cryosphere Open Access 10.5194/tc-20-3151-2026

The anomalously warm summer of 2023 over Greenland as compared to previous record melt summers of 2012 and 2019, Mchedlishvili et al., cryosphere Open Access 10.5194/tc-20-2895-2026

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Coupled ice–ocean interactions during future retreat of West Antarctic ice streams in the Amundsen Sea sector, cryosphere, 10.5194/tc-18-2653-2024 17 cites.

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Paleoclimate & paleogeochemistry

An ice-sheet modelling framework to determine vulnerable regions of the Greenland Ice Sheet in the past, Keisling et al., cryosphere Open Access 10.5194/tc-20-2961-2026

Limited early-industrial warming and strong volcanic imprints in the Caucasus: the first temperature reconstruction based on maximum latewood density, Dhyani et al., Climate of the past Open Access pdf 10.5194/cp-22-989-2026

Newly recovered series of meteorological measurements in SW Greenland (Nuuk) in the period 1806–1813, Przybylak et al., Climate of the past Open Access 10.5194/cp-22-957-2026

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Climate extremes in Svalbard over the last two millennia are linked to atmospheric blocking, Nature Communications, 10.1038/s41467-024-48603-8 15 cites.

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Biology & climate change, related geochemistry

Earlier spring onset reduces ecosystem resilience to drought across the Northern Hemisphere, Liu et al., Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 10.1016/j.agrformet.2026.111282

Impact of global change on the distribution of mountain mammals and birds, Dragonetti et al., Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) Open Access 10.5281/zenodo.18389762

Introduced species will not save Caribbean coral reefs, Ritson-Williams et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Open Access 10.1073/pnas.2610820123

Mapping the Future Afforestation Distribution of China Constrained by National Afforestation Plan and Climate Change, Song et al., Biogeosciences Open Access pdf 10.5194/bg-21-2839-2024

Marine particles and their remineralization buffer future ocean biogeochemistry response to climate warming, Maerz et al., Biogeosciences Open Access 10.5194/bg-23-1897-2026

Meta-analysis reveals asymmetric root and microbial phenology shifts under global change, Zhao et al., Nature Communications Open Access 10.1038/s41467-026-73761-2

Mountain Riparian Zones as Refugia for Rare and Endangered Plants Under Climate Change, Lei et al., Ecology and Evolution Open Access 10.1002/ece3.73769

Near-Term Climate Change Impacts on Kenyan Tree Cover, Warrier et al., Earth s Future Open Access 10.1029/2025ef006647

Predicting the range expansion of larger benthic foraminifera under earth’s changing climate, Amao et al., Open Access CRIS of the University of Bern Open Access 10.48620/98304

Resilience of Breeding Boreal Waterbirds to Harsh Wintering Conditions: Could Climate Warming Smooth Population Declines?, Pöysä et al., Ecology and Evolution Open Access 10.1002/ece3.73718

Satellite observations reveal a reversal trend in African woody cover around 2010, Li et al., Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 10.1016/j.agrformet.2026.111267

Stream Temperature Response to Increased Shading Due To Riparian Shrubification in Northern Latitudes, Szeitz et al., Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeosciences 10.1029/2025jg009465

Thermal stress impairs survival and immune responses in ant founding queens, Silva & Monnin, Biology Letters Open Access 10.1098/rsbl.2026.0072

Tree Cover and Temperature Shape the Distribution of Epiphytic Pleurozia in Asia: Forest Havens in a Warming Climate, Huang et al., Ecology and Evolution Open Access 10.1002/ece3.73657

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Biodiversity and Climate Extremes: Known Interactions and Research Gaps, Earth s Future, 10.1029/2023ef003963 49 cites.

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GHG sources & sinks, flux, related geochemistry

Below- and above-canopy methane and nitrous oxide fluxes in a subalpine spruce forest, Krebs et al., Agricultural and Forest Meteorology Open Access 10.1016/j.agrformet.2026.111261

Divergent vulnerabilities of soil carbon fractions to warming magnitude and extreme drought in alpine semi-arid mountain forests of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, Yan et al., Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 10.1016/j.agrformet.2026.111276

Evolution and future trend of household carbon footprints in aging Japan, Yang et al., Communications Earth & Environment Open Access 10.1038/s43247-026-03612-x

Geospatial life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of coal electricity in the United States, Fortier et al., Environmental Research Infrastructure and Sustainability Open Access 10.1088/2634-4505/ae6e6b

Human amplification of climate-induced greenhouse gas emissions from global small water bodies, Zhuang et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Open Access 10.1073/pnas.2537678123

Impact of air-ice CO2 fluxes on polar ocean carbon budgets from a bipolar data compilation, Crabeck et al., Nature Communications Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-026-73737-2

Large stocks of permafrost soil organic carbon and nitrogen in Arctic river deltas, Fuchs et al., Nature Communications Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-026-73092-2

Mangrove carbon dynamics: Sequestration potential and climate change resilience, Kumawat et al., Earth-Science Reviews 10.1016/j.earscirev.2026.105558

Melt period methane emissions in northern high latitude wetlands are governed by the length of the period and presence of permafrost, Hyvärinen et al., Atmospheric chemistry and physics Open Access 10.5194/acp-26-7555-2026

Methane Emission Reductions Slow Stratospheric Ozone Recovery by Amplifying the Potency of Ozone Depleting Substances, Weber et al., CentAUR (University of Reading) pmh:oai:centaur.reading.ac.uk:129449

Progressive release of long-stored carbon from tropical peatland disturbances, Koarashi et al., Nature Communications Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-026-72890-y

Satellite-based estimates of radiative forcing of long-lived halogenated gases from spectral observations, Whitburn et al., Communications Earth & Environment Open Access pdf 10.1038/s43247-026-03691-w

Season-dependent asymmetric responses of soil carbon emissions to long-term changes in precipitation timing in a semi-arid steppe, Wang et al., Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 10.1016/j.agrformet.2026.111280

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Human activities shape global patterns of decomposition rates in rivers, Science, 10.1126/science.adn1262 31 cites.

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CO2 capture, sequestration science & engineering

Atmospheric CO2 removal via enhanced weathering of steel slag in soil examined by experiments and geochemical modeling, Nakamura et al., Frontiers in Environmental Science Open Access 10.3389/fenvs.2026.1802538

Legacy wells supporting net zero by screening carbon storage and geothermal potential in the United States, Rajput et al., Communications Earth & Environment Open Access 10.1038/s43247-026-03667-w

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Converging Findings of Climate Models and Satellite Observations on the Positive Impact of European Forests on Cloud Cover, Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres, 10.1029/2023jd039235 6 cites.

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Decarbonization

Aligning global shipping climate policies with life cycle perspective, Kanchiralla et al., Nature Energy Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41560-026-02080-z

Bird migration and wind-energy production across Western Europe, Bauer et al., Nature Sustainability 10.1038/s41893-026-01853-4

Climate impacts of hydrogen emissions, Sun et al., Environmental Science & Technology Open Access pdf 10.1021/acs.est.3c09030

Driving a green energy transition with halide perovskite solar cells, Chen et al., Nature Sustainability 10.1038/s41893-026-01844-5

Prospective environmental impact of solar energy communities in a decarbonised grid: insights from consequential life cycle analysis, Neves et al., Energy Policy Open Access 10.1016/j.enpol.2026.115415

Rethinking the economics and flexibility of U.S. nuclear power through hydrogen integration and policy support, Li et al., Nature Communications Open Access 10.1038/s41467-026-73630-y

Systematic review of ferry decarbonization in the maritime sector, Kasepõld et al., Journal of Shipping and Trade Open Access pdf 10.1186/s41072-026-00241-7

When importance meets expectations: Determinants of local acceptance for wind and photovoltaic projects in Germany, Frank et al., Energy Research & Social Science Open Access 10.1016/j.erss.2026.104765

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Demand-side strategies key for mitigating material impacts of energy transitions, Nature Climate Change, 10.1038/s41558-024-02016-z 86 cites.

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Geoengineering climate
Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Abrupt reduction in shipping emission as an inadvertent geoengineering termination shock produces substantial radiative warming, Communications Earth & Environment, 10.1038/s43247-024-01442-3 68 cites.

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Black carbon
Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Measurement report: Shipborne observations of black carbon aerosols in the western Arctic Ocean during summer and autumn 2016–2020: boreal fire impacts, , 10.5194/egusphere-2023-2315 1 citation.

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Aerosols

Global mineral constraints on dust shortwave radiative effects, Li et al., Nature Geoscience 10.1038/s41561-026-01996-1

Global Tropical Cyclone Response to Anthropogenic Aerosol Changes, Zhao et al., Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres 10.1029/2025jd045902

Highland Pathways Shape Global Dust Vertical Transport and Its Climate Effects, Liu et al., Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2026gl123758

Pacific Walker Circulation strengthened by tropospheric aerosol forcing, Ying et al., npj Climate and Atmospheric Science Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41612-026-01442-4

Uncertainty in Contrail Physics and Climate Impacts: Roadmap to a ContrailMIP, Eastham et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 10.1175/bams-d-26-0121.1

Vertically-resolved source contributions to climate-relevant aerosol properties in Southern Greenlandic fjord systems, Alden et al., Atmospheric chemistry and physics Open Access 10.5194/acp-26-7165-2026

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Aerosol-induced closure of marine cloud cells: enhanced effects in the presence of precipitation, Atmospheric chemistry and physics, 10.5194/acp-24-6455-2024 10 cites.

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Climate change communications & cognition

Caught in the Fray. How Climate Scientists Navigate the Public Sphere, Abramov et al., Environmental Communication Open Access 10.6084/m9.figshare.32453978.v1

Climate action needs more than policy: The moral and spiritual foundations of sustainable change, Pinto & Vidal, PLOS Climate Open Access 10.1371/journal.pclm.0000946

Climate Change Reporting Frames and Discourse in African Media (2015–2025): A Mixed-Method Study, Xu et al., Environmental Communication 10.1080/17524032.2026.2680140

Distinguishing climate change worry from state climate anxiety across 32 countries: implications for subjective wellbeing, Lee et al., Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences Open Access pdf 10.1007/s13412-026-01120-0

Extreme weather salience as a climate crisis signal: Examining the role of extreme weather fear in adaptive and maladaptive responses to eco-anxiety, Lau et al., Global Environmental Change Open Access 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2026.103179

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Acting as we feel: Which emotional responses to the climate crisis motivate climate action, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 10.1016/j.jenvp.2024.102327 37 cites.

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Agronomy, animal husbundry, food production & climate change

A systematic review on the impact of climate smart agricultural practices adoption on productivity in Ethiopia, Molla, Journal of Disaster Science and Management Open Access pdf 10.1007/s44367-026-00036-4

Carbon-removal opportunities and constraints of bioenergy crops on marginal croplands in China, Hua et al., Communications Earth & Environment Open Access pdf 10.1038/s43247-026-03588-8

Climate-driven shifts in soil microbiomes: implications for plant resilience in agriculture, Bhagat & Mishra, Frontiers in Climate Open Access pdf 10.3389/fclim.2026.1803685

Flood-induced livelihood vulnerability and migration as an adaptation strategy: evidence from farm households of the flood-prone region of Eastern India, Nag et al., Frontiers in Climate Open Access pdf 10.3389/fclim.2026.1695726

Northern permafrost represents a limit on the northward shift of climatically feasible agricultural frontiers under future warming, Xu et al., Communications Earth & Environment Open Access 10.1038/s43247-026-03702-w

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Climate change impacts on small pelagic fish distribution in Northwest Africa: trends, shifts, and risk for food security, Scientific Reports, 10.1038/s41598-024-61734-8 40 cites.

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Hydrology, hydrometeorology & climate change

Asymmetric warming and rising atmospheric water demand in southern Zambia: long-term temperature change in the Ngwezi River Basin, Wankie et al., Frontiers in Climate Open Access pdf 10.3389/fclim.2026.1837008

Emerging Importance of Compound Flooding in Future Tropical Cyclone Hazard Profiles, Gori et al., Open MIND pmh:10.17615/ggmz-8m83

Historical Increase in Hourly Heavy Precipitation Across Japan and Its Attribution to Anthropogenic Climate Warming, Sato et al., Atmospheric Science Letters Open Access 10.1002/asl2.70036

Inter-model differences in 21st century glacier runoff for the world’s major river basins, Wimberly et al., cryosphere Open Access pdf 10.5194/tc-19-1491-2025

Warming and vegetation greening drive recent surge in flash droughts, J et al., Science Advances Open Access 10.1126/sciadv.aea8452

Widespread intensification of global river hydrograph flashiness under climate change, Zhu et al., Communications Earth & Environment Open Access 10.1038/s43247-026-03681-y

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Global groundwater warming due to climate change, Nature Geoscience, 10.1038/s41561-024-01453-x 109 cites.

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Climate change economics

Incorporating air quality health impacts into the social cost of carbon, Kingdon et al., Nature Climate Change 10.1038/s41558-026-02653-6

The impact of financial development on CO2 emissions in the framework of the environmental Kuznets curve, ÖNDES & KIZILGÖL, Frontiers in Environmental Science Open Access pdf 10.3389/fenvs.2026.1814255

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Economic quantification of Loss and Damage funding needs, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 10.1038/s43017-024-00565-7 10 cites.

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Climate change mitigation public policy research

Does Decarbonisation lead to Psychological De-territorialisation? An Emerging Challenge for a Just Transition in Coal and Carbon-Intensive Regions across EU Countries, García-Mira et al., Journal of Environmental Psychology Open Access 10.1016/j.jenvp.2026.103084

Emission ensemble approach to improve the development of multi-scale emission inventories, Thunis et al., Geoscientific model development Open Access pdf 10.5194/gmd-17-3631-2024

Equitable transitions in ageing societies: how fairness perceptions transform carbon tax resistance, Ba et al., Climate Policy 10.1080/14693062.2026.2657445

Industrial decarbonization in a fragmented world: Carbon pricing with border adjustments using standardized values, Neuhoff et al., Energy Policy Open Access 10.1016/j.enpol.2026.115405

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
EU carbon prices signal high policy credibility and farsighted actors, Nature Energy, 10.1038/s41560-024-01505-x 69 cites.

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Climate change adaptation & adaptation public policy research

Governing climate migration: the right to a livable space, Benveniste & Capisani, Environmental Politics 10.1080/09644016.2026.2678013

Structural challenges to effective climate adaptation: a critical assessment of planned relocation as an adaptation strategy, Bertana et al., Climate Risk Management Open Access 10.1016/j.crm.2026.100830

The unpredictability of community priorities in planning for water-scarce futures in the Goulburn-Broken River Basin, Grupper et al., Environmental Science & Policy 10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104407

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Building resilience in Asian mega-deltas, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 10.1038/s43017-024-00561-x 48 cites.

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Climate change impacts on human health

Enhanced Heatwaves Exacerbate Survival Risks for Vulnerable Populations, Dou et al., Anthropocene 10.1016/j.ancene.2026.100554

Optimizing U.S. Heat Alerts: A Multimetric Analysis of Heat-Related Mortality, Alexander et al., Weather Climate and Society 10.1175/wcas-d-25-0079.1

Quantifying the financial burden of heat-related hospital admissions in Switzerland under a changing climate: A scalable analytical framework, Vaghefi et al., BMC Global and Public Health Open Access pdf 10.1186/s44263-026-00275-w

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Health co-benefits and trade-offs of carbon pricing: a narrative synthesis, Climate Policy, 10.1080/14693062.2024.2356822 6 cites.

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Other

Future water constraints on United States lithium mining under climate change, Trost et al., Communications Earth & Environment Open Access pdf 10.1038/s43247-026-03643-4

How climate risk shapes corporate greenwashing: the role of supply chain disruption and digital governance, Fang et al., Frontiers in Environmental Science Open Access pdf 10.3389/fenvs.2026.1844699

Informed opinion, nudges & major initiatives

Antarctic science operations must account for climate change and extreme environmental events, Siegert et al., Communications Earth & Environment Open Access 10.1038/s43247-026-03629-2

The Transhumanist Anthropocene: From the climate crisis to upgrading humanity, Schütze & Latzer, The Anthropocene Review Open Access 10.1177/20530196261453840

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Toward an evidence-informed, responsible, and inclusive debate on solar geoengineering: A response to the proposed non-use agreement, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate Change, 10.1002/wcc.903 14 cites.

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Book reviews

An Arctic community on the climate front lines, Boon, Science 10.1126/science.aeh0733

Articles/Reports from Agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations Addressing Aspects of Climate Change

Need for Speed: An Analysis of Speed to Market and Cost Results of Competitive Transmission, Kent Chandler and Olivia Manzagol, R Street

Over a decade ago, federal regulators overhauled the way transmission planning is conducted in the United States. As part of those changes, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) determined it would no longer allow incumbent utilities to possess a right of first refusal (ROFR) to build all transmission traversing their state-determined service territories. Instead, certain significant regional transmission lines would be subject to competitive solicitations in which both incumbent and non-incumbent developers could submit proposals for inclusion in the regional transmission plan. This competition is notably different from merchant transmission, which recovers revenue from market prices or willing off-takers rather than through regulated rates. In order to determine the efficacy of FERC Order 1000’s removal of utilities’ federal ROFR to build transmission, the authors analyzed the length of time it takes to plan and develop competitive transmission. The authors compared competitive projects’ final results with the appropriate counterfactual: similar incumbent-developed transmission lines. While FERC’s initial rule opening up transmission development to competition was decided a decade and a half ago, most transmission planning regions have only seen a handful of competitive projects placed into service.

Split transition: BRICS breaks renewable records — and fossil records too, James Norman, Global Energy Monitor

2025 saw the largest power capacity expansion on record across the Brazil, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia and the United Arab Emirates (BRICS), with additions reaching new highs for coal, oil and gas, solar, and wind. Fossil power expansion accelerated, with 125 GW of new coal, oil, and gas capacity added and the largest net annual increase in fossil capacity on record (115 GW), after accounting for retirements. Renewable deployment also surged, with solar and wind additions totaling 497 GW in 2025, overwhelmingly concentrated in China and India. The BRICS’ utility-scale solar and wind project development pipeline expanded rapidly, growing by roughly one-quarter in 2025 to reach 2,317 GW — around 2.5 times the 927 GW fossil pipeline, which expanded by 12%.

Global Clean-Energy Trade Rebounds to $479 Billion in 2025 Despite Tariffs and Geopolitical Turmoil, BloombergNEF

Despite numerous tariffs targeting energy transition sectors and other global markets, US policy failed to stifle overall trade in products central to the energy transition. Persistent overcapacity, fueled by Chinese overinvestment, continues to compress margins for clean-tech manufacturers across batteries, solar and electric vehicles. Conflict in the Middle East has underscored the fragility of conventional fossil-fuel supply chains, and will likely accelerate the transition to lower-carbon technologies.

World Energy Investment 2026, Gould et al., International Energy Agency

World Energy Investment is the global benchmark for tracking investment trends across the energy sector. The authors present the latest data on capital flows to different types of energy projects, as well as the first set of full-year estimates for 2026. As energy security concerns continue to shape investment priorities, the authors explore the potential implications for different sectors and regions, particularly in light of the ongoing energy crisis stemming from the conflict in the Middle East. The authors highlight major investment milestones and opportunities from different energy sectors and regions. They also include expanded regional analysis and data on sources of investment and finance.

Pitches in Peril: A Climate Change and World Cup Analysis, Hosier et al., Comon Goal and Football for Future

Football is already on the frontline of the climate crisis. From flooded stadiums in Texas and Florida to unsafe heat in Mexico City, extreme weather is putting the future of the game at risk. Grassroots pitches where every legend took their first steps are even more vulnerable, especially in the Global South where resources for adaptation are scarce. 14 of 16 World Cup 2026 stadiums already exceed safe-play thresholds for major climate hazards, with nearly 90% projected to face unplayable heat by 2050. Two-thirds of grassroots pitches where icons like Messi and Salah grew up will face unsafe or unplayable heat conditions by mid-century. By 2050, Troost-Ekong’s childhood pitch in Nigeria will endure nearly five months of unplayable heat annually. Tim Cahill’s pitch in Sydney faces flood depths up to 7 meters during extreme events.

Enabling DOE Regional Energy–Water Technology Pilots, Committee on Enabling DOE Regional Energy–Water Technology Pilots, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

The authors present a vision for a Department of Energy pilot program grounded in regional realities, recognizing that challenges and solutions vary widely across the country. It emphasizes that while technological innovation is essential, it is not sufficient on its own. Successful solutions must incorporate a systems level perspective and consider governance, financing, regulatory, and institutional factors that shape implementation. Through a portfolio of regionally diverse pilot projects, the authors highlight the importance of proactive risk management, cross-sector collaboration, and strong partnerships among public and private stakeholders. They also underscore that collaboration, while essential, can be difficult within fragmented governance structures and requires intentional efforts to build alignment and trust. By embedding adaptive management, continuous learning, and knowledge sharing into program design, the proposed approach aims to evolve with changing conditions and scale effective solutions. Together, these strategies offer a pathway to reduce systemic risks, improve sustainability, and build a more secure and resilient energy-water future.

Americans Are Increasingly Pessimistic About Avoiding the Worst Effects of Climate Change, Brian Kennedy and Isabelle Pula, Pew Research Center

About six-in-ten Americans say countries around the world, including the U.S., will not do enough to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Among Democrats, this share has increased from 51% in 2022 to 69% in 2026. About half of U.S. adults say tech companies can do a lot to address climate change, but few expect technology to actually solve problems caused by climate change in the future. A majority of Americans, especially Democrats, say the federal government is doing too little on climate change. This overall share is slightly higher than it was during the Biden administration.

WMO Global Annual to Decadal Climate Update 2026 to 2035, World Meteorological Organization

Global average temperatures are likely to continue at or near record levels in the next five years, with Arctic temperature anomalies expected to continue to be higher than the global mean. The authors examine the observed climate over the past five years and provide regional predictions for temperatures and precipitation over the next five years. Annual global mean near-surface temperatures during 2026–2030 are predicted to vary between 1.3°C and 1.9°C above the 1850-1900 average. It is likely (86% chance) that one year between 2026 and 2030 will surpass 2024 as the warmest year on record, according to the update. It is very likely (91% chance) that the global mean near-surface temperature will temporarily exceed 1.5°C above the 1850-1900 average levels for at least one year between 2026 and 2030. This level was also temporarily exceeded in 2024.

Ruta Energetica (Energy Roadmap for Chile), Government of Chile

Chile se encuentra en una etapa decisiva de su transición energética, enfrentando el desafío de consolidar los avances alcanzados durante la última década y, al mismo tiempo, responder a nuevas exigencias en materia de seguridad energética, crecimiento económico y competitividad internacional. La presente Ruta 2026–2030 tiene por objetivo acelerar y robustecer la transición energética del país, promoviendo una agenda que combine seguridad del suministro, modernización institucional, competitividad económica, y desarrollo territorial equilibrado. Para ello, se busca impulsar una transición energética con foco en la seguridad, posicionando a la energía como un motor habilitante del crecimiento, inversión, empleo, productividad e innovación. En este marco, la Ruta define las prioridades estratégicas y lineamientos de acción que orientarán la gestión sectorial durante el período 2026–2030. (Chile is at a decisive stage in its energy transition, facing the challenge of consolidating the progress made during the last decade and, at the same time, respond to new demands in terms of energy security, economic growth, and international competitiveness. This roadmap 2026–2030 aims to accelerate and strengthen the energy transition of the country, promoting an agenda that combines security of supply, institutional modernization, economic competitiveness, and balanced territorial development. To this end, it seeks to promote a energy transition with a focus on security, positioning energy as an enabling engine growth, investment, employment, productivity and innovation. In this framework, the roadmap defines the strategic priorities and guidelines for action that will guide sectoral management during the period 2026–2030.)

Transforming food systems for a safe climate and health for all, Elisa Morgera, United Nations

The Special Rapporteur clarifies human rights obligations and responsibilities to transform food systems in order to effectively mitigate and adapt to climate change and respond to loss and damage. She recommends combining decarbonization, defossilization and detoxification of food systems to prevent localized and global human right harms. She also confirms that prioritizing Indigenous Peoples’ and peasants’ agroecology, small-scale ecosystem-based fisheries and pastoralism enhances the sustainability and resilience of food systems, planetary and human health, including nutrition, to the benefit of all.

Energy Vampires: The AI data centres draining Australia, Greenpeace Australia

The frenzied rollout of AI data centers in Australia is rushing through massive new projects, which will derail Australia’s energy transition unless the government urgently intervenes. Australia’s biggest proposed data center, the 1GW Mamre Road Data Centre Campus in Western Sydney, will generate peak annual grid emissions equivalent to that produced by 560,000 petrol cars for a year or all domestic flights within NSW in 2023. Data centers already fail to cover their own emissions with new renewables and their rollout will dramatically hold back Australia’s energy transition. No data center operator analyzed in the report adequately proves their claim of driving Australia’s renewable energy growth. Claims they are doing this through truly “additional” new power purchasing agreements for renewable energy are unsubstantiated. There are early signs of a data center-fueled gas boom in Australia which will come with massive, nationally significant climate costs. For example, the Tamboran proposal for the Northern Territory would effectively double the state’s emissions. In NSW, Cloud Carrier’s proposed gas-fired project would wipe out NSW’s entire projected 2028 emissions cuts.

UPDATE: Colorado River Basin Storage Continues Slide Toward System Crash, Castle et al., Getches-Wilkinson Center, University of Colorado Law School et al

If the Colorado River Basin (Basin) experiences another dry year, similar to Water Year 2025, it is likely that reasonably accessible storage in Lake Powell and Lake Mead would be mostly depleted, even if consumptive uses and losses are at or near historic lows. Run-of-the-river operations would shortly ensue. This would be an outcome with devastating consequences. In contrast, if next year is very wet, similar to Water Year 2023, the Basin’s largest federal reservoirs would recover somewhat, but would provide only about two years of cushion before we find ourselves again in the same position we are in today, unless consumptive use decreases further. This recovery would be welcome but would provide only a brief reprieve from crisis. Both scenarios demonstrate the need to adopt significant additional measures to permanently decrease consumptive uses across the entire Basin.

The Race for Net Zero: The UK net zero economy and the transition to a competitive future, CBI Economics and the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit

The UK’s transition to net zero is reshaping the structure of the economy. What began as a decarbonization challenge has evolved into a system-wide economic transformation, influencing how energy is produced, how industries operate, and where economic activity is located. The authors assess the net zero economy’s scale, structure and economic significance, and its contribution to competitiveness and regional investment.

Cost of living, health, housing eclipse climate issue in people's priorities – Irish Examiner poll, Irish Examiner

Some 59% of people think the Government is not doing enough with the resources it has on climate change, with less than one in five (18%) deeming the current efforts adequate. A total of 71% of adults identify as environmentally conscious, but only 14% make significant behavioral changes. There is less support for higher carbon taxes (11%), higher petrol/diesel taxes (11%), and reducing the national herd (15%). Some 61% of people say Ireland is not prepared for the impacts of climate change. Of these impacts, 42% rated storms as one of their top three concerns, followed by food insecurity (37%), risks to public health (32%), extreme heat (28%), and rising sea/water levels (26%).

The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal, 3rd edition, Edwards et al., German Institute for International and Security Affairs et al

Both carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and emissions reductions are needed to reach the Paris temperature goal. There are many CDR methods, and they span large ranges in costs, potentials and social acceptance. Current removal is almost entirely from land-based, conventional CDR; novel CDR is growing quickly but still comprises a tiny fraction of total removal. A large and growing gap exists between the amount of CDR in country pledges and that in Paris-compatible scenarios; both conventional and novel CDR are deployed in every scenario. CDR sits in a broader context of multiple goals and side effects. Demand for CDR is crucial to closing the CDR gap. While innovative activity has grown, expectations of large and growing demand have become fragile. Important aspects of the CDR system are highly concentrated, create vulnerabilities, and would benefit from diversification across methods, actors and countries. Closing the CDR gap is urgent because deployment is a gradual process. The period 2026–2030 is thus critical for establishing CDR’s role in limiting climate damages. About New Research

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The Midcontinent Independent System Operator is expected to have growing capacity surpluses over the next five years, according to the OMS-MISO survey.

Welcome to CELDF’s America 250: A Revolutionary Perspective, an ongoing series this year.

The post CELDF’s What is America 250: A Revolutionary Perspective appeared first on CELDF - Community Rights Pioneers - Protecting Nature and Communities.

A growing body of research shows how air pollution, fertilizers, and fungicides are altering the chemical signals that plants and animals use to communicate. Scientists warn that insect reproduction, foraging, navigation, and even the pollination of crops could be affected.

Read more on E360 →

Most media outlets won’t be in Bonn, but we will. Sending our reporters to cover these international negotiations is expensive, but at a time when many newsrooms are cutting their climate coverage, it’s more important than ever. If you value our reporting, you can support our work and access all our exclusive coverage by becoming a subscriber today.

The annual June climate talks in Bonn are taking place this year against the backdrop of an oil and gas supply crisis tied to the Iran war and deadly heatwaves in Europe, India and the Middle East. Can they produce anything substantial to ease the squeeze on economies and communities around the world?

Watchers of the negotiations say the UN climate process is under pressure to prove its worth at a time when climate action and clean energy offer an increasingly attractive alternative to the global economic and political instability brought by fossil fuel dependency.

Kaysie Brown, associate director of climate diplomacy and geopolitics at think-tank E3G, said the June 8-18 meetings “must show that the multilateral system can make a durable and politically resilient shift to support delivery [of climate action] at scale”. She added that it “will act as a key health check for the climate regime at a time of a rapidly shifting global order”.  

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There are hopes for significant progress on issues ranging from a new mechanism to support a just transition away from fossil fuels, to funding and measuring adaptation to worsening climate impacts. 

Bonn will also see the launch of dialogues on trade and climate change, on how to implement what was promised in the first stocktake of national climate plans in 2023, and on ways to shift global finance flows to support a low-carbon and climate-resilient world. 

Climate Home News doesn’t have a crystal ball, but we have done our homework. Here’s what experts expect to top the agenda at the World Conference Center by the River Rhine:

COP31 priorities

Bonn is where we will get a sense of what the joint COP31 hosts – Türkiye and Australia – want from their presidency. Signs are that they will push for a global goal on the share of final energy consumption that will come from electricity, which may be based on a target proposed by the International Renewable Energy Agency of 35% by 2035.

Watch back: Webinar – From Santa Marta to Bon, where next for the fossil fuel transition?

Other priorities already identified include energy storage, energy security and clean cooking. Türkiye has stressed reducing emissions from landfills as a priority for the “Action Agenda” strand of COP31, which encompasses government and business initiatives outside the formal discussions. Türkiye will lead on the Action Agenda, while Australia handles the negotiations.

Just transition mechanism

The Bonn negotiations are tasked with producing a draft decision on how to set up a new just transition mechanism that can facilitate a fair and orderly shift from a high-carbon world to a greener future. This decision will be forwarded for approval by countries at COP31. 

Governments agreed at COP30 in Brazil to set up what civil society has dubbed the “Belém-Antalya Mechanism” (BAM) but the details have yet to be worked out. Climate Action Network International, which has advocated strongly for the global mechanism, said it should be designed to provide decent jobs, social protection, public investment, energy access and support for affected workers and communities.  

How Belém launched the Just Transition mechanism

“If governments move decisively, the [BAM] could become one of the most significant developments in the climate regime since the Paris Agreement – helping connect climate action with economic transformation and tangible improvements in people’s daily lives,” the coalition of hundreds of green groups said in a statement ahead of Bonn.

Let’s talk trade

At COP30, after two years of trying, emerging economies finally got the overlap between trade and climate policy onto the UN climate talks agenda. Governments agreed to hold dialogues on trade at the June Bonn talks in 2026, 2027 and 2028 before a summary of these dialogues is presented at a “high-level event” in 2028.

What aspects of trade are to be discussed at the first such dialogue on Saturday June 13 is undecided. Developing-country heavyweights like China and India will likely be keen to criticise the European Union’s new carbon border adjustment mechanism, which they regard as protectionist and burdensome for their exporters. Representatives of the World Trade Organization and other trade bodies will make presentations, which governments and civil society will be allowed to comment upon.

Brazil’s call for COP trade forum gets lukewarm response

On Sunday June 14, a separate meeting of the fledgling Integrated Forum on Climate Change and Trade – an initiative launched by the Brazilian COP30 Presidency – will take place in a grand hilltop hotel overlooking Bonn and the Rhine. The meeting is not part of the official UN climate process or the official Bonn talks and will be more informal than the previous day’s dialogue. 

Topics that will be discussed are trade and climate adaptation, how to create a level playing field for low-carbon products, how to trade particularly polluting products and how to bridge climate and trade tools. An expert panel chaired by South Africa’s Faizel Ismail and New Zealand’s Jo Tyndall has been appointed to advise the forum.

Aligning on adaptation 

At COP30, talks on finalising a list of indicators to measure progress on adapting to climate change ended in recriminations, with several Latin American governments complaining that the decision was adopted by the Brazilian presidency without their consent.

The indicators, which were developed by experts in a two-year process, were stripped down by the Brazilians on the last night of COP30 and presented to governments at the last minute as a done deal. 

New data shows rich nations likely missed 2025 goal to double adaptation finance

Several governments and some of the technical experts have argued that many of the adopted indicators are unworkable, as they lack definitions or explanations of how they will be measured. Many indicators for important areas – like poverty reduction, ecosystems, infrastructure and food production – are missing or inadequate, they say.

Government negotiators and experts now have two years to fix the mess, through a “policy alignment process” due to end at COP32 in Ethiopia. At the Bonn talks, governments will try to agree on who will make up a new taskforce of experts to help countries put the indicators into practice and how it will operate.

Our most in-depth Bonn coverage — including most of our Bonn Bulletins from the negotiating floor — will be available exclusively to paid subscribers. Sign up today to ensure you don’t miss out.

Mission to 1.5 and Global Implementation Accelerator

After pressure from small island nations, governments at COP30 agreed to set up the Belém Mission to 1.5 and the Global Implementation Accelerator (GIA) to speed up the implementation of countries’ emissions-cutting and adaptation plans.

For the Mission to 1.5, several past and current COP presidencies are drawing up a report – scheduled to be published before COP31 – which will identify several especially impactful solutions to climate change. On June 12 in Bonn, governments and civil society will weigh in on what they want included.

Also in Bonn, governments will input into the GIA. The Brazilian COP30 Presidency’s vision is that it should drive forward the strongest climate solutions. According to COP30 CEO Ana Toni, an independent panel of experts will pre-select 10-15 solutions and a council will narrow this down to three to five each year which the GIA would then aim to speed up.

The GIA’s “added value is that it will focus exclusively on solutions with the potential to scale and generate cascading effects through high-impact exponential technologies”, she said last month. 

A person points at a stack of trays holding treated limestone, used to absorb CO2 from the air, at Heirloom’s new plant, in Tracy, California, November 9, 2023. (Heirloom Carbon/Handout via REUTERS) A person points at a stack of trays holding treated limestone, used to absorb CO2 from the air, at Heirloom’s new plant, in Tracy, California, November 9, 2023. (Heirloom Carbon/Handout via REUTERS)

Whether Mission to 1.5 and the GIA will identify the same shortlist of solutions – and how they work together – is unclear. But the GIA could become a permanent body working on the real-world “Action Agenda” of COPs.

Ruenna Haynes is the deputy lead negotiator for the small islands group (AOSIS) which pushed for these two initiatives, but she is now worried about what the COP presidencies might make of them. 

She told a recent briefing, “the last thing we want to do is to set up a process that is nothing more than a talking shop that doesn’t deliver and doesn’t go anywhere”. To avoid that, the reports of the GIA and Mission 1.5 must be linked to the wider UN climate talks process and at least discussed by governments, she emphasised. 

Finance roadmap and dialogue

COP30 left a bitter taste regarding what was expected to be one of its main outcomes: progress on how to increase climate finance through the “Baku to Belém Roadmap to $1.3 trillion”. The initiative, included in the new finance goal agreed in Baku – the NCQG – was an effort to top up the 2035 target of $300 billion a year in public finance which fell short of what developing countries wanted and an independent panel of experts estimated would be needed.

The high expectations surrounding this roadmap began to fade during 2025 as the process lacked transparency, clarity, participation and ambition. The result was a report abundant in general recommendations of actions to be taken but lacking clear commitments. Most of the suggestions mentioned are targeted at institutions outside the UN climate process, such as multilateral development banks.

The COP30 decision merely “took note of” that report. So was it the end of the road for this particular roadmap? Not yet.

From Baku to Belém and beyond: How we turn a climate finance roadmap into reality

In Bonn, an “implementation” meeting will be held to “listen to the Parties and observers on the updated work being carried out,” as a member of the COP30 Presidency team told Climate Home News. The challenge is how to ensure the roadmap doesn’t remain fine words in a document and is put into practice. It will also serve either as a good or bad example for the other two voluntary roadmaps (on deforestation and fossil fuels) that the Brazilian presidency is putting together ahead of COP31.

Also in Bonn, the Veredas Dialogue will address the opportunities and obstacles to implementing Article 2.1.c of the Paris Agreement – on making finance flows consistent with low-carbon development – and its complementarity with Article 9 on the responsibility of developed countries to provide financial resources. The limitations of the Baku to Belém Roadmap could shift the divisions between developed and developing nations to this dialogue, especially considering that 2026 is the first year for mobilising finance under the NCQG. 

More roadmaps on fossil fuels and forests

At COP30, a group of 80 countries led a failed push to kickstart a process for a global roadmap to guide the transition away from fossil fuels (TAFF). As an alternative, the Brazilian presidency proposed to draft two voluntary roadmaps: one on phasing out fossil fuels and another to end deforestation by 2030, both commitments endorsed by all countries in the COP28 deal.

In the lead-up to Bonn and after months of consultations with countries, Brazil presented an outline for the forest roadmap – which will invite countries to submit their own voluntary national roadmaps to halt forest loss. 

It will also include a menu of options to bridge the $216-billion forest funding gap. One of the key initiatives to achieve this is the new rainforest fund, the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), which is still rallying investors for seed funding. Brazil convened an investor meeting in Rotterdam last week, with participation from over 50 financial institutions – including BlackRock, Bank of America and Barclays – and 30 government representatives.

COP30 rainforest fund unlikely to make first payments until 2028

While not on the formal negotiating agenda In Bonn, Brazil will continue consultations on the forest roadmap at an event with governments on June 8. The final document is expected to be published later in September.

As for the TAFF roadmap, Brazil will hold an open event on June 12 after receiving suggestions from 120 countries. It is expected to be informed by the first global fossil fuel phase-out summit held in Santa Marta in April.

COP30 advisor Flávia Bellaguarda told an online briefing that the informal sessions in Bonn are meant to open a “space for dialogue” on both roadmaps, and that the more countries engage, the more international relevance the process gains.

“We managed to get the elephant into the room. Now, it needs to stay there. For that, we need to give him plenty of food so he can’t fit through the door and leave. We achieve that with dialogue and creating space for genuine exchange,” the Brazilian advisor said.

The post What to expect from the Bonn climate talks appeared first on Climate Home News.

Headline News:

• “Regenerative French Farms Lost Only A Third As Much As Others To Drought” • Data on drought-hit French farmland reveals that the most promising solution could be the greenest. In a study of over 1,200 farms during the 2023 droughts, early findings show that highly regenerative farms recorded an 8% drop in yields, while the others lost 22%. [Euronews]

French farm (Lucas van Oort, Unsplash)

• “Higher Gas Prices Fueling Pain At The Pentagon” • A growing list of unplanned and rising expenses is increasingly straining the Pentagon, with fuel costs emerging as one of the most significant pressures. Oil and fuel prices have surged during the Iran war. That surge could saddle the Pentagon with more than $1 billion in unplanned costs this year. [ABC News]
• “BMW iX3 Starting $5,000 Cheaper Than Comparable BMW X3” • Is the new BMW iX3 about to shake things up? Based on the key facts we’ve seen released about it, it should! The iX3 is coming in a whopping $5,000 cheaper than the comparable version of the gas-powered BMW X3. And the iX3 also offers 434 miles of range. [CleanTechnica]
• “India’s Renewable Energy Boom, Over 4.4 Million Jobs By 2030: Report” • India’s push towards renewable energy could generate over 4.4 million jobs by 2030, according to a study released by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water and NRDC India. The study forecasts rooftop solar to be the single largest employment engine. [Times Now]
• “US Will Dismantle The Ocean Observatories Initiative” • As the US seeks to halt science, the National Science Foundation announced it is “descoping” the Ocean Observatories Initiative. OOI is a vast ocean observation network that comprises more than 900 instruments deployed throughout the world’s oceans. It seems the US would rather not know. [CleanTechnica]

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

• June 4, 2026

JUDGMENT RESERVED: HIGH COURT CONSIDERS ARGUMENTS CHALLENGING WEST COAST SEISMIC SURVEY APPROVAL

Civil Society Organizations and Community Members Held a Demonstration Outside Western Cape High Court and Attended Court Hearing Against TGS Geophysical Seismic Surveys Off the West Coast

On Tuesday afternoon, the Western Cape High Court concluded a two-day hearing in the ongoing legal challenge by Aukotowa Fisheries Primary Co-operative, The Green Connection and Natural Justice (the Applicants) against the State and TGS Geophysical Company UK Ltd. According to The Green Connection’s Outreach Ambassador, Neville van Rooy, “A key issue was whether decision-makers had access to, and properly considered, all relevant information before approving the project. Given its potential consequences for marine ecosystems and coastal livelihoods, this case is not only about compliance – it is about transparent and lawful decisions that genuinely serve the public interest.”

The case concerns the environmental authorisation – granted by the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR) and confirmed on appeal by the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment – of a large-scale offshore 3D seismic survey offshore of South Africa’s West Coast to search for oil and gas deposits. Small-scale fishers and civil society organisations previously appealed the decision, but these appeals were dismissed by the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. They approached the courts to review and set aside these decisions.

The Applicants contend that several critical issues were not adequately assessed before environmental authorisation was granted, including the risks posed by seismic blasting – high-intensity sound pulses used to map the seabed for potential oil and gas deposits – to marine species and the ecosystems on which coastal communities depend.

“The need and desirability assessment for the project focuses largely on the projected economic benefits of the project. However, what is missing is a fair assessment of the potential costs, risks and consequences for coastal communities, marine ecosystems and future generations of the oil and gas value chain, which starts with seismic surveys. It is reckless not to consider the full picture. It’s like deciding to buy a house because of the view or the size, without checking whether the roof leaks, whether the area floods in winter, or what the monthly costs will be. Responsible decision-making seeks to weigh the potential benefits against long-term risks and consequences,” adds van Rooy.

“We therefore hope the court, just like in the Searcher Geodata case, recognises that important environmental and social impacts were not adequately considered before authorisation was granted,” he says. The case also focused on whether “need and desirability” were properly assessed. This means thoroughly checking to make sure the project is needed, environmentally responsible and socio economically justified. And while there is an ongoing debate about energy security, it remains critical to note that even if there would be local production of oil and gas, it would not be cheaper but instead opens the country to vulnerability and volatile global markets. Western Cape High Court concluded a two-day hearing in the ongoing legal challenge by Aukotowa Fisheries Primary Co-operative, The Green Connection and Natural Justice (the Applicants) against the State and TGS Geophysical Company UK Ltd. According to The Green Connection’s Outreach Ambassador, Neville van Rooy, “A key issue was whether decision-makers had access to, and properly considered, all relevant information before approving the project. Given its potential consequences for marine ecosystems and coastal livelihoods, this case is not only about compliance – it is about transparent and lawful decisions that genuinely serve the public interest.”

The case concerns the environmental authorisation – granted by the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR) and confirmed on appeal by the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment – of a large-scale offshore 3D seismic survey offshore of South Africa’s West Coast to search for oil and gas deposits. Small-scale fishers and civil society organisations previously appealed the decision, but these appeals were dismissed by the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. They approached the courts to review and set aside these decisions.

The Applicants contend that several critical issues were not adequately assessed before environmental authorisation was granted, including the risks posed by seismic blasting – high-intensity sound pulses used to map the seabed for potential oil and gas deposits – to marine species and the ecosystems on which coastal communities depend.

“The need and desirability assessment for the project focuses largely on the projected economic benefits of the project. However, what is missing is a fair assessment of the potential costs, risks and consequences for coastal communities, marine ecosystems and future generations of the oil and gas value chain, which starts with seismic surveys. It is reckless not to consider the full picture. It’s like deciding to buy a house because of the view or the size, without checking whether the roof leaks, whether the area floods in winter, or what the monthly costs will be. Responsible decision-making seeks to weigh the potential benefits against long-term risks and consequences,” adds van Rooy. 

“We therefore hope the court, just like in the Searcher Geodata case, recognises that important environmental and social impacts were not adequately considered before authorisation was granted,” he says. 

The case also focused on whether “need and desirability” were properly assessed. This means thoroughly checking to make sure the project is needed, environmentally responsible and socio economically justified. And while there is an ongoing debate about energy security, it remains critical to note that even if there would be local production of oil and gas, it would not be cheaper but instead opens the country to vulnerability and volatile global markets.

Civil society organizations and community members attended day two of court hearing against TGS Geophysical seismic surveys off the west coast

Walter Steenkamp of Aukotowa Fisheries Primary Co-operative says, “With decisions of this scale, caution is essential because if the fish are gone, what alternatives remain for our communities? As unemployment, poverty and inequality continues to grow in the country, we, as coastal communities, want to live with dignity, we do not want to become statistics. Had all relevant information been properly considered, government decision-makers would know that the impacts on small-scale fishing communities and coastal livelihoods could be devastating.”

Melissa Groenink-Groves, Programme Manager of the Defending Rights Programme at Natural Justice says, “In addition to raising arguments about deficiencies in the basic assessment report, which informed the decisions, it was clear that the Director-General in DPMR did not have the assessment or the specialist reports before him to consider before he granted the environmental authorisation.We remain optimistic about the result and trust that Judge Judith Cloete will recognise the impacts that seismic surveying can have on the environment and coastal communities whose livelihoods depend on the ocean.”

The approval of the project, despite evidence of the potential harm to people, the environment and the climate, raises broader concerns about how energy decisions are being made and whose voices are prioritised.

“This case also highlights another question that lies at the heart of this case, and the other legal challenges we have brought: how can South Africa claim to be committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris Agreement when approximately 90% of its ocean territory is under lease for offshore oil and gas exploration? Oil and gas exploration cannot be considered in isolation. Decision makers should assess full lifecycle impacts – including environmental, social and climate consequences – rather than focussing narrowly on speculative economic benefits,” adds van Rooy.

Steenkamp concludes, “All we want is to protect our fishing grounds and our way of life from activities that could disrupt marine ecosystems or contribute to worsening climate change because it could affect our ability to earn a living and provide for our families. If the impacts on small-scale fishers and coastal communities were not properly considered, then a crucial part of the decision-making process was missing.”

Judgment has been reserved and will be delivered in due course.Walter Steenkamp of Aukotowa Fisheries Primary Co-operative says, “With decisions of this scale, caution is essential because if the fish are gone, what alternatives remain for our communities? As unemployment, poverty and inequality continues to grow in the country, we, as coastal communities, want to live with dignity, we do not want to become statistics. Had all relevant information been properly considered, government decision-makers would know that the impacts on small-scale fishing communities and coastal livelihoods could be devastating.”

Melissa Groenink-Groves, Programme Manager of the Defending Rights Programme at Natural Justice says, “In addition to raising arguments about deficiencies in the basic assessment report, which informed the decisions, it was clear that the Director-General in DPMR did not have the assessment or the specialist reports before him to consider before he granted the environmental authorisation. We remain optimistic about the result and trust that Judge Judith Cloete will recognise
the impacts that seismic surveying can have on the environment and coastal communities whose livelihoods depend on the ocean.”

The approval of the project, despite evidence of the potential harm to people, the environment and the climate, raises broader concerns about how energy decisions are being made and whose voices are prioritised.

“This case also highlights another question that lies at the heart of this case, and the other legal challenges we have brought: how can South Africa claim to be committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris Agreement when approximately 90% of its ocean territory is under lease for offshore oil and gas exploration? Oil and gas exploration cannot be considered in isolation. Decision-makers should assess full lifecycle impacts – including environmental, social and climate consequences – rather than focussing narrowly on speculative economic benefits,” adds van Rooy.

Steenkamp concludes, “All we want is to protect our fishing grounds and our way of life from activities that could disrupt marine ecosystems or contribute to worsening climate change because it could affect our ability to earn a living and provide for our families. If the impacts on small-scale fishers and coastal communities were not properly considered, then a crucial part of the decision-making process was missing.”

Judgment has been reserved and will be delivered in due course.

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The post JUDGMENT RESERVED: HIGH COURT CONSIDERS ARGUMENTS CHALLENGING WEST COAST SEISMIC SURVEY APPROVAL appeared first on The Green Connection.

Thousands of community and social service workers in Ontario, unionized under OPSEU, are currently on strike or locked out of their workplaces as they fight...

The post Workers undeterred by growing tensions in fight for Ontario’s social service sector first appeared on Spring.

When Trish Leigey’s taps started running brown and foul in late 2019, she had an uneasy suspicion about what was tainting the once-clear mountain water. 

Tests later confirmed her hunch. Bovine DNA had infiltrated drinking water supplies in rural Loganton, Pennsylvania — contamination her lawyers linked to Nicholas Meat and its practice of spreading liquefied animal waste on nearby fields.

That may not have surprised many of Leigey’s neighbors. Most of them were well aware of the desiccated animal parts occasionally strewn across local roads. Not many gave a second thought to trucks spraying a cocktail of blood, urine, water, and other slaughterhouse refuse over local farmland. But few wanted to accuse the company of wrongdoing, given that it employs over 425 people — about as many people in all of Loganton — and by some estimates processes 10 percent of the state’s beef.

Leigey, a single mother who works three jobs, decided she had to speak up, for herself, her family, and her neighbors. “I just want a simple life,” she said. “I don’t feel like I should have to be emotionally, mentally, financially, and physically exhausted because some millionaire wants to dump blood on fields because it’s a cheap way to dispose of it. It’s not right.”

 A crew cleans slaughterhouse waste that spilled along a rural road in central Pennsylvania in 2021. Courtesy of Nidel & Nace P.L.L.C.

A jury agreed and in December held the company liable for causing a nuisance and trespassing on neighboring properties by fouling their air and water. Leigey and three others who joined her in suing Nicholas Meat were awarded $145,000, a surprising victory in a state where lenient right-to-farm laws make such cases difficult to win.

Still, the verdict is not expected to change how operations like Nicholas Meat do business. There’s no compelling reason for them to.

Nicholas Meat is much smaller than giants like Tyson Foods, but it’s a big player in central Pennsylvania. What started in 1987 as a family business handling a couple dozen cattle each day bloomed over the decades into one of the county’s largest private employers. It slaughters about 1,000 cattle each day, according to the lawsuit, and has been the biggest business in a town so small it doesn’t have a traffic light. That makes the case against Nicholas Meat more than a neighborhood dispute. It illustrates how the economic pressures of industrial meat production can push environmental risks onto surrounding communities.

Across the state, waste from slaughterhouses, farms, and the like is routinely spread on fields as fertilizer. Spreading these “food processing residuals,” as the mixture is known, is legal, lightly regulated, and cheaper than transporting and treating the waste elsewhere. At least 900 farms and food-processing operations across the state participate in it. Many farms are eager to receive the waste as a more affordable way of fertilizing fields. “There is a place for it, especially as a replacement for synthetic fertilizers,” said Michael Kovach, president of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union.

The problem is scale. A small butcher, like the one Kovach works with, might kill and package a few dozen animals a day. Slaughterhouses handling hundreds or thousands generate waste at an entirely different level. The lawsuit estimated that Nicholas Meat produces at least 200,000 gallons a day, with the capacity to store 1 million gallons on-site and another 4.3 million elsewhere. Aside from mixing and aerating the slop, there is no treatment before disposal — something the state Department of Environmental Protection, or DEP, said is typical.

An aerial view of Nicholas Meats, as seen in 2005 and 2026, shows the operation’s growth. Google Earth / Grist @media screen and (max-width: 767px) { .topper .topper-headings::before{width:100%;} .juxtapose-wrapper { overflow:hidde, max-width:100%; } } .juxtapose { font-family: "Basis Grotesque Pro", sans-serif !important; margin-top: 1em; } .jx-knightlab { opacity: 0; } .jx-slider { color: #f0f0f0; } .jx-controller { border-radius: 9px; color: #e6ffa0; } .juxtapose-caption { margin-top: 0.5em; font-size: 0.95rem; color: #666; text-align: center; }

Nicholas Meat, which supplies supermarket chains like Giant and fast-food restaurants like Burger King, spreads and injects its waste on fields that Eugene Nicholas and his son, Doug, own or lease in Clinton County and across the county line in places like Antes Fort. Since the state considers it fertilizer, there is little oversight on how food processing residuals are applied.

“There’s nowhere that there’s a law or a regulation involved with the type of farming that we do,” Eugene Nicholas said during the trial. His son, Doug, now largely oversees the Loganton slaughterhouse. The Nicholases and their attorneys did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Pennsylvania does not require a permit to spread food processing residuals, which includes everything from potato skins and dairy waste to slaughterhouse remains. The practice is governed by guidelines published in 1994. They do little more than require farmers to outline details like how much could be used for various crops, and warn people not to dump it near waterways or drinking water sources. 

Regulators investigate complaints of unbearable odors or polluted runoff, but DEP records dating to 2013 show people near the slaughterhouse would often wait days for a response. “There is really no oversight by anyone except residents,” said Angela Harding, a Clinton County commissioner who represents the area. “We don’t necessarily know what the long-term ramifications of this process will be.”

The lawsuit states that Nicholas Meat began spraying its waste on fields after it reopened in 2010 after a fire. It estimated that it sprays 10 million to 13 million gallons of waste over “hundreds” of acres annually. Reports from a Clinton County Conservation District employee presented during the trial revealed that the company was “way over applying blood” to farmland and the practice was “continuous for 8-10 hours a day.” One farmer quoted in a report said he couldn’t drive a tractor on his fields because they were saturated with waste. Evidence presented during the trial showed the company sprayed on barren, wet, and even snowy fields, creating the risk of runoff that could pollute other locations.

Food processing residuals from Nicholas Meat’s slaughterhouse are applied to a field near Trish Leigey’s home in Loganton. This photo was used as evidence in her lawsuit against the processor. Courtesy of Nidel & Nace P.L.L.C.

Local geography and geology add to that danger, particularly for those who depend upon wells. Springs and sinkholes are common in central Pennsylvania, and the cracks and channels in the rocky soil make it easier for contaminants to flow into aquifers and wells, said Brandon Fleming, a groundwater specialist with the U.S. Geological Survey Pennsylvania Water Science Center. He was not involved in the trial.

A 2017 U.S. Geological Survey assessment of Clinton County groundwater, conducted to establish baseline conditions ahead of potential fracking, found that more than half of 54 private wells, including Leigey’s, contained fecal bacteria, including E. coli, which appeared in about 25 percent of them. The study did not determine the source of the contamination. But evidence and testimony presented at the trial revealed that Nicholas Meat knew sinkholes dotted the fields where it sprayed and injected waste. That bloody mixture would have flowed into them and could contaminate groundwater, a groundwater expert testified.

Bovine DNA from blood or tissue, along with human fecal markers, also were detected in water samples taken from three homes near disposal sites in Sugar Valley as part of the legal case against Nicholas. Such pollutants can cause gastrointestinal illnesses resembling food poisoning, including diarrhea and severe abdominal cramps.

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Meat processing waste can expose people to viruses, bacteria, parasites, and chemicals associated with health risks ranging from gastrointestinal illness to methemoglobinemia (sometimes called blue baby syndrome) and cancer. The threat can be compounded by cleaning agents and antimicrobial drugs often found in such refuse, said Christopher Heaney, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who was not involved in the trial.

Even exposure to airborne particles can cause or exacerbate respiratory problems like asthma, while persistent noxious odors — which Leanna Rockey, a retired nurse who sued the slaughterhouse alongside Leigey, described as “rotting flesh and blood” — can also lead to high blood pressure, stress, and other psychological impacts.

For those living near one of these sites, those impacts are part of daily life.

Leigey said her youngest daughter, Alaina, who is now 15, suffered debilitating headaches from the stench, something her neighbors described as often inescapable. It could get so bad that they’d seal themselves indoors despite the summer heat. Many neighbors stopped hanging their clothes out to dry years ago. For Rockey, it has meant investing in a water cooler and regularly hauling clothes to the laundromat so they aren’t stained by fouled water.

“We still don’t drink our water,” Rockey said. “I never dreamt in a million years my little piece of heaven would be turned into a dumping ground.”

The two-week trial lasted longer than most cases heard in Clinton County, which has just two judges. Craig P. Miller, who presided over the case, joked about Nicholas’ “team of 950 lawyers” from the high-powered firm of Fox Rothschild descending on the rural area. Leigey skipped work and her daughter missed school, and a handful of neighbors attended the trial to provide moral support. Much of the testimony focused on whether Nicholas Meat had a right to apply the waste. Jurors deliberated for several hours before returning a verdict that Nicholas’ attorneys appealed on May 5.

Even so, the victory may do little to change the underlying system. The $145,000 that jurors awarded will help cover what Leigey and her neighbors spent over the years on bottled water, laundromat visits, and new wells. But the jury did not award punitive damages, and nothing about the verdict requires the slaughterhouse to change how it operates despite the history of environmental violations revealed during the trial.

“There’s no disincentive for him to do this,” said Chris Nidel, Leigey’s lawyer. Based on the volume of waste produced, he estimated the company saves $4,500 an hour spreading it locally rather than hauling it to a wastewater facility. “They can make that money up in less than a week.”

This 2019 image of Trish Leigey’s tap water was introduced as evidence in a trial that found Nicholas Meat guilty of trespassing and creating a nuisance through the land application of slaughterhouse waste. Courtesy of Trish Leigey

But unless state regulators pursue an investigation or adopt new rules, accountability remains elusive. Cases like Leigey’s can be difficult to prove if defendants can create enough doubt by pointing to other possible sources of contamination — another farm, a leaky septic tank, or past agricultural use. These cases are usually “a catch-me-if-you-can situation,” said Dani Replogle, an attorney with Food & Water Watch who was not involved in the lawsuit.

The same pressures play out nationwide in a $161 billion beef industry built on processing vast numbers of animals at low cost to meet high demand. 

“The more animals you have in one location, the worse the environmental problems are going to be,” Replogle said. Stricter regulation is the only way to negate that, she said. “That is just not happening. There’s a really powerful lobby standing in the way of that.”

That pressure is reinforced locally. Nicholas Meat employs a significant share of the region’s population. Neighbors may be employees, relatives, or landowners connected to the operation, leaving communities tied to the facility responsible for the pollution. That leaves few people willing to complain.

Kovach, the president of the farmers’ union, believes the case reflects a broader shift in agriculture: Livestock production and processing have become concentrated in the hands of fewer, larger operators. “What we need is a lot fewer plants that can handle 600 to 1,000 [cattle] a day and more that can handle 100 a day,” he said.

Michael Kovach, president of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union and a small-scale farmer, takes a selfie with one of his young turkeys. Courtesy of Michael Kovach

Regardless of whether the industry makes that shift, state Representative Paul Friel said the rules need to change. He has introduced legislation to tighten oversight and hold polluters more accountable because some “bad actors” are turning “farm fields into unregulated landfills.”

“There has to be a distinction between normal farming practice and industrial waste disposal,” he said. “There’s not a path forward to manage this without legislation.”

In the months since Leigey won her civil suit, the air around her house has been crisp and fresh. The pungent smell of rotting flesh has waned, but that’s largely because Nicholas Meat is spreading its waste on other fields across the Sugar Valley of central Pennsylvania.

She spent around $10,000 having a deeper well dug in 2021, and although her water now runs clear, she worries how long it’ll stay that way. Her lawyer hopes the lawsuit might inspire others to take a stand and force the industry to change, but Leigey and her neighbors wonder whose well might be the next to run rank.

“Innocent people should not have to suffer for the greed of other people,” she said. “I’m still going to keep an eye on it. Sometimes bad habits are hard to break.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Blood in the well: One town’s fight against the slaughterhouse polluting it on Jun 4, 2026.

Nearly six years ago, during Donald Trump’s first term in the White House, the president signed a piece of bipartisan legislation introduced to phase out the rampant use of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, which are potent greenhouse gases commonly used in commercial cooling equipment in grocery stores and air-conditioning systems. 

At the time, he praised the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act, created in line with an international agreement to tamp down widespread use of the “super pollutant,” as something that would benefit U.S. manufacturers working to produce alternative and less environmentally harmful refrigerants. The Environmental Protection Agency would then spend the next four years under former President Joe Biden working to implement a series of rules to help enforce the law, which set the goal of phasing out production and use of the pollutants by 85 percent by 2036.

Now, Trump has reversed his position. At a White House press conference last month, he announced the administration would be loosening two of the EPA’s refrigerant rules, delaying the deadline required for grocery stores and air-conditioning companies to begin reducing their use of hydrofluorocarbons, and exempting transport companies from repairing HFC leaks in refrigeration equipment. 

Flanked by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and a handful of the country’s biggest grocery chain executives, the president assailed both the rule and the very law he signed, promising Americans the move would have no environmental consequence and bring down supermarket bills. Trump estimated that U.S. businesses and families will save more than $2.4 billion under the new rule changes, while expressing his desire to get rid of the underlying law altogether.  

“Thanks to today’s reforms, the American people have lower grocery prices, cheaper transportation of goods, lower costs of air conditioning at no detriment to our country,” Trump said.

There’s just one problem — that’s just not true. Economists and former EPA officials say the rollbacks are more likely to raise prices than reduce them. Some industry groups warn the administration’s sudden turnabout would result in ramped up demand for equipment that use the most climate-damaging HFCs, which the sector had been steadily scaling back. Even Trump’s EPA has acknowledged in an internal assessment that the rule change could achieve the opposite of its stated goal — rather than lowering costs, the supply and demand dynamics it may create could elevate them. 

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“It just doesn’t add up. There’s just no plausible way in which relaxing these rules is going to generate any meaningful reduction in the costs of food people purchase,” said Chris Barrett, an economist at Cornell University. 

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Dollar data, which is widely considered the best breakdown of costs that go into an American consumer’s grocery bill, food retail, transport, storage, and energy costs together amount to roughly 20 percent. But refrigerants, according to Barrett, are not a meaningful slice of that share. “We’re talking about a maximum reduction of a percentage point in your grocery bill,” said Barrett, who added it’s much more likely to amount to a fraction of a percentage point. “For a consumer who’s spending $200 a week on groceries, maybe it will save you a dollar or two, at the maximum.” 

HFCs are incredibly powerful greenhouse gases that are primarily used as cooling agents in everything from supermarket freezers to slushie machines. Commercial systems using HFCs are prone to leaking, too — the EPA has estimated that U.S. supermarkets alone leak an average of 25 percent of their refrigerants every year. Though the super pollutants don’t stick around in the atmosphere for too long, their global warming potential is hundreds to thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide. 

The 2020 law signed by Trump initiated a gradual phaseout of production and use of HFCs in alignment with an international deal known as the Kigali Amendment. The result of years of negotiation by parties to the 1987 Montreal Protocol on ozone pollution, the Kigali Amendment aimed to prevent up to 0.5 degrees Celsius of added warming by the end of the century, which scientists warn will have enormous consequences for agriculture and the global food system. Though Trump did not send the deal to the Senate for approval during his first term, the U.S. formally ratified the amendment in 2022 under Biden. Inside Climate News reported that a recent EPA assessment estimated that loosening the national phaseout deadlines is likely to increase emissions by 68 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent by 2050.

Joseph Goffman, former assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation during the Biden administration, suspects that Trump’s cost-savings messaging around the rollbacks are nothing more than a “gimmick” to appease disgruntled voters struggling with soaring inflation ahead of midterms. Part of what Trump and Zeldin are doing with these changes, he said, is “wanting to create some grocery-price theater.” 

The administration argues that alternative materials to high-global-warming-potential HFCs are not sufficiently available, making the deadlines set by the rules for the phaseout too aggressive and expensive for food companies — costs, they say, that will be passed down to consumers. But critics have countered that U.S. businesses have spent the last several years investing billions into new refrigerants, equipment, production lines, and staffing. Chemours and Honeywell have already developed alternative refrigerants sold domestically and worldwide. Groups like the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute and the Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy have also denounced the idea that the market needs more time. 

“We heard that argument, I would say, three years ago,” said Goffman. “It’s almost, by definition, arbitrary for the Trump EPA to say, ‘We’ll come along and make these changes,’ as if the EPA hadn’t already received a lot of information and worked through these issues.”

While several major supermarket chains and grocery trade groups have spoken out in support of the rule changes, the administration’s claim that savings will flow through to grocery consumers remains unsubstantiated. As they stand, the EPA’s rule amendments carry no mandates for grocers to lower their prices, and it is unclear whether companies would voluntarily use any presumed savings from the rollbacks to lower their prices, rather than relieving pressure on their own bottom lines.

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Food prices are shaped by many dynamics, but the dominant forces are demand and supply. Over the last few decades, food demand has only continued to grow, fueled by rising global populations, higher incomes, and urbanization. Supply has struggled to keep pace, and food prices have been climbing steadily as a result, punctuated by sharp spikes from recent shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran. 

But Barrett says the overwhelming persistent stressors behind steadily rising food inflation for most of the last six years has been extreme weather and climate-related shocks coupled with lagging productivity growth in food production. Americans are actively seeing this play out with skyrocketing beef prices nationwide, largely driven by persistent and prolonged droughts and heat waves that have decimated cattle herds and created severe supply shortages. “The evidence is very clear,” said Barrett. “Climate change is predictably driving the growth of supply down, and therefore driving prices up in due time.” 

By that logic, the administration’s rollback of the refrigerant rules, intended to mitigate planet-warming emissions, won’t, then, abate rising food inflation but stoke it.   

“So, if relaxing these rules aggravates climate change, and gives us more severe and more frequent episodes of extreme weather that hurts productivity in agriculture, we’re actually going to increase grocery prices down the road,” he said. “It just seems very hard to see how this administration is doing much to help relieve consumer food price inflation concerns.” 

“Who’s really benefiting from these empty promises?” he said. “We all need to start asking that question.” 

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This story was originally published by Grist with the headline No, rolling back these environmental rules won’t lower your grocery bill on Jun 4, 2026.

The biggest data centre in Australia will be built in its only 100 pct net renewables grid. And it could have a major impact, including eliminating negative demand.

The post AI giant chooses Australia’s first 100 pct (net) renewable grid to build country’s biggest data centre appeared first on Renew Economy.

State commits nearly $18 million to the establishment of collection, transport and processing pathways for end-of-life solar panels and batteries.

The post Solar recycling: State tips $17.8 million into waste PV and battery collection, processing appeared first on Renew Economy.