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File:  ltr to Congress, 76 scientists 2012.pdfResource Type: Letters

File:  ltr to Congress, 76 scientists 2012.pdfResource Type: Letters

Union nurses at MedStar Washington Hospital Center (MWHC) in Washington, D.C. are demanding that management stop the planned closure of an entire postpartum unit. The hospital notified the union on May 26, 2026 of its intention to eliminate 11 maternal health beds and displace eight nurses by July 26, 2026, leaving MWHC with one postpartum unit.

On May 16th, 2026, dozens of supporters gathered at the beautiful Oak Hill Farm in Glen Ellen, shared food grown just a few steps from the table, and talked about one of the most pressing challenges of our time: how do we protect our communities from the growing threats of wildfire and extreme heat?

During our traditional Annual Sonoma Leadership Council Luncheon, supporters raised over $150,000, surpassing our goal in 20% and making it one of our best fundraising events ever, to fund climate resilience work underway across the Bay Area. A huge thank you to our incredible host and supporter, Arden Bucklin-Sporer.

The funds raised at the event will go toward concrete, on-the-ground work:

• Expanding wildfire buffer strategies countywide and helping homeowners take proactive mitigation steps.
• Advancing zoning policies that steer development away from the highest-risk areas.
  Strengthening local Fire Safe Councils with coordination and resources.
• Running community workshops that help Southwest Santa Rosa residents recognize heat risks early and protect their health.
• Creating opportunities for young people to take an active role in shaping climate solutions in their own neighborhoods.

We’ve captured some wonderful moments from the day—view event photos here.

Focusing on Solutions for Wildfire Resilience

After years of devastating fires in Sonoma County, the question is no longer whether the threat is real; it’s what to do about it. The Sonoma Luncheon has become a hub for discussing this topic and the cutting-edge solutions that are emerging in the region.

Over the past several years, Greenbelt Alliance partnered with the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District and local organizations to develop the Interwoven Greenbelt Buffer—a first-of-its-kind, landscape-scale approach to wildfire risk reduction.

Rather than treating parcels of land in isolation, the model uses data and cross-sector collaboration to “weave together” conserved lands, working agricultural lands, and developed neighborhoods into coordinated buffer zones. The goal: reduce wildfire intensity before it reaches homes, protect biodiversity and farmland, and shift communities from reactive disaster response to proactive, landscape-level prevention.

It’s a scalable concept, and one that could serve as a model not just for Sonoma County, but for fire-prone communities across California and the Western US.

Rising Threat of Extreme Heat 

As a major driver of intensifying fires, extreme heat is becoming one of the region’s most dangerous public health threats. Over the past decade, Southwest Santa Rosa alone has seen nearly 10,000 heat-related emergency room visits.

In response, Greenbelt Alliance is partnering with Latino Service Providers to develop a community-led Extreme Heat Action Plan for Southwest Santa Rosa, one of our Resilience Hotspots. The effort, supported by the Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, centers the people most affected—agricultural workers, families, and youth— in designing the solutions. It’s a process built on community knowledge, cultural responsiveness, and local leadership.

Our Marin Resilience Manager Jessie Rountree put it simply at the luncheon: climate solutions aren’t just possible. They’re already happening.

Help Make a Difference

As we look ahead, we invite you to continue standing with us in this critical work. With your support, we can expand these solutions across the region and safeguard the places we all love.

Every year, we host this event for our Sonoma Leadership Council, a group of supporters in the North Bay who donate $1,000 or more annually towards the work we do in the region. Our work would not be possible without our donors, and this is a great opportunity to thank them and help raise funds for ongoing projects in Sonoma County and beyond. If you would like to donate toward our work or join our Sonoma Leadership Council, click here. 

Thank you again to our wonderful supporters for helping us work to build a safer and more resilient Sonoma County! 

 

The post Funding Solutions for Fire and Heat at Sonoma Luncheon appeared first on Greenbelt Alliance.

In 2021, amidst a wave of corporate net-zero targets, a campaign group called Investors for Paris Compliance was set up in British Columbia, aiming to use investor pressure to hold Canadian companies to account on their climate promises.

In the five years since, the group has notched up several wins: pressuring National Bank into providing $20 billion of finance to renewable energy, getting Royal Bank of Canada to improve its green finance labels and persuading 20-25% of investors to regularly back climate proposals at annual general meetings (AGMs) for shareholders.

But last month, the group’s then executive director Matt Price put out a statement saying it was shutting down. Despite some progress, Price explained, his organisation had concluded that “investor accountability has reached its limits”.

Companies and their investors often understand that climate change threatens the economic system, Price said. But, he added, they do not respond adequately because they are worried that, if they do, their competitors will not put in as much effort and could therefore gain a financial advantage.

• Jun 2, 2026 Energy Santa Marta process can confront trade protection for fossil fuels, experts say Academics at the first fossil fuel phase-out summit urged governments to recognise investor protection treaties as a barrier to the energy transition Read more
• Jun 3, 2026 Comment Indonesia’s failing Just Energy Transition Partnership is a cautionary tale The government has abandoned its plan to shut down a major coal plant, which was a key part of the deal, raising doubts about the donor-backed approach Read more
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This “tragedy of the commons” situation cannot be fixed by shareholder advocacy, Price said, but instead needs litigation, regulatory action and accountability mechanisms. “Some of our team will take those things on in new initiatives,” he said.

Price’s words echo the findings of a London School of Economics (LSE) report published last month, based on workshops with asset owners and managers in New York, Amsterdam, London and Singapore.

Government policy key

The LSE report noted that “action by investors on climate change is severely constrained by their duties, the limited tools at their disposal and the pathways of technology development”. To be effective, pressure from climate-conscious investors must be coupled with government policy that incentivises green investment and technological innovation, the authors concluded.

An investigation by the Guardian recently found that, despite overwhelming shareholder support for its climate action plan, Australian mining company BHP has carried on buying polluting diesel trucks instead of electric ones. The Australian government subsidises diesel, saving BHP hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

As EU acts to stop greenwash, funds drop climate claims from their names

Lindsey Stewart, director of institutional insights for investment research firm Morningstar, told Climate Home News that investor activism does work but it “doesn’t do everything that people expected it to do towards the beginning of the 2020s”.

“There is a limit to what can be achieved by minority shareholders exercising their votes and engaging with companies. Quite a lot, it does seem, is reliant on the legal and regulatory framework,” he said, adding that the closure of Investors for Paris Compliance shows this “realisation is sinking in a lot more than perhaps it was in 2020, 2021, 2022”.

Decline of investor activism

Stewart said that in the early 2020s, investor activists were pushing companies for “things that were sort of already on the regulatory conveyor belt anyway”, like companies setting targets for their operational (Scope 1 and 2) emissions, disclosing their carbon footprints, and assessing their exposure to risk from climate change.

With this low-hanging fruit picked, green-minded investors have moved on to make demands that are more controversial and have received less support from other investors, he said. He gave examples of just transition reporting, green capital expenditure financing ratios for banks and disclosing emissions from the use of products a company sells, known as Scope 3 emissions.

On top of this, Stewart said, there has been pressure from the “right-wing political establishment in the US” against investors taking climate change into consideration. BlackRock, which manages $9.5 trillion of assets, has walked back its climate commitments after pressure from US Republicans.

More fundamentally, Stewart described the idea that fossil fuel majors would dismantle their oil and gas business and transform into renewables companies as a “pipe dream on the part of environmentalists”. “Why would they have the skill or capability, or even the stakeholder backing, to completely transform a business of that size?” he asked.

Shareholder activism is only possible at privately owned and listed companies, while most investment in oil and gas is now coming from state-owned companies, like Saudi Arabia’s Aramco. In 2025, less than a quarter of investment was from oil majors like BP and Shell.

Business backlash shows power

Yet despite the uphill climb, Mark van Baal defends shareholder activism. He runs an Amsterdam-based campaign group called Follow This, which has tried to get investors to vote for pro-climate resolutions at the AGMs of oil and gas multinationals.

He accepts that success peaked around 2021, but says the effort oil and gas firms are now putting into winning over shareholders and discouraging pro-climate resolutions – which he characterised as “the Empire Strikes Back” – shows the power of shareholder activism, which was previously underestimated.

Mark van Baal is the head of Follow This (Photo: Follow This)

In January 2024, ExxonMobil sued Follow This, aiming to block the group’s climate resolution. Fearing the case would end up in the Supreme Court, where conservative judges could set an anti-climate precedent, Follow This withdrew the resolution.

But, said van Baal, although the legal battle created a “chilling effect among investors”, it is a “proof point that shareholder pressure works and that they’re really afraid of the shareholders”.

Vote, don’t sell

Stewart and van Baal both agreed that selling, or threatening to sell off shares is not an effective way to change a company’s behaviour.

It allows less climate-conscious investors to buy the shares, they said, adding that there is no evidence that threats to sell shares and therefore lower the valuation over climate concerns have influenced company management.

Van Baal said the share price is set by short-term traders, not long-term shareholders like the pension funds he works with.

How Shell is still benefiting from offloaded Niger Delta oil assets

Nonetheless, investors’ engagement should be forceful, van Baal insisted – and not just within their comfort zone of talking to management about sustainability behind closed doors without voting for it at AGMs. “Shareholder democracy is the only democracy where voting is called escalation,” he said.

The Follow This website says that only investors can stop fossil fuel companies destroying the planet. “Marches didn’t change their minds. Lawsuits didn’t stop them. But shareholders can,” it trumpets.

But van Baal told Climate Home News this wording is “too strong” and may have to be revised, adding that shareholder activism just “fits me more than gluing myself to roads” and is a tactic he “stumbled on” 11 years ago.

Legal, political and investor activism can reinforce each other, he added. When Friends of the Earth sued Shell alleging inadequate climate action, for example, the green group’s lawyers cited the company’s rejection of a Follow This resolution as evidence. “The pressure needs to come from all sides,” van Baal said.

The post Investor climate group closes down, blaming “limits” of shareholder activism appeared first on Climate Home News.

Reform run councils do not represent local opinion on climate

Image by Mick Holder

The increased number of Reform run Councils reversing climate emergency declarations and rowing back on limited but essential climate mitigation and adaptation measures should not be confused with popular support for them on this issue; even in areas where they have won with a landslide. 

Friends of the Earth have produced a very useful study of popular opinion – and the key environmental/climate issues – for every local authority in England. You can find yours by typing your postcode into the home page here. 

An example is Thurrock, where Reform won 45 seats out of 49 in May, but; 

• 71% of people are worried about the climate crisis, 

• 60% think it should be a government priority 

• and 75% support renewable energy.

This concern is also reflected among existing Reform voters nationally, almost twice as many of whom would back a solar farm over fracking as the best way to create energy in their local area when forced to pick between the two (43:23%). The figures for voters in general are even more strongly opposed to Reform policy, with 60% choosing solar over 10% choosing fracking.

Back in Thurrock, there are serious climate and environmental issues affecting people’s everyday lives that any council will have to address; however you label them: 

• 52% of homes are poorly insulated, 

• 100% of neighbourhoods have air quality below WHO standards, reflecting poor local public transport, non existing cycling infrastructure and too few public EV chargers, 

• 54,480 people are at extreme risk of flooding, 

• only 28% of household waste is recycled 

• and 89% of neighbourhoods have less than 20% tree cover.

Every other Reform dominated area will have a similar, but specific, profile and this is an area of political vulnerability for them.

Check out your own local authority, gain strength from the knowledge that Reform Councillors are a loud minority standing on very thin ice (which is getting thinner as it gets hotter) and think about how to campaign on the key problems, and who else to do it with. 

Paul Atkin 

 

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The post Reform run councils do not represent local opinion on climate first appeared on Greener Jobs Alliance.

Each summer, people in mosquito country slather themselves with DEET, or diethyltoluamide, the synthetic liquid widely seen as the most effective mosquito repellent around.

But in some situations, they might be turning themselves into mosquito magnets, according to new research published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

The discovery makes for interesting insights into why DEET is usually so effective. It’s also a cautionary lesson about nature’s adaptability in the face of human ingenuity, and to not take for granted the promise of such seemingly bullet-proof inventions as DEET.

“We need to understand how mosquitoes keep outsmarting our control strategies,” said Clément Vinauger, a Virginia Tech researcher who took part in the research and has spent years plumbing the behavior of mosquitos.

The stakes are much more than a few scratchy bites. Mosquitoes can spread dangerous blood-borne illnesses including malaria, dengue and yellow fever, killing an estimated 1 million people every year.

The use of DEET has been a mainstay of dealing with these biting insects, usually by spreading it on people’s skin or clothes. But despite its widespread use since its invention in the 1940s, it’s not entirely clear why it works. Does it trigger some kind of irresistible physiological reaction in mosquitoes? Or can insects overcome that response and come to tolerate or even like the smell?

To figure that out, Vinauger and his collaborators took a page from the work of Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, who famously showed that he could train dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell, because they had learned to associate it with food.

 

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In a sense, the new experiments took it even a step further. What of an animal could become so conditioned that it would seek out a disgusting physical sensation, such as a terrible smell?

To figure that out, the scientists took laboratory-raised Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, a species that spreads yellow fever and dengue. They enclosed individual insects in a plastic cylinder topped with wire mesh. They lowered a warm bag of sheep blood toward the mesh and watched to see how often a female mosquito tried to poke its proboscis into the bag. Some mosquitoes were tested in a DEET-free setting. Others were offered a blood bag while being perfumed with DEET. In a third version, mosquitoes were allowed to feed on the bag unmolested for 10 seconds, then had DEET wafted into the chamber while feeding for another 10 seconds.

For each version, individual mosquitoes went through their routine three times, to drive home the behavioral lesson.

Then the scientists exposed each trained mosquito to the smell of DEET minus the actual blood bag. Most of the ones that had never encountered DEET before or had a constant dose of the chemical while the blood was presented reacted as we might expect. They showed little interest in feeding.

But the ones that had started feeding and then encountered the DEET smell did the equivalent of Pavlov’s salivating dogs. They acted as if they were going to bite, even when there was no blood bag.

To see if this response could be replicated in a more realistic situation, mosquitoes were exposed to the two hands of scientist Ayelén Nally of the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. Just one of her hands was doused in DEET. Mosquitoes without any special training all headed toward the DEET-free hand. But more than half the trained mosquitoes showed a preference for the hand covered in the insect repellent. (Nally didn’t shed blood for the experiment – there was a mesh barrier blocking the mosquitos.)

The startling results suggest that rather than a hardwired physical response, the repellent might work because it evokes the smell of natural occurring repellents such as chemicals from a plant, the scientists suggested. “What we are showing is that the mosquito’s brain can rewrite that response based on experience. What the insect has learned matters just as much as what the chemical does,” said Vinauger. “That, I think, is a paradigm shift.”

That doesn’t mean people should toss away their DEET. It’s still highly effective in many cases. “If you’re in tropical regions where disease risk is real, you should use it,” he said.

But people might need to use it more thoughtfully. “Instead of applying a lot at once, you may want to reapply regularly so it’s always active and providing continuous protection,” Vinauger said.

That way, mosquitoes won’t get close enough to take a bite and begin associating the smell with a snack. Because if they do, then you might just be putting on mosquito perfume.

Lazzari, et. al. “Associative learning switches DEET valence from aversive to appetitive in Aedes aegypti.” Journal of Experimental Biology. May 28, 2026.

Image: ©Anthropocene Magazine

Headline News:

• “Markey Demands Trump Cancel DOE Plan To Give Private Companies Enough Plutonium To Build 2,000 Nuclear Bombs” • Senator Ed Markey implored President Donald Trump to cancel his DOE’s plan to give private companies enough plutonium to build around 2,000 nuclear bombs, warning the move raises a number of important concerns. [Common Dreams]

Senator Markey (USDAgov, public domain)

• “Almost Everywhere Will Face Above Average Summer Heat, WMO Warns” • El Niño will hit this summer with 80% certainty, according to the latest forecast by the World Meteorological Organization. El Niño is expected to leave virtually nowhere untouched, with above-average temperatures forecast around the globe for June to August. [Euronews]
• “The UK Government Set A Target Of An 87% Cut In Carbon Emissions By 2042” • The British government said that it will stick to its net-zero goal, despite pressure on energy supplies from global conflicts. It will reduce the UK’s planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions by 87% of 1990 levels in the next decade and a half. [ABC News]
• “What Hormuz Is Teaching Traders About Utilities” • The Strait of Hormuz shows how vulnerable electricity markets are to fuel price shocks, even after years of investment in renewable energy. The effects of the disruption are steadily working their way through natural gas markets, fuel contracts, and wholesale electricity worldwide. [OilPrice.com]
• “Sierra Club Applauds Northeast States For Challenging Trump Administration’s Illegal Offshore Wind Lease Buyout” • “These states recognize what this administration refuses to accept: Offshore wind lowers energy costs and strengthens our grid. Trump’s backroom buy-outs are a bad deal for families already struggling to pay their bills.” [CleanTechnica]

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

Beberapa tahun lalu, aktivitas yang berkaitan dengan permainan angka masih banyak dilakukan melalui metode tradisional. Informasi disebarkan secara terbatas, pencatatan dilakukan secara manual, dan proses verifikasi membutuhkan waktu yang relatif lama.

Kini, berbagai platform digital memanfaatkan teknologi berbasis cloud untuk mengelola jutaan data dalam waktu singkat. Informasi dapat diperbarui secara instan, sementara pengguna dapat mengakses layanan melalui perangkat komputer, tablet, maupun smartphone kapan saja.

Transformasi ini menunjukkan bagaimana digitalisasi mampu mengubah sistem yang sebelumnya sederhana menjadi ekosistem teknologi yang jauh lebih efisien dan responsif.

Teknologi Keamanan Menjadi Prioritas Utama

Salah satu aspek yang paling berkembang dalam platform digital modern adalah sistem keamanan. Pengelola layanan online kini menerapkan berbagai lapisan perlindungan guna menjaga stabilitas sistem dan keamanan data pengguna.

Beberapa teknologi yang banyak digunakan meliputi:

• Enkripsi data tingkat lanjut.
• Sistem autentikasi ganda
• Pemantauan aktivitas secara otomatis.
• Proteksi terhadap serangan siber.
• Sistem deteksi anomali berbasis kecerdasan buatan.

Teknologi tersebut memungkinkan aktivitas digital berlangsung dengan tingkat keamanan yang lebih tinggi dibandingkan era sebelumnya.

Pengalaman Pengguna yang Semakin Interaktif

Salah satu faktor yang membuat platform digital modern berkembang pesat adalah fokus pada pengalaman pengguna atau user experience. Tampilan yang responsif, navigasi yang mudah dipahami, serta desain visual yang menarik menjadi standar baru dalam dunia digital.

Saat ini, banyak platform mengadopsi desain minimalis dengan antarmuka yang intuitif. Pengguna dapat menemukan informasi yang dibutuhkan dengan lebih cepat tanpa harus melalui proses yang rumit.

Selain itu, teknologi real-time memungkinkan berbagai informasi ditampilkan secara langsung sehingga pengalaman digital terasa lebih dinamis dan interaktif.

Integrasi Mobile yang Mengubah Segalanya

Kehadiran smartphone menjadi salah satu pendorong utama pertumbuhan layanan digital modern. Mayoritas aktivitas internet kini dilakukan melalui perangkat mobile, sehingga pengembang platform berlomba menghadirkan sistem yang sepenuhnya ramah terhadap pengguna smartphone.

Optimalisasi mobile tidak hanya mencakup tampilan visual, tetapi juga kecepatan akses, efisiensi penggunaan data, serta kompatibilitas dengan berbagai sistem operasi. Hasilnya, pengalaman pengguna menjadi lebih praktis dan fleksibel tanpa terikat lokasi maupun waktu.

Data Analytics Menjadi Mesin Penggerak

Di balik tampilan yang sederhana, terdapat sistem analisis data yang bekerja secara terus-menerus. Teknologi data analytics memungkinkan pengelola platform memahami tren penggunaan, meningkatkan performa sistem, serta melakukan pengembangan layanan berdasarkan kebutuhan pengguna.

Melalui pengolahan data yang akurat, berbagai keputusan strategis dapat dilakukan dengan lebih cepat dan terukur. Inilah alasan mengapa analisis data kini menjadi salah satu aset paling berharga dalam industri digital modern.

Masa Depan yang Semakin Berbasis Teknologi

Perkembangan teknologi menunjukkan bahwa sistem digital akan terus berevolusi. blockchain, komputasi awan generasi terbaru, hingga otomatisasi berbasis machine learning diperkirakan akan semakin banyak digunakan untuk meningkatkan efisiensi dan keamanan platform online.

Dalam beberapa tahun ke depan, berbagai layanan digital kemungkinan akan menghadirkan pengalaman yang lebih personal, cepat, dan terintegrasi dibandingkan saat ini. Inovasi tersebut menjadi bukti bahwa transformasi digital masih berada dalam tahap perkembangan yang sangat dinamis.

Penutup

Togel online menjadi salah satu contoh bagaimana teknologi mampu mengubah sebuah sistem tradisional menjadi platform digital yang jauh lebih modern. Kehadiran cloud computing, kecerdasan buatan, analisis data, serta keamanan siber tingkat lanjut telah menciptakan ekosistem yang semakin canggih dan efisien.

Meski demikian, penting bagi pengguna untuk memahami bahwa setiap aktivitas yang melibatkan permainan uang memiliki risiko. Pemanfaatan teknologi sebaiknya disertai kesadaran digital, pemahaman terhadap regulasi yang berlaku, serta pengelolaan aktivitas online secara bertanggung jawab. Dengan begitu, perkembangan teknologi dapat dipahami dari sisi inovasi dan transformasi digital yang terus bergerak maju.

Freddie Daley is a research associate with the Centre for Global Political Economy at the University of Sussex. Charlie Lawrie is a postdoctoral associate at the University of Sussex.

In December 2025, Indonesia quietly abandoned plans to close the Cirebon-1 coal power plant. This was no ordinary power plant. Cirebon-1 was supposed to be the centre-piece of a $21.4 billion (£16.5bn) international deal backed by the US, UK, Japan and the EU to help Indonesia end coal use.

Indonesia’s so-called Just Energy Transition Partnership, or JETP, was launched at a G20 summit in Bali in 2022. Similar deals have been struck with South Africa, Vietnam and Senegal. They are widely regarded as the most ambitious attempt at getting international climate finance to end coal use in populous, coal-dependent middle-income countries.

The UK government once touted the JETPs as “a template on how to support just transition around the world”. This refers to efforts to ensure that the phase-out of fossil fuels and phase-in of low-carbon technologies is fair, inclusive and reflects the demands of workers and affected communities.

But if this approach cannot retire a single plant in Indonesia, the world’s fourth largest coal consumer, there is reason to question whether the model itself works. Our research suggests these partnerships are better understood as a cautionary tale.

Investors needed

The idea underpinning the JETPs is elegant in theory: use public money from rich countries to attract private investment for renewable energy projects and closing down coal plants.

Grants from governments and low-cost loans supposedly reduce the risk enough to bring in billions more from banks and asset managers. The public money “unlocks” the private money, and together they fund an energy transition that benefits the public through cleaner air, reliable energy and reduced climate risk. Win, win.

But across all four JETP countries, the private money has yet to materialise at the scale envisioned. In Indonesia, as of early 2025, only around $1.1 billion of public money had been disbursed. But the country’s plan for decarbonising electricity estimates it needs $97 billion in investment by 2030 – a cavernous gap.

• Jun 2, 2026 Energy Santa Marta process can confront trade protection for fossil fuels, experts say Academics at the first fossil fuel phase-out summit urged governments to recognise investor protection treaties as a barrier to the energy transition Read more
• May 29, 2026 Comment COP31 must persuade countries to make fossil fuel transition plans  As the Iran war disrupts oil and gas supplies, the UN climate summit should tackle fossil fuel dependency, energy affordability and energy access – national roadmaps are a good start Read more

More troubling still is the lack of consolidated financial reporting for the JETP funds. Fifty separate funding packages within the Indonesian JETP, all with their own financial instruments and accounting frameworks, make it all but impossible to track how much money has been spent.

As international climate law expert Lukas Bogner has argued, this kind of finance creates complex bureaucratic layers that recipient countries must navigate.

Why investors haven’t shut coal plants

Decommissioning a coal plant is not like building a new one. It means buying out existing contracts, compensating investors for lost future profits, and renegotiating complex legal agreements.

Even then, the electricity the plant provided still needs to be replaced. This requires further investment in generation systems that may not yet exist. Investors have little appetite for any of this, and the costs fall primarily on the state.

In fact, the supposed unlocking of private investment with public money raises a perennial tendency: private capital moves where returns are highest and risks lowest.

Investors in London and New York, for example, demand high returns from middle-income economies like Indonesia, yet baulk at complex regulatory environments, state-owned electricity companies, powerful coal interests and mounting sovereign debt burdens. Public money can make some projects more attractive, but will not remove the supposed political and economic risks investors see in countries like Indonesia.

The energy transition deal aims to wean Indonesia off coal, which now takes up nearly half of the country’s electricity mix. Photo: Kemal Jufri / Greenpeace The energy transition deal aims to wean Indonesia off coal, which now takes up nearly half of the country’s electricity mix. Photo: Kemal Jufri / Greenpeace

The JETP also means loading Indonesia with more debt. Of the $21.4 billion now pledged, only 2.6% comes in the form of interest-free grants. Most JETP finance would arrive as commercially-priced loans which Indonesia must eventually repay.

In other words, Indonesia is being asked to borrow more to decommission coal assets that currently generate government revenue and employment. At the same time, it will have to purchase renewable electricity from the privatised companies that would replace them.

In the words of one of our interviewees, the Indonesian state is expected to “pay twice” – once to close the old system, and again to buy power from the new one. Trade unions in Indonesia have been blunt about what this means in practice. Under the JETP model, they warn electricity will no longer be treated as a public good, but as a commodity that ordinary Indonesians will pay more for.

Why rich countries are “reluctant” on additional JETP coal-to-clean deals

The JETP model can also weaken the same state institutions needed to manage the energy transition. Countries that have managed rapid clean-energy booms, from China to Vietnam, have done so through strong state-owned enterprises, clear industrial strategies and the ability to direct investment and discipline business.

The JETPs, by contrast, are designed around a diminished role for the state and a central role for private capital. This happens through regulatory reform, the creation of new private markets, or through investor-friendly technologies.

In the case of Indonesia, this “de-risking” agenda explains the pressure to break up the national electricity company and sell off its assets – a prospect fiercely resisted by trade unions, civil society and even wealthy groups who profit from the existing system.

A broken model?

International climate finance remains important. Rich countries must still fund energy transitions in the Global South. But the Indonesian JETP suggests that relying on private investors to deliver coal phase-outs may be the wrong model.

Alternatives do exist, from proposals for much larger grant-based financing to the Bridgetown Initiative proposed by Barbados’s prime minister, Mia Mottley, which would use International Monetary Fund resources to support climate investment. More radical proposals call for publicly-owned, worker-led transitions. But so far, these ideas have made little progress.

Our research suggests just transitions are more likely when governments receive direct grants that help them retain the capacity to shape their own energy systems, and to support domestic industries through green industrialisation.

The failure to decommission Cirebon-1 matters beyond Indonesia. It suggests the world’s flagship model for financing the end of fossil fuels isn’t working. And the longer it takes to admit that, the harder the transition becomes – for Indonesia, and for everyone.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The post Indonesia’s failing Just Energy Transition Partnership is a cautionary tale appeared first on Climate Home News.

Thin Blue Rage: The Police Countermovement, by Andrew Crosby and Jeffrey Monaghan (Fernwood Publishing, May 2026). The years following the George Floyd rebellions have witnessed...

The post Book Review: “Thin Blue Rage: The Police Countermovement” first appeared on Spring.

Last week, New York became the first state in the country to weaken a mandatory climate law passed by its own legislature.

The change comes at the behest of Governor Kathy Hochul, a moderate Democrat who has often criticized climate action for increasing consumer costs. After months of backroom negotiation, the legislature reached a deal that weakens the 2019 law in several different ways — most notably by giving the state an additional decade to meet legally-required emissions targets.

The original law, one of the most ambitious in the U.S., required the Empire State to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent before 2030. (The state used its 1990 emissions as the baseline for comparison, per standards set by the United Nations.) Thanks to the law’s uniquely strict accounting rules, the only way for the state to meet this target was to shift away from natural gas, which provides most of the state’s electricity and almost all its heating fuel. 

But as the 2020s progressed, New York failed to wean itself off of gas. The reason for that depends on who you ask. Some argue that President Donald Trump’s attacks on renewable energy have slowed the state’s progress, and others believe that state politicians have backed natural gas when they could have invested in more clean energy. Either way, the state fell way behind schedule, and it stood no chance of meeting its 2030 goal without dramatic action that would have taxed or banned consumption of fossil fuels.

Besides delaying the 2030 deadline by 10 years, the deal will also change the law’s accounting to give less weight to natural gas, and it will slow the rollout of a cap-and-trade system, which would force polluters to bargain with each other to stay below a hard limit on total emissions. Hochul has defended these changes as an attempt to protect New Yorkers from rising costs, blaming Trump for the state’s slow progress. She has warned that meeting the state law’s ironclad emissions target — something a court ordered her to do last year — would require huge pollution taxes that would end up inflating utility bills and gasoline prices, imposing thousands of dollars on the average household. (The budget deal also includes language that would require the state to consider the impact of its climate regulations on household budgets.)

Legislators and climate activists who support the original climate law said Hochul pushed the changes without giving lawmakers a chance to discuss a path forward for climate action in the state.

“This really came out of nowhere, it was sprung on us, and it was difficult even to understand what was happening,” said Marcella Mitaynes, a progressive state assembly member who represents a swath of waterfront neighborhoods in Brooklyn with many working-class residents.

Some experts who study decarbonization in New York said that the state’s legally binding emissions target had become virtually impossible to hit given broader headwinds against a national or global transition away from fossil fuels.

“It was going to be really difficult to meet, because the economy wasn’t cooperating,” said Al McGartland, who served as the chief economist at the Environmental Protection Agency from 2005 to 2025. McGartland, an expert on carbon taxes, said that the change to the law is “not all bad because I think it does buy time to think this thing through carefully, and do it right.”

The biggest change is delay. The budget deal sets a new target of reducing the state’s emissions 60 percent by 2040, a number that the governor’s office says is far more achievable than the 40 percent originally required by 2030. It also delays the launch of a “cap-and-invest” system, which was supposed to launch last year, until 2028. This system would assess new fees to polluters such as power plants and oil terminals and would funnel that revenue toward climate projects such as electric-vehicle chargers and heat pumps. Many climate experts believe such systems are the most efficient way to nudge an economy away from fossil fuels, but Hochul had grown concerned that the system would raise gas prices and utility bills at a time when many consumers are already struggling with fuel prices. 

The deal also makes two important changes to the way the state counts its emissions. Under the old system, New York had to account for the climate pollution associated with extracting the fossil fuels that it imports from other states. For instance, when a natural gas field in Pennsylvania leaked planet-warming methane before piping the gas to New York, the latter state had to count those leaks as its own pollution, in addition to that caused by burning the fuel for energy. Most other states don’t do this. Once New York makes this change, it will reduce its apparent emissions by about 15 percent overnight — a result of the fact that the state imports most of its natural gas.

This dynamic was compounded by the fact that the state’s old accounting system also gave extra weight to methane, which is the second most common greenhouse gas after carbon. Methane warms the Earth about 80 times faster than carbon dioxide, but it disappears from the atmosphere after around 20 years. Most countries evaluate their greenhouse gas emissions by considering the warming that will take place over 100 years, but New York only considered 20 years of warming, which makes methane look much worse compared to carbon. 

The 20-year outlook benefited certain polluting sectors and disadvantaged others. Under the new system, for instance, the warming impact attributed to the state’s livestock industry and its landfills will fall by two-thirds. Unlike the accounting change for imported fuels, however, the change to a 100-year framework can be defended as ultimately more climate-conscious: The 100-year framework is the standard used by the United Nations climate secretariat that administers the Paris Agreement, and many climate scientists have criticized the state’s 20-year framework for distorting the true costs of warming. (The reason, in short: If you have a system that prioritizes methane over carbon, you may limit some warming in the short-term while baking in much more in the long run.)

But even with these changes, the state still won’t be on track to meet its original 2030 goal. That’s because it has made little progress on the biggest sources of carbon: cars, power plants, and residential buildings. 

Natural gas provides around 50 percent of the state’s electricity, and it is the heating fuel for almost all the big apartment buildings in New York City and its suburbs. In order to fully ditch fossil fuels, the state will have to convert all those buildings to electrical systems like heat pumps. And then it will still have to replace all its natural gas-fired power plants with emissions-free sources like wind and solar.

These are both very difficult tasks. For one thing, electrifying a place like New York is expensive. The cost of replacing gas boilers with electric heaters in a century-old apartment building can run into the tens of millions of dollars, and landlords have been struggling to find that money without bankrupting their tenants. The New York City Council has passed its own law, Local Law 97, that requires large buildings to make the switch by 2030 or face steep fines. But some building owners have said the fines might still be cheaper than the cost of making the switch.

The law’s 2030 target provides an powerful spur to decarbonization even if some buildings will struggle to meet the deadline, said John Foley, an executive vice president at First Service Project Management.

“The goals may be difficult to reach, but they’re important to have,” said Foley, whose firm handles construction projects for a large portfolio of multifamily buildings. He said that while new heat pump technology has made decarbonization easier for some buildings, meeting the Local Law 97 target will depend on the state’s grid.

“The solution seems to be going towards electrification a lot more, and in order for electrification to be the answer, then you have to produce energy in a cleaner way,” he said.

Steam rises from the smokestacks of the Ravenswood Generating Station, the largest power plant in New York City. The state has struggled to build out enough clean power to replace its natural gas power plants. Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein / Corbis via Getty Images

Finding clean sources of electricity to replace gas-fired power plants has also been an uphill battle. A new transmission line carrying clean power from hydropower dams in Canada down to New York City will come online this month, but it was delayed for years by litigation and environmental permitting. Two major offshore wind farms, Empire Wind and Sunrise Wind, will also come online this year, despite the Trump administration’s attempts to block them. But they will only displace a fraction of the state’s gas supply, and won’t provide much power in the summer when demand is highest. (Coastal winds tend to be calmest in the summer when the oceans are hot and there are fewer storms.) Plus, developers have shown little interest in building more offshore wind farms due to Trump’s opposition.

Some of the challenges, however, are of the state’s own making. The state made its own electricity grid much more polluting when it closed the Indian Point nuclear power plant in 2011 due to environmental concerns. After the plant closed, the state had to import more gas to make up the loss.

The borough of Brooklyn, where residents who live near seasonal power plants complain of asthma and respiratory conditions, shows just how difficult this transition is. The state has been trying for almost a decade to close the particularly dirty “peaker” gas plants that turn on to provide power during the hot summer months when electricity demand is highest and not enough power is available from other sources. But even once the new Hudson transmission line and Empire Wind come online, the state’s independent grid operator says New York City could still need those peaker plants to avoid blackouts come 2031. 

“To me, the heart of the climate law was really to invest in our communities and reverse this legacy of pollution,” said Mitaynes, the Brooklyn assembly member who represents residents who live near such peaker plants, like the Gowanus Generation Station. She said that the delayed cap-and-trade system would have funneled 35 percent of its revenue toward disadvantaged communities. That money could help address poor air quality and support the buildout of an offshore wind manufacturing facility on the waterfront. “This law really set us up as leaders, and [Hochul] has taken this opportunity to dismantle it,” she said.

Hochul spokesperson Ken Lovett said the changes are “commonsense reforms” and that the governor “remains committed” to climate action.

“Governor Hochul has made clear her top priority is keeping the lights on and costs down for all New Yorkers,” he told Grist.

The state is still making investments in decarbonization: One state agency is investing heavily in large batteries that could store clean energy and thereby replace some natural gas capacity, and another will purchase $100 million in new renewable power this year. The state budget also increased a tax credit for New York City landlords that electrify their buildings. The budget deal also ups the proportion of future cap-and-trade revenues that will go to disadvantaged areas.

But other than that, Hochul has shown little interest in a plan for the state’s transition off of gas. Indeed, she appears to have decided that the state will need gas for the long run. Last year she approved water permits for a new Trump-backed pipeline project that will carry natural gas from Pennsylvania to Queens. The pipeline endorsement was part of a deal to protect the Empire Wind project from Trump’s interference, but Trump’s Interior Department attempted to stop Empire Wind a few months later anyway.

The new gas pipeline broke ground in April at a ceremony in Brooklyn attended by Trump administration Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin. Hochul herself did not attend.

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This story was originally published by Grist with the headline New York backtracked on its climate goals. Here’s why. on Jun 3, 2026.

This story is made possible through a partnership between Grist and The Flatwater Free Press, Nebraska’s first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories.

Standing before the Otoe County Board and a room of neighbors, Wynee Benedict ticked through a long list of concerns.

Do we have enough water for them? Who pays for their power? What if they create a heat island?

The source of Benedict’s worries: data centers. Since learning earlier this year that their county, south of Omaha and a little east of Lincoln, could become home to a new data center, Otoe residents have been abuzz with questions and concerns like Benedict’s, leading some residents to call for a temporary ban on the industry. 

That’s effectively what the board did last month, voting to suspend the permits needed for a new data center for up to a year, according to commissioner Chuck Cole. The pause is intended to give county officials more time to study how the developments fit into the county’s future plans and to update its regulations accordingly. 

Around the country, opposition to data centers is growing. The massive, resource-guzzling buildings needed to power artificial intelligence and our digital infrastructure have emerged as a galvanizing issue. Local governments from California to Maine have adopted or are considering temporary bans. And at least 14 states so far this year have weighed statewide moratoriums.  

Elsewhere in Nebraska, Madison County set requirements for data centers to get a special permit, which allows added oversight and public input. In Gage County, the planning and zoning commission will hold a hearing on a data center moratorium later this month.

And more will likely follow suit thanks to a recent change in state law forcing counties to make a decision on certain development projects within a specific amount of time, said Jon Cannon, executive director of Nebraska Association of County Officials. The goal, according to the bill’s supporters, was to prevent counties from needlessly delaying projects. But the law could have an unintended consequence. 

“I think that you’re likely to see a number of counties that say, ‘We need to get our regulations in order,’ and … they may put moratoriums on a lot of things, not just data centers,” Cannon said.

Read Next A look behind the scenes of what could be Google’s biggest test of carbon capture Anila Yoganathan

Data centers are just the latest in a long line of controversial developments, like wind and solar, that counties in Nebraska and other states have grappled with. And much like those other developments, attitudes toward data centers could vary from county to county, Cannon said. He advises developers to communicate with residents in rural Nebraska early and transparently about large projects.

“When people are aware of something coming to town, because, ‘Oh, my neighbor told me that he just signed this big contract for a right of way’ — when people find out that way, they get very excited, and not in a good way,” Cannon said.

From an environmental standpoint, it’s hard to know how much data centers are impacting Nebraska. There’s no centralized information source for their location, ownership, and water usage. 

Read Next data centers” class=”js-modal-gallery__hidden” srcset=”https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/GettyImages-2236721497-e1763760608494.jpg?quality=75&strip=all 1022w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/GettyImages-2236721497-e1763760608494.jpg?resize=330%2C186&quality=75&strip=all 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/GettyImages-2236721497-e1763760608494.jpg?resize=768%2C432&quality=75&strip=all 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/GettyImages-2236721497-e1763760608494.jpg?resize=160%2C90&quality=75&strip=all 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/GettyImages-2236721497-e1763760608494.jpg?resize=150%2C84&quality=75&strip=all 150w” sizes=”(max-width: 1022px) 100vw, 1022px” height=”575″ width=”1022″ loading=”lazy” decoding=”async”> How to make data centers less thirsty Naveena Sadasivam

But that is expected to change. 

Lawmakers approved a bill this year aimed at increasing transparency. It requires data centers to annually report the names of their owners and developers, physical size, location, annual electricity demand, annual water usage, and any sales and use tax exemptions and incentives they receive. 

That information will likely be helpful to local officials, like those in Otoe County, as they weigh regulations. 

Other Otoe County residents echoed the concerns expressed by Benedict, who referenced reporting by the Flatwater Free Press and Grist about a proposal by Google to build a massive new Nebraska data center. The proposed data center could require more than triple the electricity the entire city of Lincoln uses during the hottest months of the year, when electricity use spikes. 

The proposal, detailed in documents shared at a private utility meeting in January, did not identify a specific location. However, Flatwater reported that a potential partner in the overall project — the Omaha-based private energy developer Tenaska — had optioned large chunks of land in southeast Nebraska, including Otoe and Gage counties. The news sparked discussions in both counties.

However, some residents who spoke at the Otoe County board meeting appeared to have different views on whether to temporarily ban data centers.

“We have said ‘no’ to a lot of things, almost a knee-jerk reaction. Maybe we need to say ‘yes’ to a few things,” resident Jim Nemec said at the meeting, adding that he understood the need for a temporary ban to study the issue. “But I also worry about the intention or impression it gives. Are we sending out the impression that business is closed here?”

In the end, Benedict is happy that the commission voted for the moratorium. Now, she and her neighbors are turning their attention to researching the consequences these developments may have. “We needed regulations on the books prior to a data center coming to this county,” Benedict said. “We don’t want to have to play catch-up and regulate something that’s already here.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Nebraskans are taking a hard look at data centers on Jun 3, 2026.

The Trump administration is promoting multibillion-dollar funding packages to help states and disadvantaged communities secure clean drinking water as part of its promise to “Make America Healthy Again.” There’s just one catch: The federal dollars were previously promised under a climate and infrastructure law passed by Congress during the Biden administration.

Last month, the EPA announced a $1 billion commitment to address drinking water contaminated by PFAS, a class of synthetic compounds commonly referred to as “forever chemicals.” Two days later, it announced $2.9 billion to help track down and replace lead pipes, which can leach lead — a potent neurotoxin that can cause irreversible cognitive, cardiovascular, and reproductive harm — into drinking water. 

“The Trump EPA is committed to Make America Healthy Again by ensuring clean air, land, and water — and by taking on PFAS,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin in a statement. In a separate statement, EPA Assistant Administrator Jess Kramer said that the “Trump EPA is committed to tackling lead exposure” and that the funds “will help protect current and future generations across America by accelerating local efforts to find and replace toxic lead pipes.”  

But both funding streams were appropriated well before Trump took office. Congress originally passed the bipartisan infrastructure law, also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, or IIJA, in 2021, promising to deliver more than $50 billion over five years to revamp the nation’s water infrastructure — the largest investment of its kind since the passage of the 1972 Clean Water Act. Billions of dollars for lead pipe removal and PFAS contamination were tucked into the Biden-era law and scheduled to run out this year.    

Approximately $15 billion of those funds were set aside specifically for removing lead service lines, which deliver drinking water to homes and businesses. For the past five years, the EPA has been distributing these funds based on the share of lead lines in each state. The nearly $2.9 billion that the agency announced last month is the fifth and final of the annual disbursements required under the IIJA. Another $5 billion was set aside for PFAS cleanup.

But this year’s funds for lead pipe removal fell short of what Congress originally pledged. Republican lawmakers repurposed $125 million from this year’s appropriation for wildfire prevention, and the Trump administration initially delayed releasing the $2.9 billion allocated for 2025. The EPA only released the funds after pressure from Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi and six other Illinois lawmakers, who alleged that the funds were being withheld from Democrat-led states. 

The Trump administration has also proposed cutting the EPA’s budget in half in 2027, including a 90 percent reduction in long-standing funding for lead pipe replacement. Federal rules require that most water utilities remove all lead pipes across the country by 2037. Reductions in funding could jeopardize their ability to meet those targets. 

Scott Berry, a senior advisor on policy and external affairs with the nonprofit US Water Alliance, said those funding cuts are occurring at a time when states are trying to clean up lead pipes.

“As of now, there are no plans to increase the funding or even maintain IIJA levels, despite the fact that there is a massive need for investment,” Berry said. He added that deferring water infrastructure spending could ultimately cost homeowners more, potentially increasing utility bills by an additional $1,000.

In a statement, the EPA press office told Grist that the agency has taken “significant actions” to protect American families and children and “is following the law and disbursing funds appropriated by Congress.” The agency did not respond to questions about projected funding for drinking water infrastructure.

Nationwide, the EPA estimates there are approximately 4 million lead service lines buried across the country that are still in use. Illinois leads the nation, with about 1.5 million lead pipes. More than 400,000 of the state’s lead service lines are in Chicago as a result of the city’s building codes, which required lead connections up until 1986. As a result, Illinois received about 10 percent of the federal dollars — the largest allocation among all 50 states.

“[We] will work hard to secure our fair share, but there is no determination yet about how much Chicago will receive,” according to a statement from Megan Vidis, spokesperson for the Chicago Department of Water Management.

Due to the funding reductions approved by lawmakers this year, Illinois will receive approximately $15 million less than originally expected. 

“If the federal government is serious about getting the lead out and modernizing the nation’s aging water infrastructure, then it must sustain bipartisan infrastructure law investments and be committed to strengthening — not scaling back,” said Chakena Sims, a senior policy advocate with the Natural Resources Defense Council. 

Editor’s note: The Natural Resources Defense Council is an advertiser with Grist. Advertisers have no role in Grist’s editorial decisions.

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This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Biden’s clean drinking water plan is being rebranded as MAHA on Jun 3, 2026.

• Cities should densify their inner-ring suburbs to reduce car trips and greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Another study of 15-minute cities found that, for every 10 percent increase in residents living in walkable neighborhoods, transportation-related carbon dioxide emissions fell by 5 percent. (Cities)
• Air pollution slows the lung growth of children, and even young adults up to age 24. (The Guardian)
• Financially, people who drive a lot and own an aging gas-powered car are better off buying an electric vehicle, which is also better for the climate. (NPR)
• From schedules to accessibility, transit agencies are not doing a good job of adjusting to an aging population of riders, according to a Chinese study of Asian and European cities. (The City Fix)
• The key to winning the PR battle over traffic enforcement cameras is to convince the public they’re not just a money grab by local governments. (CT Mirror)
• An Illinois law reforming Chicago transit governance and pumping $1.5 billion into the system took effect Monday. (Tribune)
• The transit agency in Montana’s capital city, Helena, is facing a $200,000 deficit and considering cutting service, primarily affecting the elderly and disabled. (Free Press)
• The Kansas City Streetcar is studying the feasibility of a third extension. (KCTV)
• Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson joined an annual mass bike ride through downtown to celebrate Wisconsin Bike Week. (WTMJ)
• What should Charlotte call its new transit-oriented, walkable arts and entertainment district? (Ledger)
• Riding e-scooters and other personal mobility vehicles has become a popular after-work activity in Canada. (CBC)
• Car Free America explains how Copenhagen built its famously excellent bike infrastructure.

On April 20, the Federal Highway Administration launched its “Freedom to Drive” initiative, asking governors to nominate their worst traffic bottlenecks for federal capacity expansion. On May 17, House transportation leaders released the draft BUILD America 250 Act — a $580 billion, five-year surface transportation reauthorization, which the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee marked up on May 21.

Taken together, the two announcements amount to the largest federal sprawl subsidy in a generation, proposed at exactly the moment American households can least afford it.

There is a real freedom in being able to drive. But the “freedom” the initiative actually delivers isn’t “freedom” at all, because it leaves households with no alternatives.

For roughly 30 percent of Americans — children, older adults, people with disabilities, and households without a vehicle — driving is not an option. For nearly everyone else, the built environment makes it the only practical way to reach a job or a grocery store. We have grown so used to automobile dependence that we no longer notice the shackles. The “freedom” on offer is pure car-dealer Americana — red, white, blue, and one more promise that the next round of expansion will finally clear the traffic.

Recommended Trump’s ‘Freedom Means Affordable Cars’ Rings Hollow As Gas Prices Surge Kea Wilson March 30, 2026

Start with the household ledger. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that American households spent an average of $78,535 in 2024 — 33.4 percent on housing and 17.0 percent on transportation, more than half of household spending. The Center for Neighborhood Technology’s Housing + Transportation Affordability Index sets the combined affordability ceiling at 45 percent of household income, and most U.S. communities routinely exceed it.

But the H+T Index measures only direct household costs. It does not capture the federal subsidy that engineered the sprawl pattern, which households absorb, and it does not show how that subsidy gets returned in degraded form. 

Federal, state, and local governments spent $626 billion on transportation and water infrastructure in 2023, with highways as the largest category. Federal capacity expansion is increasingly deficit-financed, and households pay it back through inflated prices, eroded wages, and higher mortgage rates.

The road bill never goes away. It just gets routed through the dollar.

Recommended Congress Gave States Enough Money to Fix Every Road in America; Some States Set It On Fire Instead Kea Wilson May 11, 2026

Beth Osborne at Smart Growth America has argued for years that the federal performance-measurement framework is structurally biased toward expansion: we count vehicle throughput, not access, and the incentives push state DOTs to build new capacity rather than maintain what they already own. Her organization’s Repair Priorities reports have tracked this misallocation for over a decade. 

Chuck Marohn at Strong Towns arrives at the same diagnosis from a different tradition. He argues that the postwar suburban development pattern is financially insolvent because its maintenance liabilities exceed the tax base it produces, which he calls the “growth Ponzi scheme.”

Different schools, same conclusion: we are buying liabilities and calling them assets.

BUILD America 250 is the diagnosis in legislative form. It does real work—bridges need repair, freight matters, road workers deserve protection. But the architecture is backward. The bill cuts Safe Streets and Roads for All by $1.25 billion, eliminates the Carbon Reduction and PROTECT resilience programs, and repeals the Active Transportation Infrastructure Investment Program — the only dedicated federal source for closing gaps in walking and biking networks, whose first grant round was oversubscribed forty to one.

It then channels new money into capacity expansion at the moment traffic deaths remain at 39,254 a year. In their recent update of the U.S. sprawl index, Shima Hamidi’s Johns Hopkins team ties those deaths directly to the development pattern federal road dollars keep subsidizing: more vehicle miles and higher speeds, which lead to elevated rates of fatal and pedestrian crashes.

Recommended New House Infrastructure Bill: Cuts To Transit, Mixed Bag for Active Transportation Kea Wilson May 20, 2026

The fiscal logic gets worse. The federal gas tax sits at 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents for diesel — unchanged since 1993. Users should pay for the infrastructure they use; that has historically been the conservative position.

But even as Congress writes new revenue streams to shore up the Highway Trust Fund, Washington is floating a gas-tax holiday in response to another Middle East conflict. The Bipartisan Policy Center estimates a five-month suspension would cost the trust fund roughly $17 billion — 46 percent of projected FY2026 fuel-tax revenue.

So the user fee that funds roads gets suspended because of an oil shock to which the road system itself made us all vulnerable — while Congress fills the gap by borrowing, and households pay back the borrowing through devalued wages.

That isn’t conservatism. It’s debt-financed dependency with a flag decal.

Recommended Advocates Decry Proposed ‘Gas Tax Holiday’ — And Offer Alternatives to Ease Pain at the Pump Kea Wilson June 23, 2022

A serious conservative transportation policy starts from three principles: maintenance before expansion, pricing before subsidy, and access before throughput.

Roads, freight, emergency access, and rural connectivity all matter. The argument isn’t road abolition. It’s fiscal sanity — and a refusal to keep mailing U.S. households the bill for a development pattern that bankrupts it.

America is not underinvesting in roads. It is overbuilding liabilities and underpricing their true cost. “Freedom to Drive” isn’t a new vision. It’s the same old invoice — stamped urgent, mailed to taxpayers, and wrapped in red, white, and blue.

On May 21, 2026, 15 candidates for City Council Districts 3 and 4 joined us for our Action Night Meet & Greet. We had an insightful, inspiring evening, and are so appreciative of the candidates that joined us and mingled with community members before and after sharing their campaign goals. We are also immensely grateful for 350PDX’s volunteers, staff, and board members that helped make this happen. It takes all of us! Check out photos by the luminous Dana Schot. And check out our video below which features each candidate discussing their campaign goals as they relate to our climate.

 

The post May 2026 Action Night! City Council Candidate Meet & Greet appeared first on 350PDX: Climate Justice.

RNs at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Mo., will hold a rally on Thursday, June 4 to demand immediate action to address what nurses describe as dangerous patient care conditions impacting emergency and surgical services following the Sept. 8, 2025 closure of units that provide labor and delivery, neonatal intensive care, and obstetrics emergency care services.

Snowchange celebrates its 25th anniversary this month. Cooperative lands are close to 10,000 hectares across over 200 sites and through land concessions 63,000 hectares are under positive influence from rewilding. Indigenous and community delegates, staff and close allies gather on 16th June to Finland to celebrate.

Summer is here and the boreal and Arctic landscapes bathe in the night without night. New peatlands and forests have been added and we expect the 10,000 hectares to be reached in June. Karoliina leads the fisheries on traps, and catches have been plentiful. This month we also have seen media attention to the rewilding programme from GEO and Le Monde making extended visits.

June 16th we gather in Snowchange headquarters, members of the international steering committee, Indigenous delegates, community representatives and other friends and allies to celebrate SNOW25 through a new exhibit, and other means. We thank all supporters, friends and the like for this quarter of a century and will be back with summer news later in the month.

Purnukoski rapids rewilding area in Sodankylä

In a school in South Africa, a group of students stare at a row of small plants growing in a greenhouse. Each one is involved in the lesson, caring for the growing crops.

But this is no ordinary classroom setting. These children are learning about aquaponics, a method of growing plants and fish in a mutually beneficial water system. This ancient technique of food production is now being taught to millions of schoolchildren after being introduced by the South African government seven years ago.

Laerskool Kempton Park on the edge of Johannesburg was one of the first schools to introduce the subject with the aim of improving food security. This is a serious challenge in a country where an estimated 19.7 million people, or around 30% of the population, experience moderate levels of food insecurity, meaning that they struggle to afford enough food for a healthy, balanced diet.

Bringing the farm to school

Aquaponics is a way of supporting communities to access food in a sustainable and efficient way. The solution is simple: fish waste is turned into available nutrients by bacteria in the water. Plants absorb these nutrients and the cleaned water is returned to the fish tank.

There are multiple benefits to this approach. The system doesn’t require chemical fertilisers, soil or large tracts of land. It is also highly efficient, with recirculated water being used over and over again. This is an important feature in areas of South Africa that experience drought or unpredictable weather.

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Aquaponics can offer a range of benefits depending on the local context. In South Africa, townships in major cities such as Johannesburg don’t always have the space to produce their own food, while in other places, such as the Northern Cape, extreme weather is making agriculture much harder.

Learners participating in a practical aquaponics lesson in Kempton Park. Image: INMED Learners participating in a practical aquaponics lesson in Kempton Park. Image: INMED Schoolchildren observing fish grown in an aquaponics system. Image: INMED Schoolchildren observing fish grown in an aquaponics system. Image: INMED

At Laerskool Kempton Park, the students have benefited from the innovative work of INMED, a non-profit organisation that supports vulnerable children and families in the country. 

INMED has trained hundreds of teachers and over 7,000 children on the benefits of aquaponics. With the help of funding from the Adaptation Fund through the UNDP-Adaptation Fund Climate Innovation Accelerator (AFCIA), the organisation was able to develop its own aquaponics system to be used in schools.

Scaling up the solution

INMED describes its prototype as a ‘plug and play’ system, designed to be modular and easy to install and manage. The system includes a 2,000-litre fish tank powered by a solar pump to circulate water. The design is simple with a view that it could be easily replicated across different school settings.

Unathi Sihlahla, director at INMED South Africa, told Climate Home News that “aquaponics speaks to a number of challenges… including limited access to nutritious food, high youth unemployment, water scarcity, and in many cases, poor or no access to arable land.” 

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INMED’s prototype allows communities to work around these problems as it doesn’t need soil and uses far less water than conventional agriculture.

“We’ve seen schools that previously had no food production now able to grow vegetables consistently, while also producing fish. That food often goes straight into school meals or supports vulnerable households nearby,” Sihlahla added. The project estimates that over 5,300 kilogrammes of food have been harvested in each quarter the system has been operating.

As aquaponics is now part of the school curriculum, many educational departments across South Africa have been looking at ways to teach the subject. INMED’s innovative design could provide a handy solution. The organisation has already started to roll it out across different provinces and a new collaboration with the Eastern Cape Provincial Department of Education is in the works. INMED is also scaling the ‘plug and play’ model in Tanzania.

Plant inspection at one of INMED’s ‘plug and play’ aquaponics prototypes. Image: INMED Plant inspection at one of INMED’s ‘plug and play’ aquaponics prototypes. Image: INMED Giving youth a sense of pride

For educators, teaching schoolchildren new agricultural skills is not only about improving food security, but also about creating the next generation of farmers. This group will need to grow food with the increased threat of extreme weather events and having knowledge of alternative methods, such as aquaponics, could be key.

“Agriculture is not seen as something young people want to go into, but when they are exposed to something like aquaponics, it feels modern and relevant,” said Sihlahla, adding that some students have started their own projects at home or are looking to continue studying the method.

“There’s also a sense of pride. Producing food that supports your school or community changes how young people see themselves and their role.”

Engaging the next generation

The Adaptation Fund’s support for young people extends beyond South Africa. Several other related projects aim to equip youth with practical skills for climate adaptation.

In Costa Rica, a $10-million project implemented by private foundation Fundecooperación included several creative youth-focused programmes in climate-vulnerable areas. It trained young people in coral reef restoration and farming techniques, involved high school students in community water resource monitoring and management, shared knowledge on adaptation through a theatre tour in schools, and created an art mural competition using AI. 

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In Lesotho, meanwhile, climate education is being integrated into the school curriculum through climate-smart agriculture materials and teacher training rolled out across primary and secondary schools. This is equipping students from an early age with practical, locally relevant knowledge to build resilience. 

“Children and young people are among the most vulnerable to climate change,” said Mikko Ollikainen, head of the Adaptation Fund. “These programmes are not only training young people in adaptation but empowering them.”

Adam Wentworth is a freelance writer based in Brighton, UK.

The post Young South Africans take up sustainable agriculture for food security appeared first on Climate Home News.