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• “Solar Power Outstrips Coal In US Despite Trump’s Attacks” • Even as President Donald Trump boosts coal over clean energy, solar power is hitting new milestones in the US and remains the leading source of new power. States won by Trump in the 2024 election accounted for 74% of all solar capacity installed in the first quarter of 2026. [Euronews]

Solar power (Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, CC BY-SA 2.0)

• “France Adds 157,000 Hectares Of Protected Forest” • From the rain forests of French Guiana to ancient woodlands in eastern France, thousands of hectares of forest have new protections. France said it added 157,000 hectares to its biological reserves as it works toward placing 10% of its land under ‘strong protection’ by 2030. [Euronews]
• “This Electric Aircraft Is The First To Take Flight Using Solid-State Batteries” • Helios Horizon, a Florida nonprofit, did what it says is the first piloted flight of an electric aircraft powered by solid-state batteries. Founder and test pilot Miguel Iturmendi carried out a series of short test flights at Zephyrhills Municipal Airport in central Florida. [Robb Report]
• “Trump Claims Over 100 Million Barrels Of Oil Have Gone Through Strait Of Hormuz” • President Trump said a “secret mission” was conducted last month for 200 ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The operation was “wildly successful,” he said. ABC News could not immediately verify the accuracy of Trump’s claims. [ABC News]
• “‘Man Who Killed Offshore Wind’ Now Pushing Fossil Fuels And Nuclear” • David Stevenson, who led a national campaign against offshore wind power for the Caesar Rodney Institute, is now fighting land-based solar and wind farms while promoting fossil fuels and nuclear power with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. [Energy and Policy Institute]

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

Vishal Prasad is director of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change.

When the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered its advisory opinion on climate change last year, it marked a turning point not just for the Pacific, but for international climate law.

The court was unambiguous: states have legal obligations to protect the environment from greenhouse gas emissions, and they face accountability when they fail. For those of us who carried this campaign from a classroom in Vanuatu to Europe and New York, it was a moment of profound validation.

World’s top court opens door to compensation from countries responsible for climate crisis

But we have always said that the advisory opinion was a tool, not an endpoint. The ICJ affirmed what many in the Pacific have been saying for some time. Now we have a legal blueprint, we must carry this momentum from the courtrooms to the negotiating rooms.

Potential to shape climate politics

The advisory opinion has already begun to reshape the climate landscape. At COP30 in Belém, we saw countries that had supported the campaign citing the opinion in their interventions, while those blocking progress were clearly concerned of its implications. Its potential to shape climate politics and policy is significant.

This year we have arrived at the mid-year climate negotiations in Bonn not only with the advisory opinion, but with a UN General Assembly resolution endorsing it. Despite a fierce campaign from the usual suspects, just eight countries, including the USA, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran voted against. That is a victory for multilateralism at a moment when multilateralism is under strain.

UN General Assembly backs “climate obligations” set by world’s top court

But we know that advisory opinions alone are not enough. Legal clarity will not automatically translate into reduced emissions, increased finance flows or stronger national climate plans. That translation requires political will in the negotiating rooms, both here in Bonn and all the way through Fiji and finally in Antalya this November. 

What the Pacific needs from this negotiating year

The Pacific put significant political capital into the joint Australia-Pacific bid for COP31. It is fair to say that the compromise of Australia holding the role of president of negotiations while the COP is held and presided over by Türkiye is not what we imagined.

But we in the Pacific are used to looking for silver linings. Both Australia and Türkiye have acknowledged the important role the Pacific will have at COP31, through the appointment of Pacific champions and the hosting of a Pacific Pre-COP in Fiji with a leaders event in Tuvalu. These are genuine opportunities to bring the world to our shores and ensure that Pacific issues are front and centre going into the final negotiations.

But we are not naive. Envoy positions and meeting locations are just the architecture of goodwill. We need to see that goodwill converted into concrete negotiating outcomes and finance.

COP31 leaders unveil global targets, with spotlight on electrification

The Pacific helped put Australia’s climate minister Chris Bowen in this important position, so we expect to see Australia advocate not only for us, but to turn a mirror towards itself as one of the world’s biggest fossil fuel exporters. 

At Bonn, and then in Antalya, we need ambition on mitigation that reflects the ICJ’s clarity on state obligations and the science. That means action on fossil fuels. 

We need climate finance that is new, additional and accessible to the countries that need it most. In the Pacific we have already demonstrated what that looks like.

The Pacific Resilience Facility is the first climate finance facility designed, governed and managed by Pacific people, built specifically to reach the grassroots and community initiatives that larger funds routinely bypass. We need the international community to meet that ambition with contributions that reflect climate justice, starting with pledges to meet the $500-million capitalisation goal.

And we need the oceans – which are the lifeblood of the Pacific and a critical part of the global climate system – treated as a central element of the negotiations rather than a thematic aside.

Energy crisis driven by imported fossil fuels

The days of speaking about climate and fossil fuels purely as a moral issue are long gone. Pacific ministers recently adopted the Tassiriki Call for a Fossil Fuel Free Pacific, in the context of a deepening energy crisis that has triggered states of emergency in several Pacific nations. Our dependence on imported fossil fuels is both a climate and an economic vulnerability. 

Conflict in the Middle East is pushing our region into an energy crisis. We are dependent on imported fossil fuels for 80% of our energy needs. My home country of Fiji could see an increased fuel bill of nearly three times our annual healthcare budget. 

Comment: COP31 must persuade countries to make fossil fuel transition plans 

We need the technical and financial support to transition to 100% renewable energy. Not only because it is what the world owes us for decades of carbon pollution that continue to render parts of our home uninhabitable, damaging ecosystems and culture. But because we must be part of that transition. Fossil fuels have proven to be the greatest source of damage to our climate, and with their volatility, to our sovereignty as well.

What next?

The demands have not changed. Greater action on mitigation, adaptation, finance, loss and damage: these remain the substance of what the Pacific requires from the international community. What has changed is the legal foundation beneath them.

The ICJ has affirmed that these are not requests. They are obligations. The task this year is to make the negotiations reflect that.

The post The Pacific made history in the courts – now we must do it in the negotiations appeared first on Climate Home News.

The AEMC is about to require more of retailers, but one commissioner says if they'd acted first it need not have come to this.

The post “I would like to see a change in behaviour:” Rule maker wants retailers to act before it has to intervene appeared first on Renew Economy.

Some groups that do research and collect data on the Great Lakes are facing existential threats as the annual budgeting process for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gets underway.

A proposed budget request from President Donald Trump would zero out programs that scientists say are the foundation of weather observations, water quality, maritime safety, and recreation on the Great Lakes. The president wants to cut NOAA’s budget by $1.3 billion, or one-third of current funding levels, to better match priorities related to halting climate research.

“The investment that we make pays off in terms of safer water, public safety, public health, as well as economic activity,” said Gregory Dick, director of the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research, or CIGLR, a partnership between the University of Michigan and NOAA.

Researchers at CIGLR work closely with NOAA to conduct work on lake water levels, ice dynamics, and harmful algal blooms on Lake Erie. Data is used by state managers, fishers, boaters, and the regional shipping industry.

“That’s the kind of data that you want at your fingertips,” Dick said. “That’s what’s at risk with cuts like the ones we’re talking about.”

Beyond the potential loss of this data, Dick is worried about long-term research on how climate change is affecting the Great Lakes. Water levels are fluctuating and Dick said understanding those dynamics is important for future planning geared toward development projects and the economy.

Another at-risk program is the Great Lakes Observing System, or GLOS, a regional network that coordinates data collection on wave heights, water temperatures, ice, wind, and more. The network makes real-time data available to the public, and it’s often used by boaters, fishers, and other people who spend time in and on the lakes.

“If you want to visit a beach, if you want to take your dog and let it run in the lake, it’s really important to know beforehand if there’s a bloom there or dangerous surf conditions,” said Jennifer Boehme, CEO of GLOS. The system is one of 11 NOAA-funded observation networks across the country that maintain data from oceans and coasts.

In a memo released with the budget proposal, the White House said that “President Trump is committed to eliminating funding for the globalist climate agenda while unleashing American energy production.” The proposed NOAA budget will cut climate research and save taxpayer money, according to the memo.

NOAA programs focused on the Great Lakes are already adapting to cuts from the previous year. The Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab (which houses CIGLR), for example, lost about 40 percent of its staff last year after rounds of layoffs and early retirements, according to Dick.

GLOS is also in a more vulnerable position this year, Boehme said. The program is up for a contract renewal with NOAA, which happens every five years, and it still has yet to receive all of its appropriated funds from last year.

“Each lapse makes the next one worse, and rebuilding isn’t just a matter of writing another check. The relationships and the seasonal schedules that make the network function can take years to reconstruct,” she said.

Still, the president’s budget is more a signal of priorities than a binding mandate, said Alex Eastman, the Great Lakes program manager at the Northeast-Midwest Institute, a nonprofit policy research group. Appropriations are ultimately decided by Congress, which is currently in the middle of that process.

This year, the House Appropriations Committee passed a bill that would fund most NOAA programs at $1.3 billion more than the president’s budget proposal, ignoring his calls for steep cuts. The regional observation networks, including GLOS, would see an 18 percent increase in funding. Still, the bill is $300 million short of last year’s funding. The Senate hasn’t passed its version of the appropriations bill yet.

Congress ultimately funded these Great Lakes research programs last year after Trump proposed similar cuts, likely because lawmakers know the value they provide for the region and country, Eastman said.

“I do think that the more that Congress pushes back, the more the executive branch and the president will see that they’re not gaining anything by continuing to try to impose draconian cuts,” he said.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline What federal cuts to science funding could mean for the Great Lakes on Jun 11, 2026.

Share of gas in global electricity mix has fallen for the fifth consecutive year, with nearly half of the world’s gas-generating economies already passing peak gas.

The post Gas share in global electricity mix falls for fifth consecutive year, pushed out by cheaper renewables appeared first on Renew Economy.

Spanish energy outift commissions two solar plants in two separate states of Australia, both of which will start supplying on electricity to telecoms giant, Telstra.

The post Two Telstra-contracted solar farms power up in two separate states appeared first on Renew Economy.

The number of home batteries installed through the federal rebate has now passed 430,000, as new rules start to rein in uptake and dial down average system size.

The post Home battery installations reach the 430,000 mark, but get smaller as new settings do their job appeared first on Renew Economy.

Emissions of climate-warming pollutants are at an all-time high, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels.

The post Climate scientists warn of record rate of global warming, carbon budget to be exhausted in 3 years appeared first on Renew Economy.

SMA boss Jürgen Reinert says decision to close down its Australian domestic business driven by its inability to match Chinese competitors on costs.

The post “We cannot compete:” Why global inverter giant quit Australia’s home solar market appeared first on Renew Economy.

Jürgen Reinart, the CEO of inverter giant SMA, on why the grid can function without spinning machines, and why it quit the Australian home market. Plus: Is AEMO changing course on VPPs, and other news of the week.

The post Energy Insiders Podcast: “The grid doesn’t need rotating mass” appeared first on Renew Economy.

Solar is moving fast. Really fast. Batteries are moving faster. And there is no evidence in either prices or deployment that the system is about to tap the brakes.

The post Solar is already creating the fastest shift in electricity generation in history – and it is still accelerating appeared first on Renew Economy.

Sprawl kills.

That’s the unmistakable conclusion drawn by researchers at Johns Hopkins University earlier this month in an update of their landmark 2014 report on the nation’s ongoing crisis of land misuse: sprawl chokes life out of our cities, undermines opportunities for our children, and, yes, even raises the risk of disease.

Riverside, the Southern California suburb, and Atlanta were at the bottom of the list for “most sprawling” while San Francisco and New York City topped the list as “most compact,” based on established metrics such as density of development and concentration of jobs.

The report, which comprises 233 metropolitan areas in the lower 48 states and covers 85 percent of the U.S. population, is not just about geography, of course, but about the most-basic quality-of-life issues facing the country today. Residents of compact and connected neighborhoods have “lower energy costs, better health outcomes, lower exposure to vector-borne diseases such as Lyme disease, well-connected social lives and greater opportunities for children to thrive,” according to the report, “Who Sprawls the Most? Mapping Sprawl and Assessing Its Impact on Everyday Life” [PDF].

And in a counter-intuitive development, given the debate over “abundance,” housing in compact cities was found to be more affordable than those in sprawling suburbs when the cost of transportation and energy are taken into account. (Transportation and energy costs are much lower for residents of compact and connected areas.)

Shima Hamidi

The overall housing cost surprised the report co-author.

“The amount we pay for energy is becoming more and more a challenge for people,” said Shima Hamidi, director of the Center for Smart Transportation at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. “We found that in compact and connected neighborhoods, residents pay substantially less of their income on residential energy bills, and if you add that to transportation, the savings on these two budget items in a compact and connected neighborhood saves offsets the higher cost of housing in this area.”

Hamidi told Streetsblog that the report hits at a crucial time because of the ongoing debate about high housing costs in the most-walkable, most-livable parts of our greatest cities.

“Sprawl is getting attention these days because there are so many critics of smart growth and growth management policies these days who are arguing that these policies would restrict housing production and will lead to more expensive housing and less housing affordability for residents,” Hamidi said.

But, she added, there are other factors that cast sprawl in a bad light, including the level of social isolation, which leads to disconnected youth, not to mention “heat-related health outcomes … linked to climate change.”

Quality-of-life is simply worse in areas where people are disconnected from each other, job sites and social venues.

“A typical suburban neighborhood is very low density or exclusively single-family housing,” she said. “You don’t see much more other types of uses, like coffee shops, restaurants, bookstores, grocery stores. They are not within a walking distance of residents of these housing units, so residents have to drive long distances. … These neighborhoods are mostly characterized as having cul-de-sacs or dead ends that accommodate privacy and driving, but not really connection.

“In a neighborhood that’s more compact, you have a mix of uses: different coffee shops, restaurants, grocery stores within walking or biking distance. [These are] livable and vibrant types of neighborhoods.”

Can you put a value on that? The report and Hamidi suggests you can: As a result of sprawl, the U.S. has about double the number of “disconnected youth” as Europe — and it
“costs taxpayers an estimated $94 billion each year in lost productivity … with profound impact on the lives of these individuals and their families,” she said. “The future of these individuals is being shaped, and they just are kind of isolated and disconnected, and not getting the opportunities that they need.”

They’re also at higher risk of disease. And the very edge of sprawl, where low-density residential development meets forests or grasslands, creates conditions for higher risk of human-tick interactions, the report stated.

“A 10-percent increase in the county [sprawl] score reduces the risk of Lyme disease by
about 21 percent,” the report said.

The report is not all bad news. Atlanta had a bottom-of-the list score of 41 in the original report and remains second-to-last in the update, but a decade of effort has led to significant improvements in connectivity resulting in a score of 57.2 — a 40-percent improvement (take that, Lyme disease!).

“Atlanta is becoming more compact over time,” Hamidi said. “It takes a long time for urban sprawl to be mitigated, but the progress can be made. Atlanta [officials have had] a sizable impact.”

Save yourself: Recommendations from the report

Sprawl doesn’t have to be like the weather — that thing that everyone complains about but no one does anything about. The report offered extensive recommendations for urban planners and policy makers. Among them:

• Zoning reform: Allow higher residential and mixed-use densities near transit corridors and employment centers
• Provide incentives for infill with tax breaks, density bonuses, and reduced parking minimum requirements (which reduce development cost).
• Transit-oriented upzoning: Require higher densities within walking distance (e.g., 800 feet of major transit stations).
• Affordable housing integration: Pair density increases with inclusionary zoning and affordable housing mandates to ensure equitable access to transit-rich, high-demand areas.
• Parking reform: Reduce or eliminate minimum parking requirements. (Maryland is clearly listening.)
• Design guidelines for livability: Ensure that higher-density areas include green spaces, community facilities, and active transportation infrastructure so density contributes to livability, not overcrowding.

“Local elected officials, state leaders, and federal lawmakers can all help communities grow in ways that support these improved outcomes,” the report concluded. “This study recommends local governments and elected and public officials to consider land-use planning strategies and policies that create more connections and facilitate healthier
transportation choices in walkable, vibrant, and connected neighborhoods that offer both
local and regional accessibility to residents.”

• The World Cup will stress both the capacity and finances of transit systems in host cities, with special service in New Jersey costing $6 million per match to carry the majority of 82,000 fans to Met Life Stadium. Some cities, though, are treating the tournament as an opportunity to showcase their transit systems to a global audience, adding rail frequency and charter buses at little to no cost to fans. (CBS News)
• Whether it’s because of overpolicing, lack of investment or urban freeways cutting of neighborhoods, mobility for Black Americans is often limited, with devastating social and economic consequences, according to urban planner and author Charles T. Brown. (Planetizen)
• The environmental impact of driving an electric vehicle is greater for people who drive a lot and live in an area with a clean power grid, but EVs almost always come out ahead compared to gas-powered cars no matter what, according to an MIT study. (Anthropocene)
• A startup is using old Waymo batteries to provide energy storage for the power grid. (Fast Company)
• A lot of supposedly public EV charging stations are actually located at places like car dealerships that aren’t really public at all. (Electrek)
• Amtrak offered a preview of what a renovated Penn Station in New York City might look like, but failed to answer questions about who will pay the $7 billion price tag. (NY Times, Streetsblog NYC)
• Drivers in one of New York’s largest suburb sued to stop Westchester County from using license plate readers to catch them breaking traffic laws. (Associated Press)
• Tampa area drivers have killed more than 600 pedestrians in the past five years. (Tampa Bay Times)
• Lexington, Kentucky is considering a ban on parking in bike lanes, but with a lot of exceptions for drop-offs, pickups and deliveries. (Herald-Leader)
• New Orleans is seeking public input on improving its streetcar system. (Times-Picayune)
• The Dutch government introduced a discounted pass for unlimited off-peak rail travel at just 49 euros per month. (Rail Journal)
• Uber and British company Wayve are rolling out robotaxis in London, followed by Tokyo and several other cities. (CNN)
• University of Zurich students invented a brick evaporative cooling system that can significantly cool down spaces like bus stops during hot summer months. (Times of India)

This Hilcorp oil and gas well site is less than 900 feet from the Dzilth-Na-O-Dith-Hle Community School serving K-8 Navajo students.

New Mexico’s Oil Conservation Commission voted [Friday / DAY OF WEEK] to adopt the strongest standards in the country for making oil companies pay to clean up after themselves.

This win was years in the making and it belongs to every New Mexican who spoke up, showed up, or signed on.

[Add if results are MIXED]The final rules do not include all of the strongest safeguards that were proposed by community and environmental groups. They do include meaningful improvements that will help address the growing risks posed by inactive and abandoned oil and gas wells across the state.

What Happened and Why It Matters

Last fall, Earthworks published a blog laying out the scope of the problem: oil and gas companies in New Mexico were routinely walking away from low-producing wells without cleaning them up. Abandoned wells, when left poorly or improperly plugged, can continuously release toxic air pollution, contaminate soil and water supplies. And what’s more, abandoned wells in the state leave taxpayers exposed to anywhere from $700 million to $8 billion in future cleanup costs. Under the old rules, a single operator could own thousands of wells and post as little as $250,000 total. This is a tiny amount when the average cost to plug a single well is $163,000.

The Oil Conservation Commission just changed that.

The updated rules:

• raise bonding to $150,000 per well for high risk operations; 
• strengthen rules about transfers ownership of wells;
• require low-producing “marginal” wells to prove a useful purpose or be properly plugged;
• and tighten inactive well rules so that these can no longer remain indefinitely without cleanup plans.

These changes mark a fundamental shift in who is responsible for the cleanup cost of oil and gas extraction in New Mexico. 

The companies that profit from extraction will now be responsible for paying for cleaning up their own mess.

Earthworks’ New Mexico Lead Campaigner, Mandy Sackett, surveys an oil and gas site near Maljamar, NM.

What Earthworks Sees in the Field

Earthworks was motivated to fight to change these rules by what we see firsthand in the oil and gas fields through our optical gas imaging camera. 

No spreadsheet or data can make the case for a change to these rules like the video evidence we capture at well site after well site, often right next to schools, homes and communities.

At one low-producing Hilcorp site near Counselor, Earthworks’ Indigenous Community Field Advocate has repeatedly found continuous emissions from multiple different sources: the tank vent, the sump area, and a horizontal separator. That site sits 900 feet from a K-8 school serving Navajo students.

The video clip above shows three sources of emissions at the well site near the Dzilth-Na-O-Dith-Hle Community School, from the vent stack on the separator, the tank vent and the sump area produced water tank.

At another low-producing Permian Resources site in Carlsbad, I found uncontrolled emissions from an improperly functioning flare a few hundred yards from an elementary school.

You can’t say the system is working when you can literally see methane and harmful gases and chemicals pouring into the sky through the optical gas imaging camera.

The hearing process drew a lot of public testimony from frontline Diné community leaders, health advocates, ranchers, and residents across the state. The polling confirms what the comment record showed: 89% of New Mexicans support requiring corporations to pay to clean up the wells they drill.

The Stakes Are Real Earthworks has documented this oil and gas site with multiple sources of emissions on numerous occasions, just 900 feet from the Dzilth-Na-O-Dith-Hle Community School serving K-8 Navajo students.

The Commission’s decision comes as the federal government moves in the opposite direction. The Trump administration is working to roll back environmental protections, revisit federal bonding rules set in the Biden-era, and expand drilling on public lands. 

With these rules, New Mexico joins a small group of states that have actually aligned bonding requirements with real-world cleanup costs, and done so in a way that’s risk-based, not one-size-fits-all. The rules target risky behavior, not small operators. 

Every company that profits from New Mexico’s land and resources should be prepared to clean up after itself.

Thank You

To the Oil Conservation Commission, the Oil Conservation Division, and the State Land Office: thank you for listening to New Mexicans and adopting rules that prioritize our water, our health, and our communities over the status quo.

To the coalition partners, the frontline voices, the public commenters, and the advocates who showed up across months of hearings: this win belongs to all of us. We’re not done, but today is a real step forward.

The post New Mexico Just Set One of the Strongest Oil and Gas Cleanup Standards in the Country appeared first on Earthworks.

(Washington, DC--June 11, 2026)--The House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday approved the Local Communities and Bird Habitat Stewardship Act, bipartisan legislation that would provide...

...

Albuquerque, New Mexico (June 10, 2026) — The National Audubon Society’s Audubon Conservation Ranching program now reaches the Southwestern United States with the hires of Nick Beauregard, Ariel...

The planet is heating up more quickly than ever before.

For decades, greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity have been building up in the atmosphere and trapping ever-higher levels of heat.

The resulting asymmetry between incoming solar energy and energy radiated back out into space – known as “Earth’s energy imbalance” – provides a direct measure of the extent to which humans are disrupting the Earth’s climate system. 

This imbalance is growing and in 2025 its 10-year average reached a record high, indicating that global temperatures could increase at even higher rates in the future.

This is among the headline findings of the latest “indicators of global climate change” (IGCC) report, published in the journal Earth System Science Data, which tracks changes in the climate system on an annual basis.

The report, now in its fourth iteration, has been produced by dozens of scientists from around the world.

Its findings are designed to fill the gap between Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) science reports, which are published every 5-7 years. 

In this article, we unpack the IGCC report, which explores how human activity is driving a growing energy imbalance and why monitoring systems to track global climate are so crucial.

(For more on previous IGCC reports, see Carbon Brief’s coverage in 2023, 2024 and 2025.)

Greenhouse gas emissions remain at an all-time high

Global greenhouse gas emissions are continuing to increase, mostly as a result of the use of fossil fuels. However, deforestation, agriculture and industrial processes also play an important role.

GlossaryCO2 equivalent: Greenhouse gases can be expressed in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent, or CO2e. For a given amount, different greenhouse gases trap different amounts of heat in the atmosphere, a quantity known as the global warming potential. Carbon dioxide equivalent is a way of comparing emissions from all greenhouse gases, not just carbon dioxide.CloseCO2 equivalent: Greenhouse gases can be expressed in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent, or CO2e. For a given amount, different greenhouse gases trap different amounts of heat in the atmosphere, a quantity known as… Read More

Over the most recent decade (2015-24), emissions stood at the equivalent of 54.6bn tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) per year. In 2024, the most recent year for which we have complete data, emissions reached 56.8GtCO2e.

As the chart below shows, these emissions have pushed up atmospheric levels of CO2, methane and nitrous oxide. In 2025, concentrations of these gases reached 425.6 parts per million (ppm), 1936.3 parts per billion (ppb) and 339.4ppb, respectively. 

This represents a rise of 3.8%, 3.8% and 2.2%, respectively, since the 2019 levels reported in the IPCC’s sixth assessment report (AR6).

Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 (yellow), methane (blue) and nitrous oxide (green) over 2000-25. The grey-shaded region represents continuing changes since AR6. Note the different vertical scales for each gas. Credit: Forster et al. (2026)

At the same time, declines in emissions of aerosols such as sulphur dioxide, partly as a result of efforts to tackle air pollution, are increasing the Earth’s energy imbalance. This is because aerosols have a cooling effect on the Earth’s climate, counteracting warming from CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions.

(Tackling sulphur dioxide, alongside other particulate emissions, remains critical because the immediate health and environmental damage they cause far outweighs their short-term cooling effect on the climate.)

The Earth’s energy imbalance is rising rapidly

The Earth’s energy imbalance has long been recognised as a key indicator of how the climate is being affected by human activities. 

However, it is only in the last few decades that scientists have been able to record temperature changes deep enough in the ocean to accurately quantify it.  

Earth’s energy imbalance measures how quickly excess heat is accumulating in every part of the Earth system, primarily in the ocean, but also in land, ice and atmosphere. 

Through this accumulation of heat, the energy imbalance influences the rate of sea level rise and ice melt across the world, as well as increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as storms, floods and droughts.

Without human influence, the Earth’s energy imbalance would be close to zero.

But, as greenhouse gas emissions have built up in the atmosphere, the imbalance has been growing since the 1970s. Recent increases to Earth’s energy imbalance have outpaced those projections made by climate models — indicating the planet could see more warming than expected in the future.

As the right-hand chart below shows, the imbalance is now at a record high, having more than doubled over the past two decades.  

It has increased by around 40% since 2019, from an average 0.79 watts per square metre (Wm2) over 2006-18, according to IPCC AR6, to 1.12Wm2 over 2013-25. 

The left-hand chart shows how heat is accumulating in the ocean (blues), ice (grey), land (orange) and atmosphere (purple).

Left: Observed changes in the Earth heat inventory for the period 1971-2020. Right: Estimates of the Earth energy imbalance for successive overlapping 20-year periods and the most recent decade (right). Shaded regions indicate the very likely range (90-100 % probability), while the stars show the CERES (NASA Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System) estimates for comparison. Credit: Forster et al. (2026)
Global temperature rise

The excess heat building up in the climate system from the energy imbalance is pushing up global temperatures at a record rate of 0.27C per decade. 

We estimate that human-induced warming – the amount of observed global surface temperature increase attributable to both the direct and indirect effects of human activities – reached 1.37C in 2025. This has risen from 1.0C in 2017, as reported in IPCC AR6.

While natural variability in the climate system – such as El Niño or La Niña events – can also influence temperatures year-to-year, the upward temperature trend we are seeing is being driven by the persistent imbalance in energy.

We now expect global temperatures to exceed the Paris Agreement limit of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels around the year 2030. 

This is significant because 1.5C has been identified as the critical dividing line between manageable climate risks and catastrophic, potentially irreversible damage to global ecosystems and human societies.

Heat accumulating throughout the Earth system

While heat is accumulating throughout the Earth system, it is not being distributed evenly around the globe. 

Since the 1970s, around 90% of this heat has been taken up by the ocean, affecting marine ecosystems, ocean circulation patterns, sea level rise and climate extremes.

For example, the number of marine heatwave days – periods of unusually high sea surface temperatures –  has more than tripled globally since the early 1990s. The year 2025 alone saw 65 days of marine heatwaves – meaning they occurred, on average, more than one day a week.

Meanwhile, the cryosphere – the portion of the Earth made up of frozen water, including glaciers, ice sheets and permafrost – is experiencing widespread ice loss and thawing in response to the growing energy imbalance. This affects ecosystems, sea level rise and infrastructure in polar and high-latitude regions.

Rapid warming has also resulted in record extreme temperatures over land, with average maximum temperatures for any single day over 2016-25 around 1.92C above pre-industrial levels). This is an increase of almost half a degree compared to the previous decade (2006-15).

Sea level rise and the energy imbalance

Sea level rise provides one of the clearest long-term signals of a changing planet.

It is closely linked to Earth’s energy imbalance. As heat accumulates in the ocean, water expands, raising sea levels. Meanwhile, a warming land and atmosphere means addition of water to the oceans through melting of glaciers and ice sheets, also adding to sea level rise.  

Over the long-term, sea levels have been rising, on average, at a rate of around 1.8mm per year since 1901, totalling a record 23cm in 2025. This is increasing the risk of coastal flooding, erosion and habitat loss in many low-lying areas around the world.

This rise can be seen in the left-hand chart below, which shows observed global sea level changes from tide gauges (grey and blue dashed lines) and satellites (red dashed lines) since 1901. The solid lines indicate the average across multiple datasets.

Sea level rise is accelerating consistent with the observed increase in Earth’s energy imbalance. Over 2006-25, sea levels have risen at a rate of 3.67mm per year – more than double the rate of 1.69mm per year seen over 1976-95.

This increasing rate is shown in the right-hand figure below, which shows four successive overlapping 20-year periods and the most-recent decade.

(Last year’s transition from El Niño to weak La Niña conditions affected global rainfall patterns and led to a small and temporary fall in global average sea level in 2025. This explains the slight decrease in rate of sea level rise for the most recent decade, which is affected more than the 20-year period 2006-25.)

Left: Global average sea level rise over 1901-2025, relative to a 1995-2014 baseline. Individual timeseries are shown with dashed lines, while the black solid line shows the average (from tide gauges and satellites) used in AR6 and the solid red line shows the 1993-2025 average from satellites. Right: Global mean sea-level rates (in mm per year) for four successive overlapping 20-year periods and the most-recent decade. The shading indicates the very likely range. Credit: Forster et al. (2026) The bigger picture

Despite greenhouse gas emissions not increasing as rapidly as in the 2000s, this year’s IGCC findings continue to show how far and how fast the climate is changing due to human activity.

A significant increase in decarbonisation efforts in the second half of this decade is required to slow down the rate of human-caused warming and limit the escalation of climate risks and impacts. 

These findings, like many others produced by scientists across the globe, rely on international expertise, partnership and the maintenance and availability of global climate datasets and the global observing programmes that underpin them. 

This year’s edition of IGCC used more than 40 global datasets produced by research teams around the world, including the NASA satellite record of the Earth’s energy imbalance and the ARGO deep ocean float network. 

However, a number of long-term monitoring programmes could be threatened by funding decisions made by governments around the world, most notably the Trump administration in the US.  

Local meteorological data and weather balloon measurement programmes in many countries have declined in recent years, especially in Africa, the west Pacific and South America. This reduces scientists’ ability to monitor and understand key indicators of climate change. 

This is not just an issue for climate science. Many of these observations are key to weather forecasts and systems that provide early warning for extreme weather. For example, media reports have suggested that recent reductions in weather balloon measurements in Alaska led to a lack of warnings for a recent winter storm.  

The continuity and integrity of the climate observations that scientists use to understand how the climate is changing depends on effective and sustained coordination by international organisations, such as the Global Climate Observing System, the World Meteorological Organization and World Climate Research Programme. 

Without this data and its coordination, future assessments will be much more difficult at a time when urgent climate action is needed.

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The post Guest post: How a record-high ‘energy imbalance’ is driving global warming appeared first on Carbon Brief.

EWG statement on California Supreme Court declining to hear rooftop solar case Anthony Lacey June 10, 2026

SACRAMENTO – California’s Supreme Court in a brief order today declined to hear an appeal by the Environmental Working Group and allies of an appeals court decision that threatens the future of affordable rooftop solar in the state.

The high court’s decision means the lower court’s ruling stands. The California Court of Appeals in March upheld a California Public Utilities Commission policy sharply scaling back the state’s once-thriving rooftop solar program, known as net energy metering. 

The state’s monopoly utilities – Pacific Gas & Electric Company, San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison – sought the policy, seeing rooftop solar as their main competition and their regulator went along with them.

EWG, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Protect Our Communities Foundation in April petitioned the state Supreme Court to review the appeals court’s ruling.

The advocates have argued that the appeals court, in upholding the policy, gave too much deference to the commission’s decision-making. 

They also said both the policy and ruling ignored the California State Legislature’s clear directives on how to value rooftop solar. Specifically, they said the ruling ignored many benefits of small, distributed solar systems, which help lower costs and make energy more affordable for everyone at a time of sky-high energy bills.

The following is a statement from Bernadette Del Chiaro, EWG’s senior vice president for California:

This is a deeply disappointing decision that sets California back on its clean energy goals. The net metering policy is fundamentally flawed and has had disastrous effects in causing rooftop solar installations to plummet, with significant job losses in the once-thriving solar industry.

At a time when Californians struggle to pay some of the highest electricity rates in the country, it makes no sense to leave in place a policy that is anti-affordability, anti-clean energy and will further complicate the state’s ability to meet its clean energy goals.

EWG will continue to advocate for sensible, pro-renewable policies that promote reliable, clean power like solar and that can help with lowering the cost of energy in California.

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The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action.

Areas of Focus Energy Renewable Energy California Decision leaves in place harmful policy undermining cost-saving clean energy Press Contact Alex Formuzis alex@ewg.org (202) 667-6982 June 10, 2026

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