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Exciting news, patriots! After cancelling his OG concert, Dear Leader will now celebrate our 250th birthday with "the Greatest Rally, EVER!" featuring the "fabulous" 83-year-old Lee Greenwood and “a fine and highly dignified gentleman," himself. Also, for some reason, "prune-face" Bruce Springsteen and a gazillion A-list performers are holding two concerts to honor America's "songs that shaped us." Reviews call it "a rare gift" in music history, but they're all losers and lunatics.

Taking time off from nodding off (again) in a meeting, Trump as predicted has finally cancelled his much-hyped “Freedom 250 concert of has-beens and never-weres after almost all nine acts bailed; poor Vanilla Ice, reportedly the only, desperate act still ready to go on. The concerts were set to kick off his equally-fab-sounding Great American State Fair, a "once in a generation...State Fair like no other" - "Dive into the fun and feel the energy" - hosting carnival rides, "hands-on partner activations" from each state, and daily workshops with titles like Land & Prosperity, Family Life and Community Support, Everyday Health and Well Being with MAHA Monday, and Faith, Values, and Inspiration.

Trump was his usual chivalrous self in defeat after the concert went down in tacky flames. "We don't want singers with no talent, but big fees to put you to sleep," he wrote. "We’ve told them all to stay home." Instead, he giddily announced “a Rally to end all Rallies!" in "magnificent Washington D.C, now totally beautified." Because, "All we want is you, me, a few speakers, and the Greatest Music ever played, the same Music you have listened to for years!" it will feature die-hard Lee Greenwood (again), with "one of the Greatest Hits of All Time," his 1984 God Bless the U.S.A, after which he will introduce "a fine and highly dignified gentleman known as President DONALD J. TRUMP!”

There's more: The "amazing" opera singer Christopher Macchio, who has just 571 listeners on Spotify, will join in. "Not since the legendary Luciano Pavarotti has there been such a voice!” bragged Trump, though Pavarotti’s family has protested his use of the opera great's songs by arguing, "The values of brotherhood and solidarity which Luciano Pavarotti expressed throughout (his) artistic career are entirely incompatible with the worldview offered by Trump.” Also, the U.S. Army Band, Armed Forces Choir and "The President’s Own United States Marine Band" will perform “all your favorite Hits." Observers say the gig "sounds lame as fuck," but MAGA fans who go to every rally "like Deadheads with less weed and more racism" will probs love it.

Amidst other glad fails - even UFC fighters have trashed him with Star Wars rants of "Darth Vader gonna get took (sic) down" - many deem a more apt celebration of America's birthday the June 4 and 5 concerts in New Jersey by Springsteen and many fellow musicians. The guest list is so vast and illustrious - among them, Bon Jovi, Jackson Browne, Rosanne Cash, Kenny Chesney, Tom Morello, Gary Clark Jr., Dion, Dropkick Murphys, Shemekia Copeland, Keb’ Mo’, Nils Lofgren, Valerie June, Darlene Love, Public Enemy, David Sancious, Tony Trischka, Sister Sadie, Mavis Staples, Trombone Shorty, Steve Van Zandt, Jimmie Vaughan, the New Breed Brass Band - it's assumed Bruce called in favors: "They were beckoned, and graciously agreed."

Springsteen and the E Street Band just wrapped their Land of Hope and Dreams Tour - "No Kings" plastered below - in Philadelphia. Celebrating "hope over fear," it featured his most fiery political songs: Born in the USA, Death To My Hometown, No Surrender, Darkness On the Edge of Town, Streets of Minneapolis, Dylan's Chimes of Freedom. The two new concerts, titled Music America: The Songs that Shaped Us, are likewise unabashedly rabble-rousing. Held in Springsteen's Jersey backyard at Monmouth University, they will also launch the new Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, which aims to preserve the Boss' legacy and offer "a journey through American music history" with ongoing exhibitions, archives and workshops.

This week's concerts, says Robert Santelli, "reflect everything the Center stands for" - the power of "a rich and diverse treasury of American music (to) bring people together (and) the inspiration to think about our shared history in divisive times." Casting a wide and joyful net, artists perform landmark songs from American music - blues, bluegrass, Native, rock, hip-hop, folk, jazz, country, gospel. Tickets are reasonably priced for an intimate venue, and brief narration before each performance offers context to the artist, song, and genre. Thursday night reviews praised "a magical, once-in-a-lifetime moment in music history" and a nod to "how powerful music is in telling our nation’s story." Both concerts sold out.

Bruce and the Dropkick Murphys' rousing rendition of American Land, based on a 19th-century poem by an immigrant steelworker, which asks and celebrates those "who will make his home in the American Land." In brief, all of us.

The McNicholases, the Posalskis, the Smiths, Zerillis, too
The Blacks, the Irish, Italians, the Germans and the Jews
They come across the water a thousand miles from home
With nothing in their bellies but the fire down below.

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For Immediate Release

June 5, 2026

Contact: 

Blake@sunstonestrategies.com, 310-894-6690

 

Phillips 66 Carson Refinery Site Remediation Estimated at Nearly $1 Billion

 

New report reveals Carson community at risk of shouldering millions in cleanup costs

 

Carson, Calif. — A new report from the Asian Pacific Environmental Network puts the cost of cleanup and remediation at the Phillips 66 refinery in Carson at up to $910 million — with no clear plan for who will pay. Advocates say SB 1259 (Blakespeare), the Refinery Transparency Act, would help protect communities from being blindsided by cleanup costs when refineries close.

The Phillips 66 Los Angeles refinery closed its doors at the end of 2025, leaving behind 100 years worth of contamination that could take an estimated 30-40 years to remediate.

“When refineries close in California, they do not give communities like Carson comprehensive plans, timelines, or cost estimates for how to clean-up the mess they’ve left behind. Californians need transparent disclosures so that local communities can plan for the future, and to help make sure that taxpayers are not left paying the clean-up bill.”– Katherine Chu, Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN)

Key findings from the report include: 

• Cleanup at the Carson site could cost up to $910 million, based on EPA cleanup benchmarks, California remediation guidance, and comparable refinery cleanup cases.
• Phillips 66 has publicly disclosed only $357 million in estimated decommissioning costs, with an even smaller share – roughly $129 million based on acreage – likely for the Carson refinery site. This leaves a potential funding gap of up to $781 million for the Carson site alone.
• If Phillips 66 doesn’t cover the entire cost of cleanup and remediation, California taxpayers and the City of Carson could be on the hook. 

The report shows similar cases of frontline communities being forced to foot the cost of gas and oil site cleanup, including Carson’s previous Shell Carousel tract where improper cleanup of the former 50-acre tank farm resulted in over $300 million of legal and remediation settlements. The estimates in the report cover the Carson refinery site alone – cleanup costs for both the Carson and Wilmington sites would be far higher.

Read the full report here.

To schedule an interview with the report author or speak to a Carson community member, contact Blake Marquez, Blake@sunstonestrategies.com, 310-897-6690.

###

 

Download the Report

The post Phillips 66 Carson refinery site remediation estimated at nearly $1 billion appeared first on Asian Pacific Environmental Network.

Across North America, a growing wave of data centre development is putting new pressure on electricity systems. The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that data centres will account for nearly half of US electricity demand growth between now...

Registered nurses at KPC Health’s Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, Calif. voted overwhelmingly on Thursday, June 4 to join California Nurses Association (CNA), an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU), the nation’s largest and fastest-growing registered nurse (RN) union. The nurses voted 91 percent in favor of joining the union.

Why factory farms are a major threat to food safety Anthony Lacey June 5, 2026

Every week, federal investigators track between 17 and 36 foodborne illness outbreaks that can cause extreme sickness and even death. Industrial livestock farming, also known as factory farming, is a main cause.

In 2019, the most recent year with complete data, the U.S. saw almost 10 million cases of foodborne illnesses, including almost 1,000 deaths, from E. coli, salmonella and other bacteria, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The harmful bacteria can contaminate raw produce like cantaloupe, lettuce, and onions or more highly processed foods like meat, poultry and ice cream.

One cause is the way large factory farms operate, including their management of the waste they generate, says the Food and Drug Administration.

Livestock waste can harbor many different types of bacteria, including a strain of E. coli that is particularly dangerous for humans. When bacteria from animal waste contaminate nearby fruit and vegetable crops, the people who eat them can get seriously sick. 

Bacteria in wildlife waste and human waste sludge can also contaminate food. 

Stronger FDA policies could reduce the number of foodborne illness outbreaks and better protect the health of us all. 

Animal waste is more than a nuisance

Factory farms are large, concentrated facilities and feedlots that produce livestock for meat, eggs and dairy products. 

In the U.S., over 90% of farm animals are raised in these facilities. If you have eaten meat in this country, you’ve almost certainly consumed some from a factory farm. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, of cattle, swine, chickens, turkeys and other animals are raised in large buildings called barns, or open feedlots for cattle.

Lots of animals produce lots of manure. EWG found in 2020 that the animals in Iowa’s largest livestock facilities alone produced nearly 70 times the amount of fecal waste Iowa’s entire 3 million human population generated in the same period. 

That waste is more than an inconvenience. It contains hormones, heavy metals and bacteria, including fecal coliform, E. coli, salmonella and listeria. It can also contain pathogens like giardia and pharmaceuticals such as antibiotics.

How factory farms can cause foodborne illness

There are two main ways bacteria from factory farms ends up on the fruits and vegetables we eat. 

First, manure can contaminate the irrigation canals that run past feedlots, either by washing directly into the water or by blowing in contaminated dust particles from the feedlot through the air. 

Without knowing whether the water is contaminated, produce farmers use it in the canals to irrigate their crops or mix it with pesticides before spraying it on crops.

Second, bacteria-laden dust from feedlots can drift onto nearby fields and settle directly on crops. Though this pathway seems to be less common, it is especially alarming, because dust particles can travel many miles through the air.

Once harvested, contaminated produce can get shipped almost anywhere in the U.S. and beyond – then sold and eaten.

Deadly E. coli outbreak in Arizona

A striking example of how a factory farm likely triggered a major outbreak: the deadly 2018 E. coli contamination of romaine lettuce from Yuma County, Ariz. Five people died and many more were sickened after eating lettuce grown in the region. 

The FDA found that the E. coli strain that originated on lettuce from 36 fields on 23 farms was also found in an irrigation canal near one cattle feedlot: McElhaney Feedyard, a facility located close to much of Yuma County’s lettuce farmland. 

A pool of cattle manure and wastewater at the feedlot sat within just a few feet of an irrigation canal (represented by the blue line), creating a contamination risk. (See Image 1.) 

Image 1. A manure and wastewater pit that is very close to an irrigation canal at McElhaney Feedyard

Source: EWG, from Department of Agriculture National Agriculture Imagery Program, 2021 imagery

The problem isn’t limited to factory farms in Arizona.

It’s a risk wherever these facilities exist, especially in states that grow much of the produce consumed in the U.S. – like California, where farmers cultivate more than one-third of the nation’s vegetables and three-fourths of its fruit. 

A recent EWG analysis found that 42% of California’s large factory farms are located within a quarter-mile of a waterway commonly used for irrigation. Some are only feet away. One cattle feedlot was situated just 35 feet from a canal. 

What the FDA can do to make food safer

Protecting yourself is harder than it sounds. Bacteria can contaminate both organic and conventionally grown produce. And studies show that washing lettuce, for example, does not significantly reduce E. coli – so even careful consumers can still get sick.

That’s why it’s so important for the FDA to protect people from bacterial outbreaks on food.

A practical first step would be to require tests of irrigation water to catch harmful bacteria and prevent it from getting onto crops.

After a series of E. coli outbreaks linked to leafy greens in the early 2000s, the FDA was required to set water safety standards for farms. While these rules, finalized in 2024, require farmers to assess the risks to their irrigation water, they don’t mandate water testing. This gap in oversight leaves farmers to mitigate their risk themselves.  

Other federal agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, could also more rigorously monitor farm manure management.

Foodborne illness is not inevitable. It’s a public health problem the FDA and EPA have the tools to address, preventing millions of illnesses and saving lives.

Areas of Focus Food & Water Farming & Agriculture Factory Farms Farm Pollution California Midwest Authors Anne Schechinger Sarah Reinhardt, MPH, RDN June 9, 2026

A deadly disease. A merciless hunt. With dangers around every corner, Wyoming’s wolves need our protection.

This article In Japan, raves and tea parties become sites of protest was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

Shinjuku Station in Tokyo is the busiest railway station in the world. On a given day, roughly 2.7 million passengers pass through. On March 29, they were joined by a stream of ravers, who danced while holding signs opposing the genocide in Palestine, xenophobia, queerphobia, fascism and war.

Under the slogan “Drop Bass Not Bombs,” thousands danced and waved glow sticks while demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, due to the government’s escalating push towards rearmament and close relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump.

The action was organized by Protest Rave, a group of progressive DJs and participants in Japan’s club culture. It’s one of several ways that artists in the country are using their creativity to make people pay more attention to politics. The public demonstration stands out in the country where societal norms and deference toward the government make mass protests and open political debate rare.

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Mars89, a DJ and founding member of Protest Rave, explained the idea behind the action.

“The majority of the Japanese people, they’re not interested in politics,” he said. “We want people to know what’s happening.” 

The choice to hold the protest in the middle of a big city was deliberate, he said. “I hope some people passing on the street when we have the protest start to think about it.”

Artists break the silence

While cultural aversion to  public protest remains a challenge for activists in Japan, the government’s recent efforts to remilitarize have provoked an uptick in political demonstrations.

Right-wing Prime Minister Takaichi, who espouses Japanese nationalism and opposes same-sex marriage, is pushing to revise the country’s pacifist constitution, which was written after World War II to restrict Japan’s participation in war and military alliances. Already she has succeeded at scrapping a longstanding ban on the export of lethal weapons. Much of Japan’s rearmament flows from its relationship with the United States, in which Japan is used as an economic and military foothold for U.S. interests in the Asia-Pacific region. Takaichi has worked to maintain this relationship and build a bond with Trump, even as Trump has insulted Japan.

In response to Takaichi’s militaristic positions and her close relationship with U.S. imperialism, tens of thousands of Japanese people have participated in antiwar protests in recent months. 

A budding protest movement in Japan demonstrates against the right-wing government’s plan for rearmament. (Mars89)

Protest Rave has been publishing interviews from the March 29 action on its Instagram page. Many ravers discuss how the public and inviting character of the rave makes it easier for people to feel they can engage in political discussions and voice their opposition to the government.

One regular participant of Protest Rave is alternative musician Haru Nemuri. “Artistic work exists within the freedom and diversity of expression, which is inherently political,” Nemuri said. “If you ignore politics while being an artist, you’re basically a free rider of that freedom.”

In April, Nemuri began holding “Guerilla Afternoon Tea,” a pop-up action in the form of a public tea party where people are encouraged to connect in community and talk about politics. She did not mince words about Japan’s drive towards rearmament.

“It’s infuriating that the Japanese government has never properly reckoned with its past wrongdoings, and is now reverting to becoming the Japanese Empire all over again,” she said. “The relationship between America and Japan since World War II has always been like that of master and a slave — Trump, the naked king, and Takaichi, the naked slave, are the perfect mirror of that relationship.”

The roots of pacifism

Takaichi is one of the most popular political leaders in the world, reflecting a phenomenon of rising nationalism in Japan. Despite this popularity, her desire to formally revise the country’s constitution has sparked controversy. Many Japanese people hold a strong attachment to the 1947 constitution.

Prior to the war, Japan was a fast-growing empire. The Japanese military, in its quest for expansion, committed atrocities against neighboring countries, including the abduction of thousands of Korean women into sexual slavery and the massacre of Chinese civilians. One of the most horrific aspects of Imperial Japan was Unit 731, an initiative by the empire to conduct biological and chemical experiments on thousands of prisoners of war from many nations.

The nation’s military defeat and the aftermath of the war led Japanese society to rethink the country’s imperial ambitions. The horrific nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S. left Japanese people with a unique understanding of the violence and cruelty that war produces, and many people adopted pacifist attitudes. Antiwar and anti-nuclear sentiments can be found in some of Japan’s most internationally recognized cultural exports, including the original Godzilla franchise and the works of esteemed animator Hayao Miyazaki.

The Japanese constitution, written a year after the bombings, reflects the cultural shift that followed the war. Article 9 states: “Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.”

Takaichi has targeted Article 9, arguing that it should be formally revised. While amending the constitution has proved difficult due to public outrage, the Japanese government already reinterpreted the constitution decades ago to establish and maintain a modern military, under the guise that these forces exist solely for defensive purposes.

Advocates for rearmament also point to the fact that the constitution was shaped by the U.S. at a time when allied forces were militarily occupying Japan. It’s true that following the war the United States used its own military power to shape the new institutions of Japanese society to align with U.S. interests. However, those in Japan who raise the U.S. occupation to justify revising the constitution and rearmament are aligned with the country’s conservative ruling party, which has historically denied or even justified the atrocities carried out by the Japanese Empire.

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Nationalists on social media have also tried to discredit the country’s antiwar protests as not authentically Japanese, pointing to the presence of expats and signs written in English. But as Mars89 sees it, connecting with movements and activists beyond those in Japan is something to embrace.

“We were inspired by the many protests in other countries: the United States, the United Kingdom and Korea as well,” he said. “I think we should unite worldwide. We need to find some way to unite with the protests in other countries.”

Nemuri has also been inspired by movements in other countries and is thinking about how to use her art to foster a stronger culture of political discussion in her country.

“Last year, I saw [Zohran] Mamdani win an election, and their team took to the streets with signs saying, ‘Let’s talk politics,’” Nemuri said. “I’m not a politician, but a musician, and I think I can expand this towards more artistic activities. Drawing from [German philosopher Jürgen] Habermas, I’d love to bring the public sphere, the coffee house, out onto the streets where literally anyone can join.”

This article In Japan, raves and tea parties become sites of protest was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

From time to time, we announce housekeeping items that cover various changes in the Skeptical Science (SkS) web site. Today, it's an important one for all people who are posting comments on our articles: an update to the Comments Policy.

Reasons for the Updates

The Comments Policy is an important document at SkS: not only does it provide guidance for the behaviour of commenters, but it also provides guidance to the moderators on how to deal with comment threads that are starting to go off the rails. The moderation team strives to apply a reasonably uniform level of moderation, and the Comments Policy is the set of rules we follow.

We have been discussing some updates internally over the past few weeks, and now it is time to have the changes go live. The changes have been prompted by a few recent comments that started to use AI to generate text. (We'll stick with the formal definition of AI as "Artificial Intelligence", although I am sure that readers will have their own favorite interpretation.) Moderators have been asking commenters to limit their use of AI, but there is nothing in the previous Comments Policy related to AI. That is now changing.

Essentially all of the previous Comments Policy (archived here) is still in force. There are a few changes in wording, and the order has changed slightly, but if it was in the old Comments Policy, it is in the new one. The updated Comments Policy groups the various policies under six headings, as follows:

• Purpose
• All comments must be on topic
• Speak for yourself and back up your argument
• Civil Conduct
• Account creation and usage
• Summary

The new material falls under the "Speak for yourself and back  up your argument" heading. The main text in that section talks about the  importance of providing links to relevant information, explaining what the reader should find at those sources, etc. SkS is about the science of climate change, and scientific discussion expects references to relevant material and proper citation of sources. Two items from the old Comments Policy are located here: "No sloganeering", and "No link or picture only". But there are two new items of importance, related to copying large blocks of text or images from other sources. The first item covers copying from regular sources such as journals, reports, web pages, etc. The second specifically covers the use of AI-generated text.

Using AI in comments

In essence, when you use AI to generate text and want to add it to a comment, you are no longer speaking for yourself - you are quoting a different source. Proper scientific citation rules require that you indicate that you are quoting a different source, and provide a reference to what that source is. To quote from the updated policy: "Quoting or copying material from other sources without a proper citation constitutes plagiarism, which is not allowed."

The use of AI is not banned, but we are placing strict limits on how it can be used. Full disclosure: after we wrote the new sections of the Comments Policy. we asked the Gemini AI to suggest if there were options to improve the sequence of the various items. Gemini suggested grouping the items into several categories. We had already grouped some items into the "Speak for yourself and back  up your argument" category, but the remaining items were still in a simple list. Gemini suggested grouping the remaining items into a few categories. In the end, we went with different categories (and labels for the categories), but we did find the Gemini suggestion useful.

....and this demonstrates a reasonable use of AI: ask it for help, look at its suggestions, but apply your own judgement to the results. The SkS Comments Policy is an SkS product, and we need to be willing to stand behind it. It is the voice of SkS, speaking to all our readers.

Small change in wording

The astute reader will  notice one key change in the Comments Policy, compared to the old one. In the old policy, we referred to "global warming". In the new one, we refer to "climate change". The second phrase is more all-encompassing with respect to climate science, and makes more sense in the broader view covered here at SkS. Before anyone gets their knickers in a knot over this change, we suggest they read the "Global Warming vs. Climate Change" rebuttal that sits at the number 89 spot on our Global Warming and Climate Change Myths list.

One last point: although "Moderation complaints are always off-topic",  this is one blog post where limited discussion of moderation will be allowed. Behave yourselves, though.

And now, a copy of the full new Comments Policy:

Purpose

The purpose of the discussion threads is to allow notification and correction of errors in the article, and to permit clarification of related points. Though we believe the only genuine debate on the science of climate change is that which occurs in the scientific literature, we welcome genuine discussion as both an aid to understanding and a means of correcting our inadvertent errors.  To facilitate genuine discussion, we have a zero tolerance approach to trolling and sloganeering. To that end:

All comments must be on topic

Comments are on topic if they draw attention to possible errors of fact or interpretation in the main article, or if they discuss the immediate implications of the facts discussed in the main article. However, general discussions of climate change not explicitly related to the details of the main article are always off topic. Moderation complaints are always off topic and will be deleted. To expand on this requirement:

• Make comments in the most appropriate thread.  Some comments, while strictly on topic, may relate to issues discussed in more detail in some other thread.  Extended discussion of those points should be carried out in the more appropriate thread, with link backs to reference the discussion as needed.  Moderator's directions to move discussion to a more appropriate thread should always be followed.
• Comments should avoid excessive repetition. Discussions which circle back on themselves and involve endless repetition of points already discussed do not help clarify relevant points. They are merely tiresome to participants and a barrier to readers. If moderators believe you are being excessively repetitive, they will advise you as such, and any further repetition will be treated as being off topic.
• No copying and pasting earlier comments. Comments repeated from earlier comments (or from other websites) will be moderated. However, short excerpts from earlier comments are accepted if making an on-topic point, preferably with a hyperlink. Note that with each comment, the date/time is a hyperlink. If you link to this URL, clicking on the link will take you directly to that part of the webpage.
• No spamming. Spamming will result in deletion of comments and suspension of the account without warning.

Speak for yourself and back up your argument

When you are posting comments, it is expected that you are speaking for yourself and are willing to back up your argument with relevant information. We encourage you to provide links to relevant scientific papers and reports, images available on the Internet, and sources of information that provide additional detail regarding the points you want to make. You need to explain in your comment why such sources are relevant, and what a reader should expect to find in that source. You are the one making the argument, and the reader should not have to spend large amounts of time trying to figure out your point. As a consequence of this policy, we also state the following:

• No sloganeering.  Comments consisting of simple assertion of a myth already debunked by one of the main articles, and which contain no relevant counter argument or evidence from the peer reviewed literature constitutes trolling rather than genuine discussion. As such they will be deleted. If you think our debunking of one of those myths is in error, you are welcome to discuss that on the relevant thread, provided you give substantial reasons for believing the debunking is in error.  It is asked that you do not clutter up threads by responding to comments that consist just of slogans.
• No link or picture only. Any link or picture should be accompanied by text summarizing both the content of the link or picture, and showing how it is relevant to the topic of discussion. Failure to do both of these things will result in the comment being considered off topic.
• No cutting and pasting of large blocks of text or images from other sources (journal articles, reports, web pages, etc.).  It is reasonable to include one or two paragraphs or images in your comment from a scientific source such as a peer-reviewed paper or report, but this should only represent a portion of your comment.  Provide a link to or a clear identification of the original source - this is the standard approach to scientific citation. Quoting or copying material from other sources without a proper citation constitutes plagiarism, which is not allowed. The reader must be able to find the original source, in order to verify the material. If the source you want to refer to has a lot of material that you think is relevant, provide a summary of what you want the reader to see and provide a link so that the reader can easily access the full material. If you are unwilling or unable to read the source and provide a summary, then there is little reason to think that the source is on-topic or relevant. Moderators may delete such posts as off-topic.
• The above ban on pasting large blocks of text also applies to AI-generated content. If you want to use AI to help you understand the topic, then that is your choice. Keep in mind, however, that AI sources are energy-intensive and you should ask yourself if that cost really provides a value-added contribution to the conversation. AI-generated content should be kept to a minimum, identified as such, with indications of the source and key words or questions used to feed it. As is the case for any other links, images, quotes, etc., provide a summary of the AI content to demonstrate that you understand it and see it as relevant. When you add AI-generated content to your comment, you are no longer speaking for yourself - you are quoting someone (something?) else, and need to cite the source.

Civil conduct

All participants are expected to conduct themselves in a civil manner. More specifically:

• No accusations of deception.  Any accusations of deception, fraud, dishonesty or corruption will be deleted. This applies to both sides. You may critique a person's methods but not their motives.
• No ad hominem attacks. Personally attacking other users gets us no closer to understanding the science. For example, comments containing the words 'religion' and 'conspiracy' tend to get moderated. Comments using labels like 'alarmist' and 'denier' as derogatory terms are usually skating on thin ice.
• No politics. Rants about politics, religion, faith, ideology or one world governments will be deleted. Occasional blog posts on Skeptical Science touch on issues intimately related to politics.  For those posts this rule may be relaxed, but only if explicitly stated at the end of the blogpost.
• No ALL CAPS. You can't have a civil, constructive discussion if you're shouting.
• No profanity or inflammatory tone. Again, constructive discussion is difficult when overheated rhetoric or profanity is flying around.
• No cyber stalking. Posting personal details of another user results in your account being banned from Skeptical Science.
• No dogpiling.  In the interests of civility and to enable people to properly express their opinions, we discourage 'piling on'. If a comment already has a response, consider carefully whether you are adding anything interesting before also responding.  If a participant appears to be being 'dog piled', the moderator may designate one or two people from each side of the debate as the primary disputants and require that no other people respond until further notified. On topic comments on other matters not being discussed by the primary disputants will still be welcome.

Account creation and usage

• No multiple identities.  Posting comments at Skeptical Science should use only one registered screen name. Use of more than one account will result in all accounts being banned.
• You are not allowed to use two different identities at the same time.
• You are not allowed to create a second identity to replace an identity that has had its posting rights revoked due to an inability or unwillingness to follow the Comments Policy.
• Commenters must register a valid email address. To register and confirm a user account at Skeptical Science requires a valid email address. 

Summary

Please note that posting on Skeptical Science is a privilege, not a right. We try to avoid harsh application of the comments policy in the interests of a free flowing discussion, but expect your cooperation in return. If that cooperation is not forthcoming, moderators will resort to a very strict application of the comments policy to your posts, and if persisted with, it will result in deletion of your posts, or the suspension of your posting privileges. If we all followed these guidelines in any discussion, perhaps the world would be a calmer and more constructive place.

The Comment Policy page was already updated on June 4, 2026 in preparation for this housekeeping blog post's publication on June 5. Any comments posted after this announcement will be moderated based on the new Comment Policy.

On June 3, 2026, Audubon gathered conservation leaders, community advocates, and supporters at its annual Environmental Leadership Awards Benefit in Greenwich, honoring Roberta Barbieri with the...

“Management has highlighted [transmission constraints] as a risk factor ... citing behind-the-meter as a potential solution,” said Jefferies equity analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith.

Ocean and coastal creatures are being put at risk by the spills, noise, dredging and shipping associated with new offshore oil and gas infrastructure, says a new report by a group of environmental NGOs.

The report by 12 environmental groups analysed planned new offshore oil and gas blocks covering 430,000 square kilometres – an area the size of Sweden – in 11 countries.

Blocks in countries such as Kenya, Indonesia and Australia overlap with some of the planet’s hotspots for marine biodiversity, home to mangroves, coral reefs, sea turtles, sharks and whales.

Oil and gas expansion is advancing in spite of the legal protections already in place, the report says, with a third of the area being licensed overlapping with marine and coastal protected areas.

• Jun 4, 2026 Energy China’s carbon emissions rise again as more clean power is wasted The economic powerhouse burned more coal and gas in the first quarter of 2026, despite record wind and solar build-out Read more
• Jun 3, 2026 Finance Investor climate group closes down, blaming “limits” of shareholder activism Canadian campaign group Investors for Paris Compliance shut in May, saying efforts to push companies to tackle climate change have become less effective Read more
• 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

“It is alarming to see the research findings and the sheer scale of fossil fuel expansion trajectories threatening the health and future of our shared ocean,” said Tyson Miller, executive director of Earth Insight, one of the environmental NGOs involved in the report.

At the first conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Santa Marta, around 60 countries floated the idea of creating “fossil fuel-free zones”, which would seek to place limits on coal, oil and gas in areas where development would lead to severe social and environmental harm.

As part of the landmark Kunming-Montreal biodiversity deal, governments have also pledged to protect at least 30% of the planet’s land and marine ecosystems by 2030. This could be used as an opportunity to limit oil and gas expansion in sensitive areas, Miller said.

The report says the findings “reinforce the need for governments, financial institutions and companies to stop funding and supporting offshore oil and gas expansion”, and calls for the creation of fossil fuel-free zones in “high-value marine and coastal areas”.

Oil bidding in biodiversity hotspots

As one of the case studies, Kenya — which is set to host the Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa later this month — has opened 50 offshore oil and gas blocks for bidding in the Lamu Basin, one of East Africa’s marine biodiversity hotspots.

These blocks overlap with all the region’s mangroves and coral reefs, the report says, which provide nursery habitats for fish, sea turtles and the vulnerable dugong.

These ecosystems are already under severe stress from climate change-related ocean heating and increased water acidity and could now face seismic surveys, offshore drilling, dredging, increased shipping traffic, oil spills, chemical discharge and underwater noise pollution.

The government estimates that oil production will start by 2026, aligning with “global best practices”, and has said the Lamu basin has vast “untapped potential”. The country is expected to open bidding for the first 10 blocks by September.

Muturi wa Kamau, network coordinator for the Kenya Oil and Gas Working Group, said in a statement that the country “is preparing to open ecologically sensitive areas for fossil fuel exploration” while positioning itself as a leader in ocean diplomacy.

“The question is: at what cost are we willing to risk these fragile ecosystems and the livelihoods of coastal communities who have depended on them for generations?” Kamau said.

Australia’s Otway Basin

After a four-year pause, Australia — which will act as co-president of the COP31 climate summit — resumed offshore exploration in the Otway Basin last year, with American energy firm ConocoPhillips among the operators approved for exploratory drilling off the country’s southern coast.

The sites under exploration are as close as one kilometre to a series of marine reserves known as sanctuaries for pygmy blue whales, who travel thousands of kilometres to reproduce in those waters. Orange roughy, a deep-sea fish that can live for over 140 years, may also be harmed.

In total, the report analysed new LNG export projects in Argentina, Alaska, Mexico and Tanzania, as well as expanded offshore oil and gas licensing in Australia, Cameroon, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Norway and Trinidad and Tobago.

The post Offshore oil and gas expansion threatens key marine ecosystems, report warns appeared first on Climate Home News.

Although Florida is at “normal risk” for long-term energy adequacy, the unit near Orlando needs to remain online partly to help serve potential data centers in the state, the department said.

Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed. 
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.

This week UK proposes new emissions target

‘ON COURSE’: The UK government has proposed reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions to 87% below 1990 levels by 2040, reported the Associated Press. The newswire cited scientists saying that the goal “puts the UK on course to meet its 2050 net-zero target”. To meet this target, the UK would “need to invest around £880bn over 25 years…but doing so would yield benefits worth £1,620bn”, according to an in-depth analysis of the plans by  Carbon Brief.

UPCOMING ‘FLASHPOINT’: The Financial Times noted that, for the target to become “legally binding”, it must be approved by parliament. While the UK’s previous carbon budget “received cross-party support”, this time the proposal is “expected to become a flashpoint among lawmakers”, it added, with both the Conservatives and Reform pledging to “scrap” net-zero policies.

DRIVING FORCE: Separately, a new report by consultancy Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Economics has valued the UK’s “net-zero economy” at more than £100bn a year, reported the Guardian. It added that, by a broad measure, the UK energy transition supports 1.1m jobs and provides “nearly 4% of the UK’s economic output”.

US ‘dismantling’ oceans data

SYSTEMS OFFLINE: The Trump administration is “dismantling” a “$368m deep-ocean observation system” that, among other things, allows scientists to monitor the ocean currents that affect the global climate and understand how the “ocean is absorbing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere”, said the New York Times. Bloomberg reported that Trump’s efforts to close the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), a key climate science research institution, has been “temporarily blocked” by a judge. 

RULE ROLLBACK: The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), an independent body that regulates US securities markets, has proposed repealing the climate-disclosure rule, which “requires some public companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions and the risks they face from global warming”, said the Associated Press. The Trump administration also announced plans to allocate $700m to support “clean, beautiful coal” power and export infrastructure, said BBC News.

Around the world

• EU EXEMPTIONS: The EU will allow member states to breach the bloc’s fiscal rules to “cope with high energy prices stoked by the Iran war”, as long as the measures they use help “accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels”, reported Bloomberg.
• SLOW SPENDING: The German government has only paid out €24bn of the €37bn it was “supposed to disburse” in 2025 from a special fund for infrastructure and “climate neutrality”, reported Clean Energy Wire. 
• URGENT WARNING: UN secretary-general António Guterres said a likely upcoming El Niño weather event must be treated as the “urgent climate warning it is”, said Al Jazeera.
• HOEKSTRA ON COP: The outcomes of many of the most recent COPs have been “underwhelming”, EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra has said, according to Reuters. COPs should be supplemented by “smaller groups…who are willing ​to move faster”, he added.

3,400

The number of excess deaths across India caused by a single day of extreme heat, according to coverage in the Hindustan Times of a new study.

30,000

Excess deaths caused if the extreme heat lasts five days.

Latest climate research

• In a 1.5C warmer world, the timing of floods will shift by more than seven days across half of the world’s landmass | Nature Communications
• Temperature and rainfall together account for more than 13% of methane generated from landfills in Incheon, South Korea | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
• The postponed International Maritime Organisation “net-zero framework” could increase biofuel use in shipping to 40% by 2050 | Nature Energy

(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)

Captured

China’s carbon dioxide emissions grew by 2% in the first quarter of 2026 due to a rise in “wasted” wind and solar generation, according to new analysis for Carbon Brief. However, emissions remain below their March 2024 peak, it added.

Spotlight Why China’s solar boom is slowing down

China made headlines in 2025 for installing record levels of solar. But in 2026, new capacity is expected to be lower than last year’s figures. 

This week, Carbon Brief examines what is behind China’s lower 2026 solar additions. 

Solar power has been a major element of China’s renewables buildout since the mid-2010s. 

The country installed 315 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity in 2025, adding more than half of all new solar globally. The year before, it added 277GW.

But the picture in 2026 to date is very different. Installations in March fell 56% year-on-year to 9GW, while new capacity in April totalled 10GW, a 79% drop compared to a year earlier, according to Carbon Brief’s analysis of official data.

Domestic uncertainty

The lower pace in 2026 had been anticipated by analysts.

In previous years, massive solar installations were driven by strong policy support for renewables, including a fixed-price tariff for generators.

In February 2025, the government announced that new solar and wind projects would instead be financed through a new “contract for difference” (CfD)-style system. 

Under the new system, power from a certain amount of renewable capacity will be purchased for a fixed “strike price”, which to date has been far lower than previous guaranteed tariffs. Further projects will need to secure their own contracts on the open market.

While the new system is posing challenges for developers in the short term, it is part of a longer-term shift towards market-driven pricing for renewables, which has already made them cheaper than coal.  

The change led to a rush of new project installations ahead of the June 2025 cut-off date, so that they could fall under the old fixed-price regime.

New solar additions totalled 45GW in April 2025 and 93GW in May 2025, before falling to 14GW in June 2025, according to Carbon Brief analysis of government data.

Additions also spiked in December, in both 2024 and 2025, as developers raced to meet completion deadlines including those under the 14th five-year plan.   

Some reports have attributed the precipitous drop this year to falling demand for solar in China.

But this is a “major oversimplification”, David Fishman, principal at energy consultancy the Lantau Group, wrote on LinkedIn.

The real challenge, he said, is that “developers and banks [are] still figuring out how to finance and build projects without policy-backed revenue guarantees”.

Yang Biqing, energy analyst for Asia at thinktank Ember, agrees, telling Carbon Brief that the new CfD-style system has created “greater uncertainty” for developers, compounded by fierce competition and a growing push for “consolidation” in the industry.

The government set a target for 200GW of new solar and wind capacity in 2026. 

Fishman told Carbon Brief that this will be “difficult” for the government to achieve, though not impossible. Current levels of solar additions – reaching perhaps 120GW for the year – plus an “ambitious” 80GW of new wind power, could help China to hit the target, he said.

Others are more bullish. The China Photovoltaic Industry Association forecasts 180-240GW of new solar in 2026.

But few believe additions will match the breakneck pace of 2025. 

“China’s solar industry is no longer a story of capacity expansion”, said Yang, with officials now “increasingly” focused on integrating current generation into the grid. 

Soaring exports

Meanwhile, China’s solar exports are still going strong.

China exported almost 1.2m tonnes of solar cells in April 2026, according to Reuters. Although down from a record high in March, it represented a 60% rise year-on-year, added the newswire.

This signals solar’s attractiveness globally in the face of rising energy prices caused by the Iran-US conflict, analysts have said. 

High demand for panels has been reported across several continents, including Europe, Asia and Africa. 

For example, in the Philippines, the conflict is “driving” solar uptake, one analyst told the Associated Press, adding:

“People want solar and people want solar now.”

A version of this article is also available on the Carbon Brief website.

Watch, read, listen

EL NIÑO IMPACTS: An interactive piece from BBC News described how the forecasted “super” El Niño could impact global climate and weather in the coming months.

‘CAUTIONARY TALE’: Two researchers wrote in Climate Home News that “Indonesia’s failing Just Energy Transition Partnership is a cautionary tale”.

‘CULTURE WAR’: Time magazine spoke to London mayor Sadiq Khan about how he “survived the climate culture war”.

Coming up

• 8 June: World Ocean Day
• 8-18 June: Bonn climate talks, Bonn, Germany 
• 11 June: Climate Adaptation Innovation in Latin America and the Caribbean webinar, online

Pick of the jobs

• The New York Times, climate policy correspondent | Salary: $124,980-$160,000. Location: Washington DC
• Regulatory Assistance Project, associate, electricity systems and electrification | Salary: €50,000-€60,000. Location: Madrid and remote
• Future Energy Networks, head of policy | Salary: £75,000-£100,000. Location: London and remote

DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to debriefed@carbonbrief.org.

This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s weekly DeBriefed email newsletter. Subscribe for free here.

The post DeBriefed 5 June 2026: UK eyes 2040 emissions cut | US ‘dismantling’ oceans research | China’s solar slump appeared first on Carbon Brief.

As the world observes World Environment Day 2026, global attention is increasingly focused on the urgent need for climate action and environmental protection. This year’s theme, “Inspired by Nature. For Climate. For Our Future,” highlights that climate action is not only about reducing carbon emissions, but also rethinking the systems that shape economies, industries, and the relationship between people and the planet. 

In the Dominican Republic, the growing environmental crisis surrounding the Hatillo Reservoir in Cotuí has become a stark example of these challenges. Today, communities once again call attention to recent water contamination, and to demand remediation measures and stronger environmental protections. Their message is clear: protecting the Hatillo Reservoir is not only an environmental priority, but a social and economic necessity.

Communities Sound the Alarm

As the largest freshwater reservoir in the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean, the Hatillo Reservoir is vital for agriculture, ecosystems, and water supply to downstream communities. Yet decades of sediment buildup and the lack of proper maintenance of its dam have contributed to worsening environmental degradation, placing public health and local livelihoods increasingly at risk.

Multiple potential sources of contamination have already been identified, including agricultural runoff and industrial activities. There are three active mines located within the watershed flowing into the reservoir. The Comité Nuevo Renacer (CNR), representing five impacted communities – La Cerca, La Piñita, Las Lagunas, Jobo Claro, and Jurungo – are fighting to be relocated away from industrial mining activities, and argue the numerous potential sources of contamination and associated cumulative environmental impacts reflect a broader trend of environmental management failures in the area. 

Testing Shows Serious Risks 

Public concern intensified in December 2025, when residents living in communities surrounding the reservoir began sharing alarming photos and videos on social media showing that the water had turned a bright green color.  In response, the Ministry of Environment carried out water testing and issued a statement attributing the change in water color to an algae bloom.

Subsequent microbiological studies conducted between December 2025 and January 2026 by the Institute of Microbiology and Parasitology (IMPA) at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD), alongside analyses from Franja Laboratory, revealed alarming findings. The results shared publicly by journalist Nairobi Viloria on the programme “Te lo explico” and later reported by Diario Libre, identified high concentrations of bacteria associated with faecal contamination, indicating serious sanitary risks.

The studies also detected Microcystis species, a type of bacteria linked to excessive algae blooms leading to oxygen depletion that can produce potent toxins harmful to human health, livestock, and aquatic life. In addition, other types of microalgae were identified that signal nutrient-rich waters, high organic loads, and ecological imbalance. Together, these findings suggest a reservoir undergoing progressive environmental deterioration. Elevated nitrogen and phosphorus levels were also recorded contributing to harmful algae blooms.

Water in the Presa de Hatillo still has a green tint six months after the initial algae bloom. Credit: Ramón Ventura Heavy Metals Also Present 

Further analysis by Franja Labs revealed elevated concentrations of heavy metals and toxic substances, including nickel, total chromium, manganese, sulphates, and cyanide, with some exceeding established safety thresholds. These results point to multiple pollution sources, likely including mining activities, industrial discharge, agricultural runoff, and urban waste. 

Particularly concerning were nickel levels reaching up to 1,613 mg/L, far above the permissible limit of 0.1 mg/L for surface waters intended to support aquatic life. A 2025 paper published in Environmental Science and Pollution Research also reported elevated levels of copper, arsenic, antimony, aluminum, cobalt, and zinc in the Hatillo Reservoir. 

After reviewing the results tested at Franja Labs, the Dominican Association of Chemical Engineers issued a 20-page report expressing significant concerns over the water quality results and recommending continuous monitoring and testing, including of sediment at the bottom the reservoir, and reclassifying the water quality. 

The Academy of Sciences of the Dominican Republic also issued a public statement urging authorities to take immediate action. According to the statement, the greenish coloration observed in the reservoir may result from a combination of factors, including the intensive use of fertilisers and agrochemicals, the influx of organic matter, reduced water levels during prolonged drought periods, and possible discharges from nearby mining operations.

Communities Respond to Contamination

Beyond the scientific evidence, the environmental crisis surrounding the Hatillo Reservoir has sparked a strong civic response. Residents of Cotuí have mobilised to demand immediate action, voicing concern over the potential toxicity of the reservoir and its impact on health, livelihoods and the environment.

In March 2026, community members gathered nightly in the town park for candlelight vigils culminating in a large popular march on March  20th. Months later, they are still calling for environmental justice and urgent action to protect and restore the Hatillo Reservoir as a vital source of freshwater for the future.  

The post Communities in the Dominican Republic Call for Environmental Accountability on World Environment Day appeared first on Earthworks.

Solar power has been a major element of China’s renewables buildout since the mid-2010s. 

The country installed 315 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity in 2025, adding more than half of all new solar globally. The year before, it added 277GW.

But the picture in 2026 to date is very different. Installations in March fell 56% year-on-year to 9GW, while new capacity in April totalled 10GW, a 79% drop compared to a year earlier, according to Carbon Brief’s analysis of official data.

Domestic uncertainty

The lower pace in 2026 had been anticipated by analysts.

In previous years, massive solar installations were driven by strong policy support for renewables, including a fixed-price tariff for generators.

In February 2025, the government announced that new solar and wind projects would instead be financed through a new “contract for difference” (CfD)-style system. 

Under the new system, power from a certain amount of renewable capacity will be purchased for a fixed “strike price”, which to date has been far lower than previous guaranteed tariffs. Further projects will need to secure their own contracts on the open market.

While the new system is posing challenges for developers in the short term, it is part of a longer-term shift towards market-driven pricing for renewables, which has already made them cheaper than coal.  

The change led to a rush of new project installations ahead of the June 2025 cut-off date, so that they could fall under the old fixed-price regime.

New solar additions totalled 45GW in April 2025 and 93GW in May 2025, before falling to 14GW in June 2025, according to Carbon Brief analysis of government data.

Additions also spiked in December, in both 2024 and 2025, as developers raced to meet completion deadlines including those under the 14th five-year plan.   

Some reports have attributed the precipitous drop this year to falling demand for solar in China.

But this is a “major oversimplification”, David Fishman, principal at energy consultancy the Lantau Group, wrote on LinkedIn.

The real challenge, he said, is that “developers and banks [are] still figuring out how to finance and build projects without policy-backed revenue guarantees”.

Yang Biqing, energy analyst for Asia at thinktank Ember, agrees, telling Carbon Brief that the new CfD-style system has created “greater uncertainty” for developers, compounded by fierce competition and a growing push for “consolidation” in the industry.

The government set a target for 200GW of new solar and wind capacity in 2026. 

Fishman tells Carbon Brief that this will be “difficult” for the government to achieve, though not impossible. Current levels of solar additions – reaching perhaps 120GW for the year – plus an “ambitious” 80GW of new wind power, could help China to hit the target, he says.

Others are more bullish. The China Photovoltaic Industry Association forecasts 180-240GW of new solar in 2026.

But few believe additions will match the breakneck pace of 2025. 

“China’s solar industry is no longer a story of capacity expansion”, says Yang, with officials now “increasingly” focused on integrating current generation into the grid. 

Soaring exports

Meanwhile, China’s solar exports are still going strong.

China exported almost 1.2m tonnes of solar cells in April 2026, according to Reuters. Although down from a record high in March, it represented a 60% rise year-on-year, added the newswire.

This signals solar’s attractiveness globally in the face of rising energy prices caused by the Iran-US conflict, analysts have said. 

High demand for panels has been reported across several continents, including Europe, Asia and Africa. 

For example, in the Philippines, the conflict is “driving” solar uptake, one analyst told the Associated Press, adding:

“People want solar and people want solar now.”

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The post Chart: Why China’s solar boom is slowing down appeared first on Carbon Brief.

As competition for minerals needed to produce clean energy technologies intensifies, a growing number of countries have resorted to an age-old mechanism to cope with the threat of scarcity: stockpiling.

The world’s biggest economies are racing to shore up reserves of cobalt, lithium, graphite and rare earths, which are needed to produce batteries, electric vehicles, wind turbines and electric systems to wean the global economy off fossil fuels. The same minerals are also increasingly sought after to manufacture military hardware and chips for AI, adding further pressure on supplies.

But the cutthroat scramble to build up reserves threatens to drive up the costs of the energy transition by intensifying competition and pushing up prices of key materials needed to produce clean energy technologies, research published today has found.

“If you undermine the financial viability of [clean energy] projects through higher raw material costs, you’re going to delay their roll-out,” co-author Hugh Miller, the critical minerals lead at the Centre for Economic Transition Expertise at the London School of Economics and Political Science, told Climate Home News.

Stockpiling “is happening, whether we like it or not”, said Miller. “But if we’re going to do it, we need to have it in a coordinated manner that means we don’t have massive market volatility and adverse implications from every country trying to go at it alone,” he added.

The rise of stockpiles

A growing number of governments have adopted national stockpiling programmes in response to heightened geopolitical tensions around mineral supply chains.

Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump announced the establishment of a critical mineral reserve known as “Project Vault” to protect American businesses from shortages after China imposed export restrictions on rare earth supplies.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivers opening remarks at the Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington DC (Credit: Official State Department photo by Freddie Everett)

Beijing suspended the measures until November as part of a trade truce with Washington but the episode spooked Western governments and exposed how strategic materials can be weaponised to achieve geopolitical objectives.

Australia, China, the EU and India have also announced measures to create strategic mineral reserves. Japan and South Korea already have long-standing mineral stockpiling programmes.

“Legitimate concerns”

“There are legitimate concerns with regards to potential global shortages of these minerals,” said Miller, citing rapidly rising and concurrent mineral demand for the energy transition, AI, data centres, and military technologies, combined with underinvestment in new supplies for some minerals, such as copper.

While stockpiling can serve as an emergency response mechanism during acute shortages, it does nothing to address the underlying concentration risks in mineral supply chains. The Democratic Republic of Congo holds around 70% of the world’s cobalt reserves, for example, while China dominates the processing of 19 out of 20 minerals deemed critical by a large number of nations.

• May 27, 2026 Clean Energy Frontier Recycling could meet half of Europe’s critical mineral needs by 2050 A new report by an EU-funded research project says the bloc could harness its “urban mines” to reduce its dependence on China for energy transition minerals Read more
• May 5, 2026 Clean Energy Frontier The energy transition has a rare earth problem: These startups are solving it China’s grip on global supply chains is turbocharging efforts to find alternatives to the small group of metals that dominate EV motor technology Read more
• Mar 9, 2026 Comment The US’s critical minerals club threatens an equitable clean energy transition Washington’s minerals trading bloc will shore up supplies for the US’s digital and military sectors and risks diverting resources away from cleantech Read more

Uncoordinated stockpiling programmes risk heightening the price volatility they are designed to hedge against, according to the report.

Researchers found that if Australia, China, the EU, India, Japan, South Korea and the US simultaneously built reserves of minerals to cover six months of imports, the aggregate stockpile demand could represent up to 34% of global annual cobalt supply and over 10% of global lithium, graphite and copper supply. That could cause a shock to the market, triggering the shortages and price spikes they are trying to avoid.

Miller said it was unlikely that every country would stockpile at that rate, but aggregate stockpiling demand of just 5% of global mineral supply would have an impact on prices.

Coordinating stockpiles: a role for the IEA?

Researchers found that avoiding the negative impacts of stockpiling requires global coordination over how mineral stocks are accumulated and released – a mechanism which already exists for other commodities, including oil.

Coordination should include agreed rules for countries to build up their stocks over a slow and staggered timeline and pre-agreed conditions for releasing reserves to provide market predictability and reduce the risk of price spikes.

The International Energy Agency (IEA), which was established after the 1970s oil crisis to coordinate emergency oil stock releases among member countries, is best placed to oversee such a mechanism, they say.

Earlier this year, IEA member countries called on the agency to strengthen its work on critical minerals, including by providing support to countries “that choose to establish and expand critical minerals stockpiling systems”.

But Miller and his co-author Pau Morandi, a policy fellow at the Centre for Economic Transition Expertise, argue that members should go one step further and mandate the IEA to coordinate the security of supplies, rather than only helping individual governments.

The IEA has been contacted for comment.

A call to action for the G7

Miller said he hoped the research could be picked up by the G7 group of wealthy countries, which could lead on mandating the IEA to take on this coordination role.

France, which is presiding over the group this year and is hosting leaders in Evian on the shores of Lake Geneva in mid-June, has made strengthening the resilience of critical minerals value chains a priority.

In a communique last month, finance ministers agreed to “deepen and expand our cooperation among G7 members and with like-minded partners” to strengthen and diversify critical mineral supply chains and to continue discussions “on how to best organise analytical cooperation”.

Sebastien Treyer, executive director of the Paris-based Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), said he hoped the G7 leaders’ summit can help move the discussion on critical minerals towards greater international cooperation to secure the resources the world needs to build a clean economy.

From inclusive and mutually beneficial partnerships to mine resources to stockpiling minerals, “we need to coordinate more like a trade organisation than something that is about securing supply,” he said.

The post The scramble to stockpile critical minerals could drive up energy transition costs appeared first on Climate Home News.

New coal-fired plants in Anchorage, Alaska, and Mt. Storm, West Virginia, would total 2.85 GW. They would be the first new U.S. coal plants to come online since 2013.

Former crew members on squid fishing expeditions report environmental destruction and labor abuses, due to a regulatory vacuum.

Read more on E360 →

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A new solar-powered desalination device could help address society’s growing thirst for freshwater and energy. The device has specially engineered solar panels that pull potable water from seawater while also extracting salts, including lithium. Because it removes salts, the system does not produce harmful brine waste.

Researchers at the University of Rochester reported the device in the journal Light: Science and Applications. And in a recent related paper published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, the team showed that the panels can be tweaked to separate lithium from the recovered salts. The modified device extracted about half of the lithium from Great Salt Lake water samples.

According to the United Nations, the world has entered an “era of global water bankruptcy”. About 2.2 billion people do not have access to safely managed drinking water, and 3 billion live in areas where total water levels are declining or unstable.

Many parched regions of the world rely on desalination plants that convert seawater into fresh water. But the technologies used today are energy-intensive and expensive. They also generate large volumes of concentrated briny water that is discharged into the ocean where it can damage local ecosystems.

So the Rochester team took inspiration from the coffee ring effect to design their new solar desalination device. First, they etch small, black metal panels with ultra-fast lasers to make special solar panels. The textured black surface absorbs nearly all incoming sunlight and is very good at attracting water.

The patterned region quickly wicks water. As the device absorbs sunlight, the water evaporates and is distilled into fresh water. Meanwhile, the metal’s grooves are patterned in a way that they guide the salts and minerals outward to the edges of the active area, much like a coffee ring is formed as liquid evaporates and push the solid particles out in a circle.

For lithium extraction, the researchers embedded hydrogen titanate nanoparticles into the panel’s grooves. The particles selectively trap lithium ions selectively while other salts move to the passive collection zone.

“Mining lithium from the Earth has proven to be very taxing from an energy and environmental standpoint, so pulling lithium directly from saltwater could be a very important future route,” said Chunlei Guo, a professor of optics and physics, in a press release.

Sources:

• Luheng Tang et al. Additive-free and brine-discharge-free solar-thermal desalination with simultaneous complete mineral mining from ocean water. Light: Science, 2026.
• Luheng Tang et al. Rapid lithium extraction via solar-thermal interfacial evaporation with zero liquid discharge. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2026.

Image: University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster