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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

June 15, 2026

Media Contact:

Parson Brown

The Alliance for Appalachia

ParsonBrownPro@gmail.com

540.671.1057

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Community leaders, organizers, and advocates from across Appalachia gathered in Washington June 7–10 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Alliance for Appalachia and continue the coalition’s longstanding Week in Washington tradition.

Representatives from the Alliance’s 24 member organizations participated in more than 20 meetings, including meetings with congressional staff of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senators, federal agencies and national advocacy partners to discuss issues affecting Appalachian communities.

As Trump’s executive orders and Congress’s push for permitting reform threaten to limit public input on projects in our communities, participating in our democracy has never been more important. The people most affected deserve a voice in the decisions that shape their future.

Throughout the week, delegates met with officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Congressional committees to discuss environmental justice and the impacts of fossil fuel extraction across our region. Meeting topics included abandoned mine lands, flooding, legacy pollution, the dire need for drinking water infrastructure in southern West Virginia, economic transition, energy development and impacts of data center development and related infrastructure across Appalachia.

On June 9, Alliance members joined the Sierra Club’s Move Your Ash: Rally Against Rolling Back Coal Ash Regulations outside EPA headquarters.

“We call for transparency, accountability, and protections that put people’s health first,” said Scott Shoupe of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth during the rally.

Participants also discussed environmental justice priorities, including opposition to a proposed federal prison on a former mountaintop removal site and support for reintroducing the Environmental Justice for All Act.

Founded in 2006, The Alliance for Appalachia is a regional coalition of 24 organizations working across Appalachia from Pennsylvania to Alabama. The annual Week in Washington brings Appalachian residents directly into conversations with federal policymakers on issues affecting their communities.

For more information, visit www.TheAllianceForAppalachia.org

After two weeks of climate negotiations riven by arguments over finance and science, the UN climate chief expressed disappointment and denounced governments for “cherry-picking” commitments they have already made and waiting for others to move first.

In their final hours on Thursday evening, the talks tried – and failed – to reach a deal that would have balanced developing countries’ demands for reassurance on finance to help them adapt to climate impacts with richer nations’ desire to move forward with work on speeding up emissions reductions in line with science.  

Simon Stiell, the head of the UN climate body, released a statement as the Bonn talks wound up, saying that “in some negotiating rooms, we’ve heard a familiar tendency towards you-first-ism – groups refusing to deliver commitments or allow the process to move forward unless others go first”.  

“This is a recipe for gridlock when we need all negotiating tracks to be moving in the fast lane,” he added.

Gridlock is where the talks ended, with countries unable to agree conclusions on at least three major areas of climate action, including adaptation and mitigation, invoking “Rule 16”. That means they will be taken up again at COP31 in Türkiye in November.

Bonn Bulletin: Finance row threatens to scupper work on adaptation goal

On the emissions reduction (mitigation) work programme, pushback – primarily from fossil-fuel producing nations – has prevented any meaningful progress since its creation at COP27, as countries have been unable to come up with a united vision for its scope and purpose.

Despite many countries expressing disappointment at the end of Bonn, China argued that some common ground had been found that could serve as positive elements to build on at COP31, including that “no one is against mitigation implementation and ambition”.

Adaptation “salt in our wounds”

Small island states and developing nations spoke bitterly of the lack of progress on the global goal on adaptation, which had been expected to launch technical work on putting into practice indicators agreed at COP30 in Brazil, and said it had destroyed trust between countries. 

Negotiations on the goal ended in deadlock after developed countries, including European governments refused to include a target to triple adaptation finance by 2035 that was agreed at COP30 in Brazil, insisting the text should focus on technical work to measure progress on making people more resilient to climate pressures. This was a red line for many vulnerable countries, especially the African group.

“Developed countries are hiding behind procedural arguments by claiming adaptation finance belongs in some other room, on some other day,” said Mohamed Adow, director of Kenya-based think-tank Power Shift Africa. “But climate disasters don’t wait for the right agenda item. Africa is burning and flooding now.”

Delegates from the G-77/China group of developing countries hold last-minute consultations on text at the Bonn climate talks in Germany, June 18, 2026. (Photo: IISD/ENB – Kiara Worth) Delegates from the G-77/China group of developing countries hold last-minute consultations on text at the Bonn climate talks in Germany, June 18, 2026. (Photo: IISD/ENB – Kiara Worth)

In the final session at Bonn, Fiji’s delegate described the need to adapt to evolving climate risk as a “daily burden”, which he said is a question of water and food security and, in some cases, forcing people to face relocation on the Pacific islands.

“Some of us will now travel more than 30 hours home to report that one of the most fundamental issues we sought progress on here for vulnerable countries has stalled at a time when we need guidance and outcomes the most. In light of overshoot [of 1.5C of warming] and attacks on the science, this is simply further salt in our wounds,” he told the closing plenary as the clock ticked towards midnight local time.

On Wednesday, a coalition of European and climate-vulnerable developing countries accused fossil fuel interests and the “usual suspects” of mounting ”coordinated attacks” on science, as arguments erupted over the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C warming limit and its overshoot and when the next UN climate science reports should be published.

German Environment Minister Carsten Schneider said “an informed, fact-based public debate on the consequences of climate change is vital”.

“This makes attacks on the scientific foundations of climate science – such as those that occurred in Bonn this time – all the more serious. It is encouraging to see a large number of countries from both the Global South and the Global North clearly standing together against this,” he added in a statement on the talks.

Science ‘under attack’ from fossil fuel interests at UN climate talks

Stiell urged the Turkish and Australian COP31 co-presidencies to get ministers working “as soon as possible” on the “thorniest issues” in the UN climate process so that negotiations can move into the “fast lane”. The presidencies are under pressure to appoint pairs of ministers to resolve these issues earlier than usual, so that they are well-briefed and know their counterparts ahead of COP31.

Electrification bright spot

Alden Meyer, senior associate for climate diplomacy and geopolitics with E3G, lamented the “limited progress in most of the negotiating rooms” over the past fortnight. “As people across the world suffer the twin crises of mounting climate impacts as well as the sharply higher energy and food prices resulting from the war in the… Gulf, there was no sense of urgency at the Bonn climate talks.” 

He and others observers did, however, welcome a new goal on electrification proposed by COP31 host Turkiye outside of the formal talks under the Global Climate Action Agenda, which also brings in the private sector and cities. 

The electrification target would strive to ramp up the share of final energy consumption provided by electricity to 35% by 2035 from about 20% today by accelerating the switch to technologies such as heat pumps, electric vehicles (EVs) and electric cookers.

COP31 leaders unveil global targets, with spotlight on electrification

Nonetheless, some analysts said such goals lack significance without a global plan to transition away from fossil fuels. Brazil is now working on one, with inputs from countries and civil society, but it is unclear how this will be incorporated into the UN climate process, if at all.

Jasper Inventor, deputy programme director at Greenpeace International, said the stalled talks around climate finance for developing countries and a repeated deadlock on mitigation “took some of the shine off the emergence of a coalition of countries supporting a transition away from fossil fuels at a time where the climate and energy crisis is set to be supercharged” by an emerging El Niño pattern.

Bonn paves way for new just transition mechanism

One key topic that advanced more calmly at the Bonn talks and even achieved some promising consensus was just transition – how to achieve a green economic and social shift that is fair from the global to the local level. Countries approved the terms of reference under which the just transition work programme (JTWP), which began in 2023, will be reviewed. 

And following up on a COP30 decision to develop a mechanism to guide and enable support for just transition initiatives, which was hailed by civil society as a big win, countries in Bonn provided a first set of options on its structure and other elements of how it will operate, with a view to it being launched at COP31.

Comment: The UN climate process was built for negotiation – now it must support implementation

Anabella Rosemberg, senior advisor on just transition at Climate Action Network International, noted that “it will require a bit of work between now and COP31 to have an agreement” on what is being billed as the “Belém-to-Antalya Mechanism”. Informal discussions could take place, for example, during Regional Climate Week in Baku in October, or at the invitation of the COP31 presidency in Australia, she added.

“The next three months will determine whether governments build a mechanism that supports workers, communities and countries through the transition, or settle for another space for dialogue,” she said.

The post Bonn climate talks end in “gridlock” on adaptation and emissions-cutting appeared first on Climate Home News.

Soy madre y miembro de la comunidad latina que lucha con PPT por un sistema de transporte que realmente sirva a todos. ¿Te unirás a mí haciéndote miembro que paga cuotas?

Me llamo Evelyn Ulysse Alcántara. Uso el transporte público a diario para ir al trabajo, al médico,  actividades de ocio,  reuniones, llevar a mi hijo al colegio— para todo. 

Soy latina y mi inglés no es perfecto, así que cuando me mudé a Pittsburgh me costó usar el transporte público porque había muy poca información disponible en español. Por eso me ofrecí de voluntaria para ayudar como embajadora en los Recorridos de tránsito de PPT. Fue muy frustrante y aislante  intentar aprender a usar el sistema de transporte público por mi cuenta. Sabía que si podía hacer algo para apoyar el aprendizaje de mi comunidad, ¡tenía que hacerlo!   

Ser miembro de PPT no solo ha mejorado mis propias necesidades de transporte. Me abrió la puerta para ayudarme a marcar la diferencia.

Cuando hubo recortes en el transporte público en Beechview, hubo ocasiones en que el autobús o el Tren no venían—y no sabía la razón, porque los cambios sólo se comunicaban en inglés. Pero hoy, si vas a Steel Plaza o Wood Street Station, ¡escucharás anuncios en español! Y hay instrucciones paso a paso en español en la web de PRT. Esto se debe a que PPT y Casa San José se unieron para dar voz a mi comunidad, para que PRT pudiera entender el verdadero impacto que esto estaba teniendo en nosotros.

Este es el verdadero poder de PPT: realmente escuchan a la gente.

Cuando descubrí que PPT, me pedían testimonios sobre el papel que tiene el transporte público en la vida de las personas, para mostrar lo importante que sería un programa de media tarifa. Sabía que tenía que dar mi testimonio, porque necesitábamos actuar para mejorar el acceso. En aquel entonces solo era una idea y un proyecto, pero hoy es una realidad que lleva el servicio de transporte a la gente.

Me encanta el PPT porque sé de primera mano lo que podemos lograr juntos.  

Solo en 2026:

• Llevamos a 120 miembros a Harrisburg para arrojar luz sobre la brecha presupuestaria de 80 millones de dólares y enfatizar la importancia de los servicios para tránsito y viajes compartidos para nuestros representantes.  
• Compartimos habilidades y construimos poder con 170 personas de todo el país, compartimos habilidades y construyeron poder en nuestro Entrenamiento de Primavera 2026. 
• Formamos a 13 becarios de organización comunitaria en toda la colina del barrio de PGH, y las regiones de Lancaster y Lehigh Valley en Pensilvania. 

Por eso quería preguntar: ¿apoyarán el trabajo urgente de PPT haciéndote miembro que paga cuotas hoy?

Puedes apuntarte por solo 2,75 $, ¡el precio actual del billete de autobús del PRT! Ese dinero va directamente a la defensa de un presupuesto de transporte que mueve a TODOS los habitantes de Pensilvania. Todo el mundo merece acceso al transporte público.

¿Nos ayudarás a hacer realidad ese sueño?

The post Transporte Público para la Gente: Únete a la campaña de Socios 2026 appeared first on Pittsburghers for Public Transit.

The U.S. Constitution did not resolve the Declaration’s grievances once independence was won. A "Short-lived American Democracy" is the fifth video in our America 250: A Revolutionary Perspective series.

The post What is America 250: A Short-lived American Democracy appeared first on CELDF - Community Rights Pioneers - Protecting Nature and Communities.

Wealthy nations in the G7 have agreed to work more closely together to secure the minerals they need for the energy transition, AI and defence, and to diversify supply chains away from China, calling for more cooperation with “like-minded partners”.

But the agreement adopted at this week’s G7 leaders’ summit in France is vague on what co-operation with resource-rich developing countries could look like, with critics warning against creating a consumer club of powerful nations that excludes others from shaping standards and building green supply chains.

“The G7 communiqué reaffirms our suspicion that, for the G7, it is all about resource security, not just energy transition,” Claude Kabemba, executive director of Southern Africa Resource Watch, told Climate Home News.

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In a joint communique, the leaders of some of the world’s largest economies said they would step up coordination within the group and with partner countries to establish mineral processing and industrial capacity, support local value addition, promote innovation, develop standards, improve mineral traceability and share information on stockpiling systems.

They agreed to create a joint crisis-prevention mechanism with the support of the International Energy Agency to monitor mineral supply and demand disruptions, as well as establish harmonised platforms to provide information about the origin of minerals, starting with lithium and nickel.

The statement was endorsed by France, the UK, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and the European Union at the end of the three-day summit in Evian, on the French shores of Lake Geneva. Australia, which isn’t a G7 member, also supported the declaration.

Breaking dependency on China

Western governments have been scrambling to secure the minerals they need to produce clean energy technologies such as batteries, electric vehicles and wind turbines, as well as hardware for artificial intelligence and military equipment while breaking their dependence on China.  

China controls most supply chains for the strategic minerals they need, dominating the processing of 19 out of 20 critical minerals. The only exception is nickel, where Indonesia leads on supply and processing. Last year, Beijing spooked governments in Europe and the US when it imposed restrictions on rare earths exports, signalling its willingness to use its industrial clout to achieve its geopolitical objectives.

“We are all faced with risks of over-dependence and therefore vulnerability in our value chains,” French President Emmanuel Macron told a press conference, citing the “risks of divisions” among the group on how to respond to China’s control over strategic resources. “We have decided to move forward together,” he said.

Leaders agreed to aggregate demand to support the development of minerals projects and set targets for reducing dependencies on any single country outside the G7 by the end of the year.

A US proposal to regulate mineral prices and a French push to establish a permanent secretariat to track G7 initiatives on minerals failed to reach consensus among the group, according to Reuters.

Who has a seat at the table?

The declaration recognises the need for “mutually beneficial partnerships” and “plurilateral trade agreements” between G7 countries and “like-minded” and “trusted” partners to build diversified supply chains. Other parts of the text refer to “developing countries” and “emerging economies”.

A separate G7 statement on “mutually beneficial international partnerships” mentions the need for international cooperation along the whole of mineral supply chains.

“Who is going to be part of this conversation is unclear,” said Sébastien Treyer, executive director of France think-tank IDDRI, citing the ambiguity of the language and calling for developing countries to be part of the conversation.

Trade agreements that support green industrialisation can be “an entry point” for investment into value-addition projects in developing countries, said Treyer, but “how this is going to be operationalised is the key question”.

Moving beyond a ‘consumer club’

Resource-rich developing countries, particularly in Africa, have called for investment to build their industrial capacity to turn raw materials into high-value components for clean energy technologies such as batteries, capturing more domestic value and creating jobs.  

But Kabemba, whose organisation is based in South Africa, said the declaration says “nothing about transferring industrial capacity to previously exploited regions such Africa”.

“Africa needs to react with its own coalition of the willing to put Africa’s interests first, otherwise, Africa risks being locked into a role as a raw material supplier in a new economic order it is not helping to build,” he said.

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Patrick Schröder, a resource governance expert at Chatham House, agreed that the G7 remains overwhelmingly focused on securing minerals supplies and reducing its dependence on China. “The benefits for developing country producers are only marginal in the G7 discussions,” he said.

Brazil, which is rich in rare earths, graphite and copper, was invited to attend the G7 meeting but did not endorse the minerals declaration – highlighting the need for future minerals framework to be more inclusive and responsive to producer-country concerns, said Schröder.

For Luc Tezenas, head of policy and advocacy at the Resource Justice Network, “the answer to rising geopolitical fragmentation cannot be to shrink multilateralism into a smaller club of ‘like-minded’ consumer economies”.

Instead, a non-binding minerals framework put forward by South Africa during its presidency of the G20 last year “shows more promise as a pathway forward because it attempts to link supply resilience with regional value chains and economic justice,” he said. The UK, which is presiding over the G20 next year, has the opportunity to build a more inclusive way forward, he added.

Circularity: another way to capture value

G7 nations also described the circular economy and the substitution of minerals in designing technologies as “key” to meet growing demand and secure sufficient supplies.

This, they said, includes increasing recycling capacity by setting targets, combatting the illegal transfer of used products and components, and promoting the recovery of minerals from secondary sources such as mining waste.

“We also recognise the opportunity for emerging market and developing economies to benefit from capturing added value through the recycling and secondary processing of their mining waste, as well as from circular economy innovations,” they said.

Schröder, of Chatham House, said the challenge now lies in demonstrating that intentions can be turned into creating a circular economy for minerals through investments, business support and a favourable policy environment.

The post Warning against ‘consumer club’ as G7 forms critical minerals alliance appeared first on Climate Home News.

“AMERICA 250,” The official government celebration of the semiquincentinnial of the United States, is brought to you by the following corporate sponsors. That’s not a joke. 

The post Press Release: Challenging Propaganda, Activists Tell Real History of USA at 250 appeared first on CELDF - Community Rights Pioneers - Protecting Nature and Communities.

By Paul Watkinson, Stefan Ruchti-Crowley, Anju Sharma, Ovais Sarmad and Benito Müller.

In the corridors of the World Conference Centre in Bonn, where the June Climate Meetings (SB64) will conclude on Thursday, the need for change is palpable.

Delegates are grappling once again with overcrowded agendas, growing demands on limited negotiating time, external geopolitical pressures that reverberate internally to test the limits of a consensus-based process, and concerns over its future financial sustainability.

Bonn Bulletin: Finance row threatens to scupper work on adaptation goal

There is growing frustration with a process that consumes vast amounts of time to produce outcomes that are often too incremental to match the accelerating reality of the climate crisis.

The climate regime has delivered. But it is in danger of not delivering enough.

More effective multilateralism

There is no denying the successes of the UN climate process. Over three decades, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement established a universal framework for climate action, created transparency and accountability mechanisms, and sent powerful signals to governments, businesses and investors.

Thanks in large part to this framework, the world is no longer on a trajectory of more than 4°C of warming, clean technology costs have fallen dramatically, and participation in the global climate effort remains nearly universal.

Yet, global temperatures continue to break records. Climate impacts are intensifying across every region. The world remains far off track to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. As warming approaches – and may exceed – 1.5°C, every additional fraction of a degree brings greater losses of lives, livelihoods and ecosystems, with the greatest burdens falling on the most vulnerable countries and communities.

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We remain convinced that the answer to the climate crisis is not less multilateralism, but more effective multilateralism.

The hard truth is that the UNFCCC remains largely organised around the logic of treaty-making, while the central challenge of climate action has shifted to implementation. A process designed to negotiate agreements and deliver decision text as the outcome is now required to support implementation on the ground—and it is struggling.

There is a structural mismatch between what the climate process was designed to do, and what it needs to do now.

Consultations on reforms

Discussions on the urgency of reform are widespread and no longer confined to the margins. Formally, the Arrangements for Intergovernmental Meetings (AIM) process is exploring ways of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the process.

The UNFCCC Executive Secretary has also convened a High-Level Informal Consultative Roundtable for strategic reflection on how to strengthen the complementarity between the intergovernmental process and action in the real economy.

Defending multilateralism today requires adapting it.

The good news is that meaningful reform does not require reopening treaties, renegotiating the Paris Agreement, or indeed even resolving long-standing differences on the Rules of Procedure to change the consensus rule. Stefan Ruchti-Crowley and Paul Watkinson’s recent paper for ecbi (European Capacity Building Initiative), Quo Vadis COP? Reforming UNFCCC Sessions to Improve Negotiations and Support Implementation, outlines a practical toolbox of four reforms that can be pursued within the existing institutional framework.

First, the process must improve its agendas.

The formal process is burdened by crowded agendas and overlapping workstreams. Consolidating agenda items under broader thematic pillars (such as mitigation, adaptation, finance and transparency); developing good practices for agenda adoption; removing legacy “ghost” items; and concluding outstanding business on the Kyoto Protocol will create more space for substantive discussions and implementation.

Second, the process must organise its work more strategically.

The climate process currently attempts to address nearly every issue at every session. A more strategic approach would use thematic multi-year programmes of work; better align review cycles and timelines; improve coherence across the many bodies and processes that have accumulated over time, often to the extent that even insiders have lost oversight; and also make better use of inter-sessional and pre-sessional meetings.

Third, the process must focus more deliberately on implementation.

Critically, not every challenge requires a negotiated outcome. Negotiations should focus on issues that genuinely require collective decision-making. Other discussions should prioritise learning, cooperation and practical problem-solving.

Existing formats such as Talanoa Dialogues, roundtables and other facilitative approaches should be expanded. Likewise, the Enhanced Transparency Framework should become a stronger mechanism for mutual learning and accountability rather than a largely procedural reporting and “box-ticking” exercise.

Fourth, the process must make structural changes and broaden participation.

National delegations should include a broader range of practitioners and policymakers, including a Head of Implementation. The process should strengthen engagement with sectoral ministers, investors, technology providers, scientists, local authorities and non-Party stakeholders.

Stronger links are necessary between science policy and implementation, and with international institutions that shape the enabling conditions for climate action, particularly finance and development. Platforms to address systemic barriers along with AI-enabled learning by doing will equally support strengthened action.

Delivering commitments with limited resources

The case for reform is becoming even stronger as financial pressures intensify.

Improving efficiency is not simply desirable; it has become unavoidable. The UNFCCC faces growing budgetary constraints arising from delayed contributions, uncertainty surrounding major donors, and broader reductions across the UN system.

A process that is better organised, more implementation-focused and less encumbered by procedural overload will be far better equipped to navigate a future of tighter resources.

Leadership will be crucial.

Panama environment minister backs calls for reform of UN climate process

COP presidencies have an important role to play, as do the Chairs of the Subsidiary Bodies. The UNFCCC Executive Secretary and Secretariat must take a bold approach to work in coordination with the COP Bureau to implement urgent changes.

Careful diplomacy will, of course, be essential. Parties must be reassured that reform is intended to strengthen the effectiveness of the regime, not weaken its governance. The objective is not to replace mandates, but to ensure that mandates can be fulfilled more effectively. It is to ensure that negotiation is used where negotiation is needed, while other forms of cooperation are used where they can deliver better results.

The UNFCCC remains the cornerstone of international climate cooperation. No other forum combines its legitimacy, universality and legal authority. But the multilateral climate process must evolve from a system primarily designed to negotiate commitments into one that is equally capable of supporting their delivery.

The post The UN climate process was built for negotiation – now it must support implementation appeared first on Climate Home News.

One of the key tasks for this year’s Bonn talks is to agree on how to put into practice the indicators for the Global Goal on Adaptation, which were hurriedly redrafted by governments at the end of COP30 after years of painstaking work by experts.

Making them usable involves drawing up contextual information (metadata) and methodologies for the indicators. They include metrics such as the number of people per 100,000 who are covered by early warning systems or the proportion of the population vulnerable to climate change that have access to mental health and psychosocial support.

There has been some arguing in Bonn over who should do this work. More government negotiators or more technical experts? Should there be an Indigenous Peoples representative on the taskforce?

But the main sticking point – and the one that could prevent any agreement before the talks end today – is, as usual, finance. Developing countries are united in demanding that the COP30 agreement to triple adaptation finance by 2035 be referenced in the GGA agreement here in Bonn. Most developed countries are opposed, having long wanted to keep the GGA and finance separate.

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

Although the tripling goal has already been agreed, Bethan Laughlin from the Zoological Society of London said that restating in the GGA text here “sends an important political signal on the need to address the widening adaptation finance gap, and helps maintain pressure on developed countries to scale up their support”. 

One of the concerns some developing countries had about the GGA indicators agreed at COP30 is that they will be blamed if they fail to meet them. Rich nations, on the other hand, likely fear that, if finance is linked to the GGA and they fail to triple it, it is they who will be held responsible for a lack of progress instead. 

At the time of publication, governments were holding informal consultations to see if they could find a way forward. But, given that on Wednesday night they could not even agree on whether a new draft text should form a basis for negotiations, the odds of overcoming their differences in the remaining hours look slim.

Nations agree to disagree on Adaptation Fund board seats

The risk that much-needed funds for adapting to climate change lie out of reach in inaccessible bank accounts while the world gets warmer has grown, after governments failed in Bonn to resolve an ongoing row over how to categorise richer and poorer nations.

The June talks aimed to agree on transitioning the UN’s Adaptation Fund to “exclusively” serve the Paris Agreement, rather than also serving the older Kyoto Protocol. That decision could then have been officially rubber-stamped early on at COP31.

But the seemingly straightforward decision has been complicated, as Global North and South countries could not agree on how to formally define each other.

Less wealthy nations want seats on the Adaptation Fund’s board to continue to be split between Annex 1 and non-Annex 1 countries as they are now. Annex 1 is a list of wealthier countries drawn up by governments in 1992. 

Those Annex 1 countries agree that board seats should be split but want the two categories to be called “developed” and “developing”, which are less rigid categories and can evolve in line with countries’ changing economic status.

Bonn Bulletin: Adaptation Fund stalemate puts people at risk, says head

The underlying issue is that the European Union and others want bigger and richer developing countries like China and Saudi Arabia to be given responsibility for paying climate finance alongside traditional donor governments. China, in particular, has fiercely resisted this, with backing from other non-Annex 1/developing countries.

According to draft conclusions for Bonn, although there is alignment on the less controversial issues of updating the fund’s terms and conditions to serve the Paris Agreement and the timing of a regular review of its work, governments will agree not to agree on the Adaptation Fund board’s composition and will pick up the matter again at COP31. Often, major compromises can only be made by the environment ministers who attend COPs, not the more junior officials who come to Bonn.

But this delay raises the risk that countries do not fully agree to transition the fund at COP31. That would mean the fund cannot access money raised from a 5% tax on all carbon credits – other than those based in the most-vulnerable nations – from the UN’s new Article 6.4 carbon trading mechanism.

This could amount to millions of dollars lying idle as adaptation needs rise. The fund’s head Mikko Ollikainen told Climate Home News on Tuesday in Bonn that this “will lead to loss and damage and that’s going to be even more costlier than adaptation – and the cost will be borne by people who have done least to cause this problem who typically don’t have social safety networks to support them”.

US exit from UNFCCC leaves hole in budget

Even though the United States didn’t participate in the Bonn talks, Washington’s decisions still loomed large over the discussions. Last January, the Trump administration decided to withdraw not only from the Paris Agreement – as in his first term – but also from the UN Climate Convention (UNFCCC). 

The move will have a significant impact on the financing of the Bonn-based body and the myriad of activities in its ever-growing agenda, according to a brief information event held by the secretariat at the Bonn climate talks. 

SBI Chair Julia Gardiner mentioned that the US withdrawal could limit the Secretariat’s ability to support countries, especially developing ones, in advancing climate action. 

The US withdrawal formally takes effect on February 27 2027, so the withdrawal will have a direct impact on the next budget for 2028-2029, the UNFCCC secretariat said in the briefing. Washington is currently the  single largest financial contributor to the convention. Its withdrawal will cut core contributions by 21% or EUR16.9 million over the two-year period.

Who will step in to fill the gap?

When Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement soon after his inauguration in January 2025, US billionaire Michael Bloomberg promised to cover the shortfall left by Washington, together with other unnamed funders. Since then, his namesake philanthropy has given the UN climate change body at least $17 million, according to UNFCCC documents. 

But Bloomberg or any other non-state donor could only contribute to the budget for supplementary activities, not to the core budget on which, for example, the holding of the Bonn meetings or any event mandated by governments depends, Tobias Holle, managing director of Shifting Advocacy, told Climate Home News. 

The money in the supplementary activities budget can not be used to cover core budget needs, he explained, adding that funding for that can only come from governments.

After Trump’s pullback, Bloomberg promises to fill US funding gap to UN climate body

According to the US-based think-tank Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, “one scenario will be that, with the budget gap equally redistributed among current contributors, other Parties [like China, Japan, Germany, UK, France] would have to increase their contributions by about 27% to maintain the current budget.” 

For Holle, even if the budget shortfall represents a challenge, “this situation could be an opportunity” to advance on the reform of the UN climate process and improve the joint work of the climate convention with other treaties like those on biodiversity and desertification. 

The UN will continue consultations with countries and present its proposed 2028-2029 budget in April 2027. At the time of publication, the UN climate body had not commented on the issue.

The post Bonn Bulletin: Finance row threatens to scupper work on adaptation goal appeared first on Climate Home News.

Six months after a landmark treaty to protect the high seas entered into force in January, a group of West African nations is calling for the Eastern Atlantic to be included in the first wave of marine protected areas established under the agreement.

The area known as the Convergence Zone of the Canary and Guinea Currents stretches from Cape Verde and Senegal in the north, to Nigeria and São Tomé and Príncipe in the south, forming a key migration corridor and nursery for hundreds of marine species.

At the 11th Our Ocean Conference in the Kenyan coastal resort of Mombasa this week, Senegalese Minister of the Environment and Ecological Transition Aliou Gori Diouf said this new marine protected area would contribute to a global goal to protect at least 30% of the planet’s ecosystems by 2030.

“West Africa is asserting its leadership by demonstrating that ocean protection and sustainable
development go hand in hand,” Diouf said in a statement.

• Jun 5, 2026 Nature Offshore oil and gas expansion threatens key marine ecosystems, report warns Sea life in countries like Kenya is under threat from planned new oil and gas production, analysis by environmental groups has found Read more
• Jun 16, 2026 Comment Coral reefs are not doomed – but policy must catch up with the science  A new study shows some reefs still have a meaningful chance to survive and recover from climate impacts – provided they are protected Read more

To complement the push, the governments of The Gambia, Mauritania, Guinea Bissau and Senegal announced the creation of a joint regional marine protected area (MPA) “to preserve the resources essential to the livelihood” of their communities.

They added that the regional initiative will require global collaboration, as the countries face “massive challenges” from ocean heating as well as illegal fishing and marine pollution “leading to a reduction in biodiversity and lower economic opportunities for fishing-dependent communities”.

The High Seas Treaty – known formally as the agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) – entered into force this January just two years after its signing. So far, 90 countries have ratified it, and it is set to host its first conference of the parties (COP) in January 2027 in New York.

Warming threat

The ocean has absorbed 90% of the excess heat trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere, and is a massive carbon sink, trapping 30% of global carbon dioxide emissions. Yet despite covering nearly half of the planet’s surface, only 1% of the high seas are fully protected.

Unless this is stepped up, scientists warn that rapid ocean heating could threaten key species and ecosystems, as well as the communities that depend on them. One 2025 study estimated that fish levels have fallen by 7.2% for every tenth of a degree of global warming.

Big fishing nations secure last-minute seat to write rules on deep sea conservation

Speaking at a plenary in Mombasa, Rebecca Hubbard, director of the advocacy group High Seas Alliance, said governments face the challenge of turning “this promise into real action in the water”.

“It is now urgent for governments to work together to propose the first set of high-seas marine protected areas. This is the only way we can achieve 30% protection of our ocean by 2030. We need the high seas,” said the conservation scientist.

Scientific body to review proposals

Olivier Poivre d’Arvor, France’s special envoy for last year’s UN ocean conference, told the Mombasa gathering that the oceans COP1 will be a “powerful symbol”, as it will be the first major conference opened by the yet-to-be-elected new UN secretary-general.

Other areas under consideration for the first generation of high-seas MPAs include the Salas y Gómez and Nazca ridges – an underwater mountain range rich stretching 3,000 km off the coast of Chile in the South Pacific, the “thermal dome” off the coast of Costa Rica in the Central Pacific, and the Walvis ridge near Namibia in the Southern Atlantic.

Chile and Costa Rica have also announced plans to propose these protected areas in the lead-up to the first High Seas Treaty summit. Before selecting the first conservation areas, governments at the BBNJ meeting must establish a scientific body to review the proposals.

Currently, the only MPA in the high seas is the South Orkney Islands in Antarctica, created in 2009 and managed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.

The post West African nations target Eastern Atlantic for early high seas protection appeared first on Climate Home News.

In our latest, we talk about how the liberal establishment find itself in a war with it’s anti-Zionist anti-ruling class progressive left. Listen in:   This has been most visible…

We are featuring our 2026 Mid-year Campaign in this month's newsletter. We gathered up a collection of some of the CELDF highlights so far in 2026 and generated a report entitled “Declaring Disruption”. Read all about it!

The post “Common Sense” Newsletter – June 2026: Forests, Racism, Turtles, Walls, and Truckers appeared first on CELDF - Community Rights Pioneers - Protecting Nature and Communities.

Good News: CRA Attack Fails, Grand Staircase-Escalante Protections Remain in Place!

 

As you’ve likely heard by now, the fast-track attempt by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Representative Celeste Maloy (R-UT-02) to undo the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Management Plan has failed! This is a major victory for the entire Protect Wild Utah movement, public lands advocates across the country, and most importantly, the landscape itself.

Back in March, Sen. Lee and Rep. Maloy introduced “joint resolutions” to disapprove the monument management plan. They did this using the Congressional Review Act (CRA), a little-known law with a provision that allows Congress to pass a CRA joint resolution by simple majority votes. But there’s a catch: the Senate must act within 60 session days or the resolution is subject to the 60-vote filibuster and regular legislative process. Lee missed that critical deadline on June 11, which effectively kills the resolution’s chance of passing in that chamber.

By raising your voice in opposition to Lee and Maloy, you made a difference! Thank you for standing with Grand Staircase-Escalante and SUWA at this critical moment. Take time to celebrate the important victory we just achieved together.

>> Learn more on our blog and read recent news coverage in the Salt Lake Tribune, ABC4 Utah, More Than Just Parks, and Rocky Mountain Community Radio.

Photo © Tim Peterson

More Good News: BLM Pulls Back on 500,000-Acre West Desert Vegetation Project

 

This spring, SUWA, along with our partners at Western Watersheds Project and the Center for Biological Diversity, challenged the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) approval of the Indian Peak Range Watershed Restoration Plan, a sweeping West Desert vegetation project authorizing prescribed fire and mechanical treatments across roughly 560,000 acres of important wildlife habitat near the Indian Peak Range, the Wah Wah Mountains, Hamlin Valley, Pine Valley, and Blue Mountain. The project included heavy-handed mastication and chaining of pinyon-juniper woodlands and sagebrush shrublands.

The agency ignored public recommendations, failed to map where treatments would occur, and offered no real analysis of impacts to wilderness-quality lands, wildlife, and native ecosystems—despite the fact that a nearly identical Hamlin Valley project had already been vacated after our previous appeal and the agency had committed to more thorough analysis on similar projects in the future.

After SUWA filed an appeal of the BLM’s decision in May, the agency moved to vacate its own approval and reconsider the project. This is good news, but the fight isn’t over yet. The BLM says it expects to publish a revised environmental assessment, which means it may try again to advance this large-scale cutting and burning proposal without proper review. We’ll let you know if and when that happens.

Photo © Ray Bloxham/SUWA

Trump Rolls Back Longstanding Executive Orders that Reined in ORV Use on Public Lands

 

On a Friday evening in late May, President Trump announced the repeal of two executive orders that govern off-road vehicle (ORV) use on public lands nationwide. He also directed federal land management agencies to rescind or revise their regulations implementing these orders, setting the stage for chaos and confusion across the country.

For roughly 50 years, these orders—issued under Presidents Nixon and Carter—have helped protect streams, wildlife habitat, and opportunities for safe recreation by providing clear and consistent guidance for motorized and nonmotorized users on Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, and National Park Service lands. The orders also empowered agencies to act swiftly to close areas to ORVs when they are causing or will cause considerable damage to natural and cultural resources.

Trump’s latest action flips that script by directing agencies to prioritize ORV use over all other activities and at the expense of clean water, wildlife habitat, cultural sites, and the experience of motorized and non-motorized recreationists alike. For now, regulations implementing the two executive orders remain in place, as do existing travel management plans. We expect, however, that the Trump administration will work quickly to weaken if not outright eliminate both the regulations and individual plans.

>> Learn more on SUWA’s blog and read a recent op-ed in the Santa Fe New Mexican by former national BLM Director and SUWA Board Member Jim Baca.

Photo © Ray Bloxham/SUWA

Help Us Grow Support for America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act 

 

America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act (ARRWA), the foundational legislation of the Protect Wild Utah movement, aims to permanently protect over 8 million acres of Bureau of Land Management land in Utah as federally designated wilderness. Preserving the wild character of this spectacular and world-renowned landscape would keep climate-disrupting fossil fuels in the ground and provide a vital migration corridor for western wildlife species. As the ancestral home of many Native American tribes, the region also contains abundant and significant cultural resources.

The latest members of Congress to sign on as cosponsors of ARRWA include Rep. Juan Vargas (D-CA-52), Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-OR-5), Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA-5), and Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ-7). If any of these legislators represent you, please thank them for their support.

Gains in cosponsorship don’t happen by accident; they’re the result of persistent outreach to members of Congress from constituents like you! If your representative and/or senators have not signed onto the bill, please ask them to cosponsor America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act today! Want to get more involved? Reach out to one of our regional organizers.

>> Click here to contact your members of Congress now

Photo © Chris Noble

County Rushes to Chip Seal Hole-in-the-Rock Road at Heart of Grand Staircase-Escalante

 

Last month, Garfield County began chip sealing (effectively paving) the first 10 miles of Hole-in-the-Rock Road within Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Surrounded by wilderness-quality lands, this rugged backroad is core to the remote experience that defines the monument, providing access to popular destinations like Spooky and Peek-A-Boo slot canyons, Devil’s Garden, and Coyote Gulch.  

In February, SUWA filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that Garfield County and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) violated federal law when the county began making unauthorized “improvements” to the road. While Garfield County has title to a right-of-way, it does not own the road or the land beneath it (this remains federal public land) and it cannot lawfully take unilateral action to improve the road. Instead, the county is required to consult with the BLM first, and the BLM is required by law to make sure that such activities do not cause unnecessary damage to public lands.

When SUWA learned that the BLM had authorized the county to proceed, we immediately sought a temporary restraining order from the court. When that request was denied, we filed another motion seeking an emergency injunction to pause the county’s work. Unfortunately, the county rushed to complete the paving before the court had a chance to rule on that motion.

Despite all of this, our pending case will continue to proceed in federal court on its merits, and we expect to prevail. But by then the changes to the road and damage to the monument will be done. Paving will lead to more, faster, and louder traffic, changing the remote backcountry experience the monument was created to protect, and that draws visitors from around the world.

Photo © SUWA

Join Canyon Keepers: SUWA’s Monthly Giving Program

 

Monthly donors have been part of SUWA’s story for years and continue to provide a consistent, year-round base of financial support for our work. This circle of dedicated members is now called “Canyon Keepers.” If you’re already a monthly donor, thank you! If not, we hope you’ll consider joining this program.

Becoming a Canyon Keeper is simple. It only takes a few minutes to set up, and once you do, your gift renews automatically each month. You can increase, decrease, or pause your support at any time.

To welcome you to the Canyon Keepers circle, we’ll send you a limited-edition Canyon Wren canvas bag to show our gratitude.

>> Click here to become a Canyon Keeper today!

Artwork by Riley Lubich

The post June 2026 Redrock Report appeared first on Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Ben Tracy, Climate Central

If you feel like your electricity bill just keeps climbing, you aren’t imagining it. Since 2020, U.S. residential energy prices have surged by about 30%, making power the largest household energy expense behind gasoline, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

But for residents like Alex Curtis, the days of feeling powerless against rising costs are coming to an end. Curtis is waging a war on his electric bill, and his new weapon of choice is a lightweight, thin-film solar panel.

“Oh, it’s super light too,” Curtis remarked as he unboxed the kit on the balcony of his condo in Sunnyvale, California. It weighs just about 10 pounds. 

The ‘plug-and-play’ revolution Unlike traditional rooftop solar, which requires thousands of dollars in upfront costs, specialized mounting hardware, and professional electricians, this system is designed for the everyday consumer. It’s a $400 kit from Bright Saver, a non-profit advocating for “plug-and-play” solar that works for renters and homeowners alike.

The setup is deceptively simple: you hang the panel on a balcony or prop it up in a backyard and plug it directly into a standard wall outlet.

“I did some rough math and this might save me like $30 to $50 a month,” Curtis said.

The magic happens behind the scenes. Once plugged in, a small inverter syncs the solar energy with the home’s existing electrical infrastructure. It took about 15 minutes to get it all set up. Bright Saver’s Rupert Mayer then pointed to a light on the inverter: “Ah, here it is, it’s blue.”

“This is it. Easy,” Curtis replied. Within minutes, he was generating his own clean energy. He estimates it will be enough to power an appliance like his refrigerator. 

Small panels, big impact

Cora Stryker, co-founder of Bright Saver, believes this technology is key to democratizing the green energy transition. It not only cuts an individual’s planet-warming pollution but also their electric bill. 

“Clean energy actually is the cheapest form of energy around,” Stryker said, “and we the consumers should be benefiting from that.”

While these panels won’t take a home entirely off the grid, Stryker says the units can trim monthly costs by 10% to 25% depending on how many panels a user installs. More savings can be had if the panels are paired with batteries that can store excess solar energy. 

“They cover a part of your energy bill and then you do need to draw the rest from the grid as you do now,” Stryker explained. 

The “Balkonkraftwerk” trend

While the technology is just gaining a foothold in the U.S., it is already a cultural phenomenon in Europe. In Germany, these systems are so common they have a specific name: Balkonkraftwerk, or “balcony power plant.”

An estimated 4 million balcony solar units are currently installed in Germany. The U.S., however, has been slower to adopt the tech, largely due to a patchwork of utility regulations and bureaucratic red tape. Utilities in some states have pushed back against the use of these systems citing potential hazards to the safety of the grid and line workers. 

“And that is patently ridiculous for these little systems,” Stryker said. “Those laws were intended for rooftop systems 5 to 20 times as large.”

A changing legal landscape

The tide is quickly turning. In 2025, Utah became the first state to officially authorize plug-in solar. Overall, 34 states and Washington, D.C., have introduced legislation to allow for use of the technology. It has passed in Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, and Virginia. 

For advocates like Stryker, it’s a matter of personal liberty: “It’s kind of like ‘don’t tell me what to do in my own backyard and on my own balcony.’”

As for Alex Curtis, he knows his Sunnyvale neighbors might have questions when they see the sleek panel hanging from his railing, but he’s focused on his newfound taste of energy independence. 

“I think that’s what gets me excited,” Curtis said. “Being able to power my own stuff and be self- sufficient like in baby steps which is pretty cool.”

Climate Central is an independent group of scientists and communicators who research and report the facts about our changing climate and how it affects people’s lives. It is a policy-neutral 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Rising temperatures are set to drive up emissions from wildfires, fermenting wetlands, and melting permafrost, but these feedback loops are poorly captured in climate models. Scientists are racing to make sense of these emissions to gauge how much warming may lie ahead.

Read more on E360 →

NEW ORLEANS (June 17, 2026) – In a recent letter, over 100 community leaders united to support the East Orleans Landbridge Restoration project, a habitat restoration project that will provide important storm protection for the New Orleans area. The signers, including business associations, local sportsmen, legislators, scientists, faith leaders, neighborhood associations and community organizations, voiced their support for the Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group’s decision to recommend the project receive $101.2 million in Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement funds for project ...

Read The Full Story

The post New Orleans Community Leaders Support East Orleans Landbridge Project appeared first on Restore the Mississippi River Delta.

Conservation groups request more time, information about massive mining project on public lands near Helena The project sits entirely within the Little Blackfoot River watershed, directly affecting Ophir Creek, Carpenter Creek, and Snowshoe Creek. For Immediate Release: June 17, 2026 Contact: Derf Johnson, MEIC | (406) 443-2520, Ext. 103 | djohnson@meic.org Andrew Gorder, Clark Fork …

The post Press Release: Massive mining proposal on public lands near Helena deserves more time, public meeting appeared first on Montana Environmental Information Center - MEIC.

Dozens of countries have called out growing “coordinated attacks” by fossil fuel interests aimed at undermining the role of climate science in the UN negotiations at the mid-year talks in Bonn.

Under the banner of ‘Friends of Science’, in an overflowing press conference room lined with negotiators and civil society supporters, diplomats from Fiji, Nepal, the European Union, Switzerland, Sierra Leone and Panama vowed to ensure that decision-making in the UN climate process remains based on the “best available science”. That includes reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN’s climate science body, they said.

While steering clear of singling out any specific country, they said efforts to cast doubt on established scientific concepts, such as the 1.5 global warming limit, are led by “the usual suspects” and those who think “science threatens their economic prospects”. 

Saudi Arabia and India have opposed calls in draft texts to encourage scientific work on scenarios that would minimise the magnitude and duration of any overshoot of 1.5C, according to one negotiator in the room and summaries of closed-door discussions published by a reporting service. 

UN chief António Guterres conceded last year that a temporary breach of the key warming limit is inevitable, while urging countries to redouble efforts to bring temperatures back down.

‘Polluted narrative’

Scientists have long established that burning fossil fuels is the primary cause of man-made climate change and a rapid shift away from oil, coal and gas is essential to curb global warming.

Saudi Arabia is dependent on oil and gas exports, while India largely relies on coal to power its economic development.

One negotiator said that research on how climate action can be equitable for developing countries, produced by Indian universities, had been published too late to be incorporated into the last IPCC assessment report in 2023. This incident led the Indian government to try and discredit the IPCC, they said. Some Indian scientists have argued that the IPCC’s scenarios are unfair on developing countries.

• Jun 12, 2026 News European, island states seek clear future for global roadmap to cut fossil fuels Some European, small island and other nations argue the forthcoming roadmap should be part of UN climate talks, while Russia has resisted this idea Read more
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Saudi Arabia and India have played down the importance of making sure that the latest IPCC assessments – regarded as the gold standard of climate science – are available for the next global stocktake, the UN scorecard of climate action around the world. 

“Anyone that is blocking references to science – they are not our friends,” Sivendra Michael, lead negotiator for Fiji, told a press conference, highlighting the rise of a “polluted narrative” both inside and outside the negotiating rooms.

1.5C is a ‘hard limit’

Speaking for the AILAC coalition of Latin American countries, Panama’s Ana Aguilar said they went to Bonn to negotiate positions, not to negotiate the facts laid out by science.

“We see coordinated efforts to cast doubt on the best available science driven by a narrow set of interests, not by the needs of our people,” she added. “We have seen this playbook before… manufacture doubt, delay the response and let the vulnerable people pay this bill.”

Negotiators, researchers and civil society activists attend a press conference on defending science in the UN climate process in Bonn, Germany on June 17, 2026. (Photo: Teo Ormond-Skeaping) Negotiators, researchers and civil society activists attend a press conference on defending science in the UN climate process in Bonn, Germany on June 17, 2026. (Photo: Teo Ormond-Skeaping)

The ‘Friends of Science’ coalition stressed that the 1.5C goal of the Paris Agreement cannot be negotiated, as the survival of the most climate vulnerable communities is at stake if it is permanently breached.

“Science tells us that 1.5C is a hard limit for many countries, including the small island developing states and least developed countries,” said Manjeet Dhakal, a negotiator for Nepal. “We still have a chance to keep 1.5 degrees in reach and minimise the overshoot if we act fast and drastically.”

Long-running IPCC standoff

While diplomats claimed attacks on science are broadening, one long-standing issue of contention is whether the latest assessment reports of the IPCC will be ready in time for the next UN global stocktake due to start this November and end in 2028. 

This matters because, as some experts have pointed out, previous IPCC findings played a key role in the first such exercise, which culminated at COP28 in Dubai in the landmark agreement on transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems.

The UN climate process needs ambition – the law demands it

Since the start of the latest IPCC assessment cycle, known as AR7, a battle over the timing has dragged on for over two years at successive IPCC meetings, with governments repeatedly failing to find a breakthrough. 

A large majority of nations have been pushing for an accelerated timeline that would ensure the AR7 reports can be fed into the UN’s global stocktake. But a group of countries, including Saudi Arabia, India, China, Russia and Kenya, have said at previous IPCC meetings they want a longer process, arguing a fast-tracked assessment would put a burden on developing countries with limited resources.

Science and the stocktake

That fight has now bled into the Bonn talks where governments began discussing the arrangements for the next stocktake. At a session earlier this week, most developed countries, Latin American and small island states, and the world’s poorest nations emphasised the assessment of collective climate action must be guided by the “best available science” – code for the findings of the IPCC reports.

The Maldives, speaking for small island states, said IPCC science remains “essential to the integrity, credibility and usefulness” of the stocktake. AILAC said that starting the process “on the right footing” requires a political decision on the timeline to deliver the AR7 reports in time. Switzerland said IPCC reports “ask more than is politically comfortable, but that is precisely why they must guide every decision we make”.

Saudi Arabia, however, said no particular scientific input – and in particular what comes out of the IPCC – should be prioritised. Similarly, India warned against creating “some kind of preferred hierarchy” in the role that any specific source of information should play in the process.

Ghana’s Antwi-Boasiako Amoah, who chairs the African Group, told a press conference on Tuesday that some countries think rushing to get IPCC inputs into the global stocktake could “undermine or compromise the IPCC process”. “Africa is for science,” he said, without saying where the continent stands on the IPCC timeline.

Crunch talks in October

At the “Friends of Science” press conference, Dhakal pushed back on the idea that science would have to be rushed to be incorporated. He said the IPCC leadership has “perfectly made it clear” that they can deliver the report before the global stocktake. “It is the scientists who are saying they can deliver it on time,” he said. 

The “Friends of Science” press conference at UN climate talks in Bonn on June 17, 2026. Photo: Marie Jacquemine/Greenpeace) The “Friends of Science” press conference at UN climate talks in Bonn on June 17, 2026. Photo: Marie Jacquemine/Greenpeace)

The discussion will be picked up again at the next IPCC session in October, where its boss Jim Skea is hoping to reach an agreement. “As a scientist myself, I cannot overstate the importance of this decision,” he told governments in Bonn last week.

Andreas Sieber, head of political strategy at campaigning group 350.org, told Climate Home News that the debate may sound procedural, “but it is anything but”. “Science is the backbone of the Paris Agreement ambition cycle, and the evidence assessed through AR7 will help determine not only the emissions pathways countries pursue, but also how the world responds to mounting climate losses and who receives support,” he said in Bonn.

The post Science ‘under attack’ from fossil fuel interests at UN climate talks appeared first on Climate Home News.

PHILADELPHIA, PA (June 12, 2026) –  As the Greater Philadelphia region prepares to welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors for FIFA World Cup matches and America 250  celebrations, Clean Air Council has launched an interactive digital map to help visitors and residents reach major events without driving. 

This map highlights event locations and shows public transit and biking options, helping you avoid traffic and parking hassles, reduce pollution, and explore Philly car-free. 

The map is hosted on the Clean Air Council’s website at gophillygo.cleanair.org.

“No one wants to spend their summer sitting in traffic and paying for expensive event parking,” said Titania Markland, Clean Air Council Sustainable Transportation Program Manager. “Traveling car-free to the Philadelphia region’s many events this summer is a win for attendee experience, your wallet, and the environment. We are excited to launch GoPhillyGo: Car-Free Routes to make car-free travel planning easy and fun.”

“The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission is pleased to help fund this effort to make traveling around our region without a car this summer, and beyond, a bit easier, for visitors and residents alike,” said Stacy Bartels, Manager of TDM Strategy and Marketing. “Fewer cars on the roads means less traffic congestion and air pollution, which is good for everyone.”

The fun doesn’t stop at summer’s end. Clean Air Council plans to keep the map updated with events and travel information year-round to promote a sustainable, car-free lifestyle. For more information and to access the map, please visit: gophillygo.cleanair.org.

Maasai and Rendille people say they are being coerced into signing away land rights. #