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The Pan-African Parliament (PAP), through its Committee on Rural Economy, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment, in partnership with the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), invites applications from qualified individual consultants to develop the Legal and Policy Framework Paper for the Model Law on African Food Systems.

The proposed Model Law will help establish a coherent continental framework for African food systems, bringing together issues relating to agriculture, nutrition, environment, land, trade and consumer protection. It will place agroecology, food sovereignty and the rights of food producers at the centre of how food is produced, traded and consumed across Africa.

The Lead Consultant will prepare the Legal and Policy Framework Paper, an annotated outline of the proposed Model Law, and a roadmap for the subsequent drafting and consultation process. The consultant will also provide technical support to a Pan-African Parliament Committee workshop. The assignment is an individual consultancy requiring 25 consultancy days.

Applicants must have an advanced degree in law, at least ten years of relevant professional experience, and demonstrated expertise in legislative drafting, public policy and African food, agriculture, environment, land or natural-resources law.

How to apply

Submit a single PDF application pack containing:

• A technical proposal of no more than six pages;
• A CV of no more than five pages;
• Two relevant writing samples;
• A financial proposal for the 25 consultancy days; and
• Contact details for three professional referees.

Applications should be emailed to afsa@afsafrica.org by 18 September 2026 at 17:00 East Africa Time, with the subject line:

“Lead Consultant: Model Law on African Food System”

Please refer to the full Terms of Reference for the complete scope, qualifications, deliverables and application requirements. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.


Consulte le cahier des charges complet pour connaître le périmètre exact de la mission, les qualifications requises, les livrables et les conditions de candidature. Seuls les candidats présélectionnés seront contactés.

Honduras must immediately stop the execution of over 1000 eviction orders issued under a new law that shields agro-industrial land from historic tenure claims- says the UN experts.

The post UN experts: Honduras must immediately halt mass evictions of peasant, Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

This article A popular movement in Kashmir defies severe repression was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

When activist Shahzaib Habib was killed by unidentified men on the night of June 6 in Rawalakot, Pakistan, protesters took custody of his body from the combined military hospital and staged a sit-in outside the hospital, demanding that an investigation be opened into his murder. Habib was a close associate of the leadership of the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee, or JAAC, a coalition of local traders, civil society members and political activists who spent the past three years organizing demonstrations across Pakistan-administered Kashmir. 

According to JAAC, security forces opened fire on the vehicle Habib was traveling in. Police say they intercepted a “suspicious vehicle” whose armed occupants fired first.

Habib’s killing came in a week when a crackdown on the JAAC was intensifying day by day. Two days earlier, on June 5, Pakistan’s government had banned JAAC, declaring the nonviolent coalition — which came together around electricity bills and wheat prices — a proscribed organization under the 2014 anti-terrorism act. In the days that followed, a curfew was imposed on Rawalakot, phone and internet were cut across the region of Azaad Jammu and Kashmir, and the government deployed the Pakistan Rangers, a paramilitary force. Protests were met with violence, leaving 11 dead. 

Previous Coverage

Kashmiri human rights defenders continue to fight injustices amid growing repression

Since the June 5 declaration, dozens of protesters have been arrested and many have reportedly been killed. But putting a precise number on either remains difficult. Media access to the region has been tightly restricted since the crackdown began, with phone and internet remaining suspended across much of the region.

Among those killed was one of the main student organizers: Usama Jamil, a PhD student at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad who was deputy secretary general of the Jammu Kashmir National Students Federation, or JKNSF. On July 27, according to student groups and civil society organizations, he was marching in Rawalakot, chanting for people’s rights, when he was shot and killed by security forces. 

The crackdown was not confined to Kashmir. Solidarity protests in Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi were met with arrests. In Lahore, police arrested activists and dozens of bystanders outside the press club during a peaceful demonstration on July 31. In Islamabad, the capital, 88 people were sent into 14-day judicial remand after a solidarity protest the same day. Human rights groups called the arrests part of a broader attempt to criminalize solidarity with Kashmir.

I asked Omer Khan, a member of JKNSF, about the current situation. “I don’t know how to answer this or where to begin,” he said. “A living hell was unleashed upon us, something this region has not witnessed in recent history. Our region was once one of the most peaceful, and now it has almost been turned into a war zone.”

“Dozens have been killed through direct state violence, and countless others have been injured,” he continued. “Food and medicine have been blocked. Frisking, raids and searches have violated the privacy and sanctity of people’s homes” and the entire region is under an undeclared curfew. 

He describes collective punishment as one of the more visible forms of state pressure, but says the psychological toll is harder to measure.

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But for now, despite the killings, crackdowns and internet restrictions, the movement the government tried to outlaw is still organizing. On Sept. 9, the JAAC led a region-wide shutter-down and wheel-jam strike, a form of general strike that aims to shut down all businesses and halt all road traffic. As of today, protesters remain in the streets. 

How the movement got there 

Organizers say that the keys to the movement’s durability have been its flat structure, the strong participation of women, and how it has built trust and solidarity by delivering victories that affect people’s everyday lives. 

“I consider it the world’s most modern and well-organized movement, and its biggest achievement is that it built solidarity among people,” said Haris Ahmed Khan, a member of Progressive Student Collective, or PSC, who was arrested at a peaceful solidary protest in Lahore on July 31 and later released. “When a call is given, everyone gathers.”

The movement began on May 8, 2023, when residents of Rawalakot, the capital of Kashmir’s Poonch district, held a sit-in over the sharp increase in government-subsidized flour prices. Out of that sit-in came the district’s first organizing body, initially called the Poonch Awami Action Committee.

The movement might have stayed local if the government hadn’t handed it a second grievance. When electricity bills for the month of August 2023 arrived from the state-owned power department, people with higher usage rates found their bill had roughly doubled. What began as a flour protest in one district spread across Azad Jammu and Kashmir, as the Poonch district organizing committee folded electricity into its demands, and organizers in the Muzaffarabad and Rawalakot district joined in with a call for a shutter-down and wheel-jam strike. What started as scattered demonstrations turned into a sit-in in Rawalakot that stretched on for months.

People attend the funeral prayers of a man who was reportedly killed during clashes between protesters and police in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, on August 1, 2026. (Sajjad Qayyum / AFP via Getty Images)

Young leaders, lawyers and journalists all joined in. And slowly, the movement started gaining traction on social media.

“They had two or three pages [on Instagram and Facebook] that people trusted, so whenever news came from these pages, people knew it was authentic,” Haris Ahmed Khan explained. Speeches and announcements shared on these pages quickly spread, he said.

But organizers in Kashmir did not consider social media alone to be enough. They went to village councils and formed local committees. In Poonch district, they walked through every bazaar and convinced people to join the movement. They explained to people how they could get flour and electricity at lower prices. 

The movement won on its material demands when flour and electricity prices were lowered in 2024. With these wins, Omer Khan said, the movement proved something to people who’d been told for decades they had no power. 

“It instilled confidence in people across the state that it is possible to fight and to win,” he said. “In particular, securing the right to electricity at the cost of production was an unprecedented achievement in South Asia.”

By building confidence in the movement, these successes led to bigger demands and marked it as a threat to the state, Haris Ahmed Khan said. “People are now demanding public spending and want the state to spend for the people,” he said. “The state does not want people to reach this point in such a peaceful and organized way. So, this has become a threat to the state structure because people are demanding that the state work for them.” 

Previous Coverage

Repression backfires in Pakistan, as oppressed Baloch people hold historic mass protest

In September 2025, Omer Khan joined more than 60 others at a protest outside the Islamabad Press Club. The demonstration didn’t go long. Police with batons charged the crowd, made arrests and held people for over eight hours.

“Women were treated especially badly,” Omer Khan said. “Locked up, they struggled to breathe and were refused basic things like light and fans. Some came out with bruises.” One woman who traveled in from outside the region to show solidarity was questioned by a male officer and had her phone searched, Omer Khan said.

Women have been at the center of the movement from the start, and Omer argues that’s not incidental to its resilience. “The movement was banned because it had spread across the state, especially among women, who have been suffering for a long time, arguably even more than the men,” he said. “This was reflected in the extraordinary mobilization of women, in earlier marches as well. They were the ones who organized and sustained the marches wherever they went.” 

Both Omer Khan and Haris Ahmed Khan credit the movement’s flat, local and deliberately decentralized leadership, as well as its delivering on concrete demands, for its ability to survive repeated crackdowns. 

“The JAAC was not centered around one or a few leaders,” Omer Khan said. “Instead, it was based on representatives from each district. This horizontal structure gave the movement remarkable flexibility, allowing it to absorb pressure and withstand repeated shocks.”

An election without a mandate

The movement has “evolved beyond purely economic demands and began to raise broader political questions, including the right to ownership and the right to self-rule,” Omer Khan said. 

The demands have extended to more, harder targets, including an end to special privileges and perks for the political elite, political and constitutional reforms, stronger local government, accountability for deaths and violence during the protests, withdrawal of cases against protesters, and improvements in public services and infrastructure, including health, education, roads and water supply. The government acquiesced to some of the movement’s demands in an October 2025 peace agreement, but JAAC says many of those commitments remain unfulfilled.

One major demand opposed by the government is the abolition of 12 seats in the 45-seat Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly that are reserved for refugees from Indian-administered Kashmir who live elsewhere in Pakistan. JAAC argues the arrangement lets mainstream Pakistani parties engineer the region’s government from outside; Islamabad says the seats are constitutionally protected and can’t be touched without an amendment. 

The elections Omer Khan predicted would lack legitimacy have now concluded, with Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz party, or PML–N, securing the majority. The movement boycotted the elections, arguing that they could not be legitimate while its leaders were facing a ban and the region was emerging from months of unrest.

JAAC had called for the elections to be annulled and for the establishment of a caretaker government, electoral reforms and a new Election Commission before fresh polls. Government officials rejected those claims, saying voters had given the PML–N a clear mandate and that the elections had been conducted fairly.

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Tensions in Azad Jammu and Kashmir remain unresolved. In the massive  shutter-down and wheel-jam strike on Sept. 9, JAAC demanded implementation of the October 2025 agreement, while the government says it has fully implemented some demands and is working on others.

Internet access has been partially restored in several districts, but remains completely suspended in Rawalakot and Sudhnoti, while other areas have restricted access mainly for educational institutions and banks. The banned JAAC continues to demand the withdrawal of its proscription, the release of detained activists and an independent judicial inquiry into the June violence, including the killing of Shahzaib Habib and injuries to other protesters. Meanwhile, police continue to accuse the movement of attacking law enforcement personnel and using protests to challenge state authority.

“So many people have died that the movement has reached a point of no return,” Haris Ahmed Khan concluded. “People are demanding the U.N. intervene and ask Pakistan’s government to remove the Rangers from the ground.” Despite everything, he says, people are still standing with the movement and demanding justice.

This article A popular movement in Kashmir defies severe repression was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

“The Department’s reading of 'emergency' invites frequent federal interventions that are unsupported by the statute and threaten the stability of the energy market,” the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit said in its ruling.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 

September 10, 2026

CONTACT: Katie Valentine, kvalentine@cacampaign.org, (770) 861-0397

Latino Leaders and Elected Officials Demand a Fully Funded, Fully Functional FEMA as Philadelphia Families Struggle to Recover from Historic Summer Flooding

Community Press Conference Marks Hispanic Heritage Month With a Call for Federal Action 

View the full press conference here: LINK 

 

PHILADELPHIA, PA — As Hispanic Heritage Month begins, Latino families across Philadelphia are still recovering from a historic summer of severe storms, waiting on federal aid that has been slow to arrive and hard to access. 

Today, community members, healthcare professionals, and elected officials gathered at Philadelphia City Hall with a clear message for Congress: stop shortchanging FEMA and build an agency that is fully funded, fully functional, and built to serve every family equitably.

The press conference comes after a summer that brought repeated severe weather events to Philadelphia, including flash flooding, destructive storms, and a microburst that caused widespread building and property damage and displacement of residents across the city. The flooding events threatened to contaminate drinking water and raised the risk of mold-related respiratory risks in homes impacted by water damage even after floodwaters receded. 

Across the Northeast, heavy rainstorms have increased by 60 to 70% since the 1960s, the largest increase of any region in the United States, and Philadelphia’s own Office of Sustainability says that the science confirms these trends are accelerating and will not reverse on their own.

“As Philadelphia marks the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Ida and is now experiencing a summer of record-breaking flash flood warnings, we are reminded that where it rains, it can flood, and every neighborhood must be prepared,” said Joseph Sullivan, Program Manager for Flood Resilience and Compliance Strategy, City of Philadelphia’s Office of Sustainability. “The City’s Flood Management Program brings together key departments to help residents understand their flood risk and access resources to prepare and recover. Critical programs like FEMA’s Community Rating System (CRS) help enhance Philadelphia’s flood resilience efforts. Through Philadelphia’s collaborative work to reduce flood risk, residents can now receive a 15 percent discount on eligible federal flood insurance policies, making this important protection more affordable.” 

“As we honor Hispanic Heritage Month, we must make sure every Philadelphia resident knows how to prepare for flooding and, when disaster strikes, can access FEMA assistance without fear or unnecessary barriers,” said Rep. Danilo Burgos. “Flooding doesn’t discriminate, and neither should our disaster response. Protecting our neighbors means making sure no family is left behind when they need help the most.”

“Our region’s Latino communities suffered the same flooding our non-Latino communities suffered this summer,” said Rep. Greg Scott. “And yet they’re struggling to get the post-disaster support that others have managed to access. A person shouldn’t suffer more or longer because resources aren’t offered in their preferred language or their neighborhood has been deprioritized. It’s time for the federal government to fully fund FEMA, provide necessary paperwork in widely-used languages, and ensure that all of our residents have equal access to aid.”

“The impacts of disaster are not experienced equally, and the response cannot be either,” said Azucena Villalobos, MSN, CRNP, FNP-BC. “We need funding that’s accessible, not just available: Spanish-speaking responders, trusted community organizations involved in the response, more community health workers embedded in community health centers who can help navigate climate-related health risks, multilingual emergency alerts that actually reach people, and resilient neighborhood centers offering cooling, clean water, and emergency support.”

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About the Climate Action Campaign

Climate Action Campaign (CAC) is a vibrant coalition driving ambitious, durable, equitable federal action to tackle the climate crisis. By cutting carbon pollution and accelerating the transition to clean energy, we will improve public health and create a more resilient economy and a more sustainable future for all.

About The Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments

The Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments is the only national nursing organization focused solely on the intersection of health and the environment. The mission of the Alliance is to support nurses in promoting planetary health and equity globally by educating and leading the nursing profession, advancing research, incorporating planet-safe practice, and influencing policy. http://enviRN.org 

The post Press Release! Latino Leaders and Elected Officials Demand a Fully Funded, Fully Functional FEMA as Philadelphia Families Struggle to Recover from Historic Summer Flooding appeared first on ANHE.

This summer’s Champlain Hudson Power Express outage highlights the importance of an independent grid operator, writes Zach Smith, senior vice president of system and resource planning at NYISO.

Protesters gather outside the New Mexico Environment Department headquarters in Santa Fe to oppose Project Jupiter’s air pollution permit on August 28, 2026.

Project Jupiter, if built, would lock New Mexico into more oil and gas dependence for decades. Tell state regulators to say no to this air pollution permit.

SIGN THE PETITION

Oracle, OpenAI, and their partners want to build a massive data center near Santa Teresa, in Doña Ana County. It’s a $165 billion project. At first, they planned to power it with gas turbines and diesel generators. After people pushed back, they switched to something called fuel cells and called it clean energy. It is not since the energy for the fuel cells still comes from fossil fuels.

The fuel cells for this project would still run on natural gas, mostly methane. Fuel cells use an electro-chemical process to turn methane into electricity at high temperature (~800°C) but without combustion. The methane fuel is converted to hydrogen inside the fuel cell and emits CO2 as the byproduct. Since methane, also known as natural gas, is the fuel, upstream methane leaks and impacts from fracking and produced water are as bad as a gas plant per unit of fuel. They even need a new gas pipeline that doesn’t exist yet, and that state regulators already turned down once. This project is anything but clean. In fact:

• This would be one of the largest fuel cell facilities ever built, anywhere;
• The project is expected to release about 10 million tons of pollution every year. That’s roughly as much as all of New Mexico’s biggest cities combined;
• The gas pipeline would cross rivers, streams, undisturbed desert habitat and run nearby residents and water sources.

New Mexico has worked hard to clean up its air and hold the oil and gas industry accountable. Approving this permit would undo a lot of that work, right when we should be investing in wind and solar, not new gas extraction that puts frontline communities and the climate at risk.

What you can do

The New Mexico Environment Department is expected to hold a hearing for this permit, but the New Mexico Supreme Court has temporarily halted the permit proceedings, leaving the date and next steps uncertain. 

People have raised concerns about the fairness of this process, including hearing date changes, fake comments being submitted to NMED and restricting access to the administrative permit records. 

1. Sign the petition. Tell NMED to reject this permit until developers can meet sustainable and community drive guardrail protections.
2. Share this page. People deserve to know what’s being built in their home state.
3. Attend the hearing. Your voice matters. Make sure you are subscribed to our email list for updates on how you can participate at the NMED hearing.

SIGN THE PETITION

The post Project Jupiter in New Mexico: A Would-be Fossil Fuel Polluter for Decades to Come appeared first on Earthworks.

The decisions come “amid growing concern about the balance between rapidly increasing electricity demand and the resources available to serve that demand” in PJM territory, the Pennsylvania PUC said.

It’s all food safety delays at the FDA JR Culpepper September 11, 2026

The Food and Drug Administration has delayed a long list of food chemicals and food safety actions, both promised and legally required. In some cases, these actions have been overdue for more than 30 years.

The chemicals the FDA has ignored have been linked to serious health harms, including cancer and hormone disruption.

The FDA’s record speaks for itself. 

Where the federal government is failing, states are stepping in to protect public health. Some chemicals with long overdue pending actions, including butylated hydroxyanisole, or BHA, and potassium bromate, have already been banned by individual states – which have a far better track record than the FDA when it comes to food chemicals. 

But a draft bill newly proposed in Congress, the FRESH and Affordable Foods Act, could cancel those state laws.

To shine a light on these failures, EWG created a report card showing the cases in which the FDA has missed its own deadlines for oversight of serious food safety issues. 

+ CLOSED -> + TO ADD A ROW: copy one ... block and change the text. ===================================================================== --> .dn { display: none !important; } .flipped-vert { transform: rotateX(180deg); } .table-wrapper { margin-bottom: 10px; } .table-cat { border-bottom: 1px solid #000; border-top: 1px solid #000; cursor: pointer; display: flex; font-family: niveau-grotesk, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; justify-content: space-between; padding: 20px 0; } .toggle-wrapper { align-items: center; display: flex; } .toggle { width: 20px; } .table-wrapper table { display: table; width: 100%; } table thead tr { border-top: none; border-bottom: 1px solid #565450; } th, td { text-align: left; vertical-align: top; } .row-title { line-height: 1.4; max-width: 444px; } .row-desc { color: #565450; line-height: 1.4; margin-top: 8px; max-width: 444px; } Regulations and guidance ActionKey dates and deadlinesStatusFinalize industry guidance on arsenic in apple juiceProvide information to manufacturers on the action level for inorganic arsenic in apple juice that the FDA considers protective of human health and achievable with the use of good manufacturing practices.The FDA proposed draft guidance in 2013.

In 2018, the FDA announced that a draft level would be finalized by year end. The FDA finalized the guidance in 2023.Finalized after a five-year delay.Finalize produce safety ruleEstablish science-based minimum standards for the safe growing, harvesting, packing and storage of fruits and vegetables grown for human consumption.The Food Safety Modernization Act was signed into law in 2011.

The FDA originally proposed a produce safety rule in 2013. The proposed rule was modified in 2014.

The final rule was issued in 2015, and a revised final rule addressing contamination from agricultural water was proposed in 2022. The revised rule was finalized in 2024.Finalized after delay.Petitions ActionKey dates and deadlinesStatusRespond to carcinogenic flavors food additive petitionThe deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 2016.

In 2018 it granted the petition after the organizations involved, including EWG and others, filed a lawsuit.Approved after a two-year delay.Respond to butylated hydroxyanisole food and color additive petitionThe deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 1990.Delayed more than 36 years. BHA is under post-market review. The FDA issued a request for information in February but the petition is still pending.Respond to potassium bromate citizen petitionThe deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 2000.Delayed more than 26 years.Respond to caramel coloring citizen petitionThe deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 2011.Delayed more than 15 years.Respond to bioaccumulating PFAS in food contact materials citizen petitionThe deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 2021.Delayed more than five years.Respond to bisphenol A food additive petitionThe deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 2022.Delayed more than four years.Respond to titanium dioxide color additive petitionThe deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 2024.Delayed more than three years.Respond to fluorinated polyethylene petitionThe deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 2025.Delayed more than one year.Respond to lead in baby food petition for reconsiderationThe deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 2025.Delayed more than a year.Respond to lead as a food additive petitionThe deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 2020.Delayed nearly six years.Respond to carcinogenic solvents petitionThe deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 2024.Delayed nearly two years. document.querySelectorAll('.table-cat').forEach(item => { var toggle = item.querySelector('.toggle'); item.addEventListener('click', event => { toggle.classList.toggle('flipped-vert'); item.nextElementSibling.classList.toggle('dn'); }); }); Authors Iris Myers September 14, 2026

Hilary Swank letter urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign diaper ingredients disclosure bill Anthony Lacey September 11, 2026

Attached is actor and children’s health advocate Hilary Swank’s letter urging California Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign AB 1901, a diaper ingredients disclosure bill.

File Download Document hilary-swank-letter-to-gov-newsom-ab-1901.pdf Areas of Focus Family Health Women's Health Children’s Health Toxic Chemicals California Guest Authors Hilary Swank September 11, 2026

By Melissa Ostroff, Pennsylvania State Field and Policy Manager, and Anaïs Peterson, Petrochemicals Campaigner at Earthworks

On August 18th, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro announced a new executive order on data centers. This executive order, which the Governor called the strictest data center policy in the country, is a mixed bag that leaves many frontline communities still concerned about what comes next. 

Even though it neglects to include the most important policy tool available, a moratorium, this executive order still represents some wins for communities who have been demanding leadership from a Governor who had initially welcomed data centers with open arms. It addresses one of the largest concerns around transparency in data center development as it prohibits the use of non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs, in connection with data center projects. In addition to increasing transparency, the executive order also removes any existing data center projects from permit fast tracking and bars them from eligibility in the future.  And while this announcement falls short in many other ways, it shows the power of community organizing across the state to create pressure and deliver results in Harrisburg.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signs an executive order on data centers on August 18, 2026, calling it the strictest policy of its kind in the country. Frontline communities, however, remain concerned about what the order means in practice. Image credit: AP

Through the new order, Governor Shapiro also attempts to protect Pennsylvania ratepayers from the utility price hikes often caused by data centers connecting to the grid through a strategy known as bring your own power (BYOP). While BYOP may reduce the impacts of data centers on utility bills, it can also lead tech companies to build their own gas plants to power these projects. This risk is increased by the weak “clean firm” requirements laid out in this executive order. 

As part of the requirements, developers would have to source a growing percentage of their energy from “clean firm” resources located within Pennsylvania. But “clean firm” energy isn’t as clean as it sounds. In fact, the category includes nuclear power and fossil fuels paired with carbon capture alongside real renewables like solar, geothermal and hydropower. The mandatory schedule starts small, requiring just 10% clean firm energy. It then climbs to 32% by 2035. The problem is that Pennsylvania already gets 34% of its energy from clean firm sources today. With this context this “requirement” actually falls short of where we already stand. 

By labeling fossil fuels as “clean” and setting a target we already passed back in 2025, the Shapiro administration is sending a clear message: pollution is acceptable in Pennsylvania communities. The Shapiro administration cannot trade utility price hikes for environmental pollution and call that a win for Pennsylvania. What Pennsylvanians avoid paying in utility bills they may end up paying in higher health care costs. The fossil fuel infrastructure used to power these projects leads to increased rates of cancer, asthma, cardiovascular disease, and many other deadly and disabling conditions. And pollution has a cost, too – in the form of poor health, rising healthcare bills, and shortened lives. A stronger data center policy would protect Pennsylvanians both from price increases and pollution.

Governor Shapiro has directed Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection to develop new regulations addressing the cumulative environmental impacts of data centers, including emissions from multiple backup generators.

But there is one potential bright spot relative to pollution: Governor Shapiro has directed DEP to develop new regulations around the cumulative environmental impacts of data centers, including the impact of multiple backup generators. We welcome the consideration of cumulative impacts as part of regulations around data centers and other polluting facilities, and look forward to the opportunity for community members and public health experts to speak on this topic.

Governor Shapiro also clarified the role local governments play in data center development, emphasizing that his administration will not consider permits for projects that have not been approved at the local level. We applaud this nod towards community consent, but questions remain about what kind of local opposition will qualify for this protection. People living and working in Pennsylvania know implementation can be complex, and additional clarification is needed to help communities understand how this executive order will impact their own neighborhoods.  

This executive order does not address the existing gaps in ordinances and zoning primarily in Pennsylvania’s at-risk rural communities that would empower them to say no to data centers. Local governments are voting to approve data centers simply to avoid lawsuits even when their constituents are showing up and demanding they vote no. Currently approximately 32% of the commonwealth is unzoned leaving them unprotected if and when big tech comes knocking. However, it is unclear from the remarks made by Governor Shapiro and DEP Secretary Shirley if land use permits also fall under this executive order. If they do, a larger portion of the commonwealth may have some protections. 

While this executive order makes some much needed progress towards protections it leaves the strongest protective measure still on the table: a moratorium. The call from communities across Pennsylvania has been clear. The best way to protect our commonwealth from the impact of data centers, whether it is rate hikes or increased air pollution, remains a moratorium on data center development.

The post Governor Shapiro’s Data Center Executive Order Shows Power of Community Organizing – And the Work Ahead appeared first on Earthworks.

Among the stressors global heating will place on society there’s the fact that adapting to a hotter world is going to cost a ton of money. Stormwater systems, dams, and sea walls will need to be upgraded to withstand more intense flooding. Schools and hospitals designed to retain heat will need to be refitted to withstand punishing heatwaves.

In New York State alone, the costs of adapting public infrastructure due to the climate crisis is projected at $519 billion by 2050. That’s one state in one country. Multiply that across the world and you’re talking many, many trillions.

The question is: who is going to pick up the tab?

This question has vexed global climate talks for years. Low and middle income nations have done the least to cause global warming. Yet, they’re being hit hardest by punishing climate extremes. In response, Global South leaders have pushed the world’s wealthiest nations to pay their fair share for climate damages for decades.

This pushing is what helped create (the still shamefully underfunded) multilateral financing mechanisms, such as the Loss and Damage Fund and the Least Developed Countries Fund ― which are designed to move money to the world’s poorest countries to support climate mitigation and adaptation. 

Much more needs to be done to ensure nations that have benefited the most from fossil fuel-driven development are financially supporting those nations hit hardest by climate change: The estimated cost of the rebuilding from the deadly Nepal disaster is $5 billion, but they might not even get $20 million from the UN’s Loss and Damage Fund.

Here in the US, the question of who is going to pay the costs of adapting to a hotter, harsher world has become a key question at the local and state levels, too. 

This was the central observation of New York’s Climate Superfund Act. Passed in the twilight of 2024, the Climate Superfund Act requires the largest fossil fuel corporations to pay $75 billion to New York State. Payments would be made in annual $3 billion instalments over a 25 year period. 

This bill makes perfect sense. After all, somebody’s going to have to pick up New York’s $519 billion climate tab – and the industry that caused the problem should pay their fair share. 

Unfortunately, last week, New York’s efforts experienced a setback when a federal judge ruled that it cannot enact the legislation. While the case is sure to be appealed, it’s a frustrating development at a time the costs of the climate crisis are becoming ever more clear.

But a single court ruling in a single court can’t stop a movement. Climate superfund legislation has been introduced in sixteen states and one ruling in a single court district does nothing to stop other states from implementing their own Climate Superfund laws.

And across the world, additional efforts to make polluters pay are proliferating like wildflowers after a rain. 

In July, Portugal passed a 33% windfall tax on extraordinary profits earned by oil companies due to the Iran War. A bill to that end has also been introduced in the US Senate, and been championed by French campaigners and leading UK politicians. 

This year, legislation introduced in California, Hawaii, and New York would enable state attorneys general to sue fossil fuel companies for economic losses from climate disasters. 

In Connecticut, a bill we’re working on would place a 5% surcharge on fossil fuel companies’ insurance policies, raising millions for climate resilience programs; the bill passed out of the appropriations committee with a supermajority last year. It could well pass in 2027. 

The fossil fuel industry clearly sees these attempts for accountability as a serious threat. Big Oil’s puppets in Congress have introduced legislation that would provide the fossil fuel industry with near total immunity from lawsuits and legislation designed to make it pay for climate damages.

This front of the climate fight will enter a new phase next month, as the Supreme Court hears arguments in the Boulder vs Suncor case. If you’re in DC, you should join the People Vs Big Oil rally at the Supreme Court on October 5th.

No matter the outcome of the Supreme Court case though, the question of who is going to pay for the climate crisis is only going to become more salient in the years ahead.

Our job in this fight is to bring a new common sense into being: Polluters should pay for the harm they have caused. 

In Solidarity
– Alec Connon, Stop the Money Pipeline coalition director 

News & Updates from the Coalition

– Calls to Investigate Musk & DOGE gain traction

Members of Congress are responding to our calls to hold investigations into Elon Musk and DOGE in the new Congress. Since last month, we’ve secured new commitments from 8  elected officials, including Rep. James Walkinshaw (VA), Senator Cory Booker (NJ), and Rep. Mark Desaulnier (CA). See what they’re saying here. 

Check out our latest campaign video, made in collaboration with our friends at Feds Work for You and featuring a former FDA worker who was fired by DOGE last year. Months before the cyclospora outbreak, he warns our food supply will become less safe due to Musk’s disastrous mass firings at the FDA.

To get all the latest campaign updates, sign the petition here.

– Insure our Communities

Last week, news broke that as insurance companies abandon communities vulnerable to climate disasters, millions of Americans are being forced onto subprime insurance policies that offer less coverage and fewer protections. 

In the coming months, we’ll be announcing a major new campaign to hold insurers accountable and pass legislation to make insurers and fossil fuel companies pay for their role in the climate crisis.

If you’re in New York State, take two steps to support this effort right now:

• Complete the Insure our Communities survey – we’ll use the responses to this survey to advocate for the game changing Insure our Communities Act. If passed, the IOC Act would force insurance companies to stop underwriting new coal, oil, and gas projects, raising the costs of all new fossil fuel expansion. The survey takes 15 minutes to complete.

• Join us on Weds, Sept 23rd at City Winery in Manhattan for our New York Climate Week panel event: An Honest Conversation about the Insurability Crisis. We’ll be joined by NY Assemblymember Gallagher and Assemblymember Forrest’s legislative director, Mirabel Sandler, as we discuss how the climate crisis is driving the affordability crisis, why the Insure our Communities Act is a key part of the solution – and what you can do to help pass it in 2027.

 – Unplug AI Week of Action

Between September 19-24, our partners at Planet Over Profit, Climate Defenders, NYCC, RAN and Public Citizen, are organizing a week of action targeting the Big Tech companies driving the AI data center buildout. 

The data center build out is a huge threat to our climate goals. US power emissions could rise 20% from data center build out. Not only that but data centers raise our energy bills and pollute our communities, all in service of entrenching Big Tech’s political power over our lives.

The goal of the Unplug AI Week of Action is to make it crystal clear that Big Tech is a climate villain and challenge Big Tech’s political power. Join the Unplug AI Week of Action here.

 – BlackRock loses billions over climate concerns

The Dutch pension fund, Recreation Pension Fund (RPF), is divesting €450 million ($525 million) from BlackRock, owing to climate concerns. This makes RPF, the fourth major European pension fund to break ties with BlackRock, the world’s second-largest funder of fossil fuels. This news also follows analysis suggesting that BlackRock recently lost a $52 billion mandate from Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (PIF), owing to a shift in the pensions climate policies. If this is accurate, total divestment from the US-based asset managers, BlackRock and State Street, owing to climate concerns now stands at more than $102 billion. 

Meanwhile, New York City Comptroller Mark Levine has announced a search for new asset managers for the city’s pension funds and that “limits on carbon” will be a factor considered by the City. Currently, New York City invests approximately $60 billion of its funds with BlackRock.

– Two wins from the frontlines of fossil fuel expansion.

Two important developments from the Gulf South, which is home to the world’s largest buildout of new fossil fuel projects. First up, a federal court revoked a license for the Texas Gulflink deep-sea crude oil export terminal project planned off the coast of Brazoria County, Texas. 

Next up, one of Japan’s largest public financing institutions, JBIC, announced it would be investigating complaints filed by community advocates over its financing of the Freeport Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export project. JBIC has provided more than $2.6 billion in financing for the construction of the Freeport LNG project, so this could potentially be a big deal. More here. 

– Align Your Money With Your Values

• Our partners at Third Act host an interactive on-line learning series every month on how we can take action to prevent our bank deposits, credit cards, home/auto insurance premiums, and investments from being used to finance the fossil fuel industry… and instead fund local businesses, community development, and the buildout of renewable energy. 

  The next learning session is on Monday, Sept 14th at 1PT/4ET. RSVP here.

– Costco campaign

The Costco Clean Up Your Credit Card campaign is still going strong. Last week, a coalition of frontline community organizations delivered a letter signed by nearly 500 Texans and Louisiana’s to Costco’s regional office in Plano, Texas. Shortly after, the team got confirmation from a local warehouse that this delivery caused the regional office to send a note to the nearby warehouses in the area, telling them that they are passing our concerns up to leadership.

We’ve also gotten an overwhelmingly positive response from Costco HQ employees, dozens of which have agreed to share our concerns internally with their teams. Check out this fun video of our canvassing efforts. 

Reach out to sarahlasoff@stopthemoneypipeline.org if you want to hear about upcoming on-the-ground campaign opportunities in San Antonio, TX, across Louisiana, or around the Seattle area.

And to close out this month’s newsletter, here’s a photo of Sarah – on helium, apparently  – outside of Costco’s HQ:

The post September Newsletter: Who’s going to pay? appeared first on Stop the Money Pipeline.

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Wildfires currently burning large swathes of land in Indonesia are on track to produce emissions on a par with the country’s most-intense fire season this century, according to experts. 

Data from the Global Fire Emissions Database reveals that, as of 7 September, fires in Indonesia produced 76m tonnes of carbon (MtC) in 2026.

This puts 2026 on the same trajectory as 2015, when fires burned 2.6m hectares of land across the country and generated a total of 333MtC. 

Dr Guido van der Werf, a researcher at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, tells Carbon Brief that the fires in Indonesia are “more or less on track” to reach levels seen 11 years ago.

Parts of the country – including the eastern province of Papua – are “burning more than they’ve ever burned”, he says.

Indonesia is no stranger to emissions-intensive fires. Research has estimated that the record 1997 fire season generated carbon emissions equivalent to 13-40% of all global fossil-fuel emissions that year. 

Meanwhile, a separate study that looked at carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the 2015 fires in south-east Asia – which primarily burned Indonesia – found they were greater than the total of the EU’s fossil-fuel emissions that year. The “severe haze” from the fires has been linked to more than 100,000 premature deaths across the region.

El Niño influence

As in 2015 and in 1997, this year’s Indonesian fires come during an El Niño year.

The naturally-occurring climate phenomenon, linked to ocean temperatures in the Pacific, periodically drives up temperatures and dries out land in Indonesia – creating the conditions for fires so immense that they imprint on global emissions. 

Scientists are projecting that this year’s El Niño – which started in June and is expected to last into 2027 – will be one of the most intense on record.

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Dr Mark Parrington, a senior scientist from the Copernicus Climate Change Service explains: 

“From August until the end of October [to] November is the dry season in Indonesia. We do normally see fire around this time of year, but nowhere near the scale that we’ve seen this year, or indeed any of the previous El Niño years”.

Dr Nisa Novita, strategic lead for peatland at Indonesian environmental NGO Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara, tells Carbon Brief that El Niño “does not directly cause most fires”, but acts as a “major amplifier by creating hotter and drier conditions, making fires easier to ignite, spread faster and much harder to control”. 

Studies have shown that fires in Indonesia often occur where there has been significant land clearance and peatland drainage for agriculture and palm oil plantations. These practices create a dry landscape that is highly flammable during times of drought.

Pink bars show years in which an El Niño event was called by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. GFED fire emissions data for 1980-96 is from Field et al. (2009) and Van Marle et al. (2017); data for 1997-2022 is from Van der Werf et al. (2025); and data for 2022 onwards is from Chen et al. (2026).

Van der Werf says the scale of this year’s fires – and whether they will end up being more intense than 2015 – will depend on the length of this year’s El Niño event, as well as the effectiveness of recent peatland conservation efforts.

Novita explains that Indonesia’s fires are heavily emissions-intensive due to its large tropical peatland ecosystem: 

“When peatlands are degraded and drained due to canal development for agriculture, the water table drops, making the peat dry and highly flammable especially during dry seasons or El Niño events, like now.

“Unlike fires in dry ecosystems, peat fires can smolder underground, so the soil itself becomes readily available fuel.”

Extensive peatland restoration efforts in Indonesia in recent years have been credited with reducing the number of fires during the 2019 El Niño.

After the catastrophic fires in 1997-98, the Indonesian government introduced a range of measures designed to strengthen peatland protection and restoration through dedicated institutions and regulations. This included the introduction of a moratorium on licenses to convert forests and peatlands into plantations and logging areas. 

In the aftermath of the 2015 fires, it established an official peatland restoration agency, which was given an additional mandate for mangrove restoration in 2021. This agency was dissolved last year. Novita says:

“We have learned and improved…But the question is: is it enough? Or are we still underestimating the risk that degraded peatlands pose, especially when we face another El Niño?”

Van der Werf says it remains unclear from the 2026 fire data how great an impact recent efforts to restore peatland in Indonesia have had on reducing the impact and spread of the fires: 

“I had hoped that this year Indonesia would be relatively quiet, even though we have a big El Niño…You could argue if those regulations worked, then this wouldn’t be a big fire [season], even though it [has been] very dry. 

“This is maybe the case in Sumatra [which has seen a quiet fire season], but definitely not in other regions. Papua [a region of Indonesia] and [neighbouring country of] Papua New Guinea – those are the new frontiers. They are basically going through the same thing that Sumatra went through 20 years ago.”

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The post El Niño: Indonesia fire emissions in 2026 ‘on track’ to match record for this century appeared first on Carbon Brief.

“The Hub” is a weekly round-up of transportation related news in the Philadelphia area and beyond. Check back weekly to keep up-to-date on the issues Clean Air Council’s transportation staff finds important.

Join the Clean Air Council in participating in the Pretzel Pedal Challenge! Log your bike rides from September 1-30 to automatically earn points that qualify you for discounts and prizes! Create a Share-A-Ride profile to join!

Image Source: NBC Philadelphia

NBC Philadelphia: Speeding, double parking fuel safety concerns on East Girard Avenue – East Girard Avenue in Fishtown is an extremely busy corridor, and advocates held a walkthrough this week to push for safety improvements for pedestrians, drivers, cyclists, and transit riders. Issues facing this corridor include speeding drivers, double-parked cars, illegal turns, and pedestrians crossing outside of crosswalks. Improvements could include dedicated turning zones, pedestrian infrastructure, curb extensions, and more traffic signs.

Image Source: PA Trolley Museum

Mass Transit: Off the Beaten Path: Pittsburgh’s streetcar past keeps rolling at Pennsylvania Trolley Museum – Children can enter the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum for free throughout September. The museum, located in Washington County, has more than 50 trolleys and streetcars on display. Visitors can ride working trolleys along 4 miles of track. Pittsburgh’s trolley system dates back to the late 1800s, and visitors can learn all about that history and more.

Image Source: Metro Philadelphia

Metro Philadelphia: Gusset Plate Project brings art under the El in Kensington – Murals painted by residents over the past few years were installed onto triangular gusset plates that connect columns and beams holding up the Market-Frankford Line along Kensington Avenue. The Kensington and Harrowgate neighborhoods have received a little more color due to the mural plates, which can be found between Huntington and Tioga stations.

Other Stories

PARK(ing) DAY PHL: PARK(ing) Day is September 18, 2026

Pennsylvania Capital-Star: The Pennsylvania Turnpike is added to Oklahoma’s PikePass system

New Jersey State Democrats: SINGLETON, CCSNJ, SJTA TO ANNOUNCE NEW MICROTRANSIT SHUTTLE IN BURLCO

Virgina Mercury: Amtrak to suspend Virginia-to-D.C. service for critical track upgrades Oct. 16–26

For Paula Swaner Sargetakis, co-owner of Frog Bench Farms in Salt Lake City, Utah, farming began with curiosity. She grew up on her family’s ranch, spending countless hours exploring the natural world. The first time she saw tree frogs, she recalls falling in love with the animals and collecting them in a bucket with leaves, rocks, and water to take home.

“There were no frogs left in the pot by the time we got home, because there was no lid on the pot,” says Sargetakis, joking that “we did have to get rid of that car.” Experiences like this, and generations of family gardeners before her, planted the seeds for what would become a career in farming.

Today, Sargetakis and her husband co-own Frog Bench Farms—a name inspired in part by her lifelong love of frogs. Using regenerative practices adapted to an urban setting, the small, 1.5-acre farm grows produce for local markets, community programs, and 22 restaurants in the Salt Lake City area.

When Sargetakis and her husband searched for land to build a farm, they looked near schools, knowing they wanted their farm to also serve as a classroom to teach students where their food comes from.

“They’re always surprised that there’s a farm right next door,” says Sargetakis. “But there’s joy in it, and they will ask questions, and they learn.”

When children visit, they are sometimes very nervous to taste unfamiliar vegetables like microgreens, she adds. But like in her own childhood, curiosity usually wins, “and most of them like it.”

Alongside education, reducing waste is central to Sargetakis’s work at Frog Bench Farms: “Everything we grow on site, we don’t waste anything.”

The farm donates surplus produce to the University of Utah’s student pantry and the Utah Food Bank. Crops that aren’t sold fresh are made into teas and other value-added products, while visitors learn how to preserve food using affordable tools available at local hardware stores.

That philosophy reflects Sargetakis’ broader understanding of sustainability—not simply protecting natural resources but strengthening local food systems and sharing knowledge. At the farm, she collects water, sources ingredients locally for value-added products whenever possible, and continually looks for ways to keep resources circulating within the community.

Running a small farm, however, comes with difficult financial realities. Frog Bench Farms is committed to paying employees a living wage, even though doing so adds another layer of economic pressure to an already challenging business.

“You don’t make money farming, you make it in other sides of the product,” says Sargetakis.

Sargetakis says diversification, education, and community partnerships make it possible to continue farming while staying true to the farm’s values. Ultimately, though, she hopes more people come to understand what farming truly requires, and why it matters.

“I’m hoping one day… [that] people understand and appreciate the hard work that goes into farming and how much fun we have doing it,” says Sargetakis.

On a small urban farm surrounded by classrooms and city streets, Sargetakis aims to show that agriculture doesn’t need large acreage to make a lasting impact. For her, all it takes is an acre and a half, a handful of curious students, and someone willing to keep getting their hands in the dirt.

This article is part of Food Tank’s ongoing Farmer Friday series, produced in partnership with Niman Ranch, a champion for independent U.S. family farmers. The series highlights the stories of farmers working toward a more sustainable, equitable food system. Niman Ranch partners with over 500 small-scale U.S. family farmers and is committed to preserving rural agricultural communities and their way of life.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Paula Swaner Sargetakis

The post Growing Food, Community, and Curiosity in Salt Lake City appeared first on Food Tank.

In a bright, spacious factory on the outskirts of Lagos, young engineers in overalls work their way along the production line, carefully inspecting the shimmery blue solar cells that turn sunlight into electricity.

Quality checks completed, the finished solar panels are loaded onto forklifts and taken to a warehouse – ready for delivery to buyers across Nigeria and in neighbouring West African countries. Each panel is labelled “Made in Nigeria”.

But for Emmanuel Agbola, operations manager at Nigerian solar company LPV Technologies, the company’s mission goes beyond quality control and meeting customer orders.

“We are looking at addressing the immediate power needs of Nigeria,” Agbola told Climate Home News in a quiet room away from the steady hum of machinery on the factory floor, where production began last year.

That is no small task. About four out of 10 Nigerians – more than 85 million people – still lack reliable access to grid electricity, according to Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency.

An engineer works on a solar module inside LPV factory, Lagos (Photo: Mansur Ibrahim/Climate Home News) An engineer works on a solar module inside LPV factory, Lagos (Photo: Mansur Ibrahim/Climate Home News)

LPV Technologies is among a handful of startups making headway on the nation’s bold ambitions to build a domestic solar panel manufacturing industry, as solar becomes the go-to choice for Nigerian businesses and households fed up with frequent blackouts.

Nigeria’s national grid has collapsed about 22 times during the last two years due to transmission constraints, gas shortages and ageing infrastructure.

That is exactly why local solar panel manufacturing matters, according to Agbola.

“One of our slogans is ‘Make the sun pay for your bills’,” he said.

Solar transforms life for homes and businesses

Nigeria has become one of Africa’s fastest-growing markets for increasingly affordable solar systems, which are providing more reliable and cheaper electricity for homes and workplaces than the fragile power grid.

Solar panels installed across rooftops of shops in Wuse Market, Abuja, July, 2026 (Photo: Mansur Ibrahim/Climate Home News) Solar panels installed across rooftops of shops in Wuse Market, Abuja, July, 2026 (Photo: Mansur Ibrahim/Climate Home News)

Nigeria’s rapid solar adoption is being met mostly by small-scale solar installations which have helped bring the country’s total cumulative solar capacity to about 6 gigawatts (GW), according to a report by research provider BloombergNEF.

But almost every panel installed on homes, factories and public buildings across the country is imported – the vast majority from China – something the government wants to change.

“We are preparing to produce in this country the solar technologies that the entire continent will use,” President Bola Tinubu told a group of Chinese investors in 2024.

“Nigeria is a huge market for solar panels. Africa is a major consumer of solar technologies. I do not see why these panels and batteries cannot be produced here,” he said.

Two years on, that ambition is starting to bear fruit.

Not far from LPV’s factory, in the Agege neighbourhood of Lagos, workers are putting the finishing touches to a new commercial-scale veterinary vaccine cold-storage facility.

Up on the roof, 100 of LPV’s “Made in Nigeria” solar panels have been fixed into position. 

Once operational, the panels and attached battery storage will provide round-the-clock electricity for offices, laboratories and cold-storage rooms at the site, helping to keep millions of vaccine doses safely refrigerated even when the national grid fails.

“This will never go off – all year round,” said the civil engineer overseeing work at the site, pointing to the rooftop installation. “It’s off-grid – 24 hours, seven days; constant electricity to run these two cooling units.”

A worker looks over solar cells at the LPV factory in Lagos (Photo: Mansur Ibrahim/Climate Home News) Government bets on local manufacturing

The Nigerian government wants solar power to play a central role in bridging the country’s electricity access gap, but it also wants the equipment that will drive that transition to be produced at home to create new jobs and reduce imports. That aligns with its wider Nigeria First industry policy.

Nigeria’s booming solar market is still overwhelmingly supplied by foreign-made panels. 

Last year, it imported about 2.9 million panels worth more than 400 billion naira ($295 million). More than 70% of them came from China, making Nigeria Africa’s second-largest importer of Chinese panels after South Africa. 

China dominates almost every stage of the global solar manufacturing supply chain and a series of government-led initiatives to kickstart local production have yet to make major headway.

More than a decade ago, the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure established the country’s first government-backed solar panel factory in Karshi, Abuja. While successive upgrades have increased its production capacity to about 50 MW annually, the facility still supplies only a fraction of Nigeria’s growing demand.

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The government has since announced more ambitious projects, including a Renewable Energy Industrial Park in Nasarawa state, expected to manufacture solar cells, panels and batteries, and a solar module assembly plant under construction by the Energy Commission of Nigeria in Enugu. Neither project has yet begun commercial production.

Last year, the government also proposed restricting solar panel imports to encourage domestic manufacturing, though the idea was swiftly dropped.

Chinese imports dominate solar panel trade

The scale of Nigeria’s challenge is obvious during a visit to Alaba International Market in Lagos, one of Africa’s largest electronics markets and a solar retail hub where thousands of panels change hands every week.

One recent morning in June, cart pushers could be seen weaving their way between crowds of shoppers and traffic jams, their trolleys stacked high with loads of freshly imported solar panels.

Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer and fossil fuel exports have been the cornerstone of the economy for decades. But in the bustling market, solar has become such a good business in recent years that traders call it “the new oil“.

Signs advertising solar energy solutions at Alaba International Market, Lagos (Photo: Mansur Ibrahim/Climate Home News) A labourer pushes cart full of imported solar panels across a road in Alaba International Market, Lagos (Photo: Mansur Ibrahim/Climate Home News) Signs advertising solar energy solutions at Alaba International Market, Lagos (Photo: Mansur Ibrahim/Climate Home News) A labourer pushes cart full of imported solar panels across a road in Alaba International Market, Lagos (Photo: Mansur Ibrahim/Climate Home News)

Even so, few said they had ever seen panels made in Nigeria.

“Every panel we get is imported,” said wholesaler Ndubuisi Nwobodo, adding that it was the first time he had heard of panels being produced domestically.

At one of the market’s largest solar warehouses, manager Chidiebere Ani watched as workers unloaded another container of supplies from China. He said 95% of the warehouse’s stock of panels came from China.

China controls more than 80% of global manufacturing capacity, according to the International Energy Agency, spanning every stage of the supply chain, from polysilicon and wafers to solar cells and finished modules. 

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Meanwhile, production at the LPV factory in Lagos is running at about 180,000 panels per year, Agbola said.

“If we had 10 LPVs, we still won’t be able to meet [Nigeria’s] demand,” Agbola said. 

Even then, Nigerian producers face a tough contest on price. Imported 550-watt panels retail for about 150,000 naira ($110), the same price that LPV Technologies charges wholesalers.

Policy uncertainty seen as hurdle to investment

Nigeria has plentiful affordable labour and – with a population of roughly 240 million – room for market growth as the falling price of panels makes them accessible to more people.

Chinese firms increasingly see opportunities to build manufacturing partnerships with local businesses, said Susan Li, the founder of Chinese solar company Solar Run Energy.

“We have to grow the industry together,” she said, cautioning that foreign investment in the sector would hinge on stable government policies and a steady exchange rate.

Labourers unload a truck full of imported solar panels at Alaba International Market, Lagos (Photo: Mansur Ibrahim/Climate Home News) Labourers unload a truck full of imported solar panels at Alaba International Market, Lagos (Photo: Mansur Ibrahim/Climate Home News)

Last year’s short-lived proposal to ban panel imports, which was scrapped a month after it was floated, highlighted such investment concerns, said Wangari Muchiri, founder of Kenya-based RE.Think Energy.

“[One minute] solar imports were banned, and then they were not banned,” Muchiri said. 

“If investors come in and there is already a clear path such that everyone knows how tariffs and customs duties are handled, then businesses can plan for those costs,” she explained. “But when policies keep changing, the risk becomes much higher.”

Li said she believed that “as time goes by, [policies] will become more stable”.

Nigeria’s challenges to scale up production

While Nigeria is making its first panels, it does not yet have the industrial capacity to produce vital solar cell components such as polysilicon, wafers and ingots. 

At LPV, Agbola said having to import the components – up to 17 of them – eats into the company’s profit margins.

“When we combine [the cost of importing components] with other fixed-cost elements and we want to do our pricing, it becomes a big challenge for us in the market,” he said. 

Because cells are the main component in a solar panel, LPV’s senior brand and marketing manager Kabir Okehi said it would be “a huge relief” to produce them domestically and avoid the high shipping logistics costs associated with imports. It also takes imported solar cells between six weeks and two months to get to Nigeria.

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Many of the materials used in solar manufacturing – including silica, aluminium and steel – are available in Nigeria, but the country still lacks the technical know-how to turn them into higher-value components, experts say. 

“What is missing in our local production is knowledge transfer,” said Mustapha Abdullahi, director-general of the Energy Commission of Nigeria, a government body responsible for strategic national energy policy planning and coordination.

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He said Nigeria is still learning about the technologies needed to make solar cells domestically, with research institutes experimenting with materials such as graphene and production methods that could eventually support upstream manufacturing.

“We’re still in the pilot stages, doing reverse engineering to see how things are done,” he told Climate Home News.

Companies struggle to access startup capital

Another major challenge for homegrown solar manufacturing is finance, Abdullahi said, adding that several Nigerian companies have expressed interest in manufacturing solar panels, but many struggle to secure the capital needed to establish production lines.

The government has tried to bridge that gap by connecting local companies with international financiers, while offering incentives to prospective investors, he said.

Last year, Nigeria announced a partnership with Chinese solar giant LONGi to establish a 1,000 MW manufacturing facility in the country. The agreement, Abdullahi said, is intended to accelerate technology transfer and help Nigeria expand domestic production far beyond its current assembly capacity of roughly 300 MW of solar panels annually.

That is equivalent to 545,000 panels – of about 550 watts each – per year.

A conveyor belt producing solar cells at the LPV factory in Lagos (Photo: Mansur Ibrahim/Climate Home News) Solar cells on a production line at the LPV factory in Lagos (Photo: Mansur Ibrahim/Climate Home News) A conveyor belt producing solar cells at the LPV factory in Lagos (Photo: Mansur Ibrahim/Climate Home News) Solar cells on a production line at the LPV factory in Lagos (Photo: Mansur Ibrahim/Climate Home News)

Production will need to increase nearly ten-fold, Abdullahi estimated, to meet projected future demand.

As new investments and joint ventures start to yield results, that might be possible, he said.

“Nigeria can even be the solar panel hub globally, not just for Africa, and compete well even with China,” he added.

China as a partner, not a rival

But Nigeria should not be aiming to compete with China, rather learning from it as it seeks to build up its solar industry ecosystem – from assembling imported components to eventually making more of them locally, said Godson Ikiebey, a renewable energy specialist at PwC Nigeria.

China did not become the world’s solar manufacturing giant overnight, Ikiebey said. It developed a long-term industrial strategy, invested heavily in manufacturing capacity and steadily climbed the value chain.

“For now, it’s good to have the ambition, but the ambition does not yet match the action,” Ikiebey added. 

China dominates global solar manufacturing not simply because it produces panels cheaply, RE.Think Energy’s CEO Muchiri said, but because it controls technology, supply chains and economies of scale built over decades.

Rather than trying to recreate that system from scratch, Nigeria should join forces with Chinese companies to accelerate technology transfer while developing its own workforce and manufacturing base, she said.

Building an African solar industry should also extend beyond Nigeria, with different countries potentially specialising in different parts of the value chain, fostering regional trade. “This is going to be a big opportunity to look at a regional expansion rather than just one country,” she added.

Chidiebere Ani, Foresolar manager, shows solar panels in the warehouse near the Alaba International Market in Lagos (Photo: Mansur Ibrahim/Climate Home News) Chidiebere Ani, Foresolar manager, shows solar panels in the warehouse near the Alaba International Market in Lagos (Photo: Mansur Ibrahim/Climate Home News)

Bringing such plans to fruition will take time and the goals should be realistic, Chinese investor Li said.

Items such as frames and screws could eventually be produced in Nigeria, but more sophisticated components like solar cells would still need to be imported because their production requires highly automated factories and a stable electricity supply, she said.

“You grow step by step. If you look at the long term, if you grow the seed and water it today, you will get the harvest tomorrow,” Li said.

Clean energy jobs for the future workforce

When President Tinubu described his government’s solar hub plans to Chinese investors, he touted the country’s large, young workforce.

“The labour is cheaper. Our youths are vibrant and skilled. Our people are brilliant and adapt to new technology,” he said.

LPV’s factory in Lagos offers a glimpse of that vision.

Ibeimo Biobele explains the module production process inside the LPV factory floor in Ikotun, Lagos, Nigeria (Mansur Ibrahim/Climate Home News) Ibeimo Biobele explains the module production process inside the LPV factory floor in Ikotun, Lagos, Nigeria (Mansur Ibrahim/Climate Home News)

A graduate in petroleum engineering, Ibeimo Biobele, 28, had no experience in solar manufacturing when she arrived at the factory a year ago as a member of the National Youth Service Corps – Nigeria’s mandatory one-year national service programme.

Like many university-leavers, Biobele faced an uncertain job market.

More than 93% of Nigerians work in the informal economy, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, meaning there are few skilled jobs for graduates like Biobele.

Today, she works on the production line assembling panels and hopes more such jobs will become available for young Nigerians in the years to come.

“If we had more factories like this, more young engineers would have opportunities after school,” she said.

This article was made possible with support from Surge Africa and One World Media.

Main image: A man carries a solar panel on his head while unloading a truck in Lagos, Nigeria (Photo: Mansur Ibrahim/Climate Home News)

The post Made in Nigeria: The race to build an African solar industry from scratch appeared first on Climate Home News.

As the planet heats up, tundras are thawing, wetlands are fermenting, and forests are succumbing to larger and more frequent wildfires. The breakdown of these natural systems is unleashing huge volumes of emissions, further intensifying warming from the burning of fossil fuels. According to new research, such feedback loops could amplify human-driven warming by 20 to 30 percent.

Read more on E360 →

Improved preparations and interregional power transfers played key roles in avoiding planned blackouts during bitter cold in early 2026, according to the agency and grid watchdog.

Microplastics are a scourge on the environment, accumulating in farm soils and wriggling their way into the food supply—reducing harvests and harming human health. But what if discarded plastics could be used instead, to improve crop yields and make farming more sustainable?

Researchers are trying to do just that. They’re working to develop a new generation of polymers that can be converted into farm fertilizers at the end of their life—rather than shoved into landfills.

A new study, published August 18 in Scientific Reports, documents an important new step in this effort: engineers have found a way to make plant-based polymers whose stiffness can be tuned for different uses such as shopping bags or fidget toys. These new plastics aren’t themselves biodegradable—so no one has to worry about sandwich bags rotting in the kitchen drawer. But when they’re discarded they can chemically converted into fertilizers.

People have spent years using isosorbide, a chemical building block produced from plant-derived glucose, to create experimental plastics that could do this. A study published by the same team in 2021 produced isosorbide-based polymers that could be recycled into fertilizers. But these plastics were too hard and brittle most uses.

Chemists who developed conventional plastics faced similar problems. So they tuned the mechanical properties of their polymers by incorporating other agents to either soften or harden them. But the chemicals that they used often turned out to be harmful to humans—like the now-infamous bisphenol-A (BPA).

In the new study, scientists created a novel derivative of isosorbide that functions as a softening agent—allowing them to concoct isosorbide-based plastics that were softer and stretchier. They could then recycle these bioplastics by treating them with ammonia—releasing the original isosorbide building blocks as well as urea—a chemical frequently used for industrial nitrogen fertilizers.

 

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These recycled mixtures improved the growth yield of Arabidopsis thaliana, a plant belonging to the mustard family, and komatsu, a Japanese mustard spinach that is cultivated as food in Asia, by 5-fold and 2.5-fold respectively, compared to no fertilizer at all.

In the experiments with Arabidopsis, the recycled mixture of urea and isosorbide also improved the yield by about 1.3-fold compared to standard urea fertilizer alone.

Based on experiments published by the same team in 2025, isosorbide appears to stimulate plant growth independently of urea, by increasing tolerance to nitrogen deficiency and salt stress.

More research will be needed to explore the usefulness of these plastics. For example, the plastics produced in this study were deemed appropriate for use in plastic bags or clear plastic wrapping—but not for other uses, such as book shelves or bike parts that require greater strength. The authors also cite the need to conduct a ‘lifecycle analysis’ of these plastics—to quantify their overall water usage, energy consumption, and greenhouse emissions and compare these to standard plastics, and standard fertilizers. They’ll also need to show that bioplastic-derived fertilizers don’t add to microplastic pollution. But at least these new plastics are designed to avoid that problem.

Fujimata, et al. “Plastics to fertilizer: A polymer system based on isosorbide as a monomer, plasticizer, and fertilizer.” Scientific Reports. 2026.

Agrahari, et al. “Novel role of isosorbide as a biostimulant in enhancing plant growth and development in Arabidopsis thaliana.” BMC Plant Biology. 2025.

Image: ©Anthropocene Magazine

Janet Fleischman is an independent consultant with extensive experience in research, policy advocacy, and narrative storytelling. Jyotsna Uppal is a historian and narrative strategist, who supports individuals and organisations in change processes.

Global climate progress sits at the centre of an acute crisis, as the multilateral order that structured international climate cooperation for three decades frays at the seams.

The Trump administration’s withdrawal from 66 United Nations and international organisations in early 2026, compounded by its exit from the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change itself, has launched a rupture in the governance architecture and the geopolitical consensus that made multilateral climate action conceivable.

Institutions have been stripped of authority, voluntary commitments left contingent on political will.

At this precarious moment, what can and should climate funders be doing?

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We recently examined the state of environmental multilateralism through an extensive literature review and interviews with climate leaders from around the world – policymakers, UN officials, regional actors, philanthropic leaders and advocates.

Their perspectives reinforced a sobering finding: more consequential than any single country’s efforts to undermine the multilateral system is the deeper question of whether that system is still fit for purpose.

Climate philanthropy must do more than fill gaps left by retreating governments; it must ask harder questions about whether gap-filling is the right role at all – and prepare to catalyse the emergence of something new.

Change will not come without pain.

As Sarah Millar, programme director at the Climate Emergency Collaboration Group, an international philanthropic network and strategic regranter, told us: “What we’re trying to do here is fundamentally rewire the global economy… it’s everything everywhere, all at once. And that’s really hard to do.”

Filling the gaps or leading change?

The multilateral climate system, for all its limitations, remains relatively intact. Countries other than the United States continue to submit national climate plans and participate in global negotiations. Yet participation is not the same as effectiveness – many commitments fall short of what’s needed.

Meanwhile, new regional, thematic and plurilateral coalitions are emerging; voluntary groupings of countries, cities, companies, and civil society organisations aligned around specific climate objectives are increasingly filling the action gap.

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Climate philanthropy has often responded to these gaps by substituting for absent public finance. Arunabha Ghosh, the founder and former CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), a climate think-tank based in New Delhi, explained: “Philanthropy is having to fill in the gap of public finance where development assistance is failing.” But this instinct deserves scrutiny.

A more fundamental question is whether gap-filling remains the right approach. Does philanthropy keep a failing system limping along, propping up dysfunction – or does it spur transformation and catalyse what comes next? There is no neutrality here – philanthropy cannot pretend its choices are inconsequential. The question is which position advances the transformation the moment requires.

Compounding these strategic questions is a more immediate threat. As formal multilateralism struggles, the civil society actors who might fill the gap face mounting restrictions – a closing of civic space evident not just in the US but in India, Israel, Russia, Turkey, and elsewhere. In the US, the Trump administration has stepped up attacks on philanthropies, threatening legal investigations and the withdrawal of foundations’ tax-exempt status.

A protester holds a placard describing the election of Donald Trump as a ‘climate disaster’ during a demonstration in London. (Photo: SOPA Images) A protester holds a placard describing the election of Donald Trump as a ‘climate disaster’ during a demonstration in London. (Photo: SOPA Images)

For climate philanthropy specifically, there’s a particular risk: support for climate action is increasingly portrayed in some US conservative circles as anti-American.

Conservative actors who emphasise fossil fuels for manufacturing and energy security often equate backing renewables with pro-China stances, since China is the largest green technology manufacturer. Yet the economic evidence points the other way, with the clean energy transition already underway – and the perils of fossil fuel reliance further underscored by the war in Iran.

Winning back the narrative

Underlying all these gaps is a failure of narrative. The story of climate progress – and there is real progress to tell – is not being written by governments.

As Christiana Figueres, an international leader on climate change and the former executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, put it this way: “The story of progress is being written by a plethora of other stakeholders – subnationals, finance corporations, NGOs – all of whom are doing their thing together. They’re writing an amazing story, and nobody’s writing it and nobody’s reading it and nobody’s taking note of it.”

This storytelling also needs to be more integrated: climate can’t remain a siloed concern but must be linked to health, education, gender equity and migration. Philanthropy can help make these linkages legible to policymakers and the public – expanding the coalition of actors who see climate as central to their own agendas.

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Four directions stand out for catalytic philanthropic support in this fragmented landscape:

• Shift who gets supported, and convene diverse actors. New pathways are needed to support local communities, civil society coalitions, and subnational actors implementing national climate plans.
• Support compelling narratives and amplify affected voices. Listening to affected communities is critical to shaping a just transition that gives communities real agency over change.
• Engage the private sector differently. New financing instruments and blended finance opportunities require philanthropy to engage more strategically with private sector and corporate actors – not merely as funders but as partners to design how catalytic capital can flow.
• Take strategic risks. Philanthropy may need to fund approaches to implementation, finance, and technology that governments and financial institutions won’t support.

This is a precarious moment for multilateralism, civil society and the philanthropic organisations that sustain it.

But that complexity may also provide an opportunity. Philanthropy willing to ask harder questions, take greater risks, and invest in the connective tissue between issues may do more than keep a struggling system afloat.

To catalyse multilateral climate action, many philanthropies recognise that this is the time to deepen their reach. In the words of Ailun Yang, with the environment program at Bloomberg Philanthropies: “Our main way to engage in this is by supporting smart people and innovative ideas. Philanthropy doesn’t necessarily do these things ourselves, and that is really where our superpower is.”

This piece is adapted from a project conducted by Janet Fleischman and Jyotsna Uppal, funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Environment Program; however, all the views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors’ own.

The post With multilateralism in crisis, what’s next for climate philanthropy? appeared first on Climate Home News.