Politics & Policy Archives - Inside Climate News

Longleaf Pine Restoration—a Major Climate Effort in the South—Curbs Its Ambitions to Meet Harsh Realities

By Marianne Lavelle, and Sarah Whites-Koditschek and Dennis Pillion of AL.com — Sun, 17 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

A Public-Private Partnership Confronts the Challenges of Nature-Based Solutions, Including Urban Growth, Logging Pressures and a Warming Planet

By Marianne Lavelle, and Sarah Whites-Koditschek and Dennis Pillion of AL.com

TUSKEGEE, Ala.—On a fall walk through Tuskegee National Forest, ecologist John Kush kept his eyes on the ground, looking for sprouts of hope.

The Biden Administration’s Scaled-Back Lease Proposal For Atlantic Offshore Wind Projects Prompts Questions, Criticism

By Aman Azhar — Sat, 16 Dec 2023 10:05:00 +0000

Environmental advocates and industry groups pointed out that any reduction in leasing area would make clean energy and emissions reduction targets more difficult to achieve.

By Aman Azhar

The Biden administration’s latest lease offering for offshore wind projects doesn’t allocate adequate acreage for Maryland and other mid-Atlantic states to achieve their legally binding emissions reduction and clean energy targets, industry groups and environmental advocates say. They believe the offering also further hobbles the offshore wind industry, which already faces supply constraints, a lack of new tax credits and high interest rates.

Q&A: The Sort of ‘Breakthrough’ Moment Came in Dubai When the Nations of the World Agreed to Transition Away From Fossil Fuels

Interview by Steve Curwood, "Living on Earth" — Sat, 16 Dec 2023 09:30:00 +0000

But, says climate advocate Alden Meyer, “the atmosphere only cares about one thing: emissions. It's a matter of physics. It doesn't care what ministers or leaders say in declarations or treaties or pledges or action announcements … So the acid test for this is going to come in the next couple of years.”

Interview by Steve Curwood, "Living on Earth"

From our collaborating partner “Living on Earth,” public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by host Steve Curwood with Alden Meyer, a climate advocate and senior consultant at E3G, an independent climate change think tank. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q&A: Catherine Coleman Flowers Talks COP28, Rural Alabama, and the Path Toward a ‘Just Transition’

By Lee Hedgepeth — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 17:00:00 +0000

From the Deep South to Dubai and back, Flowers has brought rural issues to the global stage.

By Lee Hedgepeth

Catherine Coleman Flowers brings Alabama’s Black Belt with her everywhere she goes. She can’t help it.

The U.S. May Not Have Won Over Critics in Dubai, But the Biden Administration Helped Keep the Process Alive

By Marianne Lavelle — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 01:30:00 +0000

Special Climate Envoy Kerry clearly believed the final deal was better than no deal at all, especially after direct pre-COP diplomacy with China became a springboard for action led by the world's top carbon, and methane, emitters.

By Marianne Lavelle

When it looked like climate negotiations in Dubai were about to fall apart early this week over the summit’s failure to make any commitment to transition away from fossil fuels, U.S. Special Climate Envoy John Kerry sharpened his tone to align with the most ardent climate activists—many of whom had been targeting him for criticism.

COP28 Does Not Deliver Clear Path to Fossil Fuel Phase Out

By Bob Berwyn — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 18:30:00 +0000

Small island states that arrived after the document was approved, don’t accept the outcome as a consensus decision.

By Bob Berwyn

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—Going into overtime under the cover of a dark winter night in Dubai, climate negotiators at COP28 cooked up a weak sauce of climate half-measures that fail to adequately address the existential risk of global warming to millions of people around the globe, according to leading climate experts at the conference.

A New UN ‘Roadmap’ Lays Out a Global Vision for Food Security and Emissions Reductions

By Georgina Gustin — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Critics applaud food-related ambitions at COP28, but say they don’t address livestock emissions and rely too much on bioenergy.

By Georgina Gustin

As the United Nations’ annual climate summit wraps up in Dubai this week, farm and food groups are applauding the conference leadership for its intensified focus on agriculture, a major source of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions that has been overlooked in previous years.

Vivek Ramaswamy Called ‘the Climate Change Agenda’ a Hoax in Alabama’s First-Ever Presidential Debate. What Did University of Alabama Students Think?

By Lee Hedgepeth — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 23:30:00 +0000

Two Alabama students, a conservative and a progressive, said they’re hoping for a more nuanced conversation on the environment.

By Lee Hedgepeth

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.—Grant Long never thought he’d be in the audience of a U.S. presidential debate.

US Climate Activists at COP28 Slam Their Home Country for Hypocrisy

By Bob Berwyn — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

They say Biden’s policies, including record-level oil and gas development, will lead to continued degradation of Indigenous lands and water and keep other countries hooked on fossil fuels.

By Bob Berwyn

Claims by some U.S. lawmakers at COP28 that President Biden’s policies provide global leadership on climate rang hollow with leading American climate activists at the annual conference who faulted the administration for supporting unbridled oil and gas development and for pushing carbon capture as an illusory solution for reducing emissions.

US Lawmakers Confer With World Leaders at COP28

By Bob Berwyn — Sun, 10 Dec 2023 18:34:41 +0000

Some House lawmakers go on record as supporting a fossil fuel phaseout, while others seem to lean toward supporting unproven carbon capture and storage technology.

By Bob Berwyn

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—Domestic U.S. climate politics played out on an international stage this weekend at COP28, as a bipartisan congressional delegation mingled with world leaders and touted President Biden’s climate record.