Regulation Archives - Inside Climate News

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.

Will the American Geophysical Union Cut All Ties With the Fossil Fuel Industry?

By Liza Gross — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Scientist-activists ask the world’s biggest society of earth and space scientists to revoke the fossil fuel industry’s social license.

By Liza Gross

SAN FRANCISCO—Scientists who have risked their careers, freedom and livelihoods led a town hall meeting here on Tuesday at the world’s largest annual gathering of earth and space scientists to ask their colleagues to consider what their professional society’s stance should be in relation to the fossil fuel industry.

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.

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.

With a New Speaker of the House, Billions in Climate and Energy Funding—Mostly to Red States—Hang in the Balance

Interview by Steve Curwood, "Living on Earth" — Sat, 09 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

How House Speaker Mike Johnson is revealing key aspects of the Republican climate agenda moving forward

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 Derrick Jackson, a Union of Concerned Scientists Fellow in climate and energy and a contributing opinion writer for Environmental Health News. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Massachusetts Just Took a Big Step Away from Natural Gas. Which States Might Follow?

By Dan Gearino — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 22:21:16 +0000

A first-in-the-country ruling sets Massachusetts on a path toward electrification of heating, and could lead regulators in other states to follow suit.

By Dan Gearino

Natural gas may be on the way out in Massachusetts.

Texas Court Strikes Down Air Pollution Permit for Gulf Coast Oil Terminal

By Dylan Baddour — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 18:30:00 +0000

A judge reversed a 2022 decision by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that involved its controversial “one-mile rule” to deny hearing requests.

By Dylan Baddour

For the second time in three weeks, a court struck down an air pollution permit issued by Texas’ environmental regulator.

At COP28, the United States Will Stress an End to Fossil Emissions, Not Fuels

By Marianne Lavelle — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 22:37:37 +0000

The Biden administration faces increasing international and domestic political pressure to endorse near-term cuts in coal, oil and natural gas.

By Marianne Lavelle

President Joe Biden will not attend the climate talks that commence this week in Dubai, but the conflict that has come to define his policy on the planetary crisis will be front and center.

“Carbon Cowboys” Chasing Emissions Offsets in the Amazon Keep Forest-Dwelling Communities in the Dark

By Sam Schramski and Cícero Pedrosa Neto — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Indigenous and traditional groups in the forest are rarely consulted about carbon credit projects they see as the latest gold rush on their lands, and question the community and climate benefits the projects promise.

By Sam Schramski and Cícero Pedrosa Neto

“The first time I heard about carbon credits, I didn’t understand what they were about at all,” says Queila Couto, a lawyer, while staring into the Itacuruçá River in the Brazilian state of Pará, “and it was bad.”