Super-Pollutants Archives - Inside Climate News

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.

At COP28, a Growing Sense of Alarm Over the Harms of Air Pollution

By Victoria St. Martin — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 19:30:00 +0000

A study released on the eve of the conference found that 8 million people around the world die annually from air pollution. And experts say the crisis is worsening.

By Victoria St. Martin

In one home video, Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah bops to a choreographed Beyoncé dance. In another, she looks at the camera, and her mom and plants a big kiss on her lips. Then there is a photo of her mid-laugh when she told her mom she could not climb any more steps at a monument. And in some of the final images taken of Ella as she neared the end of her all-too-brief life, the 9-year-old lies in a London hospital room struggling to breathe, an oxygen mask covering nearly all of her tiny, oval face.

Government, Corporate and Philanthropic Interests Coalesce On Curbing Methane Emissions as Calls at COP28 for Binding Global Methane Agreement Intensify

By Phil McKenna — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

New U.S. and EU regulations on methane emissions strengthen calls for a binding international agreement to curb the climate pollution.

By Phil McKenna

The Environmental Protection Agency announced new regulations at the COP28 global climate summit in Dubai on Saturday that will reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas industry by nearly 80 percent. The move followed new rules from the European Union that will limit methane emissions on natural gas imports starting in 2030.

Is China Emitting a Climate Super Pollutant in Violation of an International Environmental Agreement?

By Phil McKenna and Peter Aldhous — Sat, 18 Nov 2023 11:00:00 +0000

Concentrations of HFC-23, one of the world’s most potent greenhouse gases, remained elevated in East Asia after China, a known past polluter, agreed to curb emissions.

By Phil McKenna and Peter Aldhous

Preliminary atmospheric monitoring data from a remote South Korean island off China’s east coast shows elevated concentrations of hydrofluorocarbon-23 (HFC-23), a greenhouse gas 14,700 times more potent than carbon dioxide on a pound-for-pound basis, according to the World Meteorological Association.

Can US, China Climate Talks Spur Progress at COP28?

By Bob Berwyn, Phil McKenna and Nicholas Kusnetz — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 19:48:03 +0000

With global consensus difficult to find, some experts say smaller multilateral deals between major greenhouse gas polluters are needed to quickly cut emissions.

By Bob Berwyn, Phil McKenna and Nicholas Kusnetz

New climate talks between the United States and China could set an encouraging signal for the upcoming United Nations COP28 climate summit, but only if the world’s biggest greenhouse gas polluters follow up on their words with actions.

Who Were the Worst of the Worst Climate Polluters in 2022?

By Phil McKenna — Sun, 29 Oct 2023 09:30:00 +0000

EPA’s annual greenhouse gas report for large emitters show some facilities slashed their emissions while others polluted more than ever.

By Phil McKenna

Emissions from the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the U.S. were down slightly in 2022, but thousands of industrial facilities with substantial emissions remain, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s recently released Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program data.

An Alabama Coal Plant Once Again Nabs the Dubious Title of the Nation’s Worst Greenhouse Gas Polluter

By Lee Hedgepeth — Sun, 29 Oct 2023 09:00:00 +0000

A single Jefferson County power plant pollutes more than some entire countries.

By Lee Hedgepeth

In West Jefferson, everything happens in the shadow of Alabama Power.

Texas Continues to Issue Thousands of Flaring Permits

By Martha Pskowski — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 09:55:00 +0000

State regulators raise doubts about natural gas flaring permits but rarely reject them. Advocates for reform say the permit process is a “rubber stamp” and that companies shouldn’t get a free pass to keep flaring indefinitely.

By Martha Pskowski

At a Railroad Commission meeting last month, Commissioner Jim Wright chastised Callon Petroleum for flaring natural gas at a drilling site, saying it should “find a better solution.”

Watchdog Finds a US Chemical Plant Isn’t Reporting Emissions of Climate Super-Pollutants and Ozone-Depleting Substances to Federal Regulators

By Phil McKenna — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 13:46:14 +0000

Fenceline monitoring by the Environmental Investigation Agency furthers the call to close industry loopholes under an international environmental agreement.

By Phil McKenna

U.S. chemical manufacturer Honeywell International released chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)—climate super-pollutants and ozone depleting substances that are banned except for limited uses under an international environmental agreement—according to a report released Oct. 10 by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a non-profit environmental organization based in Washington, D.C.

Biden Announces Huge Hydrogen Investment. How Much Will It Help The Climate?

By Nicholas Kusnetz, Jon Hurdle — Sat, 14 Oct 2023 00:55:45 +0000

The Energy Department awarded up to $7 billion in grants for clean hydrogen “hubs,” but environmentalists warn some of the money could prop up fossil fuels and fail to cut emissions.

By Nicholas Kusnetz, Jon Hurdle

PHILADELPHIA—President Joe Biden traveled to a marine terminal here on Friday to announce billions in funding for new clean hydrogen projects that he said would help the nation meet its climate goals while generating thousands of new high-quality jobs. Surrounded by lines of shipping containers on a dock along the Delaware River, Biden positioned the program as a critical piece of his economic and climate platforms.