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As the US Rejoins the Paris Agreement, What’s Next on the Road to COP26?
Rachel Cleetus, Policy Director and Lead Economist, Climate & Energy | February 18, 2021, 12:56 pm EDT This post is a part of a series on
On Feb 19
John Kerry, a climate champion for our time
Mr. Kerry’s appointment as Special Presidential Envoy for Climate is most welcome. His deep expertise and diplomatic skills are much needed, as is his track record of working with other countries in a spirit of mutual respect and cooperation. He has hit the ground running, quickly reaching out to world leaders and setting the stage for a year of extensive consultations all designed to raise the ambition of global climate action ahead of COP26 in Glasgow later this year. His grasp of climate science, of the climate emergency we are in, comes through clearly.
For decades, the American Petroleum Institute (API) has been a powerful force against US action on climate change. Representing the interests of its oil and gas company members, API has a long and ugly history of spreading disinformation on climate science and lobbying heavily to oppose any limits o
Craig Davidenko/dronemedia.com
Joel Clement, Senior fellow | January 27, 2021, 9:03 am EDT This post is a part of a series on
This post was co-authored with Lara Hansen, Chief Scientist and Executive Director of EcoAdapt.
Last summer, one of us was locked inside their home in the Seattle area, not because of the pandemic, but because the air was full of smoke from fires raging hundreds of miles away in California. The other was peering through an orange afternoon haze for the same reason thousands of miles away in Maine.
And sadly this was not the first year that a long, heartbreaking wildfire season has had hemispheric consequences, or that the impacts of human-caused climate change have cost lives and livelihoods in America. It was one of the worst, however. Climate impacts in the US cost our economy nearly $100 billion in 2020 almost double the previous year’s costs.
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Brenda Ekwurzel, senior climate scientist | January 15, 2021, 3:58 pm EDT
It is now official, 2020 ends the hottest decade on record. The top takeaway is the decadal temperature chart has now become as iconic as the “Keeling Curve,” which has recorded atmospheric carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii since 1958, and shows a similar upward trend.
Global Decadal Average Temperature
This warmest decade was preceded by the second warmest, which in turn was preceded by the third warmest, which in turn was preceded by the fourth warmest decade, meaning the last 40 years, on average, have been the hottest on record. The pace of heat-trapping emissions from fossil fuel burning and other human activities has not yet slowed this upward trend. Quite the opposite.
Ask a Scientist: What Should the Biden Administration and Congress Do to Address the Climate Crisis?
Elliott Negin, senior writer | January 14, 2021, 10:30 am EDT This post is a part of a series on
What a difference an election makes. Thanks to the Biden-Harris victory in November, the next administration is poised to make a 180-degree turn to again address the climate crisis.
President Trump famously called climate change a “hoax,” appointed fossil fuel industry lobbyists to key positions in his administration, rolled back the Obama-era rule that would have curbed power plant carbon emissions, and weakened Obama-era limits on vehicle carbon emissions. Just a day after last fall’s election, he pulled the United States out of the international Paris climate agreement.