Air/Climate

Teens Press Climate Cases in Courts Across the World

EUGENE, Oregon, January 25, 2021 (ENS) – Climate change is worsening by the year, threatening to make the planet unliveable for people now in their teens and early twenties. Because government actions are often at the root of climate warming, young Americans have taken the first legal steps in what has become a global youth climate movement. […]

No Picture
Air/Climate

‘Reset Earth’ Animated Film, Game Aims to Inspire Gen Z

NAIROBI, Kenya, January 21, 2021 (ENS) – The United Nations Ozone Secretariat is about the last place a Gen Zer might look for a fun new mobile game, but that’s about to change on Sunday, January 24, World Education Day, when the Secretariat will release “Reset Earth,” an innovative educational platform about the fundamental protective role of the ozone layer. […]

Biden
Air/Climate

Day One: President Biden to Reject Keystone XL Pipeline

WASHINGTON, DC, January 19, 2021 (ENS) – A series of executive orders expected from President Joe Biden on his first day in office, January 20, include many that affect the environment, particularly the climate. Among his actions on Day One, Biden intends to sign an order to rescind the construction permit for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline expansion granted in 2019 by President Donald Trump. […]

Air/Climate

Biden’s Green Team Takes Shape With Race, Gender Firsts

WASHINGTON, DC, January 13, 2021 (ENS) – President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office on January 20 at noon, has nominated a team of seasoned environmental leaders to fill his Cabinet in positions that will impact the Earth’s unique places, people, and species, now more vulnerable than ever after the Trump administration. Climate will be a top priority of Biden’s core plan for a “clean energy revolution and environmental justice.” […]

No Picture
Air/Climate

Guterres Urges Quick Shift: Fossil Fuels to Renewables

NEW YORK, New York, January 11, 2021 (ENS) – Building a global coalition for carbon neutrality by mid-century will be the United Nation’s “central objective,” the UN’s top official told an online climate conference Monday. “All countries need credible mid-term goals and plans that are aligned with this objective,” Secretary-General António Guterres said, […]

pumping station
Air/Climate

New Trump EPA Rule Slow-Walks Clean Air Regulations

WASHINGTON, DC, December 9, 2020 (ENS) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today finalized a procedural rule that the agency says will “improve the rulemaking process under the Clean Air Act by establishing requirements to ensure consistent, high-quality analyses of benefits and costs are provided to the public for significant rules.” Critics say the rule will inhibit future air quality protections. […]

Barra
Air/Climate

GM Quits Trump Suit to Strip California’s Emissions Control

DETROIT, Michigan, November 25, 2020 (ENS) – General Motors CEO Mary Barra said on Monday the company is pulling out of a lawsuit led by the Trump administration against California over the state’s right to set its own fuel economy and emissions regulations. Barra said the company supports President-elect Joe Biden’s plans to expand electrification of cars. […]

Kerry
Air/Climate

John Kerry to Head Biden Administration’s Climate Team

WASHINGTON, DC, November 23, 2020 (ENS) – President-elect Joe Biden today announced key members of his foreign policy and national security team including, for the first time, a Special Presidential Envoy for Climate. To fill this new role, Biden has chosen old friend and Senate colleague, former Secretary of State John Kerry. […]

Air/Climate

Wary Funders Drop Proposed South African Coal Plant

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, November 19, 2020 (ENS) – “Major climate impacts and exorbitant costs have sounded the death knell” for one of the last new proposed coal-fired power stations in South Africa – Thabametsi power station in water-scarce Limpopo province, says the Centre for Environmental Rights, a firm of environmental justice lawyers. […]

Air/Climate

Bezos Opens $10 Billion Earth Fund With Climate Grants

SEATTLE, Washington, November 17, 2020 (ENS) – Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the world’s wealthiest person, is giving nearly $800 million to 16 environmental groups in the first donations from his $10 billion Earth Fund. in February, Bezos announced the creation of his personal $10 billion Earth Fund, designed to support what Bezos has called “needle-moving solutions” to the climate crisis. […]

Biden, Trump
Air/Climate

President-elect Biden to Restore U.S. Climate Leadership

WASHINGTON, DC, November 8, 2020 (ENS) – Joseph R. Biden Jr. was declared President-elect of the United States on Saturday after slow, meticulous vote-counting that kept the nation on edge for four days. Biden, a Democrat, campaigned on a strong climate restoration platform, starting with bringing the United States back into the Paris Climate Agreement on day one of a Biden administration. […]

smokestack
Air/Climate

UN Virtual Climate Dialogues to Fill COP26 Gap

BONN, Germany, October 27, 2020 (ENS) – The Climate Dialogues, a series of virtual climate change events, will be offered by the United Nations from November 23 to December 4, 2020. This year, virtual events are taking the place of the annual in-person UN climate change conference, so that all work on implementing the Paris climate accord does not grind to a halt in the face of the pandemic. […]

Air/Climate

Trump vs Biden: Environment in the Final Debate

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, October 23, 2020 (ENS) – Republican President Donald Trump and his challenger in the November 3 election former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, faced off in their second and final debate Thursday night. They disagreed on everything – especially climate change. […]

power plant
Air/Climate

Climate Change Intensifies Despite Pandemic Lockdowns

GENEVA, Switzerland, September 10, 2020 (ENS) – Already at their highest levels in three million years, greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere continue to increase, lockdowns around the world to slow the spread of the pandemic coronavirus have forced vehicles to stay parked, making way for clearer skies – temporarily. […]

Biden Harris
Air/Climate

Climate High Priority for Biden-Harris Democratic Ticket

WILMINGTON, Delaware, August 14, 2020 (ENS) – In their first campaign appearance together as running mates, Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for President, and his newly announced vice presidential choice, Senator Kamala Harris, both mentioned their climate plan. It would invest $2 trillion over four years in clean energy and environmental justice. […]

health professionals
Air/Climate

40 Million Medical Pros Prescribe Green Recovery for G20

GENEVA, Switzerland, May 27, 2020 (ENS) – Forty million health professionals Tuesday sent a letter to the leaders of each of the G20 nations, calling for a healthy and green recovery from COVID-19. They advised that the G20 leaders invest in public health and involve their medical and scientific communities in developing stimulus packages to help their economies recover. […]

Earth
Air/Climate

Earth Day 2020 Features Global Online Climate Event

WASHINGTON, DC, April 17, 2020 (ENS) – The biggest climate conference of the year will be the Earth Day Week No Fly Conference – just one of the 50th anniversary events marking Earth Day 2020. During this public, free, online event, 100 key experts will meet virtually to share the creative solutions needed to build a better future and avert humanity’s most serious crisis – climate change. […]

Greenland
Air/Climate

Ice Cover Shrinks at North and South Poles

IRVINE, California, March 19, 2020 (ENS) – During the exceptionally warm Arctic summer of 2019, Greenland lost 600 billion tons of ice, enough to raise global sea levels by 2.2 millimeters in two months. On the opposite pole, Antarctica continued to lose mass in the Amundsen Sea Embayment and Antarctic Peninsula but saw some relief in the form of increased snowfall in the eastern part of the continent. […]

von der Leyden
Air/Climate

EU to Enshrine in Law Climate Neutrality by 2050

BRUSSELS, Belgium, March 10, 2020 (ENS) – The European Commission has proposed to pass a law formalizing the EU’s political commitment to be climate neutral by 2050 to protect the planet and its inhabitants. The European Climate Law sets the 2050 target and direction for all EU policy and offers predictability to public authorities, businesses, and citizens. […]

emissions
Air/Climate

Out-of-State Emissions Cause Half Air Pollution Deaths

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, February 13, 2020 (ENS) – More than half of all early deaths in the United States due to poor air quality are a result of emissions originating outside of the state in which those deaths occur, report researchers with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT. […]