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Tag: Pollution

  • U.S. Sen. Tina Smith rallying against vote to overturn Boundary Waters mining ban

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    Environmental advocates are sounding the alarm as a proposal to overturn a mining ban near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota steps closer to reality.  

    The U.S. Senate is set to vote next week on overturning a 20-year mining ban in Minnesota’s Cook, Lake and St. Louis counties. Former President Joe Biden signed the protection during the end of his time in office. 

    In January, the House of Representatives narrowly passed the bill introduced by Minnesota Republican Rep. Pete Stauber. 

    Lawmakers, including Minnesota Democratic U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, were joined Monday by environmental groups and outfitters that serve the Boundary Waters to say they don’t want to see the bill pass.

    Their fear is that copper mining projects will quickly move in, causing pollution and destruction to what has been protected land. 

    Smith says she’s working on rallying Senate Republicans to join her side to block the bill. She and others say at least one foreign group is already interested in mining the area. 

    Mining groups say any projects would be heavily regulated and vetted, but Smith says it’s not a deal she wants to see go through. 

    “We appreciate that mining is crucial to our economy and our national security and our way of life, but that is not what this mine is about. This mine is about a very well-connected, foreign mining conglomerate, Antofagasta,” Smith said. “It wants to develop this mine, dig up the copper, leave us with the mess, then send the metal most likely to China, and then sell it back to us or whoever is willing to pay the highest price.”

    This story will be updated.

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    Adam Duxter

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  • Trump administration dismantles US ability to fight climate change; environmentalists vow to appeal

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    In the Midwest, climate change is fueling extreme heat, toxic algal blooms in the Great Lakes and tornadoes across Illinois.


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    Jerry Wu

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  • When forever chemicals contaminate drinking water, private well owners may be the last to know

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    STELLA, Wis. — Kristen Hanneman made a small decision in 2022 that would upend life for her entire town.

    State scientists were checking private drinking water wells across Wisconsin for a widely used family of harmful chemicals called PFAS. They mailed an offer to test the well outside her tidy farmhouse surrounded by potato farms cut out of dense forest. Without much thought, she accepted.

    Months later, Hanneman found herself on the phone with a state toxicologist who told her to stop drinking the water — now. The well her three kids grew up on had levels thousands of times higher than federal drinking water limits for what are commonly known as forever chemicals.

    Hanneman’s well was hardly the only one with a problem. And the chemicals were everywhere. Pristine lakes and superb hunting made Stella a sportsman’s dream. Now officials say the fish and deer should be eaten sparingly or not at all.

    Many residents here have known their neighbors for decades. If they want to move away from all this, it’s hard to sell their property – who, after all, would want to buy?

    “Had I just thrown that survey in the garbage,” Hanneman said, “would any of this be where it is today?”

    Stella is far from the only community near industrial sites and military bases nationwide where enormous amounts of PFAS have contaminated the landscape, posing a particular threat to nearby well owners.

    Forever chemicals get their name because they resist breaking down, whether in well water or the environment. In the human body, they accumulate in the liver, kidneys and blood. Research has linked them to an increased risk of certain cancers and developmental delays in children.

    Government estimates suggest as much as half of U.S. households have some level of PFAS in their water — whether it comes from a private well or a tap. But while federal officials have put strict limits on water provided by utilities, those rules don’t apply to the roughly 40 million people in the United States who rely on private drinking water wells.

    Short of a random test, as in Stella, few may learn their water is tainted with the odorless, colorless chemicals.

    At least 20 states do not test private wells for PFAS outside of areas where problems are already suspected, according to a survey of state agencies by The Associated Press. Even in states that do, residents often wait years for help and receive far fewer resources than people tied into municipal tap water.

    PFAS are so common because they are so useful. Uniquely able to repel moisture and withstand extreme temperatures, the chemicals have been critical to making waterproof shoes, nonstick cookware and foam that could extinguish the hottest fires.

    When the chemicals reach soil or water, as they have near factories and waste sites, they are extremely difficult to remove. North Carolina saw an early example, with well owners downstream from a PFAS manufacturing plant still dealing with tainted water years later. In rural northwest Georgia, communities are reckoning with widespread contamination from PFAS that major carpet manufacturers applied for stain resistance.

    Robert Bilott, an environmental attorney who pursued one of the first major lawsuits against a PFAS manufacturer in the late 1990s, said many states don’t have the money to help.

    “The well owners — the victims of the contamination — shouldn’t have to be paying,” he said. “But where’s this money going to come from?”

    The alarming results from Hanneman’s well triggered a rush of testing, beginning with the wells of nearby neighbors and later expanding miles away.

    How the chemicals infiltrated water beneath Stella’s sandy soil was initially a mystery. State officials eventually suspected the paper mill in the small city of Rhinelander, a 10-mile (16-kilometer) drive from town. The mill had specialized in making paper for microwave popcorn bags — a product that was greaseproof thanks in part to PFAS.

    The mill’s manufacturing process also produced a waste sludge which could be used as a fertilizer. By 1996, and for decades after with state approval, the mill spread millions of pounds on farm fields in and around Stella. Wisconsin officials now believe the PFAS it contained seeped into the subterranean reserves of groundwater that feed lakes, streams and many residential wells.

    In September, the state sent initial letters assigning cleanup and investigation responsibilities to current and former owners of the mill. These companies point out that the state permitted their sludge spreading, starting long before the dangers of PFAS were widely understood.

    The problem in Stella remained hidden because well owners don’t have a utility testing their water.

    Rhinelander’s water utility first tested for PFAS in 2013 to comply with federal rules. By 2019, the city shut down two utility-owned public wells to protect customers. In Stella, meanwhile, some well owners found out only last year that their water is unsafe.

    The Hanneman family moved into their home when their oldest son was nearly two. He’s 19 now. His parents worry about all those years of exposure, and have joined an effort to sue the paper mill’s owners and PFAS manufacturers.

    Several plaintiffs in the growing lawsuit allege property damage and that their cholesterol, thyroid and kidney diseases are linked to contaminated groundwater. The companies have denied responsibility.

    Very tiny amounts of PFAS consumed regularly over years can be dangerous. As scientists better understood those risks, federal advice for water utilities slowly followed and tightened. The current limit is just 4 parts per trillion, or less than a drop diluted in an Olympic-size swimming pool.

    The Environmental Protection Agency recommends private wells be tested for bacteria and a limited number of commonly found chemicals, but not PFAS unless it is a known local problem. Experts say testing mandates would be deeply unpopular. Many well owners value their freedom from government oversight and a monthly bill, and take pride in the taste of their water.

    PFAS has turned some of those freedoms into liabilities. The chemicals can only be removed from water with costly filters that must be regularly monitored and replaced. Some well owners opt instead to drill deeper or even connect to city water pipes. Facing expensive and uncertain options, many resort to bottled water.

    In Stella, residents are grappling with the chemicals’ unpredictable underground path. Though Tom LaDue’s backyard extends to the edge of a highly contaminated lake, testing found barely any PFAS in his family’s well.

    Somehow, a neighbor farther back from the lake found 1,500 parts per trillion of PFAS in her shallower well — magnitudes above the federal limits for tap water. The mother of three in that house says she is regularly tired, which she blames on thyroid issues, wondering if the water is to blame.

    In one picture from a few years ago, LaDue is baiting a hook as his grandson dangles a fishing pole over the side of their boat. The sun shines bright.

    “It’s a nice lake and we fished in here,” he said. “Now they tell us we can’t eat the fish anymore.”

    While utilities can rely on centralized treatment facilities, restoring safe water for well owners must be done household by household. Some well owners get left out as regulators, lawyers and companies strike deals over who gets help.

    The treatment of residents in the lakeside town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, depends on the street where they live.

    The town faced a crisis nearly a decade ago when PFAS were detected in wells downstream from a fire technology plant owned by Tyco and parent company Johnson Controls, which manufactured firefighting foam. Wisconsin officials said the company was responsible for cleaning up the plant and must sample wells in a broad area to see where the pollution spread. Johnson Controls told state regulators it studied the area’s hydrology and geology and concluded it would pay for tests and drill new wells in a smaller section of town for which it maintains it is responsible.

    Kayla Furton, a high school teacher who grew up in Peshtigo, lives in a home inside this area.

    Had she lived two houses away, Furton would have had to pay out of pocket to treat the PFAS in her water.

    Furton’s worries over what would happen to her neighbors beyond that line, including her sister, motivated her to run for the town’s board. During her time in office, Peshtigo leadership split over which fixes to pursue, and some well owners are still waiting on a long-term solution.

    “Groundwater does not follow lines drawn on a map,” Furton said. “There’s nothing to say that, OK, the PFAS stops there.”

    In a statement, Johnson Controls said it has taken full responsibility for the area it contaminated. The company said it has restored more than 300 million gallons of clean water to the environment and installed 139 new wells.

    The state of Wisconsin says the company has not fully investigated the extent of the contamination, and filed a lawsuit in 2022. Johnson Controls said in December the parties were close to reaching an agreement; the Wisconsin Department of Justice said it does not comment on pending litigation.

    Residents along the Cape Fear River in North Carolina have seen just how far forever chemicals can spread. In 2017, the Wilmington StarNews revealed that PFAS from a Chemours chemical plant in Fayetteville were washing into the river and contaminating the water supply. After being sued, the billion-dollar company agreed to test nearby wells and treat those with polluted water. It did not admit to any wrongdoing.

    As in Stella, the company tested in a slowly expanding radius that grew by quarter-mile segments from its plant. Chemours agreed to keep testing wells until it reached the edge of the polluted area — a process it expected to take 18 months.

    Seven years and some 23,000 wells later, testing is ongoing, with the contamination stretching far beyond what state regulators first imagined. Forever chemicals have been found in drinking water along nearly 100 miles (160 kilometers) of the river, from inland Fayetteville to the Atlantic coast.

    According to an AP analysis of data submitted to the state’s Department of Environmental Quality, Chemours discovered high levels of PFAS in more than 150 new wells in 2025.

    Many well owners “thought they were fine,” said Emily Donovan, an organizer and cofounder of the group Clean Cape Fear. “And now they’re finding out so late that they were also contaminated.”

    In a statement, Chemours said its timeline for testing wells depends on factors outside its control, including whether residents allow it, and that of the roughly 1,250 wells it sampled last year, 12% had PFAS. Chemours said it continues to contact eligible homes, and that a sample is typically taken within a week of residents’ responding.

    In the absence of federal rules, responsibility falls to the states. But many states don’t look for contamination in private wells — and when those that do find it, many struggle to fund a fix.

    One proactive state is Michigan, where millions rely on private wells. Officials there have tested groundwater and offered free tests to well owners near PFAS hot spots which, at hundreds of dollars per test, many owners are reluctant or unable to buy. The state provided more than $29 million in grants to clean up forever chemicals in its 2022 fiscal year, including hooking up nearly a thousand well owners to public water.

    One of the biggest challenges is helping well owners understand why they should take the threat seriously.

    “We are very lucky to get 50% of the people to say, ‘Yes, come test my well for free,’ let alone willing to put on a filter,” said Abigail Hendershott, executive director of Michigan’s multiagency team that responds to PFAS contamination.

    New Hampshire, which dealt with an early PFAS crisis in Merrimack, has tested over 15,000 wells, more than half of which had levels exceeding federal standards. It provides generous rebates for homeowners to access clean water.

    Elsewhere, millions of households are left on their own.

    In northwest Georgia, some of the world’s largest carpet companies began applying PFAS for stain resistance in the 1970s. The companies continued using the chemicals, which entered the environment through manufacturing wastewater, for years, even after scientific studies and regulators warned of their accumulation in human blood and possible health effects, according to an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Associated Press, The Post and Courier and AL.com. The companies say that they followed all required regulations and that they stopped using PFAS on carpets in 2019.

    The chemicals have tainted much of the landscape, including the drinking water in cities and the waterways that crisscross the Conasauga River watershed, home to tens of thousands of people. But only well owners near the small city of Calhoun have been offered free tests, and then only under a court agreement. The contaminated river flows into Alabama, where state officials do not typically test private wells for PFAS.

    Financial limitations are an oft-cited reason why states aren’t doing more.

    Wisconsin, which relied on federal funds for its initial survey of wells, has scraped together resources to investigate PFAS in Stella. The state’s environmental agency has no budget for sampling or treatment and is pulling money and staff time from other programs, according to the head of the drinking and groundwater program. Supplying bottled water to impacted homes — once a rare expense — now requires the state to set aside $900,000 annually.

    Meanwhile, enormous amounts of money that could help have been stuck in a bank account, collecting interest. Though state lawmakers voted in 2023 to provide $125 million for PFAS cleanup, the funding has been mired by a separate debate over whether to shield certain property owners from liability. In January, key legislators said they were getting closer to a deal that would release the money.

    The EPA has allocated billions to states for PFAS treatment and testing, but much of that money goes to public utilities.

    Federal officials are evaluating Stella for inclusion in the Superfund program, a large-scale decontamination process that would take years. They also partnered with Wisconsin officials to expand well sampling in July.

    At an October public meeting in Stella, several residents asked if they should be worried about their well water.

    There is a risk, state employees said, but they could not offer unlimited free tests to rule it out. Those who wanted one immediately would have to pay for it.

    “We’re doing the best that we can with the funding that we have available,” said Mark Pauli, a drinking and groundwater supervisor.

    In a statement, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said it had offered cost-free PFAS sampling for well owners within three miles of Stella and to many beyond that distance. The state said it provides owners of contaminated wells with guidance on treating their water and accessing financial help.

    Nobody is accepting blame in Stella and finger pointing is circular. While the state is investigating, the current and former mill owners point to the state’s permit as exonerating and say they followed all state rules.

    Ahlstrom, the Finnish company that has owned the mill since 2018, said in a statement it hasn’t used two of the most common types of PFAS found in Stella wells in its manufacturing process, and that it phased out all other types of PFAS in 2023. In late January, the company announced its own free bottled water program for residents.

    Former owner Wausau Paper and its parent company Essity said they were cooperating with state officials and that the waste sludge they spread was tested for various contaminants, but not PFAS because it wasn’t required.

    Wisconsin officials say the threat of PFAS in the sludge wasn’t well understood when they approved its use as fertilizer, and that the state will continue to require those who caused contamination to address its impacts.

    That leaves residents, who did not contaminate their own wells, stuck hiring lawyers who argue these companies and PFAS manufacturers knew — or should have known — the risks.

    The crisis in Stella sparked by the test of her own well drove Kristen Hanneman to run for a town leadership role.

    She spent months learning about the dangers of PFAS, then relaying that knowledge. It’s a town so small that she said talking to a few of the right people would spread word to just about everyone.

    It’s been more than three years since Hanneman learned her well had PFAS levels near 11,500 parts per trillion. Federal limits are in the single digits. Her water supply is just as contaminated now as it was then. The family currently drinks and cooks with bottled water provided by the state.

    Though some Stella residents have been able to access grant funding to drill deeper wells to reach clean water, the help was limited by household income, with some families disqualified if they made more than $65,000. Typically, the most a family could receive was $16,000 — about half of what it may cost for a replacement well.

    Stories circulate in Stella about people who paid for a new well only for their water still to be contaminated. Wisconsin state officials confirmed that at least three households faced this dilemma.

    “Do we spend $20,000 to $40,000 on a new well for it to still be a problem?” Hanneman said.

    One couple said replacing their well cleaned out much of their savings. Many are concerned about how much their home values have dropped.

    A grant did help Cindy Deere, who worries about how 25 years of drinking the water in Stella may affect her health. She replaced her well and a test confirmed the new one was PFAS-free. Still, she has a hard time trusting the water.

    “It’s a constant worry,” she said. “Is it going to turn bad?”

    The paper mill is still permitted to spread sludge in the county that includes Stella. Its PFAS levels have recently tested well within new state guidelines.

    Experts said sludge from industry and manufacturers is most likely to contain PFAS. Wisconsin developed testing guidelines for those sources for that reason, officials said.

    But the state doesn’t require another type of sludge — treated waste from septic systems, which capture household sewage — to be tested for PFAS. A local septic company has been spreading it in Stella — in 2024 alone, it applied hundreds of thousands of gallons to farms and elsewhere, state records show. The company did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

    Dianne Kopec, who has researched PFAS in wastewater at the University of Maine, said that without testing, officials can’t know if the practice recycles the chemicals back onto the soil in Stella.

    “Given what we know today, continuing to spread sludge on agricultural fields is ludicrous,” Kopec said. “When you find yourself in a hole, it is best to stop digging.”

    ___

    Associated Press writers Todd Richmond in Madison, Wis., Jason Dearen in Los Angeles and M.K. Wildeman in Hartford, Conn., contributed. Dylan Jackson and Justin Price of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution contributed from Atlanta.

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    This story is part of an investigative collaboration with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Post and Courier and AL.com. It is supported through AP’s Local Investigative Reporting Program.

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    The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of the AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.

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  • Liberia’s largest gold miner repeatedly spilled dangerous chemicals, records show

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    JIKANDOR, Liberia — For generations, families in Jikandor village fished and drank from the river that runs through Liberia ’s dense rain forest. Now toxic pollution is making them leave.

    They blame the largest gold miner in Liberia, Bea Mountain Mining Corporation. When dead fish float to the surface, they said, they know to tell authorities. But for years there has been little response.

    “If we don’t move, we will die,” village chief Mustapha Pabai said.

    Over several years, cyanide, arsenic and copper repeatedly leaked from Bea Mountain’s substandard facilities at levels that Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency described as above legal limits. That’s according to EPA reports that were taken down from its site but later retrieved, as well as interviews with government officials, experts and former company employees.

    They provide the most comprehensive accounting yet of the spills. The EPA documents also show that Bea Mountain failed to alert regulators promptly after a spill in 2022 and previously blocked government inspectors as they tried to access the company’s laboratory and view results of testing.

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    This story was reported in collaboration with The Gecko Project, a nonprofit newsroom reporting on environmental issues. The reporting was supported by the Pulitzer Center. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters, and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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    The incidents point to failures in corporate responsibility that “can only be described as sustained negligence,” said Mandy Olsgard, a Canadian toxicologist who reviewed the EPA reports obtained in an investigation by The Associated Press and The Gecko Project.

    The reports also expose the Liberian government’s failures to hold the company to account. The government holds a 5% stake in the mining operations. Under Liberian law, the state can suspend or terminate licenses if a miner doesn’t fulfill its obligations. But weak enforcement is common, with the World Bank citing limited government capacity.

    In response to the investigation, the country’s recently dismissed minister of mines, Wilmot Paye, said he was “appalled by the harm being done to our country” and that the government was reviewing all concession agreements. The outspoken minister was dismissed in October.

    The gold that Bea Mountain mines is sold to Swiss refiner MKS PAMP, which is in the supply chains of some of the world’s largest companies including Nvidia and Apple. The investigation could not confirm what companies ultimately used the gold.

    MKS PAMP said it had commissioned an independent assessment of the New Liberty mine, the largest of five mines that Bea Mountain operates in Liberia, in early 2025, and said it found no basis to cut ties but identified areas for improvement related to health and safety. A follow-up visit is planned for 2026.

    MKS PAMP declined to share the assessment’s findings, citing confidentiality. It said it would end the relationship if Bea Mountain doesn’t improve.

    Between July 2021 and December 2022, the most recent period for which figures could be obtained, Bea Mountain exported more than $576 million worth of gold from Liberia. It contributed $37.8 million to government coffers during that time.

    Bea Mountain is controlled by Murathan Günal through Avesoro Resources. Murathan is the son of Turkish billionaire Mehmet Nazif Günal, whose business interests include the Mapa Group. Avesoro Resources and Mapa Group did not respond to requests for comment.

    Extracting gold from ore often involves cyanide, a chemical that at high levels can cause severe neurological damage and can be fatal if ingested, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Cyanide must be treated before it enters and when it leaves a tailings dam, a storage site for mining waste.

    Other toxic substances, including arsenic, often found in gold mining also pose serious health risks if not properly controlled.

    The Günals took over Bea Mountain in 2016, acquiring it from Aureus Mining, a UK-listed gold producer, after years of warnings.

    In 2012, Canadian consultancy Golder Associates found a risk of contamination of local rivers from the New Liberty mine’s tailings dam and warned that seepage would breach Liberia’s drinking water standards. Two years later, the Digby Wells consultancy flagged cyanide and arsenic as key risks and suggested measures to prevent contamination.

    In 2015, a year before production began, a third consultancy, SRK, warned that arsenic could exceed World Health Organization standards for drinking water if not properly managed.

    Before production began, the International Finance Corporation, an arm of the World Bank, paid $19.2 million for an equity stake in Bea Mountain’s parent company to develop the New Liberty mine. But the U.S. representative on the IFC board abstained, warning in a 2014 letter that the project lacked basic safeguards and raising concerns about the tailings dam and gaps in the environmental assessment.

    It was not clear whether the IFC still holds a stake, and it didn’t respond to questions.

    Bea Mountain had pledged to follow strict water management rules and adopt the Cyanide Management Code, a global standard recommending pollution limits and requiring independent audits.

    The first spill documented by the EPA came in the first month of full production. In March 2016, just before the Günals’ purchase of Bea Mountain, cyanide and arsenic leaked from the New Liberty mine. Dead fish floated downstream. Residents reported skin rashes.

    The company paused operations but publicly downplayed the spill, saying “there has been no adverse impact on any human settlement.”

    It was the first of four EPA-confirmed cases at the mine in which Bea Mountain exceeded government pollution limits.

    In June 2020, EPA inspectors found Bea Mountain operating an unapproved wastewater system, and detected water contaminated with high levels of copper and iron. When inspectors tried to look at the company’s water testing data, Bea Mountain refused.

    “Physical access to the laboratory was also not approved,” the EPA said in one report.

    That month, Bea Mountain withdrew from the Cyanide Management Code without ever undergoing an audit, said Eric Schwamberger, a senior official at the International Cyanide Management Institute that oversees the code. He called such withdrawals uncommon.

    In May 2022, dead fish drifted down Marvoe Creek, which flows past Jikandor village and into the Mafa River that runs to the Atlantic. The EPA reported that a spill from Bea Mountain’s tailings dam had suffocated the fish “due to exposure to higher than permissible limits” of cyanide.

    The company knew about the pollution but failed to notify the community and the EPA “until downstream communities first started observing dead fish species,” the EPA report said. Companies are required to report such spills within 72 hours.

    More than 10 miles (16 kilometers) downstream in Wangekor village, residents said they hauled in dead fish before any warning reached them. They believed the bounty was “a gift from God,” said Philip Zodua, a representative of communities along the river.

    Six residents of villages downstream of the Bea Mountain mine asserted that they and their families fell ill after eating fish from the river in June 2022.

    One villager, Korto Tokpa, said she saw children collecting dead and dying fish. “They all were sick, vomiting, throwing up and going to the toilet the whole night” after consuming them, she said.

    However, no tests were carried out on the villagers. Independent environmental scientists and toxicology experts said there is insufficient evidence to identify pollution as the cause of the reported illnesses.

    “Without proper testing and transparent data, the true risks cannot be understood, and communities are left carrying all the uncertainty,” said Olsgard, the toxicologist. “It is the company’s responsibility to fill these gaps urgently.”

    When EPA inspectors arrived at the mine to test the water days after the spill, they found arsenic and cyanide levels well above legal limits.

    Schwamberger said the cyanide concentrations reported by the EPA, from water flowing out of the tailings dam, were more than 10 times the concentration “that would typically be considered to be lethal to fish.”

    In February 2023, another spill occurred. The EPA documented “a huge quantity of raw copper sulfate” leaking into the environment. Six of nine water samples breached legal limits for cyanide and copper.

    An EPA official involved in the May 2022 investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter, said the mine’s tailings dam had been originally built too small, a design flaw that later caused it to overflow.

    While EPA inspectors repeatedly recommended fines after the spills, only one penalty was issued by the regulator, a $99,999 fine in 2018 that was later reduced to $25,000. It was not clear why.

    In a written response to questions from the AP and The Gecko Project, the EPA acknowledged three “pollution incidents” between 2016 and 2023 in which laboratory tests found “higher than permissible levels” of cyanide. It also confirmed fish deaths were caused by cyanide, copper sulfate and arsenic leaking from the mine’s tailings dam. It was not clear why the EPA did not acknowledge the fourth spill.

    The EPA said the spills it documented occurred before the agency’s current leadership took office in 2024. It said it had ordered Bea Mountain to hire an EPA-certified consultant and reinforce the tailings dam, and that the measures were implemented. It did not say when that occurred.

    “No entity is above the law,” the agency said.

    Following an EPA recommendation, a legally binding agreement was reached in May 2025 for Bea Mountain to relocate and compensate Jikandor village, the community closest to the mine.

    Bea Mountain is now exploring new gold reserves elsewhere in Liberia.

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    Aviram reported from London.

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  • Map: Check air quality levels in Northern California on Monday

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    Air quality concerns linger on Monday with moderate to unhealthy rounds of air quality for sensitive groups, especially, according to our weather team. See the full forecast here. The Sacramento Air Quality Management District has kept Monday in the “Stage 1 – No Burn Unless Exempt” category. That means in Sacramento County, it is illegal to operate a wood-burning device or light a fire unless you use an EPA-certified fireplace insert, stove or pellet stove, and it does not emit visible smoke. “By restricting burning, we’re able to stop the creation of more pollution, and hopefully, when weather conditions change a few days after that, then we’re able to allow burning again,” Emily Allshouse from the Sacramento Air Quality Management District said earlier this week.The annual Check Before You Burn season runs from Nov. 1 through the end of February.The county offers exemptions for certain households that rely on fireplaces as a primary source of heat, but these exemptions require annual application and approval before burning is allowed. How to check air quality where you liveKnowing how to check air quality conditions can help you make the best decisions to keep yourself and your family safe.”Everyone can protect themselves by kind of staying indoors as much as possible, maybe running an air purifier if you have one to help clean that air and keep the dirty air out by having windows closed, which this time of year, isn’t too much of an issue,” Rebecca Schmidt from UC Davis Public Health Sciences said earlier this week. Here are two tools that the KCRA 3 Weather Team uses and trusts.AirNow.govThis site is run by the Environmental Protection Agency.The EPA has sensors throughout Northern California that track both smoke pollution and ozone pollution. Live updates on those readings can be seen using AirNow’s interactive map. The site also provides a rough forecast of expected air quality conditions in specific areas.All of the reports are based on the Air Quality Index, also developed by the EPA.An AQI of 50 or lower represents “Good” quality air that is relatively free of pollutants. Once the AQI reaches 101, air pollution is at a level that is unhealthy for sensitive groups, including the very old, the very young and anyone with a respiratory or immune condition.An AQI above 300 is hazardous in the short and long term for everyone.If you want to check the air quality on the go, the AirNow app is a good, free resource.PurpleAir.comPurpleAir is a private company with its own network of air quality monitors purchased by users around the world. These sensors are specifically designed to track smoke pollution.The free interactive map page displays real-time AQI readings.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

    Air quality concerns linger on Monday with moderate to unhealthy rounds of air quality for sensitive groups, especially, according to our weather team.

    The Sacramento Air Quality Management District has kept Monday in the “Stage 1 – No Burn Unless Exempt” category.

    That means in Sacramento County, it is illegal to operate a wood-burning device or light a fire unless you use an EPA-certified fireplace insert, stove or pellet stove, and it does not emit visible smoke.

    “By restricting burning, we’re able to stop the creation of more pollution, and hopefully, when weather conditions change a few days after that, then we’re able to allow burning again,” Emily Allshouse from the Sacramento Air Quality Management District said earlier this week.

    The annual Check Before You Burn season runs from Nov. 1 through the end of February.

    The county offers exemptions for certain households that rely on fireplaces as a primary source of heat, but these exemptions require annual application and approval before burning is allowed.

    How to check air quality where you live

    Knowing how to check air quality conditions can help you make the best decisions to keep yourself and your family safe.

    “Everyone can protect themselves by kind of staying indoors as much as possible, maybe running an air purifier if you have one to help clean that air and keep the dirty air out by having windows closed, which this time of year, isn’t too much of an issue,” Rebecca Schmidt from UC Davis Public Health Sciences said earlier this week.

    Here are two tools that the KCRA 3 Weather Team uses and trusts.

    AirNow.gov

    This site is run by the Environmental Protection Agency.

    The EPA has sensors throughout Northern California that track both smoke pollution and ozone pollution. Live updates on those readings can be seen using AirNow’s interactive map. The site also provides a rough forecast of expected air quality conditions in specific areas.

    All of the reports are based on the Air Quality Index, also developed by the EPA.

    An AQI of 50 or lower represents “Good” quality air that is relatively free of pollutants. Once the AQI reaches 101, air pollution is at a level that is unhealthy for sensitive groups, including the very old, the very young and anyone with a respiratory or immune condition.

    An AQI above 300 is hazardous in the short and long term for everyone.

    If you want to check the air quality on the go, the AirNow app is a good, free resource.

    PurpleAir.com

    PurpleAir is a private company with its own network of air quality monitors purchased by users around the world. These sensors are specifically designed to track smoke pollution.

    The free interactive map page displays real-time AQI readings.

    See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

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  • EPA Says It Will Stop Calculating the Economic Savings to Health in Key Air Pollution Rules

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency says it will stop calculating how much money is saved in health care costs and preventable deaths avoided from air pollution rules that curb two deadly pollutants.

    The change means the EPA will focus rules for fine particulate matter and ozone only on the cost to industry, part of a broader realignment under President Donald Trump toward a business-friendly approach that has included the rollback of multiple policies meant to safeguard human health and the environment and slow climate change.

    The agency said in a statement late Monday that it “absolutely remains committed to our core mission of protecting human health and the environment” but “will not be monetizing the impacts at this time.” The EPA will continue to estimate costs to businesses to comply with the rules and will continue “ongoing work to refine its economic methodologies” of pollution rules, spokeswoman Brigit Hirsch said.

    Environmental and public health advocates called the agency’s action a dangerous abdication of one of its core missions.

    “The EPA’s mandate is to protect public health, not to ignore the science in order to eliminate clean air safeguards that save lives,” said John Walke, a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

    He called the change in how public health benefits are calculated “reckless, dangerous, and illegal,” adding: “By pretending real health benefits do not count, EPA wants to open the door for industry to foul the air, while communities and families pay the price in asthma attacks, heart disease and premature deaths.”

    The change in how the EPA calculates health benefits was first reported by The New York Times.


    The move is part of the EPA’s broader change in approach

    The move comes as the Trump administration is seeking to abandon a rule that sets tough standards for deadly soot pollution, arguing that the Biden administration did not have authority to set the tighter standard on pollution from tailpipes, smokestacks and other industrial sources.

    In a court filing in November, the EPA said the Biden-era rule was done “without the rigorous, stepwise process that Congress required” and was therefore unlawful.

    The EPA said it continues to recognize the “clear and well-documented benefits” of reducing fine particulate matter, also known as PM2.5, and ozone.

    “Not monetizing DOES NOT equal not considering or not valuing the human health impact,” Hirsch said in an emailed statement, saying the agency remains committee to human health.

    Since the EPA’s creation more than 50 years ago, Republican and Democratic administrations have used different estimates to assign monetary value to a human life in cost-benefit analyses.

    Under former President Joe Biden, the EPA estimated that its proposed rule on PM2.5 would prevent up to 4,500 premature deaths and 290,000 lost workdays by 2032. For every $1 spent on reducing PM2.5, the agency said, there could be as much as $77 in health benefits.

    But the Trump administration contends that these estimates are misleading. By failing to include ranges or other qualifying statements, EPA’s use of specific estimate “leads the public to believe the Agency has a better understanding of the monetized impacts of exposure to PM2.5 and ozone than in reality,” the agency said in an economic impact analysis for the new NOx rule.

    “Therefore, to rectify this error, the EPA is no longer monetizing benefits from PM2.5 and ozone but will continue to quantify the emissions until the Agency is confident enough in the modeling to properly monetize those impacts.”

    The United States has made substantial progress in reducing PM2.5 and ozone concentrations since 2000, the agency said.


    Critics warn the change poses risks to human health

    But critics said a new EPA rule that revises emission limits for dangerous nitrogen oxide pollution from new gas-burning turbines used in power plants demonstrates the risks of the new approach.

    Emissions of nitrogen oxide, also known as NOx, form smog and soot that is harmful to human health and linked to serious heart and lung diseases. EPA’s final NOx rule, issued Monday, is substantially less restrictive than a proposal under the Biden administration. For some gas plants, the rule weakens protections in place for two decades.

    The new rule does not estimate the economic value of health benefits from reducing NOx and other types of air pollution under the Clean Air Act. Critics said the change means EPA will ignore the economic value of lives saved, hospital visits avoided and lost work and school days prevented.

    Under Trump, the EPA “recklessly refuses to place any value on protecting the health of millions of Americans from nitrogen oxides pollution in the face of mountains of medical science finding that this pollution contributes to asthma attacks, heart disease and other serious health problems.” said Noha Haggag, a lawyer for the Environmental Defense Fund, another environmental group.

    “EPA is leaving millions of people in harm’s way when common sense solutions are at hand for modern national limits on nitrogen oxides pollution,” Haggag said.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • California wants to mix hydrogen with gas to cut climate pollution. Critics say that poses risks

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    Alma Figueroa began to worry when she learned that her gas provider wanted to test a controversial solution to curb global warming: blend hydrogen with natural gas to power her stove and other appliances. Figueroa, who has asthma and recently learned her lung cancer is back, worries about health risks.

    “I don’t want to be anyone’s experiment,” said Figueroa, 60, a resident of Orange Cove in California’s Central Valley.

    The Southern California Gas Co. wants to blend and inject hydrogen into the town’s gas infrastructure, after the state agency that regulates utilities directed them and other companies to launch pilot projects. Proponents see it as key to helping California reduce planet-warming pollution by curbing reliance on gas while integrating cleaner energy into existing infrastructure. It’s part of a statewide effort to create safety rules for hydrogen blending. But opponents say it poses unnecessary risks, and Orange Cove’s mostly Latino and low-income residents say processes are happening without transparency or their input. Projects in states such as Colorado and Oregon have also raised concerns.

    Interest in deploying hydrogen boomed during the Biden administration but has been hard hit with the Trump administration’s cancellation of billions of dollars for hydrogen technology and other clean energy projects, including $1.2 billion for a hydrogen hub in California.

    The Orange Cove project is one of five proposed in California to test how gas pipelines and the appliances they fuel hold up with different amounts of hydrogen. Hawaii has been blending for decades.

    Natural gas is mostly methane, a potent planet-warming gas that’s supercharging extreme weather worldwide, which often impacts low-income and communities of color the most.

    Supporters see green hydrogen as one way to cut emissions. It’s made with renewable energy sources such as solar or wind to power an electrolyzer, which splits water into oxygen and hydrogen, a carbon-free gas that can be used to generate electricity and complement intermittent renewable energy. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has touted it “an essential aspect of how we’ll power our future and cut pollution.”

    Some see the 18-month proposed project in Orange Cove as one step in that direction. A solar farm would power the technology and direct the mixture, up to 5% hydrogen, to businesses and the town’s roughly 10,000 residents. The estimated $64.3 million project would be paid for with ratepayer money.

    A Minneapolis utility company estimated a blend of up to 5% green hydrogen would reduce carbon pollution by about 1,200 tons annually, the equivalent of removing 254 gas-powered cars.

    Janice Lin of the Green Hydrogen Coalition said it’s important to test blending. The U.S. has a vast network of gas pipelines — about 3 million miles, according to the Department of Energy — which can be used to move clean hydrogen while reducing reliance on gas, she said. If scaled, it could be cost-competitive and help industries that can’t fully electrify pollute less.

    “The way to move us away and really clean our air and minimize our reliance on fossil fuels is by having a viable alternative,” she said.

    California needs to demonstrate that it can blend like other countries but there are still unknowns, said Alejandra Hormaza, who teaches renewable energy at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. The consensus is that up to 20% hydrogen by volume is safe, she said, but “we need more experimental work that uses real natural gas infrastructure to fully understand the impacts of hydrogen.”

    In 2022, several gas companies filed a joint application to pursue hydrogen blending. The California Public Utilities Commission is expected to make a decision this year.

    SoCalGas first proposed testing hydrogen blending in facilities at the University of California, Irvine, in an affluent community. But it scaled back and revised its proposal following protests. When Orange Cove leaders expressed interest, the gas company identified the city an ideal candidate — it has various pipeline materials, including steel and polyethylene, a type of plastic, and only one gas feed coming in, allowing them ample control of the blend.

    Orange Cove city leaders voted unanimously in support. They did not respond to multiple calls and emails seeking comment. But in an August public hearing, Mayor Diana Guerra Silva said the project would provide workforce opportunities for youth and boost business from visitors, according to a transcript.

    At the hearing, resident Angelica Martinez said the town could become a “pioneer” in hydrogen blending and “deserves the national recognition and attention for its willingness to implement such an innovative project.”

    Orange Cove is a citrus farming town home to mostly Spanish-speaking Latino immigrants, with 39% of the total population living in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It’s an area with much pollution and the highest rate of asthma in Fresno County.

    Figueroa said the community historically hasn’t gotten involved in city politics, though they have launched a petition against the project and voiced concerns at public meetings. “I think the only reason they are wanting Orange Cove is because they don’t think there’s going to be pushback,” she said. Some residents said they’ve asked city officials to host a town hall about the pilot, but it has yet to happen.

    Research shows that burning hydrogen-blended gas into older appliances not designed for it can increase emissions of nitrogen oxides, pollutants that worsen asthma and are linked to other respiratory issues. It can deteriorate certain materials and leak more easily, increasing the risk of explosions because hydrogen is more flammable.

    Ryan Sinclair, an environmental microbiologist at Loma Linda University, said homes with older appliances are more vulnerable to these risks — in older infrastructure, a 5% mix can bump nitrogen oxides emissions an average of 8%. Residents can’t opt out unless they replace their gas appliances with electric ones, and Sinclair worries Orange Cove’s low-income residents don’t have the means to replace or maintain older ones. He said more health risk assessments are needed before starting hydrogen blending.

    Cal Poly’s Hormaza, who’s researched hydrogen leakage from gas systems for the last decade, said there’s insufficient research on whether hydrogen can increase leaks.

    There are also concerns about hydrogen’s potential to increase Earth’s warming. Research shows hydrogen can indirectly heat the planet by interacting with other gases.

    Environmental groups say hydrogen should only be used in high-energy industries such as aviation, cement or steel-making, which can’t easily be electrified. Others say that electrifying appliances, for example, are more efficient ways to reduce emissions.

    “To me, it’s just an absurd project. It’s (a) boondoggle” that exposes residents to unnecessary risks, said Michael Claiborne, directing attorney with Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, an advocacy group representing residents.

    If the projects are approved, SoCalGas has said it will employ safety measures before, during and after the project, including with leak surveys and detection technology, backflow prevention to keep hydrogen within the controlled area, and developing emergency responses.

    Orange Cove resident Francisco Gonzalez has friends with asthma and siblings with respiratory issues, so he worries about the health risks. His community is not against change or clean energy, he said, “but we are against being left out of the conversation.”

    ___

    Associated Press writer Jennifer McDermott contributed to this report from Providence, Rhode Island.

    ___

    The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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  • Thousands urged to stay inside in California

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    Thousands of residents across a section of California have been advised to stay indoors over concerns from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about high levels of air pollution as of January 11, at 7 a.m. ET, according to a map from AirNow.

    The map shows fine particle pollution (PM2.5) in an area of the Golden State—including Mammoth Lakes, Whitmore Hot Springs, and Mono Hot Springs—has reached an “unhealthy” level, according to the Air Quality Index (AQI).    

    The EPA warns that when “unhealthy” levels of PM2.5 are recorded, people in sensitive groups—which include older adults, children, and those with existing health conditions—are especially at risk of triggering or worsening health conditions, such as asthma or lung or heart problems. They should, therefore, take steps to avoid exposure to outdoor air by “avoiding all long or intense outdoor activities.” 

    Everyone else should “reduce long or intense activities” and take more breaks.  

    The AQI is a standardized scale of between 0 and 500 that measures and categorizes the quality of air across the U.S. into six groups:

    • Good: Scores between 0 and 50—air quality is considered satisfactory, and there are no concerns about pollution.
    • Moderate: Scores between 51 and 100—air quality is acceptable; however, individuals unusually sensitive to particle pollution may experience minor effects.
    • Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups: Scores between 101 and 150—members of sensitive groups may be affected and should limit exposure.
    • Unhealthy: Scores between 151 and 200—everyone may begin to experience health effects, with sensitive groups at greater risk.
    • Very Unhealthy: Scores between 201 and 300—health warnings apply to everyone. Sensitive groups should avoid all outdoor activity, and others should limit prolonged or strenuous outdoor activities.
    • Hazardous: Scores between 301 and 500—serious health warnings for the entire population. Everyone should avoid all outdoor activities.

    What Is PM2.5 and Where Does It Come From? 

    PM2.5 refers to tiny, inhalable particles of pollution measuring 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter—smaller than a strand of hair. These particles can be unknowingly inhaled, penetrating deep into the lungs and even entering the bloodstream. Exposure can trigger symptoms ranging from mild eye, nose, and throat irritation to chest tightness or shortness of breath. In severe cases, it may lead to serious health conditions and hospitalization.

    PM2.5 can come from a variety of sources, including dust from unpaved roads, smoke from wildfires or smokestacks, or emissions from vehicles and power or industrial plants. 

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  • Nestle Infant Formula Recall Widens to China, Brazil

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    LONDON, Jan 7 (Reuters) – Nestle’s recall of some ‌batches ​of infant nutrition products ‌has widened beyond Europe to the Americas and Asia, ​including China and Brazil, a tally from the company and national health ministry ‍statements show. 

    No illnesses have yet ​been confirmed in connection with the batches of SMA, BEBA, ​NAN and ⁠Alfamino formula which Nestle has recalled due to possible contamination with cereulide, a toxin that can cause nausea and vomiting.

    At least 37 countries, including most European states, as well as Australia, Brazil, China and Mexico, have ‌issued health warnings over the infant formulas possibly being contaminated.

    The recall piles ​more ‌pressure on the KitKat ‍and Nescafe ⁠maker and its new CEO Philipp Navratil, who is seeking to revive growth through a portfolio review after management upheavals, with Nestle’s shares down around 4.5% so far this week.

    Brazil’s health ministry said on Wednesday that the Nestle recall was a preventative measure after the toxin had been detected in products originating in the ​Netherlands. 

    Nestle Australia said the batches recalled there had been manufactured in Switzerland, while Nestle China said it was recalling formula batches imported from Europe.

    Austria’s health ministry said on Tuesday the recall affected more than 800 products from over 10 factories and was the largest in Nestle’s history. A Nestle spokesperson could not verify this.

    Nestle said on Tuesday it had tested all arachidonic acid oil and corresponding oil mixes used in the production of its potentially ​impacted infant nutrition products after a quality issue was detected in an ingredient from a leading supplier.

    It is now ramping up production and activating alternative suppliers of the acid oil to maintain supply.

    (Reporting ​by Alexander Marrow in London and Igor Sodre in Sao Paulo; Editing by Alexander Smith)

    Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Mercedes-Benz agrees to pay $149.6 million to settle multistate emissions allegations

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    MADISON, Wis. — Mercedes-Benz USA and parent company Daimer AG have agreed to pay $149.6 million to settle allegations that the automaker secretly installed devices in hundreds of thousands of vehicles to pass emission tests, a coalition of attorneys general announced Monday.

    According to the coalition, between 2008 and 2016 the German automaker equipped more than 211,000 diesel passenger cars and vans with software devices that optimized emission controls during tests but reduced the controls during normal operations. The devices enabled vehicles to far exceed legal limits for nitrogen oxides, a pollutant that can cause respiratory illnesses and contributes to smog.

    The states alleged that Mercedes installed the devices because it couldn’t reach design and performance goals such as fuel efficiency while complying with emissions standards. The automaker allegedly concealed the devices from state and federal regulators and the public while marketing the vehicles as “environmentally friendly” and compliant with emissions standards.

    The agreement is still subject to court approval.

    Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz USA already agreed in 2020 to pay $1.5 billion to the U.S. government and California state regulators to resolve the emissions cheating allegations.

    Mercedes-Benz issued a statement saying the deal announced Monday will resolve all remaining legal proceedings tied to diesel emissions in the United States, but the company still considers the accusations unfounded and denies any liability. The automaker has made “sufficient provisions” for the cost of the settlement, the statement said.

    Fifty attorneys general, including the attorneys general of the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, made up the coalition announced Monday. California was not part of the group.

    The settlement calls for the automaker to pay the attorneys general $120 million with another $29 million payment suspended and potentially waived pending completion of a consumer relief program.

    That effort will extend to the roughly 40,000 vehicles with the devices that hadn’t been repaired or permanently removed from the road by Aug. 1, 2023. The owners of those vehicles would get $2,000 per vehicle if they install approved emissions modification software and an extended warranty.

    The settlement also calls for Mercedes to comply with reporting requirements and refrain from any further unfair or deceptive marketing or sale of diesel vehicles.

    Volkswagen also ended up paying $2.8 billion to settle a criminal case due to emissions cheating.

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  • Tunisians Revive Protests in Gabes Over Pollution From State Chemical Plant

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    TUNIS, Dec 17 (Reuters) – Around 2,500 ‌Tunisians ​marched through the coastal city ‌of Gabes on Wednesday, reviving protests over pollution from a ​state-owned phosphate complex amid rising anger over perceived failures to protect public health.

    People chanted ‍mainly “Gabes wants to live”, on ​the 15th anniversary of the start of the 2011 pro-democracy uprising that sparked ​the Arab ⁠Spring movement against autocracy.

    The protest added to the pressure on President Kais Saied’s government, which is grappling with a deep financial crisis and growing street unrest, protests by doctors, journalists, banks and public transport systems. 

    The powerful UGTT union has called ‌for a nationwide strike next month, signalling great tension in the country. The ​recent ‌protests are widely seen ‍as one ⁠of the biggest challenges facing Saied since he began ruling by decree in 2021.

    Protesters chanted slogans such as “We want to live” and “People want to dismantle polluting units”, as they marched toward Chatt Essalam, a coastal suburb north of the city where the Chemical Group’s industrial units are located.

    “The chemical plant is a fully fledged crime… We refuse to ​pass on an environmental disaster to our children, and we are determined to stick to our demand,” said Safouan Kbibieh, a local environmental activist.

    Residents say toxic emissions from the phosphate complex have led to higher rates of respiratory illnesses, osteoporosis and cancer, while industrial waste continues to be discharged into the sea, damaging marine life and livelihoods.

    The protests in Gabes were reignited after hundreds of schoolchildren suffered breathing difficulties in recent months, allegedly caused by toxic fumes from a plant converting phosphates into phosphoric ​acid and fertilisers.

    In October, Saied described the situation in Gabes as an “environmental assassination”, blaming policy choices made by previous governments, and has called for urgent maintenance to prevent toxic leaks.

    The protesters reject the temporary measures and ​are demanding the permanent closure and relocation of the plant.

    (Reporting by Tarek Amara, editing by Ed Osmond)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Toxic Smog Blankets New Delhi, Disrupting Travel and Plunging Air Quality to Hazardous Levels

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    NEW DELHI (AP) — Dense toxic smog blanketed India’s national capital Monday, pushing air pollution levels to their worst levels in weeks, disrupting travel and causing authorities to impose the strictest containment measures.

    More than 40 flights were cancelled and several dozens delayed. Over 50 trains arriving and departing from New Delhi were delayed by several hours, authorities said.

    Healthcare experts warned residents to avoid all outdoor activities as hospitals reported an influx of patients with breathing difficulties and eye irritation.

    “New Delhi is a gas chamber right now. Air purifiers can help only a bit, so it’s high time the government comes up with some permanent solutions” said Naresh Dang, a physician at Max Healthcare.

    Delhi’s air pollution levels have remained at what the federal government calls a “severe” level for the last two days, which the government says can cause respiratory effects to healthy people and seriously affect the health of people with heart or lung disease.

    On Sunday, official index readings were over 450 at several monitoring stations, up from 430 on Saturday and the highest so far this winter season, as per data from Central Pollution Control Board. On Monday, it stood at 449. Readings below 50 are considered good. During periods of severe air pollution, the government advises people to avoid going outdoors as much as possible and wear N95 masks when going outside. Children, pregnant women, elderly and people with pre-existing respiratory or cardiovascular conditions are at higher risk and officials advise them to be extra cautious.

    “I have never seen this kind of pollution ever. Last year I came to Delhi, it was polluted. This year it is more polluted. I can feel the smoke while I breathe the air,” said Tiam Patel, a tourist.

    To stem pollution, Indian authorities have banned construction activities and restricted use of diesel generators and cars. Water sprinklers have been deployed to control the haze. Schools and offices are allowing many students and workers to stay home.

    But environmentalists say that the country’s air pollution crisis requires long-term changes.

    New Delhi and its surrounding region, home to more than 30 million people, routinely rank among the world’s most polluted. India has six of the world’s 10 most polluted cities, and New Delhi is the most polluted national capital, according to a report from Switzerland-based air quality monitoring database IQAir earlier this year.

    Air quality worsens in New Delhi every winter as farmers burn crop residue in nearby states and cooler temperatures trap the smoke, which mixes with pollution from vehicles, construction activity and industrial emissions. Pollution levels often reach 20 times higher than the World Health Organization’s safe limit.

    But Vimlendu Jha, a Delhi based environmentalist, said that the air is not healthy even at other times of year.

    “Delhi’s air doesn’t get cleaner at all, we only see it visibly from October to December, but the reality is that it remains polluted through the year,” he said.

    Earlier this month, residents of New Delhi staged protests to express frustration and anger about the government’s failure to address pollution.

    A study last year by medical journal Lancet linked long term exposure to polluted air to 1.5 million additional deaths every year in India.

    “Deaths related to air pollution are not being counted. And the reason why its not being counted is because there are no systematic mechanisms to do so,” said Shweta Narayan, a campaign lead at the Global Climate and Health Alliance.

    Arasu reported from Bengaluru, India. AP video journalist Piyush Nagpal contributed to the report.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Gen Z more likely to return products than other age groups despite environmental harm, report finds

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    A new report from the National Retail Federation shows that Gen Z shoppers make the most returns out of any generation, despite the environmental harm it can cause. Taylor Hoit, head of product and technology at the online marketplace Rebel, joins CBS News to discuss.

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  • The most climate-friendly groceries might not be in the supermarket

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    The pollution from food is sneaky. Because the apple sitting on your kitchen counter isn’t really causing any harm.

    But chances are good that you didn’t pick it from a tree in your backyard. It required land and water to grow, machines to harvest and process, packaging to ship, trucks to transport and often refrigerators to store. Much of that process releases planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

    That’s why the global food system makes up roughly a third of worldwide, human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EDGAR FOOD pollution database.

    Meanwhile, roughly a third of the U.S. food supply is lost or wasted without being eaten, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It might never get harvested, it might spoil in transit or the grocery store might reject it for being the wrong size or color. That’s a big reason why some consumers are looking for less-wasteful alternatives ranging from farmers markets to delivery services for produce that didn’t meet supermarket size or appearance standards.

    “There’s a whole breadth of opportunities to purchase food,” said Julia Van Soelen Kim, food systems adviser with the University of California Cooperative Extension.

    And during the week of Thanksgiving, this decision is especially high stakes because lots of grocery shoppers are buying for extra guests, and more food can mean a bigger climate impact.

    Here are tips for reducing impact by shopping beyond the grocery store.

    Wasted food is a financial and environmental bummer. It costs the average person $728 per year, and it amounts to about the same planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions every year as 42 coal-fired power plants. Can buying produce that would otherwise go to waste be the answer?

    The community supported agriculture box

    Jane Kolodinsky, professor emerita at the University of Vermont and director of research at Arrowleaf Consulting, has bought her produce directly from a local farmer for 30 years.

    It’s called Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA. At the beginning of every harvest season, Kolodinsky pays that farm a fee. Then, once per week, she picks up a box of produce at the farm. Some CSA programs pick the produce, while others let you customize. Some deliver. An online database shows which farms participate in CSA programs.

    Since the food is grown nearby, there is less processing and packaging. “There’s a smaller carbon footprint for purchasing locally compared to global or national food distribution channels,” said Van Soelen Kim. “When they’re local, they’re traveling less distance, so less gas, less fuel.”

    Local farmers are also likely to grow whatever works best for the area’s climate and season. “When things are in season, they need less storage time, so less electricity for cold storage,” said Van Soelen Kim, who added that can also mean a smaller food bill.

    It’s not pollution-free, because the crops still require land and water, and the food does travel some distance. But CSAs avoid many steps in the modern food supply chain.

    That model is challenging for consumers who want to maintain the same shopping list year-round. Shopping in-season requires more flexibility. “I would encourage consumers to think, ’OK, year-round we want some hand fruit that’s firm,’” she said. “So maybe it’s apples, and then it’s pears, and then its gonna move to kiwis, and then is gonna move to pluots.”

    And in colder regions, she said there is still local produce. It’s just more likely to be dried, frozen or canned.

    Customers browse farmer’s market displays in Union Square, Jan. 13, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter K. Afriyie, File)

    The farmers market

    Kolodinsky said the oldest alternative food system is the farmers market, where vendors gather and sell directly to consumers. Growers also sell at farm stands that aren’t tied to a centralized, scheduled event.

    Farmers markets allow consumers more flexibility to pick the produce than a typical CSA. They also offer seasonal produce and less packaging and processing than a grocery store. Many also accept payment associated with government food assistance programs.

    Plus, these models cut down on waste because customers are more tolerant of produce that’s not a uniform size and shape, said Timothy Woods, a University of Kentucky agribusiness professor.

    “It doesn’t matter to me if one cucumber’s a couple inches longer than the other one,” he said. “Less waste means more efficient utilization of all the resources that farmers are putting out to produce that crop in the first place.”

    Other delivery services

    Farmers who sell to grocery stores typically have to meet high standards, Woods said. For example, there could be onions that never got big enough or the carrot that grew two roots — vegetables that are just as safe and tasty to eat. There’s also surplus harvest.

    “They will intentionally not pick certain melons that are undersized out in the field. And so you’ll have gleaning programs that will be people that are saying, ‘Those are perfectly good cantaloupe that are out there. We’ll send a team out there to pick those,’” said Woods.

    Shiitake mushrooms are displayed at the stand of a farmer who sells "ugly" produce at a discount at a farmers' market in San Francisco, June 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Haven Daley, File)

    Shiitake mushrooms are displayed at the stand of a farmer who sells “ugly” produce at a discount at a farmers’ market in San Francisco, June 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Haven Daley, File)

    He said services delivering food that doesn’t meet supermarket size or appearance requirements, such as Misfit Markets or Imperfect Produce, have become more popular in recent years.

    Van Soelen Kim said there isn’t a lot of data yet on whether these services have a significantly lower climate impact. They reduce food waste, but the food might come from far away.

    Misfits Market refreshes its online selection weekly. Customers then fill a box of often discounted groceries that might have misprinted labels or are undersized or blemished. They are delivered via a company truck or third-party courier such as FedEx. The company’s founder and CEO, Abhi Ramesh, said it minimizes emissions by having set delivery days instead of offering on-demand delivery.

    “By doing that, we batch all of our deliveries together. So it is one van to your ZIP code on that day. One truck that goes from our warehouse on that date,” he said.

    Ramesh said sometimes a farmer’s market or CSA is even better at offering nearby seasonal food than his company. But for a lot of the country, those services go away when the harvest season ends. “And so your local grocery store, believe it or not, is still transporting that from California. But the difference is we’re able to go and transport the food waste piece, which reduces a ton of emissions.”

    Woods’ advice for using services like Misfits Market is the same as other channels: Eat seasonally, eat locally and look for minimal packaging.

    ___

    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • How a New Ruling Will Make Asthma Cases Skyrocket

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is seeking to abandon a rule that sets tough standards for deadly soot pollution, arguing that the Biden administration did not have authority to set the tighter standard on pollution from tailpipes, smokestacks and other industrial sources.

    The action follows moves by the administration last week to weaken federal rules protecting millions of acres of wetlands and streams and roll back protections for imperiled species and the places they live. In a separate action, the Interior Department proposed new oil drilling off the California and Florida coasts for the first time in decades, advancing a project that critics say could harm coastal communities and ecosystems.

    The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule last year that imposed strict standards for soot pollution, saying that reducing fine particle matter from motor vehicles and industrial sources could prevent thousands of premature deaths a year.

    Twenty-five Republican-led states and a host of business groups filed lawsuits seeking to block the rule in court. A suit led by attorneys general from Kentucky and West Virginia argued that the EPA rule would raise costs for manufacturers, utilities and families and could block new manufacturing plants.

    In a court filing this week, the EPA essentially took the side of the challengers, saying the Biden-era rule was done “without the rigorous, stepwise process that Congress required” and was therefore unlawful.

    “EPA now confesses error and urges this Court to vacate the Rule” before Feb. 7, the agency said in a brief filed with the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Vacating the Biden-era rule would revert the soot standard to a level established a dozen years ago under the Obama administration. The Trump EPA is set to propose its own rule early next year.

    Environmental groups said the agency’s action — which follows a pledge by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to roll back the soot rule and dozens of other environmental regulations — threatens public health and undermines its obligations under the Clean Air Act.

    “EPA’s motion is a blatant attempt to avoid legal requirements for a rollback, in this case for one of the most impactful actions the agency has taken in recent years to protect public health,” said Hayden Hashimoto, an attorney at the nonprofit Clean Air Task Force.

    The 2024 rule set maximum levels of 9 micrograms of fine particle pollution per cubic meter of air, down from 12 micrograms established under former President Barack Obama. The rule sets an air quality level that states and counties must achieve in the coming years to reduce pollution from power plants, vehicles, industrial sites and wildfires.

    “An abundance of scientific evidence shows that going back to the previous standard would fail to provide the level of protection for public health required under the Clean Air Act,” Hashimoto said.

    EPA said in creating the rule that the new standard would avoid 800,000 cases of asthma symptoms, 2,000 hospital visits and 4,500 premature deaths, adding up to about $46 billion in health benefits in 2032. Then-EPA head Michael Regan said the rule would especially benefit children, older adults and those with heart and lung conditions, as well as those living near highways, factories and power plants.

    “Walking away from these clean-air standards doesn’t power anything but disease,” said Patrice Simms, vice president of healthy communities at Earthjustice, a nonprofit law firm that represents environmental groups in the legal case.

    President Donald Trump “has made it clear that his agenda is all about saving corporations money,” Simms said, adding under Zeldin, the EPA “has nothing to do with protecting people’s health, saving lives or serving children, families or communities.”

    Soot, made up of tiny toxic particles that lodge deep in the lungs, can result in severe health harms, including premature death, and comes from sources such as vehicle exhaust pipes, power plants, and factories.

    Copyright 2025. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • The most climate-friendly groceries might not be in the supermarket

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    The pollution from food is sneaky. Because the apple sitting on your kitchen counter isn’t really causing any harm.

    But chances are good that you didn’t pick it from a tree in your backyard. It required land and water to grow, machines to harvest and process, packaging to ship, trucks to transport and often refrigerators to store. Much of that process releases planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

    That’s why the global food system makes up roughly a third of worldwide, human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EDGAR FOOD pollution database.

    Meanwhile, roughly a third of the U.S. food supply is lost or wasted without being eaten, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It might never get harvested, it might spoil in transit or the grocery store might reject it for being the wrong size or color. That’s a big reason why some consumers are looking for less-wasteful alternatives ranging from farmers markets to delivery services for produce that didn’t meet supermarket size or appearance standards.

    “There’s a whole breadth of opportunities to purchase food,” said Julia Van Soelen Kim, food systems adviser with the University of California Cooperative Extension.

    And during the week of Thanksgiving, this decision is especially high stakes because lots of grocery shoppers are buying for extra guests, and more food can mean a bigger climate impact.

    Here are tips for reducing impact by shopping beyond the grocery store.

    Jane Kolodinsky, professor emerita at the University of Vermont and director of research at Arrowleaf Consulting, has bought her produce directly from a local farmer for 30 years.

    It’s called Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA. At the beginning of every harvest season, Kolodinsky pays that farm a fee. Then, once per week, she picks up a box of produce at the farm. Some CSA programs pick the produce, while others let you customize. Some deliver. An online database shows which farms participate in CSA programs.

    Since the food is grown nearby, there is less processing and packaging. “There’s a smaller carbon footprint for purchasing locally compared to global or national food distribution channels,” said Van Soelen Kim. “When they’re local, they’re traveling less distance, so less gas, less fuel.”

    Local farmers are also likely to grow whatever works best for the area’s climate and season. “When things are in season, they need less storage time, so less electricity for cold storage,” said Van Soelen Kim, who added that can also mean a smaller food bill.

    It’s not pollution-free, because the crops still require land and water, and the food does travel some distance. But CSAs avoid many steps in the modern food supply chain.

    That model is challenging for consumers who want to maintain the same shopping list year-round. Shopping in-season requires more flexibility. “I would encourage consumers to think, ’OK, year-round we want some hand fruit that’s firm,’” she said. “So maybe it’s apples, and then it’s pears, and then its gonna move to kiwis, and then is gonna move to pluots.”

    And in colder regions, she said there is still local produce. It’s just more likely to be dried, frozen or canned.

    Kolodinsky said the oldest alternative food system is the farmers market, where vendors gather and sell directly to consumers. Growers also sell at farm stands that aren’t tied to a centralized, scheduled event.

    Farmers markets allow consumers more flexibility to pick the produce than a typical CSA. They also offer seasonal produce and less packaging and processing than a grocery store. Many also accept payment associated with government food assistance programs.

    Plus, these models cut down on waste because customers are more tolerant of produce that’s not a uniform size and shape, said Timothy Woods, a University of Kentucky agribusiness professor.

    “It doesn’t matter to me if one cucumber’s a couple inches longer than the other one,” he said. “Less waste means more efficient utilization of all the resources that farmers are putting out to produce that crop in the first place.”

    Farmers who sell to grocery stores typically have to meet high standards, Woods said. For example, there could be onions that never got big enough or the carrot that grew two roots — vegetables that are just as safe and tasty to eat. There’s also surplus harvest.

    “They will intentionally not pick certain melons that are undersized out in the field. And so you’ll have gleaning programs that will be people that are saying, ‘Those are perfectly good cantaloupe that are out there. We’ll send a team out there to pick those,’” said Woods.

    He said services delivering food that doesn’t meet supermarket size or appearance requirements, such as Misfit Markets or Imperfect Produce, have become more popular in recent years.

    Van Soelen Kim said there isn’t a lot of data yet on whether these services have a significantly lower climate impact. They reduce food waste, but the food might come from far away.

    Misfits Market refreshes its online selection weekly. Customers then fill a box of often discounted groceries that might have misprinted labels or are undersized or blemished. They are delivered via a company truck or third-party courier such as FedEx. The company’s founder and CEO, Abhi Ramesh, said it minimizes emissions by having set delivery days instead of offering on-demand delivery.

    “By doing that, we batch all of our deliveries together. So it is one van to your ZIP code on that day. One truck that goes from our warehouse on that date,” he said.

    Ramesh said sometimes a farmer’s market or CSA is even better at offering nearby seasonal food than his company. But for a lot of the country, those services go away when the harvest season ends. “And so your local grocery store, believe it or not, is still transporting that from California. But the difference is we’re able to go and transport the food waste piece, which reduces a ton of emissions.”

    Woods’ advice for using services like Misfits Market is the same as other channels: Eat seasonally, eat locally and look for minimal packaging.

    ___

    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • Toxic Mines Put Southeast Asia’s Rivers, People at Risk, Study Says

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    By Napat Wesshasartar and Devjyot Ghoshal

    THA TON, Thailand (Reuters) -For most of her life, 59-year-old farmer Tip Kamlue has irrigated her fields in northern Thailand with the waters of the Kok River, which flows down from neighbouring Myanmar before joining with the Mekong River that cuts through Southeast Asia.

    But since April, after authorities warned residents to stop using the Kok’s water because of concerns over contamination, Tip has been using groundwater to grow pumpkins, garlic, sweet corn and okra.

    “It’s like half of me has died,” Tip said, standing by her fields in Tha Ton sub-district, and looking out at the river that she is now forced to shun.

    Across mainland Southeast Asia, more than 2,400 mines – many of them illegal and unregulated – could be releasing deadly chemicals such as cyanide and mercury into river water, according to research from the U.S.-based Stimson Center think tank released on Monday.

    “The scale is something that’s striking to me,” said Brian Eyler, senior fellow at Stimson, pointing to scores of tributaries of major rivers, like the Mekong, the Salween and the Irrawaddy that are probably highly contaminated.

    The Stimson report marks the first comprehensive study of potentially polluting mines in mainland Southeast Asia. Researchers analysed satellite imagery to identify mining activity including 366 alluvial mining sites, 359 heap leach sites and 77 rare earth mines draining into the Mekong basin.

    Most alluvial mining sites are gold mines, though some also extract tin and silver. Heap leach mining sites include those for gold, nickel, copper, and manganese extraction.

    The Mekong is Asia’s third-largest river and supports the livelihood of more than 70 million people as well as the global export of farm and fisheries products. It was previously perceived to be a clean river system, said Eyler.

    “Because so much of the Mekong Basin is essentially ungoverned by national laws and sensible regulations, the basin is unfortunately ripe for this kind of unregulated activity to occur at a high level of intensity and the huge scale that our data reveals,” he said.

    The toxic chemicals released through unregulated rare earths mining include ammonium sulphate, and sodium cyanide and mercury that are used for two different types of gold mining, according to Stimson researchers.

    That exposes not only the millions of people who live along the Mekong in Southeast Asia to health risks, but also consumers elsewhere.

    “There is not a major supermarket in the U.S. that doesn’t have products from the Mekong Basin, including shrimp, rice and fish,” said Eyler.

    The emergence of new China-backed rare earth mines in eastern Myanmar, not far from the mountainous border with Thailand, initially set off concerns among researchers of the danger of downstream pollution along the Kok River, including areas like Tha Ton.

    The contamination pattern on samples from the Kok River shows the presence of arsenic – linked to rare earth and gold mining – alongside heavy rare earths like dysprosium and terbium, said Tanapon Phenrat of Thailand Science Research and Innovation, a Thai government research agency.

    “It has only been two years since the rise of rare earth and gold mining in Myanmar at the Kok River’s source,” said Tanapon, who conducted testing of the waters this year and warns of a sharp rise in contamination levels unless mining is stopped. Tanapon was not involved in the Stimson study.

    Myanmar, which erupted in conflict after the military seized power in 2021, is one of the world’s largest producers of heavy rare earths, critical minerals infused into magnets that power the likes of wind turbines, electric vehicles and defence systems.

    From mining sites in Myanmar, the raw material is transported for processing to China, which has a near-monopoly over production of these vital magnets, with Beijing deploying rare earths as leverage in its tariff war with the U.S.

    Mines across Myanmar and Laos use in-situ leaching for rare earth elements that was initially developed within China, according to Stimson’s Eyler.

    “In general, Chinese nationals work on these mines as managers and technical experts,” he said.

    In response to questions from Reuters, China’s foreign ministry said it was not aware of the situation.

    “The Chinese side has consistently required overseas Chinese enterprises to conduct their production and business operations in accordance with local laws and regulations, and to adopt stringent measures to protect the environment,” it said.

    The Thai government has established three new task forces to coordinate international cooperation, monitor the mines’ health impact and secure alternative supplies for communities along the Kok, Sai, Mekong and Salween rivers, said Deputy Prime Minister Suchart Chomklin.

    In northern Tha Ton, signs still hang on a bridge over the Kok River, calling for authorities to shut down the rare earths mines upriver, and farmers like Tip are desperate for an intervention.

    “I just want the Kok River to be the way it used to be – where we could eat from it, bathe in it, play in it, and use it for farming,” she said.

    “I hope someone will help make that happen.”

    (Additional reporting by Vijdan Mohammad Kawoosa, Julio-Cesar Chavez and Gershon Peaks; Editing by Kate Mayberry)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Takeaways From the COP30 Climate Summit in Brazil

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    BELEM, Brazil (Reuters) -This year’s U.N. climate change summit ended with a tenuous compromise for a deal that skipped over most countries’ key demands but for one: committing wealthy countries to triple their spending to help others adapt to global warming. 

    Here are some of the takeaways from the COP30 climate summit held in Brazil’s Amazon city of Belem:

    Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had launched the summit calling for countries to agree on a “roadmap” for advancing a COP28 pledge to shift away from fossil fuels. 

    But it was a road to nowhere at this summit, as oil-rich Arab nations and others dependent on fossil fuels blocked any mention of the issue. Instead, the COP30 presidency created a voluntary plan that countries could sign on to – or not.

    The result was similar to Egypt’s COP27 and Azerbaijan’s COP29, where countries agreed to spend more money to address climate dangers while ignoring their primary cause.

    Nearly three-fourths of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since 2020 have come from coal, oil and gas. Demand for these fuels is likely to rise through 2050, the International Energy Agency said in a report midway through the COP30 summit that reversed expectations of a rapid shift to clean energy. 

    GLOBAL CLIMATE UNITY ON THE BRINK

    The need to show global unity in climate talks was the main thing countries agreed, along with the idea that long-polluting wealthy countries should do most to tackle the problem. 

    But to get to a final deal, they ditched nearly all ambitions they’d brought – including mandatory tightening targets for reducing climate-warming emissions. 

    Brazil’s COP30 presidency lamented the United States’ snubbing of the talks. The absence of the world’s biggest economy – and biggest historical polluter – emboldened countries with fossil fuel interests.

    Rumbling concerns about a process that allows only a few to effectively veto collective deals grew louder, stoking calls for reform.

    After Brazil had promised a ‘COP of Truth’ that would set countries on course for action, the omission of any agreed implementation plans was glaring. 

    China played a leading role at the summit – but from behind the scenes. 

    President Xi Jinping skipped the talks as he typically does. But his delegation carried a strong message that China was prepared to deliver the clean energy technology the world needs to cut emissions. 

    Executives from Chinese solar, battery and electric vehicle companies were featured at the country’s exhibit pavilion – one of the first things delegates saw on entering the sprawling venue.

    China was not the only fast-developing nation in focus this year. The Indian delegation flexed more muscle in the negotiations, while South Africa rolled out a climate-linked agenda for its own November 22-23 G20 summit.

    FRAUGHT FUTURE FOR FORESTS AND INDIGENOUS RIGHTS

    Holding the summit in an Amazon forest city, Brazil touted the importance of the world’s remaining canopy for fighting climate change – along with the roughly half-billion Indigenous people seen as stewards of natural lands. 

    Many who attended from across the Amazon and the world felt frustrated they weren’t being heard. They staged several protests, and even stormed the COP30 compound gates – clashing with security before being pushed back out. 

    Countries announced about $9.5 billion in forest funding – including almost $7 billion for Brazil’s flagship tropical forest fund and another $2.5 billion for an initiative for Congo.

    But the summit ended on a sour note for many, as negotiators dropped efforts for a roadmap to meet the 2030 zero-deforestation pledge and gave no recognition for the protection of their lands. 

    ATTACKS ON CLIMATE SCIENCE

    While Lula and other world leaders had railed against misinformation and denial, COP30 talks didn’t help much in countering this year’s U.S. government assault on climate science.

    The summit also chipped away at global consensus around climate science by no longer recognizing the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as the “best available science” to guide policy on climate change and its impacts.

    Instead, the final deal notes the importance of IPCC outputs along with “those produced in developing countries and relevant reports from regional groups and institutions.”

    And by sidelining fossil fuels and emissions targets, COP30 ignored the alarm bells being rung by scientists. 

    (Reporting by Katy DaigleEditing by Ros Russell)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Tunisians Escalate Protests Against Saied, Demanding Return of Democracy

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    TUNIS (Reuters) -Thousands of Tunisians marched in the capital on Saturday in a protest against “injustice and repression”, accusing President Kais Saied of cementing one-man rule by using the judiciary and police.

    The protest was the latest in a wave that has swept Tunisia involving journalists, doctors, banks and public transport systems. Thousands have also demanded the closure of a chemical plant on environmental grounds.

    The protesters dressed in black to express anger and grief over what they called Tunisia’s transformation into an “open-air prison”. They raised banners reading “Enough repression”, “No fear, no terror, the streets belong to the people”.

    The rally brought together activists, NGOs and fragmented parties from across the spectrum in a rare display of unity in opposition to Saied.

    It underscores Tunisia’s severe political and economic crisis and poses a major challenge to Saied, who seized power in 2021 and started ruling by decree.

    The protesters chanted slogans saying “We are suffocating!”, “Enough of tyranny!” and “The people want the fall of the regime!”.

    “Saied has turned the country into an open prison, we will never give up,” Ezzedine Hazgui, father of jailed politician Jawhar Ben Mbark, told Reuters.

    Opposition parties, civil society groups and journalists all accuse Saied of using the judiciary and police to stifle criticism.

    Last month, three prominent civil rights groups announced that the authorities had suspended their activities over alleged foreign funding.

    Amnesty International has said the crackdown on rights groups has reached critical levels with arbitrary arrests, detentions, asset freezes, banking restrictions and suspensions targeting 14 NGOs.

    Opponents say Saied has destroyed the independence of the judiciary. In 2022 he dissolved the Supreme Judicial Council and sacked dozens of judges — moves that opposition groups and rights advocates condemned as a coup.

    Most opposition leaders and dozens of critics are in prison.

    Saied denies having become a dictator or using the judiciary against opponents, saying he is cleansing Tunisia of “traitors”.

    (Reporting by Tarek Amara; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Analysis-China Finds Bigger Role as US Sidesteps Brazil Climate Summit

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    By Valerie Volcovici and Lisandra Paraguassu

    BELEM, Brazil (Reuters) -With the United States absent from the U.N. annual international climate summit for the first time in three decades, China is stepping into the limelight as a leader in the fight against global warming.

    Its country pavilion dominates the entrance hall of the sprawling COP30 conference grounds in Brazil’s Amazon city of Belem, executives from its biggest clean energy companies are presenting their visions for a green future to large audiences in English, and its diplomats are working behind the scenes to ensure constructive talks.

    Those were Washington’s roles, but they now reside with Beijing.

    “Water flows to where there is space, and diplomacy often does the same,” Francesco La Camera, director general at the International Renewable Energy Agency, told Reuters.

    He said China’s dominance in renewable energy and electric vehicles was bolstering its position in climate diplomacy.

    China’s transformation from a quiet presence at the U.N.’s Conference of the Parties summits to a more central player seeking the world’s attention reflects a shift in the fight against global warming since U.S. President Donald Trump’s return to office.

    Long a skeptic of climate change, Trump has again pulled the United States – the world’s largest historic emitter – from the landmark international Paris Agreement to limit global warming. This year, for the first time ever, he declined to send an official high-level delegation to represent U.S. interests at the summit.

    “President Trump will not jeopardize our country’s economic and national security to pursue vague climate goals that are killing other countries,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Reuters.

    But critics warn the U.S. withdrawal from the process cedes valuable ground in the climate negotiations, particularly as China, currently the world’s top greenhouse gas emitter, rapidly expands its renewable and EV industries.

    “China gets it,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom during a visit to the conference earlier this week. “America is toast competitively, if we don’t wake up to what the hell they’re doing in this space, on supply chains, how they’re dominating manufacturing, how they’re flooding the zone.”

    Unlike previous years, when China had a modest pavilion with just a handful of seats available for mostly technical and academic panels, its COP30 pavilion occupies prime space near the entrance next to host country Brazil.

    Cups of sustainable Chinese single-origin coffee, panda toys and branded swag lure in passers-by who can watch presentations by Chinese officials and executives from the world’s biggest renewable energy companies.

    “Let’s honor the legacy and fulfill the Paris [Agreement] vision guided by the vision of shared future,” Meng Xiangfeng, vice president of China’s CATL, the world’s largest battery maker, told an audience on Thursday.

    “Let’s advance climate cooperation and build a clean, beautiful world together.”

    The battery giant already supplies one-third of batteries for EV makers including Tesla, Ford and Volkswagen. It was CATL’s first time hosting an event at a COP, seeking to reach an audience of governments and NGOs.

    Earlier that afternoon, China’s vice minister of ecology Li Gao told a packed audience that China’s status as the world’s leading producer of renewable energy “brings benefits to countries, particularly in the Global South”.

    China’s State Grid, the world’s largest electric utility, and solar giants Trina and Longi also made presentations.

    Chinese electric auto giant BYD introduced a fleet of plug-in hybrid vehicles compatible with biofuel manufactured at its plant in Bahia, Brazil, for use at COP30.

    Both COP President Andre Correa do Lago and COP30 CEO Ana de Toni have praised China’s role as a clean energy technology leader.

    “China has shown leadership not only by carrying out its own energy revolution, but with China’s scale capacity, we can now also buy low-carbon… at competitive prices,” de Toni told Reuters.

    “China is very determined not only to continue to be a very stable leader in the Paris Agreement, strengthening climate governance, but also to take very practical actions to support other countries.” 

    China is playing a more subtle role behind the scenes in the negotiations by filling a void left by the United States, which was known for rallying governments toward agreement, according to current and former diplomats involved in negotiations.

    “Little by little, China is acting as a guarantor of the climate regime,” said one senior diplomat from an emerging economy. “They invested a lot on the green economy. If there’s any kind of involution, they will lose.” 

    One Brazilian diplomat said China played a key role in helping reach an agreement over the COP30 agenda before negotiations even began, whereas in previous years its diplomats would not get involved unless there was some key issue for them. 

    Sue Biniaz, who served as U.S. deputy climate envoy under John Kerry and was a key architect of the Paris Agreement, said China had the ability to bring together the wide-ranging interests of the developing world, from major emerging economies like the BRICS to small developing nations. She worked closely with Chinese counterparts on four bilateral climate agreements, including the one that unlocked the Paris deal.

    “They tend to be very tough, take on tough positions like the U.S. did, but then be pragmatic towards the end,” she told Reuters. “They have to come up with an outcome that nobody thinks is bad enough to block.” 

    Biniaz said she was not yet convinced that China was playing a leadership role beyond the pavilions.

    “If they had wanted to, they would have put in a more ambitious emission reduction target,” she said, referring to China’s announcement in September that it would cut emissions at least 7% from their peak by 2035. 

    Li Shuo, a veteran observer of China at U.N. climate talks who heads the China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute, countered that China’s technology position was already a show of political leadership because its companies were making U.N. pledges achievable.

    “The most powerful country isn’t the one with the loudest microphone at COP,” he said, “but the one actually producing and investing in low-carbon technologies.”

    (Reporting by Valerie Volcovici and Lisandra Paraguassu in Belem, editing by Richard Valdmanis and Nia Williams)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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