Tag: Pollution
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The most climate-friendly groceries might not be in the supermarket
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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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BHP Liable for 2015 Brazil Dam Collapse, UK Court Rules in Mammoth Lawsuit
LONDON (Reuters) -BHP is liable for the 2015 collapse of a dam in southeastern Brazil, London’s High Court ruled on Friday, in a lawsuit the claimants’ lawyers previously valued at up to 36 billion pounds ($48 billion).
Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians, dozens of local governments and around 2,000 businesses sued BHP over the collapse of the Fundao dam in Mariana, southeastern Brazil, which was owned and operated by BHP and Vale’s Samarco joint venture.
Brazil’s worst environmental disaster unleashed a wave of toxic sludge that killed 19 people, left thousands homeless, flooded forests and polluted the length of the Doce River.
Judge Finola O’Farrell said in her ruling that continuing to raise the height of the dam when it was not safe to do so was the “direct and immediate cause” of the dam’s collapse, meaning BHP was liable under Brazilian law.
BHP said it would appeal against the ruling and continue to fight the lawsuit.
BHP’s President Minerals Americas Brandon Craig said in a statement that 240,000 claimants in the London lawsuit “have already been paid compensation in Brazil”.
“We believe this will significantly reduce the size and value of claims in the UK group action,” he added.
CLAIMANTS CELEBRATE MAJOR RULING
Gelvana Rodrigues da Silva, who lost her seven-year-old son Thiago in the flood, said in a statement: “Finally, justice has begun to be served, and those responsible have been held accountable for destroying our lives.”
“The judge’s decision shows what we have been saying for the last 10 years: it was not an accident, and BHP must take responsibility for its actions,” she added.
The claimants’ lawyers accused BHP, the world’s biggest miner by market value, of “cynically and doggedly” trying to avoid responsibility as the mammoth trial began in October.
BHP contested liability and said the London lawsuit duplicated legal proceedings and reparation and repair programmes in Brazil.
In the trial’s first week, Brazil signed a 170 billion reais ($31 billion) compensation agreement with BHP, Vale and Samarco, with BHP saying nearly $12 billion has been spent on reparation, compensation and payments to public authorities since 2015.
BHP said after Friday’s judgment that settlements in Brazil would reduce the size of the London lawsuit by about half.
A second trial to determine the damages BHP is liable to pay is due to begin in October 2026.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin. Editing by Kate Holton and Mark Potter)
Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.
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EVs beat gas after two years, study finds
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Electric vehicles are proving their worth when it comes to long-term emissions. While building an EV creates more pollution upfront because battery production demands more energy, the balance changes fast once the car is on the road. After about two years of normal driving, an electric car overtakes a gas-powered one in total CO2 savings and keeps widening the gap over time.
A peer-reviewed study published in PLOS Climate supports this finding. Researchers Pankaj Sadavarte, Drew Shindell, and Daniel Loughlin conducted the analysis titled, “Comparing the climate and air pollution footprints of Lithium-ion BEVs and ICEs in the U.S. incorporating systemic energy system responses.” Their work examined how manufacturing, fuel production and vehicle operation affect both climate and air quality over a vehicle’s lifetime.
POWER ON THE MOVE: IS PILOT PROGRAM THE FUTURE OF EV CHARGING?
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How the study shows EVs overtake gas cars in emissions
Using the Global Change Analysis Model (GCAM), the study simulated how U.S. transportation and energy systems interact through 2050 under different rates of EV adoption. The results show that while manufacturing EVs releases about 30% more CO2 than producing gas cars, that gap closes quickly once you drive. By the end of year two, EVs emit less carbon overall, and the advantage widens over time as the power grid shifts toward cleaner energy sources.
Each additional kilowatt-hour of battery capacity is projected to eliminate roughly 485 pounds of CO2 by 2030 and about 280 pounds by 2050. That reflects continued progress in electricity generation and efficiency gains across the EV industry. Over an estimated 18-year lifespan, gas-powered vehicles produce two to three and a half times more pollution-related damage than electric ones. Those damages include the social and economic costs of climate change and health issues linked to air pollution.
While building EV batteries creates more emissions upfront, cleaner power grids and zero tailpipe output help electric vehicles pull ahead over time. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
How the GCAM model works
The GCAM model links global energy use, economic activity, and emissions across multiple sectors. In this analysis, researchers measured not only tailpipe emissions but also the upstream effects from mining, refining, and fuel processing. They also factored in how growing EV adoption changes the energy mix. As electricity demand rises, cleaner energy sources like wind, solar and nuclear expand their share, while coal steadily declines.
By 2050, electricity generation from gas, wind and solar grows while coal falls below 6% of the total mix. This cleaner grid makes charging electric cars progressively less carbon-intensive, strengthening the case for a large-scale EV transition.
The study found lifetime health and climate damages from gas cars can be up to 3.5 times higher than from EVs, underscoring the long-term benefits of going electric. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
How EVs impact you and the environment
If you keep a car for more than two years, switching to an EV can meaningfully reduce your carbon footprint. The study found that EVs start paying back their manufacturing emissions faster in regions with renewable-heavy grids. In states still dependent on coal, the break-even point arrives later but still occurs well before a car’s third birthday. The cleaner your local power mix, the faster your EV moves into net-positive territory.
INHALERS PRODUCE CARBON EMISSIONS EQUAL TO 530,000 CARS ON ROAD ANNUALLY, STUDY FINDS
The findings also highlight public health benefits. Gas vehicles emit more nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide, both of which contribute to respiratory illnesses and smog. As EVs replace traditional engines, these pollutants drop, improving air quality and reducing healthcare costs.
Context and limitations
The authors acknowledge that their analysis does not include emissions from recycling or disposing of vehicle parts at the end of life. Nor does it count emissions from building charging networks or new power infrastructure. Despite those exclusions, the study provides one of the most comprehensive long-term looks at how EV adoption affects both the economy and the environment.
Because the study uses projections through 2050, results depend on future technology and energy trends. Even so, the consistent pattern across all scenarios is that EVs deliver large reductions in CO2 and air pollutants once on the road.
What this means for you
If you drive often and plan to own your car for several years, the data shows an EV can save both emissions and money over time. Charging on a renewable or low-carbon plan speeds the payoff even more. Choosing a vehicle that matches your driving needs helps minimize unnecessary battery production and further reduces your footprint.
For communities, broader EV adoption means cleaner local air, fewer health-related costs and lower long-term damage from climate change.
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Kurt’s key takeaways
This PLOS Climate study reinforces that after the first two years, EVs deliver real and lasting climate benefits. As the U.S. grid shifts toward cleaner energy, its impact grows even stronger. The authors note that the analysis does not include emissions from recycling or charging infrastructure, yet it remains one of the most thorough long-term views of EV adoption and its effects on the economy and environment.
Would a cleaner grid in your state make you more likely to trade in your gas car for an EV? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.
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As Typhoon Kalmaegi Wreaks Havoc in Southeast Asia, Scientists Say Rising Temperatures Are to Blame
SINGAPORE (Reuters) -As the year’s deadliest typhoon sweeps into Vietnam after wreaking havoc in the Philippines earlier this week, scientists warn such extreme events can only become more frequent as global temperatures rise.
Typhoon Kalmaegi killed at least 188 people across the Philippines and caused untold damage to infrastructure and farmland across the archipelago. The storm then destroyed homes and uprooted trees after landing in central Vietnam late on Thursday.
Kalmaegi’s path of destruction coincides with a meeting of delegates from more than 190 countries in the rainforest city of Belem in Brazil for the latest round of climate talks. Researchers say the failure of world leaders to control greenhouse gas emissions has led to increasingly violent storms.
“The sea surface temperatures in both the western North Pacific and over the South China Sea are both exceptionally warm,” said Ben Clarke, an extreme weather researcher at London’s Grantham Institute on Climate Change and Environment.
“Kalmaegi will be more powerful and wetter because of these elevated temperatures, and this trend in sea surface temperatures is extremely clearly linked to human-caused global warming.”
WARMER WATERS PACK “FUEL” INTO CYCLONES
While it is not straightforward to attribute a single weather event to climate change, scientists say that in principle, warmer sea surface temperatures speed up the evaporation process and pack more “fuel” into tropical cyclones.
“Climate change enhances typhoon intensity primarily by warming ocean surface temperatures and increasing atmospheric moisture content,” said Gianmarco Mengaldo, a researcher at the National University of Singapore.
“Although this does not imply that every typhoon will become stronger, the likelihood of powerful storms exhibiting greater intensity, with heavier precipitation and stronger winds, rises in a warmer climate,” he added.
MORE INTENSE BUT NOT YET MORE FREQUENT
While the data does not indicate that tropical storms are becoming more frequent, they are certainly becoming more intense, said Mengaldo, who co-authored a study on the role of climate change in September’s Typhoon Ragasa.
Last year, the Philippines was hit by six deadly typhoons in the space of a month, and in a rare occurrence in November, saw four tropical cyclones develop at the same time, suggesting that the storms might now be happening over shorter timeframes.
“Even if total cyclone numbers don’t rise dramatically annually, their seasonal proximity and impact potential could increase,” said Drubajyoti Samanta, a climate scientist at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.
“Kalmaegi is a stark reminder of that emerging risk pattern,” he added.
BACK-TO-BACK STORMS CAUSING MORE DAMAGE
While Typhoon Kalmaegi is not technically the most powerful storm to hit Southeast Asia this year, it has added to the accumulated impact of months of extreme weather in the region, said Feng Xiangbo, a tropical storm researcher at Britain’s University of Reading.
“Back-to-back storms can cause more damage than the sum of individual ones,” he said.
“This is because soils are already saturated, rivers are full, and infrastructure is weakened. At this critical time, even a weak storm arriving can act as a tipping point for catastrophic damage.”
Both Feng and Mengaldo also warned that more regions could be at risk as storms form in new areas, follow different trajectories and become more intense.
“Our recent studies have shown that coastal regions affected by tropical storms are expanding significantly, due to the growing footprint of storm surges and ocean waves,” said Feng.
“This, together with mean sea level rise, poses a severe threat to low-lying areas, particularly in the Philippines and along Vietnam’s shallow coastal shelves.”
(Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Saad Sayeed)
Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.
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EU in Last-Minute Talks to Set New Climate Goal for COP30
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -EU climate ministers will make a last-ditch attempt to pass a new climate change target on Tuesday, in an effort to avoid going to the U.N. COP30 summit in Brazil empty-handed.
Failure to agree could undermine the European Union’s claims to leadership at the COP30 talks, which will test the will of major economies to keep fighting climate change despite opposition from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Countries including China, Britain and Australia have already submitted new climate targets ahead of COP30.
But the EU, which has some of the world’s most ambitious CO2-cutting policies, has struggled to contain a backlash from industries and governments sceptical that it can afford the measures alongside defence and industrial priorities.
EU members failed to agree a 2040 climate target in September, leaving them scrambling for a deal days before European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meets other world leaders at COP30 in Belem, Brazil, on November 6.
“The geopolitical landscape has rarely been more complex,” EU climate policy chief Wopke Hoekstra told a gathering of climate ministers in Canada on Saturday, adding that he was confident the bloc would approve its new goal.
“The European Union will continue to do its utmost, even under these circumstances, in Belem to uphold its commitment to multilateralism and to the Paris Agreement,” he said.
A MORE FLEXIBLE EU TARGET
The starting point for talks is a European Commission proposal to cut net EU greenhouse gas emissions by 90% from 1990 levels by 2040, to keep countries on track for net-zero by 2050.
Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic are among those warning this is too restrictive for domestic industries struggling with high energy costs, cheaper Chinese imports and U.S. tariffs.
Others, including the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden, cite worsening extreme weather and the need to catch up with China in manufacturing green technologies as reasons for ambitious goals.
The draft compromise ministers will discuss, seen by Reuters, includes a clause demanded by France allowing a weakening of the 2040 goal in future, if it becomes clear EU forests are not absorbing enough CO2 to meet it.
Brussels has also vowed to change other measures to attempt to win buy-in for the climate goal. These include controlling prices in an upcoming carbon market and considering weakening its 2035 combustion engine ban as requested by Germany.
A deal on Tuesday will require ministers to agree on the share of the 90% emissions cut countries can cover by buying foreign carbon credits – effectively softening efforts required by domestic industries.
France has said credits should cover 5%, more than the 3% share originally proposed by the Commission. Other governments argue money would be better spent on supporting European industries than buying foreign CO2 credits.
Support from at least 15 of the 27 EU members is needed to pass the goal. EU diplomats said on Monday the vote would be tight and could depend on one or two flipping positions.
Ministers will try first to agree the 2040 goal, and from that derive an emissions pledge for 2035 – which is what the U.N. asked countries to submit ahead of COP30.
(Reporting by Kate Abnett; Editing by Alexander Smith)
Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.
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China Agrees to One-Year Rare Earth Export Deal, Issue ‘Settled’ Says Trump
BEIJING (Reuters) -China has agreed to keep rare earth exports flowing to the world as part of a one-year agreement, President Donald Trump said on Thursday shortly after meeting his counterpart Xi Jinping in South Korea.
The agreement, which Trump provided few details about except that it would probably be extended, would “settle” the issue, he said. China has yet to comment on what was agreed by the two leaders in talks, which ran for almost two hours.
“All of the rare earth has been settled,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “And that’s for the world, worldwide, you could say this was a worldwide situation, not just a U.S. situation.”
“There is no roadblock at all on rare earth. That will hopefully disappear from our vocabulary for a little while.”
Rare earths, 17 elements which play tiny but vital roles in cars, planes and weapons, have emerged from obscurity to become China’s most potent source of leverage in its trade war with the United States.
Export controls introduced in April caused widespread shortages overseas, especially for magnets, forcing some automakers to pause production before exports rebounded following deals between Beijing and Washington and the European Union to free up the flow.
China expanded those controls again in October, taking the total number of elements restricted to 12 and adding much of the equipment used to process them.
The expanded controls are set to come into force in early November and it is unclear whether the agreement discussed by Trump covers the full suite of China’s rare earth export controls or just the October extension.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, also on the flight, said China would not be imposing its proposed rare earth controls after an understanding between the presidents. He did not comment on controls that are already in place.
(Reporting by Lewis Jackson in Beijing; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.
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An AI Data Center Is Coming for Your Backyard. Here’s What That Means for You
Elena Schlossberg and her husband bought their property in Prince William County, Virginia, in 2000. Over the years, the rise of artificial intelligence has transformed their bucolic community into a major hub for data centers, and Mrs. Schlossberg isn’t standing for it.
Spurred to action by an Amazon Web Services data center project in 2014, Schlossberg founded the Coalition to Protect Prince William County. This grassroots organization aims to defend the community against the impact data centers have on residents’ quality of life. Despite the Coalition’s efforts, the county is now home to 44 data centers operated by various tech companies, with 15 more under construction, according to its latest tax revenue report.
“It’s not like I’m anti-data,” Schlossberg told Gizmodo. “But the way they are growing cannot continue.”
Prince William County is a microcosm of a larger phenomenon that’s taken root in rural America in recent years—particularly in low-income areas and communities of color. Data center construction is surging nationwide to support AI’s rapid growth. While some may see opposition as overhyped NIMBYism, experts and community leaders warn of very real consequences for Americans, including rising utility costs, environmental concerns, and public health risks.
If you don’t already have one in your hometown, there’s a good chance that will change in the near future. Here’s what it could mean for you.
Less money in your pocket
Proponents of data centers often argue that these facilities bring jobs and tax revenue to rural communities. In practice, however, these benefits haven’t been fully realized.
“I don’t think that the case is super compelling for what these data centers are bringing to the table,” Ben Green, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s School of Information, told Gizmodo. “And I think that is borne out by just how many communities are pushing back against them.”
A data center project may provide thousands of short-term construction jobs in the beginning, but once the facility is up and running, it typically only requires several dozen staffers to oversee operations. According to Green’s research, data centers do not bring in permanent, high-paying tech jobs because they operate as infrastructure projects rather than traditional businesses.
What’s more, data centers may eliminate long-term jobs already available to the community by purchasing land from local businesses. Schlossberg points to Merrifield Garden Center in Gainesville, Virginia, as one example. The nursery is set to close in December after selling its 38 acres to a data center developer for $160 million, the Prince William Times reports.
Tax revenue can be a real benefit, Green said, but much of this is offset by tax breaks provided to the billion-dollar tech companies building data centers. “It’s not clear why we should be giving these companies—which are the wealthiest in the world—money to come and essentially tap the region’s resources,” he said.
And the strain they put on local resources can be immense. Data centers consume huge amounts of water and electricity, driving up utility costs for residents. Meanwhile, data centers frequently negotiate lower energy rates through bulk power purchasing agreements (PPAs) with utility companies.
In August 2024, for example, Meta signed two long-term PPAs for solar energy production in Illinois and Louisiana. While solar PPA prices have held steady, energy prices for residents have increased more than 20% in Clark County, Illinois, and 39% in Laffite, Louisiana, according to Green’s research.
Power-hungry data centers won’t just impact your wallet, however. To meet rising energy demand, many communities have been forced to keep fossil fuel plants open, Green explained. And when the overstressed electric grid fails, most data centers rely on diesel backup generators. This leads to air pollution that poses significant risks to local health and the environment.
Greater risks to your health
Shaolei Ren, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Riverside, is a co-author of a recent study that investigated the air pollution produced by data centers—primarily their backup generators and electricity usage.
The findings, which are undergoing peer review, suggest that the total public health burden of U.S. data centers will cost more than $20 billion per year by 2028, double that of U.S. coal-based steelmaking.
But what does this mean on a local scale? Well, Ren and his colleagues also found that both electricity consumption and backup generator usage impact the local air quality around data centers, emitting pollutants such as PM2.5, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Studies have linked long-term exposure to these pollutants to adverse health outcomes and premature death.
“We found that in certain areas like Northern Virginia, the direct impact is really substantial,” Ren told Gizmodo. The analysis shows that—assuming the actual emissions are only 10% of the permitted level—the data center backup generators registered in Virginia could already cause 14,000 asthma symptom cases and other health outcomes.
This equates to a total public health burden of $220 million to $300 million per year, impacting residents not just in the immediate vicinity of data centers but in multiple surrounding states and as far south as Florida.
“These air pollutants are traveling hundreds of miles,” Ren explained. “But most of the pollutants are concentrated within 50 miles [of the data centers].”
What experts say you can do about it
Schlossberg and the Coalition to Protect Prince William County have become a model for communities looking to organize against local data center projects. She speaks with people across the country, helping them form their own grassroots efforts to push back against the impact of data centers on their lives.
Her word of advice? “Never give up, even when you’ve lost.” Standing up to some of the largest corporations in America is no easy feat, but it will make a difference, she said. And there are plenty of solutions you can advocate for, according to Ren and Green.
Ren highlights fighting for policies that require data centers to switch to tier 4 diesel backup generators, designed with state-of-the-art emission control technologies to meet the most stringent air quality standards. Green emphasizes urging policymakers to repeal tax breaks for data centers and demanding greater transparency around their water and energy use.
“Your community is your firewall,” Schlossberg said. “What we are doing now—town by town, city by city—is mitigating the damage to save what we can until this bubble bursts.”
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Exxon Sues California Over Climate Disclosure Laws
(Reuters) -Exxon Mobil sued California on Friday, challenging two state laws that require large companies to publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related financial risks.
In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Exxon argued that Senate Bills 253 and 261 violate its First Amendment rights by compelling Exxon to “serve as a mouthpiece for ideas with which it disagrees,” and asked the court to block the state of California from enforcing the laws.
Exxon said the laws force it to adopt California’s preferred frameworks for climate reporting, which it views as misleading and counterproductive. The oil giant said it already reports emissions and climate risks voluntarily, and objects to California’s frameworks.
Democrat-ruled California has long had some of the strictest environmental rules in areas like vehicle fuel efficiency standards and planning policy, after passing a climate change law in 2006.
California passed two laws in 2023 that would require companies to publicly report their greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related financial risks.
The California laws were supported by several big companies including Apple, Ikea and Microsoft, but opposed by several major groups such as the American Farm Bureau Federation and Chamber of Commerce, which called them “onerous.”
SB 253 requires public and private companies that are active in the state and generate revenue of more than $1 billion annually to publish an extensive account of their carbon emissions starting in 2026. The law requires the disclosure of both the companies’ own emissions and indirect emissions by their suppliers and customers.
SB 261 requires companies that operate in the state with over $500 million in revenue to disclose climate-related financial risks and strategies to mitigate risk. Exxon also argued that SB 261 conflicts with existing federal securities laws, which already regulate what publicly traded companies must disclose regarding financial and environmental risks.
The California Department of Justice and the California Air Resources Board did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru and Mike Scarcella in Washington, editing by Deepa Babington)
Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.
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5 ways AI can help the environment, even though it uses tremendous energy
Artificial intelligence has caused concern for its tremendous consumption of water and power. But scientists are also experimenting with ways that AI can help people and businesses use energy more efficiently and pollute less.
Data centers needed to fuel AI accounted for about 1.5% of the world’s electricity consumption last year, and those facilities’ energy consumption is predicted to more than double by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency. That increase could lead to burning more fossil fuels such as coal and gas, which release greenhouse gases that contribute to warming temperatures, sea level rise and extreme weather.
But when AI’s computing power is used to analyze energy usage and pollution, it can also make buildings more efficient, charge devices at optimal times, make oil and gas production less polluting and schedule traffic lights to reduce vehicle emissions.
Experts say that if uses like these continue to grow, they could help offset the energy consumed by AI.
“I am pretty optimistic that while more and more AI use is going to continue to increase,” said Alexis Abramson, dean of the Columbia University Climate School, “we’re going to see our ability to process be much more efficient and as a result, the energy consumption won’t go up as much as some are predicting.”
AI can be used to make buildings more energy-efficient by automatically adjusting lighting, ventilation, heating and cooling based on weather data, electricity usage and other factors, said Bob French, chief evangelist at the building automation company 75F. Around one-third of U.S. greenhouse gas pollution comes from homes and buildings.
Letting AI schedule air conditioning and heating around workers’ arrivals and departures can be more efficient than manually adjusting the thermostat. Otherwise, a worker’s instinct might be to blast the air to quickly adjust the temperature. Automated thermostats can be particularly useful for smaller buildings where it’s not cost-effective to overhaul the entire heating and cooling system.
For building ventilation, automation can balance the intake of outside air against how much heating or cooling is needed to maintain indoor temperatures.
AI can also monitor the maintenance needs of HVAC systems and other equipment to predict and detect failures before they lead to costlier repairs.
Combined, these automations can reduce a building’s energy consumption by between 10% and 30%, experts said.
“That’s literally a super low-hanging fruit,” said Zoltan Nagy, professor of building services at Eindhoven University of Technology.
AI can schedule the most efficient charging of electric vehicles and other devices such as smartphones.
This means setting a schedule for when it is best to draw power from the grid, such as overnight, when demand and rates are lower so it’s less likely to make the grid burn more fossil fuels.
“Let’s say it’s a peak period when everybody’s got their air conditioning on, and I walk in my house and I plug in my car and I have it set up such that my car doesn’t start charging right away because it’s peak period time,” Abramson said.
In California, a pilot program shifted charging to times where there was more renewable energy available, and saved customers money.
AI can also help optimize how homeowners with solar panels store excess energy in batteries.
Boston-based Geminus AI uses deep learning and advanced reasoning to help oil and gas companies reduce methane flaring and venting, and reduce the amount of energy they use in extracting and refining.
Reducing methane emissions is among the fastest pathways to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas responsible for about 30% of today’s global warming.
When pressure in oil and gas pipes builds up, some of the gas is released and burned to relieve the pressure, harming the planet and wasting money.
Geminus CEO Greg Fallon said they can monitor the network of wells and pipes and use AI-driven simulations to suggest changes to compressor and pump settings that eliminate the need for venting and flaring. Geminus does this in seconds. Traditionally it takes engineers about 36 hours to run simulations that make similar recommendations, Fallon added.
“As we scale this across the industry, there’s a massive opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Fallon said.
Salt Lake City-based geothermal energy startup Zanskar has built AI models to understand the Earth’s subsurface. It’s using that modeling to find overlooked geothermal hot spots and target drilling.
Geothermal creates electricity cleanly by making steam from the Earth’s natural heat and using it to spin a turbine. It’s one renewable energy the Trump administration favors.
Zanskar co-founders Carl Hoiland and Joel Edwards say they simulate and assess a huge number of possible subsurface scenarios to estimate where there are pockets of very hot water. From this, they pick optimal locations and drilling directions.
“AI is becoming the solution to its own energy problem,” Hoiland, the CEO, said. “It’s showing us a way to unlock resources that weren’t possible without it.”
Last year, Zanskar purchased an underperforming geothermal power plant in New Mexico. Their AI modeling successfully indicated there was an untapped geothermal reservoir that could repower the facility.
Next, Hoiland and Edwards focused on another site in Nevada, despite industry experts telling them it was too cold to support a utility-scale power plant. They drilled and announced their second geothermal discovery in September at that site.
Google is using artificial intelligence and Google Maps data to identify traffic light adjustments that can reduce stop-and-go traffic to lower pollution. Passenger cars and small trucks account for about 16% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to Environmental Protection Agency data.
Launched in 2023, Project Green Light is now in 20 cities on four continents. The most recent is Boston, which has notoriously bad traffic.
Each city gets AI-generated recommendations. City engineers determine which to implement. Google says Project Green Light can reduce stop-and-go traffic by up to 30%, which cuts emissions by 10% and improves air quality.
“We’re just scratching the surface of what AI can do,” said Juliet Rothenberg, Google’s product director of Earth and resilience AI.
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Thousands Protest in Tunisia’s Gabes Over Pollution Crisis
TUNIS (Reuters) -Thousands took to the streets of the Tunisian coastal city of Gabes in a huge march on Wednesday, in an escalation of protests that began last week over pollution from the state Chemical Group’s (CGT) phosphate complex.
The large-scale protests heighten pressure on President Kais Saied’s government, which fears the unrest may spread to other regions of the country.
The government, already pressured by a deep financial crisis, needs to balance public health demands with the production of phosphate, Tunisia’s most valuable natural resource.
The protesters chanted slogans such as “we want to live” and “Gabes is crying out for help”.
The protesters marched towards Chatt Essalam, a coastal suburb to the north of the city, where the chemical group is located. There, witnesses said that police fired tear gas to disperse them as they approached the headquarters.
In the capital, Tunis, crowds also gathered in support of Gabes, highlighting growing national concern over the environmental crisis and the call for urgent government action.
Residents of Gabes say they are suffering from increased respiratory illnesses, osteoporosis and an increased incidence of cancer due to the toxic gases emitted by the factory’s units.
The latest wave of protests was triggered earlier this month after dozens of schoolchildren suffered breathing difficulties caused by toxic fumes from a plant that converts phosphates into phosphoric acid and fertilizers.
CGT did not reply to Reuters’ attempts to seek comment on the situation in Gabes.
Khaireddine Diba, one of the protesters, said: “Today, our voice will be loud and resounding until this crime stops immediately.”
Saied said this month that Gabes was suffering an “environmental assassination” due to what he called criminal policy choices by a previous government.
He called on ministries to maintain the units to stop leaks as a first step.
However, the protesters reject temporary solutions and demand the permanent closure and relocation of the units.
Tons of industrial waste are discharged into the sea at Chatt Essalam daily.
Environmental groups warn that marine life has been severely affected, with local fishermen reporting a dramatic decline in fish stocks over the past decade, hitting a vital source of income for many in the region.
(Reporting By Tarek Amara; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.
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UN Warns Colombia Over Mercury Contamination in Atrato River, Calls Crisis a Human Rights Emergency
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The United Nations warned that mercury contamination from illegal gold mining in Colombia’s Atrato River basin has created a “serious and ongoing human rights crisis,” threatening the health and survival of Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities who depend on the river for food, water and culture.
In a letter made public on Tuesday, three U.N. Human Rights Council special rapporteurs raised concerns with the Colombian government about insufficient compliance with a 2016 Constitutional Court ruling that recognized the Atrato River as a legal entity with rights to protection and restoration.
“Ten years have passed and we have seen that there has been insufficient implementation and compliance with the terms of that decision,” Marcos Orellana, the U.N. special rapporteur on toxics and human rights, told The Associated Press. “A big part of the problem stems from the presence of organized crime — smuggling mercury, smuggling gold, and corruption in military and police forces.”
The Atrato River, one of Colombia’s largest waterways, winds nearly 500 miles from the western Andes to the Caribbean Sea through the lush jungles of Choco, one of the country’s most biodiverse yet impoverished regions. It’s home to predominantly Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities that rely on fishing and small-scale farming — livelihoods now imperiled by toxic pollution.
Illegal gold mining is now among the main drivers of deforestation and pollution across many of Latin America’s Amazon regions. Soaring gold prices and weak traceability systems have fueled demand for illicitly mined gold that often slips into global supply chains. The mercury used to extract the metal has devastated wildlife — including river dolphins and fish — and contaminated the food sources of Indigenous communities in remote areas of the Amazon.
More than a third of population exposed to mercu
AP reporting last year showed how local residents — charged with safeguarding the river — act as watchguards of illegal mining and the health of the river, often under threat from armed groups.
Orellana said the U.N. received evidence showing that more than a third of the population in the Atrato watershed has been exposed to mercury levels exceeding World Health Organization limits. He called the situation “incredibly concerning,” citing the metal’s extreme toxicity and its ability to cause neurological damage, organ failure and developmental disorders in unborn children.
The 2016 court ruling was hailed globally as a milestone in environmental law, inspiring similar “rights of nature” initiatives elsewhere. But Orellana said political turnover, lack of funding and alleged corruption have undermined enforcement.
“Complying with a court decision requires institutional commitment over the long term,” he said. “Politics can interfere, and reality kicks in when budgets don’t follow.”
The letter — cosigned by the special rapporteur on the right to a healthy environment and the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent — was sent to the Colombian government more than 60 days ago, Orellana said, but has not yet received a response. Under standard U.N. procedures, governments are given 60 days to reply to such communications before they are made public.
“It is my expectation that the government will reply, giving effect to its obligations under international human rights law,” he said.
Colombia’s presidential office and Environment Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Illegal mining linked to slavery, prostitution and displacement
In their communication, the U.N. rapporteurs described the mercury contamination as a violation of the rights to health, life and a clean environment. They urged Colombia to take “immediate and effective” steps to curb illegal mining, clean up polluted sites and provide medical care for affected communities.
Mercury is commonly used in small-scale gold mining to separate gold from sediment, but when released into rivers it poisons fish and builds up in human tissue. Colombia banned mercury use in mining in 2018, yet enforcement remains weak — especially in conflict zones dominated by armed groups and criminal networks.
Orellana said his office has received evidence of slavery like labor, forced prostitution and displacement linked to illegal mining operations in the Atrato region.
“These forms of violence and violations of human rights accompany mercury contamination and must be treated as environmental crimes,” he said.
He urged Colombia to take a leading role in strengthening international mercury controls under the Minamata Convention on Mercury, saying current global regulations have “gaps that need to be closed” to curb cross-border trade.
Meaningful progress, Orellana added, would mean seeing a decline in the number of hectares being mined — which has increased since the 2016 ruling — and ensuring communities have access not just to testing but to specialized health care and clear guidance on how to reduce exposure.
“The human rights of victims are at stake,” he said. “International law requires states to respect and guarantee rights — not for one day or for one week, but all the time.”
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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Nations Meet to Consider Regulations to Drive a Green Transition in Shipping
The world’s largest maritime nations are gathering in London on Tuesday to consider adopting regulations that would move the shipping industry away from fossil fuels to slash emissions.
If the deal is adopted, this will be the first time a global fee is imposed on planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. Most ships today run on heavy fuel oil that releases carbon dioxide and other pollutants as it’s burned.
That would be a major win for the climate, public health, the ocean and marine life, said Delaine McCullough at the Ocean Conservancy. For too long, ships have run on crude, dirty oil, she said.
“This agreement provides a lesson for the world that legally-binding climate action is possible,” McCullough, shipping program director for the nonprofit environmental advocacy group, said.
Shipping emissions have grown over the last decade to about 3% of the global total as trade has grown and vessels use immense amounts of fossil fuels to transport cargo over long distances.
The regulations would set a pricing system for gas emissions
The regulations, or “Net-zero Framework,” sets a marine fuel standard that decreases, over time, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions allowed from using shipping fuels. The regulations also establish a pricing system that would impose fees for every ton of greenhouse gases emitted by ships above allowable limits, in what is effectively the first global tax on greenhouse gas emissions.
There’s a base-level of compliance for the allowable greenhouse gas intensity of fuels. There’s a more stringent direct compliance target that requires further reduction in the greenhouse gas intensity.
If ships sail on fuels with lower emissions than what’s required under the direct compliance target, they earn “surplus units,” effectively credits.
Ships with the highest emissions would have to buy those credits from other ships under the pricing system, or from the IMO at $380 per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent to reach the base level of compliance. In addition, there’s a penalty of $100 per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent to reach direct compliance.
Ships that meet the base target but not the direct compliance one must pay the $100 per ton penalty, too.
Ships whose greenhouse gas intensity is below a certain threshold will receive rewards for their performance.
The fees could generate $11 billion to $13 billion in revenue annually. That would go into an IMO fund to invest in fuels and technologies needed to transition to green shipping, reward low-emission ships and support developing countries so they aren’t left behind with dirty fuels and old ships.
Looking for alternative fuels
Ships could lower their emissions by using alternative fuels, running on electricity or using onboard carbon capture technologies. Wind propulsion and other energy efficiency advancements can also help reduce fuel consumption and emissions as part of an energy transition.
Large ships last about 25 years, so the industry would need to make changes and investments now to reach net-zero around 2050.
If adopted, the regulations will enter into force in 2027. Large oceangoing ships over 5,000 gross tonnage, which emit 85% of the total carbon emissions from international shipping, would have to pay penalties for their emissions starting in 2028, according to the IMO.
The International Chamber of Shipping, which represents over 80% of the world’s merchant fleet, is advocating for adoption.
Concerns over biofuels produced from food crops
Heavy fuel oil, liquefied natural gas and biodiesel will be dominant for most of the 2030s and 2040s, unless the IMO further incentivizes green alternatives, according to modeling from Transport and Environment, a Brussels-based environmental nongovernmental organization.
The way the rules are designed essentially make biofuels the cheapest fuel to use to comply, but biofuels require huge amounts of crops, pushing out less profitable food production, often leading to additional land clearance and deforestation, said Faig Abbasov, shipping director at T&E.
They are urging the IMO to promote scalable green alternatives, not recklessly promote biofuels produced from food crops, Abbasov said. As it stands now, the deal before the IMO won’t deliver net-zero emissions by 2050, he added.
Green ammonia will get to a price that it’s appealing to ship owners in the late 2040s — quite late in the transition, according to the modeling. The NGO also sees green methanol playing an important role in the long-term transition.
The vote at the London meeting
The IMO aims for consensus in decision-making but it’s likely nations will vote on adopting the regulations.
At the April meeting, a vote was called to approve the contents of the regulations. The United States was notably absent in April, but plans to participate in this meeting.
Teresa Bui at Pacific Environment said she’s optimistic “global momentum is on our side” and a majority of countries will support adoption. Bui is senior climate campaign director for the environmental nonprofit, which has consultative, or non-voting, status at the IMO.
If it fails, shipping’s decarbonization will be further delayed.
“It’s difficult to know for sure what the precise consequences will be, but failure this week will certainly lead to delay, which means ships will emit more greenhouse gases than they would have done and for longer, continuing their outsized contribution to the climate crisis,” said John Maggs, of the Clean Shipping Coalition, who is at the London meeting.
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.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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US Threatens Visa Restrictions, Sanctions Against UN Members That Back IMO Emissions Plan
(Reuters) -The United States on Friday threatened to use visa restrictions and sanctions to retaliate against nations that vote in favor of a plan put forward by a United Nations agency to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from ocean shipping.
U.N. member nations are scheduled to vote next week on the International Maritime Organization’s Net-Zero Framework proposal to reduce global carbon dioxide gas emissions from the international shipping sector, which handles around 80% of world trade and accounts for close to 3% of global greenhouse gases.
Large container carriers, under pressure from investors to fight climate change, generally agree that a global regulatory framework is crucial to speeding up decarbonisation. Still, some of the world’s biggest oil tanker companies said they had “grave concerns” about the proposal.
“The Administration unequivocally rejects this proposal before the IMO and will not tolerate any action that increases costs for our citizens, energy providers, shipping companies and their customers, or tourists,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a joint statement.
The “proposal poses significant risks to the global economy and subjects not just Americans, but all IMO member states to an unsanctioned global tax regime that levies punitive and regressive financial penalties,” they said.
Without global regulation, the maritime industry would face a patchwork of regulations and increasing costs without effectively curbing climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions, supporters of the IMO proposal have said.
The U.S. is considering retaliation against U.N. countries that support the plan, the U.S. officials said in Friday’s statement.
That includes potentially blocking vessels flagged in those nations from U.S. ports, imposing visa restrictions and fees, and slapping sanctions on officials “sponsoring activist-driven climate policies.”
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil and Lisa Baertlein; Editing by Costas Pitas and Tom Hogue)
Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.
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