Legal Planet

AUGUST 18, 2022

Production and combustion of fossil fuels imposes enormous costs on society, which the industry doesn’t pay for. I want to talk about some options for using the tax system to change that. One option, a tax on carbon dioxide emissions, gets the most attention but seems politically impossible. Download as PDF.

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Fossil Fuels Carbon Dioxide Politics Carbon Emissions 278

Union of Concerned Scientists

JULY 29, 2024

My colleague Dr. Kristy Dahl and I arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria, last week for the 61st session of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). These documents offer an internationally accepted summary of the state of climate science, and form the backbone of many legal briefs I prepare.

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Climate Change Fossil Fuels Carbon Dioxide Paris Agreement 282

Circle of Blue

OCTOBER 4, 2022

Climate change could hike the cost of maintaining Ontario ’s transportation infrastructure by over $1.5 Indiana regulates the underground storage of carbon dioxide. In central Illinois , residents are reluctant to make way for an underground carbon dioxide pipeline. . — Laura Gersony, Fresh Editor.

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Ocean Conservancy

NOVEMBER 15, 2024

Climate change is propelling these weather events to grow faster and stronger than ever before. Other climate change impacts are accelerating as well. Many scientists thought these high ocean temperatures would be years away, but the realities of climate change are not a distant threat.

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Real Climate

APRIL 6, 2023

The summary for policymakers of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sixth synthesis report was released on March 20th (available online as a PDF ). There is a recording of the IPCC Press Conference – Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report for those who are interested in watching an awkward release of the report.

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Climate Change Fossil Fuels Greenhouse 2012 322

Union of Concerned Scientists

JUNE 26, 2024

This June, I had the opportunity to testify at the Pennsylvania House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee’s hearing on “Hydrogen Hubs and Climate Change.” My name is Julie McNamara, and I am a senior analyst and deputy policy director for climate and energy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

OCTOBER 15, 2024

One scope is the narrow carbon picture , the one that you’ll hear about most readily: what these approaches mean in terms of how much carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) comes out of a gas plant’s smokestack, or how much less a plant can be said to be emitting. And we don’t need to have all the answers to make a difference.

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Renewable Energy Fossil Fuels Electricity Nitrogen Oxides 287

Union of Concerned Scientists

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

Union of Concerned Scientists’ (UCS) research shows that top fossil fuel producers’ emissions are responsible for as much as half of global surface temperature increase. Updated analysis from 2020 shows that emissions traced to the 88 largest carbon producers contributed approximately 60 percent?of

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Inside Climate News

APRIL 24, 2025

Scientists are worried because they cant fully explain the big jump, but they think it might mean that carbon absorption by forests, fields and wetlands is slowing downa major problem for the world.

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Atmosphere 2024 Carbon Dioxide Fossil Fuels 125

Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 7, 2023

Attribution science , which is about understanding the role of climate change versus natural weather patterns and climate variability, can help us better understand the connections between extreme weather and climate change, provide new insight into what specific emissions are driving the worst impacts, and help shape climate solutions.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 6, 2025

This past week, I attended the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) meeting in Hangzhou, China. In previous posts, Ive explained what the IPCC is, why this assessment cycle is crucial , and highlighted its role in climate action. Approving expert meetings and passing the budget. Whats Next for the IPCC?

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Climate Change Carbon Dioxide Technology Technology 156

Union of Concerned Scientists

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

Methane gas has devastating effects on the climate system and its extraction and combustion generate numerous harms to human health. Compared to carbon dioxide (CO2), methane doesn’t linger for long in the atmosphere after being emitted. But during the decade it does linger, its heat-trapping potential is 80x stronger than CO2.

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Fossil Fuels Paris Agreement Climate Change 2030 305

Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 6, 2025

This past week, I attended the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) meeting in Hangzhou, China. In previous posts, Ive explained what the IPCC is, why this assessment cycle is crucial , and highlighted its role in climate action. Approving expert meetings and passing the budget. Whats Next for the IPCC?

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Climate Change Carbon Dioxide Technology Technology 148

Law Columbia

MARCH 18, 2025

The burning of fossil fuels and other human activities are continuing to cause rapid temperature rise. Achieving global climate goals will require rapid and dramatic greenhouse gas emissions reductions, along with the removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Read the report here.

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Carbon Dioxide Ocean Clean Water Act Fossil Fuels 59

Union of Concerned Scientists

APRIL 9, 2024

Earlier this year, ExxonMobil released its annual Advancing Climate Solutions report detailing the company’s current and planned contributions to a net-zero future. These kinds of curves are fairly standard when comparing strategies to address climate change as you can see in the comparable figure below. Who needs units anyway?

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Carbon Dioxide Fossil Fuels Climate Change Atmosphere 340

Union of Concerned Scientists

JUNE 20, 2024

But with estimates suggesting that sea level rise will affect more than one billion people around the world in the next 25 years, this is one member of the dysfunctional climate change family that shouldn’t be ignored. Why is this? Read on for the science you need to know about sea level rise, in seven parts.

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Sea Level Fossil Fuels Ocean Carbon Dioxide 340

Union of Concerned Scientists

NOVEMBER 15, 2022

It is 80 times stronger than carbon dioxide (CO2) at trapping heat on short timescales. Of course, we also will have to make sharp cuts in CO2 emissions, the main driver of climate change. Methane emissions come from two main sources : fossil fuels and agriculture—primarily animal-based agriculture.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

MAY 26, 2022

Drawing on research by the Union of Concerned Scientists and others, the commission report found that fossil fuel companies fully understood their products’ impact on climate as early as 1965, when their own scientists discovered them. N ovel Approaches to Climate Litigation. The Importance of Climate Litigation.

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Fossil Fuels Climate Change Paris Agreement Carbon Emissions 257

Enviromental Defense

FEBRUARY 13, 2023

It is being presented as a key climate change solution. But that disguises hydrogen’s dirty secret – it actually does contribute to global heating – and is actually 33 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. You can create hydrogen either using renewable energy or using fossil fuels. The post What?

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Fossil Fuels 2023 Renewable Energy Carbon Dioxide 115

Legal Planet

JUNE 4, 2021

In recent years, The Netherlands has become the leading site of climate change litigation. Now the same district court has gone further, again in favor of environmental groups but now against Royal Dutch Shell (“Shell”) , the world’s largest non-state-owned fossil fuel company. These lawsuits face three key barriers.

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Carbon Dioxide Fossil Fuels Climate Change 2010 246

PA Environment Daily

JANUARY 23, 2025

Plastics are made from fossil fuels and over 16,000 different chemicals. Because plastics are produced from fossil fuels the lifecycle of plastics has a huge carbon dioxide footprint and is a driver of climate change.

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Fossil Fuels Carbon Dioxide Regulations Environmental Protection 105

Environmental News Bits

AUGUST 12, 2022

by Kevin Trenberth, University of Auckland When politicians talk about reaching “net zero” emissions, they’re often counting on trees or technology that can pull carbon dioxide out of the air. What they don’t mention is just how much these proposals or geoengineering would cost to allow the world to continue burning fossil fuels.

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Climate Change Carbon Dioxide Fossil Fuels Technology 105

Union of Concerned Scientists

SEPTEMBER 11, 2024

Switching from fossil fuels like gasoline to increasingly clean electricity sources is vital for hitting climate and air pollution goals. To meet emissions goals and avoid the worst impacts of climate change, this trend will need to accelerate over the coming decades. pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per gallon.

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Carbon Dioxide 2005 Electricity Nitrogen Oxides 259

Union of Concerned Scientists

OCTOBER 26, 2022

While there is enormous potential for UN climate negotiations to transform climate action, meaningful progress has been delayed in part by the fossil fuel industry’s deceptive tactics. Last year’s COP was notable as the first to explicitly mention “fossil fuels” in the final decision document.

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Sea Level Fossil Fuels Paris Agreement Climate Change 230

Union of Concerned Scientists

FEBRUARY 22, 2023

At the evening seafood reception that year, in a corner near the fresh oysters, a board member of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association remarked to me, “Everyone blames everything on climate change, but they blame the Right Whale on lobstering.” His remark has remained with me ever since.

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Fossil Fuels Ocean Sea Level Carbon Dioxide 232

Legal Planet

AUGUST 15, 2023

A state court judge in the ‘Last Best Place’ just gave the youth climate movement a shot in the arm with the first decision of its kind that directly connects specific state actions to global climate change and then to injuries suffered by young people. courts have not yet engaged in this kind of fact-finding on climate change.

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Climate Change Fossil Fuels Renewable Energy Carbon Dioxide 246

Law Columbia

FEBRUARY 27, 2025

Japan ) and a second in Yokosuka in 2019 ( Yokosuka Climate Case ). In the 2019 case, the judgments focused on the procedural aspect of the replacement of the coal-fired power plant and discussion of the climate issues was limited. Background Japan has heavily relied on the use of fossil fuels for its power generation.

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Environmental News Bits

NOVEMBER 13, 2024

As the hottest summer on record comes to a close and harrowing images emerge from wildfires across California, the urgency of addressing climate change has never been greater. But for years, Big Oil has spread disinformation about climate science and stymied climate action.

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Fossil Fuels Climate Change Carbon Dioxide 40

Union of Concerned Scientists

JULY 29, 2022

That requires bringing global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2050. DO: Pay your fair share of the costs of climate change. Companies are spending millions fighting lawsuits that would hold them accountable for the costs that fossil fuel extraction has imposed on people and the planet.

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Legal Planet

AUGUST 2, 2021

Decades ago, their own scientists told car companies and oil companies about climate change, information the companies chose to ignore. He talked her into studying climate change. She went on to become the head of the climate change program at Argonne National Lab and a professor at UC Davis.

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Fossil Fuels Climate Change Carbon Dioxide Atmosphere 190

Legal Planet

JULY 12, 2023

The very first American trial of a youth climate lawsuit was hardly blockbuster Court TV, but we learned a lot from the proceedings. As I outlined here , Montana state law prohibits the consideration of greenhouse gas emissions or climate impacts–– inside and outside the state’s borders––when reviewing projects and approving permits.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

MAY 25, 2023

This includes loopholes related to biomethane, whereby heavily polluting fossil fuel-fired hydrogen production facilities—the very facilities the tax credit is trying to incentivize a shift away from—can cloak themselves as “clean” and reap full tax credit rewards, without having done anything but pushed around paper.

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Fossil Fuels Carbon Dioxide Clean Energy Carbon Emissions 209

Union of Concerned Scientists

OCTOBER 27, 2022

Four important global reports released in the last two days set up a deeply sobering context for the upcoming annual international climate talks in Egypt, also called COP27. Source: UN Climate Change 2022 NDC Synthesis Report. Source: UN Climate Change 2022 NDC Synthesis Report. The UN NDC Synthesis report.

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Environmental News Bits

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Kutscher, University of Colorado Boulder and Jeffrey Logan, University of Colorado Boulder In the summer of 1988, scientist James Hansen testified to Congress that carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels was dangerously warming the planet.

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Fossil Fuels Carbon Dioxide Climate Change Electricity 105

Union of Concerned Scientists

APRIL 10, 2024

A brief history of the land carbon sink Every year, globally, land-based ecosystems remove roughly 30% of human emissions from the atmosphere, slowing both the accumulation of atmospheric CO2 and increases in global temperature. These same environmental changes can also increase carbon losses from land-based ecosystems.

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Atmosphere Carbon Emissions Fossil Fuels Climate Change 216

Union of Concerned Scientists

SEPTEMBER 2, 2022

While the epicenter of the war and its horrors has remained trained on and in Ukraine, Russia has also leveraged its position as a major fossil fuel exporter to fund its war efforts and to manipulate and threaten others, including countries across Europe that have long relied on Russian supplies of gas.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

OCTOBER 11, 2022

Geopolitical considerations aside, our current agricultural model is not climate friendly, and the production and use of fertilizers contribute significantly to both carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and non-CO 2 heat-trapping emissions. Where do we go from here?

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