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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Legal Planet

JUNE 16, 2022

According to the Energy Information Agency , South Korea’s power sector is heavily reliant on fossil fuels. Two thirds of generation capacity is based on fossil fuels, split evenly between coal and natural gas, with 17% nuclear, and 14% hydro and other renewables. 50% coal, 26% gas, and 25% nuclear. Download as PDF.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

APRIL 27, 2023

Fossil fuel power plant owners are facing increased accountability for their air and water pollution, including from a new round of environmental and public health protections that are being rolled out by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). We’ve heard these lazily disingenuous narratives before.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 24, 2023

For the first time, the International Court of Justice (ICJ)—the world’s highest court—may be ruling on climate change. On March 29, the UN General Assembly will vote on a resolution to bring climate change before the ICJ.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

Plans countries have submitted under the Paris Agreement would lead to an increase in overall emissions by 2030 and that trend desperately needs to be reversed. Global Energy Monitor’s tracking of corporate methane emissions found that 30 fossil fuel companies were responsible for 43% of the sectors’ emissions.

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Inside Climate News

NOVEMBER 2, 2024

Interview by Jenni Doering, Living on Earth From our collaborating partner Living on Earth, public radio’s environmental news magazine , an interview by Jenni Doering with Bob Berwyn, who covers climate science and the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for Inside Climate News.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

(For a deeper dive on what’s really going on here in Egypt, check out the Climate Action Against Disinformation’s website.). A small number of big corporations are responsible for the climate crisis. The best solution: Replace fossil fuels with renewable energy. This is not news, but it’s worth repeating.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 23, 2023

And fossil fuel power plants may not stick to their retirement schedules for a variety of reasons. And CO 2 emissions are a primary driver of global climate change, which is exacerbating the type of extreme weather that killed 474 people and caused $165 billion in damages in the United States last year alone.

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Ocean Conservancy

NOVEMBER 11, 2024

By facilitating a responsible, rapid and just transition to ocean climate solutions like offshore wind, we can empower communities, bolster economies and accelerate decarbonization efforts. Countries will submit new commitments, or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), required under the Paris Agreement over the coming months.

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Law Columbia

MARCH 12, 2025

UN Photo/ICJ-CIJ/ Frank van Beek This blog post is Part 3 of a three-part series highlighting the main legal arguments presented during the hearings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the request for an advisory opinion regarding the obligations of States with respect to climate change.

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Enviromental Defense

NOVEMBER 6, 2024

After 30 years of international negotiations failing to mention the root cause of the climate crisis, the acknowledgement that we must phase out all fossil fuels and massively scale up renewable energy in order to effectively tackle the climate crisis, was both long overdue and extremely significant.

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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. Whats Next for the IPCC?

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Union of Concerned Scientists

NOVEMBER 15, 2022

If policymakers can reduce short-term, high-impact heat-trapping gases such as methane we can limit warming and keep the Paris Agreement goals within reach. Of course, we also will have to make sharp cuts in CO2 emissions, the main driver of climate change. The planet has already warmed 1.1

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Union of Concerned Scientists

NOVEMBER 16, 2023

However, several analyses—including a recent one by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)—have concluded that the IRA, even when coupled with the bipartisan infrastructure act and other federal and state climate policies, will not be enough to meet US carbon emission reduction goals. trillion in avoided climate change-related damages.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

MAY 22, 2023

Both extreme heat and wildfires are directly linked to climate change. For years, fossil fuel companies have socialized the costs of their pollution while privatizing the benefits. Perhaps less obvious is the importance of state and local governments in holding the fossil fuel industry accountable.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

NOVEMBER 6, 2023

Climate change, one of the defining challenges of our time, demands multifaceted approaches to drive action and accountability. Two central players in this arena are climate litigators and United Nations (UN) climate negotiators. Meanwhile, in the United States, the recent Held v.

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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. Whats Next for the IPCC?

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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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Legal Planet

JUNE 4, 2021

Some events last week sent a strong signal that the tide is turning against fossil fuels. To paraphrase Churchill, this may not be beginning of the end for fossil fuels, but at least it is the end of the beginning of the campaign against them. Each of the events standing alone would have been noteworthy.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

JANUARY 30, 2023

They’re also hoping to circumnavigate efforts to hold them accountable for their contribution to climate change. The key word here is “ intensity :” Fossil fuel companies often focus on emissions intensity, meaning emissions per barrel of oil, rather than absolute emissions, which is a set number measured in metric tons.

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Legal Planet

MAY 5, 2022

Mexico is also highly vulnerable to climate change. What’s the state of climate policy in Mexico? The climate issue has to be placed in the broader context of Mexico’s situation. Because of its geography, Mexico is vulnerable to climate impacts.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 30, 2022

Fossil fuels are the root cause of climate change, of long-standing environmental injustices, and are also frequently connected to geopolitical strife and violent conflicts. Other countries are dependent upon these fossil fuels, they don’t make themselves free of them. This is a fossil fuel war.

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Circle of Blue

SEPTEMBER 15, 2021

Events of the past year — torrential floods, exhausting droughts, deadly heat waves — sharpened focus that society must adapt to these climate changes. Some have taken to calling the UN’s 26th climate convention the “adaptation convention.”. Water advocates view the attention to adaptation as an opportunity.

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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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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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Union of Concerned Scientists

APRIL 4, 2022

Now the reports driven by these resolutions are beginning to roll in, and while they certainly provide some insight into the fossil fuel industry’s investment in political influence, a sleight of hand is preventing investors from seeing the companies’ full strategy. degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

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A Greener Life

NOVEMBER 15, 2024

There is still a window of opportunity for a safe landing for humanity, but this requires a global climate policy process that can deliver change at exponential speed and scale.”  The letter expresses serious concerns that the two-week-long summit is at risk of moving further away from ambition. The full letter can be viewed here.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

FEBRUARY 1, 2024

Trading in disinformation In its climate lobbying report, ExxonMobil deemed 52 associations “aligned” for acknowledging the risks of climate change, publicly backing the Paris Agreement goal of limiting average global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius and taking steps to reduce carbon emissions.

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Fossil Fuels Carbon Emissions Climate Change Paris Agreement 292

Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 12, 2024

However, as we replace fossil fuels with clean electricity for heating and transportation to meet our climate goals, these peak demands will increasingly shift to the winter in many parts of the country. And this problem will only get worse as the impacts of climate change become more frequent and severe.

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Legal Planet

AUGUST 10, 2021

The IPCC issued the massive first volume of its new report on climate change on Monday. This volume focuses on climate science: how much will the world warm, and what will the impacts be? with high confidence that human-induced climate change is the main driver of these changes.”. The SSP2-4.5

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A Greener Life

NOVEMBER 24, 2024

A leaked recording showed a vital member of the presidency being exposed for wanting to use the summit to strike fossil fuel deals. When the country’s president delivered a keynote speech, it had little to do with tackling climate change.

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Legal Planet

FEBRUARY 16, 2023

No serious person is advocating for any large-scale deployment of solar geoengineering or substituting it for other urgent climate change mitigations, so the shorthand use of “opponent” or “supporter” is itself misleading and pushes voices to extremes. Anyone can float a balloon. Critics believe it is the path to catastrophe.”

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Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 16, 2022

This is in total opposition to the US commitment under the Paris Agreement to achieve a 50-52 percent emissions reduction below 2005 levels by 2030, and net-zero by 2050. These projections show that without additional policies or incentives, the US is very much in danger of not meeting our climate goals.

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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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Enviromental Defense

NOVEMBER 8, 2024

Our experts will be able to provide insight on the negotiations at COP29 – including on issues related to climate finance, the energy transition and fossil fuel subsidies. The next round is due in February 2025.

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Legal Planet

APRIL 7, 2024

target set by the Paris Agreement – and an astonishing 0.17 Read out of context, that description fits climate change too, of course. So why do so many ignore scientists’ predictions about climate change?!!” The eclipse is also a teachable moment for what is, and is not, causing climate change.

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Enviromental Defense

MAY 11, 2023

They’re all committed to using their power to block climate action in order to profit personally from more oil and gas production. And they’re preventing efforts to build a healthy, equitable world beyond fossil fuels. That makes them three of Canada’s top ‘climate villains’. Why did we launch ‘Climate Villains’?

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