Union of Concerned Scientists

JANUARY 14, 2025

As the climate crisis deepens, so does the urgency to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for decades of deception. As the fossil fuel industry spares no expense to obscure these truths, the work of scientists who engage with climate litigation is increasingly vital.

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Fossil Fuels Climate Change Government Law 176

Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 23, 2023

And fossil fuel power plants may not stick to their retirement schedules for a variety of reasons. The bottom line: There’s still a long way to go, and the clean energy transition must move quicker than it has been—despite the fossil fuel industry’s self-serving claims to the contrary. A bit more on those reasons later.

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Fossil Fuels 2023 Clean Energy Nitrogen Oxides 216

Enviromental Defense

DECEMBER 29, 2023

Earlier this month at COP28 countries committed to transitioning off of fossil fuels and massively scaling up renewable energy instead. So you’re excused if, like me, you’re baffled by Minister Freeland’s first move in the wake of COP28: a giant new fossil fuel subsidy, via the new Canada Growth Fund.

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Fossil Fuels Renewable Energy Clean Energy Solar Power 140

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. The best solution: Replace fossil fuels with renewable energy. A small number of big corporations are responsible for the climate crisis.

Fossil Fuels 322

Fossil Fuels Paris Agreement Renewable Energy Carbon Dioxide 322

Legal Planet

MAY 9, 2022

Emissions trading systems are often launched with relatively lenient design features, typically justified as giving the system a chance to “learn-by-doing” and to gain political buy-in for approval of a program. – Continual reform to improve ambition, integrity, and buy-in. Most ETS have fallen on the prices-too-low side.

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Government Politics Climate Change Paris Agreement 241

Union of Concerned Scientists

APRIL 19, 2022

The shift from fossil fuels in the 100% RES scenario reduces the amount of harmful air pollution from power plants much more than in our “No New Policy”/business-as-usual scenario. Similarly, communities now tied to fossil fuels need support in moving beyond that dependence. And our modeling shows renewables’ power.

Renewable Energy 363

Renewable Energy Fossil Fuels Nitrogen Oxides Clean Energy 363

Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 6, 2025

During the Hangzhou plenary, governments had the opportunity to review and adjust the draft outlines developed at earlier expert meetings. This debate is not just technicalit is deeply tied to ethics, governance, and the role of the IPCC in assessing emerging technologies. With AR7 now in motion, the real work begins.

Climate Change 160

Climate Change Carbon Dioxide Technology Technology 160

A Greener Life

NOVEMBER 22, 2023

By Jeremy Williams There’s a giant cognitive dissonance at the heart of global climate politics. At the same time, those governments all want to maximise fossil fuel production. In the graph above, the purple line at the bottom is what needs to happen to fossil fuel production to hold warming at 1.5C.

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Fossil Fuels Politics Government Conservation 98

Legal Planet

AUGUST 15, 2023

State of Montana, a Montana trial court ruled that the state Constitution’s guarantee of a healthy and clean environment prevails over Montana’s longstanding fossil-fuel-based state energy system. The first legal challenge mounted by Our Children’s Trust was Juliana v. United States. The August 14th Held v.

Climate Change 189

Climate Change Government Fossil Fuels Energy Policy Act 189

Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 6, 2025

During the Hangzhou plenary, governments had the opportunity to review and adjust the draft outlines developed at earlier expert meetings. This debate is not just technicalit is deeply tied to ethics, governance, and the role of the IPCC in assessing emerging technologies. With AR7 now in motion, the real work begins.

Climate Change 148

Climate Change Carbon Dioxide Technology Technology 148

Union of Concerned Scientists

NOVEMBER 15, 2022

But governments must put policy measures into place immediately to be effective. Methane emissions come from two main sources : fossil fuels and agriculture—primarily animal-based agriculture. At COP27, 636 registered attendees are lobbyists for the fossil fuel industry. We need to phase out fossil fuels.

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Fossil Fuels Paris Agreement 2030 Climate Change 278

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. ExxonMobil Names Names.

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Fossil Fuels Paris Agreement 2020 Politics 265

Union of Concerned Scientists

JANUARY 20, 2023

This methodology is similar to my own work combining climate science, political science, and history to reconstruct how UN climate negotiations have played out and what that implies for climate justice. Such a constraint would clearly place a limit on the amount of fossil fuels ExxonMobil could extract, produce and market.

Fossil Fuels 276

Fossil Fuels 2003 Sea Level 2005 276

Legal Planet

MAY 23, 2022

Australia has had a change of government. The Liberal Party — conservative in everything but name — lost control of the federal government to Labor. So the change in government is more than welcome. Climate change wasn’t a central issue in the campaign, but resistance to climate action no longer provided a political advantage.

Carbon Emissions 246

Carbon Emissions Climate Change Fossil Fuels Politics 246

Legal Planet

JULY 13, 2023

To begin with, there are the health benefits of the energy transition away from fossil fuels. It will limit the environmental harms caused by producing and transporting millions of tons of fossil fuels. Europeans are seeing right now how dangerous it can be to depend on fossil fuels from abroad.

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Fossil Fuels Climate Change Air Pollution Natural Gas 246

Legal Planet

AUGUST 5, 2021

A big shift to renewables could leave stranded assets — existing fossil fuel plants that the utility will no longer get paid for using. That doesn’t seem to be politically feasible at the national level, at present. Another possibility would be to provide less favorable tax treatment for fossil fuel plants.

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Fossil Fuels Regulations Clean Energy Renewable Energy 299

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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Fossil Fuels Climate Change Clean Energy 2030 279

Union of Concerned Scientists

FEBRUARY 29, 2024

Fossil fuel companies are well established as founts of disinformation , agents of obstruction, and drivers of climate change. Taken together, the need for governments to meaningfully regulate these super polluters has never been clearer.

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Climate Change Fossil Fuels Law Government 267

Legal Planet

MAY 19, 2023

County of Monterey –a major case involving the authority of California local governments to limit oil and gas development within their borders. County of Monterey case raises important and difficult questions for both the justices and the Executive Branch of California state government.

Law 264

Law Fossil Fuels Climate Change Regulations 264

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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Fossil Fuels Paris Agreement Climate Change Carbon Emissions 246

Legal Planet

FEBRUARY 16, 2023

We’ve been hearing a lot lately about geoengineering – the various scientific theories and governance ideas that could eventually lead to technological interventions to help cool the planet. How will governments deal with private startups if they continue to perform unscientific, unregulated experiments? A weather balloon.

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Fossil Fuels Climate Change Paris Agreement Technology 287

Legal Planet

AUGUST 15, 2023

The state failed to show that the MEPA limitation serves a compelling government interest,” the decision reads. ” Prioritizing fossil fuels over renewable energy in 2023 for insubstantial reasons does not pass strict scrutiny. They’ll have to be pushed. Who will do the pushing?

Climate Change 246

Climate Change Fossil Fuels Renewable Energy Carbon Dioxide 246

Circle of Blue

MARCH 1, 2022

Burning fossil fuels, cutting down forests, raising livestock, making cement, and using synthetic fertilizers are among the actions that have increased the amount of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere to the point that the planet’s basic functions are coming undone. Some People Are More Vulnerable Than Others.

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Climate Change Carbon Emissions Fossil Fuels 2010 362

Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 29, 2023

As I embraced my family, I felt a palpable fatigue from the pressures of the pandemic, political unrest, and geopolitical turmoil bubbling beneath the surface. As Sri Lanka recovers from the worst economic crisis since its independence, climate change impacts are also quietly fueling and exacerbating the situation.

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Sea Level Climate Change Fossil Fuels 2012 217

A Greener Life

JUNE 1, 2022

After much speculation and pressure from campaigners and opposition parties, the UK government has finally confirmed that they will impose a windfall tax on the oil and gas industry. The fancy wording chosen by the UK government was instead a ‘temporary, targeted energy profits levy’. Surging energy prices.

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Government Fossil Fuels Conservation Politics 98

Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 24, 2023

Nations large and small contributed to the current resolution, including Australia, one of the world’s largest fossil fuel exporters, and the United Kingdom.

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Climate Change Law Paris Agreement Ocean 306

Legal Planet

JULY 12, 2023

The bench trial took place last month in the state capitol, Helena, where 16 youth plaintiffs ages 5 to 22 made the case that Montana’s unwavering promotion of fossil fuels violates the state constitution’s guarantee to a “clean and healthful environment.” The admission says a lot about political will.

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Fossil Fuels Climate Change Greenhouse Clean Air Act 246

A Greener Life

NOVEMBER 28, 2024

By Jeremy Williams Over the past 200 years, political power has become deeply entwined with fossil fuels. As renewable energy takes over from fossil fuels, there is a tug-of-war underway to control the narrative. Both of those approaches, government-led and elite-led, have an effect in common.

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Fossil Fuels Renewable Energy Climate Change Politics 40

A Greener Life

AUGUST 6, 2023

By Anders Lorenzen Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his government are intensifying their support for the fossil fuel industry, and they have thus distanced themselves further from climate action previously pursued by successive UK governments. Photo credit: 10 Downing Street, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 via FLICKR.

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Fossil Fuels Government Conservation 2023 52

A Greener Life

OCTOBER 17, 2022

Despite being in the same political party that created it, the UK’s new prime minister, Liz Truss, is in the process of completely changing the country’s energy policy. Gone are the net-zero promises and focus on a rapid clean energy transition, and in its place is a new narrative that more fossil fuels will solve the country’s energy crisis.

Fossil Fuels 52

Fossil Fuels Clean Energy Climate Scientist Government 52

Union of Concerned Scientists

APRIL 16, 2024

How we do this, and how well it happens, depends on planning and collaboration across local, state and federal government. Smaller, decentralized growth in electric heat pumps for buildings, and electric transportation replacing fossil fuels also require more access to electricity and a modern grid.

Electricity 277

Electricity Renewable Energy Clean Energy Law 277

Legal Planet

OCTOBER 26, 2021

C temperature target, and one that more than 130 countries have adopted, albeit mostly as squishy political declarations, not yet legally binding or implemented. Fossil enterprises and political leaders in major fossil producers ranged from politely dismissive to openly contemptuous.

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Fossil Fuels Politics Technology Technology 162

Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 21, 2024

For more than a century, the United States has recognized this, and maintaining roads and bridges has been a core function of federal, state, and local governments. The federal government embraced a role in supporting transit in the 1970s, but this was cut back for the past 40 years and didn’t rebound until the pandemic.

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Fossil Fuels Government Greenhouse 2021 253

Inside Climate News

APRIL 3, 2024

By Emily Foxhall, The Texas Tribune This article was first published by The Texas Tribune , a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans—and engages with them—about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

Fossil Fuels 78

Fossil Fuels Politics Government Clean Energy 78

Legal Planet

AUGUST 2, 2021

She and another GM scientist published their work and presented their findings to GM’s VP for government relations (a/k/a “head lobbyist”). In the early 1960s, he wrote again about fossil fuels as causes of global warming. Her research didn’t come out that way. Like GM, Ford seems to have paid no attention.

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Fossil Fuels Climate Change Carbon Dioxide Atmosphere 190

Law Columbia

DECEMBER 2, 2022

Exxon , the cities and towns allege that the fossil fuel companies were liable because they knowingly produced and marketed products that have caused climate change harms, while concealing and misrepresenting the associated dangers. have filed more than twenty cases seeking damages from fossil fuel companies for climate harms.

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Fossil Fuels Climate Change 2017 Greenhouse 75

Legal Planet

AUGUST 30, 2023

The high-minded language of the constitution takes precedence over a legislative effort to block state officials from considering the impact of new fossil fuel projects on global warming. It also puts the inter-generational equity issue squarely on the political agenda.

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Fossil Fuels Climate Change Law Greenhouse 173