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 321

Fossil Fuels Paris Agreement Renewable Energy Carbon Dioxide 321

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.

Fossil Fuels 142

Fossil Fuels Renewable Energy Clean Energy Solar Power 142

Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 6, 2025

Working Group 3: Mitigation of Climate Change Evaluates pathways for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, sustainable development strategies, and the role of finance, technology, and policy in achieving net-zero emissions. Delegates questioned when (or if) the IPCC should develop methodologies for technologies with unclear risks.

Climate Change 163

Climate Change Carbon Dioxide Technology Technology 163

Legal Planet

OCTOBER 13, 2022

The article quotes a range of economists and other climate policy experts to the effect that subsidies and regulations are superior to carbon pricing because they can address equity issues, and that they can move investment in decarbonization technology more quickly than carbon pricing. Politics is central in policy.

Politics 246

Politics Climate Change Technology Technology 246

Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 6, 2025

Working Group 3: Mitigation of Climate Change Evaluates pathways for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, sustainable development strategies, and the role of finance, technology, and policy in achieving net-zero emissions. Delegates questioned when (or if) the IPCC should develop methodologies for technologies with unclear risks.

Climate Change 147

Climate Change Carbon Dioxide Technology Technology 147

Union of Concerned Scientists

DECEMBER 4, 2023

In an unforeseen turn of events, a pivotal climate litigation case unfolded in Montana , where 16 young environmental advocates challenged the state’s fossil fuel policies. Nearly half of the climate litigation cases filed by local and state governments in the United States against the fossil fuel industry mention wildfire.

2024 276

2024 Fossil Fuels Climate Change Government 276

Union of Concerned Scientists

JULY 22, 2022

Minnesotans are facing concurrent crises of climate change, high energy prices and inflation, and the inequitable public health impacts of fossil fuel air pollution. Renewable energy will help with all of that—but we need a grid that is designed for wind and solar instead of having to rely on expensive coal and gas plants.

Renewable Energy 360

Renewable Energy Fossil Fuels Solar Power Electricity 360

Union of Concerned Scientists

JULY 3, 2022

The majority 6–3 decision sharply curtails the EPA’s authority to set standards based on a broad range of flexible options to cut carbon emissions from the power sector—options such as replacing polluting fossil fuels with cheap and widely available wind and solar power coupled with battery storage.

Climate Change 275

Climate Change Fossil Fuels Carbon Emissions Nitrogen Oxides 275

A Greener Life

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

Two-thirds of the G20’s public finance for energy went to fossil fuels in 2019–2020. The G20 group of nations provided nearly US$200 billion in support of fossil fuels in 2021, despite the worsening impacts of the climate crisis and their pledge in 2009 to phase out “inefficient” subsidies. By Catherine Early.

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Fossil Fuels 2009 2020 Paris Agreement 98

Legal Planet

APRIL 29, 2024

I don’t mean to imply that technological progress will automatically fix things. Cheaper renewable energy attracts private investment and makes limits on fossil fuels more feasible. The resulting economic growth also helps create a stronger political base for aggressive expansion of clean energy.

Fossil Fuels 279

Fossil Fuels 2008 2010 Clean Energy 279

Enviromental Defense

NOVEMBER 4, 2021

If honored, this commitment will likely unseat Canada as the worst-ranking in the G20 for international public financing to the fossil fuel sector. . After a wave of commitments to end international coal finance this year, this is the first international political commitment that also addresses public finance for oil and gas.

Fossil Fuels 105

Fossil Fuels 2022 2018 Renewable Energy 105

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.

Fossil Fuels 299

Fossil Fuels Regulations Clean Energy Renewable Energy 299

Legal Planet

DECEMBER 3, 2021

Some states, like California, Louisiana, or Alaska may be feeling the impacts more acutely earlier on, but it does not feel like things have become bad enough for political will to be marshalled. But it beats a structure in which political paralysis is so severe that nothing, whether adaptation or mitigation, can be done.

Climate Change 264

Climate Change Paris Agreement Fossil Fuels Politics 264

Legal Planet

MAY 19, 2023

In 2016 Monterey County voters passed Measure Z, a citizen initiative intended to bar the drilling of new oil and gas wells in the county and ban the use of fracking technology for existing wells in Monterey County. The oil and gas industry, led by Chevron U.S.A.,

Law 264

Law Fossil Fuels Climate Change Regulations 264

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.

Sea Level 237

Sea Level Fossil Fuels Paris Agreement Climate Change 237

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. Have fossil fuel industries made any move to co-opt, or benefit from, geoengineering? If we overshoot the 1.5

Fossil Fuels 287

Fossil Fuels Climate Change Paris Agreement Technology 287

Union of Concerned Scientists

DECEMBER 20, 2022

In the study, we found that political power dynamics shape international negotiations, that the Paris Agreement temperature goal doesn’t fully account for the dangers of sea level rise, and that climate justice requires fully considering diverse views and experiences of climate change.

Sea Level 280

Sea Level Paris Agreement Climate Change Fossil Fuels 280

Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 16, 2022

Renewable energy generation increases faster than any other technology. Generation from renewable technologies more than covers the increase in electricity demand, also making up for coal and nuclear plant retirements. Source: US Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Outlook 2022 (AEO2022).

Natural Gas 290

Natural Gas Renewable Energy Climate Change Electricity 290

Circle of Blue

AUGUST 24, 2021

If society continues to burn fossil fuels and clear forests, those dry cycles are expected to intensify and spread across wetter areas like the Caribbean and Amazon, potentially affecting hundreds of millions of people a year. The distinction between a climate migrant and a migrant is often quite blurry.

2006 363

2006 Fossil Fuels Climate Change Politics 363

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. Not this time.

Fossil Fuels 162

Fossil Fuels Politics Technology Technology 162

Legal Planet

OCTOBER 26, 2023

CARB’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) seeks to incentivize the production and sale of alternative, lower emissions transportation fuels in order to displace conventional fossil fuels. To identify which fuels should be promoted, CARB calculates the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions from transportation fuels.

Regulations 312

Regulations Greenhouse Clean Air Act Politics 312

Union of Concerned Scientists

NOVEMBER 27, 2023

Even so, it is concerning that legislators included fossil gas in the definition of clean energy given the risk of continuing our reliance on fossil fuels and the impact of emissions from gas production, transportation, and combustion. What Still Needs to be Done?

Clean Energy 256

Clean Energy Fossil Fuels Renewable Energy Nuclear Power 256

Circle of Blue

OCTOBER 19, 2022

Taylor, a professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Mine Cleanup Law Weakened by Coal’s Decline — Reclamation is a flashpoint for the partisan divide over fossil fuels. Social and political circumstances in Syria may have aided the outbreak. Brett Walton, Interim Stream Editor.

2022 286

2022 Fossil Fuels 2007 Renewable Energy 286

Enviromental Defense

AUGUST 12, 2024

It highlights the most active fossil fuel companies and industry associations, as well as the Members of Parliament, ministries and ministers targeted for lobbying. The report compiles data from the Federal Registry of Lobbyists. That means Big Oil lobbied Parliament nearly five times per working day.

Fossil Fuels 145

Fossil Fuels Natural Resources Climate Change Government 145

A Greener Life

SEPTEMBER 30, 2021

Fossil fuels such as coal , oil and natural gas are the source of just over 80% of the world’s energy. To avert catastrophic warming, the global community must rapidly reduce how much of these fuels it extracts and burns. Fossil fuels still provide most of the world’s energy. Fossil fuel rationing.

Fossil Fuels 98

Fossil Fuels Climate Change Technology Technology 98

Legal Planet

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

As you may recall, the Commission’s informal (but serious) job description was to speak of elephants in the room and unclothed emperors: to say things that are true and important about climate risks and responses that other, more political constrained bodies cannot. Wait a second, you might say, what’s so radical about that?

Fossil Fuels 147

Fossil Fuels Ozone Cooling Greenhouse 147

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

Legal Planet

AUGUST 24, 2021

As the climate crisis grows more urgent, unconventional technological responses are getting increased attention and controversy. We’ve written previously on Legal Planet about these technologies and their promise and risks. Reynolds, who recently completed an Emmett Institute Geoengineering Governance Fellowship.

Technology 244

Technology Technology Government Climate Change 244

Union of Concerned Scientists

APRIL 20, 2023

The IRA gave us effective tools for cleaning up the power sector through dedicated support for the rapid and widescale deployment of renewable resources and the technologies that support them. Which means the consequences of these polluters unabashedly continuing to pollute aren’t just severe—they’re compounding.

Clean Air Act 221

Clean Air Act Fossil Fuels Carbon Emissions Clean Energy 221

Legal Planet

AUGUST 6, 2023

However, it’s a disappointment to the initiative’s proponents and to a larger group of environmental advocates who seek to promote California’s quick transition from reliance on heavily-polluting and climate-damaging fossil fuels to renewable energy resources. Measure Z never took effect.

Law 130

Law Fossil Fuels Renewable Energy Regulations 130

Inside Climate News

MAY 5, 2024

By Phil McKenna With a pair of fossil-fuel friendly senators at his side, former U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, came as an investigation by Democrats in Congress exposed efforts by the oil and gas industry to downplay the climate impact of natural gas. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on Tuesday released a favorable report on U.S.

Natural Gas 145

Natural Gas Fossil Fuels Clean Energy Politics 145

Legal Planet

JULY 21, 2023

Last month’s report on solar geoengineering research from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) consolidated a shift in the discourse on this controversial technology. But to security experts, and students of political science, geoengineering appears as a hybrid, dual-use security technology.

Climate Change 243

Climate Change Technology Technology Fossil Fuels 243

Union of Concerned Scientists

DECEMBER 1, 2022

California’s leadership on reducing truck pollution has been on full display the past few years, passing critical regulations requiring 90 percent reduction in smog-forming nitrogen oxide (NO X ) emissions from diesel trucks and requiring manufacturers sell an increasing share of electric trucks to move away from fossil fuels altogether.

Nitrogen Oxides 244

Nitrogen Oxides Clean Air Act Ozone Fossil Fuels 244

Union of Concerned Scientists

FEBRUARY 13, 2024

The simple fact is that ditching fossil fuels for low-cost clean energy resources is good for the planet, good for the US economy, and good for public health. It’s a contentious issue fraught with political and social dynamics that have largely doomed previous attempts. The good news?

Clean Energy 324

Clean Energy Renewable Energy Electricity 2030 324

Enviromental Defense

MAY 7, 2024

CCS is a multi-billion dollar boondoggle that doesn’t come close to the hype, has significant safety risks, and is a substantial distraction from real climate solutions, such as building more renewable energy, increasing electricity transmission infrastructure, and developing and using storage technology. Want proof?

Fossil Fuels 132

Fossil Fuels Carbon Dioxide Renewable Energy Solar Power 132

Union of Concerned Scientists

OCTOBER 16, 2024

These firms recognized that they could not assume the risks of exacerbating climate damage from continued burning of fossil fuels. Wind, solar and battery storage are the fastest growing electric energy sources and should be the first choice for a modern economy adapting new data technologies.

Electricity 252

Electricity Clean Energy Nuclear Power Renewable Energy 252

A Greener Life

FEBRUARY 21, 2025

However, political shifts and implementation challenges have slowed that momentum. Longstanding investments in existing supply chains can become obsolete as political winds shift. Rivalries between major powers have disrupted long-established supply chains, introducing unpredictability.

Fossil Fuels 52

Fossil Fuels Paris Agreement Clean Energy Politics 52