Pollution

During its current nine-month session, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide on a number of important cases involving presidential powers, trade tariffs, guns, transgender sportspeople, race, campaign financing law, gay "conversion therapies", religious rights, and capital punishment. The Supreme Court's current term runs until the end of June. Here are some of the important cases that will be heard during this time. Separately, the court has also acted in emergency cases in several cases that challenge President Donald Trump's policy. TRUMP TARIFFS During arguments on 5 November, the justices raised questions about the legality Trump's sweeping Tariffs. This...

The government revealed in its budget plan for the first budget of Prime Minister Mark Carney that Canada may scrap the cap on oil-and-gas emissions and replace it with other measures, such as industrial carbon pricing or the deployment of technology to capture and store carbon. In the climate plan that was part of the first budget of Prime Minister Mark Carney, it said the cap would be no longer needed because its value would be marginal. The Canada's emission cap is not being enforced by legislation, and it will not take effect before 2030. Canadian oil and natural gas...

The government revealed in its budget plan for the first budget of Prime Minister Mark Carney that Canada may scrap a cap on gas and oil emissions if other initiatives like carbon markets, stronger regulation, and carbon capture and storage technology prove successful. In the climate plan that was part of the first budget of Prime Minister Mark Carney, it said the cap would be no longer needed as its value would be marginal. The Canadian emissions cap is not legally enforced and will not take effect until 2030. However, Canadian oil and natural gas companies have condemned it because...

A White House official confirmed that the U.S. would not be sending any high-level officials for the upcoming COP30 Climate Summit in Brazil. This will ease some concerns among world leaders who were worried Washington might send a team of negotiators to sabotage the talks. Brazil will host the high-level leaders summit in Belem, Amazonian City next week. The UN climate talks begin there two weeks later. Earlier this week, the U.S. warned that it would use visa restrictions and sanction to retaliate to nations who voted in favor of a UN shipping agency plan, the International Maritime Organization (IMO),...

The largest drug companies in the U.S. won a trial in 2022, but the U.S. Court of Appeals reversed that decision. The 4th U.S. The 4th U.S. The 4th Circuit has reopened the case and said that the lower court must re-evaluate if the three drug companies are responsible for paying for addiction treatment and prevention in the city and the county, on the basis of their alleged failures to stop "suspicious", large orders from pharmacies. Cencora's spokesperson stated that the company is disappointed with the ruling, and they are considering their next steps. This could include a second appeal....

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday reinstated a lawsuit for $2.5 billion against drug distributors who were accused of contributing towards an opioid crisis in West Virginia. This decision overturned a 2022 trial victory by the biggest drug suppliers in the U.S. The 4th U.S. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled a lower court erred in concluding that Cencora Corp, McKesson Corp, and Cardinal Health had not created a "public inconvenience" by supplying a large number of addictive pills to the pharmacies of Cabell County and Huntington. The 4th Circuit has reopened this case and said...

Bill Gates, philanthropist and billionaire investor, called on world leaders to focus on improving health outcomes and not temperature reduction targets in advance of the COP30 Climate talks in Brazil. COP30 is scheduled to take place in Belem, a port city in Brazil's Lower Amazon Region from November 10-21. The countries are expected to update their national climate commitments, and evaluate progress made on the renewable energy targets set at previous summits. In the last decade, the world has been working to achieve the Paris Agreement goals. This includes limiting global warming below 2 degrees Celsius over the pre-industrial level...

Automakers formed alliances with electric vehicle companies to avoid heavy fines from the European Union for carbon emissions. Several legacy automakers could face fines, as the transition from ICEs to EVs has been slower than expected. As of Monday, here are the details on the regulations and alliances that will be in place for 2025. Initial EU fines were based on carbon emissions levels in 2025. The European Commission, under pressure from the automakers, allowed compliance in March based on average emissions between 2025 and 2027. All alliance agreements currently in existence, as identified by their pool managers, will expire...

Exxon Mobil filed a lawsuit against California on Friday challenging two state laws requiring large companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emission and climate-related risks. Exxon filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of California arguing that Senate Bills 261 and 253 violated its First Amendment rights because they force Exxon "to serve as a mouthpiece" for ideas it does not agree with. The company asked the court to stop the state of California enforcing these laws. Exxon claims that the Californian frameworks for reporting climate change are misleading and counterproductive. The oil giant claims...

The U.S. Supreme Court will be deciding a number of cases during the new nine-month session that begins Monday. These include issues like presidential powers, trade tariffs, transgender sportspeople, guns, race laws, campaign finance laws, gay "conversion therapies", religious rights, and capital punishment. The following are some of the cases that will be heard during the upcoming court term. Separately, the court has also acted in emergency cases in several cases that involved challenges to President Donald Trump’s policies. LOUISIANA ELECTORAL DISTRICTS The conservative justices of the court signaled on October 15, their willingness to undermine another key section in...

Climate Investment Funds, a multilateral lender, announced on Monday that its board had approved a plan for helping restore Fiji's ecosystems and strengthening the island's capacity to withstand global warming. The Climate Investment Funds announced the agreement on Monday, ahead of the November round of U.N. talks. Fiji and the other Small Island Developing States are pushing for the world to do even more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. CIF announced that it would provide $27 millions in financing, and hopes to attract an additional $20 million from World Bank and Progreen. This multi-donor initiative is designed to support the...

Trump Administration weighs COP30 Participation Energy Secretary indicates he's open to going Conservative groups oppose U.S. attending global climate meeting By David Sherfinski The global COP30 Summit, which will take place in Brazil's Amazonian City of Belem next month, is expected to bring together representatives of almost every country in the world to discuss their efforts to combat climate change. There are many countries that must make major decisions about how to keep greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, which Trump has said the U.S. will abandon. The White House is yet to publicly disclose whether or...

On Wednesday, indigenous protesters defended the charging of the gates at Brazil's COP30 summit on climate change and the clash with security a few days earlier. They said the action was meant to demonstrate the desperation in their fight for the protection of forests. The protesters said they were mainly concerned about having their voices heard. They had been inside the compound listening to negotiators discussing the changing world as the temperatures increase. Auricelia is a member from the Arapiun tribe in Para state, Brazil, which hosts the Belem summit. She said that the protest was aimed at attracting the...

Raoni Metuktire, a 93-year-old indigenous leader, has urged Brazil to empower natives in order to preserve the Amazon rainforest. She also warned that the plans to build infrastructure are a direct danger to the forest and the people who live there. In an exclusive interview with The Telegraph on Tuesday, Chief Raoni, a leader widely known as the chief of the Raoni tribe, warned that the proposed rail projects, oil wells and highways will harm people around the world. "These projects continue to destroy rivers and land. It's not good. Raoni, who spoke in his native Kayapo language with his...

Scientists in Chile warned that the population of Humboldt Penguins, which is one of only a few species to live on rocky coastlines in temperate areas, was at risk of further decline after the species was declared endangered. Scientists at the Universidad de Concepcion estimate the number of Humboldt Penguins in Chile has dropped from 45,000 to fewer that 20,000 since the late 1990s. The species is considered vulnerable by international organizations, which prohibits commercial trade. But late last month Chile’s Environment Ministry reclassified it as “endangered.” Biologists are concerned that the numbers of seabirds will continue to decrease. The...

It was not clear what the 190+ countries attending the COP30 would be discussing during the two week U.N. Summit in Brazil's Amazonian city of Belem. It's also unclear how they will handle controversial issues such as the 2023 pledge to stop using polluting sources of energy and their demand for funding to achieve this. The biggest question was whether or not countries would want to reach a final deal, which is difficult to do in an era of global politics that has been fractious and the U.S.'s efforts to block a move away from fossil-fuels. After years of COP...

The U.N. Climate conference generates hundreds of headlines every year about global efforts to save the world from a climate catastrophe. The conference begins in Belem, a Brazilian rainforest city. What exactly takes place at these annual summits, then? What you should know WHAT IS A COP? The annual Conference is called a COP. This stands for Conference of the Parties who signed the U.N. Climate Treaty of 1992. The U.N. The Framework on Climate Change Convention, or UNFCCC, committed countries to work together to combat climate change. The treaty established the principle "common, but differentiated responsibility", which means that...

U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres ripped into nations for failing to limit warming to 1,5 degrees Celsius. Brazil hosted world leaders in Belem, a rainforest city for a summit before the COP30 Climate Conference. Scientists confirm that the world will cross the threshold of 1.5 C around 2030. This could lead to extreme warming and irreversible effects. Guterres stated in his speech that "too many corporations make record profits by destroying the climate, and billions are spent on lobbying, misleading the public, and obstructing advancement." "Too many politicians remain captive to entrenched interests." Subventions for fossil fuels amount to about...

HSBC released a new set of climate targets on Thursday that are softer and more flexible for near-term sectors like oil and gas. This is in response to the slow rate of change in real economy. The targets for the end of the decade follow a review that was announced by British bank earlier this year, when it dropped its goal to reach net-zero emissions in all of its operations by 2030. HSBC is still aiming for its operations, funded by the loan book, to produce zero emissions by 2050. It and other banks who have set similar climate goals...

After a full year of discussions, COP30 hosts Brazil laid out a plan on Wednesday to increase climate finance from $1.3 trillion a years to $1.3 trillion a day. They also faced early signs that the political landscape was becoming more challenging as the Amazonian City of Belem prepared to host world leaders. The document, which is almost 100 pages long, has been dubbed Baku to Belem Roadmap. It was created after months of discussions with various stakeholders following the conclusion of the event held in Azerbaijan last year. As emissions continue to increase, some of the world's poorest nations...

Brazil's President said that a U.N. Report warning that global carbon emissions are too high to stop global warming has prompted him to declare that the U.N. Climate Change Summit in the Amazon this month will be a COP of Truth and offer real solutions. Despite 30 years of global negotiations, the Paris Agreement of a decade back failed to prevent the world from warming beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius. The United Nations Environment Programme stated on Tuesday that the world is heading for a 2.3 to 2.5degC extreme warming. The forecast is based on the assumption that countries will meet...

Scientists in Brazil's Amazon have created a "time-machine" that pumps carbon dioxide into the canopy of the rainforest to simulate future atmospheric conditions to gauge the biome's adaptation. This is an open question which will be discussed next month at the COP30 United Nations Climate Summit hosted by Brazil. The AmazonFACE project, near Manaus, Amazon's largest city, features six steel tower rings that loom over the jungle canopy. Each ring is surrounded by groups of 50-70 mature trees. After baseline testing, the scientists will fumigate three of the rings using carbon dioxide in levels that simulate climate forecasts over the...

Brazil wants to assist developing countries in securing more funding to adapt to climate change. The COP30 summit president stated that. A U.N. study estimated the world would need to spend $310 Billion a year to prepare for rising sea levels, warmer days, and other conditions associated with a warming atmosphere by 2035. According to the U.N.'s Adaptation Gap Report, this is about 12 times what is currently spent annually on climate adaptation efforts. COP summits have so far not resulted in major increases in funding for climate adaptation. These funds are still behind investments in renewable energies and other...

Scientists in Brazil's Amazon have created a "time-machine" that pumps carbon dioxide into the canopy of the rainforest to simulate future atmospheric conditions to gauge the biome's adaptation. This is an open question which will be discussed next month at the COP30 United Nations Climate Summit hosted by Brazil. The AmazonFACE project, near Manaus, Amazon's largest city, features six steel tower rings that loom over the jungle canopy. Each ring is surrounded by groups of 50-70 mature trees. After baseline testing, the scientists will fumigate three of the rings using carbon dioxide in levels that simulate climate forecasts over the...