Climate

Lee Zeldin behauptet vor dem Senat, dass der Plan der Trump-Administration die Environmental Protection Agency „effizienter“ machen wird. Die Demokraten im Senat warfen der Trump-Administration bei einer Kongressanhörung am Mittwoch vor, die Mission der Environmental Protection Agency zum Schutz der menschlichen Gesundheit und der Umwelt aufzugeben, und kritisierten die Behördenleitung scharf wegen eines Vorschlags, ihr Budget zu halbieren. Lee Zeldins Auftritt vor dem Umweltausschuss des Senats war die letzte von drei Haushaltsanhörungen des EPA-Administrators in dieser Woche, bei denen er für eine stark reduzierte Finanzierung der Behörde argumentierte, die unter seiner Leitung bereits den niedrigsten Personalbestand seit Jahrzehnten verzeichnete. Während eines Großteils der Woche verfolgte der ehemalige republikanische Kongressabgeordnete aus New York einen aggressiven Ansatz, reagierte auf die Demokraten im Repräsentantenhaus und im Senat mit eigenen Fragen und warf ihnen zeitweise vor, unvorbereitet zu sein oder sich nicht für die Bilanz der EPA zu interessieren. Weiterlesen...

• Fast 60 Länder unterstützen freiwillige Roadmaps, um die Welt von Kohle, Öl und Gas abzubringen

Der König wird seine Leidenschaft für die Natur während seines Staatsbesuchs in den USA wahrscheinlich betonen, doch seine Plädoyers werden auf taube Ohren stoßen. Von den vielen weltanschaulichen Konflikten zwischen König Charles III. und Donald Trump ist der größte ein Thema, das das Weiße Haus zum Schweigen bringen will: die Zukunft des Planeten. Seit mehr als 50 Jahren sprach sich Charles als umweltbewusster Prince of Wales häufig aus – sowohl auf UN-Gipfeln als auch in geschlossenen Kreisen –, um für einen besseren Schutz der Natur und entschlossenes Handeln beim Klima zu werben. Weiterlesen...

Shareholder agm briefly adjourned after protesters wearing T-shirts labelled ‘No more big oil’ burst into songThe chair of NatWest was forced to defend the bank against accusations of “climate backtracking” at a chaotic annual shareholder meeting, which was temporarily suspended owing to singing protesters.Not long after the meeting began in Edinburgh, it was adjourned for about half an hour after a protester interrupted Rick Haythornthwaite’s opening speech. Continue reading...

• Brazilian President announced on Monday a comprehensive enforcement initiative targeting illegal logging and land invasions in the Amazon, deploying 5,000 additional federal agents to protected areas. • The government committed to reducing deforestation rates by 80 percent over the next two years through satellite monitoring and criminal prosecutions of organized trafficking networks. • Environmental groups and the U.S. State Department praised the pledge as a meaningful step toward climate commitments, though skeptics noted enforcement challenges in remote regions.

Researchers find ‘alarming’ effect on fertility across global species from simultaneous exposuresSimultaneous exposure to toxic chemicals and climate change’s impacts likely generates an additive or synergistic effect that increases reproductive harm, and may contribute to the broad global drop in fertility, new peer-reviewed research finds.The review of scientific literature considers how endocrine-disrupting chemicals, often found in plastic, coupled with climate change’s effects, such as heat stress, are each linked to reductions in fertility and fecundity across global species – including in humans, wildlife and invertebrates. Continue reading...

Shareholders including the Church of England back call for protest votes against the bank’s chair NatWest is at risk of an embarrassing showdown at its shareholder meeting this week, as investors and leading scientists call for an urgent reversal of what they describe as “climate backtracking”.Campaigners, including ShareAction, are calling for protest votes against the bank’s chair, Rick Haythornthwaite, at its annual meeting in Edinburgh on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Study of 1,300 campaigners finds arrests, fines and jail terms increase determination of activists to take direct actionThe criminalisation of direct action climate protests in the UK is counterproductive and increases the determination of activists to undertake disruptive demonstrations, according to a study of 1,300 campaigners.New findings suggest arrests, fines and lengthy prison sentences given to nonviolent climate protesters who have blocked roads or damaged buildings may actually radicalise them. The repression of protest could even be one driver of recent covert actions such as the cutting of internet cables, they said. Continue reading...

More than 50% of voters at first AGM under new leadership oppose plans to scrap climate reportingBP’s board has suffered a triple climate rebellion in its first shareholder meeting since appointing new leadership to steer the embattled oil company.More than 50% of shareholders voting at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) came out against its plans to scrap its existing climate reporting, and its resolution to replace in-person annual shareholder meetings – a lightning rod for climate protest in recent years – with online-only events. Continue reading...

Climate experts and advocates warn House and Senate bills will protect polluters at the cost of the climate Republican lawmakers are attempting to shield big oil from having to pay for its contributions to the climate crisis, alarming environmental advocates.New House and Senate bills, led by Harriet Hageman, a Wyoming representative, and Ted Cruz, a Texas senator, respectively, would give oil and gas companies broad legal immunity from policies and lawsuits aimed at holding the industry accountable for damages caused by its emissions. Continue reading...

• A comprehensive analysis from the National Center for Atmospheric Research shows US carbon dioxide emissions fell 8.2% year-over-year in Q1 2026, driven primarily by renewable energy sources now supplying 34% of national electricity generation. • Solar and wind capacity additions reached record levels with 42 gigawatts of new renewable infrastructure installed in 2025, according to data released by the Department of Energy and independent research institutions. • Climate scientists attribute the acceleration partly to state-level climate policies and federal incentives from the 2024 Clean Energy Investment Act, though transportation and industrial sectors still require significant emission reductions.

Research finds global heating has already lengthened the pollen season in addition to worsening heatwaves and droughtsClimate breakdown has extended the pollen season in the UK and mainland Europe by between one and two weeks since the 1990s, a study has found, adding itchy eyes and runny noses to the harm wrought by fossil fuel pollution.The finding may be less dramatic than the floods and wildfires typically associated with a warming planet but represents a “huge” increase in the combined suffering of tens of millions of people, the researchers say. Continue reading...

Advocates expressed alarm as new project drills deeper into ocean bed, pointing to company’s failures at Deepwater Horizon spillSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxEnvironmental groups have sued the Trump administration over its approval of BP’s huge new ultra-deep oil drilling project in the Gulf of Mexico, 16 years to the day since the company’s Deepwater Horizon disaster caused the worst oil spill in US history. Continue reading...

The Albanese government overhauled policy and promised significant pollution cuts – but carbon offsets are still being used as an excuseSign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter hereIs this how a national scheme to cut climate pollution is supposed to work?Australian government data released this week shows emissions from Australian coalmines increased last financial year. About 80% of the coalmines pumped more into the atmosphere than their government-imposed limit.Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter Continue reading...

Conference president expresses ‘complete faith’ in Chris Bowen to lead tough negotiationsFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastTuvalu, the Pacific nation at the forefront of the global climate crisis, will host a special meeting of world leaders before this year’s Cop31 summit, as the conference president expresses “complete faith” in Chris Bowen to lead tough negotiations.Turkey’s climate minister, Murat Kurum, is president-designate for the November summit, set to see world leaders meet in Antalya to thrash out new targets for cutting carbon emissions. Continue reading...

Developing countries face possible shelving of crucial green action plan at IMF and World Bank spring meetingsGovernments desperate for cash to protect their citizens from the growing impacts of the climate crisis are being put in a “beyond absurd” situation this week at global finance talks: they are being urged not to mention the climate, even as they address the current oil crisis.The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (WBG) spring meetings take place this week amid a fragile ceasefire in Iran and upended geopolitics. One of the priorities was to forge a new “climate change action plan” (CCAP) for the world’s biggest provider of funds to developing countries, to replace the current strategy, which expires in June. Continue reading...

• Climate scientists have discovered that nitrous oxide, a key greenhouse gas, has a shorter atmospheric lifetime than previously modeled, decreasing more rapidly than expected. • This unexpected finding is significantly altering climate projections and forcing researchers to recalibrate their long-term climate models and predictions. • The discovery underscores the importance of continuous monitoring and reassessment of greenhouse gas behavior in the atmosphere, with implications for future climate policy and environmental planning.

Lee Zeldin opens conference for Heartland Institute, which once compared climate advocates to the UnabomberSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxLee Zeldin, the administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), gave the keynote speech at a conference on Wednesday morning, one which was hosted by a prominent climate-denying thinktank that previously compared those concerned about the climate crisis to the Unabomber on billboard posters in 2012.“No longer are we going to rely on bad, flawed assumptions instead of accurate, present-day facts, without apology or regret,” Zeldin said at the Heartland Institute’s conference on climate change in Washington DC, referring to well-established climate science. Continue reading...

Senior climate figures warn North Sea drilling would encourage fossil fuel exploitation by developing countriesOpening new oil and gas fields in the North Sea would “send a shock wave around the world”, imperilling international climate targets, undermining the UK’s climate leadership and encouraging developing countries to exploit their own fossil fuel reserves, experts have warned.The UK government is under stiff pressure from the oil industry, the Conservatives, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, some trade unions and parts of the Treasury to give the green light to new oil and gas fields, despite clear evidence that doing so would not cut prices and would have almost no effect on imports. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Former UN climate chief to co-chair Lancet Commission examining how sea-level rise is reshaping health, wellbeing and inequalityCountries are being “held hostage” by their reliance on fossil fuels, a former UN climate chief has warned, describing the health impacts of climate change as “the mother of all injustices”.Christiana Figueres, an international climate negotiator who helped deliver the Paris agreement signed in 2016, made the comments as she was announced on Wednesday as co-chair of a Lancet Commission examining how sea-level rise is reshaping health, wellbeing and inequality. Continue reading...

Scientists tracked bird population in Canberra’s botanic gardens and found climate impacts starting to affect themFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA common and well-loved bird of bush and garden could go extinct within 30-40 years due to the weather impacts of climate change, researchers say.Data derived from nearly 30 years of weekly observations tracked the lives of superb fairy wrens in Canberra’s botanic gardens, noting the changing weather’s impacts on them. Continue reading...

• Rising sea levels are creating 'ghost forests' of dead trees along the eastern US coast, where saltwater intrusion drowns vibrant ecosystems, as presented at ACS Spring 2026 meeting in Atlanta on March 26. • Undergraduate Samantha Chittakone's team studies water cycling through these dying stands to predict coastal forest responses to climate change. • Findings could inform preservation strategies amid accelerating sea level rise threatening US shorelines.

Rising energy bills give Reform and Tories opening to attack net zero while government hesitant to make case for clean energyCould net zero become “the next Brexit”? That is the fear stalking climate advocates as the oil crisis caused by the war on Iran starts to bite.A powerful coalition of the well-funded Reform party, led by Nigel Farage, the Conservative party, some business interests, and the UK’s right-wing media, are engaged in an onslaught against the longstanding target of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Continue reading...

US, top carbon emitter in history, has ‘a lot of responsibility’ for causing ‘substantial’ harm globally, scientist saysThe US has caused an eye-watering $10tn in global damages to the world over the past three decades through its vast planet-heating emissions, with a quarter of this economic pain inflicted upon itself, new research has found.By being the largest carbon emitter in history, the US has caused greater harm to worldwide economic growth than any other country, ahead of China, now the world’s largest emitter that is responsible for $9tn in GDP damage since 1990, according to the findings of the paper. Continue reading...

Constituents’ frustration with Richard Tice reflects growing problem for party and its leaders’ climate-sceptic stance“The worst part of it was the smell,” says Audrey Crook, 58. A full-time carer who lives with her 20-year-old son, Crook woke up at 11pm one night to find a foot of flood water on the ground floor of her home. “It was like black water. It had sewage and everything in it, it was absolutely disgusting.”Crook’s home – along with more than 30 others on Wyberton West Road and Park Road in Boston, Lincolnshire – was flooded in January last year when heavy rain swept across the region, raising river levels and exceeding flood defences. Continue reading...

• The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) filed a lawsuit on March 24, 2026, against the Trump administration as part of a coalition for removing scientific signage on climate change impacts from U.S. national parks like Glacier National Park. • Signs detailing climate effects on iconic landscapes, such as retreating glaciers, were censored, preventing public education on environmental changes documented as part of parks' missions. • The suit, represented by Democracy Forward Foundation, demands restoration of accurate climate and historical information to promote scientific literacy and protect public lands for future generations.

Global heating consistent with current projections would cost average millennial $130,000 and $165,000 for gen Z, according to Deloitte modellingGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe next generation of Australian workers will cop a $185,000 bill over their lifetimes if the country does not act more urgently to address the climate crisis, according to new modelling by a team of young economists at Deloitte.The new report finds that global heating consistent with the current projections would cost the average millennial approximately $130,000 over the rest of their lives, increasing to $165,000 for gen Z. Continue reading...

• Scientists from Oregon State University and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research have identified 16 'tipping elements' across Earth's systems, including the Greenland Ice Sheet, Amazon rainforest, and Atlantic Ocean's overturning current, that could trigger a 'hothouse Earth trajectory' if pushed past critical temperature thresholds. • Atmospheric CO2 has reached 422.5 parts per million, about 50% higher than pre-industrial levels, with researchers warning that triggering one tipping element could push others closer to their own thresholds in a cascading effect. • The study, published in One Earth, distinguishes between a 'hothouse trajectory'—a direction of travel that could theoretically be interrupted—and a 'hothouse state,' where the planet would be locked into extreme, sustained heat and seas many meters higher.

There are flooding rains in Hawaii, rare snow in Alabama and a severe heatwave in the west coastSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe US is experiencing a striking mix of weather extremes this March. Flooding rains in Hawaii, rare snow in Alabama, flip-flopping temperatures in the north-east and, perhaps most concerning, a severe heatwave affecting the west coast are raising questions about how strange these patterns really are, and what role the climate crisis is playing.Experts suggested that people around the US need to pay closer attention to the climatecrisis and do what they can to “minimize the impacts”. Continue reading...