Weekly Climate

• Chemical Engineer Rob Louw and AMO physicists William van Wijngaarden and William Happer have published a technical paper titled “Sunlight, the Bond Albedo, CO2, and Earth’s Temperature.” • The research utilizes a data-driven approach to examine the relationship between sunlight, bond albedo, carbon dioxide levels, and global temperatures. • This work is significant as it challenges or supplements existing climate theories by applying specific mathematical frameworks to atmospheric data.

• Florida Power & Light (FPL), a subsidiary of NextEra, is facing serious allegations regarding the manipulation of democratic governance in Florida. • Reporting and litigation suggest the company used "ghost candidates" to sway elections, engaged in opaque political spending via nonprofits, and attempted to control media narratives. • The controversy includes claims that FPL conducted surveillance on a journalist who published critical reports about the company's activities.

• A new report emphasizes the need for more studies applying multiple Event Attribution (EEA) approaches to the same climate event to improve the reliability of findings. • The text advocates for operational EEA programs to implement periodic peer reviews to increase confidence in attribution results and identify gaps in current research. • This shift is critical for better understanding understudied event types and ensuring that climate-related data is robust enough for policy and scientific use.

• Between late June and early July 2026, global systems faced a convergence of political transitions, economic shifts, and intensifying climate pressures. • International actors are closely monitoring Tehran's succession process to determine if Iran will maintain policy continuity or recalibrate its nuclear diplomacy and regional security posture. • The situation is critical because Iran's internal political changes could redefine relations with Gulf states and cause volatility in global energy markets.