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Carbon emissions

More Than 300 Lobbyists For Industrial Agriculture Attend COP30

More than 300 lobbyists for food and farming organisations have participated at this year’s UN climate talks, known as COP30, taking place in the Brazilian Amazon, where agribusiness is the leading cause of deforestation, a new investigation has found. The number of lobbyists representing the interests of industrial cattle farming, commodity grains and pesticides is up 14 percent over last year’s summit in Baku — and is larger than the delegation of the world’s 10th largest economy, Canada, which brought 220 delegates to COP30 in Belém, according to the joint investigation between DeSmog and the Guardian. 

New Documentary Bridges Militarism And The Climate Crisis

The US military is the greatest threat to the planet, not just for the violence that it commits but also for its carbon emissions and environmental destruction. Clearing the FOG speaks with Abby Martin about her new documentary, Earth's Greatest Enemy, which exposes the harm caused by the military. Martin and her spouse, Mike Prysner, traveled around the world to cover the damage caused by the military, the failure to hold the US military accountable, and the people resisting US foreign military bases. Martin also discusses the military's greenwashing efforts. This program includes a portion of a previous interview with Mike Prysner recorded at the beginning of this project.

Emissions From Global Meat And Dairy Companies Rival Fossil Fuels

The world’s major meat and dairy companies are generating combined greenhouse gas emissions on par with some of the biggest fossil fuel producers, according to new estimates from environmental and food policy experts issued ahead of the COP30 climate talks in Belém, Brazil. More than half of the estimated emissions stem from methane, a powerful but short-lived gas that scientists warn must be sharply reduced in this decade to keep global warming within 1.5°C. The analysis, Roasting the Planet: Big Meat and Dairy’s Big Emissions, was published today by Foodrise, Friends of the Earth U.S., Greenpeace Nordic, and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

Carbon Dioxide Levels Rose Record Amount In 2024

The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose by the largest amount ever recorded in 2024, the UN has reported, as researchers warn of the dangers of feedback loops that are pushing the climate crisis to new heights and many global powers do nothing to mitigate emissions. According to the latest bulletin by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the global average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased by 3.5 parts per million between 2023 and 2024. This is the highest single-year increase since modern records began in 1957.

Fundamental Change In The Climate: ‘The World Is Coming Apart Before Our Eyes’

The situation with respect to the climate crisis is developing rapidly. Each new study seems to bring worse news. In addition, the media is rife with climate denial and misinformation. To help us understand what is happening on this planet, Clearing the FOG speaks with environmental journalist Robert Hunziker. Hunziker follows climate studies published in scientific journals and translates them into a language the average person can understand. He reports that top scientists are saying there has been a fundamental shift in the climate. Rainforests and tundras are now spewing carbon instead of sequestering it, and the oceans have reached their capacity for storing the planet's heat. Cascading weather events are making areas of the world uninhabitable.

Ireland Shuts Down Last Coal Plant Ahead Of Schedule

Ireland has become the sixth European country to end its use of coal with its scheduled shut-down of the Moneypoint coal-fired power plant six months earlier than originally planned. The 915 megawatt station will continue to operate in an oil-based backup capacity under emergency instruction until 2029, reported The Irish Examiner. “This is the end of coal in Ireland and the start of a cleaner energy future,” said Paddy Hayes, ESB’s chief executive officer, in the statement, as Bloomberg reported. Developed in the 1980s, Moneypoint is one of the largest energy stations in Ireland. As renewables make up an increasing share of the world’s power generation, coal is becoming obsolete as a fuel source.

xAI Data Center Emits Plumes Of Pollution

A massive data center at xAI’s controversial site in Memphis, Tennessee is emitting huge plumes of pollution, according to footage recorded by an environmental watchdog group. xAI quickly built an enormous data center and supercomputer at an empty factory site in Memphis last year, aimed at providing computational power for xAI’s chatbot, called Grok. Having difficulty securing enough grid power to fuel the energy-hungry data center, xAI brought in 35 portable gas turbines, and assembled them without environmental permits or pollution controls. A new video, recorded by Oil Field Witness, an environmental group, shows vast plumes of pollution coming from those gas turbines.

China’s Solar And Wind Capacity Surpasses Mostly Coal-Based Energy

China’s National Energy Administration has announced that the country’s solar and wind energy capacity has exceeded that of thermal energy — which is mostly coal-powered — for the first time. The largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, China has pledged to achieve peak carbon emissions by the end of the decade and become carbon neutral by 2060, reported AFP. “In the first quarter of 2025, China’s newly installed wind and photovoltaic power capacity totalled 74.33 million kilowatts, bringing the cumulative installed capacity to 1.482 billion kilowatts,” the country’s energy body said.

From Farms To Data Centers: The Gas Industry’s Newest Sales Pitch

“In all my days here, this is the biggest black eye that Pittsylvania County has experienced,” says Amanda Sink Wydner, leader of the local opposition to plans for a massive new power plant and data center complex in Chatham, a small town in southern Virginia. On April 15, the county government will vote on whether to rezone hundreds acres of farmland to heavy industrial use, which would allow Balico LLC, a natural gas power developer, to proceed with the project. As planned, it would have the biggest power demand of any data center complex in the world, according to rankings from Data Center Magazine.

‘Landmark’ Global Shipping Agreement Reached After Years Of Talks

After nearly a decade of negotiations, nations have come to a “landmark” global shipping agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The new International Maritime Organization (IMO) Framework introduced a carbon pricing mechanism that will require ships with high emissions to pay for the excess pollution they release, reported UN News. It also sets mandatory fuel standards for the shipping industry. “Ships must reduce, over time, their annual greenhouse gas fuel intensity (GFI) – that is, how much GHG is emitted for each unit of energy used,” a press release from IMO said. “Ships emitting above GFI thresholds will have to acquire remedial units to balance its deficit emissions, while those using zero or near-zero GHG technologies will be eligible for financial rewards.”

A St. Paul CDFI Is Now Offering Net Zero Banking

Once an outdoor educator, Laura Wildenborg spent 10 years taking kids on field trips to go rock climbing or cross-country skiing across the region, all to inspire children to love and care for the environment. After receiving her MBA in 2020, she made a drastic career pivot — to banking. But she brought her care for the environment along with her. “That love of the outdoors, that was such an important aspect of what I was doing, and I wanted to carry that through into my next role,” says Wildenborg, vice president of strategic lending for Sunrise Banks, a community development financial institution based in St. Paul, Minnesota.

36 Companies Drove Half The World’s Climate-Altering Emissions In 2023

Half of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions in 2023 came from just three dozen companies, according to a new report released today by the Carbon Majors project, with the list dominated by coal, cement, and oil producers. Saudi Arabia’s Saudi Aramco, the year’s worst offender, drove 4.4 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide pollution alone in 2023, the report found. Five publicly-traded oil companies — ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, TotalEnergies, and BP — combined to produce an additional 4.9 percent of the year’s global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels, the report adds.

Plants Are Losing Their Ability To Absorb Carbon Dioxide

Our planet’s plants and soils reached the peak of their ability to absorb carbon dioxide in 2008, and their sequestration rate has been falling ever since, according to a new analysis by a father-and-son team in the United Kingdom. At first, the added carbon led to warmer temperatures, vegetation growth and a longer growing season. Once a tipping point was reached, however, the combination of heat stress, wildfires, drought, flooding, storms and the spread of new diseases and pests led to a reduction in the amount of carbon plants can soak up. “The rate of natural sequestration of CO2 from the atmosphere by the terrestrial biosphere peaked in 2008.

2°C Climate Warming Target Is ‘Dead’

In a new analysis, acclaimed climate scientist Professor James Hansen and colleagues said that scientists had greatly underestimated the rate of global heating, and that the international target of two degrees Celsius is “dead.” The analysis concluded that the combination of recent reductions in shipping pollution — which have the effect of blocking the sun — and increasing emissions from fossil fuels have been greater than previously thought, reported The Guardian. “A shocking rise of warming has been exposed by, ironically, a reduction of pollutants, but we now have a new baseline and trajectory for where we are,” said Professor Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, as The Guardian reported.

Escalating Climate Impacts Threaten Health Worldwide

Human-driven climate change is causing temperatures to rise to dangerous new heights, while worsening drought and impeding food security, according to the ninth Lancet Countdown report. The report by health experts and doctors warned that people all over the world are facing unparalleled health threats because of the climate crisis. “This year’s stocktake of the imminent health threats of climate inaction reveals the most concerning findings yet,” said Dr. Marina Romanello, executive director of the University College London-led Lancet Countdown, as The Guardian reported.
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