Author: Peter Bardaglio

Utilities Need to Step Up Their Climate Efforts

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This past July was the warmest July in the 175 years that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) has been keeping records. It was also the 14th consecutive month of record-high global temperatures, which itself is a record.

Commercial heat pumps in NYC.

We’ve jumped from 11 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year in 1960s to 36.6 billion tons in 2023. The world is now in territory not seen for more than 3 million years. At that time the global surface temperature was 4.5-7.2°F warmer than during pre-industrial era. Human civilization simply cannot survive in a climate like this.

We’re clearly walking along a knife’s edge. That’s what makes the complacency — some might say willful opposition — of the utilities so infuriating.

This is not to say utility efforts to help customers make energy-saving improvements haven’t made a difference, because they have. But it clearly hasn’t been enough. Utilities could do far more to help homes and businesses decarbonize.

We recently saw a good example in the NYS commercial building sector of what can happen when a utility makes a serious effort to facilitate electrification. NYSEG launched an economic development heat pump incentive for gas-constrained areas in April 2023 as part of a larger statewide effort rolled out by the NYS Public Service Commission. The pilot program provided up to $200,000 per project to transition off gas-powered technologies. Together with federal incentives, it suddenly made sense financially to install heat pumps in nonresidential buildings in Ithaca.

In short order, ten major weatherization and electrification projects involving commercial buildings got underway. Retail stores, restaurants, offices, and houses of worship, as well as cultural and performance spaces, took advantage of the decarbonization program, amounting to a total clean energy investment of over $1.9 million, with $1.4 million from state and federal incentives. The energy upgrades represent nearly 680 metric tons of annual avoided greenhouse gas emissions based on EPA estimates. Five of the ten buildings were members of the Ithaca 2030 District.

The program expired after only several months and once again the effort to electrify commercial buildings didn’t pencil out. Not surprisingly, the stream of projects slowed to a trickle.

A new report from the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) takes a close look at utility energy-saving initiatives, arguing that utilities need to step up their efforts. The report provides recommendations for state legislators and utility regulators aimed at expanding the scale and scope of utility energy efficiency programs to better address the growing climate crisis.

In particular, the study makes the crucial point that “climate goals, not just energy savings, should drive utilities’ efficiency efforts.” It notes that the majority of current energy efficiency programs focus too narrowly on energy savings and, as a result, often miss important decarbonization opportunities. Without a doubt, state regulators and utitlity executives should rethink their approach to energy efficiency; this report offers a new path forward.

How Serious is NY about Its Climate Goals?

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There’s something seriously unnerving about the casual way in which Gov. Hochul has acknowledged that New York will probably not meet its 2030 climate targets. The pathbreaking Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) calls for the state to obtain 70 percent of its electricity from renewable energy by 2030.

A joint draft report issued in July by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the Public Service Commission (PSC) indicated that the 70 percent renewables target will not be achieved before 2033.

State State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins. NY Senate Photo licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Audit Reveals Flaws
A few weeks after this report, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released a detailed audit criticizing the PSC and NYSERDA for inadequate planning and the use of outdated data. In particular, it said that the PSC had failed to address “all current and emerging issues that could significantly increase electricity demand and lower projected generation.”

Perhaps most disturbing was the audit’s finding that the PSC had overlooked the need to calculate the costs of the transition to renewables or to identify how to cover those costs beyond the tried and true method of dumping them on ratepayers. 

How Committed is the State?
Together these two reports raise major questions about the actual commitment of the state to implementing the 2019 CLCPA. The governor’s reaction to these findings? Oh well, it won’t hurt if we let things slide for a few years. Not surprisingly, state Republican leaders and the business community have taken advantage of the leadership vacuum to attack the climate law and press Hochul to abandon it.

How is it possible for this failure of leadership to take hold during the same summer that global temperatures have been setting new records month after month? In fact, not only was this past July the warmest on record, but it was also the 14th consecutive month of record-high global temperatures. Does anyone see a pattern here?

Cornell professor Robert Howarth, a member of the state’s Climate Action Council, certainly does. The council passed a plan to implement the CLCPA in December 2022, and Howarth is on the front line defending it. “I am appalled at this pushback against the CLCPA by business interests pushing their short-sighted agenda,” Howarth said in an interview with WaterFront. “Climate change is very real. The consequences of climate disruption (floods, droughts, fires, crop failures) are becoming increasing obvious to all.”

Eddie Bautista, executive director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, strongly agrees that stronger leadership is necessary. “In just five short years, we’ve gone from being visionary leaders to not being able to implement our own laws. It’s just insane,” he said recently.

The governor’s reversal on congestion pricing in New York City has environmentalists wondering whether this is part of a larger plan to back away from other elements of the state climate action agenda such as the cap-and-invest plan that would price greenhouse gas emissions. At the very least, it looks likely that the administration will blow past its self-imposed deadline to launch the program in early 2025.

A Simple Step
One step that Hochul could take to restore some degree of confidence in her commitment to climate action would be to sign the Climate Change Superfund Act that is currently sitting on her desk after being passed in June by both the General Assembly and State Senate. This legislation would require oil and gas companies to pay a total of $3 billion a year for 25 years to cover the cost of the climate damage they have inflicted on the state.

The governor has not yet signaled her intention, which leaves a lot of climate activists worried, although some think she might just be waiting until after the election to do so. The pressure on her has been growing throughout the summer and will only continue to increase this fall.

Fossil Free Media, together with the Sunrise Movement, has launched a national billboard campaign in California, New York, Arizona, and Philadelphia, with plans to expand to Florida and Louisiana in September. as part of the effort to build support for the principle that polluters should pay for the mess they have made.

The Make Polluters Pay campaign seeks to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable through legislation, lawsuits, and public pressure. This is exactly the kind of national attention that Hochul wants to avoid, but she better get used to it. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) just announced their intention to introduce federal Polluter Pays bills in Congress. Things are definitely heating up – stay tuned.

Hurricane Beryl, the Supreme Court & Our Troubled Political Landscape

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Hurricane Beryl has now become the earliest Category 5 Atlantic hurricane on record as it marches across the Caribbean, wreaking havoc to the Windward Islands. Beryl’s maximum sustained winds have reached close to 160 mph, with higher gusts, according to the National Hurricane Center.

There is strong agreement among scientists that climate breakdown has increased the occurrence of the most intense and destructive tropical storms. Warming oceans, thanks to human-caused climate change, provide more energy to fuel these storms.

Political Will Needed

Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, assailed the lack of political will in the U.S. and Europe to tackle the climate breakdown as Beryl hammered his nation.

“For the major emitters of greenhouse gases, those who contribute most to global warming,” he said, “you are getting a lot of talking, but you are not seeing a lot of action—as in making money available to small-island developing states and other vulnerable countries.

“I am hopeful that what is happening—and we are quite early in the hurricane season—will alert them to our vulnerabilities, our weaknesses and encourage them to honour the commitments they have made on a range of issues, from the Paris accord to the current time.”

The Supreme Court Weighs In

Right on cue, at a time when strong climate action is clearly called for, the U.S. Supreme Court last Friday sharply reined in the power of federal agencies, overturning a forty-year legal precedent known as the Chevron doctrine, which led courts to defer to the expertise of these agencies. As a result, hundreds of environmental and climate regulations promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency, among others in the executive branch, will be open to legal challenges.

“Rules on water quality, smokestack and tailpipe emissions, biodiversity and the effects of climate change will now be relitigated and reinterpreted by the courts,” noted Richard Martin at GreenBiz.

Closer to home, as this year’s legislative session came to a close last month, Gov. Hochul made the controversial decision to pause congestion pricing in New York City after months of preparation to put it in place. In the ensuing chaos, other bills such as the NY HEAT Act and the Packaging Reduction Act failed to get a proper hearing in the General Assembly.

It was a disheartening display of the fossil fuel industry’s ability to bend state political leaders to its will, in part due to the flood of dollars it’s been handing out this election year.

The one bright light in Albany was the last-minute passage of the Climate Change Superfund Act. As reported above, the bill would charge Big Oil companies a total of $3 billion a year for 25 years to pay for costs associated with the destruction caused by climate change.

The legislation now awaits the governor’s signature. If enacted, New York will join Vermont as the second U.S. state with a law requiring fossil-fuel companies to pick up at least a portion of the tab for the huge damage they’ve knowingly inflicted.

In the face of so much demoralizing news, climate justice and environmental groups across the state will push hard this summer to make sure the governor signs this historic bill. If she does, it will mark a significant step towards holding climate polluters accountable. But don’t count on it; only intense, sustained grassroots pressure can make it happen. So, for the sake of future generations, don’t sit on the sidelines. It’s time to turn up the heat.

NYS Drops the Ball on Climate Legislation

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In a breathtaking display of political malpractice, the NYS General Assembly just adjourned the 2023-2024 legislative session in Albany without taking a vote on several crucial pieces of climate legislation.

The final days of the session turned into a brawl to rescue congestion pricing after Gov. Kathy Hochul paused the program just weeks before it was set to begin. As a result, key bills were left by the wayside.

Governor Kathy Hochul. Photo credit: Darren McGee, Office of Governor.

They included the NY HEAT Act, which would stop utilities from automatically charging ratepayers for new gas lines, a measure to reduce plastic packaging, and an expanded bottle deposit law. Both the NY HEAT Act and the Packaging Reduction Act had already passed in the Senate by wide margins, and they had the backing of a majority of co-sponsors in the Assembly, but they never came to a vote.

“This is taking us backwards where we need to be to meet our climate law mandates and to protect people and save them money,” said Liz Moran, a state policy advocate at Earthjustice.

Moran pointed out that NYS lawmakers approved the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act in 2019, with a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85% by 2050. But since then, she said, Democratic leaders in Albany have been unwilling to take the steps needed to actually achieve that goal.

“We will not forget this failure as we struggle with utility shutoffs, high temperatures, and bad air this summer,” said AGREE executive director Jessica Azulay, joining the call for a special session to take up the NY HEAT Act.

The governor’s decision to pause congestion pricing, combined with the failure of the other bills to get a proper hearing in the Assembly, is disconcerting, to say the least. These actions displayed the power of the fossil fuel industry to get its way in Albany, thanks to the flood of dollars it’s handing out in what is an election year.

There was one place where Big Oil failed to get its way, though. In the final hours of the Assembly session—at 3:22 am, to be exact—the Climate Change Superfund Act secured passage.

The bill would charge fossil-fuel companies a total of $3 billion a year for 25 years to pay for costs associated with the destruction caused by climate change.

The Climate Change Superfund Act now lands on Gov. Hochul’s desk, awaiting her signature. If enacted, New York will join Vermont as the second U.S. state with a law requiring fossil-fuel companies to pick up at least a portion of the tab for the huge damage they’ve knowingly inflicted.

There will be tremendous pressure brought to bear, as there should be, by climate justice and environmental groups across the state to make sure the governor signs this historic bill. If she does, it will mark a significant step towards holding climate polluters accountable.

A Failure of Leadership at the Capitol

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When the state’s final budget was released earlier this month, not a single major climate bill was included. No Climate Change Superfund Act, no NY HEAT Act, no Stop Climate Polluter Handouts Act.

It was a shocking development in light of the state’s supposed commitment to achieving an 85% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. That’s what New York State’s 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) requires, but you’d never know it flipping though the pages of this year’s budget book.

The New York State Capitol in Albany. Photo by Craig Fildes licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED.

The operative word in the title of the CLCPA is “leadership.” It was hard to discern any of that, however, when it came to Gov. Hochul and the legislature, especially the General Assembly. Instead, anxiety about the upcoming elections prevailed and Democrats took the safe way out. It was a sad day in Albany and there was little to celebrate when Earth Day occurred a few days later.

The Fossil Fuel Industry Betrayal

It was bad enough when we found out this past January that the fossil fuel industry had more than enough evidence as early as 1954 to understand the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on the climate. But then word came today, with the release of internal documents, that Big Oil lobbied against climate policies that they claimed to support. The betrayal was complete.

“For decades, the fossil-fuel industry has known about the economic and climate harms of its products,” declared Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) “but [it] has deceived the American public to keep collecting more than $600bn each year in subsidies while raking in record-breaking profits.”

Where Do We Go From Here?

In the context of these larger national events, the fact that oil and gas companies were a major factor in pressuring state legislators to forego climate legislation in this year’s budget is especially galling. All three major bills directly confront the oil and gas firms. The NY HEAT Act seeks to eliminate subsidies for new gas hookups, eliminate the “obligation to serve” gas to neighborhoods, and ensure that no low-income household would pay more than 6% of its income for energy.

The Climate Change Superfund Act holds major oil companies accountable for the harm they inflicted on New York between 2000 and 2018. It would require these companies to bear a share of the costs of infrastructure investments required to adapt to the impacts of climate change in the state. The program would assess the major fossil fuel emitters $3 billion annually over the span of 25 years to offset the climate damages incurred by the state.

The Stop Climate Polluter Handouts Act aims at paring back the $1.6 billion taxpayers hand out each year to the oil and gas companies in tax subsidies and other breaks. It defies logic that the state continues to provide huge subsidies to an industry that is causing so much destruction. This bill would end the most egregious state subsidies, amounting to $265 million annually.

The fight to secure the passage of these three bills is far from over. Even though the budget has been set, the legislature still has until June 1 to gain their approval. This is clearly the tougher road but climate movement activists across the state, including TCCPI, are gearing up to push even harder over the next four weeks for this legislation to become law. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work!

 

Accountability and Climate Change in Albany

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It’s that time of year in Albany when a wave of bills sweeps ashore in the New York State Legislature, among them a number of critical climate and energy transition measures.

The big question on the minds of climate and environmental activists and their legislative allies is pretty straightforward: to what extent is Governor Kathy Hochul committed to fulfilling not just the letter but the spirit of the state’s 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA)?

Assemblymember Anna Kelles speaking at a NY Renews rally in January. Photo courtesy of NY Renews.

Uncertainty and Anziety
Close on the heels of this question is a related issue: the State Climate Action Council has developed a substantive, thoughtful roadmap for meeting the ambitious goals of the CLCPA, but it remains unclear how energetically the governor intends to pursue it.

Feeding this sense of uncertainty are the challenges facing the rollout of utility-scale renewable energy projects in New York. As Marie French points out in a recent article, recent setbacks in developing industrial wind and solar have raised serious doubts about the state’s ability to meet the demands of the Climate Law, which requires that 70 percent of New York’s power come from renewable sources by 2030.

Finding a Solution
At the same time, extreme weather events attributable to climate change have been escalating, creating a palpable sense of urgency about the need to find a solution. As Raya Salter, a member of the Climate Action Council and founder of the Energy Justice Law and Policy Center, puts it, “The stakes are higher than ever so the governor needs to be willing to step out and make sure that we fully implement the CLCPA.”

There is certainly no shortage of suggestions about how to do this. One of the boldest set of proposals before the legislators is the Climate, Jobs, and Justice Package (CJJP) advanced by NY Renews, a coalition made up of over 370 environmental, justice, faith, labor, and community groups, including TCCPI.

The CJJP has three main components: 1) fully fund the CLCPA so that it can achieve its objectives; 2) build renewable energy for all and create green union jobs; and 3) hold polluters accountable and ensure everyone pays their fair share in taxes. Here are the details about how this would be accomplished:

  • The People’s Climate Justice Budget is a $1 billion spending plan that outlines critical climate and environmental justice programs that would constitute a downpayment on the more than $10 billion a year the state estimates is necessary to address the climate crisis. It builds on the creation of the Climate Action Fund (CAF) in 2023, seizing a historic opportunity to fund projects across the state.
  • The NY HEAT (Home Energy Affordable Transition) Act would eliminate subsidies for new gas hookups (the “100-foot rule”), enable neighborhood scale building decarbonization by eliminating the “obligation to serve” gas, and ensure that no household pays more than 6% of its income for energy. The plan would also ban the construction of any new gas plants in areas where they do not already exist after September 30, 2023.
  • The Just Energy Transition Act provides a plan to guide the replacement and redevelopment of at least 4 GW of New York State’s fossil fuel facilities by 2030. It lays out a clear direction for proceeding with the transition off fossil fuels in accordance with the CLCPA requirements. Converting these facilities to renewable energy as soon as possible will generate climate and economic benefits as well as public health benefits.
  • The Climate Change Superfund Act holds major oil companies, the state’s worst climate polluters, accountable for the harm they’ve inflicted on New York between 2000 and 2018. It would require companies that have contributed significantly to the buildup of greenhouse gases to bear a share of the costs of infrastructure investments required to adapt to the impacts of climate change in the state. The program would assess the major fossil fuel emitters $3 billion annually over the span of 25 years to offset the climate damages incurred by the state.

Not included in the CJJP, but closely aligned with it, is the Stop Climate Polluter Handouts Act. Many supporters view it, in particular, as a companion bill to the Climate Superfund Act, arguing that New York shouldn’t be providing huge subsidies to an industry that is causing so much destruction. This legislation will end the most egregious state subsidies of over $330 million each year (out of an annual total of $1.6 billion) to oil and gas companies.

These are just a few of the bills under consideration in Albany. Efforts to ensure that the Cap-and-Invest program doesn’t devolve into a cap-and-trade shell game; to make the fashion industry more transparent when it comes to supply chains, carbon emissions, and labor conditions; to reduce plastic packaging and modernize the bottle bill; and to push the governor and legislature to figure out how state facilities in downtown Albany, including the Empire State Plaza and State Capitol, could receive their electric power and heating and cooling from 100% renewable energy are all crucial ways in which New York can demonstrate its seriousness about fulfilling the vision of the CLCPA.

As Raya Salter contends, “the stakes are higher than ever.” The governor and legislature need to demonstrate the vision and leadership that act on this understanding, and it’s up to the rest of us to hold their feet to the fire. TCCPI will be right there with our allies in the climate and energy transition movement, making sure that our representatives feel the heat and act accordingly.

Success and Failure at COP28

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The expectations for COP28, given the track record of recent U.N. climate conferences, were low. Held in Dubai earlier this month, it appeared from the outset to be a captive of the global fossil fuel industry. About 2,400 people connected to the coal, oil and gas industries, an all-time high, registered for COP28. As the dust settled following the talks, however, a mixed picture emerged, one with a few important achievements alongside some notable failures.

The president of the summit, Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber (center), is chief executive of the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. Photo by UNclimatechange licensed under CC BY NC-SA 2.0 DEED.

Significant Achievements

  • Loss and Damage Fund: The Loss and Damage Fund, dedicated to aiding vulnerable nations already grappling with the devastating consequences of climate change, marked an historic breakthrough. It acknowledges the responsibility of developed nations and their obligation to support those on the frontline of the crisis.
  • Fossil Fuel: For the first time, a COP agreement explicitly called for “transitioning away from fossil fuels.” The pact represented a compromise and is not legally binding, but it should signal to investors and policymakers that a turning point has been reached.
  • Methane Mitigation: Recognizing methane’s potent warming effect, COP28 implemented several measures to buttress COP26’s Global Methane Pledge, aimed at reducing anthropogenic methane emissions by 30% by 2030. The U.S. and European Union put in place new regulations and oil and gas producers announced new pledges to curb methane emissions. The latter commitments, though, were strictly voluntary.
  • Adaptation: Adaptation received increased attention, with targets established on water security, ecosystem restoration, and health. By 2025, all countries must have in place a detailed plan to adapt to the current and future impacts of climate change in their countries, and must demonstrate progress in implementing such a plan by 2030.
  • Financial Commitments: Data published in the run up to COP28 indicated that developed countries finally fulfilled their long overdue promise to provide $100 billion in 2022 to help poorer countries deal with climate change. In addition, initial contributions of $429 million to the Loss and Damage Fund reinforced this acknowledgement of financial responsibility.

Critical Failures

Despite these achievements, COP28 fell short in several critical areas:

  • Ambition Gap: The agreed-upon measures are insufficient to limit warming to 1.5°C. The “carbon budget” for 1.5°C will be exhausted in around five years at current levels of emissions. Developed nations need to significantly ramp up their ambition and action.
  • Fossil Fuel Loophole: The language about the need to transition away from fossil fuels stopped short of calling for a “phase out,” leaving room for interpretation and potential loopholes. Fossil fuel interests will continue to exert undue influence, hindering a definitive shift towards clean energy.
  • Finance Shortfall: While the $100 billion target for 2022 was finally met, it barely scratches the surface of the actual need. Adaptation finance remains “woefully inadequate,” leaving developing nations struggling to cope with climate impacts.
  • Equity and Justice: The voices of developing nations and marginalized communities were largely ignored at COP28. The principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” remains unrealized, with historical polluters failing to take commensurate action.
  • Human Rights Concerns: Hosting COP28 in Dubai, with its record of widespread human rights violations, raised concerns about silencing dissent and hindering meaningful participation.

The Road Ahead

COP28’s mixed bag leaves the world at a crossroads. While the achievements offer a glimmer of hope, the failures highlight the urgency of the moment. Here are some key takeaways for the road ahead:

  • Increased Ambition: Developed nations must significantly ratchet up their emissions reduction targets and concretely implement their commitments.
  • Just Transition: A just and equitable transition away from fossil fuels is crucial. Investments must prioritize vulnerable communities and support workers in high-carbon industries towards alternative livelihoods.
  • Enhanced Finance: Developed nations must scale up adaptation funding and fulfill their responsibility to support the most vulnerable.
  • Amplifying Marginalized Voices: The voices of developing nations, Indigenous communities, and other marginalized groups must be heard and acted upon. Inclusive decision-making is essential for effective climate action.
  • Holding Polluters Accountable: Developed nations, historically responsible for most emissions, must take ownership of their role and provide adequate financial and technological support to developing nations.

Clearly, COP28 did not deliver the transformational change needed, but it did offer some signs of progress as well as stepping stones for future action. The time for incremental steps, though, is over. The window of opportunity is closing and we must move quickly if we hope to avoid the onset of runaway climate change. Finally, if nothing else, the climate talks underscored the importance of local climate action for generating tangible results.

Nation’s Leading Climate Report Focuses New Attention on Environmental Justice

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As climate change has accelerated in the United States, it’s become clear that its consequences are not experienced equally in the U.S. The specifics of these disproportionate impacts are the focus of a groundbreaking federal report issued last month by some of the nation’s leading climate scientists, public health experts, and economists.

The release marks the first time a National Climate Assessment, mandated by Congress under the Global Change Research Act of 1990, has treated environmental justice as an important consideration in its findings. Why the new attention? As the Fifth National Climate Assessment puts it, “An equitable and sustainable U.S. response to climate change has the potential to reduce climate impacts while improving well-being, strengthening resilience, benefiting the economy, and, in part, redressing legacies of racism and injustice.”

Hurricane Harvey in 2017 had a disproportinate impact on poor African American neighborhoods in Houston.

The report outlines in detail how lower-income families and communities of color have historically experienced the worst environmental damage while benefiting the least from regulation, adaptation efforts, and recovery funding. It examines how marginalized groups, among other things, have a greater likelihood of living in a flood zone, lacking access to parks and other green spaces, and having fewer resources to recover from extreme weather events such as hurricanes, flash floods, and wildfires.

“Climate change affects us all, but it doesn’t affect us all equally,” observes Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist of The Nature Conservancy and one of the report’s authors. “This new assessment provides a more comprehensive understanding of how climate impacts disproportionately affect those who have done the least to cause the problem. These impacts exacerbate social inequities, including racial and gender-based disparities; and they emphasize how climate solutions must also be solutions for justice and equity.”

According to Inside Climate News, previous assessments “approached the inequitable outcomes of the climate crisis as an afterthought,” making scattered references to “social justice,” “climate justice” or “environmental justice.” In contrast, the Fifth National Climate Assessment threads discussions of social, economic, and health inequities throughout the entire report.

In a key chapter on “Social Systems and Justice,” the study argues that the necessary elements of a just transition are: 1) recognizing lower-income families and communities of color have borne disparate burdens and social injustices and thus may have different needs; 2) ensuring people affected by the outcomes of decision-making are included in those processes; and 3) distributing resources and opportunities so that no single group or set of individuals receives disproportionate benefits or burdens.

The report, which comes out roughly every four years, compiles the latest peer-reviewed studies and other relevant research on climate change and weaves them into a comprehensive document for U.S. policymakers. The National Climate Assessment is widely considered to be the nation’s most authoritative document on how global warming is affecting the country, so the new attention to environmental justice, while overdue, is welcome and deserves broad public attention.

Time to Rein in the Cargill Salt Mine

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Cayuga Lake is one of our community’s most precious natural assets. Not only does it offer a large array of recreational opportunities, but it also provides the drinking water for over 100,000 people. As global warming accelerates and fresh water sources become increasingly scarce, we are fortunate to have such a plentiful resource available. In addition, as Assemblymember Anna Kelles points out, the $3-billion-dollar local agritourism economy, which employs 60,000 people, depends on the lake. Continue reading →

From Climate Crisis to Climate Chaos

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It’s been a record-shattering summer, and from the looks of it, we’re well on our way from climate crisis to climate chaos. Historic heat waves, wildfires, and floods have struck the U.S., Canada, Europe, China, and India, among other places. No doubt the return of El Niño has temporarily exacerbated the frequency and intensity of recent extreme weather events, but climate scientists are clear that the major factor at work is the continued burning of fossil fuels.

The world has not yet passed a tipping point into runaway climate change, say these scientists, but we’re getting closer. They warn that, as unnerving as this summer has been, even worse impacts are sure to come if we don’t move fast to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “Climate science’s projections [have been] pretty robust over the last decades,” notes Professor Malte Meinshausen of the University of Melbourne in Australia in a Guardian interview from earlier this week. “Unfortunately, humanity’s stubbornness to spew out ever-higher amounts of greenhouse gases has also been pretty robust.


Flooding in Vermont, July 2023. Photo by Nicolas Erwin licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Hottest July Ever

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced this month that July 2023 was the warmest July in its 174 years of recordkeeping, and the global surface temperature of the January-July period ranked as the third warmest ever. For the fourth consecutive month, global ocean surface temperatures hit a record high.

“The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres declared last month. “Leaders must lead. No more hesitancy. No more excuses. No more waiting for others to move first. There is simply no more time for that.”

Climate Inequality

The disproportionate impact of climate destabilization has never been more evident. A report on climate inequality released by the World Inequality Lab (WIL) earlier this year found that the top 10% of the world’s carbon emitters were responsible for almost 50% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and the top 1% of global emitters generate more emissions than the entire bottom half. Agricultural productivity has declined by 30% in many low-income regions due to climate change, thus making poverty and food insecurity even worse.

The IPCC Sixth Assessment synthesis report issued in March concluded that climate change impacts are already more far-reaching and extreme than anticipated. Global warming of 1.1°C (1.98°F) has already set off unprecedented changes to Earth’s climate, and 3.3 billion to 3.6 billion people currently live in countries highly vulnerable to climate impacts. According to the report, the death toll from extreme weather disasters is 15 times as high in vulnerable nations as it is elsewhere.

A window still exists to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, the report points out, but it is a narrow one. To limit global warming to 1.5°C (2.7°F), greenhouse gas emissions need to peak before 2025 at the very latest, get cut in half by 2030, and reach net zero by 2050. The global consumption of coal must fall 95% by 2050, oil use must decline by 60%, and gas by about 45%. The annual investment in clean energy investment worldwide needs to increase between 3 and 6 times by 2030.

Fossil Fuel Subsidies

It’s in the context of these findings from NOAA, WIL, and the IPCC that an analysis of global fossil fuel subsidies from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) strikes with special force. Total subsidies for oil, gas, and coal in 2022 surged to a record $7 trillion (a rise of $2 trillion over two years), costing the equivalent of 7.1% of global gross domestic product.

As the IMF observes, that’s more than governments spend annually on education (4.3% of global income) and about two thirds of what they spend on healthcare (10.9%). Another way of putting these hard-to-swallow facts is that fossil fuels were subsidized in 2022 at the rate of $13 million a minute. The biggest subsidizers of fossil fuels were China, the U.S., Russia, the European Union, and India. The G20 nations cause 80% of global carbon emissions, yet they spent a record $1.4 trillion on fossil fuel subsidies in 2022.

The cognitive dissonance generated by the juxtaposition of recent extreme weather events, on the one hand, and the enormous undercharging of fossil fuel costs and their environmental impacts, on the other, could hardly be more head splitting. In the words of the IMF, scrapping fossil fuel subsidies “would prevent 1.6 million premature deaths annually, raise government revenues by $4.4 trillion, and put emissions on track toward reaching global warming targets.” To put it bluntly, ending these subsidies must be at the center of any effective climate solution.