Climate 411

From IUCN Congress to COP30, let science, Indigenous knowledge, and economics lead toward solutions that work for people and nature

By Angela Churie Kallhauge / Published: October 6, 2025

This October, a rare, once-every-four-years gathering is taking place in Abu Dhabi: The IUCN World Conservation Congress is where global experts and leaders meet to discuss nature conservation. It’s not just about protecting wildlife; it’s a vital opportunity to find smart, practical, and science-backed ways to meet our 2030 goals for people and nature. This event is a key moment to advance actions that tackle the connected problems of biodiversity loss and climate change together—a collaborative effort, much like the UN’s “Rio Trio” agreements, that could accelerate global action. 

This Congress comes just weeks ahead of the next United Nations climate conference, COP30, which will take place in the Amazon Basin, hosted by the city of Belém, Brazil. Hosting in this setting gives us the opportunity to cast global attention to the challenges and potential solutions unfolding in the wider Amazon region, for the communities living and sustaining the Amazon, and for biodiversity and nature at large.  Read More »

Posted in Forest protection, Indigenous People, United Nations / Authors: / Comments are closed

Advancing affordability through climate ambition: How states can cut costs while cutting pollution

By Peter Della-Rocca, Kate Courtin and Tom Brindle / Published: September 23, 2025

While the federal government rapidly undermines climate progress, new analysis from EDF shows that state leadership is more important than ever. Our analysis finds that if leadership states deliver on their climate commitments, they could make a significant impact on the overall U.S. emissions and collectively cut the gap to the nation’s Paris-aligned 2035 target by a third.  

What’s more, implementing the comprehensive and powerful policy tools state leaders have at their fingertips to meet these commitments would both slash planet-warming pollution and deliver household savings and economic benefits for communities. Now is the time for governors and state legislators to get the job done.

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Posted in California, Carbon Markets, Cities and states, Economics, Energy, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, News, Policy / Authors: , , / Comments are closed

A New Energy Task Force for North Carolina: Putting Affordability First

By Will Scott, Southeast Climate and Clean Energy Director / Published: September 11, 2025

It’s a new dawn. It’s a new day. It’s a new energy task force in North Carolina, and EDF is honored to have a role in this state initiative to meet the challenge of rising electricity demand. If we fail to build enough electricity generation to keep up with rising demand, that will mean bill shock for NC households. Many people have opened the highest electricity bill of their life this summer, a trend that will continue if we don’t find a way to get costs under control while phasing out our coal fleet and finding the right mix of next-generation technologies.

We’re in a time of broader uncertainty, with federal policy in flux and high interest rates challenging developers and utilities who need to make investments in their growing systems.

But North Carolina has a history of innovating in power sector regulation, regardless of what is happening in Washington, DC. The Clean Smokestacks Act in 2002 helped clean up an aging coal fleet, and House Bill 951 in 2021 set power sector emission reduction targets to put the state on a path towards a cleaner, more diversified energy generation portfolio. We must set our own course and learn from other states who are experimenting with new ways to meet power demand, which is rising faster than traditional power plants like coal, gas or nuclear, and can realistically be built.

We have to expand the range of options on the table to meet a surge in demand from data centers and new industrial sources. That means tapping into batteries on people’s homes, incentivizing large facilities to reduce their usage during peak demand times and building as much of the quickest-to-market resources we can — which are primarily solar and batteries.

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Posted in Cities and states, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, News / Authors: / Comments are closed

Washington state’s cap-and-invest program continues to deliver for communities

By Caroline Jones / Published: September 10, 2025

Cap-and-invest continues to be Washington’s best tool for cutting pollution and delivering investments to communities. As linking with the California-Quebec program comes closer to being a reality, the continued success of Washington’s program demonstrates how a larger, linked market will benefit all involved.

The program just completed its third auction of the year. Here are the results and what they mean:

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Posted in Carbon Markets, Cities and states, Economics, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, News, Policy / Authors: / Comments are closed

A baffling proposal for California’s cap-and-trade program: How lowering the price ceiling creates a loophole for more pollution and reduces affordability

By Caroline Jones and Katelyn Roedner Sutter / Published: September 4, 2025

As all California climate policy nerds know, things are heating up in Sacramento around the details for extending the state’s landmark cap-and-trade program. There are many ways in which the program can be strengthened to better align with the state’s emission reduction targets and address affordability challenges for working families, both of which are needed now more than ever. 

However, a baffling new proposal would undermine the credibility of the program and abandon its track record of results by dramatically lowering the price ceiling for emissions allowances. If enacted, it would allow for unlimited emissions, make it a tossup if California meets its climate goals, and decimate the program’s ability to raise revenue for climate action. Let’s unpack why. 

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Increasing consistency in the biochar carbon marketplace

By Anna Raffeld / Published: September 4, 2025

Photo by Sophia Wojkowski

Excitement around biochar is growing, as is interest in its role in the Voluntary Carbon Marketplace (VCM). Biochar is a carbon-rich form of charred biomass or other organic material. Its primary climate benefit is that it decomposes and releases carbon dioxide much more slowly than its parent material (also known as feedstock, the original biomass used to create the biochar).  

Importantly, this climate benefit hinges on the feedstock’s other potential uses. If the feedstock has an alternative use with a greater climate mitigation potential (e.g., bioenergy, in certain contexts), then biochar production may not be the best use from a mitigation perspective. However, where the feedstock would have been left to decompose or ended up in landfills, climate mitigation via biochar may be the best end use.  

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Posted in Agriculture, Carbon Markets, News, Plants & Animals, Science / Authors: / Comments are closed