Climate 411

Governor Youngkin’s RGGI rollback is wrongheaded and unpopular

By Peter Della-Rocca / Published: April 24, 2023

Photo credit: Canva

Since joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in 2020, Virginia has started capping harmful pollution from power plants, growing clean energy jobs across the state and providing more than $500 million in investments for flood resilience in communities and money-saving energy efficiency in households.

But since his first day in office, Governor Youngkin has been determined to pull Virginia out of this proven climate program that has been implemented by Democrat and Republican governors alike.

The administration’s rollback threatens progress right as the threats from climate change – and opportunities from clean energy investment – are clearer than ever for the Commonwealth.

Virginia’s Air Pollution Control Board voted in favor of continuing with the withdrawal, moving the process forward, but two major roadblocks continue to stand in the way: The overwhelming majority of Virginians said they oppose the repeal, and neither the Youngkin administration’s Air Pollution Control Board nor Department of Environmental Quality has the legal authority to exit the program.

The most recent steps in the RGGI repeal process shine a spotlight on how misguided and out-of-touch the administration’s climate rollback is.

Posted in Cities and states, Policy, Setting the Facts Straight / Comments are closed

The climate benefits of informed forestry practices

By Guest Author / Published: April 20, 2023

Pine plantation forest in Australia. iStock

This post was authored by Cyril Melikov, Senior Research Analyst of Natural Climate Solutions at EDF.

Forests planted for commercial purposes can help slow down climate change. How? With improved forestry management that uses forestry practices that increase the amount of carbon stored in commercial forests.
The idea is that foresters and land managers can put forestry practices in place that will raise the carbon levels in the plantation forests they manage, thus helping slow climate change.

For example, foresters could harvest trees at an older age than the age at which they would normally be harvested (known as extending the rotation length). Or they could plant several trees species in the same tree plantation (known as mixed planting) as opposed to planting only one tree species. Or they could add nutrients to the soil using inorganic or organic nutrient sources (known as fertilization).

All these practices could add carbon to plantation forests. Their study has gained traction over the past decade as improved forest management could represent a cost-effective and rapidly deployable natural climate solution, or NCS. It’s a promising avenue for climate change mitigation.

Posted in Innovation, International, Science / Comments are closed

As another legislative session ends, how does New Mexico regain climate leadership?

By Alex DeGolia / Published: April 19, 2023

Photo Credit: Getty Images

With each passing year, communities across New Mexico feel the mounting and undeniable pressures from climate change. At times last year, nearly three-fourths of the state was experiencing severe drought. The largest wildfire in the state’s recorded history ripped through New Mexico communities. And mountain snowpack, even in snowy winters, produces less and less water for people and wildlife.

New Mexicans can see clearly how fundamental aspects of their culture and identity are threatened — and want their state leaders to act.

Posted in Cities and states, Energy, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Health, News, Policy / Comments are closed

Forest climate finance must be more equitable to support Indigenous Peoples and local communities

By Guest Author / Published: April 12, 2023

This post was co-authored by Julia Paltseva, Senior Analyst at EDF, and Tuntiak Katan from the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin (COICA). For more resources on high forest, low deforestation (HFLD) crediting, visit edf.org/hfld. This post has also been translated into Spanish and French (leer en español, l ire en français).

Tuntiak Katan of the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA). Photo by Leslie Von Pless, EDF

Forests are an essential part of the climate change solution, and their effective conservation requires the empowerment of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, or IPLCs. Around the world, IPLCs have stewarded forests for generations. However, in the face of growing economic pressures to cut forests down, current incentives designed to keep forests standing are largely inaccessible to communities living in areas of historically low forest loss, known as high forest, low deforestation regions, or HFLD.

An effective and equitable global REDD+ incentive-system for reducing deforestation should reward all relevant jurisdictions and actors, including both historical emitters and historical protectors of carbon stock, like IPLCs. We must eliminate forest loss in areas where it is already occurring. At the same time, we must also avoid future increases in deforestation in areas of historically low forest loss – HFLD regions.

Guardians of the forest
Indigenous Peoples and local communities are some of the best forest protectors, especially when equipped with strong tenure and land rights. In Mesoamerica, IPLCs steward half of forested areas. In the Amazon, Indigenous Peoples manage more than 30% of the rainforest, and satellite imagery shows deforestation rates in Indigenous territories are roughly half of what they are in similar surrounding lands. IPLCs typically practice sustainable forest management, through agroforestry and low-impact agriculture, allowing them to both provide for their needs and effectively conserve the forests.

Despite a successful track record of maintaining intact forests, forest communities have directly received less than one percent of international government aid for climate change mitigation and adaptation over the last decade.

Posted in Carbon Markets, Forest protection, Indigenous People, International, REDD+ / Comments are closed

3 ways to include rural communities in emerging climate solutions

By Akin Olumoroti / Published: April 3, 2023

Rural communities across the United States are extraordinarily diverse, all experiencing a wide variety of landscapes, cultural identities and ways of life. But many express common concerns — they are watching their populations deplete as the country urbanizes, their economic systems are becoming more perilous, and there is a feeling of being left behind as the rest of the country moves towards new solutions that are not designed for their reality — including climate solutions. Despite being essential stakeholders in climate solutions, rural communities are often excluded from the conversation around their deployment.

As we continue to transition to cleaner forms of energy and as recent Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act investments begin to roll out, there will be a need for the development and deployment of energy technologies at a scale we haven’t seen before now. To ensure that all communities have the resources and support they need to mitigate the impacts of climate change, it is important for governments and other organizations to include rural communities in their work.

The Rural Vision for Climate Innovation project set out to learn about rural attitudes and perceptions of climate innovation through 30 stakeholder interviews with ‘grasstop’ leaders and regional focus groups. We wanted to understand how rural Americans view climate investments and invite them to tell us how they want these solutions to show up in their communities.

Here are three main takeaways from the project:

Posted in Agriculture, Cities and states, Economics, Energy, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Innovation, Policy / Comments are closed

Understanding how communities are vulnerable to climate change is key to improving equity and justice

By Jeremy Proville / Published: March 29, 2023

Hurricane Harvey dropped more than 60 inches of rain on the greater Houston region in 2017.

This blog was co-authored by Dr. Grace Tee Lewis, Senior Health Scientist, Climate and Health

Last month, Environmental Defense Fund and Texas A&M University published a new study that found all states in the U.S. are at risk from the effects of climate change, particularly neighborhoods experiencing disproportionate environmental harms and risks, health disparities and infrastructure problems. We published our research paper, Characterizing vulnerabilities to climate change across the United States, in response to a growing push to identify and address these climate injustices and inequities. This movement is exemplified by the Biden Administration’s executive order to ensure environmental and economic justice are key considerations in how the administration governs on the issue of climate change.

With the Biden Administration’s recent legislation – including the Inflation Reduction Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science Act (IRA, BIF and CHIPS) – we have a historic opportunity to tackle decades of systemic neglect in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. We can help level the playing field by directing resources to build resilience and adaptability in the right places across our country.

Posted in Climate Change Legislation, Health / Comments are closed

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