Climate 411

How to improve soil modeling to maximize climate and farm benefits

By Jocelyn Lavallee / Published: May 2, 2024

Credit: Zoran Zeremski/iStock

Efforts to curb agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and increase soil carbon storage are picking up steam to help mitigate the impacts of climate change. To have maximum impact, we need ways to reliably quantify their outcomes. 

Direct measurement of the impacts of climate smart agricultural practices are imperative to instill confidence, but they aren’t forward-looking and can’t be done everywhere. Enter the use of process-based models (e.g., DNDC, DayCent) to estimate these changes more rapidly and across broader areas.  

Process-based models are useful tools, but they have limitations, and many researchers and practitioners remain uncertain about how to use them most effectively. Yet, while skepticism in their accuracy remains a challenge, interest in them is skyrocketing, making it even more important that the community work together on their improvement.  

A new report led by Environmental Defense Fund digs into how carbon project developers and companies are using process-based models across projects to explore current challenges, identify knowledge gaps and recommend improvements.  

Read More »

Posted in Agriculture, Innovation, News, Science / Read 1 Response

Multilateral Development Banks Must Turn Words into Action on Climate Finance

By Angela Churie Kallhauge / Published: April 17, 2024

Shoreline protection in Bangladesh. IMF Photo/K M Asad 2021 via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

By Angela Churie Kallhauge, Executive Vice President, Impact  

Addressing our planet’s climate crisis requires commitment, cooperation, and urgency – all underpinned by finance. But our international financial systems were not designed for a challenge of this scale, and we are falling behind in meeting the needs of developing countries in combatting climate change. 

In response to this challenge, the World Bank, the world’s largest multilateral development bank (MDB), adopted a reform agenda last year to become more fit-for-purpose, by providing countries with easier access to money to face the climate crisis. Other MDBs are pursuing similar transformations. 

We now need to ramp up the implementation of these reforms over the coming year. In November, the world will convene in Azerbaijan for the UN Climate Conference, COP29, to set a new target for climate finance. And unless we know how these reforms will allow MDBs to deliver and mobilize money where it’s needed most, the new finance goal may fall flat.  

Read More »

Posted in Climate Finance, Economics / Tagged , , | Comments are closed

Strong scientific foundations, as well as strong science-based markets, make successful nature-based climate solutions possible

By Brian Buma / Published: April 16, 2024
Forester examines trees

Daniel Balakov, iStock

This post is authored by Brian Buma, Senior Climate Scienist, Environmental Defense Fund.

Nature is vital to our success in fighting climate change and its real-world impacts. To unlock nature’s climate potential, we need investments to go to impactful nature-based climate solutions (NbCS), which refer to strategies to conserve, restore or improve the management of natural and working ecosystems for their climate benefits.

However, in a research paper recently published by myself and others, we found markets for NbCS were getting ahead of the science. In particular, we found many NbCS where carbon crediting was proposed or implemented had questionable scientific foundations.

We need NbCS to work, and we’re spending tens of millions in the hopes they do. Yet as our study shows, questions remain on how we can achieve the best ground-level outcomes and maximize the enormous potential of these solutions to lower greenhouse gas concentrations.

To illustrate how NbCS can work successfully, we need to look at science and implementation and understand how these two key components are different, but also interconnected.

Let’s start by thinking about your car.

Read More »

Posted in Carbon Markets, Forest protection, Science / Comments are closed

We need to close a mercury pollution loophole for lignite coal plants

By Jolie Villegas / Published: April 12, 2024

(This post was co-authored by EDF attorney Richard Yates)

The Environmental Protection Agency is soon expected to update our national protections against mercury and other toxic pollution from coal-fired power plants – pollution that is extremely dangerous to human health and has been linked to brain damage in children.

EPA proposed strengthening the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards and closing a loophole for lignite coal and is expected to issue its final update soon. EDF has found that, even as we have made great progress in reducing mercury pollution overall, the lignite coal loophole leaves parts of the U.S. at especially high risk.

Mapping Big Mercury Polluters

[(i) The owner/operator of the Comanche plant in Colorado has announced its intention to retire unit 2 by 2025 and unit 3 by 2030; unit 1 retired in 2022. (ii) The owner/operator of the Sherburne County plant in Minnesota has announced its intention to retire unit 1 by 2025 and unit 3 by 2034; unit 2 retired in 2023. (iii) The owner/operator of the Cardinal plant in Ohio has announced its intention to retire unit 3 by 2028; units 1 and 2 have no scheduled retirement dates. (Data: EPA’s Clean Air Markets Program Data; EIA’s 2022 Form EIA-860 Data – Schedule 3)] 

Two years ago, EDF published a map of the top 30 mercury-polluting power plants in 2020 across the United States. We have now refreshed this map based on data from 2022, and you can see the results above.

Read More »

Posted in Clean Air Act, Health, Indigenous People, News, Policy / Comments are closed

Charting the path to equity: unveiling new Just Transition and Safeguards Framework

By Mandy Rambharos / Published: April 9, 2024

Reskilling and training workers for a clean energy future. Photo: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

By Mandy Rambharos, Vice President, Global Climate Cooperation  

As the world moves towards greener, low-carbon futures, it’s imperative that no one is left behind – including those working in fossil fuel industries and the communities they support. 

A new report from Environmental Defense Fund, ‘Just Transition and Safeguards Framework’ offers a roadmap for countries and energy companies alike to successfully navigate the complexities of transitioning to clean energy while ensuring fairness and equity at every step of the way. 

Guidance from this framework outlines how to empower local stakeholders – from frontline communities to Indigenous Peoples – ensuring everyone has a seat at the table and a fair share in the benefits of this monumental shift. 

The concept of a ‘just transition’ isn’t new by any means. It was first developed by North American trade unions and environmental justice advocates and has since become a global call to action. As this big idea – which is simultaneously inspiring, ambiguous, and vast in scope – spreads across the world, it must adapt to local challenges, economic realities, and social norms.  

While a just transition will (and should) look different from West Virginia to South Africa, EDF’s framework aims to help decision-makers understand the principles that should be core to every just transition plan – removing the ambiguity and providing clear waypoints toward true climate justice.  

Read More »

Posted in Energy, Jobs, Just Transition / Comments are closed

Governor Inslee moves Washington state one step closer to linking carbon market with California and Quebec

By Caroline Jones / Published: March 28, 2024

Today, the state of Washington took a big step toward linking its cap-and-invest program with the carbon markets in California and Quebec, a move that could boost climate action and create a more stable, more predictable market for all. Governor Inslee signed E2SB 6058 into law, which will further align Washington’s program with the joint California-Quebec program (known as the Western Climate Initiative) and facilitate a smoother linkage process.

This latest development builds on the momentum of last week’s joint statement from the three jurisdictions, in which they expressed their shared interest in the potential creation of a larger, linked market among them. While Governor Inslee and Washington policymakers are tackling climate change head-on and trying to strengthen the state’s carbon market, a wealthy hedge fund executive is trying to bring climate progress to a screeching halt through a ballot initiative that would end the program altogether. The contrast between the two outcomes for Washington’s cap-and-invest program could not be starker.

Here’s what you need to know about the linkage bill and what’s at stake with Washington’s program.

Read More »

Posted in Carbon Markets, Cities and states, Economics, Energy, News, Policy / Comments are closed