Climate 411

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. 

We need nature-based climate solutons to work. Yet as a recent 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.

(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 […]

A new report from Environmental Defense Fund, ‘The 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.

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 […]

(This blog was co-authored by EDF Climate Scientist Fiona Lo) Washington D.C.’s famous cherry blossoms are once again blooming earlier than expected.   In fact, this year’s peak bloom occurred two and a half weeks earlier than the average over the past 100 years, due to near-record warm temperatures in March.  This ranks as the second […]

This post is authored by Mark Moroge, Vice President of Natural Climate Solutions at Environmental Defense Fund. We know that nature-based climate solutions are among our greatest assets when it comes to tackling climate change. Conserving, restoring and improving the management of nature – alongside reductions in new fossil fuel use – can provide at […]

The world needs nature-based climate solutions (NbCS). These approaches use conservation, restoration, and management of natural and agricultural systems to retain existing, and sequester additional, carbon while reducing emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. NbCS have been suggested to meet 20-30% of the world’s climate goals. Correspondingly, nature-based actions are included in the national […]

Under the Paris Agreement, Article 6.2 allows countries to exchange emissions reductions and removals through bilateral agreements—country to country. Despite stalled progress on final details for Article 6.2 at COP28, the mechanism is in operation with guardrails that push countries toward high-integrity programs. New bilateral agreements continue to emerge under the mechanism and mobilize needed […]

This blog was co-authored by Janet Zamudio, Western States Climate Policy Intern The last week has been eventful in Washington, seeing the end of legislative session last Thursday and the first quarterly cap-and-invest auction of 2024, which posted results today. With the legislative session wrapped up and budgets passed, we now know what additional spending […]

This post was co-authored by Chris Neme, Co-Founder and Principal of Energy Futures Group The concept of a Clean Heat Standard (CHS) is gaining traction in multiple jurisdictions as a way to drive larger, faster reductions in the thermal sector’s greenhouse gas emissions. At least ten U.S. states are considering the policy, with Colorado and […]

This blog was co-authored by Dara Diamond, Federal Climate Innovation Intern Historic climate investments from the Biden administration have put a much-needed down payment toward cutting emissions from industry — a major economic sector that makes up over a quarter of U.S. emissions. Still, a lot of hard work remains to meaningfully scale up solutions […]

(This post was written by EDF’s Magdalen Sullivan and Erin Murphy. It was originally posted here) Many states are adopting declining emission limits as a way to address the severe and growing dangers of the climate crisis, and that means state utility regulators are grappling with how to decarbonize energy systems, manage costs, and meet […]

This blog was co-authored by Katelyn Roedner Sutter, California State Director  Results of the latest Western Climate Initiative auction were released today, and we continue to see strong demand for allowances. This was the first quarterly auction of 2024, and it was a strong start for this marquee climate program. This auction is expected to […]

In the fight against the climate crisis, high-integrity jurisdictional REDD+ is intended to be transformational, giving forest communities and governments the ability to tap into the voluntary carbon market to access climate finance needed to ensure that large areas of tropical forests remain intact.

Stakeholders across the climate space need urgent help to cut through the noise on natural climate solutions crediting. The NCS Crediting Handbook aims to meet this need by clearly laying out how high-quality NCS crediting can work—for credit sellers, for credit buyers, and as part of an effective and ethical global climate response.

A high-integrity carbon market can play a significant role in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. But carbon mitigation should not be the only ‘win’ that comes from the purchase of high-quality carbon credits. Benefits-sharing and social safeguards deliver the durability and longevity we need for any achieved emissions reductions.

In leading climate states, you’ll find trailblazing projects that are benefiting people’s lives and cutting costly pollution right now. In Washington, young people ride the ferry across Puget sound and buses around the state for free. In California, low-income residents get money-saving home energy efficiency upgrades at no cost. And in New York, businesses and […]

We now know it’s official – 2023 was the warmest year ever recorded. Citizens across the globe felt the impacts long before it was confirmed. There were unprecedented wildfires in Canada that turned the New York sky orange. Phoenix saw a record-breaking 31 consecutive days with temperatures topping 110 degrees. Along with these very immediate […]

The clock is ticking to halt and reverse deforestation so that we avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The good news is that companies can provide the finance needed to keep the world's forests standing by purchasing high-quality emissions reductions credits from large-scale tropical forest conservation programs, otherwise known as jurisdictional REDD+ (JREDD+).