Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the country would no longer fund new
coal-fired power projects abroad and will instead redirect its financing to clean energy projects, a major move for the world’s largest funder of coal projects. (CNN)
The Biden administration announced a whole-of-government approach to combatting the impacts of
extreme heat, including worker protections, increasing funding for cooling centers and assisting low-income households to purchase air-conditioning units. (The New York Times)
New EPA regulations on chemicals commonly used for air conditioning and refrigeration, will require an 85-percent cut in the production and consumption of
hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) over the next 15 years, a move that will cut 4.5 billion metric tons of CO2—equivalent to nearly three years of emissions from the U.S. power sector. (Axios)
Planetary Health
A new UN
report sounded alarm about the shortcomings of current country emission reduction goals, noting that the global average temperature will rise
2.7 degrees Celsius by 2100 if countries do not commit to greater emission reductions, raising the stakes for COP climate talks in Glasgow this November. (The New York Times)
According to a new
report, record
wildfires in the Northern Hemisphere released 2.7 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide this July and August alone
—equivalent to the annual emissions of nearly 590 million cars. (Bloomberg)
A new NOAA
report cited human-caused climate change for the
most severe drought on record in the U.S. Southwest, with the lowest rainfall in more than a century contributing to record wildfires, dangerously low reservoir levels and billions of dollars in losses, with no end yet in sight. (Reuters)
Human Health
New invasive, disease-bearing species of
mosquitoes originating from Asia and Africa are now thriving in the Los Angeles area due to increasingly hot and humid summers, bringing new threats of disease such as yellow fever, Zika and dengue fever to humans and pets. (The Washington Post)
Nearly
40,000 residents in Southeast Louisiana remain without electricity three weeks after Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana, highlighting the lack of resilience of the U.S. electrical grid in the face of climate change. (The New York Times)
Equity
President Biden announced plans to
double climate financing for developing countries to $11.4 billion per year to support climate projects that will be critical to meeting their 2015 Paris Agreement goals. (CNN, The Guardian)
Inmates in several Louisiana parishes were not evacuated prior to Hurricane Ida despite mandatory orders, leaving them
without running water or power in the days following the storm, at the same time as inmates in the West are being paid
inhumane wages to fight wildfires. (Grist, The Nevada Independent).
Action
Nine foundations—including Arcadia, the Bezos Earth Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Nia Tero, Rainforest Trust, Re:wild, the Wyss Foundation and the Rob and Melani Walton Foundation—announced
$5 billion in funding for conservation efforts throughout the world as part of 30x30, an international effort to protect 30 percent of lands and waters by 2030. (The Hill)
Seven companies, including American Airlines, BlackRock and Microsoft, committed
$1 billion to Breakthrough Energy’s Catalyst program, which seeks to boost the development of direct air capture, green hydrogen, long-duration energy storage and sustainable aviation fuel technologies. (Reuters)
After years of student-led activism, legal complaints and protests, Harvard University announced it will divest its
$41.9 billion endowment from fossil fuels by electing not to renew partnerships with private equity firms that have fossil fuel holdings. (The Harvard Crimson)
Kicker
Check out clips from
Climate Night, as seven late-night hosts used their Wednesday shows to discuss the climate crisis as part of Climate Week.