By Angela Churie Kallhauge Shoreline protection in Bangladesh. IMF Photo/K M Asad 2021 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 ..read more

By Jolie Villegas (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 c ..read more

By Mandy Rambharos 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 energ ..read more

By Caroline Jones 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 express ..read more

By Ilissa Ocko Cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C. reached peak bloom extremely early this year. Photo by Ilissa Ocko (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 earliest peak bloom on record. Even the cherry blossom bud cycle occurred faster than any other year in the last two decades.&nb ..read more

By mmoroge Aerial photo of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Leslie Von Pless/EDF 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 least 20% of the cost-effective climate mitigation needed between now and 2030 to stabilize warming to below 2 °C. We also know that we need much greater investment in nature ..read more

By Doria Gordon Drone shot of mangrove trees off the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Carlos Aguilera / EDF Mexico 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 commitments of 63% (104 of 168) of the signatories of the Paris Agreem ..read more

By Pedro Martins Barata 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 capital. In a webinar hosted by Browning Environmental Communications and Environmental Defense Fund (available to stream here), we discussed the key elements of high integrit ..read more

By Caroline Jones 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 lawmakers plan to do with the revenue generated by these cap-and-invest auctions thanks to the supplemental budget passed last week. And with the results from the first auction of 2024 now in the books, it seems the Ever ..read more

By Jolette Westbrook Downtown Boston. Photo: Emmanuel Huybrechts via Wikimedia Commons 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 Vermont having enacted legislation and Massachusetts and Maryland considering a CHS regulation. A new report commissioned by Environmental Defense Fund and prepared by ..read more