Recent Interviews
Cop out: Ignoring the dictatorships now causing the climate crisis at COP27
The big news out of COP 27, the UN climate negotiations, according to most media was a global agreement to create a fund to provide developing nations more aid to explicitly address rising climate change impacts…
US receives stinging criticism at Cop27 despite China’s growing emissions
The US, fresh from reversing its 30 years of opposition to a “loss and damage” fund for poorer countries suffering the worst impacts of the climate crisis, has signaled that its longstanding image as…
World still ‘on brink of climate catastrophe’ after Cop27 deal
The world still stands “on the brink of climate catastrophe” after the deal reached at the Cop27 UN climate summit on Sunday, and the biggest economies must make fresh commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions…
US Fossil Fuel Pledge Seen as Political Dynamite
The COP27 global climate summit in Egypt will continue on Saturday, adding an extra day to negotiations, to allow delegates more time to agree on divisive issues such as how to compensate…
GOP’s House Majority Complicates Podesta’s Climate Spending Role
Clean energy czar John Podesta’s task in overseeing $369 billion under the climate and tax law got several degrees tougher now that Republicans have won control of the House—and the power to closely scrutinize his…
Cop27: EU agrees to loss and damage fund to help poor countries amid climate disasters
A breakthrough looked possible in the deadlocked global climate talks on Friday as the European Union made a dramatic intervention to agree to key developing world demands on financial help for poor countries…
What a Republican House means for energy
Ahead of the midterm elections, many Republicans hoped a red wave would put pressure on the Biden administration’s energy agenda and help reverse it. But any plan to slow down clean energy spending looks more…
Who wins Trump v. DeSantis? Joe Biden
Joe Biden often says, “don’t compare me to God Almighty, compare me to the alternative.” Surprisingly, midterm voters did just that. By small but crucial margins, voters consistently preferred Biden-supported Democrats over dodgy…
Biden’s Message on Climate Might Not Be the One the World Wants
When President Biden walks into the United Nations climate summit here on Friday, he could fairly boast of returning the United States to the global fight to keep the planet from dangerously overheating, and of turbocharging America’s…
COP27: A global methane agreement can prevent climate catastrophe
All the parties participating in the climate negotiations in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt this week and next would do well to remember that today’s climate emergency is about two basic concepts: time and temperature. It’s too…
Is it ‘I.R.A.’ or ‘Ira’? Advocates are split.
Policy nerds love a good acronym. But climate advocates haven’t settled on how to refer to the massive climate and health care law that Democrats have dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act. President Joe Biden prefers to say all seven syllables of…
Call China’s climate bluff
While American climate advocates are still taking victory laps over the historic clean energy bill passed by Congress in August, the international climate challenge remains dire as diplomats gather in Egypt next week at the…
Global anger at Sunak’s Cop27 snub that raises fears over UK’s climate crisis stance
Rishi Sunak’s decision to snub the Cop27 UN climate talks, and to keep King Charles from attending, has angered and upset countries around the world, risking the UK’s standing on the world stage and raising concerns…
Delayed methane rule rams into rising gasoline prices
The Biden administration has delayed releasing its proposed rule to reduce methane at oil and gas wells for weeks now. It comes as the president faces criticism for stepping up climate regulations on American energy companies even as he…
US can improve energy security and climate together
Election seasons always feature exaggerated divisions, with candidates drawing bright lines between themselves and opponents. But lasting problems come when discourse devolves into false choices between important shared goals…
Republicans search for the next Solyndra
Solyndra is having a political renaissance. Thanks to the federal cash pouring in to renewable energy projects, Washington’s climate and energy insiders are abuzz again over the failed energy startup that went bankrupt more than a decade ago…
Democrats’ Midterm Message Should Be Working-Class Opportunity
Conventional wisdom in cynical Washington has it, and recent history does suggest, that the easiest way for a Democratic president to be reelected is to run against a radical Republican Party who has just taken over Congress…
UK risks ending Cop26 presidency in disarray over Truss climate policy
The UK is in danger of ending its presidency of the UN climate talks next month in disunity and disarray, amid cabinet rifts on green policy, and confusion over who will attend the Cop27 summit…
OPEC oil output cut fuels Dems’ gas price fears
OPEC’s move to cut oil exports on Wednesday is feeding an autumn of anxiety for Democrats over energy inflation as prices at the gas pump march higher — particularly in some states and districts that could swing in…
GOP killed permitting reform — giving Democrats a new campaign issue
Over the last two years, Congress has passed a series of landmark bills that together fund more than $500 billion in clean energy investment, by far the largest ever enacted. More importantly, generous tax incentives can spur…
3 climate takeaways from the GOP speaker meltdown
The Republican brawl over whom to elect House speaker hasn’t changed anything about climate policy — yet. But the chaos this week has underscored concerns that the new Congress is ill-equipped to address…
Cutting Chinese emissions requires US and EU to work together
Thank goodness that Adam Tooze has questioned the recent EU and UK furore over America’s Inflation Reduction Act, a law that could be a turning point in global climate protection, but is hardly a protectionist disaster for western trade…
How to Hand Out Billions in Climate Subsidies? Very Carefully.
ohn Podesta, President Biden’s clean energy adviser, said the administration was working to ensure that a record $370 billion in new federal subsidies for electric vehicles, wind farms, batteries and other clean energy technologies is spent…
New E.U. carbon tariff draws interest on Capitol Hill
The European Union’s climate import tax could galvanize a congressional conversation about enacting a similar policy in the United States. The E.U. parliament struck a deal Tuesday on its long-awaited carbon border adjustment mechanism…
E.U. seeks to pressure China on climate by taxing steel and cement
European Union policymakers struck a deal on Tuesday to impose a border tax on highly polluting products such as steel and aluminum — an unparalleled move to safeguard Europe’s own climate ambitions while pushing China and others to be greener…
As History Shows, Incumbents Have the Edge
A key reason that Democrats should support President Biden for re-election is that history shows that a sitting president has the best chance of winning. Several recent Democrats have run again…
New Cumbrian coalmine would prove UK hypocrisy, say experts around world
For the UK to open a new coalmine would be “hypocritical”, would “send the wrong message”, and makes “a mockery” of climate action, developing country activists and experts involved in global climate negotiations have said…
DOE girds for House Republican oversight
The Department of Energy, critical to deploying President Joe Biden’s clean energy and climate goals, will likely be facing a two-year onslaught of subpoenas, hourslong hearings and letters demanding information now that Republicans have…
While suffering countries plead for action on climate change, China stokes its coal furnaces
The recently ended COP27 climate change conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, resulted in a mixed bag of tepid pledges to address climate change. The conference made no progress on upping global ambition to…
Fears over oil producers’ influence with UAE as next host of Cop climate talks
Fears are growing among climate experts and campaigners over the influence of fossil fuel producers on global climate talks, as a key Gulf petro-state gears up to take control of the negotiations.The United Arab Emirates, one of the…
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