International: United States
US banks slash fossil fuel financing as market forces outweigh politics
Today 11:15am
Wall Street’s six largest banks have cut their financing to oil, gas and coal projects by 25% year-on-year through August 1, 2025.
As Canada wildfires choke US with smoke, Republicans demand action. But not on climate change
Mon 18 Aug 2025
The sternly worded statements and letters are filled with indignation and outrage: Republican U.S. lawmakers say Canada has done too little to contain wildfires and smoke that have fouled the air in several states this summer.
Trump’s climate report includes more than 100 false or misleading claims
Fri 15 Aug 2025
A “critical assessment” report commissioned by the Trump administration to justify a rollback of US climate regulations contains at least 100 false or misleading statements, according to a Carbon Brief factcheck involving dozens of leading climate scientists.
Alaskan glacier ice dam releases floodwater toward downstream homes
Thu 14 Aug 2025
A huge basin of rainwater and snowmelt dammed by Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier has started to release, and officials on Tuesday urged residents in some parts of Juneau to evacuate ahead of what could be a record surge of floodwater downstream.
US to retaliate against IMO members that back net zero emissions plan
Thu 14 Aug 2025
The U.S. rejected the "Net-Zero Framework" proposal by the International Maritime Organization, which is aimed at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions from the international shipping sector, and threatened measures against countries that support it.
Four laws that could stymie the Trump EPA’s plan to rescind the endangerment finding, central to US climate policies
Thu 14 Aug 2025
The Trump administration’s plan to unravel many of the nation’s climate policies hinges on rescinding what’s known as the endangerment finding. But its strategy for doing that appears to run afoul of several federal laws.
US: Experts will review science on fossil fuel harm
12 Aug 2025
With the Trump administration raising doubts about climate science, the country’s premier science advisory group will fast-track a consensus document with an eye to weighing in on the administration’s planned repeal of a 2009 determination that greenhouse gas emissions harm human health and the environment.
How the meat industry uses environmental groups to make beef seem climate-friendly
11 Aug 2025
The meat industry may have enlisted environmental groups to persuade people to “feel better” about eating beef, despite the sector’s ballooning emissions of climate-heating pollution.
Trump moves to shut down NASA missions that measure carbon dioxide and plant health
8 Aug 2025
The Trump administration wants to end two NASA missions that monitor a potent greenhouse gas and plant health.
First-of-a-kind US class-action lawsuit would force EPA to reinstate $3bn climate program
7 Aug 2025
Coalition of non-profits, tribes and local governments sued EPA chief for halting climate justice grants.
Who are the climate deniers behind the rollback of foundational US climate policy?
6 Aug 2025
DeSmog has been tracking the efforts of fossil fuel trade associations, policymakers, and industry backed-groups out to demolish U.S. climate policy for years.
Can the US timber industry and forest carbon credit programs coexist?
6 Aug 2025
The climate crisis is forcing society to rethink existing technological and ecological systems. At the nexus of this challenge is how the U.S. values and manages forests.
Where does the climate movement go from here?
6 Aug 2025
With the Trump administration’s attack on America’s climate and environmental protections getting more extreme by the day, it’s easy to feel like there is no path forward for effective climate action in the United States.
BlackRock, other fund managers lose bid to dismiss Texas climate collusion lawsuit
5 Aug 2025
A U.S. judge on Friday largely rejected a request by top asset managers including BlackRock, to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Texas and 12 other Republican-led states that said the companies violated antitrust law through climate activism that reduced coal production and boosted energy prices.
Trump promised a drilling boom. The new rigs haven’t showed up yet
4 Aug 2025
With clean energy more cost-competitive than it once was, the White House’s oil-first strategy is faltering in a changing energy landscape.
The US is sitting out the most consequential climate summit in a decade. It may offer a victory to China
1 Aug 2025
The Trump administration fired the last of the US climate negotiators earlier this month, helping cement America’s withdrawal from international climate diplomacy. It may also have handed a huge victory to China.
How the grift works
1 Aug 2025
By Bill McKibben | COMMENT: The Trump administration’s climate policies are one big grift but the president also seems to have fallen for a con set up by European leaders.
Trump administration moves to repeal scientific declaration on dangers of greenhouse gases
31 Jul 2025
In one of its most significant reversals on climate policy to-date, the Trump administration on Tuesday proposed to repeal a 2009 scientific finding that human-caused climate change endangers human health and safety.
$22B in US clean energy projects canceled so far this year
28 Jul 2025
Thousands of jobs and billions in investments have been ditched in the first half of this year as President Trump’s administration has pushed back on new green energy investments, according to a new report.
Trump and the energy industry are eager to power AI with fossil fuels
25 Jul 2025
At a Pittsburgh summit, the Trump administration, energy executives, and tech barons joined as one to promote AI as the future of fossil fuels.
Climate denial is tearing our nation apart — we can’t wait much longer to act
23 Jul 2025
OPINION: The United States currently tolerates a national government whose climate and energy policies are diametrically opposed to what most Americans say they want.
US: Environmental Protection Authority slashes science division
22 Jul 2025
The Environmental Protection Agency announced plans on Friday afternoon to shut down its research arm and fire hundreds of biologists, chemists, toxicologists, and other scientists whose work helps determine safe pollution levels for regulations.
He helped Microsoft build AI to help the climate. Then Microsoft sold it to Big Oil.
21 Jul 2025
A former Microsoft project manager reveals how the tech giant is using AI to help Big Oil drill—and how he and his partner are now pushing for change.
Why the hurricane season hasn’t heated up — even though the Atlantic has
21 Jul 2025
The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 1, yet we've seen remarkably little activity compared to the hyperactive seasons of recent years.
Why flash floods like those in Texas and New York are becoming more common
18 Jul 2025
Storms sweeping through the U.S. this summer have dumped intense rain on cities across the country, left towns flood-ravaged and forced water rescues.
US: Why the federal government is making climate data disappear
16 Jul 2025
Under Trump, climate denial has given way to something even more dangerous: climate erasure.
Biofuel demand to soak up more than half of US soyoil production next year
16 Jul 2025
Biofuel demand to soak up more than half of US soyoil production next year, USDA says.
How Mamdani connects climate policy to his affordability agenda as he runs for New York mayor
11 Jul 2025
Many of the democratic socialist’s policies aim to slash carbon emissions and boost environmental justice.
Clean energy's political test looms now that Trump bill is law
10 Jul 2025
The US 2026 midterms will test clean energy's uncertain political salience as advocates attempt to tether it to economic matters that voters prioritise.
Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ blows US emissions goal by 7bn tonnes
8 Jul 2025
President Donald Trump’s dismantling of climate policy means the US will add an extra 7bn tonnes of emissions to the atmosphere from now until 2030, compared to meeting its former climate pledge under the Paris Agreement.
'Exactly what we would expect': climate scientists weigh in on deadly Texas flooding
8 Jul 2025
As the death toll from catastrophic flooding in Texas continued to rise, climate scientists this weekend underscored the link between more frequent and severe extreme weather events and the worsening climate emergency caused primarily by humans burning fossil fuels.
‘Big Beautiful Bill’ set to slash through US climate and justice drive
7 Jul 2025
Trump’s legislation will hurt clean energy, boost fossil fuels and end investment in environmental justice. Climate advocates vow to continue the fight.
What’s at risk for Arctic wildlife if Trump expands oil drilling in fragile northern Alaska
4 Jul 2025
The area is vital for the health of the planet. However, its future is at risk.
Clean energy stocks jump after tax on solar and wind projects is removed from Trump’s big bill
3 Jul 2025
Shares of renewable energy companies are rising after a tax on solar and wind was removed from the Senate version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
US government cuts key data used in hurricane forecasting
1 Jul 2025
Weather experts are warning that hurricane forecasts will be severely hampered by the upcoming cutoff of key data from U.S. Department of Defense satellites, the latest Trump administration move with potential consequences for the quality of forecasting.
Louisiana is latest state to redefine fossil gas as green energy
30 Jun 2025
Louisiana is the latest state to redefine natural gas as green energy under a new law the Republican governor signed this week, even though it’s a fossil fuel that emits planet-warming greenhouse gases.
Trump administration rescinds ‘Roadless Rule’ that protects 58 million acres of national forests
25 Jun 2025
The United States Department of Agriculture on Monday announced that it will rescind a decades-old rule that protects 58.5 million acres of national forestland from road construction and timber harvesting.
Want to try lab-grown salmon? The US just approved it.
23 Jun 2025
Despite a growing number of state bans, advocates of cultivated seafood say it can protect waterways from overfishing.
Trump just revoked California’s EV rules. How much is California to blame?
19 Jun 2025
Before Trump overturned the state’s electric vehicle rules, California had been pushing automakers too hard, according to one of the state’s leading experts.
Adobe homes disaster-resilient solution for California
19 Jun 2025
Devastating California wildfires have brought renewed attention to a simple, disaster-resilient construction method that combines old and new.
Senate committee's changes to tax bill slam US solar stocks
18 Jun 2025
Shares of U.S. solar energy companies tumbled in extended trade on Monday after Republicans who control the U.S. Senate Finance Committee unveiled changes to President Donald Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending bill that would phase out solar, wind and energy tax credits by 2028.
EPA to propose rolling back climate rule for power plants Wednesday
12 Jun 2025
It marks an escalation in President Donald Trump’s effort to purge climate initiatives from the federal government.
US declares Biden fuel economy rules exceeded legal authority
11 Jun 2025
The agency last year said the rule for passenger cars and trucks would reduce gasoline consumption by 64 billion gallons.
Planet-warming emissions dropped when companies had to report them. EPA wants to end that
11 Jun 2025
The rule is now on the chopping block, one of many that President Donald Trump’s EPA argues is costly and burdensome for industry.
NASA scientists describe ‘absolute sh*tshow’ at agency as Trump budget seeks to dismantle top US climate lab
10 Jun 2025
NASA scientists are in a state of anxious limbo after the Trump administration proposed a budget that would eliminate one of the United States’ top climate labs – the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, or GISS – as a standalone entity.
Ziploc faces class action lawsuit over microplastics shedding concerns
10 Jun 2025
A lawsuit alleges that Ziploc bags shed microplastics when microwaved or frozen.
BlackRock is off Texas’ blacklist. Where the ESG battle stands now
9 Jun 2025
The world’s largest asset manager can now do business with Texas—here’s where it stands in other states.
How the little-known ‘dark roof’ lobby may be making US cities hotter
6 Jun 2025
As cities heat up, reflective roofs could lower energy bills and help the climate. But dark-roofing manufacturers are waging a quiet campaign to block new rules.
Environmentalists criticise Trump administration push for new oil and gas drilling in Alaska
5 Jun 2025
Top Trump administration officials — fresh off touring one of the country’s largest oil fields in the Alaska Arctic — headlined an energy conference led by the state’s Republican governor on Tuesday that environmentalists criticized as promoting new oil and gas drilling and turning away from the climate crisis.
US: Clean energy project cancellations top $14 Billion so far in 2025
4 Jun 2025
Businesses have pulled the plug on big projects amid Trump’s retreat on climate action. But plenty remain in the pipeline, awaiting a Congressional decision on tax credits.
Sydney records most rain since weather station opened in 1858
Today 11:15am
Sydney's wettest August in 27 years has tipped the city's recent climate into uncharted territory.
China's fossil-fuelled power rises to 11-month high in July
Tue 19 Aug 2025
China's fossil-fuelled power generation, mostly from coal, rose in July to the highest level since August 2024, official data showed on Friday, as record-breaking heat pushed power demand to record highs across large swathes of China.
‘No future in oil’: Greta Thunberg and 200 activists block Norway oil refinery
Today 11:15am
Some 200 climate activists including Greta Thunberg of Sweden blocked Norway's largest oil refinery on Monday in a protest demanding an end to the country's oil industry.
What happens to net zero if the trees don’t survive?
Today 11:15am
When climate change undermines the climate plan.
Challenges persist in bid to mine the deep sea, even after boost from Trump
29 Jul 2025
After years of delay, the deep-sea mining plans of Canadian firm The Metals Company (TMC) now appear to be progressing as it pursues a controversial new path to securing a license to mine in international waters under U.S. jurisdiction.
India misses chance to tackle UK carbon tax in trade pact
28 Jul 2025
India’s efforts to secure a concession for its small and medium enterprises under the UK’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism did not materialise, as the text of the India-UK Free Trade Agreement made no mention of a resolution on the contentious issue.
Rise in dengue fever outbreaks across the Pacific driven by the climate crisis, experts say
13 Aug 2025
Samoa, Fiji and Tonga among the worst affected amid warning the disease and others will become ‘more common and more serious’ as the planet warms.
Smoke from boreal wildfires could cool the Arctic
Mon 18 Aug 2025
But the damage such blazes cause outweighs their benefits
African $60 billion high-speed rail project takes shape
Fri 15 Aug 2025
One of the largest infrastructure projects in Africa has received a new update that could see construction begin soon.
Brazil's Lula vetoes parts of environment bill pushed by the opposition that could harm the Amazon
13 Aug 2025
Brazil’s president has vetoed parts of a controversial congressional bill that sought to loosen the country’s environmental licensing rules.
Brazil issues last-ditch plea for countries to submit climate plans ahead of COP30
Today 11:15am
Only 28 countries have submitted carbon-cutting proposals to the UN, with some of the biggest emitters yet to produce plans.
