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1,151 results
Creating an Equitable and Durable US Climate Policy
The document argues that current US climate policy reinforces inequities and risks political instability by placing the costs of transition on energy customers and workers. It proposes five objectives: decreasing energy burdens through flexible tax credits, driving growth via a 'transition tax credit' for carbon productivity, expanding Department of Energy Loan Programs Office (LPO) financing to manage legacy fossil asset risks, increasing funding for the reclamation of fossil fuel sites, and prioritizing the retirement of assets causing the most health harm.
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Document type: Policy brief
A CITIZEN’S GUIDE TO THE FEDERAL REGULATORY PROCESS
The document outlines the legal and procedural steps of federal rulemaking and place-specific environmental actions, such as permitting and Superfund cleanups. It provides strategic advice for citizens to submit effective comments, request meetings with officials, and use legal mechanisms like citizen suits to ensure agency accountability. A significant portion of the guide is dedicated to environmental justice, explaining how marginalized communities are disproportionately affected by pollution and climate change and detailing resources and grants available to help these communities participate in decision-making.
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Document type: Guide
CLIMATE CENTRAL SOLUTIONS BRIEF: ELECTRIC VEHICLES
The document examines the technological, economic, and environmental aspects of transitioning the U.S. transportation sector to electric vehicles. It highlights the role of falling battery costs, the necessity of expanding charging infrastructure, and the potential for significant public health improvements, particularly in marginalized communities. It also addresses challenges related to the sourcing of critical minerals like lithium and cobalt and the impact of regional climates on vehicle range.
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Document type: Briefing
Solidarité internationaliste avec le peuple Colombien
Friends of the Earth International and 81 other organizations condemn the Colombian government's use of military and police force against peaceful protesters. The statement links social unrest to economic inequality, the failure to implement FARC-EP peace accords, and an extractive development model that prioritizes capital accumulation over nature and human rights. It calls for an end to human rights violations, the cessation of aerial glyphosate spraying, and the implementation of comprehensive agrarian reform.
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Document type: Statement
Internationalist solidarity with the Peoples of Colombia
Friends of the Earth International condemns the Colombian government's violent response to the 2021 National Strike and calls for an end to human rights violations. The organization highlights a development model that prioritizes capital accumulation and extractive activities—such as fracking and mining in páramos—over the well-being of the population and nature. It demands a comprehensive agrarian reform, food sovereignty, and the cessation of aerial glyphosate spraying.
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Document type: Statement
Solidaridad internacionalista con los pueblos de Colombia
Friends of the Earth International and 81 other organizations condemn the Colombian government's violent response to the 2021 National Strike. The statement links the social unrest to a tax reform proposal, rising poverty, and a development model that prioritizes extractive industries and monetary accumulation over human rights and nature. It calls for an immediate end to military repression, the protection of the right to protest, and the implementation of comprehensive agrarian reform and food sovereignty.
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Document type: Statement
EPA Rescission of Trump-era Cost-Benefit Rule is an Important Step Forward
The Clean Air Task Force (CATF) welcomes the EPA's rescission of a Trump-era cost-benefit rule, which CATF claims was designed to "impair efforts to protect public health and the environment" by discounting the benefits of Clean Air Act requirements. CATF urges the EPA to consider all relevant costs and benefits, including non-monetizable ones, to effectively address climate change, clean air, and environmental justice.
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Document type: Statement
Land, Latinos and FLPMA: We Demand Protections for Wilderness Study Areas
GreenLatinos is calling on the Biden administration and Secretary Deb Haaland to protect up to 29 million acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands by designating them as Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) under Section 202 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA). The organization argues that arid ecosystems in the Western U.S., specifically in Utah and Nevada, provide critical carbon sequestration and climate adaptation benefits that are currently threatened by oil, gas, and mineral extraction. The statement highlights that 83% of Latinos support the 30x30 initiative to protect 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. It further notes that no new FLPMA § 202 WSAs have been established since 2003 due to an out-of-court agreement with the State of Utah, which the authors argue is not legally binding.
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Document type: Statement
Es hora de una vacuna de los pueblos para hacerle frente a la pandemia de Covid-19 con justicia y equidad
Friends of the Earth International calls for the suspension of TRIPS intellectual property rights to end 'vaccine apartheid' and enable local production of affordable vaccines in the Global South. The statement highlights the disparity in vaccination rates between rich and low-income countries and criticizes pharmaceutical companies for prioritizing profit over human rights.
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Document type: Statement
Six Innovative Funding Methods to Achieve Climate Action and Equity in US Cities
The briefing outlines six funding models—sales taxes, retail taxes, fossil fuel production taxes, electricity consumption taxes, climate bonds, and resilience bonds—that US cities have implemented to fund climate action. It highlights specific examples from cities like Denver, Portland, and Miami, emphasizing that integrating equity into the design of these funding streams is essential for success, particularly for Black, Indigenous, Latino, and low-income communities who are disproportionately affected by pollution and climate change.
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Document type: Briefing
Security Highlights from the Leaders Summit on Climate
The document highlights the elevation of climate security at the Leaders Summit on Climate, noting the US target to reduce greenhouse gas pollution by 50 to 52 percent by 2030. It emphasizes a 'whole-of-government' US approach involving military, intelligence, and diplomatic strategies, while noting the concrete security strategies of the UK and NATO. The text also observes varying levels of climate security expertise among participating nations, such as Kenya and Japan compared to the Philippines, suggesting an opportunity for the US to provide capacity-building tools.
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Document type: Statement
Presentacién de Amicus Curiae en relacién con la Revisién del Incidente de Suspensién atraida por la Facultad de Atraccién 647/2019
The document provides technical and legal arguments to support the suspension of the Granja Porcícola Homun, a large-scale swine operation in the Yucatan Peninsula. It asserts that such 'mega-farms' pose severe risks to water quality, air quality, and public health, specifically through the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The authors argue that under the precautionary principle and international law, the burden of proof should shift to the state and operator to prove the absence of danger, rather than requiring affected citizens—including indigenous Maya children—to prove certain harm before preventative measures are taken.
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Document type: Legal commentary
National Air Toxics Assessment and Cancer Risk in Allegheny County Pennsylvania
The document analyzes cancer risks from air toxics in Allegheny County, PA, highlighting that the county ranks among the worst in the U.S. for point source emissions, primarily driven by coke oven emissions. It further notes that when diesel particulate matter (DPM) is included, the total cancer risk exceeds 100 per million people, with significant disparities affecting environmental justice (EJ) tracts.
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Document type: Fact sheet
COAL COST CROSSOVER 2.0
The report finds that a vast majority of U.S. coal capacity is now more expensive to operate than building new wind or solar power. As of 2020, 72% of coal capacity (166 GW) was deemed uneconomic or slated for retirement by 2025. The authors argue that this 'cost crossover' is accelerating due to rapid declines in renewable costs and falling coal capacity factors. The document recommends that policymakers implement all-source competitive procurement and coal asset securitization to transition to cleaner, cheaper energy portfolios while managing the financial risks of early plant retirement.
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Document type: Report
American Geophysical Union Update on financial links with fossil fuels corporations
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) has committed to fully divesting its investment portfolio from fossil fuels starting in October 2021, following an internal audit that revealed approximately 5% of its holdings were in fossil fuels via mutual funds. While the AGU has ceased accepting fossil fuel sponsorship for events—ending a long history that included over $620,000 from ExxonMobil between 2001 and 2015—Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR) argues that the AGU lacks transparency, as it does not disclose the specific companies within its $120.6m investment portfolio. The AGU also aims to chart a path toward net carbon neutrality for all investments and is transitioning its buildings to net zero energy, though no target dates for the latter have been provided.
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Document type: Report
Congressional Climate Camps
The document outlines a briefing session from the Congressional Climate Camps series, which explores the intersection of carbon reduction, climate resilience, and social equity. It highlights specific thematic areas including coastal nature-based solutions, agricultural practices, mass timber for sustainable buildings, and the role of building codes in efficiency. The text presents a series of questions posed to experts from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Furman University, Vaagen Timbers, the New Buildings Institute, and the NAACP regarding the implementation and socio-economic impacts of these climate strategies.
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Document type: Briefing
Submission to the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development regarding Bill C-230
The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) advocates for the passage of Bill C-230, arguing that a national strategy is necessary to address the disproportionate health burdens faced by Black, Indigenous, and immigrant communities due to environmental racism. CAPE emphasizes that universal environmental policies are insufficient for marginalized groups and highlights the specific case of the Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne, where industrial contaminants have led to neurological symptoms, cancers, and autoimmune diseases. The organization asserts that Bill C-230 complements Bill C-28 by providing a legislative mandate and regular reporting to specifically redress the harms of environmental racism.
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Document type: Statement
The Role of Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Preventing Action on the Climate Crisis
The testimony argues that US fossil fuel subsidies primarily increase excess profits rather than creating jobs, undermine global climate goals, and contribute to public health crises and environmental inequalities.
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Document type: Statement
Electrifying the US School Bus Fleet: How to Put Children First in the Zero-emission Transition
The document advocates for replacing the approximately 480,000 diesel-powered school buses in the United States with zero-emission electric alternatives. It highlights that while electric buses have higher initial procurement costs—nearly triple those of diesel buses—they offer lower operational and maintenance costs, saving schools an estimated $2,000 in fuel and $4,400 in maintenance annually. The author supports the Clean Commute for Kids Act, which proposes $25 billion over 10 years, and the American Jobs Plan, which aims to electrify at least 20% of the fleet with a $20 billion investment. The transition is framed as a necessity for public health, as diesel exhaust is a known carcinogen and pollution levels inside buses can be 10 times ambient levels, negatively impacting children's lung development and cognitive performance. Furthermore, the document asserts that this shift would address racial and economic inequities, as communities of color in the northeast and mid-Atlantic regions face 66% higher exposure to vehicle air pollution than white residents, and would stimulate domestic manufacturing jobs at companies like Blue Bird in Georgia and Thomas Built in North Carolina.
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Document type: Statement
Distributional Consequences and Regulatory Analysis
The article examines the requirements for the Biden administration to successfully integrate environmental justice into regulatory decision-making, contrasting this with previous efforts under the Clinton and Obama administrations. It posits that a lack of standardized methodologies for distributional analysis contributed to past failures and asserts that agencies must rigorously analyze the distributional consequences of different regulatory alternatives to determine when such benefits can outweigh higher net benefits of other options.
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Document type: Research paper