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The Biden-Harris administration has issued a series of executive orders to reverse Trump-era environmental rollbacks, focusing on rejoining the Paris Agreement, canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, and reviewing methane and fuel economy standards. The administration is also reviewing chemical safety regulations, water protections, and wilderness conservation, including a moratorium on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. These actions are intended to restore science-based policy and environmental justice across federal agencies including the EPA, Department of Energy, and Department of the Interior.

The document examines the risks posed to UK agricultural environmental standards by new Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), particularly with the US, Australia, and New Zealand. It proposes a system of 'core' environmental standards based on environmental significance, production constraints, and cost impacts. To protect these, the author suggests several mechanisms: voluntary labelling, legally binding non-regression clauses, conditional import tariffs, and the introduction of mandatory environmental standards for imports. The briefing emphasizes the need for an independent expert body to provide the evidence base and governance required to implement these measures without breaching WTO rules.

The VOICE Network critiques the cocoa industry's reliance on voluntary measures to address child labour in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, citing NORC research that 1.5 million children are involved in production. The network argues that poverty is the primary driver and advocates for mandatory due diligence regulations, living incomes for farming families, and increased government investment in education and healthcare.

The document highlights that pesticides persist longer indoors due to a lack of sunlight and microbial action, yet Canadian regulatory assessments for indoor use do not require the same persistence or environmental fate studies as outdoor uses. It notes that pyrethrins and pyrethroids are the most common indoor pesticides and are linked to neurotoxicity and endocrine disruption. The briefing emphasizes that low-income individuals face higher exposure due to poorly maintained housing and that current regulatory models fail to account for these socio-economic factors. It concludes that reliance on pesticide labels is insufficient due to poor communication of updates and high rates of non-compliance among professional pest control operators.

ClientEarth argues that the European Commission must conduct a public consultation before adopting the Farm to Fork Strategy to comply with the Aarhus Convention and EU Treaties. The organization identifies several critical gaps in the current Roadmap, including the need to align the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) with European Green Deal objectives through SMART targets and to address agricultural air pollution, specifically ammonia and methane. ClientEarth also calls for an end to overfishing, the promotion of only sustainable aquaculture, and the implementation of a zero-pollution action plan for air, water, and soil. Additionally, it advocates for new legislation on Food Contact Materials to eliminate harmful chemical residues and a reduction of pesticide use by 80% by 2030.

A coalition of national environmental organizations is calling on the Governor of New York to sign Senate bill S5343, which would phase in a ban on the pesticide chlorpyrifos over two years. The organizations cite evidence that the chemical harms children's brain development and jeopardizes 1,200 endangered species, noting that the Trump administration blocked a federal ban despite EPA findings that children are exposed to the chemical on food at levels 140 times higher than safe limits.

The document analyzes the 2019 Amazon fires as a result of corporate power and the expansion of the agricultural frontier, specifically linked to the interests of transnational corporations (TNCs). It contends that the EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement will exacerbate this trend by increasing demand for commodities like soy and beef, leading to further deforestation and human rights violations. The report criticizes the Bolsonaro administration for dismantling environmental protections and argues that the agreement's environmental clauses are non-binding and insufficient to prevent climate catastrophe.

The document outlines the methodology and data used to analyze pesticide application rates and heat index exposure for farmworkers in the US. It details the use of USGS and NASS data to identify high-risk pesticides and calculate heat index days, providing specific state-level and county-level data for California, Florida, and Washington.

A coalition of environmental and health NGOs calls on the European Commission to establish a long-term chemicals regulatory framework for 2030. The document argues that current EU legislation, including REACH, has significant compliance gaps and fails to protect vulnerable populations from hazardous substances like endocrine disruptors and nanomaterials. The authors propose a 'non-toxic circular economy' that eliminates 'toxic recycling' through full chemical disclosure and stricter standards for recycled materials. Key demands include the phase-out of the most dangerous chemical groups, the creation of an industry-funded independent safety testing system, and the reorganization of Commission governance to give DG Environment full responsibility for chemical pollution policies.

The report argues that the Trump administration has systematically undermined science-based decision-making, which exacerbates existing environmental and health inequities for marginalized communities. It documents rollbacks in air and water pollution enforcement, the suppression of scientific data, and the dismantling of social safety nets and community participation programs. The document provides specific examples of these failures, such as the refusal to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos and the suppression of PFAS contamination data, while highlighting state and local victories where communities have successfully pushed back against these trends.

The General Court of the EU ruled that the Brussels Region lacked standing to challenge the Commission's renewal of glyphosate authorisation, finding the Region was not 'directly concerned'. This contradicts a previous ruling (T-339/16) where cities were granted standing to challenge Euro 6 emissions standards. The court rejected the Region's arguments that the regulation undermined its local ban on glyphosate or forced it into specific administrative procedures, and it declined to apply the Aarhus Convention to public authorities.

The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) submitted a brief to the City of Edmonton arguing that the current Integrated Pest Management (IPM) policy fails to adequately address human health risks. CAPE highlights that children are particularly vulnerable to pesticide exposure, which is linked to developmental deficits and childhood cancers, while adults face risks of Parkinson's disease and various cancers. The document criticizes Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) for relying on industry-supplied data and failing to conduct timely re-evaluations of registered pesticides. CAPE recommends that Edmonton formalize a policy to eliminate routine toxic pesticide use in city-managed parks and for mosquito control, and implement a bylaw restricting non-essential pesticide use on residential and private lawns.

The paper presents five new consumption-based indicators for hazardous substances, utilizing a hybrid model that combines EXIOBASE with the Swedish System of Economic and Environmental Accounts. Applying these to Sweden, the study finds that the vast majority of chemicals-related pressures (76–90%) occur outside Sweden's borders, with specific pressures like pesticide use and hazardous emissions occurring primarily outside the EU.

The PRINCE project developed a hybrid model combining Swedish national statistics with the EXIOBASE MRIO database to track environmental pressures from Swedish consumption between 2008 and 2014. The research found an absolute decoupling between economic growth and several key environmental pressures, including greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants, although GHG reductions remain insufficient for the Paris Agreement. Most environmental pressures from Swedish consumption, particularly hazardous chemical use and water consumption, occur outside Sweden, with China identified as a major geographic hotspot. The project also expanded indicators to cover deforestation, capture fisheries, and maritime shipping, highlighting that international trade drives a significant share of tropical deforestation emissions.

CAPE submits that Calgary's current Integrated Pest Management (IPM) plan is insufficient to protect residents from the health risks of toxic pesticides. The organization highlights specific vulnerabilities of children and adults, criticizes the federal PMRA regulatory process, and recommends a corporate ban on routine toxic pesticide use alongside a municipal bylaw for private properties.

The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and other organizations are calling for an independent review of the PMRA's glyphosate re-evaluation decision (RVD2017-01). They argue that internal Monsanto documents, revealed during California litigation, show the company ghostwrote scientific studies and suppressed evidence of cancer risks—studies that the PMRA relied upon for its determination that glyphosate is unlikely to pose a human cancer risk. The authors also claim the PMRA failed to consider evidence regarding monarch decline, microbiomes, and the inefficiency of buffer zones as risk management strategies.

CAPE argues that Manitoba should keep its restrictions on non-essential pesticides, presenting evidence from six Canadian municipalities that satisfactory weed control is achievable without toxic herbicides through turf maintenance practices like mowing and aeration. The document asserts that such bans protect human health and do not lead to exponential budget increases or significant public dissatisfaction.

ClientEarth calls on EU Member States and the European Parliament to veto a European Commission proposal that seeks to change the conditions for using endocrine disruptors (EDCs) in pesticides. The document argues that the Commission is attempting to replace a ban based on 'negligible exposure' with one based on 'negligible risk', which ClientEarth claims is an illegal encroachment on the powers of the EU legislature and is not supported by new scientific evidence.

The policy brief advocates for agroecology as a resilient, low-emission alternative to industrial agriculture. It claims that agroecological systems better withstand extreme weather, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve the livelihoods of small-scale producers. The text warns against 'climate smart agriculture' (CSA), describing it as a tool for agribusiness corporations to maintain industrial production models without implementing necessary social or economic changes.

Earthjustice argues that the U.S. House Farm Bill (H.R. 2) contained 'poison pill' provisions that threatened water quality, old-growth forests, endangered species, and climate adaptation efforts, while restricting public access to justice.