House Democrats Spell Out Climate, Clean Energy Pr...

The net-zero-by-2050 roadmap calls for clean energy tax credits, transmission expansion and a more resilient grid. Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on the Climate Crisis on Tuesday unveiled a mammoth and wide-ranging policy plan to embed climate action and resilience within the country’s economy. The report — which sought to put racial and environmental justice at the center of its...

New Poll: Voters Support Stimulus for Clean Energy...

We are pleased to release the results of a new national survey. We find that, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis, voters want climate action as part of the economic recovery plan and are more likely to vote for candidates that support renewable energy. The survey was conducted with Climate Nexus and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. Seven in 10 (70%) voters say federal...

How to Get Off Fossil Fuels Quickly—and Fairly

When it comes to a just transition, it’s going to take a radical reimaging not only of our economy but also of our culture and the shape of our social structures. YES! co-hosted a conversation with experts from the nonprofit The Land Institute to discuss policy proposals and new ways to rebuild our sense of self and community from the bottom up. The discussion was prompted by a new book, The Green New Deal and Beyond, by...

A New Food Economy Post-Covid: Building More Regio...

Founder of Incredible Edible Bristol, Sara Venn, looks at how the city can keep the momentum going to upscale and increase urban production, buoyed by how the good food movement in Bristol has turned itself into a response movement to support citizens during the pandemic. This is part of a series of blog posts looking at how we can emerge from the coronavirus pandemic with a more resilient food system, each blog introduced...

How Permaculture can Build Resilience and Meet Bas...

Despite their urgency, coronavirus outbreaks, health crises and failing institutions are just some of the problems our global society is facing today. Billions of people worldwide still lack access to healthy food, clean water and sanitation services — being unable to properly wash hands and stay safe in the midst of a pandemic. And we are still trapped in an economic system that fuels environmental damage, from biodiversity...

This Ohio city’s plan to get more people to buy el...

Columbus, Ohio, exceeded its goal of more than 3,200 new BEVs and plug-in hybrids. In 2016, the city of Columbus, Ohio, won a nationwide Department of Transportation challenge and was named America’s first smart city. This contest was not just for bragging rights, like some kind of Mensa for municipalities; the award came with $40 million in DOT funding for testing better transportation policies, with an additional $10...

Wood Mackenzie: Current economic downturn will spe...

The cost of U.S. solar power is dropping faster than expected as the coronavirus stifles demand, according to a report from Wood Mackenzie. Residential-system prices will fall 17% over the next five years, the research company said Wednesday. That’s steeper than the 14% it had expected before the coronavirus. Wood Mackenzie also sees prices for commercial systems sliding 16%, and utility-scale installations will decline 20%,...

3 Years and $3 Trillion Could Shift the Climate Ch...

A new report from the International Energy Agency details what it will take to lock in this year’s drop in emissions. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg Plummeting carbon emissions and big government spending—two of the defining narratives of 2020 so far—could create an unprecedented opportunity for the world to meet the goals enshrined in the 2015 Paris climate change...

Palm Oil Industry Leaves Indonesian Village Strugg...

Just like his father and grandfather, Alfian has spent his whole life working as a fisherman on the banks of the Batang Hari river in Rukam, Indonesia. In the village of 1,200 residents, rows of houses sit low to the ground beside the water, buttressed on the other side by swampy peatlands. The natural environment has long sustained the life of this village on the island of Sumatra. But now 48-year-old Alfian is struggling....

Vatican Asks Catholics to Ditch Fossil Fuel Invest...

The Vatican urged Catholics to closely consider where they invest their money and to take a close look at the environmental impact of the companies they may be shareholders in, as Reuters reported. Pope Francis has frequently criticized wanton greed that has led to environmental degradation and a climate crisis that is uprooting the lives of the world’s most vulnerable and impoverished people. On Earth Day, the Pope...

Scientists’ warning on affluence

Abstract For over half a century, worldwide growth in affluence has continuously increased resource use and pollutant emissions far more rapidly than these have been reduced through better technology. The affluent citizens of the world are responsible for most environmental impacts and are central to any future prospect of retreating to safer environmental conditions. We summarise the evidence and present possible solution...

The energy job market is in trouble. Here’s ...

The coronavirus is inflicting a heavy toll on America: Over 100,000 dead, almost two million infected, and more than 40 million unemployed. Beating the virus is the top priority. But we also need to put people back to work as fast as safety allows. How we go about that now will determine our nation’s economic future for decades. To achieve lasting prosperity, we need to rebuild better by investing in jobs that restart the...

For Indigenous Protesters, Defending the Environme...

Adán Vez Lira, a prominent defender of an ecological reserve in Mexico, was shot while riding his motorcycle in April. Four years earlier, the renowned activist Berta Cáceres was shot dead in her home in Honduras by assailants taking direction from executives responsible for a dam she had opposed. Four years before that, Cambodian forest and land activist Chut Wutty was killed during a brawl with the country’s military...

Inside Clean Energy: Rooftop Solar Could Lose Big ...

Solar panels on a senior housing complex in Boulder, Colorado. Credit: Dennis Schroeder/NREL Rooftop solar as we know it is under threat from a case before federal regulators, and a broad array of clean energy advocates and state officials are getting nervous. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is considering a request from an obscure consumer group that wants to end net metering, which is the compensation mechanism...

Why America Needs Environmental Justice

In recent weeks, our nation has been forced to come to grips with the variety of ways in which inequality harms minority communities, from the death of George Floyd at the hands of police to the disproportionate impact of COVID-19. A recent Harvard study concluded that air pollution — which is typically worse in areas with larger minority populations — is linked to higher coronavirus death rates, along with a slew of...