The commodity surge from Russia's invasion of Ukraine will burden Africa with higher costs and could create headwinds for the continent's clean energy transition.
Driving the news: A new International Monetary Fund report calls the war a "severe and exogenous shock" for sub-Saharan Africa due to surging food and fuel prices.
An intense heat waveis bringing temperatures of 104°F (40°C) or greater to nearly 1 billion people in India and Pakistan, with records threatened each day through the weekend.
Why it matters: Extreme heat can be deadly. An increase in the intensity, duration and occurrence of extreme heat events has been tied to climate change, including trends in India specifically.
Ambassador Dan Feldman, who serves as chief of staff on John Kerry's international climate team, is leaving the administration early next month and will rejoin his law firm, Covington & Burling LLP, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Feldman, who previously served under then-Secretary of State Kerry as the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, is a close Kerry confidant.
Sixteen states and the District of Columbia are among those suing the U.S. Postal Service to block its purchase of 148,000 gasoline-powered mail delivery trucks.
Driving the news: The state attorneys general, Earthjustice and the Natural Resources Defense Council say the federal agency severely underestimated the cost of the vehicles and the toll on the environment, according to the Washington Post.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Thursday that his office has subpoenaed ExxonMobil as part of an investigation into the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries' role in "causing and exacerbating the global plastics pollution crisis."
Why it matters: The U.S. only recycles about nine percent of produced plastics, according to estimates from the Environmental Protection Agency. Much of our plastic waste, which takes hundreds of years to decompose, ends up in waterways and poses a major threat to marine life and ecosystems.
Climate change will increase pressure on species to migrate and bring thousands of new chances for viruses to jump from one species to another in the coming decades, a new study reports.
Why it matters: These events could increase the chance of a pandemic in humans. Ebola, HIV, bird flu, SARS — and many scientists think COVID-19 — all started with spillovers of viruses from wildlife and livestock to humans.
The loss of humid tropical rainforests continued at a blistering pace in 2021, contributing 2.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions, which is equivalent to the annual fossil fuel co2 emissions of India – the world's fourth largest emitter, an authoritative new report finds.
Why it matters: The report, put together by Global Forest Watch and the University of Maryland, shows the stark challenge of reining in forest loss.
Russia has made about $66 billion in fossil fuel sales in the two months since its forces invaded Ukraine, according to a new study by an independent research group.
Why it matters: The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air's report indicates that Russia has almost doubled its revenues in sales of oil, gas and coal since Putin's forces began attacking Ukraine on Feb. 24, the Guardian notes.
