Why it matters: The world is falling short of meeting Paris climate targets, particularly the 1.5-degree Celsius goal that small island nations view as essential to their survival.
The White House is floating plans to speed reviews of infrastructure proposals — including transmission to help integrate renewables onto power grids.
Driving the news: The Council on Environmental Quality is releasing draft regulations that implement provisions in the recent debt ceiling deal aimed at accelerating permitting.
A heat wave that has stifled the southern tier of the U.S. for weeks has expanded into the Plains, Midwest and now the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Friday, triggering heat alerts for over 190 million people, according to the National Weather Service.
Why it matters: The extreme heat is expected to persist over a massive swath of the country through Saturday, all the while posing an immediate risk to public health.
Exxon reported $7.9 billion in second-quarter profits, the company announced this morning, the latest giant to report a sharp decrease amid lower commodity prices.
Driving the news: The oil giant's net earnings tumbled by nearly $10B from the comparable year-ago quarter — which was a record for Exxon — and well below the $11.4B recorded during Q1.
Why it matters: Big Oil's Q2 earnings season mirrors wider changes in energy markets, which have been under pressure in 2023.
Public awareness campaigns, mobile cooling stations, subsidized air conditioners: Cities are taking lots of steps to address this summer's record-breaking heat, but they're largely short-term Band-Aids.
Why it matters: Conventional heat remedies aren't enough to outrun the quickening pace of swelling, unlivable temperatures caused by climate change.
Amid the 175th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which vastly expanded the United States' territory, Hispanic ranchers and farmers say the treaty's legacy, along with encroaching developments, climate change and a lack of interest in farming, is taking a toll.
Details: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the U.S.-Mexico War, promised that former Mexican citizens in newly acquired U.S. territory would immediately become American citizens with full rights.
The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo — which ended the U.S.-Mexico War — still looms over northern New Mexico and southern Colorado.
The big picture: The treaty greatly expanded U.S. territory and made promises to its new citizens.But 175 years later, many of those promises have been broken, leading to years of litigation between the government and the Hispanic descendants who say their land was taken.
The Department of Labor will boost efforts to protect workers from extreme heat as temperature records fall in the Southwest and elsewhere, President Biden announced on Thursday.
Why it matters: Biden presented the new protection efforts as 180 million people — over half of the U.S. population — were under heat alerts.
Why it matters: Five days short of August, extreme weather across multiple continents has proven deadly and costly as they upend precedent. Some, like the U.S. heat wave, are expected to continue into next month.
