This weekly round-up brings you key climate news from the past seven days, including Biden’s 2024 financial budget, Africa’s deadliest tropical storms, and the European Union’s new plan to become a leader in the green energy transition.
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1. Biden Budget 2024: Fossil Fuel Subsidies Phaseout and More Investments in Clean Energy and Climate Resilience
President Joe Biden unveiled a sweeping 2024 budget proposal that would end oil and gas subsidies, raise taxes on the wealthy, scale up clean energy as well as allocate resources and money to build communities’ resilience to climate-fuelled weather events like floods, heatwaves, and wildfires.
The $6.8 trillion budget plan resealed last week aims to funnel more cash into Biden’s policy priorities, including slashing emissions and scaling up clean energy infrastructure to achieve the net-zero emissions target by 2050 as well as $24 billion to boost conservation and build community resilience to climate change.
The Biden administration is also seeking to help build communities’ resilience to droughts by investing in rural water projects, water conservation as well as recycling and reuse projects, complementing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Moreover, the budget allocates $1.2 billion to increase conservation adoption and farm income across privately owned land to push for the voluntary adoption of carbon sequestration practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the agricultural sector.
Read more here.
2. Environmental Groups Sue Biden Administration Over Controversial Willow Project in Alaska
Trustees for Alaska filed a lawsuit on behalf of six environmental and indigenous groups on Tuesday against Biden’s approval of CoconoPhillip’s controversial Willow oil project in Alaska, arguing the administration violated several laws and ignored the oil operations’ impacts on climate change and the environment.
The Interior Department’s authorisation enables CoconoPhillip, Alaska’s largest crude oil producer and the largest owner of exploration leases, to drill from three locations across its Willow site in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve – down from the five well pads the company originally sought.
The legal challenge filed on behalf of the Alaska Wilderness League, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, and four other green groups, accuses the administration of violating several laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act and the 1973 Endangered Species Act, a framework for the conservation and recovery of at-risk plants and animals in the US that requires federal agencies to ensure that their actions are not likely to jeopardise the existence of any species listed.
Read more here.
3. Tropical Storm Freddy Among Deadliest to Hit Africa, As Death Toll Rises to 270
The devastating tropical storm Freddy has ripped through southern Africa’s Malawi, Mozambique, and Madagascar in a rare second landfall on Saturday, killing at least 270 people and displacing more than 22,000.
In hardest-hit Malawi, where incessant rains caused catastrophic flash floods and mudslides, President Lazarus Chakwera declared a state of disaster in 10 southern districts and appealed to the international community to provide support and assistance as families gathered on Wednesday to bury the victims of the cyclone.
Tropical storm Freddy has killed more than 270 people in southern Africa since its first landfall in Madagascar nearly a month ago, making it one of the continent’s deadliest storms in over two decades and one of the longest-lasting tropical cyclones ever documented. The cyclone, which lasted for 34 days, crossing the entire South Indian Ocean and travelling more than 8,000 kilometres, has dumped the equivalent of six months of rainfall in six days on Malawi and neighbouring Mozambique.
Read more here.
4. Another Atmospheric River Inundates California, Biden Declares Disaster
California was hit by torrential rains brought about by a new atmospheric river this weekend, which triggered flooding and blackouts and prompted evacuations across the state, including greater Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay area, and metropolitan Sacramento.
Intense wind and rain destroyed trees, damaged cars, and homes, and pulled down power lines across the state, which is struggling to recover from months of extreme weather.
The storm, which originated near Hawaii and brought between 3 and 10 inches (7.6-25.4cm) of rain across a region that is home to 26 million people, is just the latest blast of heavy showers and gusty winds to batter California, which has been battling record-breaking droughts and wildfires for years. 10 atmospheric rivers have hit California since Christmas, leading to one of the wettest and snowiest winters in recent times.
Read more here.
5. EU Unveils Industrial Plan to Lead Clean Tech Production and Secure Raw Materials in the Race to Net-Zero
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the EU Industrial Plan on Thursday to secure raw materials and produce clean tech required for the clean energy transition in the latest attempt to position itself as the global leader in the race to carbon neutrality.
The Net-Zero Industry Act and Critical Raw Materials Act, both part of the Green Deal Industrial Plan unveiled last month to support the bloc’s transition to climate neutrality, are designed to facilitate the bloc’s efforts in slashing carbon emissions and boosting the domestic green industry.
The proposed regulations will be discussed and agreed upon by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union before their adoption and entry into force.
Read more here.
