This week the Fifth National Climate Assessment, which is a Congressionally mandated inter-agency study of the impacts of climate change, was released.The Climate Assessment is issued ever four years as an analysis of the progress of climate change and efforts to curtail it impacts. As noted in the introductory portion of…
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”) issued its Sixth Assessment Report (“AR6”) on March 19, 2023 summarizing the findings of various studies of the impacts of climate change. “This Synthesis Report (SYR) of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) summarizes the state of knowledge of climate change, its widespread…
In June, at the end of its 2021-2022 Term, the United States Supreme Court issued a ruling with far reaching implications for the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) to regulate Greenhouse Gas (“GHG”) emissions and any attempt to limit the impacts of climate change. In a ruling by…
Last week the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled on oil and gas Lease 257 issued by the U.S. Government for 80.8 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico pursuant to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (“BOEM”) 2017–2022 Program. The ruling in Friends of the Earth…
Following up on previous assessment reports, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued an updated assessment report on August 9, 2021. The Report carries dire warnings of the impacts of man-made activities unless immediate steps are taken. In the summary for policymakers provided in the Report, the…
On May 4, 2021 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued its once a decade report on the status of United States weather over the previous thirty year period. The report called U.S. Climate Normals, provides a compilation of the observations from local weather stations throughout the United States…
Last week the United Nations secretariat issued a “Synthesis Report” summarizing the current status of the attempts by the signatories to the Paris Climate Agreement in addressing climate change. The Report provides sobering revelations concerning the speed by which irreversible climate change is occurring and how little time the world…
The American Meteorological Society issued its annual report recently on the state of the climate for 2019. The report notes increases in Green House Gases (GHGs) as well as extreme warm days during 2019. A partial summary of the findings in the report includes the following: “All major greenhouse gases…
According to a report released this week, extreme heat events will increase unless aggressive actions are rapidly implemented. The Report, issued by the Union of Concerned Scientists, outlines the devastating impacts of increasingly frequent extreme heat events throughout the United States. The Report notes in what is effectively a call…
This week the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia found that the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) failed to adequately consider the potential impacts of oil and gas leases on climate change. In Wildearth Guardians v. Zinke, the Court noted: “Climate change, and humanity’s ability to…