April 28, 2026

Dark Age Climate News for April 28, 2026

SCIENCE

  • Although mitigation pathways in integrated assessment models often rely
    on Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) fuelled by energy crops, European governments are moving to
    financially support BECCS sourced instead from existing forests. [This is like capturing the carbon from the Humboldt biomass plant in Scotia.]  Modelling multiple
    wood-sourcing scenarios found that BECCS from forests is unlikely to generate
    negative emissions within 150 years, is likely to produce higher
    emissions for decades than using natural gas without carbon capture and
    is likely to increase electricity costs by ~3.5-fold. These resultsreflect the fact that most
    emissions occur before the power plant and therefore cannot be
    captured    , and that wood has twice the carbon intensity of natural gas
    and generates electricity less efficiently.     These results counsel
    against emerging BECCS policies.
  • Scientists have found that rainforests can recover from deforestation in mere decades, Sachi Mulkey reports. A large-scale study, conducted across two nature reserves in Ecuador, found that hundreds of millions of acres of formerly deforested land are thought to be regrowing. “This is a message of hope,” one tropical forest ecologist said of the study. “The exciting thing is that nature is capable of recovering by itself.” The findings are certainly good news for many parts of the tropics, but more damaged areas may not be capable of bouncing back in the same way

GREENING

  • A record $2.3 trillion was allocated to clean energy projects last year, according to BloombergNEF, and more than 10,000 companies now have goals to reduce their emissions. “That’s not retreat,” said Mindy Lubber, chief executive of Ceres, a nonprofit organization that helps companies with sustainability efforts. “That’s acceleration.” Lubber added that while some Wall Street firms have gone quiet on climate issues, many institutional investors continue to assess climate risk and publicly held companies are required to track the issue. “Fiduciary duty hasn’t changed, and neither has their focus,” she said.
  • Renewable energy overtook coal last year to become the world’s largest source of electricity, according to analysis by thinktank Ember, covered by Carbon Brief.
  • Sales of electric cars were up 51 percent in Europe last month, The Guardian reports as fuel costs have soared during the Iran war.
  • Global offshore wind capacity rose by over 9 gigawatts in 2025, up 16% from the previous year’s installations, bringing the world’s total offshore wind capacity to about 92 GW, the Global Wind Energy Council said in its latest annual report, released Monday. Land-based wind projects saw record gains, adding over 155 GW in 2025. All told, nearly 1,300 GW of wind turbine installations are now providing power to nearly 140 countries worldwide, according to the international industry group. [A GW or gigawatt is the amount of power a city like Pittsburgh uses.]
  • A 10,000-ton fully electric cargo vessel capable of carrying 742 shipping containers just started up operations in China this week, according to a video posted on X by China’s Xinhua News service.
  • Silver lining to the war in Iran: China’s solar, battery and E.V. exports grew 39 percent. The country’s solar exports alone more than doubled during that time. In South Korea, March saw new E.V. registrations double compared with the same time last year. In New Zealand, new registrations nearly doubled over two weeks. In recent weeks, new clean energy investments and initiatives have been declared by France, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Turkey — and many others. [See more of David Wallace Wells’ reporting on the energy transition here.]
  • The immense potential of solar energy has “hit everybody” in Africa, Nigerian journalist Saint Ekpali reports. Case in point: Husk Power Systems, the world’s largest operator of solar mini-grids, began operations in Nigeria just six years ago. Today, it operates 50 community grids there, and plans 500 more. African countries invested US$34 billion in clean power over the last five years, more than half of it in solar. But the continent still lacks capital, which could set back Africa’s goal of generating at least 300 gigawatts by 2030. Read more »

CLIMATE DESPOLIATION

  • A report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned that global food systems are being “pushed to the brink” by increasingly common and severe heatwaves on land and at sea, reported the Guardian.
  • The cost of building new gas plants in the U.S. has risen 66% from 2023 to 2025, and the time needed to bring a facility online has also increased by 23%. (Bloomberg) [Ratepayers are saddled with these costs.]

DARK AGE CLIMATE POLITICS

  • A California judge rejected Sable Offshore’s bid to revoke an injunction prohibiting the restart of its oil pipeline system off Santa Barbara’s coast, and found the firm violated the ban by sending oil through the line beginning in March. (Santa Barbara News-Press, news release)
  • Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and other climate leaders urge Democrats to make an affordability case for clean energy as oil prices remain high and the midterm elections approach. (The Guardian)
  • Clean energy developers have a big reason to celebrate this morning. A judge has struck down several Trump administration barriers to wind and solar construction, including a provision that required federal clean energy permits to get Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s personal signoff. Maria Gallucci has all the details.
  • Maryland’s new energy affordability law could actually increase costs in the long run as it undermines energy efficiency investments and commits the state to ongoing nuclear subsidies. (Inside Climate News)
  • Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives abruptly canceled a
    vote that had been scheduled for Wednesday—Earth Day—on legislation that aims to codify into law many of President Donald Trump’s moves to weaken endangered species protections. Some lawmakers, mostly in tourism-dependent areas along the Gulf of Mexico, expressed concerns about the bill. Congressman Jared Huffman led the fight to defeat a Republican bill to eviscerate the endangered species act, and won! He said: “It was an amazing win and inspiring to see us all come together to fight for what we know is right. That is who we are as a country. We protect what we love, and we pass it on.”
  • The U.S. Supreme Court sides with the state of Michigan in allowing a case challenging Line 5’s operation in the Great Lakes to be decided in state court, though it’s unclear how the ruling will affect other pending lawsuits.(Associated Press) [350 Humboldt has supported indigenous opponents of Line 5.]
  • The chief executives overseeing California’s investor-owned utilities, like PG&E, were among the highest paid utility CEOs in the nation last year, according to a report released Tuesday by a watchdog organization, the Energy & Policy Institute.

Take Action!

Our US Senator Alex Padilla is co-author of the Fix our Forests Act. It was not a good bill when introduced during the Biden years; now it would be disastrous if it passed. It removes many environmental protections and promotes logging as a solution to fire hazards. The Trump administration has already passed an “emergency” order exempting much logging from public comment or environmental review. This bill would give them free rein.

Below is a sample email you can send to Senator Padilla.  You can also use this email as a call script and call his office. The Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121.

Sample Email

Subject: Delay the Fix Our Forests Act (S. 1462) until there is a responsible administration

Dear Senator Padilla,

I’m writing to urge you pull the Fix Our Forests Act (S. 1462) and to oppose any unanimous consent motion to bring it to the floor.

Your bill was drafted in 2023 for a Forest Service that no longer exists. Today the agency is run by a logging executive, supervised by a billionaire whom the Forest Service once tried to get a restraining order against, and overseen by a Secretary who has already declared an “emergency” across 112 million acres — 59 percent of the entire National Forest System — to bypass environmental review.

FOFA hands this administration permanent statutory authority to do what it is already doing administratively: log America’s national forests at landscape scale, with no public input, no environmental review, no Endangered Species Act constraints, and no meaningful judicial remedy.

A bill written under the assumption of good-faith implementation cannot survive contact with this administration. Please don’t move the bill until there is a responsible administration.

Sincerely,

[Your name]