350 Humboldt

SCIENCE

A UN report
says about 3 billion people, and more than half of global food
production, are concentrated in areas where water resources are in
decline. The scientists said more than half of the world’s large
lakes have shrunk since the 1990s. About 35% of the planet’s natural
wetlands, nearly the size of the European Union in total, have been
wiped out since the 1970s. Excessive pumping of groundwater has led to long-term declines
in about 70% of the world’s major aquifers, and in many areas these
declines are causing the land to sink. Land subsidence linked to
groundwater overpumping, the report says, is occurring across more than
2.3 million square miles, nearly 5% of the global land area. This
permanently reduces what the aquifers can hold and also worsens the risk
of flooding.

GREENING

• On Saturday, the High Seas Treaty (officially known as the Agreement on Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction or BBNJ Agreement) came into force. “It’s one of the most important environmental agreements ever,” says marine-policy expert Matt Frost. The treaty brings in a mechanism to safeguard the two-thirds of the ocean that lies beyond any national jurisdiction, such as through the creation of marine protected areas. “This moment shows that cooperation at a global scale is possible,” says marine biologist Sylvia Earle. “Now we must act on it.” Euronews | 6 min read
• 59% of voters would prefer to vote for a candidate who supports action on global warming, while just 13% would prefer to vote for a candidate who opposes climate action. And 92% of registered voters support requiring companies to protect workers from dangerous levels of heat. Yale + GMU [Lots more information from this survey.]
• Solar power is predicted to increase by 50% in the next two years. Electricity generation is set to grow 1.1% this year and 2.6% in 2027, according to the latest short-term energy outlook report from the federal Energy Information Administration. Despite the Trump administration’s attacks on the industry, solar power will provide the bulk of that growth.
• How to cut the carbon footprint of airlines: According to a study published last week by Jefferies,
  a financial services firm, the four largest U.S. carriers — American
  Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines —
  could together save as much as $580 million per year on fuel thanks to
  weight-loss drugs, known as GLP-1s. 🙃
• A Democratic California lawmaker says his proposed legislation that would streamline permitting for super-efficient heat pumps and plug-in solar panels would help reduce household electricity costs. (Canary Media)
• Wind and solar generated 30% of the EU’s electricity last year, while fossil fuels provided 29%, marking the first time renewables have beaten coal, oil, and gas. (The Guardian)
• Data show 79,066 zero-emission vehicle sales in California during the fourth quarter of 2025, bringing the state’s all-time EV sales to 2.5 million. Overall, California has about 13.3 million passenger vehicles. (Infrastructure News)

CLIMATE DESPOLIATION

• The Trump administration recently issued new dietary guidelines that would nearly double the amount of protein Americans consume, which could lead to a jump in greenhouse gas emissions from the cattle industry, Oliver Milman reports for The Guardian. The agricultural sector is one of the largest contributors of climate-warming gases, and environmental groups have urged people to consume less meat and dairy to minimize their own carbon footprint.
• Just 32 companies accounted for over half of global fossil carbon emissions in 2024, according to a report published Wednesday by the
  U.K.-based think tank InfluenceMap. That is down from 36 companies responsible for half the global CO2 emissions in 2023, and 38 companies five years ago. The analysis is the latest update to the Carbon Majors database,
  which tracks the world’s largest oil, gas, coal and cement producers
  and uses production data to calculate the carbon emissions from each
  entity’s production.

DARK AGE CLIMATE POLITICS

• Michigan’s Democratic attorney general will file an antitrust lawsuit against major oil companies, claiming they acted like a cartel to thwart competition from clean energy and electric vehicles, which drove up energy prices for consumers. (Bridge Michigan)
• On Monday, a federal judge allowed Revolution Wind to resume work off the coast of Rhode Island. Equinor won a similar ruling
  on Thursday to keep building its Empire Wind project near New York. And
  Friday brought a third victory, with a judge letting Dominion Energy’s
  Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind forge ahead. There’s no word yet on
  whether the two other affected installations can restart construction. The federal stop-work order has put billions of dollars, thousands of jobs, and gigawatts of much-needed power in jeopardy.
• St. Paul, Minnesota, was among the cities, states, and organizations that lost funding — $560,844 for expanding EV charging a Trump clawback aimed at Democratic states. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta set an important precedent in his ruling, writing that “defendants
  freely admit that they made grant-termination decisions primarily — if
  not exclusively — based on whether the awardee resided in a state whose
  citizens voted for President Trump in 2024.” The clawback was overturned, opening the gates for hundreds of other lawsuits.
• Pockets of resistance. The U.S. Interior Board of Land Appeals vacates the federal Bureau of Land Management’s approval of an oil and gas drilling project in western Wyoming after finding the agency violated the air pollution laws. (news release)
• The U.S. Has Only Spent 2 Percent of Funding for EV Charging: Four years ago, Congress appropriated $4.4 billion for a program to build EV chargers, and only 2 percent of that funding has been spent, as David Ferris reports for E&E News. The slow rollout of the program was due to a long wait for the Biden administration to approve rules, followed by delays as the Trump administration tried to cancel funding, only for a court to restore it.