Some coral reef ecosystems have a far greater chance of surviving the effects of climate change than previously understood, according to new global research. About 166,000 square kilometers (64,093 square miles) of coral reefs across 71 countries have capacity to either withstand or recover from the effects of global warming, a study by the Wildlife Conservation Society and Macquarie University found. Roughly 60% of the climate-resilient reefs are located in Australia, the Bahamas, Cuba, Indonesia, and the Philippines, scientists said in the paper outlined at a conference in Mombasa, Kenya.
“Warming induced emissions” from nature, like wildfire particulate matter and methane or methane released from melting permafrost are not well-captured by current climate models. A new study from a group of leading climate researchers suggests this information gap could make it even more difficult for nations to limit the rise in global average temperatures to well below 2 degrees C, the target set by the Paris Climate Agreement. The study found that emissions from natural systems could add as much as 0.6 degrees C to the rise in global average temperatures. Another study focused on release of methane from melting permafrost: including the “permafrost carbon-climate feedback” in climate models increases the chance of exceeding “tipping elements” – such as the Greenland ice sheets, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation or Amazon rainforest – by up to 50% Environmental Research Letters
GREENING
Also, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on June 5: The four industries that are projected to have the fastest growth in employment from 2024 to 2034 are tied to renewable energy generation. These industries include solar electric power generation, which is projected to grow 180.2 percent (30,400 jobs), and wind electric power generation, which is projected to grow 81.4 percent (9,200 jobs). These renewables-related fields are forecast by the federal agency to grow much faster than any others.
China dominates the business of producing components for solar infrastructure. Its exports of solar cells grew 73% in 2025. But the U.S. is making a serious effort to catch up. On June 9, the South Korea company Qcells began manufacturing solar panels at a new plant in Cartersville, Ga. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Qcells is “the only company in the U.S. to produce those panels and all their components in house.” Over the past few years, the U.S. has opened enough factories to assemble 70 gigawatts of finished solar panels, according to the SEIA. “That’s well beyond what the U.S. installs in a year, reported Julian Spector of Canary Media, “but production of the cell – the high-value component that converts sunlight into electricity has lagged far behind.” Qcells “will be able to manufacture 3.3 gigawatts at its cell factory, which would more than double the current operational U.S. solar-cell capacity.”
Steel River Energy Center, a solar project in Arkansas, aims to add 1.6 gigawatts of solar power and 1.9 gigawatt-hours of battery storage in a two-phase buildout. The California-based developer, Cypress Creek Energy, said last week it had locked down $3.5 billion in financing. A third phase, set to come online in 2029, will round out the total project capacity to 2.5 gigawatts of solar generation and 2.9 gigawatt-hours of storage.
Other states are jumping ahead of California: a) In Delaware, SB 239 eliminates the eight percent cap on net metering, which determined how many customers may participate in net metering programs. [CA has backtracked on net metering bigtime.] b) Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed a solar omnibus bill (HB 5340) into law. It requires a community solar program and the implementation of an automated permitting platform for residential solar and solar-plus-storage by July 2028; it also authorizes balcony solar with no permits (up to 1,200 watts).
Rivian announces a vehicle-to-grid partnership with ChargeScape, joining Ford, Honda, and at least five other EV manufacturers on the platform. (Utility Dive)
The largest wind energy project in U.S. history is now online, sending electrons from New Mexico to Arizona and California. Nearly two decades in the making, SunZia — an $11-billion New Mexico wind-and-transmission project — is now online, sending new clean power to Arizona and California. Spanning 916 turbines and a 550-mile high-voltage line, the project can power 1 million homes and already has helped drive record wind generation on California’s grid.
CLIMATE DESPOLIATION
Half of the world’s children are exposed to at least three overlapping climate hazards threatening their health, education and survival, according to a Unicef report. “The lives of children continue to be upended by the impact of heatwaves, wildfires, droughts and floods,” said the UN agency’s executive director, Catherine Russell.
The Trump administration on Wednesday announced a settlement agreement with power company Invenergy to close its four offshore wind leases, including one off of California’s Central Coast, reports POLITICO’s Kelsey Tamborrino. The news is a major blow to California’s offshore wind industry, which was already reeling from a similar deal the Trump administration cut to kill Golden State Wind’s project off the west coast in April. The California Energy Commission in May issued Golden State Wind a subpoena and signaled possible legal action in light of the more than $100 million the state has already invested in preparing for offshore wind projects with port upgrades and studying new power line needs.
The Trump administration has abandoned its effort to halt wind energy projects across the United States and dropped its challenge to the court ruling that tossed President Donald Trump’s order freezing federal permitting and leasing for wind projects. States that challenged the order hailed the development as one of the most significant legal victories against the Trump White House’s campaign against the energy transition. The decision affirms the Dec. 8 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris, which concluded that Trump’s January 2025 executive order was unlawful, finding the sweeping ban on wind projects was “arbitrary and capricious” and exceeded the president’s authority.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs signed the 2026 state budget (HB 4168), which notably includes a three-year moratorium both on new data center applications and data center tax incentives.
Data from a new interactive map the Solar Energy Industries Association published this morning shows that solar today takes up just 0.04% of the total U.S. land area, and 0.07% of prime American farmland. Nearly every state has more abandoned prime farmland than solar-developed parcels. Nationally, there are 43 acres of abandoned prime farmland for every acre of solar on prime farmland. As a particularly jarring point of comparison, golf courses alone use 2.6 times as much prime farmland as solar.
The Biodiversity Heritage Library is an invaluable online archive of historic texts on species living and lost supplied by the world’s leading museums and universities. Now its future is under threat after Trump administration budget cuts impacted the Smithsonian Institution.
The New York Times reports today that the Trump administration is abandoning its plan to dismantle the Ocean Observatories Initiative, the $368 million ocean monitoring system critical to understanding climate change and marine ecosystems. From the article: The Senate passed a measure Wednesday that would block the government from dismantling the system, with lawmakers in both parties warning that the action would be illegal and would threaten the safety of coastal communities.
Research from Gallup, which found that 44 percent of U.S. adults “worry a great deal about global warming or climate change.” That’s among the highest percentages since 1989, and just short of the all-time high of 46 percent registered in 2020. Another 22 percent of Americans worry “a fair amount” about climate change, meaning it’s an issue that is solidly on the radar for two-thirds of U.S. adults. Just 6 percent of Republicans say they are worried about climate change, the lowest figure on record. Compare that with France, where the survey found that the issue “is essentially non-partisan,” with 84 percent of left-leaning voters and 79 percent of right-leaning voters calling it urgent.
Dan McCarthy’s chart of the week is a bit of a bummer. U.S. rooftop solar installations are on track to fall dramatically this year, and it’ll be a long, long time before they rebound.
Take Action!
Kroger CEO Greg Foran was recently invited to the White House for a photo-op with Donald Trump to celebrate a rollback of a major climate change regulation phasing out super-polluting refrigerants grocery stores use. Those refrigerants, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), often leak and are amajordriver of the climate crisis. And supermarkets like Kroger are one of thelargest sources of leaks. In fact, Kroger was just fined $2.5 million and ordered to spend $100 million on appliance upgrades by the federal government to address its climate-destroying refrigerant leaks.
Join Green America in telling Kroger to skip the false solutions.To address climate change, they must enact real solutions – fixing their leaks and rapidly adopting natural refrigerants in all their stores that protect our climate and human health. TAKE ACTION
Sent via ActionNetwork.org. To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from 350 Humboldt, please click here.
