Cookies help us run our site more efficiently.

By clicking “Accept”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. View our Privacy Policy for more information or to customize your cookie preferences.

Accept Deny

GoGreenNation news

Morgan Stanley to exit global climate coalition

News Feed
Thursday, January 2, 2025

Morgan Stanley on Thursday announced its departure from a coalition of banks that aims to target net-zero emissions through lending and investment, the fifth group to do so in recent weeks. “Morgan Stanley has decided to withdraw from the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. Morgan Stanley’s commitment to net-zero remains unchanged. We aim to contribute to real-economy decarbonization by providing our clients with the advice and capital required to transform business models and reduce carbon intensity,” a spokesperson for the bank said in a statement Thursday. “We will continue to report on our progress as we work towards our 2030 interim financed emissions targets.” Morgan Stanley is the latest in an exodus of major banks from the compact, following the earlier withdrawals of Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo. The bank did not give a reason for leaving the alliance, which the United Nations established through its Environment Programme Finance Initiative in 2021. However, it comes weeks before a Republican trifecta is set to take office in Washington, where environmental and sustainable governance (ESG) initiatives are likely to be in its crosshairs. In June, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee accused major investment firms of “collusion” with climate activist groups. Weeks ago, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) led 11 GOP state attorneys general in a lawsuit against asset managers BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street that accused them of “conspiring to artificially constrict the coal market” through their industry holdings. BlackRock and State Street have called the allegations “baseless.” As early as last February, however, major banks and asset managing firms have signaled a retreat on climate commitments. That month, Bank of America backtracked on a vow that it would not fund new coal mining, shipping or burning infrastructure, while JPMorgan Chase’s investment arm exited another investment alliance, Climate Action 100+.

Morgan Stanley on Thursday announced its departure from a coalition of banks that aims to target net-zero emissions through lending and investment, the fifth group to do so in recent weeks. “Morgan Stanley has decided to withdraw from the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. Morgan Stanley’s commitment to net-zero remains unchanged. We aim to contribute to real-economy...

Morgan Stanley on Thursday announced its departure from a coalition of banks that aims to target net-zero emissions through lending and investment, the fifth group to do so in recent weeks.

“Morgan Stanley has decided to withdraw from the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. Morgan Stanley’s commitment to net-zero remains unchanged. We aim to contribute to real-economy decarbonization by providing our clients with the advice and capital required to transform business models and reduce carbon intensity,” a spokesperson for the bank said in a statement Thursday. “We will continue to report on our progress as we work towards our 2030 interim financed emissions targets.”

Morgan Stanley is the latest in an exodus of major banks from the compact, following the earlier withdrawals of Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo.

The bank did not give a reason for leaving the alliance, which the United Nations established through its Environment Programme Finance Initiative in 2021. However, it comes weeks before a Republican trifecta is set to take office in Washington, where environmental and sustainable governance (ESG) initiatives are likely to be in its crosshairs.

In June, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee accused major investment firms of “collusion” with climate activist groups. Weeks ago, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) led 11 GOP state attorneys general in a lawsuit against asset managers BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street that accused them of “conspiring to artificially constrict the coal market” through their industry holdings. BlackRock and State Street have called the allegations “baseless.”

As early as last February, however, major banks and asset managing firms have signaled a retreat on climate commitments. That month, Bank of America backtracked on a vow that it would not fund new coal mining, shipping or burning infrastructure, while JPMorgan Chase’s investment arm exited another investment alliance, Climate Action 100+.

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

Related News

What to Know as Snow, Freezing Rain and Bitter Cold Heads Through Much of the US

The National Weather Service says a major winter storm is forecast to produce heavy snow and significant ice starting in the central U.S. and moving east

A major winter storm forecast to produce heavy snow, significant ice and frigid temperatures was set to begin in the central U.S. on Saturday and move east over the next several days, according to the National Weather Service. Here is what to know about the storm expected to affect millions in the eastern two-thirds of the country: Major winter storm sets up A large system made landfall along the West Coast on Friday afternoon, bringing rain to the Pacific Northwest with snow expected in the Cascade Mountains, according to meteorologists. The system will be responsible for the development of a major winter storm from the Central Plains to the Mid-Atlantic this weekend into early next week. Snow to fall throughout Central Plains and move east By Saturday evening, widespread heavy snow is likely in areas between central Kansas and Indiana, especially along and north of Interstate 70, where there is a high chance of at least 8 inches (20.3 centimeters). For places in the region that typically experience the highest snow totals, it may be the heaviest snowfall in at least a decade, meteorologists said. The storm will then move into the Ohio Valley, where severe travel disruptions are expected. It will reach the Mid-Atlantic states on Sunday into Monday. Blizzard conditions possible Wind gusts higher than 35 mph (56 kph) and heavy rates of snowfall could lead to blizzard conditions, particularly in Kansas and nearby portions of the Central Plains by Sunday morning. Whiteout conditions may make driving dangerous to impossible and heighten the risk of becoming stranded. Freezing rain expected from eastern Kansas to the Ozarks Dangerous sleet and freezing rain, particularly detrimental to power lines, also is anticipated to start Saturday from eastern Kansas to Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and much of Kentucky and West Virginia.Treacherous travel conditions are expected with power outages likely in areas with more than a quarter-inch (a half centimeter) of ice accumulation.“It’s going to be a mess, a potential disaster,” private meteorologist Ryan Maue said. Frigid air from the Artic to blast areas as far south as Florida Starting Monday, hundreds of millions of people in the eastern two-thirds of the country will experience dangerous, bone-chilling air and wind chills, forecasters said. Temperatures could be 12 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (7 to 14 degrees Celsius) colder than normal as the polar vortex stretches down from the high Arctic.“This could lead to the coldest January for the U.S. since 2011,” AccuWeather Director of Forecast Operations Dan DePodwin said Friday, noting there could be up to a week or more of "temperatures that are well below historical average.”The biggest drop below normal is likely to be centered over the Ohio Valley, but significant and unusual cold will extend south to the Gulf Coast, said Danny Barandiaran, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center. A hard freeze is even expected in Florida, he added.“The wind chills are going to be brutal,” Woodwell Climate Research Institute climate scientist Jennifer Francis said. "Just because the globe is warming doesn’t mean these cold snaps are going away.” Weather may be triggered by a fast-warming Arctic The brutal weather may be triggered in part by a fast-warming Arctic, a reminder that climate change gooses weather extremes, said Judah Cohen, seasonal forecast director at the private firm Atmospheric and Environmental Research.The polar vortex — ultra-cold air spinning like a top — usually stays above the North Pole, but sometimes stretches down to the U.S., Europe or Asia, causing intense doses of cold.Cohen and colleagues have published several studies showing an increase in the polar vortex stretching or wandering. Cohen and others lpublished a study last month attributing the cold outbreaks partly to changes from an Arctic that is warming four times faster than the rest of the globe.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Sept. 2024

Climate
Mountains

‘We have been heard’: Montana youth score a major climate victory in court

In a 6-1 ruling, the Montana Supreme Court affirmed their constitutional right to a “clean and healthful environment.”

Montana’s Supreme Court has ruled that the 16 youth who sued the state in a landmark climate change lawsuit have a constitutional right to “a clean and healthful environment.” The 6-1 decision upheld a lower court ruling in Held v. Montana, in which the plaintiffs argued that the state violated that right, enshrined in the state constitution in 1972, by limiting analysis of greenhouse gas emissions during environmental review of fossil fuel projects. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Mike McGrath rejected a spate of arguments against the plaintiffs — including that they lacked standing to bring the suit and that Montana’s contribution to climate change is negligible in a global context. “Plaintiffs showed at trial — without dispute — that climate change is harming Montana’s environmental life support system now and with increasing severity for the foreseeable future,” McGrath wrote in a 48-page opinion handed down December 18. Declining to regulate the state’s emissions because they are negligible would be like declining to regulate its mining pollution into Lake Koocanusa simply because 95 percent of the total pollution reaching the lake originates in Canada, he wrote. Lead plaintiff Rikki Held, the only plaintiff who was 18 when the suit was filed in 2020, hailed the court’s decision in a statement as “a victory not just for us, but for every young person whose future is threatened by climate change.”  “We have been heard,” she added. The suit was brought by Our Children’s Trust, a nonprofit public interest law firm based in Eugene, Oregon. In a statement, lead attorney Nate Bellinger called the ruling “a victory for young people and for generations to come. The court said loud and clear: Montana’s Constitution does not grant the state a free pass to ignore climate change because others fail to act — this landmark decision underscores the state’s affirmative duty to lead by example.” Montana Governor Greg Gianforte denounced the ruling, arguing in a statement that it would lead to “perpetual lawsuits that will waste taxpayer dollars and drive up energy bills.” The Montana Department of Justice, which represented the state in the lawsuit, called the ruling “disappointing, but not surprising,” according to the Montana Free Press. Held v. Montana made history last year when it became the nation’s first constitutional climate case to go to trial. Experts have said it could lay a foundation for, or bolster, similar lawsuits — especially in states that, like Montana, have a constitutional guarantee to a clean and healthful environment. One of those states, Hawai’i, settled a youth climate lawsuit last June, requiring its transportation department to develop a “concrete and comprehensive statewide plan” to achieve emissions reduction targets for 2030, 2035, and 2040, before reaching zero emissions in 2045. The plaintiffs had argued that Hawai‘i’s transportation system wasn’t decarbonizing fast enough and that its outsize emissions were eroding their right to a clean and healthful environment. A wildfire burning in the summer of 2022 in northwestern Montana near Kalispell. Don & Melinda Crawford / UCG / Universal Images Group via Getty Images “We will use the Montana case and the settlement agreement in Hawai’i as models for other states,” Phillip Gregory, an attorney with Our Children’s Trust, told the State Court Report in July. Other states with so-called “green amendments” to their constitutions are Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania. More than a dozen other states are considering adding them. In New Mexico, whose constitution does not yet include a green amendment but still says it is “of fundamental importance” to protect the state’s “beautiful and healthful environment,” a trial court last June denied defendants’ request to dismiss a lawsuit arguing against the approval of future oil and gas production. Some legal experts have argued that, while the Held decision is “noteworthy,” the unique circumstances of the case make it unlikely that a wave of similarly successful lawsuits will follow. It’s also unclear how far other court rulings based on a constitutional green amendment can go toward mitigating climate change beyond blocking an overtly anti-climate policy. Michael Gerrard, founder of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, told Grist that “push will come to shove when there are efforts to use these amendments to block major [fossil fuel] projects.”  On the other hand, it’s possible that other suits — including those not invoking constitutional rights — could cite the factual findings of Held v. Montana, like those establishing climate change’s unique effects on children. Read Next Indigenous youth are at the center of major climate lawsuits. Here’s why they’re suing. Anita Hofschneider During a seven-day trial in June, 2023, the 16 youth plaintiffs argued that the state’s promotion of fossil fuel infrastructure had jeopardized their physical and mental health, traditions, and recreational interests. Anthropogenic climate change has already had myriad impacts on Montana, including shorter winters with less snowfall, more frequent wildfires, and the reduced availability of wild game and ceremonial and medicinal plants. These impacts are expected to worsen as atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations rise. McGrath acknowledged these impacts in his decision: “Plaintiffs showed that climate change does impact the clear, unpolluted air of the Bob Marshall Wilderness; it does impact the availability of clear water and clear air in the Bull Mountains; and it does exacerbate the wildfire stench in Missoula, along with the rest of the state.” In a concurrence separate from that of the five-justice majority, Justice Dirk Sandefur agreed with the court’s “ultimate issue holdings” but said that the state’s actions alone — even eliminating all fossil fuel projects — could not address climate-related harms felt by the plaintiffs. Justice Jim Rice offered the lone dissent, arguing that the plaintiffs lacked standing because the constitutional violations they cited were “theoretical” rather than “concrete” or “impending.” Montana Republicans and the state’s Republican-led justice department criticized the court for overstepping its powers, ruling in favor of “their ideologically aligned allies.” According to the Daily Montanan, the state’s Republican lawmakers plan to introduce “dozens of bills” next session to reform the court, either by reducing its power or by making it more conservative. Michael Burger, the Sabin Center’s executive director, told the State Court Report last July that the success of future constitutional climate cases may hinge on the political environment where they’re filed. ”It may prove more difficult in a state where the political leadership is disinclined toward climate action,” he said. Gerrard noted that several such cases have been filed in New York, the most recent state to adopt a green amendment, and that it’s “too early to tell” whether they’ll be impactful. This story was originally published by Grist with the headline ‘We have been heard’: Montana youth score a major climate victory in court on Jan 3, 2025.

Climate
Health
Energy

A Double Dose of Nasty Winter Is About to Smack Much of the US With Snow, Ice and Biting Cold

Meteorologists forecast a strong snow and ice storm followed by brutally cold conditions will soon smack the eastern two-thirds of the United States

A strong snow and ice storm followed by brutally cold conditions will soon smack the eastern two-thirds of the United States as frigid air escapes the Arctic, plunging as far south as Florida, meteorologists forecast.Starting Saturday, millions of people are going to be hit by moderate to heavy snow from Kansas City to Washington — including a high chance of at least 8 inches of snow between central Kansas and Indiana — the National Weather Service warned Friday. Dangerous ice particularly lethal to power lines — “so heavy like paste, it's hard to move," said private meteorologist Ryan Maue — is likely to set in just south of that in southern Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and much of Kentucky and West Virginia.“It's going to be a mess, a potential disaster,” Maue said. “This is something we haven't seen in quite a while.”National Weather Service meteorologist Alex Lamers said Friday that the potential for blizzard conditions is increasing, particularly in Kansas and neighboring portions of the Central Plains, and that wind gusts may reach 50 mph at times.As the storm moves out on Monday, hundreds of millions of people in the eastern two-thirds of the nation will be plunged into dangerous bone-chilling air and wind chills all week, government and private forecasters said. Temperatures could be 12 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (7 to 14 degrees Celsius) colder than normal as the dreaded polar vortex stretches down from the high Arctic bringing chilly weather, they said.“This could lead to the coldest January for the U.S. since 2011," AccuWeather Director of Forecast Operations Dan DePodwin said Friday. “It’s not just one day of this. It's going to be three to five, in some cases a week or more of temperatures that are well below historical average.”The biggest drop below normal is likely to be centered over the Ohio Valley, but significant unusual cold will extend southward all the way to the Gulf Coast, said Danny Barandiaran, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center.Forecasts have moderated a bit from last week when some computer models envisioned the worst cold spell in decades. Now it's unlikely many cold records will break, but it will still have a big impact on the country, Barandiaran said.There should even be a hard freeze in Florida, while areas near the Canadian border will be around zero, Barandiaran said.“It’s not going to thaw out for awhile,” Maue said.Woodwell Climate Research Institute climate scientist Jennifer Francis said the initial blasting winds from the north may shock people after a fairly warm last couple of years. “The wind chills are going to be brutal,” she said. "There’ll be a lot of whining, but it is winter. ... Just because the globe is warming doesn’t mean these cold snaps are going away.”This double dose of nasty weather may be triggered in part by a fast-warming Arctic, serving as a not-so-gentle reminder that climate change gooses weather extremes, even winter ones, said Francis and Judah Cohen, seasonal forecast director at the private firm Atmospheric and Environmental Research. The polar vortex, ultra-cold air spinning like a top 15 to 30 miles high, usually stays penned up above the North Pole. But sometimes it escapes or stretches down to the United States, Europe or Asia. And that's when large numbers of people get intense doses of cold.Cohen and colleagues have published several studies showing an increase in the polar vortex stretching or wandering. Cohen, Francis and others last month published a study that attributed these cold outbreaks partly to changes from an Arctic that’s warming four times faster than the rest of the globe. The change in temperature and loss of Arctic sea ice make the jet stream — the river of air that moves storm fronts — wavier, allowing plunges of cold air to come south and extreme weather to stay put, Francis said.What's about to hit “is a really good example of these kinds of cases,” Francis said.The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Sept. 2024

Climate
Government

Will California sell gas cars after 2035? Nobody knows for sure.

While the Biden administration approved California’s effort to ban new sales of gas-powered cars by 2035, the Golden State’s automotive future remains uncertain. The incoming Trump administration is likely to try to undo the December approval — and a wave of litigation will also probably challenge the Biden administration’s decision.  But President-elect Trump’s anticipated actions could also...

While the Biden administration approved California’s effort to ban new sales of gas-powered cars by 2035, the Golden State’s automotive future remains uncertain. The incoming Trump administration is likely to try to undo the December approval — and a wave of litigation will also probably challenge the Biden administration’s decision.  But President-elect Trump’s anticipated actions could also face court challenges. And California could have more tricks up its sleeve to push its market toward electric vehicles regardless of what Trump does.  “There's just an enormous amount of uncertainty about whether the rule goes into effect — lots of moving parts. It will take a while before we know the answer to that question,” said Ann Carlson, a former Biden administration official who is now an environmental law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets its own rules for the nation about how much emissions automakers’ fleets can emit. The rules put forward by the Biden administration are so stringent that they will require a significant share of the auto market to become electric — but they don’t ban gas cars entirely. The Clean Air Act prevents states from setting different rules from the federal government — though as California has historically dealt with unique smog problems, the law provides an exemption allowing it to seek a waiver to set its own rules that go further than the federal ones.  The Biden administration recently granted that waiver, allowing California’s new standards that ban the sales of gas cars by 2035 to take effect. Eleven other states and Washington, D.C. — which combined with California make up more than 30 percent of the nation’s car market — have adopted California’s rule, meaning they, too, are poised for a shift away from gas cars.  In theory, this makes California’s rule a major shift in the American auto market — and a giant step forward in the nation’s fight against the climate crisis.  But a tangled web of law, politics and market considerations make the rule’s actual expected outcome less clear. The EPA’s approval of California’s gas car ban is sure to come with lawsuits. Republican-led states, oil, gasoline and ethanol producers and the auto industry are among the parties that could sue to try to overturn the rules. At the same time, the Trump administration will also likely to revoke the waiver through the regulatory process — though this action could also spur lawsuits from supporters of the California rule.  The EPA’s own standards, which if unchanged could make just 29 percent of the cars sold nationwide in 2032 gas-powered, will face similar legal uncertainty. The national rule already faces a lawsuit and Trump’s threats to overturn it.  However, any future Trump rule could also face legal hurdles from green groups that would argue it’s not strict enough.  As the legal process plays out, it’s not clear for automakers what their national- or state-level electric vehicle sales requirements will be. “Navigating these challenges is especially acute for heavily regulated automakers and suppliers because of our multi-year design and manufacturing cycles and the significant capital expenditures necessary to bring any new vehicle to market,” John Bozzella, president of the lobbying group Alliance for Automotive Innovation, said in a recent memo to Trump. He also called the current California and federal rules “out-of-step” with market realities.  California could try to implement a side deal with carmakers amid the potential policy and legal battles. After the last Trump administration revoked an Obama-era EPA authorization for California to set car standards, the state and several automakers inked a deal to increase the fuel efficiency of their car fleets.  “If companies are looking for certainty, their best effort will be to have an agreement with California,” said Margo Oge, who directed the EPA’s Transportation and Air Quality office for nearly two decades.  Oge said that if she were an auto company she "would want to know, at least for the biggest market in the U.S., that I can provide cars.” A spokesperson for the California Air Resources Board did not directly answer The Hill’s question about whether the state would pursue a similar deal this time. Instead, the spokesperson directed The Hill to the agency’s press release on the EPA waiver in which California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said, “Clean cars are here to stay … California can rise to the challenge of protecting our people by cleaning our air and cutting pollution.” If the carmakers do strike any such accord, it’s not clear what share of new cars sold would be electric — and on what timeline — under the agreement.   Another wildcard is that Republicans may try for a shortcut: the Congressional Review Act (CRA). This law allows simple majorities of the House and Senate to overturn a recent regulatory rule with the president’s approval. The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan congressional watchdog, has said that the EPA waiver is not subject to be overturned under the CRA.  But Republicans could still try to use the tool anyway, said Carlson, who was the acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration under President Biden.  She added that this would almost certainly spur “a follow-up lawsuit, ... arguing that the Congressional Review Act does not, in fact, apply to waivers.” Asked whether the GOP would pursue a CRA, a spokesperson for Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) did not directly answer, instead saying that the incoming chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee would look for any way possible to reverse the Biden administration’s action. 

Climate
Crisis
Government

Amazon rainforest faced ‘ominous’ drought, fires, deforestation in 2024, but also saw positive signs

A warming climate fed drought that in turn fed the worst year for fires since 2005.

2024 was a brutal year for the Amazon rainforest, with rampant wildfires and extreme drought ravaging large parts of a biome that’s a critical counterweight to climate change.A warming climate fed drought that in turn fed the worst year for fires since 2005. And those fires contributed to deforestation, with authorities suspecting some fires were set to more easily clear land to run cattle.The Amazon is twice the size of India and sprawls across eight countries and one territory, storing vast amounts of carbon dioxide that would otherwise warm the planet. It has about 20% of the world’s fresh water and astounding biodiversity, including 16,000 known tree species. But governments have historically viewed it as an area to be exploited, with little regard for sustainability or the rights of its Indigenous peoples, and experts say exploitation by individuals and organized crime is rising at alarming rates.“The fires and drought experienced in 2024 across the Amazon rainforest could be ominous indicators that we are reaching the long-feared ecological tipping point,” said Andrew Miller, advocacy director at Amazon Watch, an organization that works to protect the rainforest. “Humanity’s window of opportunity to reverse this trend is shrinking, but still open.”There were some bright spots. The level of Amazonian forest loss fell in both Brazil and Colombia. And nations gathered for the annual United Nations conference on biodiversity agreed to give Indigenous peoples more say in nature conservation decisions.“If the Amazon rainforest is to avoid the tipping point, Indigenous people will have been a determinant factor,” Miller said.Forest loss in Brazil’s Amazon — home to the largest swath of this rainforest — dropped 30.6% compared to the previous year, the lowest level of destruction in nine years. The improvement under leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva contrasted with deforestation that hit a 15-year high under Lula’s predecessor, far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, who prioritized agribusiness expansion over forest protection and weakened environmental agencies.In July, Colombia reported historic lows in deforestation in 2023, driven by a drop in environmental destruction. The country’s environment minister Susana Muhamad warned that 2024’s figures may not be as promising as a significant rise in deforestation had already been recorded by July due to dry weather caused by El Nino, a weather phenomenon that warms the central Pacific. Illegal economies continue to drive deforestation in the Andean nation.“It’s impossible to overlook the threat posed by organized crime and the economies they control to Amazon conservation,” said Bram Ebus, a consultant for Crisis Group in Latin America. “Illegal gold mining is expanding rapidly, driven by soaring global prices, and the revenues of illicit economies often surpass state budgets allocated to combat them.”In Brazil, large swaths of the rainforest were draped in smoke in August from fires raging across the Amazon, Cerrado savannah, Pantanal wetland and the state of Sao Paulo. Fires are traditionally used for deforestation and for managing pastures, and those man-made blazes were largely responsible for igniting the wildfires.For a second year, the Amazon River fell to desperate lows, leading some countries to declare a state of emergency and distribute food and water to struggling residents. The situation was most critical in Brazil, where one of the Amazon River’s main tributaries dropped to its lowest level ever recorded.Cesar Ipenza, an environmental lawyer who lives in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, said he believes people are becoming increasingly aware of the Amazon’s fundamental role “for the survival of society as a whole.” But, like Miller, he worries about a “point of no return of Amazon destruction.”It was the worst year for Amazon fires since 2005, according to nonprofit Rainforest Foundation US. Between January and October, an area larger than the state of Iowa — 37.42 million acres, or about 15.1 million hectares of Brazil’s Amazon — burned. Bolivia had a record number of fires in the first ten months of the year.“Forest fires have become a constant, especially in the summer months and require particular attention from the authorities who don’t how to deal with or respond to them,” Ipenza said.Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Guyana also saw a surge in fires this year.The United Nations conference on biodiversity — this year known as COP16 — was hosted by Colombia. The meetings put the Amazon in the spotlight and a historic agreement was made to give Indigenous groups more of a voice on nature conservation decisions, a development that builds on a growing movement to recognize Indigenous people’s role in protecting land and combating climate change.Both Ebus and Miller saw promise in the appointment of Martin von Hildebrand as the new secretary general for the Amazon Treaty Cooperation Organization, announced during COP16.“As an expert on Amazon communities, he will need to align governments for joint conservation efforts. If the political will is there, international backers will step forward to finance new strategies to protect the world’s largest tropical rainforest,” Ebus said.Ebus said Amazon countries need to cooperate more, whether in law enforcement, deploying joint emergency teams to combat forest fires, or providing health care in remote Amazon borderlands. But they need help from the wider world, he said.“The well-being of the Amazon is a shared global responsibility, as consumer demand worldwide fuels the trade in commodities that finance violence and environmental destruction,” he said.Next year marks a critical moment for the Amazon, as Belém do Pará in northern Brazil hosts the first United Nations COP in the region that will focus on climate.“Leaders from Amazon countries have a chance to showcase strategies and demand tangible support,” Ebus said.-- The Associated Press

Climate
Forests
CO2

Suggested Viewing

Saving Jaguars and Ourselves

"Saving Jaguars and Ourselves" brings attention to the plight of jaguars, wildlife, the Pantanal in Brazil AND the Amazon Rainforest and Cerrado Savannah. The film combines intimate human conversations and portrayals of jaguars in the Pantanal with clear explanations of larger threats that expand to include the Amazon, Cerrado, and the U.S.—focusing on ways that individuals in the U.S. can act effectively to bring change. These three areas form a critical Triad for preventing global climate change. My film explains why this Triad is crucial--why OUR survival in the U.S. depends on its recovery--and what we must do to literally save it, jaguars/wildlife, and Earth. The Pantanal wetland is larger than Florida and stores at least 10 billion tons of carbon. The Cerrado stores at least 13 billion tons. The Amazon stores 200 billion tons. If ANY of these areas completely burns, the carbon releases would be catastrophic. The Amazon and Pantanal are paradises. The Pantanal is directly affected by destruction of the Amazon and Cerrado savannah. Scientists believe that 80% of the Amazon Rainforest must be protected by 2025 or it will not be able to regenerate itself. The Amazon creates its own weather but if deforestation continues, its ecosystem will die and dying trees will give off as much as 200 billion tons of carbon over the next 30-50 years, effectively destroying our ability to protect the climate--and the Earth will die. The Pantanal is one of the most unique and beautiful places in the world, home to over 5,000 animal species and is now also facing threats from upstream river projects.

Solutions
Animals
Climate

Voices of Transition

Voices of Transition is an enthusiastic documentary on farmer- and community-led responses to food insecurity in a scenario of climate change, peak oil, and economic crisis. Concrete examples from Cuba, France, and the United Kingdom tell of a future society where our monoculture deserts will be restored to living soil, where fields will be introduced into our cities, and where independence from oil will help us live a richer, more fulfilling life.

Agriculture
Food
Climate

Total Disaster

Armed with realistic bird puppets, trickster environmental activists pretend to be oil company Total—staging a satirical press conference to introduce "RéHabitat," a program to rescue animals from the East African Oil Pipeline by relocating them to “more sustainable” habitats. Using humor and mischief, they expose a deadly ecological disaster in a zany effort to help #StopEACOP.

Activism
Energy
Animals

Rise and Fall

A film to provide an awareness of climate change and the individual measures we can take to combat it. The production process of Rise and Fall began as your stereotypical documentary meant to showcase various aspects of the Earth and Ocean Sciences Department at UNCW. Still, as the interview process was underway, it was quickly decided to move in another direction. It is an essay film about the science of climate change, what we can do in our day-to-day lives to combat it, and its impacts. Without using talking heads, the images of the natural world provide a sensual look at what will be affected by climate change.

Climate
Nature
Documentary

Sounding the Alarm ~ America's Climate Crisis

"It's really hard being a fire family. Every day it's getting worse." -Brett, wife of Marin County Battalion Chief in California.Every day, Americans who live close to the land and sea face the dangers of climate change—from a firefighter in California, to a beekeeper in Arizona, to a climate refugee losing her home in Florida. The changing climate affects our food systems, water and way of life. These American families are in the trenches sacrificing everything while facing depression, PTSD, and suicide—collateral damage of a crisis unchecked. Award-winning filmmaker, Peter Goetz, captures America's faces and voices, shot in 2020 leading up to the presidential election. Goetz and the Biden campaign made history, producing the first national climate spot to run during a presidential election. But this film dives deeper into the American climate crisis to explore the lives of the people who are sounding the alarm, worried about their grandchildren’s future, asking, "If not us, then who?" This is a story of the resilience, perseverance, and ingenuity of the American people. Ever hopeful, they collectively take on a common enemy. As the young, Navajo solar visionary Brett Issac insists, "We've got to turn this train around before it's too late."

Climate
Crisis
Government

Join us to forge
a sustainable future

Our team is always growing.
Become a partner, volunteer, sponsor, or intern today.
Let us know how you would like to get involved!

CONTACT US

sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

Subscribers receive a free day pass for streaming Cinema Verde.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.