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The cruise ship departed Ushuaia, Argentina, in April with plans to ferry 147 passengers and crew members to some of the most remote places on earth, including Antarctica. But the ship, named the MV Hondius, had its voyage cut short by a rare virus that has killed three and infected several others. 

Hantaviruses are an ancient family of rodent-borne pathogens that likely caused disease in humans long before they first appeared in medical records in the 1950s. The viruses infect people via rodent waste — often through the inhalation of dust containing trace amounts of the excreta. Andes hantavirus, the strain that gripped the MV Hondius on its polar cruise, is one of a few hantaviruses known to cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare but often deadly illness.

The Andes strain is also the only known hantavirus that can be transmitted human-to-human — a characteristic turning a rare rodent-borne infection into a multinational emergency, just a few years after the world was caught flat-footed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The good news is that the Andes hantavirus, while uniquely deadly, is likely nowhere nearly as transmissible as COVID-19. Nevertheless, the outbreak is illuminating the complexity of responding to infectious disease outbreaks as international cooperation on public health issues has become fractured and contentious — all while global pandemics are only becoming more likely overall. A month before the first patients onboard the MV Hondius became symptomatic, Argentina officially completed the process of withdrawing from the World Health Organization, joining the U.S. in leaving a global health alliance that exists in large part to coordinate responses to these very kinds of cross-border disease outbreaks. 

The emergency also points to another growing challenge for global public health: Climate change is altering the rainfall, vegetation, and habitat conditions that influence rodent populations — changes that experts say boost the odds that the pathogens these animals carry will spill over into human populations.

While the hantavirus’s one-to-six-week incubation period means the outbreak could have originated in any of the passengers’ home countries, a possible culprit is the ship’s stop for a birding expedition near Ushuaia, which is home to a landfill that attracts rodents looking for food. Argentina’s health authorities have already documented a sharp rise in hantavirus this season: 101 infections have been recorded since June 2025, about twice as many as there were in the same period a year earlier.

The country’s health ministry hasn’t yet determined what’s behind the surge, but research suggests that climate change may play a role. Argentina and neighboring countries in South America endured years of severe drought between 2021 and 2024, including Argentina’s worst dry spell in more than 60 years in 2023, followed by extreme rainfall last year. Weather extremes exacerbated by global warming change how rodents behave, according to Kirk Douglas, a senior scientist who studies hantaviruses and climate change at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, in Barbados.

Prolonged drought sends rats and mice into populated areas in search of food, which can put people at higher risk of contracting the virus. Sudden rainfall following drought causes trees and shrubs to produce a windfall of nuts and seeds, which tend to benefit rodents and boost their numbers — all the while increasing the risk of transmission from animal to human.

That doesn’t mean there’s a one-to-one relationship between global temperature rise and rodent-driven risk, however, and climate change is hardly the only force at play. A complex web of natural and human-made landscape changes can increase or decrease contact between humans and rodents. Increased temperatures and humidity, for example, don’t seem to influence the disease ecology of hantavirus in the same way that drought and precipitation do.

“Hantavirus is sensitive to the changes climate change will bring,” Douglas emphasized. “It’s all dependent on what the prevailing climate impact is.”

That complexity makes hantavirus risk difficult to predict — and easy to overlook. In the United States, hantavirus has been rare since federal surveillance began in 1993. There were fewer than 1,000 total confirmed cases up to 2023, the latest year that data is available. About 35 percent of those cases, almost all of which occurred west of the Mississippi River, resulted in death. 

As in South America, the dynamics of hantavirus in the U.S. may be shifting. The places most at risk, federal scientists reported in a study published last year, are dry landscapes where homes are spread out, many kinds of rodents live nearby, and communities may have fewer resources to prevent or respond to disease — conditions that describe broad swaths of the American West.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline How climate change could help hantavirus find more hosts on May 12, 2026.

Built on the assumption that price is the best measure of value, modern economics has never adequately grasped non-transactional exchange – care relationships and reproductive work above all. Declining birth rates and ageing societies are now laying bare the limits of a framework that feminist thinkers have long critiqued. An interview with economist Emma Holten.

This article is part of the Green European Journal’s upcoming print edition on demographic futures, out in early June. Subscribe now and get it delivered straight to your door.

Green European Journal: The history of modern political theory is marked by a major omission – of bodies, their needs, and the necessity of caring for them. How did this omission come about?  

Emma Holten: Enlightenment thinking was very much about liberating the individual – from hierarchy, from the ties of religion and superstition, from the bounds of class. Thinkers like Thomas Hobbes, for example, were very progressive in their belief that the individual has value in and of itself. That conviction became the building block of modern political theory, and it has been hugely important for feminism, too. However, it overlooked that individuals are connected not only in oppressive systems but also in positive relationships. Human beings exist only in the context of other human beings. But that interdependence disappeared.  

This omission was most striking in the context of birth and family relationships. The whole story of what it takes to give birth and raise an individual completely disappeared, and we started making political theory about well-educated adults, as if they sprang up like mushrooms. 

How did this original sin become so entrenched in modern economics? 

Economics, too, had a noble ambition: to provide a clear description of the political system and to be able to quantify it. In the 1870s, this ambition culminated in the marginalist revolution, which was probably the most influential shift in the history of economics. Marginalism is based on the idea that you can use market prices to establish value. According to this theory, the market-clearing price is the perfect balance between supply and demand, between how much one wants to be paid for a product or service and how much someone else is willing to pay for it.  

Many of us grow up thinking that economics is like physics or chemistry […] We don’t question it because it would feel like questioning gravity.

The obvious corollary is that if something doesn’t have a price, it doesn’t have value. Economics loses the ability to speak about things that don’t have a price, such as time spent with friends or in the home. The only way to measure the value of time spent at home caring for others or being cared for by others is to calculate how much you would make if you used that time in the market instead.  

However, I don’t think price is a good measure of value in the market either. I spend a lot of time talking to nurses, caregivers for elderly people, and social workers, and when I tell them that economics measures their value by their salary, they are either shocked or start laughing. When you receive care, you don’t necessarily know what the value of that interaction is going to be; it only becomes visible in the long term. And if this interaction happens in the public sector, then the market is all the more unable to grasp its value. Economic methods find it much easier to understand the value of a car than the value of care, both paid and unpaid.  

 Why is this way of thinking about value so difficult to dispel?  

Many of us grow up thinking that economics is like physics or chemistry. That it has always been the same, and we’ve always looked at value the same way. And this is a huge part of economics’ power. We don’t question it, because it would feel like questioning gravity. American economist Paul Samuelson famously said that he didn’t care who held political office as long as he got to write economics textbooks. Economics conditions the way we think about politics.  

The rise of Thatcherism, of neoliberalism – the idea that the market comes before the state, and that the state’s responsibility is to take care of the market, not the people – has reinforced this influence. We let economists decide how much we should work, how much time parents should be able to spend with their children, what the optimal way to provide childcare is, or how to take care of nature. But these are fundamentally political questions. Their depoliticisation has exacerbated the dynamic whereby things that economics can value tend to be overvalued, while those it cannot value become completely valueless. 

Dominant theories may be unable to account for the value of care in the economy, yet they assume a steady and abundant supply of care to sustain the economic system. How do you make sense of this paradox?  

This is probably the central paradox in how modern economics deals with care. It has the idea that people are rational agents, act in their own self-interest, and are oriented towards the market. And so the provision of care, which largely falls outside the market, remains a blind spot. Economic theories tend to assume an endless supply of care, without a clear theory of how it is sustained.  

Based on their own reasoning, women would never have children because it is completely irrational from a market perspective. Yet when birth rates decline, suddenly shock ensues. I sometimes wonder whether economists are angrier at women when they have children or when they don’t. If they do have children and need to work part-time, that’s expensive and doesn’t create enough value. But if they don’t have children, that suddenly becomes a huge issue for the economy.  

When you study economics, the first thing you learn is the production function. How does a product come to be? In that function, there’s a variable called “L”. That’s labour power. But there is no acknowledgement of where it comes from; it’s just there. And I think that tells you everything you need to know about the poverty of the theories. 

 I sometimes wonder whether economists are angrier at women when they have children or when they don’t. 

Feminist thinkers have challenged the approach that treats care as entirely outside the economic equation, but they haven’t always agreed on how best to make the case for it.  

Feminist theorists, particularly Italian feminists like Silvia Federici, have been instrumental in showing that the undervaluing of care is a central part of capitalism. This applies to paid and unpaid care, to the public and the private sector alike.  

The big question was: to price or not to price? Should we speak the devil’s language? Some feminist economists, especially in the early days of the field, argued that we should price unpaid care so we can include it in GDP and measure it. This was based on the reasoning that we can’t change the system, and so we need to use its language and its rules in our favour.  

We’ve seen a similar logic at play in the environmental movement, where putting a price on a tree or a marsh seems to be the best way to protect it. But pricing ignores the relationships; it isolates and splits things up. And when you talk about nature, you cannot isolate and split. The same goes for care. The value of a mother, just like that of a tree, is not visible at the time of the exchange; it is long-term, and it is reciprocal: mother and child are changing one another. You cannot say that one is giving something to another, as if it were a simple transaction.  

 The home, in particular, has been a subject of controversy within feminist thought. Is it a prison or a shelter, a site of oppression and exploitation or one of liberation? 

It is both. Historically, the home has been a site of extreme violence against women, and we can understand why so much of feminist thought was focused on getting women out of the home and getting them to make their own money. The dominant type of feminism, middle-class feminism, places a strong emphasis on achieving workplace equality between women and men. You can see this in EU strategies for gender equality, for example. That’s what takes up all the space. But many women, especially lower-class or migrant women who face exploitation, are actually fighting to get into the home, to have enough money to see their own children, to have time to rest. This is the double vision we need when we deal with care. The fight goes both ways. And for many people, home is also a place of liberation. 

Meanwhile, we haven’t made a big enough effort to get men into the home. Sometimes, we have fallen into the trap of idealising men’s lives and framing them as free, equating paid work with freedom. But paid labour isn’t necessarily freedom. There are many men who are exploited or work in terrible conditions. Where’s the policy to liberate them?  

Could the resurgence of “traditional” gender roles – as promoted in the “manosphere” and the “tradwife” online movements – be partly understood as a reaction to these failures rather than simply a backlash against women’s emancipation?  

When it comes to care, many of the distinctions between right-wing and left-wing positions tend to collapse. Sometimes I see overlaps in places I didn’t expect. “Tradwives” and other socially conservative people often ask for the same things that progressive people ask for: more community, more time with children, less market dominance in our lives, more focus on love and social relationships, and a reaction against individualism. When I hear a conservative woman say that life is more than work, that what matters are the people we love, I find myself nodding. Then she might add that the man’s role is to dominate, and that’s where she loses me.  

But we should not underestimate the potential to speak about these issues across differences. When I speak to nurses in hospitals, they suddenly realise they find common ground on this, even with people they usually disagree with politically. The devaluation of care is the core of both right- and left-wing anger right now.  

 Does the devaluation of care help explain Europe’s consistently low birth rates over the last few decades?  

If I were to speak to a politician who cares about economic growth and wants women to have more children, I’d tell them to start by offering better childcare and longer parental leave. I was brought up in the 1990s and 2000s, thinking that we had gender equality, and women would live lives that were completely like men’s. Many of us were more educated than most men and made more money than many men. But when they had children, many in my generation were shocked to find out how much gender still mattered.  

But I don’t think it’s just a matter of affordability. Birth rates are declining worldwide, regardless of the cost of living situation. This can be a good thing from a feminist perspective, especially if very young women are waiting longer to have children. But it also has to do with the types of societies we have created, where having children can be quite lonely and make it very difficult to spend time on anything else, including work and hobbies.  

Do pro-birth policies focusing narrowly on economic incentives miss the point?  

Economic theory and policymaking lack a theory of culture, but economics and culture go hand in hand. What we value economically tends to spill over into what we value culturally, and vice versa. The decision to have or not to have children is influenced by both cultural change and economic considerations. Yet when economists speak about demographics, they are at the limit of their theoretical capabilities because culture is simply not something they’re used to dealing with. In their market theory, there is no place for family choices. In a way, you could say that economics is supremely feminist in that rational market agents have no body and no gender. For many economists, I’m a consumer in the same way that a man is, at least until I become pregnant.  

You could say that economics is supremely feminist in that rational market agents have no body and no gender

There are, of course, exceptions. Alice Evans, for example, has done a lot of empirical work, interviewing women around the world about their choices to have or not have children. She found that cultural factors, such as social media use, can have a major impact on reproductive choices because they give access to different types of women’s lives and different female cultures, showing that options other than having a family also exist. She calls this phenomenon “cultural leapfrogging”.

The Left seems more reluctant to talk about demographic crisis or decline. Is there a way of reframing the issue in a more progressive way rather than surrendering it to right-wing narratives and cultural panic?  

Demographic decline is an umbrella term for many things, some of them good and others concerning. We should be extremely concrete in how we talk about decline and what we are worried about. My biggest worry is that, if the state retreats, the ever-expanding group of elderly people will have to be cared for by their daughters, as is already the case all over Europe.  

But there’s also an opportunity to think creatively about how we adapt to the new demographic situation. We cannot leave these big decisions to the market – the state needs to play a big role, too. All over Europe, we’re already seeing major recruitment issues in hospitals because pay is so low. From a green perspective, more jobs in care can be good news because it is a very sustainable type of work, and one that is extremely useful to society.  

Maybe the best way is to understand what we are going through as a care crisis, not a demographic one. It’s a new situation, and we need to adapt.  

Pro-birth policies tend to focus on heterosexual couples or, at best, the nuclear family model with two parents raising children. Is it time we question this norm?  

The family organisation of two parents raising children is actually quite unique in human history. It is the configuration that takes the least time away from the market because it is very steady and small; it requires little organising.  

If you ask any feminist economist what her main policy goal is, she will probably choose a shorter working day, which means more time in the home. Of course, there can be downsides, and we see it in countries where family care has a bigger cultural role: women tend to make less money and be less independent, which in turn creates a patriarchal family structure. However, there’s also the upside that families are more connected and have closer relationships, so we need to strike the right balance.  

This isn’t just about raising children. In Scandinavia and other parts of northern Europe, we tend to just hide elderly people away. When someone cannot work anymore or is no longer self-sufficient, we don’t really want to see them; we don’t want them in the home. When I speak with Muslim feminists who have migrated to Europe, they tell me they find this to be extremely inhumane; they have a much more integrated relationship with elderly people in day-to-day life. 

In the new demographic reality, opening up the home means not only more care for those who need it, but also more help with raising children – and this doesn’t mean the state shouldn’t play its role in providing care. But we have closed off the home too much, and I think we see it in the crisis of loneliness that many adults are facing.  

 

'All politics is theatre' Channel Comment brendan 12th May 2026 Teaser Media

The emergence of a strong El Niño weather pattern this year in a world that is warming as a result of human-caused climate change could fuel “unprecedented” weather extremes, climate scientists have warned.

Meteorologists expect El Niño – the natural climate phenomenon characterised by unusually warm sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean – to develop as early as this month. Some forecasters say that this time around the event could become particularly powerful.

Scientists say the combination of El Niño and rising global temperatures could push 2026 to either the warmest or second-warmest year on record. A previous El Niño helped drive average global temperatures in 2024 to a record 1.55C above preindustrial levels.

Researchers warn that a strong El Niño risks supercharging extreme weather conditions, contributing to more severe fires and droughts in some regions and storms and floods in others.

El Niño meets global warming

Friederike Otto, professor in climate science at Imperial College London, said El Niño itself is “not the reason to freak out” but rather the fact that it is now happening on an increasingly warmer baseline.

“El Niño is a natural phenomenon that comes and goes,” she told journalists this week. “What makes it so dramatic is not the event itself and whether it’s a ‘Super El Niño’ or not, but that it is happening in a dramatically changing climate.”

“The records will still be broken because of human-induced climate change and the continued burning of fossil fuels,” Otto added.

The World Meteorological Organization will issue its next update on the prospects for an El Niño in late May, which it says will provide more robust guidance for decision-making on how to protect people and nature from associated impacts.

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Even before the likely arrival of the El Niño pattern, 2026 has already been an “extraordinary” year for weather extremes, scientists at the World Weather Attribution (WWA) research group said.

Sea surface temperatures neared all-time highs in April, while Arctic sea ice reached its lowest level for a second-year running. In March, the United States saw a record-breaking heatwave that would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change, according to WWA analysis.

Dramatic wildfire risk

Across the globe, the wildfire season got off to a dramatic start. Record-breaking fires in Western Africa and the Sahel, as well as big outbreaks in India, Southeast Asia and parts of China, contributed to the world recording its largest burned area ever for the January-April period, according to Theodore Keeping, a WWA researcher.

He noted that the emergence of a powerful El Niño event could have a major effect on supercharging wildfires by increasing the likelihood of seeing “severe” hot and dry conditions in Australia, the US and Canada, as well as the Amazon rainforest.

“The likelihood of harmful extreme fires potentially could be the highest we have seen in recent history, if a strong El Niño does develop,” Keeping added.

The post Scientists warn El Niño could intensify climate extremes in 2026 appeared first on Climate Home News.

This is part two of a two-part series on the Trump Administration’s mineral trade deals. Read part one here.

New mineral trade “deals” that the Trump administration is pushing are extortion, not foreign policy. A deal being considered between Zambia and the United States that would make lifesaving medical aid contingent on access to minerals is just the latest in a series of these exploitative deals, including between the U.S. and Indonesia and the U.S., Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Holding a sustainable future hostage

The minerals that the Administration demands, often called critical minerals, are used for renewable energy and military technologies. Mining and processing minerals has severe negative impacts on communities, Indigenous Peoples, ecosystems, the climate, and water. Making sure a renewable energy future is truly just and sustainable means cutting back on the need for newly mined minerals wherever possible, and investing in recycling, reuse, and other circular economy solutions. But the Trump administration seems more interested in profits for mining companies and a limitless supply of minerals for war.

Exploiting a war in Rwanda and the DRC

Earthworks and allies in civil society voiced our concerns in a letter to an administration forcing critical minerals deals upon other countries. Like the Zambian proposal, many of these “deals” more resemble extortion than equitable trade policy, much less how one would treat a partner nation. 

For example, the Strategic Partnership Agreement between the DRC, Rwanda, and the United States tries to leverage a peace deal in the recent war between Rwanda and the DRC as a means to secure exclusive rights for mining companies to access DRC’s minerals–namely cobalt. The war has killed at least 7,000 people and displaced at least 600,000 (as of March 2026).

According to Public Citizen, the core purpose of this Agreement is to make sure mining companies access the DRC’s minerals the United States government wants for war, energy, and other applications. The Agreement is arguably unconstitutional in both countries, and the process is deeply undemocratic. It creates a shopping list of mine sites where the United States subsidizes companies and investors to choose, or refuse, DRC’s minerals. The deal worsens the DRC’s economic reliance on industrial-scale mining, without suitably consulting the artisanal miner collectives who would most stand to benefit from high labor, environmental, and human rights safeguards that could be implemented as part of a truly equitable trade deal.

Exploitation disguised as trade agreements

Before the Supreme Court struck down the Trump administration’s so-called reciprocal tariffs, the Administration signed Agreements on Reciprocal Trade (ARTs) with many nations. These deals generally insisted on several commitments that tend to benefit various pharmaceutical, tech, mining, and oil companies. 

For minerals, the most recent ART with Indonesia removes any trade restrictions for U.S. imports and compels Indonesia to “facilitate U.S. investment in its territory to mine, extract, refine, process, transport, distribute, and export critical minerals.” Unlike the DRC SPA, the Indonesia deal did not give U.S. companies the right of first refusal to Indonesia’s nickel. Yet, the deal clearly encourages U.S. companies to invest in more Indonesian nickel. As of this writing, Indonesia has neither ratified nor annulled their ART. 

Increasing Indonesian nickel production also increases risks to communities. Earthworks recently released research on the risks to communities, workers and the environment of mine waste from nickel processing. Multiple tailings failures at nickel industrial parks have resulted in flooding and multiple worker deaths. We are calling for a moratorium on permitting new tailings facilities until the Indonesian government can hold operators accountable and achieve proper oversight. Nickel production in Indonesia has also been connected with displacement, deforestation, and water contamination.

Building off centuries of inequality

Trade between countries in the Global North and Global South has been unequal for centuries. Even though many Asian, African, and Latin American countries won their independence from colonial governments, the economies designed to extract resources from some countries while making profits for others remain. The result is that residents of our trading partners live with mining impacts while mining companies make a profit and the U.S. sells weapons to its military and others’.  

A future built on something better

Equitable and sustainable trade policy requires acknowledging that the US government, historically and regularly, prioritizes companies that take advantage of extraction-affected communities, including in Global North countries. The status quo remains fundamentally unjust. In building a better system, governments must, among other things, prioritize Free, Prior, and Informed Consent for Indigenous Peoples; community consultation; best available technologies; low- and zero-waste plans; and enforceable high labor, environmental, and governance standards. We must demand reparations for chattel slavery, colonialism, and the climate crisis, and ensure newly-generated wealth stays within the communities and countries with whom the U.S. trades. 

People in the DRC, Indonesia, and everywhere else have the right to healthy, dignified lives. They have the right to governments responsive to their interests. Advocates in the Global North must commit to solidarity with mining-affected communities and their organizations, like those in the DRC, Indonesia, and elsewhere are fighting for that future and standing up to irresponsible mining that threatens their homes and families. As the Trump administration intensifies that threat, people and organizations in the United States must speak up for our shared future too.

The post Trump’s deals extort trade partners for mining company profits. There is a better way. appeared first on Earthworks.

This is part one of a two-part series on the Trump administration’s mineral trade deals. Read part two here.

A trade deal proposed by the United States could end life-saving humanitarian aid to Zambia unless the United States gets access to minerals, which are useful for renewable energy, military technology, and more. Like the other so-called critical minerals “deals” that the Trump administration is signing, this agreement would be extortion, not foreign policy. 

On 16 March, The New York Times broke the story that the Trump administration was considering withholding foreign aid–specifically HIV treatment and tuberculosis and malaria medications. More than 1 million Zambians rely on these medications. According to a draft U.S. State Department memo, the administration is considering cutting off decades of life-saving medical aid unless the Zambian government gives the United States more access to their minerals. 

An economy dependent on mining

Zambia, a country of about 20 million people located in south-central Africa, is largely dependent on mining as an economic driver dating back to the beginning of British colonial rule. Reliance on a destructive and dirty extraction-based economy is common in formerly colonized countries, which also often rely on humanitarian aid due to the inequality established by centuries of imperialism.

Now, Zambia is seeking to capitalize on the increased demand for mining linked to minerals for the renewable energy transition. Currently, Zambia produces 3% of the global copper supply and it aims to triple that by 2031. It is also investing in and expanding production of other key minerals for the renewable energy transition, including cobalt manganese, nickel, lithium, and graphite extraction.

Cutting a lifeline for millions

The threat to cut lifesaving medical aid programs is devastating and dangerous. The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which was founded by George W. Bush, has saved more than 26 million lives and prevented 8 million babies from being born with HIV. Access to medicine, driven by grassroots advocates around the world, has changed HIV from a death sentence to a treatable condition. Medications are expensive, but reliable treatment can transform lives and stop the spread of the virus.

In Zambia, more than 1.2 million people have received lifesaving medications through PEPFAR. Cutting that lifeline would be in line with previous Trump administration policy: DOGE’s cuts to USAID could needlessly result in death for more than 14 million people by 2031. 

Threatening the lives of millions of people in a foreign country is not a trade deal. Reducing PEPFAR and other aid would guarantee worsening poverty and mass death in Zambia and surrounding areas. These cuts would have disastrous consequences not only for Zambia, but for other African countries, and U.S. interests in the region for decades. 

Pushback from global civil society

On March 26, more than ninety public health, environmental, development, and faith organizations, including Earthworks, signed onto a letter criticizing the Zambia “proposal” and arguing that any critical minerals policy should prioritize job creation and environmental and sustainable development for both countries. Four days later, the State Department responded in a predictably antisemetic and condescending way, saying we are “a predictable roster of woke advocacy groups, George Soros–backed organizations.” 

Denial and insults from the Trump Administration

Shortly after The New York Times broke the story, the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, called it “fake news.” The State Department went on to say, “unequivocally, we are not seeking anything at Zambia’s expense” only to later demand that “the Government of Zambia must make accountability reforms and take steps to modernize its key industries, including mining. Otherwise, private sector investment in Zambia will not happen.” This condescending tone is unsurprising from an administration that regularly insults Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color, and Global South (particularly African) countries. 

On 20 April PEPFAR’s chief science officer Mike Reid resigned from his post in protest of the extortion proposal. Reid explained his reasoning in a Substack post. He wrote, “When access to treatment or prevention becomes entangled with access to critical minerals or geopolitical positioning, the work is no longer what it claims to be…It is a different model. And I do not believe that model is consistent with the purpose of global health. I do not believe it serves patients, or countries, or ultimately even the long-term interests of the United States.”

And on 5 May the foreign minister of Zambia, Mulambo Haimbe, criticized the U.S. for the proposed deal. Zambia, he said, “takes the view, first and foremost, that Zambians must have a say on how her critical minerals are used.”

A call for solidarity

People in Zambia, like people everywhere, have the right to healthy, dignified lives. They have a right to a sovereign government that can respond to their needs. Communities on the frontlines of mining in Zambia are standing up for a more sustainable future built on respect for human rights and the environment. As the Trump administration’s actions intensify the threat of increased harms from mining, people and organizations in the United States must add our voices.

The post Demanding minerals in exchange for lives in Zambia appeared first on Earthworks.

Quarante ans après l’explosion de la centrale nucléaire de Tchernobyl, la politique de dissimulation menée par l’URSS et ses “satellites” – notamment la Bulgarie – montre comment le secret a alimenté la méfiance tout en mobilisant scientifiques et militants. Leur action a contribué à faire naître des mouvements écologistes qui ont soutenu l’opposition démocratique dans l’ensemble du bloc communiste de l’époque.

À 1 h 23 du matin, le 26 avril 1986, le réacteur n° 4 de la centrale nucléaire de Tchernobyl, alors en URSS, connaît une défaillance catastrophique avant d’exploser, soufflant une partie des installations et laissant le site éventré. Le cœur du réacteur, laissé à nu, libère de grandes quantités de substances radioactives dans l’atmosphère. Dans les mois qui suivent, plus de 200 000 personnes sont évacuées des zones environnantes.

Porté par les vents, le nuage radioactif contamine de vastes régions d’Europe, avec des retombées particulièrement importantes en Ukraine, en Biélorussie et en Russie. Les émissions se poursuivent jusqu’au 5 mai, formant des nuages de césium-137 et d’autres isotopes, dont la concentration diminue avec la distance mais affecte néanmoins de très larges territoires. Le nuage atteint les Balkans le 1er mai.

À l’époque, Dimitar Vatsov était un lycéen de 15 ans à Sofia. “Juste après les pluies radioactives, le Komsomol [l’organisation de jeunesse du Parti communiste soviétique] a envoyé ma classe travailler aux champs”, se souvient-il. “Chaque matin, un bus venait nous chercher pour récolter des épinards et de la ciboulette.”

Jusqu’au 7 mai, les autorités bulgares ne firent aucune annonce publique concernant la catastrophe. Selon les déclarations officielles ultérieures, la contamination environnementale était minime et ne nécessitait aucune mesure particulière. Pourtant, quatre camarades de classe de Vatsov décédèrent d’un cancer dans les années qui suivirent.

Cette expérience l’a profondément marqué. Aujourd’hui philosophe et professeur à la Nouvelle université bulgare de Sofia, il a lancé à l’automne dernier un séminaire entièrement consacré aux conséquences de la catastrophe de Tchernobyl en Bulgarie, réunissant historiens, journalistes et physiciens nucléaires.

“La Bulgarie a été le seul pays du bloc socialiste à ne prendre aucune mesure après la catastrophe”, explique-t-il. Bien que le pays ne se classe qu’au huitième rang des pays les plus exposés aux radiations selon un rapport de l’ONU, il a enregistré le taux le plus élevé de cancers de la thyroïde chez les enfants en dehors de l’ex-URSS. “En tant que philosophe, cette singularité m’a conduit à réfléchir à la vérité, à l’éthique du discours politique et, plus largement, au cynisme du régime communiste de l’époque.”

Le black-out bulgare

Après l’accident de Tchernobyl, l’information a été étroitement filtrée dans les pays du bloc de l’Est afin de minimiser les risques de contamination tout en préservant le prestige de l’URSS. En Tchécoslovaquie, le mot katastrofa a été soigneusement évité dans les premières phases, auquel on a préféré le terme havárie (“accident”), utilisé sans qualificatif. Les rapports officiels mettaient en avant l’expertise et l’héroïsme soviétiques, la maîtrise rapide de l’incident et l’exagération supposée des faits par les “médias impérialistes occidentaux”. Toutefois, la Bulgarie s’est distinguée comme le pays où la censure était la plus stricte et où aucune action significative n’a été entreprise.

“Ceaușescu – l’un des dictateurs les plus autoritaires de l’époque – a averti les Roumains dès le 2 mai du risque de contamination. En Yougoslavie, on demanda aux femmes enceintes et aux enfants de rester à l’intérieur et l’on recommanda des précautions de base, comme laver les aliments frais. En Bulgarie, ce fut un black-out total”, raconte Vatsov.

On ne nous disait rien, on devait simplement obéir. Ce n’est que des années plus tard que j’ai compris l’ampleur réelle de la catastrophe – Petko Kovatchev

Le physicien nucléaire Gueorgui Kaschiev, alors employé à la centrale de Kozlodouy, dans le nord-ouest de la Bulgarie, se souvient très bien de ces journées : “La seule information que nous ayons reçue était qu’il y avait eu un incendie à Tchernobyl et qu’il avait été éteint”. 

Grâce à une grande antenne installée sur son immeuble, Kaschiev captait cependant la télévision yougoslave. “Des informations venues de Suède et de Finlande ont rapidement permis de comprendre que l’incident était bien plus grave que ce qui était reconnu officiellement. Les médias occidentaux diffusaient des images satellites américaines montrant le réacteur détruit, des cartes retraçant le nuage radioactif et des reportages indiquant que la Yougoslavie avait envoyé des avions pour évacuer ses ressortissants qui étudiaient à Kiev.”

Fin avril, Kaschiev et ses collègues comprirent que le nuage se dirigeait vers la Bulgarie. Entre le 1er et le 2 mai, les niveaux de radiation atteignirent jusqu’à dix fois le niveau naturel, en particulier après les pluies. Face au silence persistant des autorités, l’information se diffusa de manière informelle : des ingénieurs avertirent leurs proches de prendre des précautions élémentaires, souvent accueillies avec incrédulité. Des analyses ultérieures d’échantillons alimentaires, notamment du lait provenant de fermes des environs, confirmèrent une contamination extrême.

Des documents d’archives accessibles aujourd’hui montrent que le gouvernement bulgare suivait de près l’évolution de la catastrophe et l’étendue de la contamination en Europe et en Bulgarie, et analysait la presse étrangère, les rapports de renseignement et les mesures quotidiennes de radiation sur l’ensemble du territoire. Pour Vatsov, le Politburo du Parti communiste bulgare craignait qu’une révélation de l’ampleur réelle de la contamination ne provoque la panique et des troubles politiques, comme cela s’était produit en Pologne : “Au-delà de cette première explication, je ne peux que qualifier cette attitude de défaillance morale de la part des élites dirigeantes, qui ont fait preuve d’un profond mépris à l’égard du reste de la population”.

Petko Kovatchev, militant écologiste effectuant alors son service militaire obligatoire, se souvient que l’armée réagit rapidement : “Du jour au lendemain, nous avons cessé de consommer des produits frais et mangions uniquement des conserves au réfectoire. Les activités extérieures furent annulées et nous reçûmes l’ordre de mesurer les niveaux de radiation autour de la base avec des compteurs Geiger”.

Ces mesures ne s’accompagnèrent toutefois d’aucune explication. “On ne nous disait rien, on devait simplement obéir. Ce n’est que des années plus tard que j’ai compris l’ampleur réelle de la catastrophe.”

Le cynisme de la nomenklatura

La gestion des conséquences de Tchernobyl en Bulgarie révéla des inégalités flagrantes dans l’accès à l’information et à la protection sanitaire. Au sommet se trouvait la nomenklatura – hauts responsables du parti, police politique, cadres administratifs et officiers militaires. Durant la crise, ils bénéficièrent d’un accès privilégié à des repas et des provisions distribués via l’hôtel d’État Rila, au centre de Sofia. Le Politburo recevait de l’eau minérale provenant de sources profondes et des aliments importés – agneau australien, légumes d’Égypte et d’Israël – afin d’éviter toute contamination.

Selon Vatsov, l’élite de cette nomenklatura – environ 300 personnes – ne fut jamais en danger, des mesures spéciales ayant été prises pour assurer leur sécurité et leur bien-être : “L’armée appliquait des mesures moins strictes, mais suffisantes pour réduire l’exposition. Le reste de la population, lui, fut maintenu dans une ignorance totale.”

La décision de maintenir le défilé du 1er mai 1986 – au cours duquel de nombreux enfants ont paradé dans les rues de Sofia malgré la menace de pluies radioactives – symbolise ce cynisme. Par chance, la manifestation a débuté à 11 heures, alors que le nuage radioactif n’a atteint le territoire bulgare que dans l’après-midi, au plus tôt vers 14 heures.

De nombreux événements sportifs de propagande ont également été organisés dans tout le pays, ainsi que des travaux forcés encadrés par des brigades de jeunesse, composées principalement de jeunes âgés de 15 à 25 ans. Ces “volontaires” étaient tenus, au moins deux fois par an, d’effectuer des tâches physiquement éprouvantes telles que des travaux agricoles ou de construction. On estime qu’environ 365 000 jeunes ont été exposés de cette manière.

Le 10 mai, après une réunion au ministère de l’Énergie à Sofia, Kaschiev rend visite à sa belle-sœur. Des enfants jouent dehors devant l’immeuble, tandis que les adultes discutent tranquillement. Lorsqu’il les exhorte à garder les enfants à l’intérieur et à ne pas les laisser jouer dans le bac à sable, son avertissement est rejeté. “On m’a accusé de vouloir semer la panique”, raconte-t-il. “Quelqu’un a même insinué que j’étais sans doute un agent occidental et a menacé de me dénoncer aux autorités.”

Dans tous les pays du bloc de l’Est, malgré des mesures souvent insuffisantes, les défilés du 1er mai furent maintenus. En Pologne également, les célébrations eurent lieu comme prévu, tandis que le gouvernement niait publiquement tout risque sanitaire. Dans le même temps, les autorités polonaises distribuaient de l’iode et limitaient la vente de lait. La distribution rapide d’iode, commencée le 29 avril dans l’après-midi, est souvent citée comme une réponse exemplaire à une urgence radioactive : en trois jours, 18,5 millions de personnes –  adultes et enfants – reçurent un comprimé d’iode.

Scientifiques et activisme environnemental

Juste après la chute du régime, Kovatchev apprit davantage sur la catastrophe de Tchernobyl et ses conséquences grâce à une exposition organisée par des physiciens de l’université de Sofia. Sous le communisme déjà, certains d’entre eux faisaient partie de réseaux écologistes informels qui deviendraient plus tard Ecoglasnost, organisation que Kovatchev rejoignit comme étudiant.

Fondée au printemps 1989, quelques mois avant la chute du communisme, Ecoglasnost était un mouvement civique axé sur la protection de l’environnement, né du climat de libéralisation politique inspiré par la glasnost soviétique. À l’automne, Ecoglasnost organisait des pétitions et des manifestations publiques, dont le rassemblement du 3 novembre à Sofia, considéré comme l’une des premières mobilisations civiques ouvertes contre le régime communiste. Le mouvement a rapidement élargi ses revendications aux libertés civiles et aux réformes démocratiques.

En décembre 1989, il est devenu la première organisation politique non communiste officiellement reconnue en Bulgarie. Il a ensuite joué un rôle clé dans la structuration de l’opposition démocratique en rejoignant l’Union des forces démocratiques. Il a également initié les premières inspections de la centrale de Kozlodouy.

L’engagement de la communauté scientifique dans les luttes environnementales contribua à l’affaiblissement du régime dans ses dernières années. Cette implication s’était déjà manifestée en 1987 à Roussé, dans le nord du pays. À l’époque, la pollution atmosphérique provenant d’une usine chimique située de l’autre côté de la frontière roumaine avait déclenché de vastes protestations. De ce mouvement naquit le Conseil public pour la protection de l’environnement de Roussé, première organisation informelle tolérée sous le communisme, qui joua un rôle décisif dans les premières mobilisations nationales et la transition démocratique.

À la même période, la découverte de matières radioactives sous forme de “particules chaudes” en Bulgarie – preuve de l’ampleur de la catastrophe de Tchernobyl – incita plusieurs physiciens à surveiller étroitement la crise et à en étudier les conséquences. L’exposition de l’Université de Sofia visitée par Kovatchev en décembre 1989 était le fruit de ce travail.

Des mouvements similaires émergent dans d’autres pays du bloc socialiste, comme la Hongrie et la Tchécoslovaquie, mêlant engagement scientifique et prise de conscience écologique et démocratique.

Les préoccupations environnementales sont devenues un élément moteur, exprimant des exigences de responsabilité et de transparence. Ce phénomène a nourri les réseaux réformistes qui ont ensuite contribué à façonner la transition négociée de la Hongrie vers la démocratie.

Alors que les niveaux de radiation augmentaient à la fin du mois d’avril et au début du mois de mai 1986, des scientifiques et des professionnels de santé hongrois documentaient la contamination et échangaient des informations de manière informelle, tandis que la communication officielle demeurait limitée et rassurante. L’écart croissant entre le savoir des experts et le discours public a créé une dissonance morale chez ces professionnels, tiraillés entre leur intégrité scientifique et leur loyauté envers l’État. Dans ce contexte, les préoccupations environnementales sont devenues un élément moteur, exprimant des exigences de responsabilité et de transparence. Ce phénomène a nourri les réseaux réformistes qui ont ensuite contribué à façonner la transition négociée de la Hongrie vers la démocratie.

Dans l’ancienne Tchécoslovaquie, la catastrophe de Tchernobyl a également contribué à galvaniser les mouvements écologistes, qui sont devenus par la suite des acteurs clés de la Révolution de velours en 1989. Bien que le régime fût l’un des plus répressifs du bloc de l’Est, il tolérait davantage l’activisme environnemental que la dissidence politique ouverte, considérant les préoccupations liées à la pollution, à la contamination de l’eau ou à la dégradation des paysages comme relativement inoffensives et difficiles à censurer.

La seconde vague de contamination

Faute de mesures prises par les autorités bulgares, vaches, moutons et chèvres continuèrent à paître sur des pâturages contaminés et à consommer des fourrages radioactifs jusqu’au printemps 1987. Les produits laitiers issus de cette chaîne alimentaire restèrent en circulation, entraînant une “seconde vague” de contamination estimée à près de 30 % de l’exposition totale. Cette situation – unique dans l’histoire de Tchernobyl – explique en partie les taux exceptionnellement élevés de cancers de la thyroïde chez les très jeunes enfants en Bulgarie.

La physicienne retraitée Liliana Prodanova, à l’époque chercheuse à l’Institut de physique de l’état solide, n’a appris la gravité de la situation qu’à la mi-mai. “Mon mari était vice-recteur de l’Université technique de Sofia. Moi-même, je me spécialisais dans la recherche sur le silicium, nous comprenions donc parfaitement les implications de cette contamination. Nous avons pris des précautions discrètes, comme laver systématiquement les aliments. Nous avons aussi retiré la terre contaminée autour de notre maison de campagne. Cette année-là, nous n’avons rien planté.”

Elle se souvient que des amis leur demandaient souvent de mesurer la radioactivité des yaourts destinés aux enfants, à l’aide des instruments de l’institut. “Nous le faisions discrètement, sans demander d’autorisation officielle.”

La nomenklatura, en revanche, était parfaitement consciente des risques. Elle testait les produits laitiers qu’elle consommait et importait le reste de l’étranger. À la périphérie de Sofia, les pâturages autour du palais royale de Vrana – alors occupé par des responsables du parti – furent fauchés en mai pour éviter la contamination. Le foin fut ensuite redistribué à des coopératives d’élevage fournissant la capitale, qui produisirent ensuite des produits laitiers contaminés.

Les physiciens de la centrale de Kozlodouy utilisèrent un des laboratoires pour développer leurs propres instruments de mesure, se souvient Kaschiev. Ils conçurent notamment un dispositif permettant d’évaluer l’exposition de la thyroïde aux radiations. “Ceux qui n’avaient pris aucune précaution début mai, en particulier les personnes parties en vacances à ce moment-là, ont été exposés à des niveaux de contamination jusqu’à 10 000 fois supérieurs aux nôtres. Début mai, j’ai fait des réserves de fromage et de lait en poudre. Cela nous a probablement protégé de la seconde vague”, explique-t-il.

Les dissidents de Tchernobyl

Il n’existait pas de dissidents en Bulgarie avant l’accident de Tchernobyl, assure Vatsov. “La prise de conscience d’avoir été trompé par les autorités et exposé à de graves risques sanitaires a façonné l’engagement politique de toute une génération, en particulier au sein de la communauté scientifique.”

Kaschiev, dont l’engagement politique et le parcours professionnel a été déterminé par la catastrophe, est un exemple emblématique. Sa colère face aux défaillances morales et politiques du régime l’a conduit à se spécialiser dans la sûreté nucléaire. À partir de la fin des années 1980, il est passé de la physique des réacteurs à l’évaluation des risques, d’abord comme employé à l’intérieur de la centrale, puis comme enseignant universitaire et inspecteur nucléaire. En 1997, il a été nommé directeur du laboratoire national de régulation nucléaire de Bulgarie.

Dans d’autres pays socialistes, la catastrophe de Tchernobyl devint également un catalyseur de l’opposition au régime. En Pologne, elle donna naissance à un puissant mouvement antinucléaire. Les craintes liées à la catastrophe se transformèrent rapidement en opposition au projet de centrale nucléaire de Żarnowiec, déclenchant des protestations nationales impliquant groupes écologistes, militants locaux et dissidents tels que Lech Wałęsa, futur premier président démocratiquement élu du pays.

Lors d’un référendum organisé en 1990 en même temps que les élections locales, plus de 86 % des votants rejetèrent le projet de Żarnowiec, entraînant son abandon définitif. Comme le souligne le politologue Kacper Szulecki, ces mobilisations ont à la fois reflété et accéléré de profondes transformations sociales et générationnelles, tout en sapant davantage la légitimité de Moscou en Pologne.

Si la catastrophe a laissé une empreinte durable dans la société bulgare, elle n’a pas débouché sur un vaste mouvement antinucléaire. La centrale de Kozlodouy, modernisée et toujours en activité, est largement perçue comme une source de fierté nationale et une garantie d’indépendance énergétique. La gestion catastrophique de Tchernobyl a surtout mis en lumière l’indécence et le cynisme du régime communiste, ainsi que l’irrationalité de son idéologie.

En décembre 1991, après la chute du régime, la Cour suprême de Sofia condamne l’ancien ministre de la Santé Lyubomir Shindarov et l’ancien vice-Premier ministre Grigor Stoichkov, accusés d’avoir délibérément trompé la population, pour négligence criminelle. Après un long processus d’appel, leurs peines sont réduites respectivement à deux et trois ans de prison. Ils restent les seuls hauts responsables du régime bulgare à avoir été réellement poursuivis et condamnés pour la gestion de la catastrophe de Tchernobyl.

Pour le physicien nucléaire Atanas Krastanov, jeune chercheur dans les années 1980 et témoin de la mauvaise gestion de la catastrophe par les autorités, l’énergie nucléaire en tant que telle n’est pas le problème. “L’accident de Tchernobyl fut avant tout le résultat d’une erreur humaine” estime Krastanov, précisant “qu’il ne s’agissait pas à l’origine d’une explosion nucléaire, mais d’une explosion thermique due à une accumulation de pression”. Aujourd’hui, Krastanov travaille comme expert au Centre de prévention des catastrophes, accidents et crises de la mairie de Sofia. Il a récemment participé à l’écriture d’un film documentaire sur le sujet, dont la sortie est prévue à l’automne 2026.

Quel avenir pour le nucléaire ?

Le militant écologiste Petko Kovatchev, proche de l’ONG Za Zemiata et de réseaux antinucléaires, conteste cette lecture : “L’argument de l’erreur humaine n’est pas valable”, affirme-t-il, car “la plupart des accidents industriels et nucléaires ont pour origine une erreur humaine. Cela ne signifie pas que le nucléaire soit sûr”. Il ajoute que le soutien populaire à l’énergie nucléaire en Bulgarie repose principalement sur des préoccupations liées à l’indépendance énergétique et au faible coût de l’électricité, plutôt que sur des considérations scientifiques ou éthiques.

Dans ce contexte, la construction d’une nouvelle centrale nucléaire à Béléné, dans le nord de la Bulgarie, pourrait encore voir le jour. Malgré une forte opposition des organisations environnementales et des populations locales, un référendum national organisé en 2013 a approuvé le projet. Abandonné puis relancé à plusieurs reprises – principalement pour des raisons géopolitiques, le projet initial impliquant un réacteur russe de troisième génération – il pourrait désormais être confié à la société française Framatome et à l’américain General Electric.

Le projet de vente à l’Ukraine des réacteurs déjà construits sur le site de Béléné, dans le but de remplacer la centrale de Zaporijjia actuellement sous contrôle russe, a finalement été abandonné. Le dernier gouvernement a même envisagé de faire de ce projet de centrale une source d’électricité pour de futurs data centers.

La gestion catastrophique de Tchernobyl a surtout mis en lumière l’indécence et le cynisme du régime communiste, ainsi que l’irrationalité de son idéologie.

Par ailleurs, deux nouveaux réacteurs sont prévus sur le site de Kozlodouy, construits par des entreprises canadiennes. Mise en service en 1970, la centrale n’exploite aujourd’hui que ses deux réacteurs les plus récents, datant de 1988 et 1993. Les plus anciens ont été arrêtés dans les années 2000 sous la pression de l’Union européenne, qui avait conditionné l’adhésion de la Bulgarie à leur fermeture.

Autrefois décrite comme l’une des centrales nucléaires les plus dangereuses au monde, Kozlodouy répond aujourd’hui à l’ensemble des exigences de sûreté de l’Agence internationale de l’énergie atomique (AIEA). Le site accueille également une installation de stockage de déchets nucléaires, dont la mise en service est prévue pour 2027. Les militants écologistes dénoncent toutefois régulièrement le manque de transparence entourant les décisions industrielles, les incidents et les accidents affectant la centrale.

Gueorgui Kaschiev se montre très critique à l’égard de la gouvernance nucléaire en Bulgarie. Pour lui, le projet de Béléné relève de la “catastrophe financière” et constitue un véhicule à des détournements de fonds publics. À Kozlodouy, il pointe une dégradation des conditions : hausse des coûts des pièces de rechange et de la maintenance, baisse de la production d’énergie en dessous des recommandations internationales, et défaillances techniques telles que des fuites dans le générateur de vapeur du réacteur n° 6. “La culture de la sûreté se détériore clairement”, avertit-il.

Cet article a été réalisé dans le cadre du projet PULSE, une initiative européenne qui soutient les collaborations journalistiques transnationales. Andrea Braschayko, Martin Vrba, and Daniel Harper y ont contribué.

For well over a year now, the Save the Gibbons Alliance, a group of small-ape conservationists and media professionals focused on protecting these long-armed primates from illegal trade, has been tracking a worrying problem. They’ve documented at least one gibbon-smuggling incident per month, either at a southeast Asian airport or an Indian one, each involving multiple gibbon babies or juveniles. News reports of these seizures in the local media are often accompanied by heartbreaking images of distressed or dead gibbon babies, stuffed into check-in or carry-on baggage.

“The level of complexity and organization that needs to be involved in this is just huge,” says Dr. Susan Cheyne, senior lecturer in primate conservation at the Oxford Brookes University and a member of the Save the Gibbon Alliance.

Some months the number of seizure incidents has gone up to three or four. These confiscations have happened either during departure from Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia or from Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand, or upon arrival at various Indian airports.

This frequency of gibbon confiscations “is not something we’ve seen commonly in the past,” says Kanitha Krishnasamy, Southeast Asia director for TRAFFIC, a nongovernmental organization monitoring the illegal wildlife trade.

A  recent report by TRAFFIC sheds light on the scale of the trade in the past decade (2016 – 2025). According to data they provided, some of which was collected after the report, 93 trafficked gibbons were confiscated across south and southeast Asia in 2025 alone.

“It’s the highest number of gibbons we’ve seen confiscated in the last 10 years,” says Krishnasamy. This number — which includes gibbons kept as pets as well as those being smuggled across international borders via air, sea, and land — amounts to a third of the gibbons seized in the previous nine years (2016-2024).

In the past decade, Indonesia has had the highest number gibbon-confiscation incidents and individuals seized, partly due to the robust domestic trade and in part due to increased attention by authorities. But more recently India and Malaysia have emerged at the heart of international gibbon-smuggling attempts.

According to TRAFFIC 33 gibbon-smuggling incidents were recorded in the past 10 years, most of which involved multiple animals at a time. Of these India was involved in 26 attempts as the destination (or possible mid-transit) country, while Malaysia was involved in 20 incidents as the source or transit point for gibbons trafficked from Indonesia and other southeast Asian range countries.

“In the past we’ve seen countless species from India being trafficked into the southeast Asian market,” says Krishnasamy. “We seem to be seeing something different now — gibbons and other mammals sourced from southeast Asia headed to the Indian market.

The Singing Apes

Gibbons are small, agile apes, found in 11 countries across Asia, from northeast India to the western islands of Indonesia. They are known for their loud, melodious calls known as “songs” that reverberate through forests. Of the 20 recognized gibbon species, the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists five as critically endangered, 14 as endangered, and one as vulnerable due to severe habitat loss and poaching for the illegal pet trade.

 

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The two subspecies of siamang — the largest gibbons (in size) — are the most trafficked. “Over 30% of confiscations involve siamangs,” says Krishnasamy.

Other gibbon species that appear often in international trade include agile gibbons (Hylobates agilis), lar gibbons (H. lar), and Javan gibbons (H. moloch). “The majority of gibbons that turn up in trade are most likely to have come from Indonesia or Malaysia,” confirms Cheyne.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species lists all gibbon species under what’s known as Appendix I, which offers them the highest level of protection and prohibits their commercial trade internationally. The apes are also protected under national law in their respective countries, making it illegal to hunt, capture, own, or trade them. If people are arrested and prosecuted for violating these statutes, punishment can include fines and years of imprisonment. Yet according to experts, enforcement remains woefully weak.

“There is a lack of capacity to take these cases to prosecution and to effectively investigate the trade networks,” says Cheyne.

What Is Driving the Demand?

Krishnasamy posits two reasons for the skyrocketing demand for gibbons from India.

“Either there is some sort of a fad of people wanting to keep gibbons as pets in India, or they are heading to facilities like zoos, safaris, or potentially even breeding facilities,” she says. “Which of the two is actually happening requires deeper investigation in India.”

She shares the example of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, which influenced the turtle trade, or the Harry Potter series, which has led to an increase in the illegal trade in owls. “It’s hard to say what is driving this particular trend where gibbons are concerned,” she says.

Indian lawyer Pawan Sharma is the founder of Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare, a rescue and rehabilitation facility located on the outskirts of Mumbai that provides medical care to the gibbons and other wildlife confiscated at the city’s airport. “We have seen more than 300 species intercepted at the airport, from anacondas to Komodo dragons,” says Sharma, adding that some Indians have a voracious appetite for exotic pets.

Online marketplaces provide a major platform for wildlife trade. Social media giant Meta recently shut down nine Indonesian Facebook groups — consisting of thousands of members — which were involved in the trade of endangered wildlife, including gibbons.

However, with criminals always staying one step ahead of the law, some traffickers have moved to more discreet modes of communication. Sharma cites the example of Google Pay being used by traffickers to talk to prospective buyers.

“A large part of the illegal wildlife trade is ultimately driven by human behavior,” says Cheyne. “It is, unfortunately, just another manifestation of the human desire for something different.”

Sourcing the Gibbons

Krishnasamy elaborates on the complexity of the trafficking process.

“It takes time, effort and connections to locate the gibbons in the forest, track them, capture them, transport them to middlemen — one or several — pack them and move them across international borders,” she says. “Not just at the point of exit from Malaysia or Thailand, but also identifying the people carrying and receiving them at the other end, and how to ensure safe passage,” she adds. “All this points to organized criminality.”

Female gibbons reproduce slowly and have a single baby once every two or three years. In most cases, mothers are killed to obtain infants. “If the group is without an adult female, it may allow an opportunity for a new adult female to come in or the group may break down,” says Cheyne.

Indiscriminate shooting could also result in the death of other individuals in the group. Rescued gibbon babies have often been found with pellets lodged in them.

“Ultimately there’s a knock-on consequence for gibbons in the wild,” adds Cheyne.

With a high death rate during the smuggling process, traffickers capture multiple gibbon babies from the wild for the transaction to remain profitable.

“They calculate that 90% of the gibbon babies will die,” says Sinan Serhadli, who is affiliated with two gibbon conservation projects in Asia. Even with this high mortality rate, the trade remains profitable for the traffickers, he adds.

Modes of Trafficking

In addition to trafficking by air, smuggling across international borders also happens by land and sea, which is harder to monitor.

“We’ve seen many cases of wildlife smuggling through land borders,” says Krishnasamy, who points to the Mekong region (which includes Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia) and the Malay Peninsula (which includes southern Thailand and peninsular Malaysia).

The borders between India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh are also porous. Serhadli says about five western hoolock gibbons (Hoolock hoolock) are currently being rehabilitated at a facility in Bangladesh. They were confiscated from commuter buses and appeared to be heading to India.

The Strait of Malacca, a narrow stretch of water separating the island of Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia, is emerging as another hotspot for wildlife trade, with Medan, a city in northeast Sumatra, becoming a key transit hub.

“A lot of wildlife from Sumatra is being brought to Medan,” says Serhadli. “It then goes over the Strait of Malacca either to Thailand or to Malaysia, and then via plane to India.”

In 2025 16 gibbon babies, along with dozens of other wild animals, were confiscated from a boat in the Strait of Malacca.

“This [seizure] is just the tip of the iceberg,” says Serhadli. Only three gibbons survived the ordeal and are currently undergoing rehabilitation at a facility run by the Orangutan Information Centre in northwest Sumatra.

Panut Hadisiswoyo, founder of OIC, says that he has spoken to Malaysian authorities about the urgent need to monitor the Strait of Malacca. “We need to work together to watch the Malacca Strait and prevent the wildlife trade,” he says.

The Next Steps

Krishnasamy wants people to realize that gibbon trafficking is a crime.

“It’s a well-planned illegal operation that harms not just threatened species, but also the carriers who are caught,” she says. These carriers are often low-income people, not those who profit most from the crimes. She hopes there will be increased cooperation between the countries involved, particularly on in-depth investigations.

In an effort to curb the increasing wildlife trafficking at Malaysian airports, TRAFFIC recently conducted a training session for nearly 200 frontline airport personnel to help them identify and respond to wildlife trafficking.

Reacting to the rise in wildlife trafficking via Indian airports, the Directorate of Civil Aviation issued a directive in July 2025 placing the full responsibility — including costs — of repatriating trafficked wildlife on the airline that carries the animals into the country. This has created additional pressure on inbound airlines to improve monitoring and checks. Lawyer Sharma confirms that the repatriations are already being done.

Still, many questions remain unanswered. What happens to the gibbons once they are sent back? Do they survive the repatriation process? Do they reach a rehabilitation facility, or do they end up getting trafficked again?

“Ultimately, we have to tackle demand,” says Cheyne. “There are people that take gibbons from the wild, there are those that sell them, there are those that buy them, there are those who live next to a forest and have them — it’s important to identify the different groups because they need to be targeted differently,” she adds. “If there’s no market for these animals, people will stop taking them out of the wild.”

Republish this article for free! Read our reprint policy. Previously in The Revelator:

The Exotic Pet Trade Harms Animals and Humans. The European Union Is Studying a Potential Solution

The post Asian Forests Grow Increasingly Silent as Gibbon Trafficking Hits an All-Time High appeared first on The Revelator.

Hina West is managing director of Climate Strategies.

The first Global Conference on Transitioning away from Fossil Fuels, organised by Colombia and the Netherlands, in Santa Marta late last month convened nearly 60 countries, as well as activists, Indigenous peoples, the private sector and academia. The aim of this historic event was to build a “coalition of the willing” driving action for fossil fuel phase-out beyond the UN climate process.

The stakes could not have been higher. As the planet grapples with catastrophic warming, economic instability and geopolitical conflicts fuelled by fossil fuel dependence, this conference represented a rare opportunity to reshape global energy governance, putting science and justice at the core.

For decades, fossil fuel phase-out has been the elephant in the room at climate COPs. Now is finally the time to have this conversation, with Santa Marta as the starting point.

So, what’s needed for this process to succeed? In the days preceding the political conference, all the different social group chapters – including academia, labour, private sector, civil society and Peoples (including Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, peasants, frontline collectives and youth, among others) – developed ambitious recommendations to inform this new multilateral process.

As one of the co-hosts of the academic dialogue, I have learned a clear lesson on what is needed for Santa Marta to create actual breakthroughs for the global energy transition.

Looking where it matters

As someone working at the climate science-policy interface, I believe that science-based evidence is a crucial pathway towards implementing just, orderly and equitable transitions away from fossil fuels.

Yet, as Santa Marta convened colleagues from all over the world, we heard a clear call from representatives of regions directly impacted by the fossil fuel economy: We are over-diagnosed. The evidence is all here, and what we need now is action.

This is a humbling call for the research community: while we remain committed to the creation of knowledge, how can we ensure that these efforts lead to practical outcomes?

As we explored within the academic dialogue ahead of and at Santa Marta, international support for Just Transitions does not often strengthen the capacity of local actors (who are at the frontline) to develop and deliver just transition strategies. If the Santa Marta process wants to translate high-level commitments into credible and effective transition strategies, it must address this gap.

• May 8, 2026 Comment Developing countries must hold the pen to script the fossil fuel transition While the Santa Marta summit has broken the UNFCCC deadlock on phasing out fossil fuels, the new process must not be taken over by Global North nations and their institutions Read more
• Apr 30, 2026 News Santa Marta summit kick-starts work on key steps for fossil fuel transition The conference offers some 60 nations help to develop roadmaps to shift their economies away from coal, oil and gas, and make international trade green Read more

Our discussion created a series of recommendations to address the challenge. Among them, we see the need for stronger collaborative governance across all scales and regions – from the global to the local and including South-to-South partnerships – that explicitly supports the local delivery of transition pathways. This is a gigantic task, made harder by the limited resources available.

Today, climate finance remains systematically skewed towards technical and infrastructural investment, at the expense of social and justice programmes. Current regulatory frameworks and investment criteria must be redesigned so that following Just Transition goals brings financial returns, to ensure that resources are directed where they are most needed. Grant-based mechanisms and highly concessional finance must also be strengthened.

Social dialogue and public participation

Local communities and livelihoods must be placed at the centre of this process, to ensure that interventions are inclusive, aligned with territorial development strategies, and comprehensively address transition impacts (including informal and gendered work).

This requires strong mechanisms for social dialogue and public participation, to be established early on and maintained throughout the implementation of Just Transition strategies. These can take different forms, such as legally binding participation frameworks, public interest committees and community-led advisory bodies.

Grassroots communities must be recognised as co-producers of knowledge, not as consultees or receivers of information. This is also applicable to the Santa Marta process.

Climate scientists call for fossil fuel transition roadmaps

An expected highlight of this conference was the inclusion of underrepresented groups, including subnational governments, frontline communities, and Indigenous Peoples. Their active participation is crucial to ensure that the transition strategies discussed are not just technically sound, but socially just and locally relevant. These voices must be at the heart of the conference’s final outcomes.

Nevertheless, Santa Marta was only the starting point of this ambitious multilateral process, and also in itself, not free from controversies. The transition away from fossil fuels will bring many uncertainties which require continuous learning and adaptation.

What next?

Taking a ‘build the ship as we sail it’ approach to this new layer of cooperation did not come without friction – be it from balancing Global South and North representation and short input deadlines, to knowing who had charge of the pen before, during and after the creation of our chapter’s output report, intended to feed into the subsequent high-level segment.

I believe that robust, inclusive and context-specific analysis is essential for Just Transition planning and implementation. But as the expert community, we must provide this with solidarity, humility, and willingness to learn from those at the frontline of the transition.

Many learnings surfaced regarding methodology and decision-making, and enhancing overall transparency and inclusivity for the next pre-science convening (and the broader event), currently mooted to be happening in Ireland, with the diplomatic gathering in Tuvalu, at some point next year.

Türkiye’s COP31 presidency and IEA join forces on clean energy push

As we look towards the multilateral milestones ahead – Bonn, Tuvalu, Antalya – the message from Santa Marta is clear. This international momentum must be laser-focused on ensuring practical outcomes on the ground.

What we need now is not another layer of dialogue or more diagnosis, but concrete action: binding and consistent commitments, robust and accountable governance, and finance that prioritises people and the planet. The future we want is within reach, and we have more than enough evidence to demonstrate it, but we need our resources and efforts to be aligned where it matters.

The post Santa Marta was a learning moment for how to shape inclusive just transitions appeared first on Climate Home News.

While our emissions are trapping heat near the surface of the Earth, they are having the opposite effect in the upper atmosphere. For decades, the stratosphere has been cooling. A new study helps explain why.

Read more on E360 →

When cleaning crews dug deep into New Orleans’ clogged drains in 2018, they pulled up leaves, mud — and 46 tons of Mardi Gras beads. 

The sheer magnitude of waste accumulated over decades of Carnivals — and its impact on the flood-prone city’s drainage system — shocked many residents and city officials. 

“Once you hear a number like that, there’s no going back,” then-Public Works director Dani Galloway said at the time. “So we’ve got to do better.”

But nearly a decade later, New Orleans is generating more Mardi Gras garbage than ever. During the roughly five weeks of this year’s Carnival season, crews collected 1,363 tons of beaded necklaces, beer cans, plastic cups, and other refuse along the city’s parade routes — a 24 percent increase from the year before and the highest total on record. The trash tonnage is the equivalent of 741 cars. In New Orleans terms, it’s roughly the weight of the Steamboat Natchez or more than 1 million king cakes.  

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“To see the waste go up that much, it’s just absurd,” said Brett Davis, founder of Grounds Krewe, a nonprofit group trying to make Mardi Gras more sustainable through recycling and waste reduction efforts. 

It’s a century-old tradition for riders on parade floats to shower crowds with beaded necklaces, toys, and other items — collectively known as “throws.” Most are cheap plastic trinkets. The beads are often laden with toxic chemicals, including unsafe levels of lead. Many throws are dropped moments after they’re caught, then crushed under feet and eventually swept up and hauled to landfills. 

City officials initially blamed the rise in rubbish on the popularity of this year’s festivities, which ran from January 6 to February 17 and included more than 30 float parades. An estimated 2.2 million people visited downtown New Orleans during the Carnival season, about 10 percent more than in 2025, according to the Downtown Development District, which drew on data from location analytics company Placer.ai.

“The increase from last year was directly associated with the larger crowds,” Matt Torri, the city’s sanitation director, told the City Council in March. “Anybody who was out at this year’s parades definitely took note that there seemed to be more people enjoying the Carnival season, which is great for the city.”

But a Verite News analysis of annual attendance and city cleanup records shows no clear relationship between crowds and trash levels. Overall, Mardi Gras waste tonnage has trended upward over the past decade, regardless of the year-to-year changes in attendance. The Mardi Gras season in 2020, for instance, drew more people — about 2.4 million — but produced roughly 241 fewer tons of garbage than in 2026.

In the early 2010s, trash tonnage hovered around 880 tons. It spiked in 2017, surpassing 1,320 tons, and has not fallen below 1,000 tons since. The only exception was 2021, when no trash was recorded because the city canceled parades and most Carnival festivities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

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(styleWidth > 0 ? styleWidth : 0) : 0) || 600); const svgHeight = getSvgHeight(); const baseMargins = { top: 20, right: 20, bottom: 36 }; const height = svgHeight - baseMargins.top - baseMargins.bottom; if (height <= 0) return; const x = d3.scaleTime(); const yLeft = d3.scaleLinear().range([height, 0]); const yRight = d3.scaleLinear().range([height, 0]); // Attendance domain (left axis) — range from ~1.8M to ~2.4M like the original const [attMin, attMax] = d3.extent(attendanceData, d => d.y); const attPadding = (attMax - attMin) * 0.15; yLeft.domain([attMin - attPadding, attMax + attPadding]); // Trash domain (right axis) — range from ~1000 to ~1400 like the original const [trashMin, trashMax] = d3.extent(trashData, d => d.y); const trashPadding = (trashMax - trashMin) * 0.15; yRight.domain([trashMin - trashPadding, trashMax + trashPadding]); x.domain(d3.extent(attendanceData, d => d.x)); // Measure both y-axis widths const leftMeasure = measureYAxisWidth(svg, yLeft, height, d => formatAxisTick(d)); 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const xTickInterval = d3.timeYear.every(stepYears); // Grid lines based on left axis svg.append('g') .attr('class', 'axis-grid') .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${height + margin.top})`) .call(d3.axisBottom(x).ticks(xTickInterval).tickSize(-height).tickFormat('')); svg.append('g') .attr('class', 'axis-grid') .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${margin.top})`) .call(d3.axisLeft(yLeft).ticks(leftMeasure.tickCount).tickSize(-width).tickFormat('')); // X axis const xAxis = g => g .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${height + margin.top})`) .call(d3.axisBottom(x).ticks(xTickInterval).tickFormat(d3.timeFormat('%Y'))) .selectAll('text') .attr('class', 'nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__axis-label') .style('fill', COLORS.TEXT) .style('text-anchor', 'middle'); // Left y-axis (Attendance) const yLeftAxisGen = d3.axisLeft(yLeft) .ticks(leftMeasure.tickCount) .tickFormat(d => formatAxisTick(d)) .tickPadding(leftMeasure.tickPadding); const yLeftAxis = g => g .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${margin.top})`) .call(yLeftAxisGen) .selectAll('text') .attr('class', 'nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__axis-label') .style('fill', COLORS.SERIES[0]); 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if (isDarkMode) { linePath.style('filter', 'url(#nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash-glow)'); } const last = series.values[series.values.length - 1]; const dotRadius = 5; const circle = chart.append('circle') .attr('class', 'pulsing-dot') .attr('cx', x(last.x)) .attr('cy', yScale(last.y)) .attr('r', dotRadius) .style('fill', series.color); pulsingCircles.push(circle); labelInfos.push({ series, dotX: x(last.x), dotY: yScale(last.y), dotRadius, labelText: formatCompactWithB(last.y) }); }); const LABEL_V_PADDING = 4; const MAX_VERTICAL_OFFSET = 40; const SIDE_GAP = 8; const EXTRA_HORIZONTAL_OFFSET = 12; const LINE_CLEARANCE_FACTOR = 1.5; const MIN_LABEL_HEIGHT = 14; labelInfos.forEach(info => { const temp = chart.append('text') .attr('class', 'data-label') .attr('x', -9999) .attr('y', -9999) .text(info.labelText); const bbox = temp.node().getBBox(); info.width = bbox.width; info.height = Math.max(bbox.height || MIN_LABEL_HEIGHT, MIN_LABEL_HEIGHT); info.textEl = temp; }); function resolveCollisions(labels, chartWidth, chartHeight) { labels.forEach(lbl => { const rightStartX = lbl.dotX + lbl.dotRadius + SIDE_GAP; 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Since 2020, when the Downtown Development District began tracking visits in the Central Business and Warehouse districts, annual attendance has stayed within a relatively tight range, between 1.9 million and 2.4 million. Still, the trash tally has swung wildly, indicating that other factors are at play. The development district doesn’t track citywide visits, but its annual downtown tally is considered the most accurate indication of Carnival attendance. 

The office of Mayor Helena Moreno and the city’s sanitation department did not respond to requests for comment. 

Parade trash remains a problem for the city’s drainage system. After the infamous bead blockage of 2018, the city began installing temporary filter contraptions, known as “gutter buddies,” at catch basins along parade routes, but conservation groups say the outfalls still spew more litter into canals and Lake Pontchartrain during the Carnival season.

The upswing in trash is occurring alongside a seemingly contradictory trend of waste reduction. In recent years, many parade organizations, called krewes, have cut back on plastic beads and other “junk” throws. They’ve opted for higher-value items like socks, baseball caps, wooden cooking spoons, and metal drinking cups. 

Grounds Krewe and other groups have also expanded their recycling efforts. They set set up stations to collect bottles, cans, and reusable throws, and some volunteers even pick through the parade debris for recyclable items. This year, the groups diverted about 28 tons from landfills. That’s despite the city pulling back its support for recycling this year because of budget concerns. Even if the city government spent the $200,000 it initially earmarked for recycling, “it’s not going to reverse the 24 percent gain” in waste, Davis said.  

There was some hope that the volume of throws would be curbed by rising prices for beads and other trinkets, a result of higher inflation and President Donald Trump’s steep tariffs on imports from China, where most beads are made. Some parade-goers said they noticed the change, taking to social media to complain about stingier krewes.

“We are really perplexed,” Davis said. “All that is happening, with people throwing fewer beads and a lot of krewes switching to higher-quality throws, but waste is still going upward.” 

The swelling tonnage may have less to do with the throwers and more with the catchers. Davis and some city leaders say parade-goers are setting up earlier, staying longer, and bringing even more of the comforts of home: folding chairs, canopy tents, coolers, grills, and wagonloads of food. They’re also chaining together walls of ladders, erecting scaffolding, installing portable toilets, and plunking down generators and old sofas. As the season ends, many of these items are broken, dirty, or too much of a hassle to haul home. 

These abandoned items, which can range in weight from 5 pounds for a folding chair to 300 pounds for a couch, are an increasingly heavy lift for cleanup crews, City Council President JP Morrell said.

“The reality is that they get their use out of this stuff, and then it becomes a tremendous amount of debris that our workers have to deal with because these people had no intention of ever picking this stuff up,” he said. “It goes towards a sense of abject entitlement — that our entire city exists to serve other people’s whims.”

Discarded Mardi Gras beads and trash cover a street after 2014 Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, Louisiana. Gerald Herbert / AP Photo

Many of these gear-laden revelers are territorial, roping off patches of sidewalk or spreading tarps across grassy street medians, known locally as neutral grounds. These public-space appropriators have come to be known as the “Krewe of Chad,” after the name, spraypainted across a large patch of grass, went viral in 2013. 

These “Chadders,” as Morrell calls them, appear emboldened by the recent ebb in the enforcement of the city’s parade rules. Officially, early birds aren’t supposed to set up until four hours before a parade starts, but this rule is regularly flouted. In 2024, the list of banned items grew to include many of the things that have become commonplace — tents, tarps, and viewing platforms among them. A crackdown that year, which included the seizure of truckloads of encampment gear, appeared to briefly change behavior, Davis said. 

But last year, the city announced it would scale back enforcement and prioritize security after a terror attack on New Year’s Day killed 14 people on Bourbon Street. 

Enforcement was further scaled back by the city’s current budget crisis. Amid layoffs and other cutbacks aimed at reducing a $220 million deficit, Morrell admitted that efforts to clear Carnival encampments would be “spotty.”

“How are they going to enforce it? Well, to be honest, we’re hard up for cash,” Morrell said on an Instagram post in early February. He stressed that police and other city departments would “do their best,” but enforcement wouldn’t be as “robust as it could be.”

Torri, the sanitation director, said the city had the capacity to clear large items on just one day before the final cleanup on Fat Tuesday. “Mardi Gras Day was a major undertaking,” he told the council in March. Crews started working at 8 a.m. and didn’t finish until 1 a.m. “It’s a full day of cleaning because of everything that people have brought. Tarps, ladders, tents, coolers, grills are left because they’re disposable things that were only intended to last the weeks of Mardi Gras.”

Davis predicted the trend toward fewer but better throws will continue, and his organization will keep pushing for more reuse and recycling. But, he added, the policies meant to curb parade encampments — and the waste they leave behind — are only as effective as their enforcement.

“Having the krewes throw less is great, but what’s really heavy is a couch and all the stuff people brought out in wheelbarrows,” Davis said. “Unless we have police out there and the trucks to haul it away, this kind of behavior creeps back. And that’s what we’re seeing now.” 

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This story was originally published by Grist with the headline New Orleans wants to fix its Mardi Gras mess. So why is the trash pile still growing? on May 11, 2026.

In a Q&A with Climate Home News, the head of sustainability at global lighting company Signify explains how the firm is doubling down on its efforts to protect the climate and strengthen resilience.

In March, Signify launched its latest corporate sustainability programme, “Brighter Lives, Better World 2030”.

The programme is the third iteration of a project that started in 2016, aimed at shifting how the company – and its customers – can reduce their environmental impact. 

It centres on enhanced targets to improve energy efficiency, cut greenhouse gas emissions and promote the circular economy. In addition, Signify has set itself a challenging goal to source 41% of its revenue from solutions “that support benefits beyond illumination” by the end of 2030, up from 31% in 2024. Those benefits include efficient food production and increased access to solar lighting.

Signify is aiming to save 60 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity for its customers; achieve a 35% reduction in the CO2 emissions intensity of its portfolio; and grow its circular product business from 10% to 27.5% of revenue.

Climate Home News spoke with the company’s global head of sustainability, Maurice Loosschilder, to find out how the Netherlands-based multinational plans to reach its targets despite a tough political landscape for green action.

Q: How does Signify’s new sustainability programme build on lessons learned from previous versions?

A: If we look back a little bit, it is a natural next step. Signify [formerly Philips Lighting] became a standalone company roughly 10 years ago and in 2016 we launched our first “Brighter Lives, Better World 2020” programme at the same time.

The first programme mirrored developments in the lighting industry and was very much based on our own operations: reaching 100% renewable electricity, zero waste to landfill in our manufacturing facilities, increasing the energy efficiency in our own portfolio.

Since then, we’ve moved on to think about our entire value chain and the wider social contributions we want our work to be making. But we still want to be thinking about how to improve our own business. Our continued target to double the amount of women in leadership positions is an example of that.

Does the future of green manufacturing lie in 3D printing?

Q: Looking at the political climate, both in the US and Europe, there isn’t the same concern for environmental issues as there was a few years ago. Many corporates are perceived to be rolling back on their environmental commitments. How are you as a company navigating some of these challenges?

A: This is not something new. If we look back on the last five to 10 years, we’ve seen a lot of disruption and change in the market. We’ve had a global pandemic, supply chain disruptions, energy insecurity. At the same time we’ve seen the increased impacts of climate change and all of that is changing the dynamics of doing business right now. 

I think these changes have really tested resilience – the resilience of companies, the resilience of people, the resilience of societies. We really believe that resilience is becoming more and more important to businesses right now. And if you look at what a resilient company is, it is one that decarbonises faster, invests in people, invests in circular solutions and makes its business model more circular. And that’s exactly what we have focused on. It’s about making sure we can cope, and help our customers cope, with changing market circumstances and the geopolitical tensions we see in the world.

Q: Turning to your own commitments, do you feel you have set the right balance between ambitious and achievable?

A: Yes, we strongly believe this programme is the right one for us and our customers, and has been informed by a thorough double-materiality assessment. It is built on three pillars: benefits beyond illumination, energy efficiency and resource efficiency. These are supported by new initiatives, such as Signify Circle, which will support professional customers with their circular economy ambitions.

If we just look at the first pillar, it’s about the positive impact that lighting brings, in terms of productivity, in terms of safety, in terms of food availability, health and well-being, and now we have added solar in there. This is what we mean by “benefits beyond illumination”.

A nurse is pictured in a private health clinic lit by solar power from a micro-grid in a rural village in Nigeria’s Nasarawa state, September 2022 (Photo: Megan Rowling) A nurse is pictured in a private health clinic lit by solar power from a micro-grid in a rural village in Nigeria’s Nasarawa state, September 2022 (Photo: Megan Rowling)

Q: If we take one of your targets to save 60 TWh of electricity for your customers, that seems quite hard to work out. Do you find data availability to be an issue?

A: Data is a challenge in sustainability, but we have been measuring our avoided emissions for years, so we know the data requirements behind it. We’ve done all our homework and with that we have set this target. 

The 60 TWh figure is about the annual electricity usage of Switzerland so it is a substantial amount. But it also reflects the role that lighting plays in general. If you look at a typical city, street lighting alone accounts for about 40% of electricity use. So the potential is enormous.

The International Energy Agency reports that about 8% of global electricity use comes from lighting, and this translates into 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions. That’s really significant and why the opportunity here is so big.

Is electrification a no-brainer in the race to net-zero?

Q: How has the new programme been informed by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

A: Our strategic compass is the Sustainable Development Goals. We committed to six SDGs in the previous programme. The new one has been expanded to cover eight and we conducted a mapping exercise for each of the commitments. I’m hoping that, by the end of this programme, we will see a new version of the SDGs to replace the current goals when they expire in 2030. We remain committed to making our contribution to the SDGs.

Q: Are you seeing higher demand for circular products? What is it that attracts businesses to that option?

A: Yes, we do see an increased demand. For example, we see greater interest in “remanufacturing”, which is a circular business model where we take down the lighting, send it back to our manufacturing site, and upgrade it to the latest technology, but keep the majority of the hardware intact.

I think customers are becoming more and more aware of the fact that regulation is pushing resource efficiency on businesses. And in some countries we see incentives to use circular products, and penalties around sending certain material to landfill. More businesses are becoming aware of this and we strongly believe there is a market for circular products.

How off-grid solar is beating the odds to transform lives in rural Africa

Q: Do you have customers that are facing real resource pressures, in terms of scarcity, increased costs or supply chain constraints that are making them think more about circular issues?

A: The whole market is currently impacted by geopolitical tensions and the disruptions that come as a result. Light as a Service, for example, could be a way for businesses to de-risk because there is no capital expenditure involved. Customers see real value in only having to pay to keep it running. 

If we look longer term, then resource and material efficiency is something the whole world should be thinking more about. How can we decouple economic growth from the increased use of natural resources? We believe the circular economy is the answer.

This interview has been shortened and edited for clarity.

Adam Wentworth is a freelance writer based in Brighton, UK.

The post Signify: “We believe resilience is becoming more important to businesses right now” appeared first on Climate Home News.

British climate finance largess in Brazil Channel News brendan 11th May 2026 Teaser Media

Two high-profile water crises, juiced up by climate change and industrial overuse, are building in the U.S. From a city in Texas staring down a drought emergency to a decades-long political crisis coming to a head for the states that rely on the Colorado River, water issues in the West will take center stage this summer — and experts tell WIRED that other places should take notes and start planning ahead for their own future.

In February, following a winter of record-breaking heat, snowpack in various mountain ranges across the American West reached record lows. March came in even hotter, smashing records in states across the region.

“What happened in March was unprecedented and stunning and disturbing and out of this world, frankly — we had temperatures the likes of which we have never seen and couldn’t have happened without human-caused climate change,” said Brad Udall, a senior water and climate researcher at Colorado State University’s Colorado Water Center. “We had a crummy snowpack that went from crummy to god-awful in three weeks.”

This snowmelt crisis is having dire impacts on the Colorado River, one of the most crucial water sources in the West, which provides water for 40 million people across seven states. River flow in some areas on the Colorado had slowed to a trickle last week, thanks to the early snowmelt this year.

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The Colorado River isn’t just a crucial water supply: It also provides power for more than 25 million people through dams at Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the two largest reservoirs in the country. Low water levels in those reservoirs spell trouble for electricity generation. As of Tuesday morning, Lake Mead was sitting at just 17 feet above its record low level, set in July of 2022.

This record dry season is also colliding with a decades-long political crisis on the Colorado River. For years, the states drawing water from the river have sparred over how to equitably divide the supply from the river, as the growth of agriculture and a series of climate-charged droughts have begun threatening the long-term water supply. Alfalfa for cattle feed is the biggest consumer of water from the Colorado, using more water than all of the cities along the river combined. States have missed key deadlines, including one in February, to renegotiate the Colorado River Compact of 1922, which regulates how water in the region is distributed. Each state gets an annual allotment, and the total amount of water is supposed to be divided evenly between an upper basin and a lower basin.

Earlier this month, following dire projections for the summer, the U.S. Interior Department stepped in, announcing a series of actions intended to keep hydropower at Lake Powell running. The government acknowledges that this could lessen hydropower at Lake Mead as well as water availability in states along the lower part of the river.

With all this chaos, there’s a chance, Udall said, that this season’s scarce water could cause a historic first in the next few years: States in the upper basin of the river could fail to deliver enough water to states in the lower basin, violating the 1922 agreement for the first time. This could trigger a potential lawsuit between states.

“What’s frustrating to somebody like myself is this is all foreseeable,” said Udall. “Those of us who are kind of in the know, and that includes a lot of people in the Colorado River Basin, have seen something like this coming for a long, long time.”

Read Next In Texas, Corpus Christi’s water crisis may be a glimpse into the future Rebecca Egan McCarthy

Even with this dire set of circumstances, it’s unlikely that the millions of people who rely on the Colorado River will reach Day Zero, the term for when municipal water sources run dry. No U.S. city has ever gotten to that point.

However, there’s a region that could be inching closer to this kind of catastrophe. Officials in Corpus Christi, the eighth-largest city in Texas, said last week that the city is set to reach a Level 1 drought emergency — what it defines as 180 days of water demand outpacing supply — by September. Some projections say that, barring major weather patterns that bring more rain, municipal water sources could run dry by next year.

People living in Corpus Christi are already under restrictions for their water use, including limits on lawn watering and car washing. Residential water bills also increased by an average of just under $5 this year. City officials said that industrial customers would be asked to cut use by 25 percent in September.

“We don’t want to wreck our economy,” Corpus Christi city manager Peter Zanoni told NBC News of the decision to wait until September to declare a Level 1 drought emergency, which would force those industrial customers to curb their use. “We don’t want to have operations close down.”

Corpus Christi’s water supplies come overwhelmingly from surface water sources. Two of the most important local sources — the Choke Canyon Reservoir and Lake Corpus Christi — have reached critically low levels over the past few years as drought has gripped the region. As of Tuesday, they were sitting at 7.4 percent full and 8.7 percent full, respectively.

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Many of the city’s problems stem from industrial water use. Corpus Christi is a major petrochemical hub, and the largest industrial consumer of water in the area, according to permit statistics obtained by Inside Climate News, is a joint Exxon Mobil and Saudi Basic Industries Corporation plastics plant. The plant used an average of 13.5 million gallons of water each day between 2022 and 2024. The average residential customer, according to the city, uses 6,000 gallons per month. (Exxon Mobil did not return a request for comment.)

The city has discussed building a desalination plant to provide water to its industrial customers — including the Exxon plant, which began operating in 2022 — for years. But the project’s potential costs ballooned to more than $1 billion, while residents expressed concerns about the ecological impacts the plant could have. Last year, regulators voted to pass on the project, with no backup plan for water supply in place. On Wednesday, the Houston Chronicle reported that Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s office had denied Corpus Christi additional funding for a separate desalination plant.

“Some lessons to learn from this situation that are important for a lot of cities, especially in the Southwest, is that water infrastructure projects are getting more expensive with time,” said Shane Walker, director of the Water and the Environment Research Center at Texas Tech University. “If you think you can wait around and get a cheaper deal on a water infrastructure project, it’s probably the opposite.”

This push and pull between attracting business and what a city can maintain waterwise, Walker said, is a common tension for city planners. As more cities in Texas see population growth — and struggle with planning out their water needs — more of them need to be thinking much farther ahead.

“You have to think of a 20-year time horizon as urgent,” Walker said. “If you’re relying on groundwater — groundwater is a finite resource. Lakes are vulnerable to drought. What’s your alternative supply?”

There could be some short- and medium-term relief for both Corpus Christi and the Colorado River. At a water update briefing last week, Zanoni said that recent rains had been “beneficial” to the region, helping to boost water levels in Lake Texana, another water source for the city. Udall said that recent wet weather has also helped stabilize some conditions out West. And the upcoming El Niño phenomenon — forecast to be one of the most intense El Niños on record — could bring a heavy monsoon season to the West this summer.

But both the municipal situation in Corpus Christi and the regional crisis for the Colorado River have specific similarities: a lack of attention to slow-building problems, exacerbated by industrial use. Climate change is pushing water crises like these to a new type of breaking point.

“Around the world we’ve seen climate change events that are really big and massive,” Udall said of the crisis on the Colorado River. “Maybe this is the first worldwide climate change crisis that’s going to force really fundamental policy-level decisions to be made, and fundamental changes in how we operate. Seven states, two nations, 40-plus million people, a whole bunch of farmers, and major cities are going to have to completely rethink how they use this resource.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline This summer, the American water crisis becomes real on May 10, 2026.

Justin Smarsh and his family used to kayak a few times a year on the rivers and creeks near their home in Cherry Tree, Pennsylvania. High on the Appalachian Plateau, northeast of Pittsburgh, he spent hours in the woods and taught his two sons to hunt. Today, Smarsh said, he gets “suffocated just walking.” He has a constant dry cough, and he loses his breath if he bends down to tie his shoes. 

A few years after he graduated from high school and got married, Smarsh went to work in a coal mine in his home county, just as his father and grandfather had. “It was the best-paying job around,” he said. “It still is.” Now Smarsh, 42, has progressive massive fibrosis — the most severe form of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, or black lung.

There is no cure for Smarsh’s condition. He tries to slow the progression with “piles of meds,” he said, but things will eventually worsen, potentially to the point of heart failure. In patients with advanced disease, a flu or common cold can lead to a kind of drowning as the lungs fill with fluid. Smarsh’s doctors say he won’t live to see 50. 

“Most people think coal mining is a thing of the past,” said Deanna Istik, CEO of Lungs at Work, a black lung clinic in Washington County, Pennsylvania. “Meanwhile, we see more people being diagnosed with black lung disease than we ever have before.” 

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Coal mining has always been a hazardous occupation. But today’s miners face a new danger because they’re inhaling something worse than the coal dust that settles in lungs, triggering immune cells to form nodules, masses, and scarified black tissue. Most of the large coal seams in the mountains of Appalachia are gone now. To reach smaller seams, miners must cut through much more rock with high levels of quartz, which gets pulverized into crystalline silica.

When tiny particles of silica are inhaled, they act like minute shards of glass, leading to severe tissue scarring and inflammation and eventually to progressive massive fibrosis, the most severe form of black lung disease. Researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, estimate the disease now afflicts one in 10 working miners who have worked in mines for at least 25 years. Rising rates of the disease have led to stark increases in lung transplants and mortality. Between 2013 and 2017, hundreds of cases of progressive massive fibrosis were identified at three Virginia clinics alone, leading NIOSH to declare a renewed black lung epidemic. Black-lung-associated deaths, which declined between 1999 and 2018, rose between 2020 and 2023.

The disease is on the uptick at a time when the Trump administration is calling for the expansion of coal production. Last fall, the U.S. Department of Energy announced it was investing $625 million in coal projects, and this month, President Trump signed an executive order reaffirming coal as essential to national security, a move that will direct billions of dollars in federal funding to the industry. But while the administration is calling for more coal, it is simultaneously delaying implementation of new regulations that would protect miners from deadly silica. 

In the United States, black lung was officially acknowledged as a workplace-related illness only in the late 1960s, after a highly publicized disaster at a West Virginia mine killed 78 coal miners. Subsequent strikes and protests led to the passage of the 1969 Coal Mine Health and Safety Act, which mandated federal safety inspections of mines, set fines for violations, and established a benefits program to compensate miners with black lung. 

From left: Healthy lung tissue, simple black lung disease, and complicated black lung disease.
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Rates of the disease dropped almost immediately, and by the end of the 20th century, thanks to the implementation of those standards and a strong union presence in mines in Pennsylvania and across Appalachia, black lung was nearly eradicated. 

In the last two decades, U.S. coal production has fallen precipitously. It peaked in 2008 at more than 1,170 million tons, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration; in 2023, production was 578 million tons, a drop of more than 50 percent. 

But in Pennsylvania, says Istik, “this is not a dead industry. We’re still cutting coal.” A 2024 report by the Pennsylvania Coal Alliance counted more than 5,000 mining jobs generating some $2.2 billion in economic output. Nationwide, there are still close to 40,000 coal workers. 

Black lung diagnoses continue to mount. Doctors and miner advocates say the condition is underdiagnosed, as many miners are reluctant to undergo testing for fear of losing their jobs should their employer find out. “I think there’s always going to be that fear of retribution,” said Istik. But eventually, she added, the symptoms become debilitating. Smarsh, a patient of Lungs at Work, didn’t see a doctor about his labored breathing until his wife, Alicia, insisted he had no choice. 

Black lung clinics are seeing more and more patients like Smarsh, who’ve gotten sick in their 30s and 40s. In earlier generations, miners might have needed decades of coal dust exposure to develop serious disease, if they got sick at all. “My dad and my pap were both miners, and they didn’t get it,” Smarsh said. “So, I thought, ‘Who says I’m going to?’” But today’s workers, who are breathing a much higher proportion of silica, can develop a disabling illness in much less time. 

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Smarsh worked mostly as a roof bolter — the person responsible for installing supports to prevent cave-ins — drilling up into rock. He spent eight years underground before his lung condition made it impossible for him to work, or to walk across his own backyard without using an inhaler. 

Experts have understood the dangers of silica dust for decades. In the 1970s, NIOSH suggested regulations that would limit exposure to 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air, averaged over a 10-hour workday in the mine. In 2016, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration adopted the 50-microgram silica standard for other occupations, like construction and manufacturing. But in 2017, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, or MSHA — which is mandated to conduct quarterly inspections of underground mines and enforce safety standards — responded to industry pressure and set the limit for mining at 100 micrograms over an eight-hour workday. 

After a negotiation process that spanned years and multiple administrations and involved mining industry lobbyists, legal groups, and scientists from NIOSH and other agencies, MSHA announced in 2024 that it would issue a new rule reducing the silica exposure limit in mines to 50 micrograms, with enforcement to begin in April 2025. 

The new rule would require operators to use “engineering controls,” such as improved ventilation systems, as the primary means of meeting the standard. Those tools could be supplemented, when necessary, by “administrative controls,” such as clothing decontamination and avoidance of especially dusty areas, to keep miners from breathing unacceptable amounts of silica.

The National Mining Association and other industry groups mounted a legal challenge, arguing that when ventilation systems aren’t enough to bring respirable silica levels below the 50-microgram standard, operators should be able to require miners to use respirators to achieve compliance.

But “respirators are really the last line of defense, because they aren’t foolproof,” Istik said. “Silica is such a small particle; it still comes through.” 

Smarsh wore a respirator some of the time when he was underground. But there were other times, he said, when it was too difficult to see or breathe through it. “Anytime you’re underground, you see dust,” he said. “But it’s not the dust you see that gets you. It’s the little stuff you don’t see.” 

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While respirators are important safety equipment, it should not be the coal miner’s responsibility not to get black lung, said Erin Bates, communications director of the United Mine Workers of America. It is the company, she added, that must ensure a safe work environment for its employees.

When the Trump administration came into office, it cut MSHA’s budget and staff. The agency had already been operating at a disadvantage: According to data from the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center, MSHA’s coal mine enforcement staff has been cut in half over the last decade. The American Federation of Government Employees reported that another 7 percent of the agency’s full-time workforce accepted the Trump administration’s “Fork in the Road” buyout last year, and 90 newly hired mine inspectors had their job offers rescinded. There were concerns among black lung experts and advocates about the diminished agency’s ability to implement the new silica exposure rule. The loss included people “we desperately needed,” Carey Clarkson, who represents Labor Department workers for the federation, told NPR at the time. “I can’t image how many years of experience we lost.” 

A few days before the April 2025 enforcement date, the rule hit two different roadblocks: The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay of the rule in response to a petition led by another industry group — the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association — and MSHA itself announced it would delay implementation to give operators more time to “come into compliance.” 

The litigation has remained in limbo. Last November, MSHA moved to have the legal proceedings paused as it “reconsiders” parts of the rule, and earlier this month it announced the delay would continue “indefinitely” pending judicial review. The agency did not respond to a request for comment. 

Bates said the union is disheartened. The agency “was literally created for the health and safety of coal miners, but they don’t want to take that into consideration,” she said.

Rebecca Shelton, director of policy for the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center, which has been advocating for a new silica rule since the late 2000s, said her organization had hoped to see the rule implemented under the Biden administration “because we were concerned about challenges it might face.” The process was slowed by intense lobbying, she said, and MSHA’s need to study the rule’s impact across diverse mining industries. 

“If the Trump administration actually cared about protecting coal miners from black lung, we’d have a strong silica rule in place right now,” she said in a statement issued by the center after MSHA announced the indefinite delay. “Instead, they are hiding behind a ridiculous legal process to delay action while miners get sick and die.” 

Smarsh said his 19-year-old son wants to work in the coal mines. “Me and my wife tell him all the time, you see what I’m going through? All the good coal that was around here is gone. Now there’s nothing but rock and silica.” Gone too, Smarsh said, is any trust he once had in a coal company to keep miners safe. 

“All they’re worried about is ‘you better have that black gold,’” he said. “They say they care about miners, but you go underground, you’re taking the risk, for you to get nothing but sick, and to fill their pockets full.” 

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline In coal country, black lung surges as federal protections stall on May 9, 2026.

Indigenous leaders from across the Amazon have warned that stopping the expansion of oil drilling into their territories will be a crucial test for a growing international coalition committed to transitioning away from fossil fuels.

As 60 countries discussed at a landmark conference in Santa Marta, Colombia, pathways to end the world’s reliance on fossil fuels, Indigenous groups said the process risks losing credibility if governments continue opening new oil frontiers in the Amazon.

Their central demand was the establishment of fossil fuel “exclusion zones” across Indigenous territories and biodiverse areas of the rainforest, permanently barring new oil and gas expansion in one of the world’s most critical ecosystems. Indigenous representatives proposed establishing protected “Life Zones”, which they said would provide legal safeguards against governments and companies seeking to expand extraction into their lands.

But Indigenous delegates left the conference frustrated as the final synthesis report drafted by co-chairs Colombia and the Netherlands failed to include the proposal.

In a statement at the end of the conference, Patricia Suárez, from the Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon (OPIAC), said formally declaring Indigenous territories – especially those inhabited by peoples in voluntary isolation – as exclusion zones for extractive industries was “an urgent measure”.

“If the heart of the conference does not begin there, it risks remaining a set of good intentions that fails to respond to either science or our Indigenous knowledge systems,” she added.

Pushing for a new oil frontier

Campaigners say the pressure on the Amazon is intensifying just as scientists warn the rainforest is nearing irreversible collapse. Around 20% of all newly identified global oil reserves between 2022 and 2024 were discovered in the Amazon basin, fuelling renewed interest from governments and companies seeking to develop the region as the world’s next major oil frontier.

Ecuador has moved ahead with the auction of new oil blocks in the rainforest, while the country’s right-wing president Daniel Noboa has promoted the region as a “new oil-producing horizon” and backed efforts to expand fracking with support from Chinese companies.

• Apr 30, 2026 News Santa Marta summit kick-starts work on key steps for fossil fuel transition The conference offers some 60 nations help to develop roadmaps to shift their economies away from coal, oil and gas, and make international trade green Read more
• Apr 29, 2026 Comment Six nations at Santa Marta could shape fossil fuel futures A small but critical handful of countries attending the conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels remain deeply committed to expanding their output Read more
• May 6, 2026 Investigations How Shell is still benefiting from offloaded Niger Delta oil assets Shell used its exit from onshore operations in Nigeria to boost its climate credentials, but new reporting shows that the firm continues to trade oil from its former business Read more

In Santa Marta, a coalition of seven Indigenous nations from Ecuador issued a declaration condemning the government, which did not participate in the conference.

“While the world talks about energy transition, our government is pushing for more oil in the Amazon,” said Marcelo Mayancha, president of the Shiwiar nation. “Throughout history, we have always defended our land. That is our home. We will forever defend our territory.”

Indigenous groups also warned that Peru – another South American nation absent from the conference – plans to auction new oil blocks in the Yavarí-Tapiche Territorial Corridor, a highly sensitive region along the Brazilian border that contains the world’s largest known concentration of Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation.

COP30 host under scrutiny

Indigenous leaders also criticised Brazil, arguing that despite its international climate leadership, the country is simultaneously advancing major new oil projects in the Amazon region.

Luene Karipuna, delegate from Brazil’s coalition of Amazon peoples (COIAB), said the oil push threatens the stability of the rainforest. Not far from her home, in the northern state of Amapá, state-run oil giant Petrobras is currently exploring for new offshore oil reserves off the mouth of the Amazon river.

Brazil participated in the Santa Marta conference and was among the countries that first pushed for discussions on transitioning away from fossil fuels at COP negotiations. Yet the country is also planning one of the largest expansions in oil production in the world, according to last year’s Production Gap report.

Veteran Brazilian climate scientist Carlos Nobre told Climate Home that the country’s participation at the Santa Marta conference contrasted with its oil and gas production targets. “It does not make any sense for Brazil to continue with any new oil exploration,” he said, and noted that science is clear that no new fossil fuels should be developed to avoid crossing dangerous climate tipping points.

He added that the Brazilian government faces pressures from economic sectors, since Petrobras is one of the countries top exporting companies. “They look only at the economic value of exporting fossil fuels. Brazil has to change.”

The COP30 host also promised to draft a voluntary proposal for a global roadmap away from fossil fuels, which is expected to be published before this year’s COP31 summit.

“In Brazil, that advance has caused so many problems because it overlaps with Indigenous territories. Companies tell us there won’t be an impact, but we see an impact,” Karipuna said. “We feel the Brazilian government has auctioned our land without dialogue.”

For Karipuna and other Indigenous leaders, establishing exclusion zones across the Amazon is no longer just a regional demand, but a prerequisite to prevent the collapse of the rainforest.

“That’s the first step for an energy transition that places Indigenous peoples at the centre,” she added.

The post Indigenous groups warn Amazon oil expansion tests fossil fuel phase-out coalition appeared first on Climate Home News.

Editor’s note: This edition of our ‘Protect This Place’ column is produced in collaboration with the Climate Listening Project, whose short film appears below.

The Place:

We’re in West Marion, North Carolina, in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, pronounced Appa-latch-an, and known locally as the Blue Ridge Mountains — a biodiversity hotspot where communities are still recovering from Hurricane Helene and coming together to build a Resilience Hub.

Why it matters:

This area is home to the greatest diversity of salamanders on Earth, including the giant eastern hellbender. Varying elevations throughout the mountains create unique ecosystems for more tree species than anywhere in North America, and the region serves as an important migration corridor for species from the North and South.

The Appalachian Mountains are known as the oldest mountains in the world, and Marion is famous for its annual Bigfoot Festival. West Marion is a historically Black community, which lost its school after desegregation and community connectivity after the new interstate was built right through the middle.

West Marion community / Photo by Dayna Reggero The threat:

Hurricane Helene was a traumatic event that carried endless rain that widened little streams, creating thundering rivers that pulled down trees and everything else in their path and tore apart communities.

West Marion Inc has already been listening to the communities’ needs for years and were ready to help. Now they’re planning a Resilience Hub. My new film, “Climate Change And…” tells their story, where the hurricane is just one chapter and enduring struggle is not new, yet climate change and hope coexist.

This community is building solutions and taking care of each other and this place that they love. The Resilience Hub is being built in an old school that has been donated back to the community. There are also plans to build a bridge over the interstate, reconnecting the town. A capital campaign is underway, with big plans for the Resilience Hub to be able to help the community in times of climate impacts, as well as serve as a local health center, technology hub, food incubator, and community center.

My place in this place:

I lived in the Appalachian foothills for many years. I began my Climate Listening Project after 2013 became the wettest, rainiest year on record in western North Carolina. My first listening project was called “Asheville Rain,” in which I listened to a scientist who discussed the importance of preserving Appalachian bogs. I saw record after record broken as hurricanes traveled from the coasts to our mountains, dropping so much rain and causing mudslides.

Dayna Reggero / Photo by Zachary Kanzler

I attended my first West Marion Community Forum meeting almost 10 years ago and met inspiring women, including director Paula Swepson. Shortly afterward I was invited to host a climate forum where people from across the community came together to listen and plan for adaptation from floods or fires, connecting solutions around food security, transportation, and community health. We’ve continued to collaborate and share the messages from their book, Shift Happens in Community. Then Hurricane Helene hit the mountains, and I was invited to listen. The women of West Marion Inc. are inspiring to me because of their work to listen and adapt.

Paula Swepson / Photo by Dayna Reggero Who’s protecting it now:

West Marion Inc. is listening in Southern Appalachia with the Old Fort and West Marion Community Forums and planning for the Resilience Hub.

What this place needs:

“The best thing about the forum is that it allows you to dream,” says Paula Swepson, founder and director of West Marion Inc.

See more:

Republish this article for free! Read our reprint policy. Previously in The Revelator:

Protect This Place: Connected Communities on the U.S. Gulf Coast and the Philippines

The post Protect This Place: Southern Appalachia appeared first on The Revelator.

A new study identifies thousands of flowering plants belonging to rare and ancient lineages that are in urgent need of protection. 

Read more on E360 →

Harjeet Singh is a climate activist and strategic advisor to the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, as well as founding director of the Satat Sampada Climate Foundation.

For thirty years, global climate talks perfected policy paralysis around the primary cause of the climate crisis: fossil fuels. Within the UNFCCC negotiations, the “consensus card” was played with surgical precision by the fossil fuel industry and wealthy producer nations to block meaningful action.

For decades, talks were restricted to the “demand side” – reducing emissions – while the “supply side” – the extraction of oil, gas, and coal – was treated as a forbidden subject. This so-called progress was a treadmill, leading nowhere despite plenty of sweat.

The breaking point: from Belém to Santa Marta

The failure peaked at COP30 in Belém, where, despite widespread support, the final outcome contained no fossil fuel phase-out mandate. Instead, the world watched as the COP30 Presidency announced a “roadmap” initiative at the very end of the talks – a face-saving measure that lacked formal standing in the process.

The halls of Belém were once again crawling with lobbyists, ensuring that “consensus” remained a tool for delay. Recognising the UNFCCC logjam, Global South countries in the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative demanded a series of dedicated conferences.

• Apr 30, 2026 News Santa Marta summit kick-starts work on key steps for fossil fuel transition The conference offers some 60 nations help to develop roadmaps to shift their economies away from coal, oil and gas, and make international trade green Read more
• Apr 28, 2026 News Santa Marta: Ministers grapple with practicalities of fossil fuel phase-out Around 60 governments that want to make progress on transitioning away from coal, oil and gas are meeting in Colombia to work out how they can do it an equitable way Read more

Colombia, the biggest producer among them, broke the status quo by pioneering this new path: the First International Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, joined by the Netherlands as co-host.

The pioneering conference in Santa Marta in late April moved us from the “if” to the “how”, signalling a shift from airy pledges to the reality of implementation. But as the dust settles, a more ancient struggle is resurfacing: the struggle for the “pen”.

The invisible hand of control

History shows that when developed nations can no longer block a process, they attempt to colonise it. In Santa Marta, we witnessed the opening gambit of a familiar play – exclusion followed by takeover. Critics signalled this early on in an open letter, calling out the systemic disregard for African lives and environments in global policy and the persistent marginalisation of Indigenous Peoples’ voices and concerns.

Under the guise of “technical support”, wealthy nations fought to steer the outcome of workstreams towards Global North-dominated institutions. Despite the expertise they may bring, why are the recognised bodies for this process exclusively based in an area representing only 20% of the world’s population?

The hastily assembled report containing the “Chairs’ Takeaways” from Santa Marta requires scrutiny and raises the following concerns:

• The Roadmap Trap: Connecting national transition plans to the Science Panel on the Global Energy Transition (SPGET) and the NDC Partnership. These bodies, largely dominated by Western experts, risk imposing frameworks that treat sovereign developing nations as markets for the private sector. Will “science” be used to legitimise a Global North-centric status quo while ignoring debt, trade and finance rules, and other forces that shape national policy?

• The Financial Architecture: Pushing the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) to lead the work on macroeconomic dependencies on fossil fuels. Expertise matters, but whose stability is going to be prioritised? Is it the communities losing their livelihoods, or the global financial systems that grew fat on fossil fuel rents?

• The Trade Filter: Bringing the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – a club of wealthy nations – into “producer–consumer alignment”. This is a coup to ensure the international trade system keeps serving the West and its elites under the guise of “coordination”.

A view of the room during the opening plenary of the Santa Marta conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels on April 28, 2026 (Photo by IISD/ENB | Mike Muzurakis) A view of the room during the opening plenary of the Santa Marta conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels on April 28, 2026 (Photo by IISD/ENB | Mike Muzurakis) The “dos and don’ts” for developed nations

For decades, the responsibility of rich nations to provide public finance for climate action in vulnerable countries has been replaced by private sector “leverage”. Developed nations must stop using “climate finance” as a tool to open new markets for their multinational corporations and put actual, grant-based finance on the table to support the transition in the Global South.

They should also refrain from forcing every initiative back into the UNFCCC gridlock, where meaningful progress on a fossil fuel phase-out has been systematically blocked.

Finally, it is critical that the Santa Marta process is recognised as a sovereign space for historically silenced nations to hold polluters accountable, rather than being treated as a showroom for Western exports.

This requires addressing the hypocrisy of so-called “front runners”. Canada, France, Ireland, Australia and Norway attend these conferences as “leaders” while greenlighting oil and gas expansion. You cannot lead a transition while pouring fuel on the fire. Leadership requires immediately ending expansion; anything else is an expensive photo-op.

Unity as the ultimate tool

For developing nations, the path forward is radical unity. Global North diplomacy often seeks to divide and conquer through bilateral deals that bypass collective power. Developing nations must refuse to be cowed.

This is a chance to move beyond tools that prioritise debt and trade over development. Collectively, the Global South can build technical and financial frameworks that advance energy sovereignty and justice. South-South cooperation must be the primary engine of a fair transition that holds historical polluters accountable.

The road to Tuvalu 2027 – reclaiming the agenda

The announcement that Tuvalu will co-host the second conference in 2027 is a political necessity. Tuvalu, a least developed country, is a living symbol of the climate crisis and a vanguard of justice.

Tuvalu must have the power to set the agenda from day one. This cannot be another “safe space” for dialogue without commitment, as seen at the first conference. The road to Tuvalu must advance a mechanism that gained wider support in Santa Marta but was ignored in the Chairs’ Takeaways: a Fossil Fuel Treaty.

We need a framework to manage the decline of fossil fuel extraction based on fair shares and equity, turning international cooperation into support for resilient, renewable economies.

The process has only just begun. Santa Marta was the spark, but Tuvalu must be the engine room of implementation. The Global South must take the pen to script the transition rooted in equity and justice.

The post Developing countries must hold the pen to script the fossil fuel transition appeared first on Climate Home News.

Johnny Appleseed was ahead of his time. Not because he fed so many people by planting apple trees (really, he got them drunk instead, as his real goal was encouraging the production of cider), but because he created so much shade to enjoy on hot days. More than two centuries later, American cities are wishing they had better followed Appleseed’s lead, as rising temperatures and a lack of tree cover combine to make urban life increasingly stifling.

A pair of new studies show how simply planting more trees can provide huge temperature benefits, not to mention how the additional plant life would boost biodiversity and improve mental health for urbanites. The first finds that tree cover can cancel half of the heat island effect, in which the urban jungle gets much hotter than the surrounding countryside. The second compares neighborhoods in 65 American cities, finding that canopy-deprived areas suffer up to 40 percent more excess heat than heavily greened spots. 

Places like New York and Atlanta and Los Angeles, then, don’t just have to foster and maintain their “gray” infrastructure — roads and sidewalks and such — but their living infrastructure as well. “Heat is already a major public health threat. It kills 350,000 people a year by some estimates, and it’s worse in cities,” said Robert McDonald, the Nature Conservancy’s lead scientist for nature-based solutions and lead scientist for Europe, who spearheaded the first paper. “The urban heat island effect would be about double what it is now if world cities didn’t have trees.”

By increasing their canopies, metropolises dress themselves like their more comfortable rural counterparts. A vegetated area cools itself both because plants “sweat” by releasing moisture from their leaves, and because trees provide shade. By contrast, concrete absorbs the sun’s energy, driving temperatures up, and releases it throughout the night. That beats back the cooling typically experienced in the evening, meaning urbanites without air conditioning don’t get respite. This is especially dangerous for vulnerable groups like the elderly, and it’s one reason heat kills more Americans every year than all other extreme weather events combined.

Such conditions are especially dangerous for those living in lower-income neighborhoods, which tend to have significantly less tree canopy than richer areas. In industrialized areas, for example, vast stretches of concrete absorb and radiate heat. In urban centers, policymakers may have prioritized building dense housing without incorporating ample tree cover. Compare that to the suburbs, which have plenty of parks, curbside trees, and yards to cool things down.

The differences in greenery between neighborhoods translates into striking differences in temperatures. The second study calculated this “cooling dividend,” or the difference in the average urban heat island in areas with low and high canopy cover. It found gaps reaching almost 4 degrees Fahrenheit. If you’re lucky enough to live where there’s lots of trees, you might experience 20 to 40 percent less excess heat. The report found that this is playing out regularly across the U.S. “I think what maybe was surprising is that there was a dramatic amount of consistency,” said Steve Whitesell, executive editor at the Healthy Green Spaces Coalition, which authored the report. “In other words, they were all showing an impact.”

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The trick is not just planting enough trees, but planting the right kind. The biggest species provide the most shade, of course. But more cryptically, some provide more evaporative cooling than others — drought-adapted trees, for instance, try to retain as much water as they can. A neighborhood might also want to prioritize food production, opting for trees that create both shade and fruit. Favoring native varieties will also help support native animal life, like birds and pollinating insects. 

Climate change, though, is complicating these calculations. Even in rural areas, without the added temperatures of the urban heat island effect, some places are getting so hot that native plants are moving north in search of cooler climes. Within cities, they are blasted with still more heat — and temperatures will only climb from here. So urban arborists aren’t just planting species that will thrive today, but will survive the climate of tomorrow. “I think that for us to use trees as a type of living infrastructure, that can counter those increased temperatures, is paramount,” said Edith de Guzman, a cooperative extension researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies urban heat but wasn’t involved in either study. “I think it’s pretty much the most important thing we can do.”

But trees alone can’t save urbanites. McDonald’s study found that even if cities planted as many as possible, it would only offset 20 percent of the potential running up of temperatures due to climate change. Designers will have to deploy other techniques, like reflective rooftops, to manage the heat. That’s especially important in poorer nations, whose cities are rapidly growing but have much less tree cover than richer countries, the study found. “It’s just to say that climate change is a big enough challenge that while planting more tree cover helps with temperatures, it won’t do the job by itself,” McDonald said. 

Urban areas have been here before, McDonald added. As the Industrial Revolution kicked in, people in overpopulated metropolises would have to travel to the countryside to glimpse greenery. An exception was London, with its many publicly available green spaces, which Paris took as inspiration when it essentially rebuilt itself in the 1800s and made room for massive parks. Today, planners are similarly bringing some of the country back into the city, blurring the lines between rural and urban. “We know how to increase tree cover, if we put our minds to it,” McDonald said. “But it takes effort and time.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The solution to urban heat is much, much simpler than you think on May 8, 2026.