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“The way we are moving is a suicide,” United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said in an interview on Monday with Covering Climate Now partners. Humanity’s survival will be “impossible” without the United States rejoining the Paris Agreement and achieving “net zero” carbon emissions by 2050, as the incoming Biden administration has pledged.
In a series of interviews with CBS News, The Times of India, and Spain’s El Pais, Guterres also discussed an important and largely unheralded coalition of nations to achieve net zero emissions, the continued failure of rich and developed countries to support climate goals of poorer countries, and why, despite governments’ failures so far, he has hope for our climate future. Read Mark Hertsgaard’s story for The Nation…
That story and stories from CBS News, The Times of India, and El Pais (in both English and Spanish) are available in this folder, as well as transcripts and a 15-minute edit of the CBS interview. All of the stories may be republished by CCNow partners, with usual credit. CCNow partners may also publish their own stories, using clips, quotes, and excerpts from the materials in the folder.
New From CCNow
Talking Shop TODAY | This afternoon, from 12 noon to 1pm Eastern Time, CCNow will host our next Talking Shop webinar, focused on what president-elect Joe Biden’s victory means for climate reporting going forward. Panelists include Justin Worland, chief climate correspondent at TIME magazine; Neela Banerjee, climate editor at NPR; Matt Green, climate correspondent at Reuters; and Mark Hertsgaard, executive director of CCNow and environment correspondent at The Nation. Register for the event now…
Essential Climate News
Stay on top of major developments in the climate story
- By 2050, climate change effects will triple the flooding risk for some US homes, especially in poor areas. Affordable housing in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and California is especially at risk, according to a new report by Climate Central. From The Guardian…
- Climate is a significant issue at play in Georgia’s two senate runoff elections — and Georgians have plenty to worry about from climate change, with sixteen toxic superfund sites in the state at risk from extreme weather. From InsideClimate News…
- Across the US, abandoned oil and gas wells continue to pollute the environment — an in increasing number. Now, some in the oil and gas industry are trying to clean up the mess. A lengthy feature from Grist…
- The climate crisis is causing many people, especially young people, to avoid having children, according to the first academic study of climate anxiety’s impact on reproductive decisions . Some parents even regret having children, for fear of the potentially apocalyptic conditions the kids may face in the future. From The Guardian…
- Extreme weather continues to ravage many parts of the world, with more than 100 disasters affecting more than 50 million people since March this year, often in the poorest parts of the world. The money exists to help those impacted, but it seldom gets where it needs to, according to a new report by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. From Vox…
- Online shopping is contributing significantly to the climate crisis — so much that in 2018, according to a study by the Spanish government’s National Statistics Institute, the carbon footprint of Amazon was greater than that of nine of the twenty-seven countries in the European Union. From Spain’s El Pais…
Events, Resources and More
Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change | On December 3, The Lancet Countdown will host a launch event for its annual Global Report and U.S. Brief, which is “an international, multi-disciplinary research collaboration … to monitor the relationship between health and climate change and its implications for national governments.” Register for the event here…
Georgia Senate Debates | Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock will face off in a televised debate on Dec. 6th at 7 pm US Eastern Time. Georgia Republican Sen. David Perdue, who is facing Democratic opponent Jon Ossoff in the runoff, declined to participate and will be represented by an empty podium in an event starting at 5 pm US Eastern Time on the same night. The Georgia run-offs will shape which party controls the US Senate and therefore the prospects for far-reaching climate action during the Biden administration. The events will be available to watch on Georgia Public Broadcasting and live and on demand on The Atlanta Press Club Facebook page.
The Climate Transparency Report 2020 | On November 18, a collaboration of world think tanks released a comprehensive study of climate progress among G20 countries. India, it turns out, is the only G20 country on track to meet its 2C Paris Agreement commitments; no country is on track for a 1.5C world. The report is a great tool which journalists may use to measure and compare the situations in key countries (and country-specific break-out reports make this all the easier). View the full report here…
Midnight Watch Project | The State Impact Center at New York University is tracking all last-minute actions by the outgoing Trump administration on climate, the environment, and energy policy. A log of these actions is available here…
Welcoming new partners: CCNow proudly welcomes the Alabama Political Reporter, Sustainability Action Network in the UK, and Business Forward AUC in Egypt, as well as new institutional partners including the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, the University of Cambridge Climate Lecture Series, the Fojo Media Institute at Linnaeus University in Sweden.
And congratulations to CCNow partner Mongabay, which is launching a Hindi-language edition of its signature environmental reporting and storytelling!
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As we head into this next chapter of climate reporting, Covering Climate Now has modified our newsletter to better serve journalists’ needs. We’re going to treat these emails as a kind of “bulletin board” for climate journalists as well as other folks interested in learning more about climate change.
We hope you find the new format helpful and digestible. If you have any feedback, or know of another event or have news that should be included here, shoot us a note at editors@coveringclimatenow.org.