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When there’s a global crisis, wealthy countries tend to find money. That was the case in the United States when big banks were bailed out to soften a global financial crisis. But the climate crisis? This weekend, Vice President Kamala Harris visited the United Nations climate summit in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and promised $3 billion for the Green Climate Fund, which benefits poorer nations. One of the big tests facing this summit, known as COP28, is whether it will fare any better than earlier climate talks at shoring up anything close to the money that’s needed.

Persons: Kamala Harris, John Kerry, Biden’s Organizations: United Arab, Green Climate Fund, Biden, Walmart, Pepsi, McDonalds Locations: United States, Ukraine, United Nations, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

☆ In a Report Card on Global Warming, Nations Get a Very Poor Grade
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Somini Sengupta | More About Somini Sengupta | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Despite the clear human and environmental toll of global warming, countries are taking only “baby steps” to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, a senior United Nations official said, summarizing a new U.N. report card on the promises made by governments so far. The U.N. findings, published Tuesday, are the latest of several assessments that paint a dire picture in which the countries aren’t doing nearly enough to keep global warming within relatively safe levels. “Today’s report shows that governments combined are taking baby steps to avert the climate crisis,” said Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the U.N. climate change agency. That’s roughly the level of warming that is projected if every country meets its climate goals. Saudi Arabia is of course one of the world’s biggest oil producers, and it is the burning of oil and other fossil fuels that’s warming the planet by releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Persons: “, ”, Simon Stiell Organizations: United Nations Locations: Saudi Arabia

☆ U.N. Chief’s Test: Shaming Without Naming the World’s Climate Delinquents
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Somini Sengupta | More About Somini Sengupta | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The world’s top diplomat, António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, has lately been unusually blunt in his broadsides against fossil fuel producers. Not China, the world’s coal behemoth. Not Britain or the United States, who both have ambitious climate laws but continue to issue new oil and gas permits. Not the United Arab Emirates, a petrostate where a state-owned oil company executive is hosting the upcoming United Nations climate negotiations — a move that activists have decried as undermining the very legitimacy of the talks. “The rules of multilateral diplomacy and multilateral summitry are not fit for the speedy and effective response that we need,” said Richard Gowan, who decodes the rituals of the United Nations for the International Crisis Group.

Persons: António Guterres, Guterres, ”, Richard Gowan Organizations: United Nations, United Arab, International Crisis Locations: China, Britain, United States, United Arab Emirates, Nations, Portugal

Tens of thousands of people, young and old, filled the streets of Midtown Manhattan under blazing sunshine on Sunday to demand that world leaders quickly pivot away from fossil fuels dangerously heating the Earth. Their ire was sharply directed at President Biden, who is expected to arrive in New York Sunday night for several fund-raisers this week and to speak before the United Nations General Assembly session that begins Tuesday. “Biden, you should be scared of us,” Emma Buretta, 17, a New York City high school student and an organizer with the Fridays for Future movement, shouted at a rally ahead of the march. “If you want our vote, if you don’t want the blood of our generations to be on your hands, end fossil fuels.”The Biden administration has shepherded through the United States’ most ambitious climate law and is working to transition the country to wind, solar and other renewable energy. But it has also continued to approve permits for new oil and gas drilling.

Persons: Biden, “ Biden, ” Emma Buretta, ” Organizations: United Nations General Assembly, New York City, United Locations: Midtown Manhattan, New York, New, United States

☆ The ‘Forever’ Glaciers of America’s West Aren’t Forever Anymore
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Somini Sengupta | More About Somini Sengupta | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Mount Rainier is losing its glaciers. That is all the more striking as it is the most glacier-covered mountain in the contiguous United States. The changes reflect a stark global reality: Mountain glaciers are vanishing as the burning of fossil fuels heats up Earth’s atmosphere. According to the World Glacier Monitoring Service, total glacier area has shrunk steadily in the last half-century; some of the steepest declines have been in the Western United States and Canada. Mount Rainier National Park, a popular tourist destination that gets roughly 2 million visitors every year, is feeling the effects acutely.

Organizations: Rainier, Monitoring, Western, Mount Rainier Locations: United States, Western United States, Canada

☆ Climate Risks Loom Over Panama Canal, a Vital Global Trade Link
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-25 | by ( Somini Sengupta | More About Somini Sengupta | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Shallow waters, meet Christmas shopping. There could be multiple droughts affecting several trade routes at the same time, disturbing the transport (and subsequent prices) of many types of goods like liquefied natural gas and coffee beans. That is a looming risk in a world that has become accustomed to everything everywhere at all seasons. Last year, for instance, as Europe faced its worst dry spell in 500 years, ships carried a fraction of the cargo they normally do along the Rhine in Germany, one of the continent’s most important thoroughfares. The Rhine’s water levels are better this year, but the river faces a longer-term climate risk: The mountain snow and ice that feeds the Rhine is declining.

Locations: United States, Panama, Midwest, Mississippi, Europe, Germany

☆ Extreme August Arrives With a Warning: Expect More
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Somini Sengupta | More About Somini Sengupta | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In India, torrential rains triggered deadly landslides, Morocco and Japan hit new heat records, and southern Europe braced for another scorching heat wave. Those extremes have also brought high-stakes tests for public officials: Where public alerts and education worked, death and destruction were minimized. Maui has so far recorded more than 100 deaths from the blaze that started Aug. 8, and that number is projected to rise. Not all of the extreme weather events can be immediately attributed to climate change. Scientists have repeatedly warned of more heat, wildfires, droughts and intense rainfall with every degree of future warming.

Persons: El Locations: United States, Texas, Maui, India, Morocco, Japan, Europe

☆ Texas Sent Migrants Into California’s Storm Emergency, Aid Groups Say
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Somini Sengupta | More About Somini Sengupta | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Texas has shipped out the latest busload of migrants who had crossed the border from Mexico, this time sending them into Los Angeles as it was struggling to keep residents safe from Tropical Storm Hilary. The busload of 37 migrants left the border city of Brownsville at 5 p.m. on Sunday, just as Southern California and much of the surrounding area was in a state of emergency, according to a coalition of advocacy groups that received them. The largest group of people on the bus were from Venezuela, with the rest from Guatemala, Mexico, Belize, Honduras and Ecuador. Also in the group were 15 children, including a 3-week-old baby. Lindsay Toczylowski, executive director of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, an aid groups that supports asylum seekers, called the Texas officials’ decision to send them into a storm zone “reckless.”

Persons: Hilary, Lindsay Toczylowski Organizations: Texas, Immigrant Defenders Law Center Locations: Mexico, Los Angeles, Brownsville, Southern California, Venezuela, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Ecuador, Texas

☆ Thanks, From Your Newsletter Anchor
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Somini Sengupta | More About Somini Sengupta | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Today, I wrap up my turn at helming this newsletter. It’s why I chose to anchor this newsletter for you. I wanted to show you, in short, bite-size pieces, not just the perils of global warming, but who is doing what to address it. I wanted to walk us through sometimes impenetrable debates and explain, simply, how it matters for everyday people in our everyday lives. I wrote from a place of neither hope nor despair, exactly, but from the perspective of an OK-now-what-do-we-do pragmatist.

Persons: Douglas Alteen, Manuela Andreoni, Claire O’Neill, Adam Pasick, Sharm el Sheikh, “ Locations: Sharm el

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