Policy

The displacement of populations by climate impacts, while not a new phenomenon in human history, is worsening in the face of global warming’s extreme weather patterns. Yet the extensive international regime to aid refugees doesn’t cover those migrating due to flooding, drought, natural disasters or climate change. Backgrounder considers the implications and how nations will respond to the new realities.

A Biden administration initiative that commits to allocating 40% of federal investments to disadvantaged communities plagued by overpollution is an environmental justice breakthrough, writes columnist Yessenia Funes. But it’s also a program with weaknesses, such as how it factors in race or keeps track of impacts. What is Justice40, what has it missed and what is its future?

Yes, press freedom advocates worry over the prospects of a Trump administration that considers journalists “the enemy of the people.” But the new WatchDog Opinion column argues the Harris campaign has, for its part, been uncomfortably quiet on those same issues. So it’s time for the Democratic presidential hopeful to answer some questions. WatchDog has 10 we should all be asking.

While Kamala Harris has provided little detail about what her environment and energy policies would be as president, her record has been enough to win her the quick support of most major environmental groups, finds the latest Issue Backgrounder. A look at her record on the Green New Deal and fracking, her presidential environmental platform and her contrasts with GOP rival Donald Trump.

Project 2025, which many consider a blueprint for a second Trump term, calls for breaking up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and pivoting its National Weather Service to commercial operations, shutting down its free flow of data to news outlets and others. WatchDog Opinion column argues a not-so-hidden motive is at the heart of these sweeping changes: the desire to obscure evidence of climate change.

Is carbon capture a climate solution or a dangerous distraction? That was the question that Inside Climate News reporter Nicholas Kusnetz asked in his award-winning explanatory series, “Pipe Dreams.” For Inside Story, Kusnetz talks of the challenges of writing about a technology that largely doesn’t yet exist, and the variety of story forms he used to explore the reality of industry promises.

If former President Donald Trump recaptures the White House this fall, it would likely bring back a radical deregulatory, climate change-oblivious, fossil fuel-intensive environmental policy. But could the fallout be even greater? The new Issue Backgrounder examines how the Project 2025 agenda of Trump’s allies takes aim, in particular, at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.