Lawsuits from Citizens and States Targeting Plastic Pollution Pile Up
"New litigation from state AG offices raises the stakes in court battles focused on fighting greenwashing and misleading claims about recycling."
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"New litigation from state AG offices raises the stakes in court battles focused on fighting greenwashing and misleading claims about recycling."
"Fossil fuel firms are biggest beneficiaries of investor-state dispute settlement courts which have awarded $114bn of public money".
"Of all the decisions Paris Olympics organizers made about where to hold each sport, sending surfing competitions to the other side of the world — in the Pacific waters of Tahiti — provoked the strongest reactions. Tahitians and others railed against the building of a new viewing tower on Teahupo’o reef because of fears it would hurt marine life."
"U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Wednesday that countries must confront not just the fossil-fuel industry, but also companies that support efforts to obstruct climate action. The U.N. chief, a longtime critic of oil and gas companies' role in driving climate change, called the industry out for spending billions on "distorting the truth, deceiving the public, and sowing doubt" about climate change, while investing just "a measly 2.5%" of its total capital on clean energy alternatives."
"The drinking water regulator for England and Wales has brought only three prosecutions against water companies for providing poor quality water since 2021, despite 362 instances in which water was flagged as being unfit for human consumption."
"What would have been America’s first congestion pricing experiment has been delayed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, leaving public transit in a financial hole."
"Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) will appear in ads touting the Biden administration’s green investments in ads running in their state. The $1.4 million total buy from climate group Evergreen includes an ad with each governor, highlighting the impact of the Biden administration’s investments in their state."
"Narendra Modi, the Hindu nationalist prime minister who claimed victory Tuesday for a third five-year term, will face major challenges fueled by climate change. India, the world’s most populous country, is also among the most vulnerable to climate hazards."
"But it may not be what it appears"
"A plan to develop a new city northeast of San Francisco has been seven years in the making, but until recently, the details were largely kept under wraps. Now that the plans are public—and the proposal has garnered enough signatures to make it onto the November ballot for voter consideration—residents and activists are squaring off to defeat what the developers promise will be a kind of green urban paradise.
"Mexico's President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, an accomplished climate scientist, could struggle to fulfill her environmental pledges after she sailed to victory, in part, on the popularity of a predecessor who doubled down on fossil fuels."
"Former President Donald Trump said he wants to cut the Interior Department if he returns to the White House, and indicated “environmental agencies” more broadly are also on the chopping block."
"Vermont has become the first state to enact a law requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a share of the damage caused by climate change after the state suffered catastrophic summer flooding and damage from other extreme weather."
"Environmental groups are making a new economic argument against coal, the heaviest polluting fossil fuel. Some regulators are listening."
"Mexico is the world’s 11th-largest oil producer. It has been gripped by a deadly heat wave. Now, it’s elected as its president a woman with a rare pedigree: a left-of-center climate scientist with a doctorate in energy engineering named Claudia Sheinbaum."
"A battle that ties food aid for needy families with crop subsidies for American farmers may stall efforts to renew a sweeping agricultural policy law, forcing Congress to consider delaying action on the $1.5 trillion proposal until after this fall’s elections."