Latest news with #EnvironmentalJustice
Irish Times
28-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Ireland's energy and climate plan far from sufficient, EU Commission finds
Ireland's current National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) remains far from sufficient to meet its climate commitments, an assessment by the European Commission has found. Although investment needs of €119 billion - €125 billion are outlined in the plan, 'there is no explanation of how this will be funded or whether a financing gap exists', it concludes. Ireland remains off course for its 2030 climate targets , with its NECP projecting a 25.4 per cent emissions reduction, well below the legally binding 42 per cent target under the EU's key 'effort-sharing regulation'. This sets national climate targets for emissions in road transport, buildings, agriculture, waste and small industries. The NECP outlines each EU member state's strategy to meet its climate and energy targets for 2030, including emissions reductions, renewable energy deployment and energy efficiency. READ MORE The commission's assessment evaluates whether these plans are sufficient and credible, offering guidance on gaps, shortcomings and areas for improvement. It plays a critical role in holding governments accountable and ensuring collective progress toward EU climate goals. Its assessment was released on Wednesday, the same day the Environmental Protection Agency published updated emissions projections for achieving Ireland's 2030 climate targets – 'which together offer a stark and urgent warning about the widening gap between Ireland's climate commitments and actual delivery', according to Environmental Justice Network Ireland (EJNI). [ Ireland's emissions trend 'alarming and shocking, with actions reset required' Opens in new window ] Ireland is projected to achieve a reduction of just 23 per cent in total greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, compared with a national target of 51 per cent. EJNI director Dr Ciara Brennan said: 'This is another clear signal that Ireland's climate plans are not on track. The commission's assessment confirms what Irish civil society has been saying for some time. Ireland is still far from meeting its 2030 climate and energy targets, and its NECP has missed a critical opportunity to make necessary course corrections.' The commission noted Ireland's renewable energy target was raised, but short-term delivery lags. 'While the 2030 target was increased to 43 per cent, interim milestones for 2025 and 2027 fall short.' The plan lacks specific targets for buildings and district heating, 'with many measures relying on speculative technologies and unclear timelines', it finds. Agriculture measures, it says, fall short on ambition and feasibility. 'The plan leans heavily on technologies still in development and lacks incentives for uptake. Crucially, it avoids deeper reforms such as reducing dairy herd size or diversifying agricultural systems.' Land-use emissions are rising, with Ireland projected to miss its target by 1.36 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent. 'The plan lacks robust monitoring and credible data, undermining the reliability of projected [carbon] removals,' the commission concludes. The Government is criticised for having no clear plan to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. Its assessment may not compel an immediate revision of the NECP, but reinforces legal concerns already raised by EJNI and others, Dr Brennan said. The persistent delivery gaps, especially in agriculture, energy efficiency and land use, leave the Government exposed to potential infringement procedures, she warned. The findings have consequences for Ireland's social climate plan, due by June 30th, which must be consistent with the NECP to unlock EU funding. In November 2024, EJNI joined a coalition of NGOs from other EU states to call on the commission to take legal action against what they identified as noncompliance EU laws in the updating of NECPs. The action highlighted widespread deficiencies in NECPs from France, Ireland, Germany, Italy and Sweden. Why is Ireland so far off its climate targets? Listen | 21:07
Chicago Tribune
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Peter S. Wenz: Thanks to Pete Hegseth, I'm censored more here than in China
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has evicted an anthology I co-edited with philosopher Laura Westra from the U.S. Naval Academy library. I don't know about Laura, but I'm pleased that they thought some midshipman may want to read 'Faces of Environmental Racism,' published initially in 1995. In the 30 years since, we may have poisoned the minds of some midshipmen who are now captains or even admirals. Or Hegseth may just be protecting young sailors with dust allergies from picking up the book. My more serious guess is that the term 'racism' is the reason for the book's expulsion. It combines case studies with theoretical analyses of racism in public and private decision-making, mostly regarding land use. The subject is environmental racism, a subtopic of environmental justice. I am among a handful of people who, entirely independently of one another, coined the term 'environmental justice' in the early 1980s, and my book 'Environmental Justice' (State University of New York Press, 1988) is the first to use the expression anywhere in the title or subtitle of any book. The administration of President Donald Trump has a penchant toward one-sided views, which explains its attempts to stifle alternative narratives, claiming them to be one-sided, which they often are. Consider critical race theory. In my view, it's supported by a great deal of evidence, but it's one-sided. Progress in race relations is given short shrift. Similarly, but on the opposite side, Thomas Sowell's 'The Vision of the Anointed' castigates liberals for claiming that they alone occupy the moral high ground. Sowell is correct about liberals, but his thesis that only liberals do this is all wrong. He ignores conservatives doing the very same thing — for example, 'the moral majority.' Both critical race theory and Sowell's view are valuable contributions, so long as alternative views are available, just as two sides are typically presented in judicial proceedings. Apparently, Hegseth doesn't want young minds polluted by knowledge that the interstates they travel on through cities required destruction of mostly minority communities; toxic waste is still located mostly near such communities; and air pollution and cancer rates remain higher there than elsewhere due to incineration and oil refining. My contribution to the anthology mitigates the concentration on race. The disproportionate harm to minority communities, which are often poor, may result from poverty rather than race. Land is cheaper where poor people live, so the cost of destroying a community or lowering its land values due to pollution is less. Harming minorities follows from cost-benefit analysis. It reduces the monetary cost to society of promoting our material way of life. Informed discussion requires attention to both benefits and burdens. My article offers a procedure to reduce injustices caused by using only monetary measures of benefits and burdens when lives are at stake. While all of us tend to appreciate the presentation of our own side more than that of the other side, the Chinese have been more open than Hegseth to my presentations, and that of others, on environmental matters. The Chinese government gave a grant to Northwest University in Xi'An to translate and publish Western works in environmental ethics. My book 'Environmental Justice' was published in 2007 by the Shanghai People's Publishing House. In 2015, the Chinese government paid me to give lectures at two universities in Xi'An based largely on this book. Xi Jinping was already the head of government, so I asked my host if I should really lecture students and larger gatherings of academics on the importance of human rights. I was told that this was fine, so I went ahead. Such tolerance continued for years while Xi maintained his power. In 2021, a second translation of my book was published in Chinese, this time by Truth and Wisdom Press. I find it odd that China, a notorious abuser of human rights, would subsidize the publication of a book presenting ideas at odds with its ideology, whereas the Trump administration considers my thoughts too toxic to remain in a government library. We should heed the wise words of English philosopher John Stuart Mill in 'On Liberty': 'He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion.' Leaders who stifled dissent, who insisted that only one side of important issues be presented — King Charles I of England and Adolf Hitler come to mind — didn't serve their countries well. Currently, Nicolas Maduro, Vladimir Putin and the Kim dynasty, brooking no dissent, are devastating their countries. We shouldn't let that happen here.
Forbes
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
The Trump Administration Is Rolling Back Environmental Justice Efforts. Here's How That Affects Public Health.
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA - OCTOBER 12: Smoke billows from one of many chemical plants in the area ... More October 12, 2013. 'Cancer Alley' is one of the most polluted areas of the United States and lies along the once pristine Mississippi River that stretches some 80 miles from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, where a dense concentration of oil refineries, petrochemical plants, and other chemical industries reside alongside suburban homes. (Photo by.) Amidst the flurry of directives emerging from the Trump administration, there have been several sweeping steps to dismantle efforts at environmental justice. Last month, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, announced '31 historic actions in the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history,' including 'terminating Biden's Environmental Justice and DEI arms of the agency.' Practically speaking, this move targets ten regional offices and the central environmental justice division of the EPA. The decision is in line with President Trump's Executive Order 14151, titled 'Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing,' which was issued on his first day in office. Couched within the text is a call for the termination of all 'environmental justice offices and positions' as well as an examination of whether these environmental justice roles 'have been misleadingly relabeled in an attempt to preserve their pre-November 4, 2024 function.' That the Trump administration would seek to erode much of President Biden's legacy on environmental justice is unsurprising. During the 2024 presidential campaign, President Trump repeatedly flouted concerns around climate change, terming the issue 'one of the greatest scams of all time.' In line with this ethos, his return to office has catalyzed the U.S.'s rapid retreat from multiple key climate efforts, including the Paris Agreement and a meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. However, the Trump administration's decision to undo domestic environmental justice initiatives may prove damaging to an extent that could take time to fully appreciate. The American Public Health Association characterizes environmental justice as 'the idea that all people and communities have the right to live and thrive in safe, healthy environments with equal environmental protections and meaningful involvement in these actions.' Central to understanding this idea is acknowledging that communities across the country have historically not enjoyed equal environmental protections. Take, for instance, Cancer Alley. Tracing the Mississippi River, this 85-mile region is home to numerous petrochemical plants, which have sullied the air. This resulting pollution has had deleterious effects on the area's residents, with some pockets of the region being estimated to confer a 700-times greater cancer risk relative to the national average. Residents of the region have long sought resolutions and recourse to this toxic calamity, especially after the EPA's risk assessment tools underscored the links between nearby chemical exposure and poor health outcomes. One EPA report, titled 'Waiting to Die,' borrows its name from the haunting words of a resident who succumbed to cancer, underscoring the profound environmental injustices that locals have endured. These lasting effects require a strong, coordinated public health response, rooted in recognition that communities have faced these environmental harms unevenly. Meaningfully righting these wrongs starts with a thorough investigation of their roots, a strategic deployment of resources, and robust community partnerships to gather feedback and prevent recurrence. This series of essential, corrective measures are essentially precluded by a political climate that buries the topic of environmental injustice in the first place. To take another example of how recognizing environmental injustices is critical for improving public health, consider the emerging research on urban heat islands. According to the EPA, heat islands can arise 'when areas experience hotter temperatures within a city.' In cities that have an uneven distribution of foliage, neighborhoods featuring more greenery can offer a relative cooling effect, enabling residents to better withstand dangerously hot summers. This natural effect is especially important when considering that not all residents may have access to air conditioning or cooling centers. Even when that access exists, periods of extreme heat can often contribute to power outages, amplifying the danger to public health. All things considered, it's thus vital to continue to work towards environmental justice solutions, even as the discipline faces mounting pressure in the new political era. The future of healthy communities depends on it.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Passaic River ranked fourth on list of America's Most Endangered Rivers of 2025
The Passaic River has been named one of America's Most Endangered Rivers of 2025, with a national conservation group citing toxic industrial pollution along the river's lower stretch as a long-standing threat to the public and the environment. American Rivers, which compiles the list annually, ranked the Passaic fourth nationwide, behind the Mississippi River, Tijuana River and rivers of Appalachia. The group called for continued federal oversight and full financial accountability from Passaic River polluters as cleanup work enters its fourth decade. The Passaic flows about 80 miles from the Highlands of Morris County to Newark Bay, passing through wetlands, suburbs and industrial centers in Paterson, Kearny and Newark. The designation covers the entire river, but American Rivers and its partners emphasized the conditions in the lower Passaic. That 17-mile tidal section from Dundee Dam in Clifton to the bay is where contamination is concentrated and community impacts are most severe. Story continues below photo gallery. 'For far too long, the Passaic River has remained one of the most contaminated waterways in our nation,' U.S. Sen. Cory Booker said in a statement. "It is critical that the Environmental Protection Agency prioritizes the cleanup work that has been dragging on for decades and hold responsible parties, such as Occidental Chemical Corporation, accountable until the river is completely clean and restored.' The federal agency designated the lower Passaic as a highly polluted Superfund site in 1984 after the discovery of extensive contamination from riverside manufacturing. Waste, including dioxins from Agent Orange production, DDT, PCBs and mercury, was deposited directly into the river by a range of industries beginning in the 1800s. Today, stormwater and combined sewer overflow systems continue to release untreated waste into the river during heavy rains. Fishing and crabbing have been banned since the Superfund listing, and public access remains limited, particularly in working-class and immigrant neighborhoods along the flood-prone shoreline. Many of those areas were reshaped by poor land-use decisions that left residents exposed to flooding. 'The Passaic River has long been treated as a dumping ground, and our Ironbound community — an Environmental Justice Community designated by the EPA and DEP — bears the burden of this pollution daily,' said Tanisha Garner, president of the Ironbound Super Neighborhood Council. Two cleanup projects have already been completed on the river. In 2016, the EPA finalized plans for a third phase with a full bank-to-bank remediation of the lower 8 miles, from Newark to Belleville. Additional investigations are underway for the remaining reach between Belleville and the dam in Clifton. The full 17-mile cleanup is expected to cost as much as $1.8 billion. 'There's a future out there in which the residents of New Jersey don't hear the Passaic River mentioned and automatically think 'dumping ground,'' said Adam Schellhammer, mid-Atlantic regional director for American Rivers. 'Restoration has begun, but full funding and commitments for the remainder of the cleanup would go a long way toward helping this river and the communities along its banks.' Despite the pollution, the Passaic River remains a vital resource. The watershed supports more than 2 million people with drinking water and contains 10 reservoirs and three water treatment facilities. Parks and natural areas along the river are used by more than 2.5 million residents across North Jersey, the American Rivers report says. Before European settlement, the river supported Native American people, who relied on it for transportation and fishing. Story continues below video. 'This river supports over $15 billion in annual economic value across commerce, water systems, real estate, recreation and more,' said Isiah Cruz, founder and CEO of environmental technology company Ama Earth Group. 'Everyone in New Jersey and the surrounding metro areas stands to benefit from restoring its health and honoring its ecological and historical significance to the region.' American Rivers is calling on the EPA's Region 2 office to maintain full staffing and proactive oversight of the Superfund process to ensure cleanup deadlines are met and responsible parties remain engaged. The group also recognized the efforts of local partners, such as the Ironbound Community Corporation, NY/NJ Baykeeper, the Trust for Public Land, the Great Swamp Watershed Association and the Passaic River Community Advisory Group. This article originally appeared on Passaic River in NJ one of America's Most Endangered Rivers
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Planned schoolyard overhaul in Tacoma on pause with anticipated federal funding cut
Federal money awarded to a Tacoma public school for schoolyard upgrades appears to be among U.S. government cancellations of various grants issued during the Biden administration. On Friday, The News Tribune reported on the loss of a $1 million grant awarded from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department for wildfire prevention/education for portions of Pierce County. Also among the 10 Washington programs to receive funding in that 2023 EPA award cycle was Tacoma Public Schools. That $1 million grant was for a project described in the funding announcement as work 'to transform an outdated schoolyard at Larchmont Elementary into a vibrant green space.' Internal EPA documents released by the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works include a list of about 400 grants totaling more than $1.7 billion targeted for elimination. The list included the Larchmont program, listed as 'Environmental Justice at Larchmont Elementary.' Kathryn McCarthy is assistant director of communications for Tacoma Public Schools. In response to questions from The News Tribune, McCarthy said via email that the district had not yet received any letter from the EPA regarding the Larchmont funding, 'but expect it is forthcoming.' Unlike other projects that received money at the time, McCarthy said the schools' project had not begun. 'Work was slated to start this spring and ramp up over the summer to minimize disruption to student learning,' she wrote. 'As work has not commenced, we have not accessed our grant funds.' McCarthy added, 'Given policy signals from EPA Administrator (Lee) Zeldin, volume of termination letters issued to other grantees, and the high number of grantees who have found their funds frozen mid-project, our project remains on pause.' The 10 projects in Washington state originally totaled $8.2 million and were described by the agency as environmental-justice projects, aimed to 'ensure disadvantaged communities that have historically suffered from underinvestment have access to clean air and water and climate resilience solutions.' The Trump administration has sought to roll back and cancel previous environmental-justice programs, with the current EPA labeling such spending as 'wasteful.' In a letter to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, the agency determined that its wildfire program 'no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities. The objectives of the award are no longer consistent with EPA funding priorities.' Congressional Democrats have contended the terminations are unlawful, and various other grant cancellations are being challenged in court. In 2023, The News Tribune reported on how Larchmont was among five school sites in a pilot program that aimed to boost public green space settings in different areas of Tacoma to increase the percentage of Tacoma residents living within a 10-minute walk of a public park. Larchmont would be the last of five revamped community schoolyards. Sites at Helen B. Stafford Elementary and Jennie Reed Elementary are open, while Whitman Elementary and Mann Elementary are scheduled for openings this spring. According to the national nonprofit Trust for Public Land, a partner in the project, Tacoma has the largest park-access gap of any major city in Washington state. Its online page describing the project noted that the Larchmont project would benefit 370 students and that 1,102 residents live within a 10-minute walk of the site. Parks Tacoma, another project partner, describes the current schoolyard property on its website as 'a simple playground, a well-worn natural turf field, and vacant grassy area. The grassy area represents a multitude of opportunities to bring the community's vision to life for this play space.' In response to questions, Parks Tacoma said in a statement, 'We're disappointed at the prospect that this project may not move forward in such an underserved community. Larchmont Community Schoolyard would meet both a need for children to have a safe playground and for roughly 1,100 people to have a park within a 10-minute walk of their home.' With the Larchmont program paused, other sources for funding will need to be considered. 'We expect that we, with our partners Parks Tacoma and Trust for Public Land, will need to identify alternative funding sources to bring the Larchmont schoolyard park project to life,' McCarthy wrote. In the Spotlight is a News Tribune series that digs into the high-profile local issues that readers care most about. Story idea? Email newstips@
