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Protecting our oceans is everyone's business

Arab News

3 hours ago

Business
Arab News

Protecting our oceans is everyone's business

From June 9-13, France will host the third United Nations Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development (UNOC, or United Nations Ocean Conference). For this vitally important event, some 100 heads of state and government will converge, as well as tens of thousands of researchers, scientists, activists, and citizens from around the world. On this occasion, France's aim will be clear: protecting the oceans through tangible action. The oceans belong to all of us. They feed and protect our peoples. They inspire dreams and enable travel. They offer sustainable energy, the means to trade, resources, and infinite scientific knowledge. One in three people rely on the oceans for their livelihood, yet the oceans are in danger. They remain little known, with neither global governance nor the financing needed for their preservation. The numbers are worrying: More than 8 million tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans every year, according to a study in Science. More than one third of fish stocks suffer overfishing, while ocean acidification, rising sea levels, and the destruction of marine ecosystems increases, as direct consequences of climate change. We must act now. We must make sure that multilateral action is equal to the challenges of protecting the oceans. Ten years after COP21 and the Paris Agreement, which established a binding global framework to limit climate change, the third UN Ocean Conference is a historic opportunity. The 'Nice Ocean Agreements' will form a genuine international compact for conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, fully in line with the sustainable development goals adopted by the UN in 2015. To this end, the talks in Nice need to be very hands-on and action-focused, aiming for better governance, more financing, and greater knowledge of the seas. When it comes to governance, the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, or the BBNJ Agreement, is essential. The high seas, which represent more than 60 percent of the oceans, are currently the only space not governed by international law. The lack of oversight and common rules is causing a real social and environmental disaster, with massive hydrocarbon and plastic pollution, illegal and unregulated fishing techniques, and the taking of protected mammals. To end this legal vacuum, we need the BBNJ Agreement to be ratified by 60 countries so as to come into force. Saudi Arabia is a major stakeholder and a strategic partner when it comes to preserving the oceans. Patrick Maisonnave The protection of the oceans also requires public and private financing, and support for a sustainable blue economy. To continue enjoying the incredible economic opportunities offered by the oceans, we need to make sure marine resources can regenerate. In Nice, several commitments will be announced for global trade, shipping, tourism, and investment. Lastly, how can we protect what we know not — or know insufficiently? We need to enhance our knowledge of the oceans and share it more widely. Today, we are capable of mapping the surface of the moon or of Mars, but the depths of the oceans — which cover 70 percent of Earth's surface — remain unknown. Together, we need to put science, innovation, and education in order to better understand the oceans and raise public awareness. In the context of ever faster climate change and overexploitation of marine resources, the oceans are not just one more issue: They are everyone's business. We must not forget our shared responsibility in the context of challenges to multilateralism. The oceans join us all together and are central to our future. Together, we can make the third UN Ocean Conference a turning point for our peoples, for future generations and for our planet. France will be delighted to welcome Saudi Arabia, along with more than 100 countries, to tackle those challenges together. Saudi Arabia has more than 2,600 km of coastline and is located at the crossroads of three continents. In the framework of Vision 2030, the sea is an incomparable resource for diversifying the economy: connectivity, transport and logistics, tourism, fisheries, and many more. The sustainable use of this resource is strategic. The Saudis have shown their determination to implement policies in line with Sustainable Development Goal 14: Establishing regulatory agencies to protect biodiversity; enforcing regulations on fisheries; increasing the number of protected areas in line with the Kunming-Montreal Protocol; and supporting scientific data collection and research. We must take action together to make the third UN Ocean Conference a turning point, and allow the implementation of the BBNJ Agreement. Saudi Arabia is a major stakeholder and a strategic partner when it comes to preserving the oceans, seas, and marine resources, and ensuring that they are used in a sustainable way. Its commitment will be decisive.

Colorado's landfills generate as much pollution as driving 1 million cars for a year

Fast Company

11 hours ago

Health
Fast Company

Colorado's landfills generate as much pollution as driving 1 million cars for a year

Remember the banana peels, apple cores, and leftover pizza you recently threw in the garbage? Today, your food waste—and your neighbors'—is emitting climate-warming greenhouse gases as it decomposes in a nearby municipal landfill. Buried food scraps and yard waste at 51 dumps across Colorado generate an amount of methane equivalent to driving 1 million gasoline-powered cars for a year. About 80 times as potent as carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas over a period of 20 years, methane accounts for 11% of global emissions that scientists say are warming the atmosphere and contributing to more intense and severe weather, wildfires, and drought. Landfills are the third-largest source of methane pollution in Colorado, after agriculture and fossil fuel extraction. Draft methane rules released last month by the state's Department of Public Health and Environment would, for the first time, require some dump operators to measure and quantify methane releases and to fix leaks. The proposal mandates that waste managers install a gas collection system if their dump generates a certain amount of the climate-warming gas. It also addresses loopholes in federal law that allow waste to sit for five years before such systems are required—even though science has shown that half of all food waste decays within about three and a half years. The draft rule surpasses U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards in the amount of landfill area operators must monitor for emissions. It's set to be heard by the state's Air Quality Control Commission in August. Proposed regulations require the elimination of open gas flares—burning emissions directly into the atmosphere—and urge the use of biocovers and biofilters, which rely on bacteria to break down gases. The 70-page draft also calls for more routine and thorough monitoring of a dump surface with advanced technologies like satellites, which recently recorded large plumes of methane escaping from a Denver-area landfill. 'We've had our eyes opened thanks to technology that has made the invisible, visible—now we know the extent of the problem, which is much greater than what estimates have portrayed,' said Katherine Blauvelt, circular economy director at Industrious Labs, a nonprofit working to decarbonize industry. 'When landfill operators fail to control leaks, we know harmful pollutants are coming along for the ride.' Cancer-causing volatile organic compounds, such as benzene and toluene, escape with methane leaching from landfills. These chemicals also contribute to the formation of lung-damaging ozone pollution, an increasing problem for the 3.6 million people who live in the greater Denver metropolitan area. Indeed, the region along the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains ranked sixth in the nation for the most polluted air—with unhealthy ozone levels reported on one out of every 10 days, on average, according to the American Lung Association's 2025 'State of the Air' report. The state is also woefully behind in its compliance with federal air quality standards. State officials and environmental advocates agree that reducing methane emissions from landfills, which are easier to mitigate than cow burps, for example, is one of the quickest and most efficient ways to slow warming in the short term. 'Waste deposited in landfills continues producing methane for decades as it breaks down—and it's one sector where Colorado has yet to directly take action to reduce these greenhouse gases,' said Tim Taylor, a supervisor in the state's air pollution control division, in an online hearing last February on the proposed landfill methane rules. Colorado's draft regulations are similar to those in California, Oregon, Maryland, and Washington, he added. More than 10 landfills in the state are already required under federal rules to have gas collection and control systems. Yet even with such technology in place, disposal facilities routinely exceed federal methane emissions caps. The state's health department has also identified a dozen municipal solid waste landfills, based on a preliminary analysis, that would be required to put such systems in place under the proposed rules, Zachary Aedo, an agency spokesman, said in an email to Capital & Main. Many of these facilities are operated by counties, some of which expressed concerns about their ability to pay for such systems. 'We are a small rural county, and a multimillion-dollar containment system is going to be more than we can build,' testified Delta County Commissioner Craig Fuller at the February hearing. 'The financial equation of this whole thing is absolutely mind-boggling—we are struggling as it is to provide health and human services.' Other county officials embraced the proposed tightening of rules. 'Landfills across Colorado, including in Eagle County, are leading sources of methane pollution,' said Eagle County Commissioner Matt Scherr in a March 6 statement. 'As a local elected official I support a robust rule that embraces advanced technologies to cut pollution, protect public health and help the methane mitigation industry thrive.' For larger landfill companies, like Waste Management, which operates 283 active disposal sites nationwide, figuring out which technology works to best monitor emissions from a dump's surface is proving a complex challenge. The company is testing technologies at facilities with different topographies and climate fluctuations to understand what causes emissions releases, said Amy Banister, Waste Management senior director of air programs. 'Landfills are complicated, emissions vary over time, and we have emissions 24/7,' said Banister at an online meeting last September of a technical group created by Colorado health department officials. 'Drones produced a lot of false positives—and we need more work understanding how fixed sensors can be applied in a landfill environment.' State health officials suggested municipalities could offset the costs of installing gas collection systems at disposal sites by converting methane into energy. Several landfill operations in Colorado currently have such waste-to-energy systems —which send power they generate to the state's power grid. 'We are mindful of the costs of complying with this rule and how tipping fees may be impacted,' said Taylor, an air quality supervisor, at the February hearing. 'Analyses conducted in other states of their landfill methane rules found there wasn't an increase in tipping fees as a result of regulations over time.' Tipping fees are paid by those who dispose of waste in a landfill. If operators passed on compliance costs to households, a state analysis found, the yearly average annual fee would increase $22.90 per household. Colorado's push comes as the EPA issued an enforcement alert in September that found 'recurring Clean Air Act compliance issues' at municipal solid waste landfills that led to the 'significant release of methane,' based on 100 inspections conducted over three years. Such violations included improper design and installation of gas collection and control systems, failure to maintain adequate 'cover integrity,' and improper monitoring of facilities for emissions. To address gaps in federal regulations, which require operators to measure emissions four times a year by walking in a grid pattern across the face of the landfill with a handheld sensor, Colorado's draft rules require third-party monitoring. Such measurements must be conducted offsite by an entity approved by the state's air pollution control division that uses a satellite, aircraft or mobile monitoring platform. The infrequency of such grid walks—which skip spots that operators deem dangerous—contributes to the undercounting of methane emissions from landfills, according to a satellite-based analysis. An international team of scientists estimated potent greenhouse gas emissions from landfills are 50% higher than EPA estimates. Satellites like one operated by nonprofit Carbon Mapper found large methane plumes outside the quarterly monitoring periods over the Tower Landfill in Commerce City, northeast of Denver. The satellite allowed scientists to see parts of the landfill not accessible with traditional monitoring—measurements that found that such landfills are underreporting their methane emissions to state regulators, said Tia Scarpelli, a research scientist and waste sector lead at Carbon Mapper. 'Landfill emissions tend to be quite persistent—if a landfill is emitting when it's first observed, it's likely to be emitting later on,' she added. Scarpelli cautioned that it's important for regulators to investigate with operators what was happening on the landfill surface at the time the leak was measured. Tower Landfill's operator, Allied Waste Systems of Colorado, provided reasons for such large methane releases in a January 2024 report to the state's health department, including equipment malfunctions. The fix for about 22 emissions events over the federal methane limits detected in August 2023 by surface monitoring: 'Soil added as cover maintenance.' Like many dumps across Colorado and the nation, the Tower Landfill is located near a community that's already disproportionately impacted by emissions from industrial activities. 'These landfills are not only driving climate change, they are also driving a public health crisis in our community,' said Guadalupe Solis, director of environmental justice programs at Cultivando, a nonprofit led by Latina and Indigenous women in northern Denver. 'The Tower Landfill is near nursing homes, clinics, near schools with majority Hispanic students.' Physicians in the state warned that those who live the closest to dumps suffer the worst health effects from pollutants like benzene and hydrogen sulfide, which are linked to cancer, heart, and other health conditions. 'People living near landfills, like myself, my family and my patients, experience higher exposure to air pollution,' testified Dr. Nikita Habermehl, a specialist in pediatric emergency medicine who lives near a landfill in Larimer County, at the February 26 public hearing, 'leading to increased rates of respiratory issues and headaches and asthma worsened by poor air quality.'

Trump's anti-climate orders draw lawsuit from young activists citing life, liberty

Yahoo

15 hours ago

General
Yahoo

Trump's anti-climate orders draw lawsuit from young activists citing life, liberty

Jen Psaki talks with Riley, a young climate activist and one of 22 plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Trump administration in which they are represented by Our Children's Trust. The lawsuit charges that Trump is violating their right to life and liberty with the environmental damage that will come from his executive orders.

Calif. unions, cities come out with infrastructure asks for cap-and-trade reauthorization

E&E News

a day ago

Business
E&E News

Calif. unions, cities come out with infrastructure asks for cap-and-trade reauthorization

A coalition of California labor, local government and transit groups released its list of priorities for cap-and-trade reauthorization on Wednesday as negotiations in the Legislature pick up speed. What happened: More than a dozen organizations, including the California Alliance for Jobs, League of California Cities and California Transit Association, laid out priorities that focus heavily on using revenue generated through carbon allowance auctions to fund major infrastructure projects. That revenue would be split over four categories: public transit and clean transportation infrastructure like electric vehicle charging, wildfire resilience, high-density housing development, and climate adaptation for sea-level rise. Advertisement 'We strongly urge the legislature to re-authorize cap-and-trade and prioritize investments in the physical infrastructure proven to reduce air pollution while also keeping us safe from extreme weather that is already upon us,' said Michael Quigley, executive director of the California Alliance for Jobs, which represents carpenters, laborers, contractors and other construction unions.

Australia can drive the shift to a global clean energy economy

SBS Australia