Weekly Climate News

December 10, 2020

• Malaysian bank CIMB announced a coal exit strategy that outlined complete withdrawal by 2040, the first major bank to do so. 

• Denmark will end production of fossil fuels by 2050 and is no longer issuing oil and gas exploration licences. 

• In Brazil, climate campaigners are taking accusations against the Bolsonaro administration to the Supreme Court, claiming that deforestation of the Amazon breaches constitutional protections and international commitments.

• Aware of the link between dirty air and COVID-19 death rates, the Trump administration has declined to tighten industrial soot emissions. Many health experts say this decision goes against significant scientific research which proves that particulate pollution contributes to tens of thousands of premature deaths every year. 

• The Red Cross recently announced that in 2020, American families have spent more time in emergency housing than any other year on record. Read more here. 

• U.N. Secretary General António Guterres spoke at Columbia University on Dec. 2, where he stated that the world is nearing a “breaking point” unless leaders collaborate and begin to initiate necessary changes. “The way we are moving is a suicide in relation to the future and to all future generations,” Guterres said. 

• The U.S. Navy is working with Hawaii to explore renewable energy technologies. 

• As global ocean temperatures rise, falling oxygen levels in seas will leave many fish species struggling to breathe. 

• A recent study has found that noise and light pollution from humans is affecting birds, most notably altering reproductive patterns.