Weekly Climate News

Feb. 4, 2021

• New Zealand climate advisers are encouraging steep cuts in carbon emissions to align with the 1.5 C global warming limit. 

• Exxon Mobil, one of the world's largest international oil and gas companies, invested $3 billion in carbon capture.  

• General Motors announced a phase-out of petroleum-powered cars and trucks, promising to sell only zero-emission vehicles by 2035. The company has also set goals for carbon neutrality by 2040.

• Due to long-standing environmental injustices, Chicago’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout plan put polluted communities last, which left poorer communities of color among the last to receive the vaccine. 

• U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order that strongly encourages the federal government to exclusively purchase zero-emission vehicles. 

• A U.S. research institution that studies the impact of climate change in the Arctic has announced that it will be significantly enhancing efforts to connect the science it funds with the communities that live in the region.

• Greenland’s glacier retreat is accelerating as a result of warming seas in response to climate change. 

• Human pollution has been found deep in the world’s oceans. Read about it here.