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As the American West faces intensifying water challenges, landowners and water managers are turning to the Groundwater Accounting Platform as a data-driven tool that enables them to track water availability and usage with user-friendly dashboards and workflows. The platform, which EDF helped developed alongside partners in California, is available throughout the western United States to support sustainable groundwater management practices.

As the impacts of climate change reveal themselves to North Carolinians in the form of heat, flooding, wildfires, drought, and increasingly intense and more frequent tropical storms, the case for urgent action to combat climate change is strengthening. Our state has made important strides, setting vehicle electrification goals and power sector emissions reductions directives, but …

Scientists have amassed an overwhelming amount of evidence that humans are the main cause of climate change. Here are 9 ways the evidence stacks up.

Environmental Defense Fund announced today that Senior Climate Scientist Ilissa Ocko has accepted an appointment with the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, where she will be focusing on non-carbon dioxide climate pollutants, including methane and hydrogen.

This report from EDF helps guide through challenges involved in application of process-based models to measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) schemes in large-scale contexts. It provides important context and recommendations for process-based model implementation in agricultural soil GHG and SOC projects to increase consistency, transparency, and confidence in this integral portion of the MMRV process.

Efforts to curb agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and increase soil carbon storage are picking up steam to help mitigate the impacts of climate change. To have maximum impact, we need ways to reliably quantify their outcomes.  Direct measurement of the impacts of climate smart agricultural practices are imperative to instill confidence, but they aren’t forward-looking …

"Much of the conservation and climate change spotlight falls on tropical forests. Given this, people might forget that forests in the temperate areas — those found in large parts of North America, Europe and higher latitudes in Asia and Australia — also have the power to help limit climate change," EDF experts Amanda Leland and Steven Hamburg write in Scientific American.

Carbon markets and carbon monitoring programs track changes in cropland soil carbon stock over time to determine how agricultural management practices impact carbon storage in soil. Soil carbon stock is typically measured by taking soil samples prior to the adoption of a new farming practice, followed by additional sampling after the practice has been in …

To better understand the disproportionate community health burden associated with warehouses in Illinois, Environmental Defense Fund deployed a peer-reviewed framework called Proximity Mapping. Findings include that at least 1 in 6 Illinois residents lives within a half mile of a mega-warehouse.

Two high profile studies released this week by the National Petroleum Council paint a portrait of an industry asserting a positive role in the energy transition but struggling to act on what good science demands of it. The studies — one on natural gas, the other on hydrogen — were produced at the request of …

Statement of Sarah Vogel, Senior Vice President, Healthy Communities

A new report released Wednesday, April 24, 2024 by the Environmental Defense Fund traces the growth of mega-warehouses in Illinois communities, driven in-part by the e-commerce boom.

“An Ocean of Potential” was the tagline at this year’s Our Ocean conference in Greece on April 15-17. The phrase encompasses the breadth of possibilities that the ocean holds for us. It also encapsulates EDF’s approach to supporting climate-resilient fisheries and oceans. What do we mean when we say that there is “an ocean of …

Increases in gas fuel costs account for 67% of residential retail rate increases since 2017 in parts of Duke Energy’s North Carolina territory — 46% in others.

This Issue Brief illustrates the increasing role that fuel costs, principally natural gas costs, have played in electric rate increases on residential customers in the North Carolina service territories of Duke Energy Carolinas (DEC) and Duke Energy Progress (DEP) during recent years (2017-Q1 2024).

AAAS has honored EDF Chief Scientist Steven Hamburg with a fellowship

We need nature-based climate solutons to work. Yet as a recent study shows, questions remain on how we can achieve the best ground-level outcomes and maximize the enormous potential of these solutions to lower greenhouse gas concentrations.

New Mexico’s rivers are under severe threat, further endangering already strained ecosystems, drinking water sources and livelihoods across the state, according to a new report. The state’s rivers now collectively rank as the most endangered in America according to new analysis released today by American Rivers.

This EDF report presents a mapping analysis that shows representations of several gas gathering pipeline systems in the United States and their federal “Class Location” categorizations. It also presents an overview of reported data on gathering pipelines, including recent safety incidents and their costs.

By Anna Lóránt  The EU is striving to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. As one of the fastest warming continents in the world, with climate risks threatening its energy and food security, ecosystems, infrastructure, water resources, financial stability and people’s health (EEA, 2024), ambitious climate action is a necessity.   It’s clear that the …

A new interactive map can help you identify potential chemical exposures in your neighborhood.

By Rod Fujita and Kristin Kleisner  To mitigate climate change, sea level rise, and other environmental problems, some experts are looking to nature-based solutions. But which solutions are the most impactful when it comes to sequestering carbon? And what do we still need to learn to improve our scientific understanding of nature-based solutions?   We co-authored …

This blog was co-authored by Maureen Lackner (Senior Manager of Economics and Policy Analysis, Environmental Defense Fund) and Lauren Beatty (High Meadows Postdoctoral Economics Fellow, Environmental Defense Fund). Climate change is a pressing issue, partly fueled by methane: a greenhouse gas responsible for about 30% of today’s global warming. Reducing methane emissions will slow down …

Methane is a potent climate pollutant. To help speed reductions, EDF scientists have conducted extensive research on methane and its impact on the climate.

Hydrogen is a leak-prone gas with a potent warming effect. For hydrogen to be an effective climate solution, we must produce it cleanly and use it wisely.