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This post was written by EDF’s Ellen Robo One year ago this month, the Inflation Reduction Act put the pedal to the metal for investments in electric vehicle manufacturing – and it shows no sign of letting up. In fact, U.S. EV investments are still growing at a breakneck pace. In March, EDF and WSP …

By Ruth Driscoll-Lovejoy and Amy Folkerts Ocean farmers are making a splash in the sustainable seafood market — and they don’t need state-of-the-art facilities to do it.  Thimble Island Ocean Farm in Connecticut is a commercial seaweed and shellfish farm and serves as an innovation hub for GreenWave, a nonprofit replicating and scaling regenerative aquaculture.

By Adam Peltz and Elizabeth Lieberknecht  Recently, Louisiana, under the leadership of Gov. John Bel Edwards, became the latest state taking action to curb pollution and waste from oil and gas production. In a new proposal, the state says it will limit natural gas venting and flaring and attempt to reduce the risk of thousands …

By Nini Gu On Thursday, July 20th we saw a major shift in how methane emissions from oil and gas sources can be regulated, and to no one’s surprise it came from the nation’s leading state on this issue: Colorado. Methane is a potent, fast acting climate pollutant causing about a quarter of current global …

Establishing a Chief Resilience Officer, a government position that is responsible for spearheading resilience coordination and bringing together stakeholders to build, develop and implement resilience strategies, helps leaders effectively plan at the state, county and municipal level and is a major step forward in protecting communities from future climate impacts. The post Why every state needs a Chief Resilience Officer first appeared on Growing Returns.

By Ali DySard and Melody Reis School districts around the country are considering a switch to buses that use less fuel, cost less, and, most importantly, provide safe and healthy trips to and from school. Only one option wins on each of these critical criteria: electric. They eliminate the dirty tailpipe emissions of diesel and …

Data on the financial impacts of climate-smart practices, like cover crops, can help inform farmers’ financial decisions when considering these practices. While cover crops can help improve soil health and make farms more resilient to extreme weather, farmers continue to have questions about the types of financial impacts cover crops will have on their operations.

Between 2022-2024, EDF and its' partners will collect financial data on cover crops from corn, soybean, wheat and corn silage farms across Minnesota.

By Julia Mason and Sarah Weisberg What will it take to create climate-resilient fisheries? Fisheries scientists and managers across the US have been sensing a change in the air — and not just the highest temperatures ever recorded, although they probably contribute. There’s a growing sense of climate urgency in fishery management conversations and agendas.

Amanda Leland, Executive Director at Environmental Defense Fund, on why supporting farmers, fishers and food producers is critical to ensuring abundant food for a growing population in a warming world.

It’s been exactly one year since nearly two dozen U.S. and Canadian states signed onto a roadmap to 100% zero-emission truck sales by 2050. While this was an important milestone, it was only intended to be the starting point. States were encouraged to build on these plans by developing localized versions that would meet their …

  By Ilissa Ocko and Steven Hamburg Hydrogen emissions from leakage, venting and purging leads to global warming, new research confirms. To take advantage of the potential benefits of switching from fossil fuel systems to hydrogen, we need to keep emissions at a minimum, and doing so will depend on the development of new instruments …

By Ari Pottens and Maureen Lackner New research confirms that cutting methane emissions from the oil and gas sector is one of the fastest and most affordable steps Canada can take to help address the climate crisis. According to the report by Dunsky Energy + Climate Advisors, Canada’s upstream oil and gas companies can eliminate …

By Lucy Vogt, EDF Seafood Policy Intern Last month, Capitol Hill Ocean Week (CHOW) welcomed environmental businesses, leaders, and shakers — and one brand-new intern. CHOW investigated the intersection between the ocean and the climate by facilitating conversations about ocean opportunities. Even though the ocean covers more than 70% of the earth, produces 50% of …

The climate crisis requires not only urgent action, underpinned by a robust framework of proven economic-driven solutions to effectively address its multifaceted challenges. Given the increasing urgency, we need economists at the forefront, conducting rigorous research and informing policy decisions. Recognizing this critical need, the Economics team at EDF is dedicated to nurturing economists who …

This project is gathering detailed financial data on cover crops between 2022-2024 from corn, soybean, and other row crop farms across Minnesota.

By John Rutecki Earlier this summer, EDF, Boston University School of Public Health, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Institute for the Environment  and PSE Healthy Energy published a peer-reviewed study that quantified the health impacts of oil and gas pollution, both in dollar value and human lives. The study found that in …

The Inflation Reduction Act made historic investments in rural and agricultural climate solutions, including providing $300 million to improve measurement, reporting and verification of the climate benefits of farm bill conservation programs. This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture shared a framework for how they intend to spend those funds over the next eight years.

By Ari Pottens and Scott Seymour It’s no secret that the rampant, out-of-control wildfires which are devastating parts of Canada and creating toxic air quality conditions for millions of people, are exacerbated by climate change. This makes it all the more crucial to rapidly reduce the greenhouse gases behind the climate crisis. In 2020, Canada’s …

Farm Credit Canada launched the Sustainability Incentive Program to recognize and encourage customers to implement sustainable farming practices.

By Adam Peltz & Kate Roberts This week, the Department of the Interior announced nearly $660 million in grant funding to plug orphan wells across the U.S., adding to $560 million in initial funding from last summer. The news comes on the heels of new research led by researchers at McGill University and EDF experts …

In 2022, Farm Credit Canada launched the Sustainability Incentive Program to recognize and encourage customers to implement sustainable farming practices. Through the program, FCC partners with agriculture industry-led sustainability initiatives that have established systems for verifying and measuring environmental outcomes. This model has allowed FCC to offer innovative financial incentives to farmers producing several different …

What Happened? In April, a company called Prime Research Reports issued a press release in which it claimed FDA had approved THP (tetrahydropiperine) as a Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) substance “for use in food products.” There is no record that FDA has either reviewed or approved THP for use in food. The report describes …

In April of last year, the IPCC estimated that we need to invest $48 trillion between 2020-2050 to reach net zero.

Oregon’s 2023 legislative session concluded with a wide-ranging drought package passing through the House and the Senate, enabling key investments necessary to building a water-secure future for Oregon’s communities and ecosystems.   The investments come at a critical moment as climate change is impacting water resources throughout Oregon. The vast majority of the state remains …