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Earlier this month, McDonald’s became the latest major food company to announce a commitment to remove all added fluorinated chemicals from its food packaging that is served to customers. As the world’s largest fast food restaurant chain, McDonald’s new global commitment is a vital step towards improving food safety and protecting consumer health. McDonald’s announcement …

The unlikely leader of IKEA's EV revolution

A prediction: 2021 will be the year that Wall Street rethinks its relationship with K Street. With corporate political spending and lobbying under increasing scrutiny and a new administration advancing financially material, government-wide climate action, financial institutions have good reason to reassess their climate lobbying. While some banks and asset managers have pushed for climate-friendly …

ESG: Using finance to drive real change

A National Geographic photographer captures the emotional impacts of climate change

As stakeholder demand for climate leadership surges and as the business benefits of climate action become clear, executives are increasingly embracing net zero by 2050 as the new business imperative. This means setting net zero by 2050 goals, and turning these pledges into progress. As the Transform to Net Zero initiative stated in its position …

McDonald’s and Environmental Defense Fund’s collaboration began three decades ago, when we partnered in an effort to reduce solid waste from the company’s restaurants. The results? Over the next decade, McDonald’s eliminated more than 300 million pounds of packaging (including the polystyrene clamshells), recycled 1 million tons of corrugated boxes and reduced restaurant waste by 30%, while …

The urgency for companies to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles is underscored as demand for e-commerce, and with it last-mile deliveries, soars. The result: more fossil-fuel based trucks on the road that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions worsening air pollution. Companies are setting ambitious climate goals, and zero-emissions shipping will be critical for hitting …

The Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC) might not be a household name, but electricity customers across Texas have plenty of reason to be thankful for its latest actions. Recently, the PUC has made some key decisions to protect Texas’ competitive electricity markets and make sure all Texans have access to affordable and clean electric energy.

We’re past the midpoint of the Texas legislative session and the bill filing deadline is behind us. Because the legislature only meets for five months every other year, there’s a lot to accomplish in a short span. Now, as things pick up steam we’ll see which bills move forward and which don’t. A bill needs …

A trip from Houston to Washington, D.C., was the exclamation point at the end of the first year of EDF’s Environmental Youth Council program. Through the program, students attending Pasadena Memorial High School, Galena Park High School and Raul Yzaguirre School for Success — all located on the east side of Houston near the heavy …

Evelyn Garcia has had asthma for as long as she can remember. And she has always been aware of the effect the problematic air quality near her Pasadena, Texas, home has on her and others who have grown up in the area. The March 2019 fires at Intercontinental Terminals Company (ITC) in Deer Park caused …

Last month, the city of Houston announced the formation of EVolve Houston, a partnership focused on accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles, slashing transportation-related emissions and delivering cleaner air for the region. Considering Houston has some of the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions in the country and nearly half of these emissions come from …

Texas’ Permian Basin isn’t just the site of the world’s biggest oil boom. It’s also the source of one of the country’s most unnecessary wastes of energy and associated air pollution. The burning off (flaring) and intentional release (venting) of natural gas has proven to be a black eye Permian producers can’t shake. A previous …

Water scarcity is a challenge facing many Texas communities, and it’s encouraging to see how many state leaders are proactively exploring solutions to our growing water needs. This has brought the oil and gas industry and the massive volumes of water it uses and produces each year into the conversation. One positive opportunity area exists …

Last summer, Texas’ electric grid was put to the test by scorching temperatures that sent power demand soaring and raised the specter of potential brownouts. Thankfully, the grid did what it was designed to do and pulled through without any major issues. This week, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas released its projection for how …

As Texans contend with the threat of the COVID-19 virus and an economic downturn, the state’s Public Utility Commission has adopted a proposal to prevent customers from having their power shut off in the midst of the current crisis. Chairman DeAnn Walker initially put forward a set of policies on Tuesday to protect the state’s …

Ananya Roy, Senior Health Scientist; Rachel Fullmer, Senior Attorney; Jeremy Proville, Director; Grace Tee Lewis, Health Scientist The Trump administration’s disregard for science has been clear in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it’s not the only health threat they’re making worse by ignoring overwhelming scientific evidence. For three years the administration has systematically …

This post was co-authored by Alexander Golub, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Science at American University. Shutterstock For companies that are large emitters of greenhouse gases, uncertainty about policies to address climate change can be a real challenge. But our new paper in the journal Energy shows how companies that invest now in a novel approach to climate mitigation could …

This post, co-authored with Maureen Lackner, originally appeared on Voices. Cities, states and businesses are still feeling the shock. The coronavirus has stolen more than 138,000 lives and obliterated budgets. Had the U.S. better prepared for the fallout, some of the impacts would have been less severe. Countries in Asia, for example, accustomed to managing …

Earlier this month, EDF’s Office of Chief Economist hosted a virtual fireside chat with Jason Bordoff, Professor of Professional Practice and Founding Director of Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy and Marianne Kah, an Adjunct Senior Research Scholar and Advisory Board member at the Center. Prior to joining Columbia, Bordoff had served in the …

New research building on Nobel Prize winner Nordhaus’ past contributions shows reaching UN climate targets is a good investment for the planet Two years ago William Nordhaus was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his pioneering work on “integrated assessment modeling” (IAM) and his Dynamic Integrated model of Climate and the Economy (DICE)—a framework …

Strong emissions trading system prices encourage and facilitate climate action but also reflect private sector confidence in governments’ commitments to long-term transformation. Every evening in my Brooklyn neighborhood we come out onto our stoops with our children, dogs, bells, horns and pots (my contribution – inspired by the Colombian cacerolazos I witnessed protesting – non-violently,

As climate week gets underway, policymakers should prioritize ways to reduce emissions from one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gases: the transportation sector. A diverse group of stakeholders recently came together to discuss opportunities to do just that. Transportation accounts for nearly one third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. and a …

A shift in ambition, narrative, global cooperation and likely support for mitigation in least-developed countries The announcement by President Xi Jinping at the UN General Assembly last month makes me optimistic. First, on its own, achievement of this goal will contribute to a reduction in expected future temperature by 0.2 to 0.3 degrees.  Second, having …