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Has Biden ditched the environment?

Back in 2020, candidate Joe Biden vowed to be the greenest president in the history of the United States. This was not a nod to his political coming of age – the soon-to-be octogenarian has been around the block – but rather a reference to Biden’s super ambitious climate agenda.

Fast forward 15 months, and Biden, facing an unprecedented energy crisis, has been accused of doing an about-face on climate, veering into drill, baby, drill territory to encourage more oil production to boost dwindling global supplies.

Promises made, (some) promises kept. Focused on uniting a divided Democratic Party upon taking office, Biden vowed to go big on climate change mitigation. He followed through immediately with a series of executive orders, first rejoining the Paris Climate Accords ditched by his predecessor, realigning the US with nearly 200 countries that agreed to cooperate on keeping global warming levels below 2 degrees Celsius.

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Climate justice: An ethical dilemma of existential proportions

Climate justice: An ethical dilemma of existential proportions

“Calling for all countries to adopt net zero targets by 2050 […] is anti-equity and against climate justice.”

So declared a few days before COP26 the Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDCs), a bloc of 24 nations comprising China, India, and major oil producers like Saudi Arabia that is collectively responsible for half of all annual carbon emissions.

These countries hold that developing nations should not be expected to stop burning fossil fuels anytime soon. Not because they don’t believe climate change is real or an existential threat, but rather because it’s not their fault.

Forget the pledges these countries made in Paris, Glasgow, and in between. None of those are legally binding. If you want to know how they really plan to respond to climate change, you have to understand what they’re getting at here. This they do mean.

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The Graphic Truth: Who's putting a price on carbon?

We're just days away from COP26, the landmark global climate conference that's been dubbed the last chance to get the climate crisis in check. In the lead-up to the event in Glasgow, dozens of countries have released new ambitions to reduce their future carbon footprints. For years, climate activists and experts have called on governments to introduce carbon pricing schemes – either through taxes or emissions-trading schemes. So who's heeded the warning? We take a look at the top ten carbon emitters' share of global emissions and details about their respective national carbon pricing schemes.

Gabriella Turrisi

The Graphic Truth: Who's driving global methane emissions?

Ahead of the 76th UN General Assembly, the US and the EU both agreed to cut methane emissions by at least 30 percent from 2020 levels by the end of the decade to reduce global warming. Will they convince other top emitters like China, Russia and India to do the same before the COP26 climate summit in November? This would be a big deal, because methane emissions, one-quarter of which come from agriculture, are the biggest contributors to climate change after carbon dioxide — and 80 times more potent in warming the planet. We take a look at the world's top methane emitters, compared with their respective carbon dioxide emissions.

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