#climate impact

The Netherlands' growing reliance on liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States has led to a sharp increase in the climate impact of its natural gas consumption, according to new data from Energie Beheer Nederland (EBN). Although the U.S. now supplies 27 percent of the gas used in the Netherlands, it is responsible for 66 percent of the total greenhouse gases emitted during gas extraction and transport,Trouw reports. In recent years, the Netherlands has increased its import of LNG after the discontinuation of Russian pipeline gas and the depletion of the Groningen gas field. The majority of this LNG now comes from the U.S., a country that has become a significant exporter of fossil fuels. However, experts caution that the climate consequences of importing U.S. gas are much higher than those of domestic or other foreign sources. "The import of gas has serious consequences that are not being fully acknowledged," said Dion Huidekooper, spokesperson for EBN. "This issue is often overlooked in public and political debates." While burning natural gas for energy emits CO2, the environmental impact is greater earlier in the supply chain. The extraction of shale gas in the U.S. is particularly problematic, as it releases large amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Additionally, the liquefaction and transport of the gas requires significant energy, contributing further to CO2 emissions. Jilles van den Beukel, an expert at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS), emphasized that the Dutch government does not fully consider the climate impact of imported gas. "Consumers may make more informed choices when buying products like organic or Fairtrade, but the government does not apply the same scrutiny to its gas imports," he said. Because the emissions from gas extraction in the U.S. do not count toward the Netherlands' national emissions targets, the country can meet its climate goals while ignoring the larger environmental cost of the gas supply chain. "It matters whether the gas comes from Groningen, Qatar, or the U.S.," said van den Beukel.

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To curb the spread of COVID-19, much of the globe hunkered down. That inactivity helped slow the spread of the virus and, as a side effect, kept some climate-warming gases out of the air.

New estimates based on people’s movements suggest that global greenhouse gas emissions fell roughly 10 to 30 percent, on average, during April 2020 as people and businesses reduced activity. But those massive drops, even in a scenario in which the pandemic lasts through 2021, won’t have much of a lasting effect on climate change, unless countries incorporate “green” policy measures in their economic recovery packages, researchers report August 7 in Nature Climate Change.

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“The fall in emissions we experienced during COVID-19 is temporary, and therefore it will do nothing to slow down climate change,” says Corinne Le Quéré, a climate scientist at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. But how governments respond could be “a turning point if they focus on a green recovery, helping to avoid severe impacts from climate change.”

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5097241-trump-executive-orders-oil-drilling-climate-electric-vehicles/

The annual Fourth of July parade in Washington D.C. was canceled on July 4, 2026. This decision was made in response to severe weather forecasts indicating extreme heat conditions for the day. Public safety concerns for participants, staff, and spectators were paramount in the cancellation. The cancellation represented a significant alteration to the nation’s capital’s Independence Day…

Hello all! I have convinced one of my bosses to let me run a sustainability Lunch and Learn on the Climate Impacts of AI so that I can hopefully convince the other bosses at my firm to make an anti-AI policy for the company. Now I have some sources already, as I sent them a document back in 2024 about why we should avoid it, but many of those sources are now outdated.