The Biden administration unveiled its final tailpipe emissions standards for vehicles Wednesday, effectively requiring about 67% of all light-duty vehicles sold after model year 2032 to be electric vehicles (EVs) or hybrids.

A new study finds that human-caused carbon dioxide emissions are driving increased plant growth that’s greening the Earth, even in areas experiencing drought.

The peer-reviewed study, which was published in the scientific journal Global Ecology and Conservation, finds that the phenomenon known as “global greening” is an indisputable fact. The rate of global greening has increased slightly, and drought has only slowed, but not stopped, the process.

The U.S. government made one of its biggest-ever bets on emerging climate tech when it handed out $1.2 billion in grants to two projects to capture carbon from the atmosphere. The grants focus on scaling up the carbon-sucking technology (direct air capture, or DAC) itself. But they also take a stance on a debate that has divided the nascent industry: What to do with the carbon once it’s captured?

A Montana judge has sided with youth activists who argued that state agencies’ use of fossil fuels and its impact on the environment violated their constitutional rights. 

District Court Judge Kathy Seeley found the state’s policy used to evaluate requests for fossil fuel permits is unconstitutional because it does not force agencies to evaluate the effects of greenhouse gas emissions. 

Montana must do more to protect the state and its residents from climate change, a judge ruled Monday in a landmark decision that cited a state constitutional right to a clean environment.

State District Judge Kathy Seeley ruled in favor of a group of youth plaintiffs and invalidated a pair of laws prohibiting state agencies from considering the effects of greenhouse-gas emissions. 

“The degradation to Montana’s environment, and the resulting harm to Plaintiffs, will worsen if the State continues ignoring GHG emissions and climate change,” Seeley wrote.

A judge in Montana ruled on Monday that young people in the state have a constitutional right to a healthful environment, finding in a landmark case that the state’s failure to consider climate change when evaluating new projects was causing harm.

California and major truck manufacturers announced a deal today that would avoid a legal battle over the state’s landmark mandate phasing out diesel big rigs and other trucks. 

In return, the Air Resources Board will relax some near-term requirements for trucks to reduce emissions of a key ingredient of smog to more closely align with new federal standards. 

NASA has created shocking visuals of carbon emissions “to dissect our atmosphere and understand some of the major contributors” behind the gas.

The videos, which are time-lapse photography of the gnarly-looking greenhouse emissions from 2021, show the patterns carbon had taken above each continent throughout those 12 months.

In the diagrams, fossil fuels are colored orange, burning biomasses are red, land ecosystems are shown in green and the ocean is tinted blue.

A new investigation into Chevron’s climate pledge has found the fossil fuel company relies on “junk” carbon offsets and “unviable” technologies, which do little to offset its vast greenhouse gas emissions and in some cases may actually be causing communities harm.

Chevron, which reported $35.5bn in profits last year, is the US’s second-largest fossil fuel company with operations stretching from Canada and Brazil to the UK, Nigeria and Australia.

A ban on short domestic flights for journeys that can be completed in two-and-a-half hours by train was signed into law in France on Tuesday.

Clement Beaune, France’s transport minister, heralded the decree.

“This is an essential step and a strong symbol in the policy of reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Beaune said in a statement.

“As we fight relentlessly to decarbonize our lifestyles, how can we justify the use of the plane between the big cities which benefit from regular, fast and efficient connections by train,” he added.