Flights that can be covered in under two-and-a-half hours by an equivalent train ride will no longer be allowed to operate in France.

“This is an essential step and a strong symbol in the policy of reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” the country’s Transportation Minister, Clement Beaune, said in a statement following the announcement on Tuesday.

“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,” the official added.

France has banned domestic short-haul flights where train alternatives exist, in a bid to cut carbon emissions.

The law came into force two years after lawmakers had voted to end routes where the same journey could be made by train in under two-and-a-half hours.

The ban all but rules out air travel between Paris and cities including Nantes, Lyon and Bordeaux, while connecting flights are unaffected.

Critics have described the latest measures as "symbolic bans".

Tesla’s most recent impact report (pdf), released late last month, marks the first time the company has accounted for the emissions associated with its supply chain.

A Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) allows a country to impose a price on carbon emitted during the production of goods in the country of origin as import fees, thus incentivizing greener manufacturing. This has been a perennial aspiration of environmentalists for decades that once languished in obscurity but is now rapidly becoming policy. Now, this step forward in climate policy may be legislated with bipartisan support in the US Congress, with far-reaching implications not just for the environment but the international economy.

ExxonMobil’s own scientists accurately predicted future global warming in reports dating back to the late 1970s and early 1980s, despite the company publicly continuing for years to cast doubt on climate science and lobby against climate action, according to a new analysis.

Earth's glaciers could be at least partially saved if greenhouse gas emissions and resulting global warming were limited to the Paris Agreement's most ambitious goals, a new study finds.

Why it matters: Glaciers are a vital source of freshwater for nearly 2 billion people, and their melt contributes to sea level rise.

Currently, the vast majority of the planet's glaciers are melting and shrinking in response to higher temperatures, greater rainfall and increased ocean temperatures that can eat away at the floating ice shelves of marine-terminating glaciers.

THE BUZZ: California has proven it can set climate change goals. Now comes the hard part.

State officials at the Air Resources Board passed a major milestone yesterday by giving its stamp of approval to California’s latest scoping plan, the years-long roadmap that lays out how the state plans to reach carbon neutrality by 2045. Doing so will require a serious shift away from fossil fuel, and recent moves by state officials, like the 2035 ban on new gas vehicles and a $54 billion climate package, will help the state get there.

Flight records reveal United States Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has taken flights on taxpayer-funded private jets while pushing to ease carbon emissions.

This year’s United Nations climate conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt — COP27, the latest in a series dating back to 1995 — achieved two important victories.

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a significant increase in the social cost of carbon emissions. 

Policymakers use the social cost of carbon to calculate economic damages associated with a rise in greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. 

Federal agencies under the Biden administration have been using a value of $51 per metric ton of CO2 – which in itself was a steep climb from the Trump administration’s $1 per metric ton.