The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) regrets the limited decisions reached at the U.N. climate negotiations in Madrid. Representatives from almost 200 nations met at the 25th Conference of the Parties of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25) to address issues left undecided in the Paris Agreement Rulebook, which was developed at last year’s meeting in Poland. The negotiations in Madrid centered on devising a framework for international carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

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“The U.N. report’s findings are bleak,” said EESI Executive Director Daniel Bresette. “The United States and other countries are failing to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, which means that we need to make even deeper and faster cuts if we want to curb climate change. We need to step up our commitments, and do so now. There are policy options available to us today that would have an immediate impact. In fact, we have just laid out an achievable set of policy recommendations to the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.

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The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) today submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on the Climate Crisis an extensive set of policy recommendations for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and addressing climate change.

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The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI)’s Executive Director, Daniel Bresette, testified before Congress on the importance of energy efficiency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, create a clean energy economy, promote climate adaptation and resilience, and save Americans money.

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Today, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s leading body of climate scientists, released its Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (the cryosphere refers to areas containing frozen water, such as glaciers and snowcapped mountains). More than 100 scientists from 80 countries examined thousands of peer-reviewed studies to assess the impacts of climate change on the world’s oceans, as well as its coastal, polar, and mountain regions. Their conclusions were grim. “Global warming of 1 degree Celsius has already taken place, and the impacts are already being felt: rising sea levels, disappearing glaciers, more extreme weather, marine heatwaves…” noted EESI Executive Director Carol Werner. “Already severe, these impacts will only get worse as we continue to release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.”

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The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) is alarmed by the latest U.N. report, Climate Change and Land, which was released yesterday. The report warns that climate change is exacerbating pressures on the global food supply, threatening millions more with hunger, and potentially raising food prices for all.

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Today, the Department of Defense released a Congressionally-mandated report on the effects of a changing climate on America's military bases. The Environmental and Energy Study Institute welcomes the report but finds it incomplete, as it fails to list the most vulnerable bases, per Congress's directive. More importantly, the report doesn’t list and price out actionable measures that could be taken to better prepare America's armed forces for the impacts of climate change.

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The New York-based Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust has awarded a $300,000 grant to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) to showcase resilience as a major component of climate change adaptation in federal policy, with a particular focus on coastal communities and nature-based solutions.

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This Saturday, 197 countries—including the United States—agreed on a rule book for the Paris Climate Agreement, which calls on the world's nations to keep global warming significantly below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Participating countries have already submitted written pledges to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, by transitioning to cleaner energy sources and by promoting energy efficiency. But rules were needed to ensure that countries could monitor each other’s actions, and properly measure their impacts.

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On November 23, 2018, the U.S. government released Volume II of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA), which confirms—once again—that climate change is already having adverse impacts on Americans. "How many wake-up calls do we need? Every new National Climate Assessment has built on the previous one, confirming that climate change is already happening, and that we need to act," said EESI Executive Director Carol Werner.

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