This weekly round-up brings you key climate news from the past seven days, including findings from two new studies on progress on the Paris Agreement, the EU’s new emissions reduction target, and Trump’s ban on paper straws.
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1. Trump Signs Order to Bring Back Plastic Straws, Claiming Paper Ones ‘Don’t Work’
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday that takes aim at paper straws, claiming they “don’t work.”
The order reverses a Biden administration policy to get single-use plastics, including straws, plastic cutlery and packaging, out of federal food service operations by 2035 in a bid to tackle the growing threat of plastic pollution.
“These things [paper straws] don’t work, I’ve had them many times and on occasion they break, they explode. If something’s hot they don’t last very long, like a matter of minutes, sometimes a matter of seconds,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday as he signed the order. “It’s a ridiculous situation so we’re going back to plastics.”
2. Paris Agreement’s 1.5C Threshold Breach Could Come ‘Earlier Than Expected’, Scientists Warn
The planet might be on track to breach a key global warming threshold “earlier than expected,” two new papers warned on Monday. They follow follow the hottest year on record and the first in which global temperatures reached 1.5C for the entire year.
The United Nations had already estimated that current emissions reduction pledges put the planet on track for a temperature increase of 2.6-3.1C over the course of this century. The only way to avoid this is do drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the primary driver of global warming as they trap heat in the atmosphere, raising Earth’s surface temperature.
3. EU to Propose 90% Emissions-Reduction Target for 2040
The new target will be included in an amendment to the European Climate Law, which provides a framework to achieve the bloc’s legally binding target of reaching carbon neutrality by mid-century. The bloc has already pledged to cut net emissions by 55% by 2030 compared with 1990 levels.
The plan is part of the European Commission’s Work Programme for 2025, which focusses on competitiveness, defense and simplifications of administrative procedures and implementation of EU rules. For the Greens, this simplification may be used as “an excuse to strip away elements of the Green Deal and social progress.”
The new proposed goal faced backlash from far-right political factions and some member states, worried of an overly stringent target at a time when Europe faced elevated energy costs and waning competitiveness against global powers like China and the US.
Meanwhile, 182 countries missed a Monday deadline to submit new national climate plans to the UN, including some of the biggest polluters like China, India, and the EU.
4. Over 100 Daily Child Deaths Linked to Air Pollution in East Asia, Pacific: UNICEF
More than 100 children under five years of age die every day across East Asia and the Pacific because of air pollution, a new analysis by a UN agency has revealed.
“Every breath matters, but for too many children every breath can bring harm,” said June Kunugi, UNICEF Regional Director for East Asia and the Pacific. The agency found that all 500 million children living in the region are exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution. Of them, 235 million live in countries where average annual particulate matter (PM2.5) levels exceed levels deemed safe by the World Health Organization (WHO) by more than five times.
For children in particular, air pollution can lead to serious complications, as their bodies are still developing. Research has linked it to asthma and other respiratory diseases, childhood cancer, and premature death, and found it affects neurodevelopment and cognitive ability.
5. Governments Expected to Agree on World’s First Levy on Shipping Emissions At Upcoming IMO Meeting
Over 50 countries across Europe, Africa, Asia, the Pacific and the Caribbean, representing a majority of the world’s fleet, are rallying behind a proposal to charge commercial vessels a flat fee for each tonne of carbon emitted. 48 countries including major shipping nations like Greece, Japan, Korea, and the UK, along with the European Commission and the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), said the tax should range between US$18-150 per tonne of greenhouse gas.
Implementing carbon pricing in the shipping industry would make the use of polluting fossil fuels more expensive, incentivizing shipping companies to explore lower-emitting fuels like ammonia, biofuels, methanol, and hydrogen.
Countries are expected to reach an agreement at next week’s 18th International Maritime Organization’s meeting in London and finalize the decision in April. If adopted, the levy is expected to enter into force globally in early 2027.
