Climate Politics
All Stories
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![a hot sun with heat blur over a landscape also blurred]()
![a hot sun with heat blur over a landscape also blurred]()
How the planet fared in 2025 — the good, the bad, and the ugly
From winter wildfires in Los Angeles to the unchecked growth of data centers, here are the big climate stories we covered in 2025.
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![U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright visits the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) campus in Golden, Colorado, on April 3, 2025]()
![U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright visits the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) campus in Golden, Colorado, on April 3, 2025]()
Under Trump, the National Renewable Energy Lab is losing ‘renewable’ from its name
The lab has spurred major solar, wind, and storage breakthroughs. Its new remit is a "broader vision" for energy research.
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![Side-by-side photos of Trump turned away and a group photo of smiling representatives at COP30]()
![Side-by-side photos of Trump turned away and a group photo of smiling representatives at COP30]()
2025: The year the US gave up on climate, and the world gave up on us
While the U.S. sits in self-imposed isolation, the rest of the world, led by China, raced ahead to invest in renewables and commit to climate action.
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![A rancher moves a herd of cattle between pastures in Colorado.]()
![A rancher moves a herd of cattle between pastures in Colorado.]()
The wealthy profit from public lands, and taxpayers pick up the tab
Roughly two-thirds of grazing on Bureau of Land Management land is controlled by just 10 percent of permit holders.
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![A man in a blue suit stands in front of a shipyard]()
![A man in a blue suit stands in front of a shipyard]()
Pennsylvania bailed on a carbon market to appease Republicans
Governor Josh Shapiro pulled out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in exchange for a budget. Critics say he “got rolled.”
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![A huge white cruise ship sits in turquoise blue waters off the shore]()
![A huge white cruise ship sits in turquoise blue waters off the shore]()
Hawaiʻi’s green fee is the latest climate effort challenged by Trump
The Department of Justice wants to join the cruise ship industry’s lawsuit against the state over a new tax on passengers visiting the islands.
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![A photograph of the glass-paneled headquarters of FEMA.]()
![A photograph of the glass-paneled headquarters of FEMA.]()
FEMA’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year
Internal turmoil and delayed aid expose the agency's fragility under Trump.
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![NORTH SLOPE BOROUGH, ALASKA - MAY 9: A grizzly bear walks on the tundra underneath a portion of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) near the Dalton Highway on May 9, 2025 about 10 miles north of Atigun Pass in North Slope Borough, Alaska. The Dalton Highway (Alaska Route 11) stretches 414 miles across northern Alaska from Livengood (53 miles north of Fairbanks) to Prudhoe Bay. The 800-mile-long pipeline pushes oil from Prudhoe Bay to the port of Valdez. (Photo by Lance King/Getty Images)]()
![NORTH SLOPE BOROUGH, ALASKA - MAY 9: A grizzly bear walks on the tundra underneath a portion of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) near the Dalton Highway on May 9, 2025 about 10 miles north of Atigun Pass in North Slope Borough, Alaska. The Dalton Highway (Alaska Route 11) stretches 414 miles across northern Alaska from Livengood (53 miles north of Fairbanks) to Prudhoe Bay. The 800-mile-long pipeline pushes oil from Prudhoe Bay to the port of Valdez. (Photo by Lance King/Getty Images)]()
Dismantling the Endangered Species Act will hurt a lot more than just wildlife
The Trump administration's proposed rollbacks open the door for more drilling, mining, and logging.
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![Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva delivers a speech during the General Plenary of Leaders in the framework of the COP30 UN Climate Change Conference in Belem, Para State, Brazil, on November 6, 2025.]()
![Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva delivers a speech during the General Plenary of Leaders in the framework of the COP30 UN Climate Change Conference in Belem, Para State, Brazil, on November 6, 2025.]()
10 years after the Paris Agreement, world leaders are letting go of its most famous goal
This year's U.N. climate negotiations crashed out on a hard truth: It’s all about the money.
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![Diplomats discuss climate policy at COP30 in Brazil.]()
![Diplomats discuss climate policy at COP30 in Brazil.]()
At COP30 in Brazil, countries plan to armor themselves against a warming world
In the eyes of many leaders of developing countries, the success of COP30 hinges on the billions of dollars they need to prepare for climate disasters.
