New mandatory rules for Canada's financial institutions aim to hold banking officials accountable for managing “climate-related risks” as the world transitions away from fossil fuels. The institutions will be required to develop and implement a “climate transition plan” to manage mounting legal and physical risks from climate change, such as lawsuits against banks’ fossil fuel clients and property loss from devastating storms.

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Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, now hosts the archipelago’s first cooperatively managed solar microgrid — a network of photovoltaic panels and battery storage units that will use renewable energy to keep the lights on and power flowing during a power outage. The system includes some 700 panels mounted on seven buildings in the town’s central plaza and a battery storage system capable of providing up to 187 kilowatts of power.

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Regulatory action to phase out the use and production of dangerous insecticides has been a boon to public health. According to new research published last month, the atmospheric concentrations of three insecticides near the Great Lakes have fallen so low that researchers can’t even quantify them anymore. Lindane, alpha-HCH, and endosulfan “are well on their way to being virtually eliminated,” the paper says.

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Hi there, Beacon readers! After a year and a half and more than 330 daily editions of The Beacon, I’m handing it off to a new team of writers, who will be spearheading an updated version of the newsletter that incorporates some of the feedback that you recently shared with us. The Beacon will now be published on a weekly basis instead of every day. That means you can catch up on the whole week in climate action all in one place.