Escazu Agreement Offers Hope but is Only the Beginning

2020 was a terrible year across the globe, but particularly for Latin America’s environmental defenders. After record numbers of murders in 2019, the perils for environmental and human rights defenders did not decline in 2020. In fact, these threats remained high and even increased during the pandemic, as illegal loggers, miners, and other land grabbers had free reign to encroach upon remote communities. And this time, the intruders brought with them the deadly coronavirus.

• Forests
• Peru

Carta pública pide suspender la selección del nuevo director del SERFOR en Perú

59 organizaciones de Pueblos Indígenas y de la sociedad civil en el Perú hicieron pública una carta enviada al Ministro de Desarrollo Agrario y Riego, Federico Tenorio, y a la viceministra María Isabel Remy, expresando su profundo rechazo al modo en que se está llevando a cabo el proceso de selección del nuevo director ejecutivo del Servicio Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre (SERFOR), sin antes haber resuelto las irregularidades y vacíos normativos identificados en la remoción del anterior director ejecutivo.

Major Climate Win: Lessons for the Montreal Protocol

Two new papers published in Nature suggest that the CFC-11 emissions are back on a downward trajectory potentially avoiding substantial delays in the recovery of the ozone layer. The papers show an accelerated decline in global atmospheric concentrations of CFC-11 from 2018 to 2019, and attribute 60% of the decline to China. This is a huge win for the ozone layer and our climate, which would not have been possible without a concerted global response to the findings from the ground and the atmosphere.

• Climate
• Standards
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

EIA Calls Upon the Biden Administration to Take Bold Action

The Biden-Harris administration takes the helm at a time when the world faces multiple interrelated ecological and social justice crises. Bold, transformative approaches are urgently needed to change systems too long operating at the expense of environmental, social and human rights priorities. The Environmental Investigation Agency calls for the new administration to implement measures that prioritize biodiversity protection and rapid emissions mitigation while centering environmental justice and good governance.

Kruger National Park Rhino Population Crash Underscores Continued Poaching Threat Facing World’s Rhinos

Newly released rhino population data reveals how the protracted poaching crisis fueled by consumer demand for rhino horn in Asia has decimated Kruger’s rhino population over the past decade.

• Wildlife
• Rhinos

EIA Statement on Capitol Riot

n January 6th, as Congress gathered for the official certification of electoral votes in the U.S. presidential election, armed white supremacists and rioters broke into the House and Senate chambers, forcing elected officials, journalists, and others to flee...

The AIM Act: Your Questions on U.S. HFC Legislation – Answered

A new year’s gift for our climate came wrapped in the coronavirus relief package passed by Congress at the end of 2020. Among the bill’s several significant climate provisions is the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act, or AIM Act, that enacts a phase-down of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

• Climate
• Country Transitions
• Standards
• HFC-free Alternatives
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

How the Cooling Industry Can Turn Down the Global Temperature

The HVAC&R industry needs to implement critical changes to build back better – and help turn the tide on global warming.

• Climate

International Statement of Solidarity with Peruvian Indigenous Peoples During the Political Crisis

The undersigned organizations, allies of the Peruvian Indigenous movement for decades, previously concerned about the COVID19 situation in the Peruvian Amazon and today alerted to the political situation in Peru, respectfully address public opinion and Peruvian authorities to state the following

• Peru

Letter to Peru President Vizcarra

Civil society organizations ask Peru President Vizcarra to fight against impunity and not be fooled by the company sentenced for deforesting Tamshiyacu

• Forests
• Peru

World Rhino Day 2020: No Time for Complacency

Today marks the 10 years since the first World Rhino Day celebration on September 22, 2010. The past decade has been fraught with challenges for the world’s rhinos, yet some progress has been made. If the next 10 years are to be better for rhinos than the past 10 years, we cannot afford to lose focus now.

• Wildlife
• South Africa
• Vietnam
• Rhinos
• CITES
• China - Wildlife

Can I be HFC-free? A Quest for Climate-friendly Cooling

Supermarkets in particular have enormous refrigeration systems that extend past the display cases to back room chillers, refrigerated trucks, cold warehouses and so on. With such large systems, supermarkets are among the largest corporate offenders of HFC use, with thousands of tons of these chemicals throughout their cold chain. Yet out of nearly 40,000 supermarkets in the U.S., barely 1% are known to have transitioned to HFC-free systems; our Supermarket Scorecard shows that action and change throughout the industry is needed. These large companies have a greater climate footprint than you or me, and thus a greater responsibility to transition to climate-friendly alternatives.

• Climate
• HFC-free Alternatives

Finding the Promise in Compromise: EIA Proposal to Jumpstart California HFC Reclaim

Last week EIA participated in California’s Air Resources Board (ARB) 6th workshop on proposed regulations to reduce emissions of super pollutant hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) used in cooling. The state’s rigorous process for proposing new regulations on HFC refrigerants has been ongoing for several years now and is in the final stretch. Opportunities for stakeholder engagement have been abundant and ARB has invited input from industry along the way. They even aligned with an industry proposed 2023 deadline for transitioning new air conditioning equipment to refrigerants with a global warming potential (GWP) less than 750.

• Climate
• Global Actions
• HFC-free Alternatives
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

Seizing the Moment: How Ghana Can End the Destruction of the Illegal Rosewood Trade Now

As exports and imports worldwide are estimated to be at their lowest levels in four years due to the impact of COVID-19, Ghana, a key epicenter of the rosewood trade in West Africa, is no exception to this trend.

• Forests
• Rosewood
• Timber
• China - Forests
• Ghana

Unchartered Territory: Funding Climate Action During a Pandemic

This week, Parties to the Montreal Protocol, renowned as the world’s most successful environmental treaty came together remotely for their annual intersessional meeting, known as the Open-ended Working Group (OEWG). The Montreal Protocol has a vital role to play in addressing climate change, as it becomes increasingly clear that we are currently not on the pathway to limit global temperature rise to below 1.5 °C.

• Climate
• China - Climate
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
• Montreal Protocol

New UN report on illegal wildlife trade is welcome but some findings could mislead

The key conclusions on ivory and rhino trade in a major new UN report on the international wildlife trade are “premature and misleading”

China's New Approach in Updated Forest Law Could Support Pandemic-Fighting Needs

The world is now focused on fighting a common enemy: COVID-19. For most of us, this is an unprecedented moment of global struggle. The first hit nation, China, has seemingly emerged from the most difficult stage and is forging ahead with some measures to address drivers of pandemic risks.

World Refrigeration Day 2020

June 26th marks World Refrigeration Day, a global day recognizing the refrigeration, air-conditioning, and heat pump sector.

• Climate
• HFC-free Alternatives
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

EIA Statement of Support

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) stands in solidarity with the Black community and the Black Lives Matter movement. The recent unjust killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery are just a few examples of the racialized violence committed against Black people in the United States.

Join Us in Thanking HFC-free Supermarkets and Calling for Climate Action

We’re teaming up with our friends at Green America to thank the supermarkets that are acting on the climate crisis, at a time when supermarkets have been on the frontlines of the COVID-19 health crisis and their brave workers are providing critical services.

• Climate
• HFC-free Alternatives
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

China Olympics Sets New Record for Climate-friendly Cooling

New world records will surely be set when Beijing hosts the next Winter Olympics in 2022, but these games are already making history for a different reason. It will be the first time that carbon dioxide (CO2) is used as a climate-friendly refrigerant to create the cooling in several ice rink venues for the Olympic Games.

• HFC-free Alternatives
• China - Climate
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

Find a Climate-Friendly Supermarket Near You: A Global Tool

This Earth Day, EIA is launching the expansion of the climate friendly supermarket map

• Climate
• HFC-free Alternatives
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

Critical Updates Made to Romania's Forest Inspector System

These Revisions mark an important step forward for a world-leading system that involves all its citizens in combating illegal logging and managing its forests

Update on North American Safety Standards for Climate-Friendly Refrigerants

This month a new standards proposal under ASHRAE-15, represents some progress for uptake of climate-friendly hydrocarbon refrigerants to replace super pollutant hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The proposal allows hydrocarbons to be used in corridors and lobbies of commercial buildings like hotels. It allows up to 114 grams of propane where previously none was allowed at all. This will enable vending machines and most other light commercial refrigeration equipment like small one door beverage coolers containing hydrocarbons to be used in these spaces.

• Climate
• HFC-free Alternatives
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

EIA during Covid-19

In light of the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, EIA’s Washington D.C. office is currently closed and all staff are working from home. But our advocacy and investigative efforts continue in full force.