Landmark EPA Climate Rulemaking Takes Aim at U.S. Phasedown of Super-Pollutant HFCs

The Environmental Protection Agency has published a landmark new climate regulation to establish an allocation system to cap and begin phasing down hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), the super pollutant greenhouse gases used mainly in cooling.

• Climate
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

US Company Pleads Guilty to Importing Illegal Timber from Peru

US Company pleads guilty to importing illegal timber from Peru

• Forests
• Peru

The Lie Behind the Ply

European Consumers of Tropical Plywood have been the Unwitting Drivers of Threatened Forest Degradation

• Forests
• Timber
• EUTR
• Investigation

Tokyo Fumbles Short-Term Ivory Trade Action

Conservation, environmental and animal welfare groups bemoaned measures announced today by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to address Tokyo’s illegal ivory trade as a missed opportunity. Tokyo’s short-term plan is focused only on consumer awareness and falls dramatically short of expectations for substantive action, instead replicating previous failed awareness efforts by Japan’s national government.

• Elephants
• Ivory
• Wildlife
• Japan - Wildlife
• Tokyo2020

First-Ever Walmart Shareholder Resolution on Climate-Damaging Refrigerants Passes Key Threshold for Support

Today, Walmart investors voted on the first-ever shareholder resolution on refrigerants and their related climate impacts. The initial count indicates 5.5 percent of investors voted in favor of the proposal filed by Rhode Island Treasurer Seth Magaziner, urging Walmart to disclose how it will limit its impact on climate change by increasing the scale, pace, and rigor of its plans to significantly scale back hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) used in its operations.

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

Press Release: Tainted Beef

A new report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) reveals how beef sold in Colombian supermarkets is fueling illegal deforestation in protected Amazon forests and contributing to financing armed groups.

• Forests
• Colombia

Shipping Industry: Where There is a Will There is a Way

66 Containers of Stolen Illegal Timber Return to Mozambique

• Forests
• Mozambique - Wildlife

U.S. EPA Proposes Landmark Climate Rule to Initiate HFC Phase-down

Today the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a proposed rulemaking to establish an allocation system for the phasedown of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The proposed rule is the first step to implement the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act (AIM Act), the new climate law that sets the U.S. on course for compliance with the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. The rule proposes an allowance allocation and trading system, which will determine the amount of HFCs an entity can produce or consume, and create the mechanism to phase-down domestic HFCs.

• Climate
• Country Transitions
• HFC-free Alternatives

The Origin App

EIA Launches Mobile App to Help Consumers Seek and Demand Wood Product Origin Information to Achieve Greater Supply Chain Transparency

EIA Petitions EPA to Restore US Climate Ambition on HFCs

Today the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) joined by several other organizations petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to restrict the use of super-pollutant hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in key cooling sectors, under new authority from the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act. HFCs are man-made climate pollutants thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide. HFCs are used mainly as refrigerants in air conditioning, heat pumps, and refrigeration, with other applications in foams, aerosols, fire suppression, semiconductor manufacturing, and solvents.

• Climate

EIA Calls on Chemours to Immediately End Activities Causing HFC-23 Emissions

A press release from the American chemical giant, the Chemours Company reveals the company’s unfulfilled promises and blatant disregard for the global climate.

• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

EIA Applauds Newly Announced U.S. Bill to Tackle Global Deforestation; Urges Biden-Harris Administration to Support

Senator Brian Schatz revealed plans today to introduce legislation that would put in place import requirements for agricultural commodities associated with illegal deforestation. The bill would oblige companies bringing commodities such as beef, leather, palm oil, soy, and cocoa into the U.S. to know where these goods originated and to ensure they were produced in compliance with laws of the country where they were grown or raised.

• Forests and Climate

ORAU Statement on the murders of two indigenous Cacataibo leaders in Peru

EIA joins ORAU in expressing outrage at the murders of human rights defenders who are protecting the Amazon region and their communities, and echoes ORAU’s calls for urgent and immediate actions. Here is an EIA-translated version in English of ORAU’s original letter in Spanish.

• Forests
• Peru

Leaking Havoc

An EIA investigation into dozens of supermarkets in the greater Washington, D.C. area, including Virginia and Maryland, found a majority of stores to be leaking super-pollutant hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants

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

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Romania’s New Timber Traceability System Removes Public Transparency

On January 31, Romania released a new electronic timber traceability system, an important step in its transition to a fully digital forest sector. Unfortunately, the new system has inexplicably removed all public transparency.

• Forests
• Timber

U.S. Congress Passes Bipartisan HFC Legislation

Legislation passed by the U.S. Congress this week to provide COVID relief and fund the U.S. government includes a bipartisan climate agreement to phase-down production and consumption of super-pollutant hydrofluorocarbons (HFC). The bill authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to implement the 2016 agreement to phase down HFCs under the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, and provides broader authority to manage existing sources of HFC emissions.

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

Japanese Retailers Willing to Sell Ivory Hanko for Illegal Export

Investigations of Japanese hanko retailers revealed that many are willing to sell an ivory product knowing that it will be exported internationally despite most being aware that ivory export is illegal.

• Elephants
• Ivory
• Japan - Wildlife

“Don’t Discount our Future” Campaign Targets Trader Joe’s Cocoa Sourcing and Climate-Damaging Refrigeration

Trader Joe’s ranks poorly among U.S. grocery stores when it comes to both ethical chocolate (in terms of child labor and deforestation concerns) and super-pollutant hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) used as refrigerants. A new push by Green America and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) tackles both issues in a bid to hold the popular food retailer accountable.

• Climate

California Approves Groundbreaking New Climate Regulation

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) today approved a groundbreaking new regulation to reduce emissions of super pollutant hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants across many sectors using cooling equipment, including supermarkets and air conditioners.

• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

EIA JOINS CALL FOR PERMANENT PROTECTIONS FOR BRISTOL BAY AFTER ARMY CORPS DENIAL OF PEBBLE MINE PERMIT

Today the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied Northern Dynasty Mineral’s Clean Water Act 404 permit for the Pebble Mine, a massive gold and copper mine proposed for the headwaters of Bristol Bay Alaska.

IMO and Arctic States Slammed for Endorsing Continued Arctic Pollution

NGOs protest outrageous approval of Arctic Heavy Fuel Oil “ban” which will drive continued pollution of the Arctic throughout 2020s

• Arctic
• Heavy Fuel Oil

Damaging the Forest, Harming People

Following a three year investigation in Cameroon and Vietnam, the Centre pour l’Environnement et le Développement (CED) and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) released today Tainted Timber, Tarnished Temples, a report showing how several Vietnamese companies operating in Cameroon are at the heart of a booming illegal timber trade between Cameroon and Vietnam. CED and EIA’s report include evidence of illegal harvest, laundering schemes covered by paperwork, misdeclaration, and widespread violations of Cameroonian export and labor laws. Timber traffickers’ operations undermine current efforts to combat the import of illegal timber into Vietnam. Additionally, the illegal timber trade has defiled many Vietnamese temples, where Cameroonian timber has become increasingly central to construction and renovation projects.

Peru Issues 35 Million Dollar Fine, Orders Plantation Company to Leave the Amazon

Peru Issues 35 Million Dollar Fine, Orders Plantation Company to Leave the Amazon

• Forests
• Peru

Newly Released Recordings Pull Back the Curtain on the Canadian Company Behind Pebble Mine

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) today released two tapes that feature Canadian mining baron, Ron Thiessen, discussing his political strategy for securing a federal permit for the controversial Pebble Mine project in southwest Alaska.

• Belugas
• Investigation

EIA responds to allegations made by the Timber Trade Federation

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) received with dismay the statement made by the Timber Trade Federation (TTF) on October 2nd, regarding EIA's press release Dutch Authorities Stop Chinese Plywood Import. We would like to provide the following response to allegations made in the TTF’s statement.

• Forests
• Timber
• EUTR