Climate

The Trump administration had issued a highly unusual stop-work order on the Empire Wind project last month, leading to intense pushback from officials in New York.

Nearly every other government in the world has recognized that a hotter planet poses a profound threat to humans and ecosystems.

How fast we cut climate pollution will define how safe or scary the world becomes as our children grow up

At its core, the most fundamental duty of any government is to safeguard the security and wellbeing of its people. The climate crisis is hitting Australians hard.

Right now, farmers in South Australia and Victoria are battling drought, while Queensland farmers pick up the pieces after heart-breaking floods. Globally, 2024 was the hottest year on record and the first time average temperatures surged 1.5C above preindustrial levels. We are living through longer, deadlier heatwaves, devastating bushfires, more frequent and intense floods, and rising sea levels that threaten coastal communities.

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Expert-backed ideas for continued progress.

Aubrey Williams produced huge, colourful abstract paintings and was influenced by music and climate issues

An artist whose work was part of the first wave of abstract art to hit the UK and presaged the climate breakdown protests as well as debates over the legacies of British colonialism is undergoing an “overdue” reappraisal, according to experts and critics.

Aubrey Williams, a Guyanese artist who moved to Britain in the 1950s, was a respected figure in his lifetime and the subject of several exhibitions in the UK. But after his death from cancer in 1990, the artist’s influence and the legacy of his abstract painting slowly faded from view in Britain.

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The administration is not only allowing more greenhouse gases. It is undermining the nation’s ability to understand and respond to a hotter planet.

As the mercury soars, people have been told to shelter inside. But for those in poor housing in places like Bengalaru, there is no respite

At noon, Khustabi Begum is sitting on the steps leading to her three-room home, trying to escape the stifling April heat indoors. But respite is hard to come by in Rajendra Nagar, a slum in south Bengaluru. “It’s just as hot outside, but it feels worse indoors. It’s been really hot for the past five or six days, but at least there’s an occasional breeze outside,” says the 36-year-old.

Inside Begum’s dimly lit living room, ceiling fans whir. One corner is stacked with sacks of onions and just outside their home is a vending cart. “My husband sells erulli, belluli [onions, garlic],” she says.

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Energy retailer says carbon offsetting ‘not the most effective way’ to reduce emissions

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A major Australian energy company has acknowledged that carbon offsets do not prevent or undo damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions and apologised to its customers for allegedly misleading marketing.

More than 400,000 Australians had signed up to Energy Australia’s “go neutral” carbon offset program that since 2016 had promised to offset emissions released due to their electricity and gas consumption.

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Investigation shows ageing assets and lack of funding could mean entire towns and villages vulnerable to flooding

Lives may be at risk if ministers proceed with cuts to England’s languishing canal network, experts have said.

The climate crisis and a lack of funding means ageing assets could flood entire towns and villages, an investigation for the parliamentary magazine the House has found.

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Labour has allowed climate action to become synonymous with hardship. Farage’s Reform is exploiting that – but we offer real solutions

• Carla Denyer is co-leader of the Green party of England and Wales and MP for Bristol Central

When I announced recently that I won’t be standing in this summer’s elections for the Green party’s leadership, many people wanted to know why. My answer is that I’ve always been guided by the question: “How can I make the biggest positive impact?”. I’m so proud of what Adrian Ramsay and I have accomplished over the past three and a half years: taking our party from one MP to four, from 450 councillors to more than 850, and growing and diversifying our membership. Having achieved what I set out to do, I’ve decided that for the next few years, I’ll pour all my skills, passion and energy into being the best MP I can be for my constituents in Bristol Central, using my seat in parliament to fight for the changes this country needs.

Since becoming an MP in July last year, I have found my ikigai – a Japanese concept describing the intersection of work that you love, you’re good at, and is what the world needs. There’s plenty I don’t love about how parliament works, but I feel incredibly motivated to be a voice asking “why can’t it be better?”, and a pair of hands working with others to try to build a better country. I joined the Green party because I wanted to change the country for the better, and I believed the best way to do that was by getting more Greens elected. In 2015 I was persuaded to stand for election myself – first as a councillor, then as an MP and then, at the insistence of friends and party colleagues, as co-leader of the Greens in 2021.

Carla Denyer is co-leader of the Green party of England and Wales and MP for Bristol Central

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Anne Ruston says policy positions should be thrashed out in Liberal and National party rooms rather than enshrined in Coalition agreements

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The divisions within the Liberals on climate and energy policy are “no secret”, senior frontbencher Anne Ruston has admitted, as the party braces for an internal brawl on net zero and nuclear power that could fracture the Coalition.

The commitment from the new Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, to review its entire policy agenda has raised the prospect the Coalition could abandon net zero by 2050, ending bipartisan political support for the long-term climate target.

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Wildfires are common in the state. But scientists say this week’s damaging blazes in a northeastern region are a sign of more severe effects from a warning planet.

The Trump administration is trying to claw back billions in climate grants, including $147 million that could help people in Puerto Rico withstand frequent power failures.

Familia Torres has been making wine in Catalonia since 1870, but says it may have to move to higher altitudes in 30 years’ time

A leading European winemaker has warned it may have to abandon its ancestral lands in Catalonia in 30 years’ time because climate change could make traditional growing areas too dry and hot.

Familia Torres is already installing irrigation at its vineyards in Spain and California and is planting vines on land at higher altitudes as it tries to adapt to more extreme conditions.

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In an internal memo to staff on Friday, the central bank’s chair, Jerome H. Powell, said it would offer a voluntary deferred resignation program.

Individuals and small businesses may end up bearing some of the cost of grid upgrades needed for large electricity users, a new report found.

In California, a home insurance rate increase by State Farm is yet another sign of growing crisis driven by climate change.

Record-high heat so early in the season means state has been hotter than Death Valley, the hottest place on Earth

Texas is in the grip of an extraordinary heatwave this week, with record-breaking temperatures sweeping across the central and southern regions of the state.

While 100F days are common in Texas summers, such early-season heat is unusual. The record-high heat means that Texas has been recently hotter than Death Valley, California, which is often cited as the hottest place on Earth.

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Ministers must resist pressure to relax environmental standards in the rush for new housing

Almost two decades after the last Labour government announced a zero carbon homes standard, and with the breaking of temperature records around the world now so normal as to seem routine, it ought to be uncontroversial that new buildings should be as environmentally friendly as possible. Given everything we know about global heating, and the law obliging the UK to reach net zero by 2050, it is disturbing that even the basics of promoting energy security and efficiency continue to be questioned.

But that is the situation Britain faces, as the government lays the ground for a housebuilding spree that it hopes will last for the rest of this parliament (as planning is devolved, the target of 1.5m new homes is for England only). Much of the blame for this discouraging state of affairs lies with the Tories, who delayed progress towards sustainability by scrapping environmental rules, leading to a disgraceful proliferation of new developments where the houses do not even have solar panels on the roofs.

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In May through October, the United States and its Caribbean territories experience their worst climate impacts—a time we call Danger Season. As I write this, 62 percent of the people living in the country have faced some kind of extreme weather alert since May 1—including flood warnings along the East Coast and mid-Atlantic, extreme heat warnings in Texas, and wildfire danger in the Midwest, Northern Plains and Southwest. As Danger Season cranks up, we will likely see many more extreme events—and some of them will require the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to rescue people and help them recover. 

The FEMA Review Council’s deadline for public comments on how to improve FEMA is May 15. President Trump established the council on January 24 to get its advice on what changes to FEMA “best serve the national interest.” However, their track record thus far sets off alarm bells that this could just be a rigged process to further undermine and dismantle FEMA. While the president waited three months to finalize the members of the council, the president and DHS Secretary Noem were busy issuing chaotic threats and directives to hobble the agency, followed by abruptly firing the Acting FEMA Administrator, Cameron Hamilton. Hamilton was replaced by David Richardson, formerly the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) assistant secretary for countering weapons of mass destruction. Richardson has no former emergency management experience and on his first day warned FEMA staff that “I will run right over” staff who resist changes. 

On May 20 the council will meet for the first time. While the meeting time (one hour) and agenda (swearing in members; leadership remarks; and council overview and structure) are minimal, it’s an important one to track, and if you’re interested you must register to attend virtually by May 19.

In an overwhelming show of interest in and support of FEMA, more than 12,400 individuals have submitted comments to the council. It’s clear that Americans across the country recognize the growing importance of competent federal emergency management, disaster response, and mitigation—something neither President Trump nor DHS Secretary Noem seem committed to.

Below are UCS’s comments to the FEMA Review Council, in which we underscore that any reforms to FEMA must be guided by science, equity, and the experience of disaster survivors, and not by political ideology.   

1. Strengthen FEMA and its internal systems 

• Advocate for returning FEMA to its cabinet-level authority: To help limit bureaucracy and increase efficiency the council should endorse the bipartisan FEMA Independence Act to return FEMA to a cabinet-level authority. As a stand-alone agency, FEMA will be enabled to be more mission-focused on disaster response, recovery, preparedness and mitigation and better targeted on these issues to more efficiently coordinate with federal agencies.  

• Advocate for robust funding for FEMA operations and staff: Given the increasing demands on the agency, the council must advocate for an increase in funding for FEMA’s operations and staffing. This will help address the agency’s critical operational needs, which are also adversely affected by a staffing gap. In 2022, FEMA and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) agreed this gap was at 35 percent, which translates into 6,200 positions. In 2025 the Congressional Research Service suggested this gap is likely much larger.  
   
  Now in President Trump’s second term, the attacks on the agency created a hostile work environment for FEMA’s staff, and the agency has lost an additional 2,000 personnel (200 were fired and 1,800 took early retirement). The council must advocate not only for restoring FEMA staff levels but increasing staff through rehiring and the hiring of new personnel. It must also ensure the agency has the budget it needs to do this, as well as continue critical trainings and again function in a comprehensive fashion and beyond moving from one disaster to another. 

• Modernize FEMA’s IT systems: The council should work with Congress to ensure FEMA has the resources and staff to advance a rapid implementation plan to modernize its IT systems in a timely fashion which will ensure better accountability of taxpayer dollars.  

• Restore FEMA’s National Advisory Councils: President Trump terminated FEMA’s National Advisory Council (NAC), Technical Mapping Advisory Council (TMAC) and National Dam Safety Review Board, all of which were established by acts of Congress. These advisory councils are critical to assisting FEMA with collecting unbiased, science-based analysis and providing invaluable recommendations. The council must recommend that the administration restore the NAC, the TMAC and the National Dam Safety Review Board. 

2. Improve FEMA’s role in disaster response and recovery

• Improve FEMA’s role in disaster response and recovery (and reject policies in FEMA’s April 12 Memo that guts federal disaster assistance to states and local jurisdictions): Individual Assistance (IA), Public Assistance (PA), and the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) are critical to FEMA’s recovery resources to communities after a declared disaster. 

• Develop a universal disaster assistance application: Extreme weather and climate-related disasters hit low-income and historically disadvantaged communities the hardest and they face a particularly daunting recovery after a disaster, especially under the current administration’s dismantling of FEMA staff and resources. The council must recommend that FEMA and Congress work to develop a universal disaster assistance application. The universal application has gained bipartisan support because it will remove unnecessary bureaucratic barriers and help communities receive federal resources more efficiently when it matters the most.  

• Improve disaster assistance for survivors with the greatest needs: The council must recommend that FEMA take immediate actions to:
  • sign an Interagency Agreement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to activate the Disaster Housing Assistance Program (DHAP) to provide these survivors with longer-term rental assistance;
  • address financial barriers that prevent low income survivors from utilizing FEMA’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA) hotel program;
  • protect displaced individuals from discrimination; and
  • work to get the universal application passed into law. 

• Improve FEMA’s Public Assistance (PA) program: The council must recommend that FEMA initiate and finalize a rulemaking updating its methodology for its cost estimate threshold for disasters, so that it better reflects the “cost of living of a jurisdiction’s response and recovery capabilities including its fiscal capacity.” Also, the council must adamantly reject the FEMA directive included in the April 12 memo that would apply an across the board, one-size fits all, four-fold increase to the PA indicator threshold. Instead, the council must investigate mechanisms that would reward those states and jurisdictions that work to reduce their risk. 

• Restore FEMA’s door-to-door canvassing: The council must recommend that the administration restore FEMA’s door-to-door canvassing during its on-the-ground response during and after disasters given how critical it is to helping elderly survivors and those with disabilities get the information they need to stay safe and receive help with the paperwork needed to access federal disaster aid.  

• Improve FEMA’s reimbursement system: The council must recommend that FEMA improve its reimbursement system to communities, so small and large communities, urban and rural alike, will not be left with the threat of going bankrupt. State representatives and FEMA’s National Advisory Committee’s (NAC) agree this change and others are needed to simplify the reimbursement process as well as funding and reporting processes. 

3. Restore resilience programs

• Restore and plus-up pre-disaster, resilience programs (particularly the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Program and Funding for Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) 

• Restore and plus-up the BRIC Program: The council must work with President Trump and Congress to defend and plus-up the bipartisan BRIC program which makes communities more resilient and infrastructure stronger, and is a model example of cost-effective federal program. Yet surprisingly, in an over-reach move, the Trump administration last month ended funding for the BRIC program that he signed into law in his first term in 2018. This will leave communities less prepared even as disasters are mounting and as the Atlantic hurricane season, which starts June 1, is just a handful of weeks away. Additionally, the council should recommend a substantial increase to the 6 percent set aside from the disaster relief fund and combine this update with the two other BRIC bills (here and here) that have been introduced this Congress given the outstanding need and cost-effectiveness.  

• Establish a Resilience Hub Program: The council should recommend that Congress authorize and fund a new National Resilience Hub program at FEMA to help communities assist with emergency response. The FEMA program would establish minimum criteria for a community facility to be federally recognized as a resilience hub. Once the criteria are met, that facility would be eligible to receive federal resources to assist its operating and emergency response costs.  

• Establish an Extreme Heat Mitigation and Community Resilience Grant Program: The United States is facing a potentially staggering expansion of dangerous heat over the coming decades due to climate change. FEMA lacks a dedicated hazard mitigation program to help communities, especially those with the least resources, to mitigate extreme heat. We urge the council to recommend that Congress establish a new Extreme Heat Mitigation and Community Resilience grant program which would require eligible grantees to adopt an extreme heat preparedness plan to be eligible for funds. A federally funded, proactive approach to heat would keep people safer, support economic productivity, and create savings for healthcare systems across the country. 

4. Advocate for modernization and reform of National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)

• The council must recommend that Congress modernize NFIP to help keep people and communities safe, ensure wise use of taxpayer dollars, advance risk reduction measures and markedly increase flood risk communication. The modernization of NFIP must include but isn’t limited to: 
  • a flood insurance affordability policy that is means-tested;
  • encouragement and prioritization of risk reduction mitigation practices including natural and nature-based features that substantially reduce maladaptive practices to lessen flooding;
  • update and modernize flood risk data and mapping to ensure up-to-date mapping is available across the U.S. and incorporates the latest science on future conditions including climate change; and
  • for protective local building codes and zoning laws, informed by the latest science.  

• The council must urge FEMA to begin a rulemaking process to modernize the NFIP’s minimum floodplain management standards. The rulemaking is sorely needed to: 1) update the NFIP’s minimum building and land use criteria to require higher elevation standards in the special flood hazard area, incorporate standards to ensure critical infrastructure is more safely sited and designed, prohibit the ongoing practice of fill and build, among other changes; 2) incorporate climate change risks of extreme storms and sea level rise into flood risk maps to help keep people safe; 3) disclose past and ongoing flood risk to future homebuyers and renters; and 4) increase and expand flood mitigation support such as flood mitigation assistance grants, buyouts and increased cost of compliance, especially for those who have flooded repeatedly.  

• The council must recommend that FEMA implement the TMAC’s 2023 Annual Report which includes four critical recommendations on how to better define the Special Flood Hazard Area among other critical recommendations that would reduce flood losses and increase transparency on the flood risk impacts of climate change and proposed development to communities. 

5. Restore climate and equity to all FEMA standards, programs and guidance (including but not limited to): 

• The council must vigorously advocate that the administration restore the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (FFRMS). The FFRMS is a standard that ensures federally funded projects are built to avoid future flooding and therefore ensures wise use of taxpayer dollars. In fact, the FFRMS is now less protective than the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) Flood Resistant Design and Construction, “ASCE 24-24” 2024 edition of its flood hazard standard.  

• The council must recommend that FEMA rescind the recently released Local Mitigation Planning Policy Guide and reinstate the 2023 Policy Guide. The 2025 version follows the calls by the Trump administration to eliminate any mentions of climate change and equity-related language and eliminates “Planning for Climate Change and Equitable Outcomes”. While one could argue it does include related language, such FEMA guidance is too crucial not to have it mentioned in black and white. 

I truly hope the council will take our comments and so many of the thousands of other comments to heart, as so many people’s lives are at risk as we are in Danger Season and the Atlantic hurricane season is just weeks away. Take for example comments by: 

• Kevin Z, a state emergency management worker who was deployed with FEMA during Covid-19 response and endured 12-hour shifts 5 days a week. He spoke about how the FEMA staff “are the very definition of good public servants. I’ve seen them put service before self when it mattered most, and I can’t envision a disaster response, where people’s lives and property are at stake, without their involvement.” 

• Judith Macnak and Sandra Edwardson, who wrote about their positive and lifesaving experiences with FEMA following the Juneau, Alaska glacial outburst flood in August of 2024 that many of the families there are still recovering from. Judith stated, “Within a 1-week period of time, we went from registering with FEMA, having a home inspection of the damage, submitting the necessary documentation, to receiving a reimbursement for the repairs needed.” And Sandra stated “FEMA’s continued presence and commitment to providing both immediate relief and long-term solutions are essential to rebuilding our lives and restoring a sense of safety. Without these resources, we risk falling further into a cycle of destruction and rebuilding, never finding stability.”

• Carol Matthieson, a disabled senior living on Social Security and living with her disabled veteran son and another who has Down Syndrome, wrote about surviving Hurricane Helene and how critical FEMA’s hotel voucher was, so that they could stop living in her car. She said, “Without FEMA, I don’t know where we would be.” 

However, we need to be vigilant and keep our eyes wide open to the facts right in front of us. The two members chairing the committee are Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth and DHS Secretary Noem. No matter how constructive the council’s draft recommendations end up being, any constructive recommendations that are contrary to the harmful ideology of this administration may never make it into the final report to President Trump. 

The silver lining as we enter Danger Season is that the bipartisan members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee have released a draft FEMA Reform bill that provides important policies to help ensure that FEMA’s work delivers for people around the country hit by disasters and offers further reforms to disaster assistance and recovery.  
 
We hope the FEMA Review Council will take seriously the comments they receive, as well as important input from other local and state stakeholders over the next few months. Kevin, Judith, Sandra and Carol speak for many of the disaster survivors out there. They need FEMA, and they don’t know where they’d be without it.