While a cleaner energy future remains inevitable, 2022 was a good year to own shares in oil companies. While the S&P 500 index is down more than 20% in the past year, the five best-performing US oil companies—Exxon, Marathon, Hess, Occidental, and…

87% of flights cancelled in the US on Dec. 27 were operated by Southwest Severe winter weather has caused thousands of flights to be cancelled across the US over the last several days. The vast majority of those were operated by a single airline:…

Texans are bracing for a winter storm beginning Dec. 22 that could deliver harsh cold winds and temperatures dropping to 10F. The winter blackouts that hit the state in February 2021, which caused hundreds of deaths, nearly $200 billion in property…

The US Postal Service will electrify about one-third of the vehicles in its delivery fleet by 2028, the agency announced on Dec. 20. The switch to electric vehicles (EVs) is a low-hanging win for the fight against climate change that will save the…

European Union lawmakers agreed on Dec. 18 to reform the bloc’s carbon market, expanding it to cover new sectors of the economy and increasing the pace at which it aims to drive down greenhouse gas emissions. The EU’s “emissions trading scheme” (ETS)…

London-based bank HSBC will immediately stop lending and underwriting for new oil and gas drilling projects, the bank announced Dec. 14, making it the first large multinational bank—and top-tier funder of fossil fuels—to adopt such a policy. The…

Climate policy is redrawing the blueprint of global trade, putting up new walls between the markets for high-carbon and low-carbon manufactured goods. On Dec. 13, the European Union settled on a long-negotiated policy to levy import tariffs on steel,…

Will Europe be able to supply affordable, reliable electricity this winter? The answer depends on, among other factors, the whims of Russian natural gas exporters and maintenance work on nuclear power plants in France. But it also depends on the…

On Dec. 9, the leaders of Saudi Arabia and China met in Riyadh—Xi Jinping’s first visit there since 2016. He and his counterpart, crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, agreed meet more often and signed a number of deals broadly aimed at aligning the…

Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, is trying to balance genuine concerns about climate risk against backlash from Republican officials, including some that are big clients of his firm. The world’s biggest asset manager can’t seem to please anyone. Over…

The projections for life on earth are bleak: At the current rate, one million known species could go extinct by 2050. On Dec. 7, diplomats from nearly every country will convene in Montreal for a ten-day summit on biodiversity conservation, trying to…

The most important outcome of COP27, the climate summit in Egypt earlier this month, was the creation of a new UN-administered fund to compensate developing countries for the costs they incur from climate change-related disasters. Convincing wealthy…

Europe’s latest economic volley against Russia—a price cap on Russian oil—seems likely to land as a dud. Russia can’t afford to maintain its war in Ukraine without selling its oil and gas to the global market. And much to the chagrin of Ukraine’s…

Ups and downs as 2022's UN climate conference makes its final deal. Hello COP27 delegates and readers, In its final hours, COP27 looked like it might fall apart without a deal. Diplomats were divided along the oldest battle lines in climate…

In the end, COP27 struggled over the oldest battle lines in climate diplomacy: rich countries v. poor. This time, the dispute was whether it is time to redraw those lines, expanding the number of nations contributing to help poor nations weather…

As COP27 in Egypt hurtles toward a conclusion, many important issues—including funding for “loss and damage,” how countries should report on their carbon-cutting progress, and whether all countries can agree on a long-term goal to phase down fossil…

Hello COP27 delegates and readers, Climate finance needs an extreme makeover. Developed countries still haven’t kept their end of a 2009 deal to raise $100 billion annually to help developing countries transition to clean energy and adapt to climate…

Pam Fletcher has a tough job. As the newly installed chief sustainability officer of Delta Airlines, she’s responsible for helping the company meet its goal of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050. That’s a tall order for a major airline:…

Climate diplomacy is haunted by a $100 billion betrayal, but there are signs that some trust could be restored at the COP27 summit in Egypt. During COP15, the 2009 climate summit in Copenhagen, developed countries agreed to raise $100 billion in…

Hello COP27 delegates and readers, One of the biggest climate announcements of the month may not happen at COP27. During the G20 summit in Bali today (Nov. 15), the US is expected to announce a $15 billion aid package for Indonesia to help the…