Press Releases

A groundbreaking report by a coalition of leading national health, city policy, energy, planning, equity, and architecture organizations demonstrates that Smart Surfaces are very cost-effective in cutting soaring city temperatures, slowing climate change, and enhancing health and urban equity in hot dry climates.

The U.S. and EU announced today that an additional 24 countries have committed to join their Global Methane Pledge unveiled jointly in September. The pledge is now backed by 9 of the top 20 methane-emitting countries. The entire group accounts for 60% of the global economy. John Kerry and Franz Timmermans encouraged those countries already joining to recruit  other countries to join the pledge, with a goal of at least 100 countries by COP 26 in Glasgow.

The United States and the European Union launched a global pledge to reduce methane emissions by nearly a third by 2030, as part of a broader effort to increase ambition to address the climate crisis. The launch was announced at the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate hosted today by President Biden. This is the first time heads of State have pledged fast action to cut super climate pollutants to meet the 1.5°C temperature target of the Paris Agreement.

The Future of Life Institute today announced that IGSD’s Director of Research Dr. Stephen O. Andersen has been selected for the Future of Life Award, alongside Dr. Susan Solomon and late Joseph Farman, for their dedicated efforts to protect the stratospheric ozone layer. Their efforts are recognized for helping make the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, signed in 1987, the most successful international treaty in history. 

As the world enters a crucial phase in the battle to combat climate change, International Ozone Day reminds us that the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is not only saving the stratospheric ozone layer and keeping us safe from harmful ultraviolet radiation but is also doing more than any other agreement to slow catastrophic global warming. As we celebrate the achievements of this planet-saving treaty, we also need to realize how much remains to be done.

Aggressively cutting methane emissions is the fastest and most effective way to reduce the rate of warming and keep the global average temperature from breaching the 1.5°C barrier above preindustrial levels, according to the Global Methane Assessment released today by UNEP and the CCAC. The Assessment calculates that available mitigation measures can cut emissions from human activities by 45 percent and avoid nearly 0.3 °C of warming by the 2040s.

The United States EPA took an important step for climate protection today by finalizing Significant New Alternatives Policy program rule 23 (SNAP 23). This rule approves several low global warming potential refrigerants for split system air conditioners and heat pumps, including R-32.

Most world leaders who spoke this morning at President Joe Biden’s Leaders’ Summit welcomed the U.S. back to the climate fight. Many world leaders echoed President Biden’s science goal of limiting warming to 1.5 °C, and many shared the president’s focus on the decade of action to 2030.