Hello! Climate law rollbacks in the United States and the European Union are in focus today as the Trump administration is planning to phase out its emergency management agency, while the EU is facing pressure from countries over its corporate, sustainability and methane emissions laws. President Donald Trump said he planned to start "phasing out" the Federal Emergency Management Agency after the hurricane season and that states would receive less federal aid to respond to natural disasters. "We're going to give out less money," he said. He also said he planned to distribute disaster relief funds directly from the president's office. In keeping with the Trump administration's broader efforts to unwind environmental laws, three sources that spoke to Reuters said that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is planning to roll back Biden-administration rules meant to curb carbon dioxide, mercury and other air pollutant emissions from power plants, following through on a promise the agency made in March. It's not just the Trump administration rolling back climate laws, as a Swedish centre-right lawmaker Jörgen Warborn has proposed that the EU should further slash the number of companies subject to its environmental and corporate sustainability rules. The European Commission proposed a "simplification omnibus" in February that it said would help European firms compete with foreign rivals by cutting back on sustainability reporting rules and obligations intended to root out abuses in their supply chains. But the walk-back on environment, social and corporate rules has met resistance from some investors and campaigners, who have warned it weakens corporate accountability and hurts the bloc's ability to attract more investments towards meeting climate goals. Additionally, European Union countries are demanding that Brussels simplify the EU's methane emissions law, according to a document seen by Reuters. From this year, the EU requires importers of oil and gas to monitor and report the methane emissions – the second-biggest cause of climate change after CO2 emissions. Draft conclusions from a meeting of EU countries' energy ministers showed governments are preparing to ask the Commission to add the methane law to its "simplification" drive to cut bureaucracy for companies. |
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1. World leaders may face wildfire smoke at Canada G7 summit |
World leaders may face smoke warnings when they gather next week in Alberta as wildfires burned out of control across much of Canada and caused the country's second-worst fire season in decades. The country is battling 225 blazes including 120 out of control with some of those fires raging to the west in British Columbia and in northern parts of Alberta. The Group of Seven leaders' summit is being held in the Kananaskis area of the Canadian Rocky Mountains on Sunday. Canada's government listed Calgary, the nearest major city to Kananaskis, at high risk for deteriorating air quality. |
Smoke rises from the Summit Lake wildfire G90413, west of Fort Nelson, British Columbia, Canada. BC Wildfire/Handout via REUTERS |
2. May was world's second-hottest on record, EU scientists say |
The world experienced its second-warmest May since records began this year, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said in a monthly bulletin. Last month was Earth's second-warmest May on record – exceeded only by May 2024 – where climate change fuelled a record-breaking heatwave in Greenland, scientists said. Global surface temperatures last month averaged 1.4 degrees Celsius higher than in the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period, when humans began burning fossil fuels on an industrial scale, C3S said. |
3. World Bank to end ban on nuclear energy projects, still debating upstream gas |
The World Bank's board has agreed to end a longstanding ban on funding nuclear energy projects in developing countries as part of a broader push to meet rising electricity needs, the bank's president Ajay Banga said. He said the board was not yet in agreement on whether the bank should engage in funding the production of natural gas, and if so, under what circumstances. |
4. California, 10 other states sue to block Trump from killing 2035 EV rules |
A group of 11 states led by California – including New York, New Jersey, Colorado, Massachusetts and Washington state – filed a suit challenging a repeal by Congress of the state's 2035 electric vehicle rules and heavy-duty truck requirements. The defendants are Trump, the Environment Protection Agency and its Administrator Lee Zeldin. The EPA said the lawsuit lacked merit. Click here for the full Reuters article. |
5. French Senate backs law to curb ultra fast-fashion |
France's Senate approved a revised version of a law regulating fast fashion, which if implemented would ban advertising by fast-growing Chinese e-commerce platforms like Shein and Temu. An amended version of the bill distinguishes between "ultra" fast fashion and "classic" fast fashion, however, imposing less onerous restrictions on European fast-fashion players like Zara and Kiabi, but drawing criticism from environmental groups. |
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With more than 600 dead pythons under her belt, Amy Siewe - known as the 'Python Huntress' - is one of a handful of women among hundreds of men hunting the invasive Burmese python in Florida's Everglades wetland ecosystem. Click here for the full Reuters video. |
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- U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tax and spending bill includes an additional tax of up to 20% on foreign investors' income which could hurt European energy giants that operate in the American oil and gas sector, writes Reuters Energy Columnist Ron Bousso.
- Surging electricity output from solar farms has led to a rare decline in fossil fuel power production in India so far in 2025, writes Reuters global energy transition columnist Gavin Maguire. Click here to find out what that means for India's coal-fired power output.
- Cement production is responsible for 7–8% of global CO₂ emissions, but can that change through new innovation? Click here to find out more in a comment by Ethical Corp Magazine's contributor Mike Scott.
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China's access to fresh stockpiles of minerals like dysprosium and terbium has been throttled recently after a major mining belt in Myanmar's north was taken over by an armed group battling the Southeast Asian country's junta, which Beijing supports. Now, in the hillsides of Shan state in eastern Myanmar, Chinese miners are opening new deposits for extraction, according to two of the sources, both of whom work at one of the mines. Click here for the full Reuters exclusive report. |
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The amount that Indonesia has invited foreign investors to put in for building a seawall hundreds of kilometres long to prevent floods along the north coast of its most populous island Java, President Prabowo Subianto said. |
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Sustainable Switch Climate Focus was edited by Elaine Hardcastle. |
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