Senior Science Reporter
Justine Calma is a senior science reporter at The Verge, where she covers energy and the environment. She’s also the host of Hell or High Water: When a Disaster Hits Home, a podcast from Vox Media and Audible Originals.
Since reporting on the adoption of the Paris agreement in 2015, Justine has covered climate change on the ground in four continents. "Power Shift" her story about one neighborhood’s fight for renewable energy in New Orleans was published in the 2022 edition of The Best American Science and Nature Writing.
Find her on Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, and X.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just launched its Energy Star NextGen Certified Homes and Apartments program. For decades, Energy Star has certified efficient products from kitchen appliances to washers, dryers, air conditioners, and heat pumps. Now, it’s also starting to certify homes and apartments that are at least 20 percent more efficient than typical builds.
Shell sold millions of carbon credits that were supposed to represent CO2 emissions captured in Canada. But only half of those credits were linked to real eductions in pollution, according to documents obtained by Greenpeace and shared with the Financial Times. It’s an explosive investigation into carbon capture tech fossil fuel companies are using to make sustainability claims that might not pass the smell test.
[FinancialTimes]
Costa Rica restored its forests and switched to renewable energy — what can the world learn from it?
The Verge takes you to Costa Rica to explore how it restored its forests and manages to get nearly 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy.
The move is supposed to save the average household at least $100 a year in lower utility bills. As new water heaters are shipped out over 30 years, energy savings from the tougher standards are also expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 332 million metric tons. That’s like erasing the annual planet-heating pollution of nearly 43 million homes, the Department of Energy says.
[The New York Times]
By simplifying the permitting process, the Biden administration hopes to speed the deployment of solar and wind farms and other energy projects crucial to meeting US climate goals. At the same time, the new rules are designed to make potential impacts on local communities (environmental justice) a bigger consideration when permitting new projects.