Most states in the U.S. have a long way to go for improving community power, based on the results of a new scorecard by the Institute of Local Self-Reliance (ILSR).

The Community Power Scorecard evaluated each state based on 18 written policies, and each state could earn up to 87 total points. Policies could touch on net metering, third-party ownership, renewable energy interconnection, community solar, community choice energy, investments in inclusive utilities, and more. Some policies, like gas ban preemptions or right of first refusal, received negative points, as ILSR noted that certain policies could be worse for community energy goals than no policy at all. 

Based on the scores for the evaluated policies, the score was then converted into percentages, with an A being 90-100%, B being 70-89%, C as 50-69%, D for 30-49% and F for anything up to 29%.

For the 2025 scorecard, no states received an A grade, and only one state, Illinois, received a B. The state promotes making rooftop solar more affordable for residents through the Illinois Solar for All program and received high marks for net metering and community solar policies. In total, the state received 66 points out of 87.

“Illinois scores well across most of the elements in the scorecard,” John Farrell, co-director of ILSR told Inside Climate News. “All of these policies sort of create an environment to allow widespread ownership and development of clean energy at the local level. Illinois checks the boxes on those, and they do really well.”

Thirteen states were ranked as average for community energy with C grades, while the remaining 37 states received Ds and Fs. Fourteen states received Ds, while an F grade had the highest number of states, at 23.

Alabama received the lowest score at 3%, with a total of 3 points out of 87, followed by South Dakota with 4 points or a 5% score. Missouri received a 26%, but had a lower score than last year, when it earned a D with 34%.

However, actual efforts for community energy may be different from what these scores suggest, because ILSF evaluated written policies, not implemented policies. As Inside Climate News reported, this could explain why Illinois received a higher score despite implementation for its policies not always meeting expectations.

The results reveal that every state has plenty of opportunities to improve equitable, resilient and clean energy policies that offer better consumer protections and keep energy affordable.

The report has been published annually since 2018. The latest scorecard raises questions about how scores could change over the next year under an administration focused on fossil fuels. There are also concerns over whether Inflation Reduction Act funds, some of which are designated for clean energy projects, will be released to states.

“The work of advancing energy democracy requires continued advocacy, vigilance, and effort,” ILSR stated.

The post Community Power Scorecard: Illinois Leads While Most States Receive ‘D’ or ‘F’ Grade appeared first on EcoWatch.

The European Commission has announced a new Clean Industrial Deal it says will help industries like steel and cement make the transition to net-zero emissions. The commission says the sweeping legislative package will boost clean technology companies such as those making electric vehicle (EV) charging stations.

However, the EU executive has also weakened environmental reporting requirements for small- and medium-sized businesses, reported The Guardian.

The commission has said it will stay on target with its climate goals, but NGOs are seeing a different picture.

“EU policymakers seem increasingly detached from the triple planetary crisis we are facing. The so-called ‘Clean’ Industry Deal focuses on decarbonisation but overlooks broader pollution and environmental responsibility, failing to show how the EU can lead by example. Meanwhile, fossil-fuel-reliant industries that resisted change for decades have secured a front-row seat in shaping this deal,” said Christian Schaible, European Environmental Bureau (EEB)’s head of zero pollution industry, in a press release from EEB. “It’s alarming that the Commission claims the deal is ‘directly tailored’ to the ‘needs’ outlined in the Antwerp Declaration — a manifesto written by polluters, for polluters. EU industry is far more than just energy-intensive sectors, yet their interests are being placed front and centre.”

The Clean Industrial Deal reaffirms the goal set out in the 2020 European Green Deal of slashing emissions 90 percent by 2040. It contains 40 measures designed to speed up the transition to clean energy, including faster permits for infrastructure like wind farms, and altering public procurement rules so that they favor European-made clean technology, The Guardian reported.

“We think that the clean industrial deal is Europe’s business plan to tackle the climate crisis,” said Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s executive vice-president in charge of the green transition. “We are not deregulating. On the contrary: we are coming to the implementing phase.”

The commission is planning to start an industrial decarbonization bank with approximately $104 billion in public funds, which could then leverage $416 billion indirectly from the private sector, it said.

Experts have pointed out that a global investment of hundreds of billions will be needed to build the networks of electric grids necessary to reach the world’s climate goals.

Ribera promised changes would be made to EU state aid rules to speed up industrial decarbonization and renewable energy.

“The 2040 climate target is the only cookie in the jar. The rest of the package crumbles under scrutiny. While the Clean Industrial Deal claims to put decarbonisation at the center, the devil is in the detail, and the high-level ambitions do not match the actual proposals. This is not what the Commission promised during the hearings last autumn. With the deregulation push and no concrete plan to mobilise genuine additional finance, there’s little to turn ambition into action. The only real urgency in the deal seems to be weakening the reporting rules, not ensuring companies contribute to a fair, competitive and climate-proof economy,” said Director of CAN Europe Chiara Martinelli in a press release from the NGO.

Business groups expressed broad support of the plan, while the European Sustainable Investment Forum said it created “legal uncertainty,” harming those who had already taken steps to comply or prepared reports, reported The Guardian.

German Green MEP Anna Cavazzini, chair of the internal market committee, said the directive on due diligence was being watered down and that “environmental crimes and human rights violations won’t be prevented.”

An “affordable energy action plan” with a goal of providing savings of roughly $270 billion annually by 2040 was published alongside the Clean Industrial Deal.

Lorelei Limousin, climate campaigner with Greenpeace EU, said the new proposal neglected actions like reducing energy waste that could bring down fossil fuel imports more quickly.

“This commission is vague on cutting energy waste while, to appease Trump, wants to invest in polluting gas infrastructure overseas that will keep Europe hooked on this expensive and dangerous fuel for decades,” Limousin said.

The post EU Announces Clean Industrial Deal, but Green Groups Say ‘There’s Little to Turn Ambition Into Action’ appeared first on EcoWatch.

Trees in central Los Angeles absorb much more carbon dioxide than scientists thought. This means they are able to offset a surprising amount of the city’s fossil fuel emissions when the weather is warm and trees are most active.

In a recent study, researchers used densely spaced air-quality sensors to find that vegetation in parts of central LA offset 60 percent of the city’s carbon emissions, especially during the growing season, a press release from University of Southern California (USC) said.

The discovery that urban greenery plays a more substantial role in offsetting LA’s carbon footprint could offer insights to help other cities combat climate change.

“Urban areas are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, necessitating effective monitoring systems to evaluate mitigation strategies,” the authors of the study wrote. “A dense sensor network, such as the Berkeley Environmental Air-quality & CO2 Observation Network (BEACO2N), offers a unique opportunity to monitor urban emissions at high spatial resolution.”

The first-of-its-kind study by Public Exchange and USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences was able to provide more detail than had been previously available by tracking emissions absorption in real time.

The measurements are some of the most detailed on how air quality is impacted by urban trees. Vegetation in the area absorbed as much as 60 percent of daytime carbon dioxide from fossil fuels during the spring and summer months and roughly 30 percent annually. This ranks LA as a city with one of the highest documented uptake rates of carbon dioxide.

In order to track LA’s carbon in real time, the team launched the Carbon Census array, which involved deployment of a dozen high-resolution BEACO₂N sensors over a 15-by-six-mile area of Mid-City.

The sensors mapped changing carbon concentrations in the air as it moved across the urban landscape. This enabled the researchers to take wind direction and speed, as well as urban density, into account to determine the extent to which local vegetation was offsetting emissions.

“You can think of emissions like passengers on a train,” said lead researcher Will Berelson, a USC Dornsife professor of Earth sciences, environmental studies and spatial sciences, in the press release. “As the wind moves pollution through the city, some gets picked up and some gets dropped off. These sensors let us see that process in real time.”

The study, conducted from July of 2021 to December of the following year, measured carbon dioxide directly, unlike other models that estimate carbon levels based on traffic data, fuel sales and other models that depend on carbon landing on individual sensors.

“One of the study’s biggest surprises was that trees absorb the most CO₂ during summer, despite it being L.A.’s driest season. Satellite imagery shows L.A.’s urban greenery is remarkably verdant in summer, likely due to irrigation, groundwater access from leaky pipes and resilient tree species,” the press release said. “Still, trees can’t keep pace with emissions. As expected, CO₂ levels spiked during rush hour, reinforcing the fact that, while greenery helps, it can’t offset pollution from cars, buildings and industry on its own.”

The findings of the study help inform USC’s Urban Trees Initiative, which is a partnership between the City of Los Angeles, USC and community organizations with a focus on expanding urban greenery where it’s needed most. Identifying areas where trees are absorbing the most carbon could be helpful in guiding future planting efforts.

Building on the success of the study, the USC team added eight more sensors to its network outside the original study area.

“Our goal is to monitor more areas of L.A. to define baseline values of CO₂ emission and identify where vegetation is making the biggest impact and where more greenery is needed,” Berelson said.

The fact that urban vegetation only absorbs about one-third of the area’s fossil fuel emissions each year emphasizes the urgent need for improved public transportation, clean energy and broader emissions reductions.

LA has a target of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050. Berelson said that, while the city’s urban greenery gives it a natural boost, reducing the use of fossil fuels is still the most important step in combating climate change.

“Nature is helping us, but we can’t rely on it to do all the work,” Berelson said.

The findings, “Observing Anthropogenic and Biogenic CO2 Emissions in Los Angeles Using a Dense Sensor Network,” were published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

The post Trees in Central Los Angeles Absorb More Carbon Than Previously Thought: Study appeared first on EcoWatch.

More than 14,000 seed samples are headed for the Svalbard Global Seed Vault this week, where they’ll be preserved and protected against climate change, war, and other events that can threaten crops and plant diversity.

The latest addition of 14,022 seed samples come from 21 different genebanks around the world, and the latest deposit will include thousands of samples from countries facing conflict and extreme weather events that can threaten seed genebanks.

Sudan, which is currently undergoing a civil war, deposited 15 samples, including different varieties of sorghum and pearl millet. The deposit will help protect Sudan’s crops, as an ongoing civil war led to the looting and destruction of the country’s seedbank, with more than 17,000 seeds affected. This is the sixth deposit to Svalbard’s Seed Vault by Sudan, which first started depositing seeds here in 2019.

“In Sudan, where conflict has displaced more than eight million people and disrupted agriculture, these seeds represent hope,” said Ali Babikar, director of Sudan’s Agricultural Plant Genetic Resources Conservation and Research Centre (APGRC). “By safeguarding this diversity in Svalbard, we’re preserving options for a resilient, food-secure future, regardless of the challenges we face.” 

The Philippines also made an important deposit to the seed bank to protect its diverse crops from extreme weather events that threaten the country. According to the WorldRiskIndex report, the Philippines ranks No. 1 globally for countries at the highest risk from extreme natural disasters and has previously had its national genebank damaged by typhoons and fires. Climate change has exacerbated these threats. 

As such, the Philippines is making a contribution of important seeds such as eggplant, rice bean, lima bean and sorghum for protection at Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

“In the face of climate change, which we are already feeling with all the extreme weather conditions in the Philippines, it becomes more pressing to duplicate these collections in other gene banks like Svalbard to safeguard [them],” Hidelisa de Chavez, a researcher at the University of the Philippines’ National Plant Genetic Resources Laboratory, told Grist. 

Brazil, which will host COP30 in Belém this year, also made a major contribution of more than 3,000 types of beans, rice and maize. 

Another critical deposit included Mucuna pruriens, or velvet beans, in Malawi’s deposit of legumes, rice, maize, sorghum and other crops. The velvet bean doubles as a nitrogen-fixing fertilizer that can boost maize yields and is popular for medicinal purposes.

“Crop diversity reduces the risk of food crises at local, regional, sub-regional and global levels,” Nolipher Mponya, an agricultural research scientist who works for the government of Malawi, said in a statement. “By conserving crop diversity, we are protecting the future of our foods. We are also maintaining the genes for crop improvement, feed and habitat for pollinators and ensuring the direct and indirect health and economic benefits from these crops.”

This round of deposits also included contributions from Benin, Burundi, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Nigeria, Zambia/Zimbabwe, Cote d’Ivoire, Georgia, Kenya, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, Thailand and UA Emirates. 

Seeds at the vault are kept inside custom packages, sealed within boxes and kept at low temperature and moisture levels to prevent damage, even if there’s a power outage. The vault helps maintain backup seeds for countries that may be impacted by climate change, conflict or other disasters that could threaten genebanks.

Svalbard Global Seed Vault’s first deposit of 2025 is its 66th since it began accepting deposits in 2008. It typically collects deposits three times per year (February, June and October) and stores more than 1.3 million seed samples. It is owned by Norway and managed by Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the regional NordGen genebank and the international nonprofit Crop Trust. The latest round of deposits was also supported by Biodiversity for Opportunities, Livelihoods, and Development (BOLD).

“The seeds deposited this week represent not just biodiversity, but also the knowledge, culture and resilience of the communities that steward them,” said Stefan Schmitz, executive director of Crop Trust. “We must find a way to protect this crop diversity for generations to come.”

The post 14,000+ Crop Seeds Added to Svalbard Global Seed Vault for Preservation appeared first on EcoWatch.

Increased pesticide use, habitat loss and climate change have been contributing to a decades-long decline in global honeybee numbers.

Now, a computer science team from University of California, Riverside (UCR), has come up with an innovative way to help. They developed a sensor-based technology with the potential to revolutionize commercial beekeeping, reduce colony losses and cut labor costs.

“Honeybees, as natural crop pollinators, play a significant role in biodiversity and food production for human civilization. Bees actively regulate hive temperature (homeostasis) to maintain a colony’s proper functionality. Deviations from usual thermoregulation behavior due to external stressors (e.g., extreme environmental temperature, parasites, pesticide exposure, etc.) indicate an impending colony collapse,” the authors of the paper wrote. “Anticipating such threats by forecasting hive temperature and finding changes in temperature patterns would allow beekeepers to take early preventive measures and avoid critical issues.”

The Electronic Bee-Veterinarian (EBV) uses forecasting models and inexpensive heat sensors to predict when temperatures in a hive could reach dangerous levels, a press release from UCR said.

The system gives beekeepers remote early warnings so that they can take preventive action before colonies collapse during extreme cold or hot weather, or when bees aren’t able to regulate the temperature of their hives due to pesticide exposure, food shortages, disease or other stressors.

“We convert the temperature to a factor that we are calling the health factor, which gives an estimate of how strong the bees are on a scale from zero to one,” said lead author of the paper Shamima Hossain, a computer science Ph.D. student at UCR, in the press release.

The technology uses a simple metric, with “one” indicating that the bees are at their strongest, allowing beekeepers to quickly assess hive health.

UCR entomology professor Boris Baer thinks EBV could revolutionize beekeeping — an essential practice to large sectors of agriculture throughout the world.

More than 80 crops are pollinated by honeybees, and the essential pollinators contribute approximately $29 billion each year to agriculture in the United States. But factors like pesticide exposure, parasites, habitat loss and climate change have contributed to the decline of bee populations.

“Over the last year, the U.S. lost over 55% of its honeybee colonies,” said Baer, citing data collected by Project Apis m., which monitors U.S. beehive losses. “We are experiencing a major collapse of bee populations, and that is extremely worrying because about one-third of what we eat depends on bees.”

Right now beekeepers use manual inspections and their own judgment to detect issues, which often leads to delayed interventions. Baer said EBV could predict conditions days ahead of time, providing them with real-time insights and significantly reducing labor costs.

“People have dreamed of these sensors for a very long time,” Baer emphasized. “What I like here is that this system is fully integrated into the hive setup that beekeepers already use.”

Baer explained that honeybees maintain an internal hive temperature of between 91.4 and 96.8 degrees Fahrenheit to assure colony survival and proper brood development. Among the first indicators of a threat to hive health are fluctuations in temperature.

The EBV model feeds temperature data collected from sensors inside the hive into an algorithm that can then predict hive conditions several days ahead of time.

EBV was used to analyze data from up to 25 hives at the UCR apiary. It proved its effectiveness by detecting conditions requiring beekeeper intervention.

“When I looked at the dashboard and saw the health factor dropped below an empirical threshold, I contacted our apiary manager,” Hossain said. “When we went to check the hive, we found that there was actually something wrong, and they were able to take action to manage the situation.”

UCR electrical and computer engineering associate professor Hyoseung Kim explained that keeping costs at less than $50 per hive was a big priority.

“There are commercial sensors available, but they are too expensive,” Kim explained. “We decided to create a very cheap device using off-the-shelf components so that beekeepers can afford it.”

The researchers have begun the next phase of developing automated climate controls that beekeepers can install in hives to respond to EBV’s predictions by automatically adjusting hive temperature.

“Right now, we can only issue warnings,” Hossain said. “But in the next phase, we are working on designing a system that can automatically heat or cool the hive when needed.”

The paper, “Principled Mining, Forecasting and Monitoring of Honeybee Time Series with EBV+,” was published in the journal ACM Transactions on Knowledge Discovery from Data.

The post New Low-Cost Beehive Sensors Could Help Save Honeybee Colonies appeared first on EcoWatch.