Climate Hub Blog

The second cohort of undergraduate and law students in Emory's Environmental Law and Science Changemaker Program has submitted a formal comment opposing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's proposed delisting of Geocarpon minimum from the List of Endangered and Threatened Plants. The comment highlights gaps in population data interpretation, climate modeling, and risk assessment, and concludes that the FWS’s proposal does not meet the Endangered Species Act’s standards for delisting.

COP30 was an exercise in growth, critical thinking, and expanding perspectives on the global implications of climate change, allowing me to look for questions I had never seen before. COP, or the Conference of the Parties, is the United Nations’ annual climate summit where countries gather to negotiate and assess global climate action. It brings together world leaders, scientists, and advocates to look at challenges and shape responses to climate change. As someone whose COP30 journey was also my first experience leaving the United States, I felt a stark, and sometimes uncomfortable, confrontation with our global state around climate mitigation and adaptation, and the problems we still haven’t figured out how to solve.

With the continual and steep climb towards 2℃ warming despite having completed our 30th multibillion-dollar Conference of the Parties (COP30), it’s time we address the flaws in our reliance on international climate governance. If we are unable to depend on parties to agree, much less follow through with their commitments, it’s imperative that we explore how other stakeholders should collaborate and fulfill their necessary roles to progress despite shortfalls at the negotiating table.

Think about what pollutes the air. Do cars come to mind? Maybe factories, power plants, or cigarette smoke? But here is something most people rarely think about: the road itself. Yes, the actual road we travel on. Right now, there are over 4 million miles of roads in America (ASCE, 2021). More than 94% of the paved ones are made of asphalt, a thick dark material made from crude oil (National Asphalt Pavement Association). Studies have found that asphalt releases chemicals called Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOCs, into the surrounding air, and understanding this is an important piece of the larger air quality puzzle.

The cultural and socioeconomic value of rice is undeniable; however, its environmental impact is often overlooked. This blog explores case studies of new approaches to rice farming around the world, the role of policy in improving rice farming practices, and how to get involved in advancing rice agriculture practices that are better for the environment.

The choice to host COP30 in the gateway to the Amazon, while controversial, gave attendees the opportunity to engage personally with the ecosystem. The balance of infrastructure development, equitable development, natural resource management, and critical ecosystem conservation is an intricate one. Conference attendees were forced to confront the changing climate at the conference, and it is clear that the proximity to Amazon rainforest shaped the conversations in the "COP of the Forest." Now, more than ever, it is essential to protect our primary forests.

Ever wondered who really picks the food we eat—and what it takes to protect their rights? The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, led by farmworkers like Gerardo Reyes Chavez, joined forces with students, churches, and everyday people to challenge some of the biggest corporate giants in the U.S. From marching hundreds of miles to organizing campus campaigns and hunger strikes, their story is one of courage, solidarity, and real change. Read the Climate Hub’s interview with Gerardo to see how workers behind our food turned collective action into a movement that reshaped an entire industry. Gerardo Reyes Chavez wants you to know that story. The Emory Climate Hub recently sat down with Gerardo, a longtime leader of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, to hear firsthand how farmworkers built one of the most successful labor rights movements in modern U.S. history.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the international agreement that coordinates climate change mitigation and adaptation. Famously, the UNFCCC holds a two-week Conference of Parties (COP) every winter to negotiate the international response to climate change. The number of COP attendees runs in the tens of thousands, with COP29 in Azerbaijan hosting 53,000 attendees in November 2024.

One of the big conversations within international climate spaces is the need for international financing infrastructure. Adapting and responding to climate change is a significant financial undertaking which not all countries can afford. These problems are ones that can only be fairly addressed using unique equitable frameworks proposed at Bonn SB60 over the summer of 2024.