Since Donald Trump returned to the presidency in 2025, his administration has aggressively downsized the federal workforce, which has disrupted key agencies, especially those responsible for environmental protection and climate action. Through executive orders and agency actions, tens of thousands of federal employees have been dismissed—some of which has been ruled illegal— posing serious risks […]
Read More »Geoengineering – Climate solution or folly?
It is commonly established among the climate scientific community that there is not a ‘silver bullet’ solution to address climate change and its effects. Instead, many have advocated for a ‘silver buckshot’ that takes a multi-pronged approach to address climate change (although some say a buckshot is not enough either). Does geoengineering serve as one […]
Read More »Takeaways from NERC’s 2024 Reliability Assessment
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation is a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring the stability of the continent’s grid system. Originally formed as the North American Electric Reliability Council and founded in 1968, its successor, also known as NERC, launched in 2006. The group’s mission is to “assure the effective and efficient reduction of risks to […]
Read More »Post-Paris Agreement: FREE’S Focus on Subnational Climate Action
By Job Taminiau and Joseph Nyangon Accelerating climate action and finance at subnational level based on the Paris Agreement. The 21st Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP 21 (also known as the Paris climate summit) closed in Le Bourget, France after two weeks of intense negotiations, with negotiators agreeing on […]
Read More »Two Very Different Perspectives on Carbon Emissions Trading
By Jeongseok Seo In an effort to address climate change, carbon emissions trading schemes (hereafter, ETS) have been widely championed as an instrument for mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Currently there are about 40 countries where a regional or national scheme is in operation, including 31 countries in Europe. Several states in the United States, the […]
Read More »Mobilizing Public and Private Capital for Clean Energy Financing
By Joseph Nyangon Innovative financing, increased capital investment and technological improvement are catalyzing renewable energy growth. The energy market in the United States is undergoing a dramatic transformation, driven by technological advancement, market dynamics, and better policies and laws—none of which was a decade ago. Venture capitalists made huge profits from the computing boom of the 1980s, […]
Read More »