Week in Review: Top Climate News for February 26-March 1, 2024
This weekly round-up brings you key climate news from the past seven days, including new EU legislation on environmental crimes and New York Attorney General’s lawsuit against the world’s top meatpacker, JBS.
NY Sues World’s Top Meat Producer JBS Over Misleading Sustainability Claims
According to the plaintiff, New York Attorney General Letitia James, JBS USA “repeatedly” misled consumers into thinking the company “was taking substantial and definitive action to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the impacts of their industrial agricultural practices on the environment,” and had “no viable plan” to meet its “net zero by 2040” commitment. “When companies falsely advertise their commitment to sustainability, they are misleading consumers and endangering our planet. JBS USA’s greenwashing exploits the pocketbooks of everyday Americans and the promise of a healthy planet for future generations. My office will always ensure that companies do not abuse the environment and the trust of hardworking consumers for profit,” the Attorney General said in a statement.
According to the court filing, the world’s top-five meat and dairy corporations combined generate more greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuel giants ExxonMobil, Shell, or BP individually, with the JBS Group being the largest contributor. In 2021, the company reported over 71 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of nearly 16 million gasoline-powered cars driven for one year.
Polar Bears at Risk of Starvation as Arctic Ice Sheets Melt, Scientists Warn
Published earlier this month in the scientific journal Nature Communications, the study used video camera GPS collars to track polar bears movements for three-week periods over the course of three years in Canada’s Hudson Bay, an inland marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. Here, ice-free periods have lengthened by three weeks between 1979 and 2015, forcing bears onshore for approximately 130 days during the past decade.
The Arctic is heating up twice as fast as anywhere else on the planet, shrinking sea ice cover by 14% per decade. Compared to the median sea ice cover recorded between 1981-2010, the region has lost about 770,000 square miles between 2011 to 2021, an area larger than Alaska and California combined.
China Off Track to Meet Near-Term Carbon Intensity and Coal Reduction Targets, Analysis
