Polluters paid a near-record amount for pollution allowances in June as restrictions on carbon emissions intensify.

Groups like the California Chamber of Commerce accused lawmakers of trying to avoid transparency.

A new BloombergNEF study is the latest to indicate that decarbonization efforts are faltering, amid rising costs, political opposition and logistical bottlenecks.

The development follows pressure from Germany and France that the sheer scale of the bloc’s ESG regulations is hurting European competitiveness.

The researcher said leaders had warned that her advocacy exposing the Louisiana petrochemical industry's health impacts and racial disparities in hiring had triggered blowback from donors and elected officials.

Paragon is an Israeli spyware company, increasingly in the news (now that NSO Group seems to be waning). “Graphite” is the name of its product. Citizen Lab caught it spying on multiple European journalists with a zero-click iOS exploit:

On April 29, 2025, a select group of iOS users were notified by Apple that they were targeted with advanced spyware. Among the group were two journalists that consented for the technical analysis of their cases. The key findings from our forensic analysis of their devices are summarized below:

• Our analysis finds forensic evidence confirming with high confidence that both a prominent European journalist (who requests anonymity), and Italian journalist Ciro Pellegrino, were targeted with Paragon’s Graphite mercenary spyware. ...

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 13 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02350-w

Glancing forward to view alternative futures for limiting global warming requires understanding complex societal–environmental systems that drive future emissions. Now a study explores the potential, and limits, of deep learning to generate core characteristics of these futures.

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 13 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02356-4

Fire emissions can be an important source of nutrients such as iron, particularly for the oceans. Here the authors estimate that climate-change-driven changes in fire emissions could increase iron deposition in ocean ecosystems, enhancing productivity particularly in the North Atlantic.

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 13 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02326-w

Content delivery algorithms on social media exhibit biases in audience selection, which are understudied in the climate context. This study combines observational analysis and a field experiment to reveal algorithmic bias in Facebook’s climate ad data across location, gender and age groups.

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 13 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02352-8

Integrated assessment model-based scenarios are commonly used to project future emission pathways but suffer from submission biases and high computational cost. Here researchers develop a deep learning framework to generate synthetic scenarios and replicate key variables across a wide range of mitigation ambitions.

This is news:

A data broker owned by the country’s major airlines, including Delta, American Airlines, and United, collected U.S. travellers’ domestic flight records, sold access to them to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and then as part of the contract told CBP to not reveal where the data came from, according to internal CBP documents obtained by 404 Media. The data includes passenger names, their full flight itineraries, and financial details.

Another article.

U.S. sanctions on Syria have for several decades not only restricted trade and financial transactions, they’ve also severely limited Syrians’ access to digital technology. From software development tools to basic cloud services, Syrians were locked out of the global internet economy—stifling innovation, education, and entrepreneurship.

EFF has for many years pushed for sanctions exemptions for technology in Syria, as well as in Sudan, Iran, and Cuba. While civil society had early wins in securing general licenses for Iran and Sudan allowing the export of communications technologies, the conflict in Syria that began in 2011 made loosening of sanctions a pipe dream.

But recent changes to U.S. policy could mark the beginning of a shift. In a quiet yet significant move, the U.S. government has eased sanctions on Syria. On May 23, the Treasury Department issued General License 25, effectively allowing technology companies to provide services to Syrians. This decision could have an immediate and positive impact on the lives of millions of Syrian internet users—especially those working in the tech and education sectors.

A Legacy of Digital Isolation

For years, Syrians have found themselves barred from accessing even the most basic tools. U.S. sanctions meant that companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon—either by law or by cautious decisions taken to avoid potential penalties—restricted access to many of their services. Developers couldn’t access GitHub repositories or use Google Cloud; students couldn’t download software for virtual classrooms; and entrepreneurs struggled to build startups without access to payment gateways or secure infrastructure.

Such restrictions can put users in harm’s way; for instance, not being able to access the Google Play store from inside the country means that Syrians can’t easily download secure versions of everyday tools like Signal or WhatsApp, thus potentially subjecting their communications to surveillance.

These restrictions also compounded the difficulties of war, economic collapse, and internal censorship. Even when Syrian tech workers could connect with global communities, their participation was hampered by legal gray zones and technical blocks.

What the Sanctions Relief Changes

Under General License 25, companies will now be able to provide services to Syria that have never officially been available. While it may take time for companies to catch up with any regulatory changes, it is our hope that Syrians will soon be able to access and make use of technologies that will enable them to more freely communicate and rebuild.

For Syrian developers, the impact could be transformative. Restored access to platforms like GitHub, AWS, and Google Cloud means the ability to build, test, and deploy apps without the need for VPNs or workarounds. It opens the door to participation in global hackathons, remote work, and open-source communities—channels that are often lifelines for those in conflict zones. Students and educators stand to benefit, too. With sanctions eased, educational tools and platforms that were previously unavailable could soon be accessible. Entrepreneurs may also finally gain access to secure communications, e-commerce platforms, and the broader digital infrastructure needed to start and scale businesses. These developments could help jumpstart local economies.

Despite the good news, challenges remain. Major tech companies have historically been slow to respond to sanctions relief, often erring on the side of over-compliance to avoid liability. Many of the financial and logistical barriers—such as payment processing, unreliable internet, and ongoing conflict—will not disappear overnight.

Moreover, the lifting of sanctions is not a blanket permission slip; it’s a cautious opening. Any future geopolitical shifts or changes in U.S. foreign policy could once again cut off access, creating an uncertain digital future for Syrians.

Nevertheless, by removing barriers imposed by sanctions, the U.S. is taking a step toward recognizing that access to technology is not a luxury, but a necessity—even in sanctioned or conflict-ridden countries.

For Syrian users, the lifting of tech sanctions is more than a bureaucratic change—it’s a door, long closed, beginning to open. And for the international tech community, it’s an opportunity to re-engage, responsibly and thoughtfully, with a population that has been cut off from essential services for too long.

EPA contradicts itself — and legal precedent — in its bid to undo Biden-era limits on power plant pollution.

Court rulings and two Trump administrations have derailed regulators' attempts to forestall rising temperatures, while scientists' warnings grow more dire.

It's the first time in three decades that the United States will miss the annual global warming conference.

State regulators are reviewing plans for more than 100 new gas-fired energy projects.

Groups are split over using market revenue for highway widening. Some say it would undercut climate efforts by increasing carbon emissions.

A data center developers group filed testimony in Florida Power & Light's $2.5 billion rate request pending before the Public Service Commission.

Fossil fuel power plants and producers of iron, steel and cement will be covered under the initial phase, according to a government report.

The Swedish climate activist and fellow boat passengers were mocked and deprived of sleep, Baptiste André claimed.