The long-anticipated El Niño is here. …In its monthly update in June, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), issued an El Niño advisory, confirming that the warmer conditions had developed in the specific part of the Pacific Ocean known as Niño 3.4. In order to be considered an El Niño, temperatures need to be 0.5 C above the average. Ocean temperatures are now close to 2 C above average. …The strongest El Niño in recent years was the one in 2015-2016, where the ocean temperature anomaly was roughly 2.75 C. ….Nat Johnson, a meteorologist at NOAA’s geophysical fluid dynamics laboratory, said the transition from a La Niña to El Niño has been very quick. …Meanwhile, in Canada, the effects will be seen in the winter months, bringing milder temperatures, but also drier conditions, something that is of great concern for wildfire development in the spring in Western Canada.
VANCOUVER — Technological limitations, high costs and infrastructure challenges raise questions about relying on carbon capture, utilization and storage as a cornerstone of federal and Alberta climate policy, according to a new 
Demand for biofuels has been growing in many parts of the world. …Disruption to oil exports via the Strait of Hormuz this year created a further incentive to switch to biofuels to ensure energy security. While biofuels can’t fully replace petroleum, they can be blended into gasoline and diesel, allowing countries to stretch existing fuel supplies. Many environmentalists contest the idea that biofuels are a sustainable alternative source of energy. And as more farmland is used to produce them, there’s less available to make food, increasing the risk of global food shortages and hunger in the poorest nations. …The priciest biofuel is sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, which uses advanced refining processes to convert waste oils into jet fuel that can be blended for use in aircraft. There’s also so-called advanced or second-generation biodiesel, made from non-food sources such as crop waste, wood chips and even algae, which avoids competing with food crops.
OTTAWA — Three young women and two environmental groups on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the Canadian government seeking to force it to develop an action plan to meet its key climate goals. The lawsuit comes as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government shifts Canada’s climate and energy priorities, rolling back key environmental policies while advancing major energy and infrastructure projects to reduce dependence on the United States. Announcing the lawsuit, plaintiff Shirley Barnea, a university student from Quebec, said authorities had an obligation to build a sustainable future for younger generations. …The legal action aims to compel the government “to chart a credible, up-to-date course of action” and “to protect Canadians from the worsening impacts of climate change,” according to a statement from the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), which is also a party to the lawsuit.
UK — The City watchdog has closed an investigation into the owner of the Drax power plant after an almost 10-month review into whether the company’s sustainability claims mislead shareholders. The Financial Conduct Authority said it had “reviewed thousands of pages” of “complex material” relating to the company’s sourcing of wood pellets for the Drax power plant in Selby, North Yorkshire, but “did not find evidence that justified any further action”. The regulator began the investigation last year into whether Drax’s annual reports and accounts between 2021 and 2023 misled shareholders or left out important information investors needed to know about the origins of its biomass fuel. …Ofgem found at the time that there was no evidence to suggest the breach was deliberate, and said instead that it was “technical in nature”. It also found no evidence that the biomass sourced was unsustainable or that Drax had wrongly laid claim to renewable energy subsidies.
Here’s the latest news concerning climate change and biodiversity loss in B.C. and around the world, from the steps leaders are taking to address the problems, to all the up-to-date science. Human activities like burning fossil fuels and farming livestock are the main drivers of climate change, according to the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change. The panel, which is made up of scientists from around the world, including researchers from B.C., has … issued a code red for humanity and warns the window to limit warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial times is closing. …El Niño — a climate cycle that causes unusually warm ocean surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific, altering global weather patterns — has begun and is expected to grow to historical strength, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 
Hydro-Québec has reached an agreement with the Atikamekw community of Opitciwan and Société en commandite Onimiskiw Opitciwan (SCOO) to build a 4.8MW forest biomass cogeneration plant that will replace the community’s diesel-fired power generation, with commercial operation expected to begin this month. Under the 25-year agreement … the utility will also fund the acquisition and installation of a dryer at the Opitciwan sawmill, majority-owned by the Conseil des Atikamekw d’Opitciwan (CAO). The project is estimated to cost C$60.2 million (around $45 million), with funding contributions from the Quebec provincial and Canadian federal governments alongside investment from CAO and SCOO. The Atikamekw are a First Nations people numbering around 8,000 across several communities in northern Quebec; Opitciwan itself is home to close to 3,000 residents. …”Replacing the current diesel plant with one that’s powered by forest biomass from the sawmill is a huge step forward,” said Denis Clary, President of SCOO.
The Nova Scotia government has issued a tender to convert five public buildings to wood heat systems — a move one member of the forestry sector says will have widespread benefits. The tender targets heating infrastructure at the Nova Scotia Community College’s Kingstec campus, Roseway Hospital in Shelburne, Digby General Hospital, Soldiers Memorial Hospital in Middleton, and St. Martha’s Regional Hospital in Antigonish. …Successful bidders will also be responsible for procuring the wood fuel. The province stated in the tender documents that it “expects the focus of wood procurement to be from small private woodlots,” stipulating that 100 per cent of the lower-grade primary wood fuel must be harvested within Nova Scotia. …Marcus Zwicker, Forest Nova Scotia, added that requiring boilers to be fed with Nova Scotia product opens up new markets for local forestry contractors and woodlot owners while ensuring cheaper wood cannot be brought in from outside jurisdictions.
NEW BRUNSWICK — NB Power says it has green lit a plan to buy 300,000 tonnes of wood pellets this year in efforts to convert its largest power plant in northern New Brunswick from coal to biomass. The Crown utility says it’s now in procurement talks with five potential suppliers, all within Eastern Canada, to supply the Belledune Generating Station. That’s as the Holt government has quietly issued a Crown timber sub-licence to one of those five, a partnership between Eel River Bar First Nation, Pabineau First Nation, and Arbec Forest Products. The trio, together behind what’s being called the Belledune Biocoal Joint Venture Group, has also recently filed an environmental impact assessment with the Department of Environment and Local Government to build a torrefied wood pellet production facility at the Port of Belledune in support of NB Power’s transition away from coal burning power generation.
IDAHO — On the afternoon of July 6, I looked toward the foothills from the Boise Bench and saw smoke. …With all the other fires burning in the West, wondered when our turn would come. Eighty-five percent of wildfires are human caused — and while the cause of the Claremont Fire has yet to be determined, it is certain that human activity played an important role. Science journalist and meteorologist Bob Henson writes that “extreme heat is among the most studied consequences of human-caused climate change, and the connections between a warming planet and amplified, localized extreme heat are not only intuitive but well-documented.” …Professor Friederlile Otto of Climate Science at Imperial College London writes, “we remain on a one-way trip towards a more dangerous future, and it’s time we hit the brakes… and implement solutions to protect our health and the health of the place we call home.”
Trees do not necessarily keep growing for as long as they keep photosynthesizing, according to a new study published in Science Advances. Researchers found that oak trees continue absorbing carbon dioxide well after their annual growth has ended, suggesting forests may store less carbon in wood than many climate models currently predict. The discovery challenges a long standing assumption that higher rates of photosynthesis naturally lead to greater tree growth. If trees continue taking in carbon without turning much of it into new wood, less carbon may remain locked away over the long term. …Scientists have generally expected that rising atmospheric CO2 levels would boost photosynthesis, leading to faster growth and increased long term carbon storage. The new findings suggest …trees may continue absorbing carbon, [but] much of it does not necessarily become new wood. Instead,[it’s] used for other functions, reducing the amount of carbon stored in forests compared with previous expectations.
LONDON — The United States accounted for about a third of the rise in global carbon emissions in 2025, as higher gas prices pushed power producers back to coal, an Energy Institute report showed. Highlights from the report include:
Ithaca, NY — Forests and land play an important role in absorbing carbon dioxide emissions, but current models and forecasts don’t incorporate a new and surprising ecological discovery: Despite more available carbon, climate change and warmer temperatures are slowing forest growth. A new study considers for the first time the impact of the discovery on climate models, finding that one of the most-used land models for determining the impacts of climate change may overestimate forests’ future potential for carbon storage by as much as 30%. “Knowing how well the land will be able to keep taking up carbon in the future is really important,” said first author Brendan Clark. “But the land models are probably underestimating the effects of hotter, drier air on actual growth.” …Clark first learned about the new ecological findings from co-author and ecologist Shan Kothari, at the University of Alberta, and immediately wondered how they might impact climate models. 
A bill aimed at making Louisiana more enticing to the wood pellet industry has sailed through the state Legislature. House Bill 670 won unanimous approval in the Louisiana House and Senate and was granted final passage on Wednesday (May 27). It would ease regulations for pellet manufacturers while directing state support toward workforce development, financial incentives and infrastructure improvements designed to meet the industry’s needs. The industry has come under fire for repeatedly breaking air pollution rules in Louisiana and Mississippi and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom, where most of the pellets are burned to produce energy marketed as “sustainable biomass.” The bill’s supporters admitted they knew little about the industry but backed the measure in hopes of reviving the state’s struggling logging sector. …“This bill uses taxpayer money to support a foreign industry and makes it easier for them to pollute Louisianians’ air and water,” said the Dogwood Alliance. 
The German government has approved a draft law designed to limit the support for electricity generation from woody biomass, aiming the meet the EU requirements. As a result, certain categories of wood will be excluded from subsidisation under Germany’s Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), such as saw logs, veneer logs, other industrial-grade roundwood and stumps and roots harvested from forests. Electricity generation from these types of wood, however, may still receive support if it is necessary to safeguard Germany’s energy security or if local industry is unable to use the forestry biomass in ways that deliver greater economic and environmental value than energy production. Under the proposed law, industrial wood residues will remain eligible for financing.
Wildfires in permafrost regions, intensified by climate change and shifting fire regimes, are increasingly disrupting permafrost systems. At the same time, the presence of permafrost amplifies the extent and complexity of wildfire impacts across the Permafrost Critical Zone (PCZ). In boreal forests and landscapes with sporadic or isolated permafrost patches, wildfires rapidly increase ground temperatures and accelerate permafrost thaw, primarily due to vegetation loss and the combustion of insulating organic layers. These fire-induced changes can initiate irreversible processes. …Understanding the complex interactions and cascading effects between wildfires and permafrost thaw remains a major challenge. Unlike wildfires in non-permafrost regions, which are mainly driven by fuel loads and organic soil depth, fire behavior in the PCZ is additionally shaped by active layer thickness, near-surface permafrost conditions, and snow cover. These elements interact with cold-adapted vegetation and organic soils, influencing fire ignition, intensity, spread, and post-fire recovery.
After a series of record-breaking US heatwaves, the 2026 bee swarm season in North America has started 17 days earlier than last year, pushing beekeepers to adapt to a rapidly shifting season while raising new questions about how honeybees are responding to the climate crisis. According to a 
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Verra are pleased to announce a collaboration that will bring greater transparency and credibility to the voluntary carbon market. Under this new arrangement, Verified Carbon Units (VCUs) issued through Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program can now carry an FSC label when they are generated from forests that hold valid FSC Forest Management (FM) certification. This means that buyers and stakeholders can readily identify carbon credits that come from responsibly managed, FSC-certified forestlands. This means projects that are dual registered under both the VCS Program and FSC FM certification will be eligible to apply the FSC label to their VCUs in the Verra Registry. To qualify, projects must demonstrate full spatial and temporal overlap between the VCS project area and the FSC-certified forest, and must hold a valid FSC FM certificate for the entire verification period.
According to a new report from Allied Market Research, the global biomass market size was valued at $59.0 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $121.0 billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 7.5% from 2024 to 2033. The rapid shift toward renewable energy sources, growing environmental concerns, and supportive government policies are significantly contributing to the expansion of the biomass market across the globe. The increasing focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving energy security is encouraging governments and industries to invest heavily in biomass energy technologies. Unlike fossil fuels, biomass is considered carbon-neutral because the carbon dioxide released during energy generation is offset by the carbon absorbed during the growth of biomass feedstocks. This advantage is making the biomass market increasingly attractive for sustainable energy development. The growing demand for renewable energy is one of the major factors fueling biomass market growth. … Biomass energy provides a reliable and stable source of renewable power…
Across the UNECE region, understanding how wood energy use relates to forest resources and energy supply remains a central question for policy. These relationships are reflected in material flows from forests and forest-based industries into energy supply. Drawing on data from the Joint Wood Energy Enquiry (JWEE), this report shows that increasing wood energy consumption has coincided with declining reliance on roundwood and a growing contribution from industrial by-products, processed wood-based fuels and post-consumer recovered wood. Over the same period, the share of forest net annual increment directly used for energy remained broadly stable, even as wood energy increased its contribution to total primary energy supply. Together, these developments point to changes in the composition of feedstocks, uses and consuming sectors rather than a simple intensification of harvest pressure, while cross-country differences reflect variation in forest endowments, industrial structures and trade patterns.