Today's Climate

More than 20 world leaders formally approved the Paris climate agreement at a General Assembly ceremony in New York on Wednesday, the New York Times reports.

"If enough countries start implementing the Paris agreement, historians will see this as a watershed moment," said United Nations official Erik Solheim. "But if we don't implement it, this will just be bringing a bunch of politicians together around a piece of paper."

United States President Barack Obama used his executive authority on Wednesday to mandate that climate-change impacts must be factored into the development of all national security-related doctrine, policies and plans, the Washington Post reports.

The Senate Finance Commission on Wednesday voted to advance a bill that would transfer hundreds of millions of dollars from a federal fund meant for cleaning abandoned mines to a multi-employer coal miner pension plan, The Hill reports.

A new study reveals Greenland is losing about 40 trillion pounds more ice a year than initially thought, the Associated Press reports.

"If you look at the last 15 years since we've been having these measurements, it's clearly getting worse, the ice loss," said study co-author Michael Bevis. "It is pretty scary."

Car rental company Enterprise recently announced it is leaving the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), a lobby group that has pushed against climate change legislation, the Guardian reports.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating how energy company Exxon Mobil Corp. calculates the impact to its business from the world's increasing response to climate change, according to the Wall Street Journal.

United States President Barack Obama on Tuesday called for an increase in climate finance to reduce global inequality, Climate Home reports.

"If we don't act boldly, the bill that could come due will be mass migrations, and cities submerged and nations displaced, and food supplies decimated, and conflicts born of despair," said Obama in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly.

Speaking at the United Nations in New York this week, Prime Minister Theresa May said the United Kingdom would ratify the Paris climate deal this year, the Guardian reports.

On Tuesday, 375 top scientists signed an open letter warning against the consequences of backing out of the Paris climate agreement, which Republican candidate Donald Trump has vowed to do if elected U.S. president, Mashable reports.

New data released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows last month was the hottest August on record, Climate Central reports.

The United States and China on Monday both released their fossil fuel subsidy peer reviews, Climate Home reports. One of the largest obstacles for pushing through reform in the U.S. is that Congress must pass enabling legislation.

Some legal experts say that if Donald Trump is elected president of the United States, he has a few options for abandoning the global climate agreement, Climate Central reports. Trump, a Republican, has previously called climate change a "hoax" and threatened to "cancel" the Paris climate pact.

Forrest Lucas, co-founder of the oil products company Lucas Oil, is reportedly a leading contender for Interior secretary should Donald Trump get elected into the White House, according to Politico.

California Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday signed into law new standards for "super pollutants," such as black carbon and methane, The Hill reports.  Under the rule, the state must reduce its black carbon by 50 percent and its methane and hydrofluorocarbons by 40 percent from 2013 levels by 2030.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed an executive order last week directing state officials to develop rules for annual reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by next summer and to develop a state plan for adaptation and resiliency, the Boston Globe reports.

"This executive order signals our continuing commitment to combatting and preparing . . . for climate change impacts across state government and in our communities," said Baker, a Republican, on Friday.

A wildfire that's been steadily burning for nearly two months around California's Big Sur has cost $206.7 million to fight so far, the Associated Press reports.

Gas prices have spiked in the Southeast after a major gasoline pipeline recently ruptured in Alabama, spilling up to 336,000 gallons of fuel upstream from a national wildlife refuge, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The D.C. Circuit Court will hear an appeal this month from 27 states claiming the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its bounds with the Clean Power Plan and does not have the authority to regulate carbon emissions from power plants. Still, many of those states are on track to hit the rule's climate targets if it is upheld, Christian Science Monitor reports.

Canada Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said on Sunday the nation plans to put in place a carbon price in provinces that do not sufficiently regulate greenhouse gas emissions, Reuters reports.

The chemical company Ineos plans to bring hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas to the United Kingdom. As part of the company's campaign to win over critics, Ineos has invited journalists to tour some operational fracking sites in Pennsylvania, the Guardian reports.

Klaus Jacob, a professor affiliated with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, has spent the past 15 years largely focused on studying how rising sea levels threaten New York City, New York Magazine reports.

According to United Nations climate official Selwin Hart, 20 countries are planning to ratify the Paris climate agreement next week in New York, Climate Home reports. The United States and China are among the 27 countries that have already formally approved the deal.

President Barack Obama established the Atlantic Ocean's first marine national monument consisting of nearly 5,000 square miles off the New England coast.

"If we're going to leave our children with oceans like the ones that were left to us, then we're going to have to act and we're going to have to act boldly," Obama said Thursday at a State Department conference announcing the monument.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is investigating why oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. hasn't recorded the value of its assets since oil prices plunged two years ago, according to the Wall Street Journal. The state attorney general's office has also been examining the company's climate record.

Typhoon Meranti left a trail of destruction in China and Tawain this week, killing at least 11 people and damaging thousands of homes, Reuters reports.

Shell Canada says its carbon capture project in the Alberta oil sands region has stored one million tons of carbon dioxide underground in the first year of operation, The Canadian Press reports.

Former U.S. military and national security officials are calling attention to documents warning of climate change's risk to the nation and calling on the next president to take this threat seriously, Christian Science Monitor reports.

A new poll suggests most Americans are willing to pay a little more on their electricity bills each month to fight climate change, the Associated Press reports.

After Typhoon Meranti left at least one person dead and injured dozens others in Taiwan earlier this week, the weakening storm made landfall in China on Thursday, Quartz reports.

A tropical storm formed suddenly over northeast Florida on Tuesday night and now it threatens coastal South Carolina with heavy rains, the Washington Post reports.

"The center has not spent any time over water, and probably never will. This is extraordinary, and from what I can tell, unprecedented," said Brian McNoldy from the Capital Weather Gang.