Insights

A Common Vision of a Just Transition

Clara Chavez-Ives May 19, 2026

A common—and justified—complaint about COP (the annual United Nations Climate Conference) is that decisions take too long and are too incremental. Established by the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the COP process has structural limitations. For one, it is consensus-based, meaning just one country (out of nearly 200) can stop action. Second, the COP has struggled to overcome the influence of fossil fuel interests. Lobbyists and petrostates

“What Does It Mean to Be Spiritually Sustained in Times Like These?”: Karenna Gore and Rev. Jen Bailey in Conversation at Climate Reality Training

Rosie Semlyen May 14, 2026

On May 2, CEE Executive Director Karenna Gore joined Reverend Jen Bailey for “Invoking Spirit: How Faith and Wisdom Traditions Can Inspire Climate Action,” a session at The Climate Reality Project’s 20th Anniversary Flagship Training in Nashville, Tennessee. Convened by former Vice President Al Gore to mark two decades of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps, the training brought together a new cohort of climate leaders for two days of science,

Turning Tides: Policy, Ethics, and the Promise of Clean Water

Maggie Greenfield with Karenna Gore and Paul Gallay April 22, 2026

DOWNLOAD PDF EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The United States stands at a pivotal moment in the history of clean water protection. More than fifty years after the Clean Water Act established the national goal of making all waters fishable and swimmable, recent legal decisions and rulemaking have dramatically weakened the Act by narrowing the definition of “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS). This redefinition threatens to remove federal safeguards from more than

CEE to Attend Landmark Conference on Fossil Fuel Phaseout

Clara Chavez-Ives April 21, 2026

The Center for Earth Ethics’ Clara Chavez-Ives, Rosie Semlyen, Samira Siddique and Tory Field will be on the ground in Santa Marta, Colombia, this week for the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, hosted by the governments of Colombia and the Netherlands. This historic conference emerged from the annual UN climate conference (COP) last fall in Belém, Brazil, where the COP30 Presidency laid out a vision to create

“The Land of the Long White Cloud”: Roberto Múkaro Borrero Travels to Aotearoa for Treaty of Waitangi Commemoration

Roberto Múkaro Borrero April 21, 2026

The Pacific Island State of New Zealand is known in the Indigenous Māori language as Aotearoa. This term is commonly translated as “the land of the long white cloud.” While originally used by Māori to refer to the North Island, the name is now widely used for the entire country. On February 6, 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and Māori leaders signed the Treaty of Waitangi, at Waitangi also

Toward a World Beyond Plastics

Rosie Semlyen April 16, 2026

On Saturday, March 21, advocates, organizers and community leaders from across the northeast gathered in Philadelphia for the Beyond Plastics Regional Conference, under the theme, Radical Optimism for a World Beyond Plastics. The day brought together frontline community members, environmental justice advocates, policy leaders and grassroots organizers to share wins, deepen strategy and strengthen the regional network working to end plastic pollution. The Problem with Plastics Judith Enck, founder of