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Housing secretary tells Labour MPs to vote down planning bill amendment

Amendment restricts protection for animals to allow faster house buildingHousing secretary Steve Reed has told Labour MPs to vote down an amendment to the new planning bill intended to protect British wildlife and its habitats from destruction.The amendment, which was passed with a large majority in the House of Lords, restricts the most controversial part of the draft bill by removing protected animals such as dormice, badgers, hedgehogs, otters and nightingales, and rare habitats such as wetlands and ancient woodlands, from new rules which allow developers to sidestep environmental laws to speed up house building. Continue reading...

Housing secretary Steve Reed has told Labour MPs to vote down an amendment to the new planning bill intended to protect British wildlife and its habitats from destruction.The amendment, which was passed with a large majority in the House of Lords, restricts the most controversial part of the draft bill by removing protected animals such as dormice, badgers, hedgehogs, otters and nightingales, and rare habitats such as wetlands and ancient woodlands, from new rules which allow developers to sidestep environmental laws to speed up house building.Under the draft legislation proposed by Labour, developers will be able to pay into a national “nature recovery fund” and go ahead with their project straight away, instead of having to carry out an environmental survey and to first avoid, then mitigate damage, before putting spades into the ground.Experts say this is a regression on decades-old environmental law and it has been criticised as “cash to trash” by ecologists and environmental groups.The Lords’ amendment would mean the nature recovery fund is restricted to impacts from water and air pollution, meaning developers would still have to take the usual measures to mitigate damage to wildlife and habitats.Reed has recommended rejecting the amendment when the bill returns to the Commons on Thursday for the final stages before being passed into law.In a letter to MPs some of the UK’s biggest nature charities, including the Wildlife Trusts and RSPB, say the government rollback of environmental law “lacks any rigorous scientific or ecological justification.“There is no credible, published, or well established evidence that this model can simply be scaled or replicated for multiple species nationwide without risking serious ecological harm, legal uncertainty, and increased costs for both developers and land managers,” the letter reads.The Guardian revealed this week how the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, and housing minister Matthew Pennycook have met scores of developers in the past year over the planning bill. Reeves has not met a single environmental organisation or the body for professional ecologists, while Pennycook has had just four meetings with such groups, compared with 16 with leading developers.A spokesperson for the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “The planning and infrastructure bill will remove barriers to building vital new homes and infrastructure and this amendment is an unnecessary limit on the benefits which the nature restoration fund will create for both nature and the economy. There are already safeguards in our legislation to ensure environmental delivery plans are effective for the environment, as we get Britain building again and deliver the homes we need.”

Animals
Government
Pollution

Conservationists Make An (Intentional) Mess In Mendocino

And coho salmon love it. The post Conservationists Make An (Intentional) Mess In Mendocino appeared first on Bay Nature.

Photographs by Christie Hemm Klok. This story was produced by High Country News, hcn.org, with support from Bay Nature. Conservationists restoring salmon along California’s North Coast have a mantra: A good coho salmon stream looks like a teenager’s bedroom—if teenagers discarded logs and branches instead of dirty clothes. Surveying a stretch of the Navarro River one morning last spring, Anna Halligan, a conservation biologist with Trout Unlimited, was delighted. “This is exactly what we want,” she said, examining the debris-filled water. The twigs, dirt and branches around a fallen redwood had slowed the river to a crawl and carved out a deep, sun-dappled pool underneath the trunk. In September 2020, Trout Unlimited’s partners spent days selecting a redwood and then carefully maneuvering it into the river to make it more coho-friendly. That tree has now vanished—crushed under this much larger redwood, likely carried downriver by this winter’s rains. The collision has created even more of a “mess” than Halligan could have planned. Halligan climbed down for a closer look. Within minutes, a young, silvery coho flashed into view in the new pool.  The North Fork of the Navarro River is chock full of restoration projects implemented by Trout Unlimited with federal funding from NOAA. (Christie Hemm Klok) Coho salmon, which migrate between freshwater creeks and the open ocean, have nourished people, plants and animals along the Pacific Coast since time immemorial. Fred Simmons, an environmental technician for the Cahto Tribe of Laytonville Rancheria, recalled growing up along coho runs “jammed up so thick that you could go out there any time of evening and just get whatever you needed for your family.” But logging, development and climate change have devastated the coastal streams, and Simmons—now in his 60s—has seen coho pushed to the brink. The population in and around Mendocino County, toward the southern end of the species’ range, was declared threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1996 and endangered in 2005.  That young coho in the Navarro River was part of a resurgence: For two years now, conservationists have watched the species return to the coast in notably large numbers. For the first time, “recovery seems possible,” said Peter Van De Burgt, a restoration manager with The Nature Conservancy. “We’re on the right track.” Fred Simmons and Anna Halligan. (Christie Hemm Klok) The first attempts to restore Mendocino’s streams for coho and other salmon began in the 1960s. Decades of logging in the area’s old-growth forests left woody debris in stream channels, creating miles-long barriers. Well-intentioned state conservationists decided to remove it. “They had this Western concept, like sweeping the floor,” said Anira G’Acha, environmental director for the Cahto Tribe of Laytonville Rancheria. They left behind hundreds of miles of tidy streams—simplified channels like bowling-alley lanes filled with fast-flowing water. And fish kept dying. “It’s hard to be a salmon,” said Van De Burgt. Everything wants to eat you—birds, otters, even other fish. Without fallen logs to slow their flow, streams lack the overhanging banks, woody debris and deep pools that young salmon need to hide from predators. Gradually, researchers realized that salmon needed the shelter provided by logjams. By the time coho salmon populations were protected by the Endangered Species Act, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife “basically did an ‘Oops’ and said, ‘Well, let’s put them back in again,’” said John Andersen, a California forester and policy director of the Mendocino and Humboldt Redwood Companies. Along the Albion River in Mendocino County, California Conservation Corps members put wood back into the river. Because the location is so remote, all the work is done by hand, with a pulley system to place the logs. (Christie Hemm Klok)Historically, fire helped fell the trees salmon needed. “Stream habitat evolved around fire for thousands of years,” said Ron Reed, a Karuk tribal member who is a cultural biologist and dipnet fisherman. But as the logging industry grew, so did wildfire suppression. Conservationists had to cut down some trees to create new logjams.  In the late 1990s, Mendocino Redwood and other logging companies began partnering with Trout Unlimited to restore coho back to the land they owned; soon, The Nature Conservancy and other groups, supported by state and federal grants, began restoring streams elsewhere in the region. Halligan noted that an “ecological system” of collaborators has sustained this work, directing millions of dollars to local contractors and rural economies.   But creating logjams is harder than clearing them. Projects initially went through the same state environmental permitting processes required for conventional logging projects, despite their substantially different goals. Some took more than a decade to see through.  Other challenges were more practical. “We learned very quickly,” said forester Chris Blencowe, who consults on Nature Conservancy and Trout Unlimited projects. Blencowe initially relied on second-growth redwoods but noticed that when they toppled into a streambed, they would “often just break like an overweight watermelon.” He’s since switched to Douglas fir for many of his projects.  Blencowe has also learned to wedge logs between standing trees so that the wood doesn’t wash away in the winter rains, as it did in the early years. The Nature Conservancy has come to rely on a machine that uses vibrations to sink logs into the sediment, since the sound of a power hammer could stun or kill nearby fish.  Even after 20 years, not everything goes according to plan. Van De Burgt said this unpredictability is a feature, not a bug: “We want to implement projects that create chaos in the river.” The more chaos, the more places young coho will have to live and survive—and the more coho will make their way downstream to the ocean.   The projects can benefit other salmon and steelhead species, too, as well as the streamside forests. Felling nearby second-growth trees for logjams “encourages understory plant relatives to grow,” Marisa McGrew, a Karuk and Yurok woman and assistant natural resources director for the Wiyot Tribe, said over email. “Stream restoration and forest restoration go hand in hand.” Bay Nature’s email newsletter delivers local nature stories, hikes, and events to your inbox each week. Sign up today! On the 10 Mile River in Mendocino County, biologists Lydia Brown and Evan Broberg insert PIT (Passive Integrated Transponder) tags into the underside of juvenile coho salmon, which allows them to track its growth for its lifetime. (Christie Hemm Klok)In the winter of 2023-2024, 15,000 coho salmon returned to spawn along the Mendocino coast, the highest number recorded by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in 16 years of monitoring the population. Last winter, according to preliminary estimates, that number nearly doubled. “I think we got the perfect alignment,” said Sarah Gallagher, who leads the agency’s monitoring program. Good ocean conditions, a reprieve from several years of drought, and hundreds of miles of restored streams have combined to foster a flush of coho.  Still, this recovering population represents a fraction of historic runs. Once, hundreds of thousands of coho returned to California streams each year. But chinook and steelhead continue to dwindle. In mid-April, the interstate Pacific Fishery Management Council extended its ban on ocean salmon fishing for a third year. And hundreds more miles of North Coast streams still need wood. “Sometimes, when you look at it on a map, it looks like we’ve barely done anything at all,” said Halligan of Trout Unlimited.  Even as this year’s population is tallied, its habitat’s future is uncertain. Earlier this year, the Trump administration proposed deep cuts to the budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, whose Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund has supported much of the restoration work along with Gallagher’s coho monitoring.  Meanwhile, Northern California conservationists are exploring alternatives, such as the $10 billion for climate resilience projects in Proposition Four, which California voters approved last November. With recovery underway, they’re determined to continue bringing coho back. The coho “are realizing this is their homeland where they were born,” Simmons said. “It seems like they’re trying to heal.”   Christie Hemm Klok is a San Francisco-based photojournalist. She is passionate about storytelling that highlights the relationship between nature and humans. This story is part of High Country News’s Conservation Beyond Boundaries project, which is supported by the BAND Foundation.  Water reflections on the Navarro River, in the dappled light of the forest. (Christie Hemm Klok)

Conservation
Nature
Climate

Can Peru Reboot Its Amazon Oil? Pollution Fallout and Local Opposition Loom

By Alexander VillegasSANTA ROSA, Peru (Reuters) -Near a remote bend of the Patoyacu River in Peru's northern Amazon, Wilmer Macusi stood atop a...

SANTA ROSA, Peru (Reuters) -Near a remote bend of the Patoyacu River in Peru's northern Amazon, Wilmer Macusi stood atop a rusty pipeline cutting through the jungle, swirling a branch in the pool of stagnant water surrounding it.“They say this is clean,” said Macusi, a 25-year-old Indigenous Urarina leader, pointing to the spot where an oil spill occurred in early 2023. “But if you move the water, oil still comes out.”Black droplets bubbled to the surface as plastic barriers meant to contain the spill drooped into the water. The pipeline links a nearby oilfield, Block 8, to the larger government-owned North Peruvian Pipeline (ONP). Macusi's community of Santa Rosa lies a short walk away.Peru’s northern Amazon holds hundreds of millions of barrels of crude, according to government data. But Indigenous groups say oil extraction over the past half-century brought pollution, not progress, and are opposed to a fresh wave of development.The region once pumped more than half of Peru's oil, peaking at about 200,000 barrels a day in the 1980s before environmental liabilities and community opposition drove production below 40,000 bpd. Key blocks went dormant in 2020.Now, the region's modest reserves are again central to state oil firm Petroperu's plans. The company has spent $6.5 billion upgrading its Talara refinery into a 95,000-bpd complex aimed at producing high-grade fuels for export. Heavily indebted with a CCC+ junk credit rating from ratings agency Fitch, Petroperu wants to revive Amazon oil output to supply Talara.The state firm estimated last month that proven and probable reserves in the region were worth $20.9 billion, which Petroperu said could deliver $3.1 billion in tax revenues for local governments and communities. While the amount of oil at stake is relatively small, the plans have fueled tensions over past spills, stoking Indigenous opposition at a time Brazil, Ecuador and Guyana are trying to expand their Amazon oil frontiers.Frustration about climate action and forest protection boiled over at the COP30 climate summit this week, when dozens of Indigenous protesters forced their way into the venue and clashed with security guards.Petroperu is also planning to import oil to the refinery by linking the 1,100-km ONP to neighboring Ecuador, which aims to boost production in its own Amazon region as part of a $47 billion oil expansion plan. Hailed as an engineering marvel when it was built in the 1970s, the ONP has since become a lightning rod for leaks, protests and sabotage. Indigenous groups in both countries are resisting the pipeline link-up.The government is weighing options for how best to run the pipeline, including through a joint venture or outsourcing its management.  Petroperu failed to attract an international partner to run its largest oilfield, Block 192, which produced more than 100,000 bpd at its peak but has recently been the focus of Indigenous protests demanding remediation for damage to the forest, soil and waterways.Petroperu's former chairman Alejandro Narvaez, who was fired last month, estimated Block 192 could produce at least 20,000 bpd with investment and overall Amazon production could hit 100,000 bpd.The state oil firm selected domestic firm Upland Oil & Gas to operate the block, but Peru's state oil regulator disqualified Upland last month on the grounds it did not demonstrate financial capacity. Upland disputes the decision and has asked for a review.Petroperu also partnered with Upland to revive production at the smaller Block 8, which produced 5,000 bpd last month.Upland's CEO Jorge Rivera, son of one of Peru's early oil prospectors, told Reuters that Upland has offered Indigenous communities training, jobs and funding."We've dedicated ourselves to understanding the complexities behind operating these fields,” he said.Rivera visited Santa Rosa in March, gifting a Starlink terminal and requesting a report on the community's needs.The community's main demand was the cleanup of the nearby spill, but questions remain over who bears responsibility.Though the operator is responsible for the 108-km stretch of pipeline that runs through Block 8 connecting it to the ONP, Upland's contract exempts it from liability for past pollution.The previous operator, an Argentine subsidiary named Pluspetrol Norte, was fined a record number of times by Peru's environmental regulator OEFA before it filed for liquidation and left the area in late 2020. Eight Indigenous federations and non-governmental organizations filed a complaint to the OECD's Dutch National Contact Point, a mechanism to implement OECD guidelines for businesses, which concluded in September that Pluspetrol had violated Indigenous communities' rights in Peru's Amazon and urged the company to address the environmental damage.In a response to Reuters, Pluspetrol said it already had complied with environmental and human rights regulations and that the NCP statement was "without merit" for not reflecting the "breadth and complexity of the evidence presented and the extent of actions taken by the company."  Decades of scientific research have found high levels of lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic in wildlife and Indigenous people living near Peru's oilfields. Estimated cleanup costs for Block 192 alone stand at $1.5 billion.OEFA registered over 560 environmental infractions including oil spills and others from the ONP or other oil infrastructure in Blocks 192 and 8 from 2011 through September 2025.Petroperu has said any damage is "temporary and reversible" and blamed unspecified "economic and rural-domestic activities" by local communities as the main driver of water pollution.In late 2023, Peru's prosecutor's office said it had broken up a network of businessmen, local Indigenous leaders and a Petroperu employee that it said was orchestrating oil spills to secure lucrative cleanup contracts.  In an interview with Reuters before his dismissal, Narvaez said Petroperu had prioritized cleaning up spills under the regulator's supervision.The government of Peru's interim President Jose Jeri, who took power last month, replaced Narvaez with Petroperu board vice president Fidel Moreno and said it will soon replace Petroperu's entire board of directors.Moreno did not reply to an interview request.Macusi said communities had yet to access a fund from Upland promising 2.5% of oil sales. Meanwhile, meetings with the oil regulator, Perupetro, to discuss funding for community projects have been delayed.After an oil spill from the Block 8 connector pipeline in 2022, Urarina communities held a strike, taking over oil facilities, fields and blockading a river to demand a better state response. Macusi, who as a teen worked hauling buckets of spilled oil, says communities are ready to take action again."If the promised benefits don't come soon, we'll take measures," he said.(Reporting by Alexander Villegas; Additional reporting by Marco Aquino; Editing by Nia Williams and Katy Daigle)Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

Pollution
Business
Forests

Malcolm Turnbull accuses Liberals of ‘Trumpian campaign against renewables’ after party dumps net zero

Climate groups call backflip a ‘disaster’ while moderate Liberals worry about impact on winning back urban electoratesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says his party’s decision to dump a net zero emissions target shows it “does not take climate change seriously”, accusing the opposition of “a Trumpian campaign against renewables”.But while moderate sources are alarmed about the impact on winning back or retaining urban electorates, and climate groups called the backflip a “disaster”, the Liberal decision to scrap its own 2050 target and unwind Labor’s 2035 and renewable energy pledges has been praised by conservative MPs and campaigners. Continue reading...

The former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says his party’s decision to dump a net zero emissions target shows it “does not take climate change seriously”, accusing the opposition of “a Trumpian campaign against renewables.”But while moderate sources are alarmed about the impact on winning back or retaining urban electorates, and climate groups called the backflip a “disaster”, the Liberal decision to scrap their own 2050 target and unwind Labor’s 2035 and renewable energy pledges has been praised by conservative MPs and campaigners.Turnbull, unseated by right-wing MPs in a 2018 party room coup partly over energy and climate policy, told Guardian Australia: “this is what happens when you outsource your policy development to Sky News and the right wing media echo chamber.”“The Liberals’ decision to abandon the 2050 net zero target will simply confirm to most Australians that the parliamentary party does not take climate change seriously and wants to join a Trumpian campaign against renewables,” Turnbull said.“No amount of nuance or qualifying footnotes will change that impression. They have the memory of goldfish and the dining habits of piranhas.”The move was warmly welcomed by right-wing campaign group Advance, which has pushed the Coalition to ditch net zero, including rallying its members to bombard Liberal MPs with messages. Advance’s director Matthew Sheahan emailed supporters to call the shift “a major victory in the fight to take back the country from the activists and elites.”Nationals leader David Littleproud claimed the Liberal policy “mirrors” his own party’s position and said he was optimistic about upcoming negotiations with Liberal MPs to settle a unified Coalition position.“We believe in climate change. We believe that we need to do something about it. That we should do our fair share,” he said.Liberal MP Leon Rebello told Guardian Australia the Coalition believed they had social licence to abandon the targets. Conservative Queensland MP, Garth Hamilton, called it a “great win from the backbench”.Hamilton, who has previously backed Andrew Hastie for the Liberal leadership, foreshadowed that immigration may emerge as the next contentious policy challenge.“I hope we deal with immigration a lot better,” he said.Environmental groups were aghast at the change. The Australian Conservation Foundation accused the Liberals of having “given up on climate action, caved to global fossil fuel giants and condemned Australians to” extreme weather events through climate change. Despite Ley saying the Liberals backed the Paris agreement’s intent to limit global temperature rises, the Climate Council said “walking away from net zero aligns with more than 3°C of global heating and would spell disaster for Australia’s climate, economy and household bills”.The shift is seen as a major internal victory for right-wing Liberal MPs over the moderate faction. Key moderates like Tim Wilson, Andrew Bragg, Maria Kovacic and Dave Sharma had raised alarm over the electoral repercussions of dumping the target.Jason Falinski, former Liberal MP and New South Wales branch president, had warned his party against going “Nationals-lite”. He told Guardian Australia on Thursday: “I look forward to understanding how this wins us more votes.”Charlotte Mortlock, founder of Hilma’s network, a group to recruit Liberal women, was scathing of the decision. She told ABC TV it would make it difficult for the party to win back inner metropolitan seats.“What I fear is the main takeaway is we are not taking climate change seriously,” she said.“The Coalition has a chequered history on climate… at the moment there might be movement around net zero and climate change, but you either believe in climate change and want to pursue net zero or you want to abandon it.”Multiple moderates told Guardian Australia they were broadly accepting of the position, which would “enable us to keep fighting” in metropolitan seats. One MP said moderates had negotiated in the meeting to keep the 2050 target, and while supportive of the position, described the result as “pretty brutal”.Others raised concerns the break in bipartisan support of net zero, and the Coalition’s promise to wind back Labor’s climate incentives, would impact investor confidence.Tony Wood, energy and climate change senior fellow at public policy think tank Grattan Institute, said business groups have been consistently calling for predictability and clarity around climate policy.“The idea that Australia would no longer have a clear direction in the long-term, but we’re just going to ‘follow everybody else’ is not very helpful for investors,” he said.“In what’s been proposed so far, I can’t see how it would reduce emissions, I don’t see how it would reduce prices either.”

Climate
Energy
Business

Building Apartment Projects Near Public Transit Helps Address Housing Crisis, Combat Climate Change

Quantavia Smith, who was often homeless for a decade, now has a studio apartment in Los Angeles with easy access to public transit

BOSTON (AP) — After years of living on the street and crashing on friends' couches, Quantavia Smith was given the keys to a studio apartment in Los Angeles that came with an important perk — easy access to public transit. The 38-year-old feels like she went from a life where “no one cares” to one where she has a safe place to begin rebuilding her life. And the metro station the apartment complex was literally built upon is a lifeline as she searches for work without a car.“It is more a sense of relief, a sense of independence," said Smith, who moved in July. She receives some government assistance and pays 30% of her income for rent — just $19 a month for an efficiency with a full-market value of $2,000. “Having your own space, you feel like you can do anything."Metro areas from Los Angeles to Boston have taken the lead in tying new housing developments to their proximity to public transit, often teaming up with developers to streamline the permitting process and passing policies that promote developments that include a greater number of units.City officials argue building housing near public transit helps energize neglected neighborhoods and provide affordable housing, while ensuring a steady stream of riders for transit systems and cutting greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the number of cars on the road.“Transit-oriented development should be one of, if not the biggest solution that we’re looking at for housing development,” said Yonah Freemark, research director at the Urban Institute’s Land Use Lab, who has written extensively on the topic. “It takes advantage of all of this money we’ve spent on transportation infrastructure. If you build the projects and don’t build anything around the areas near them, then it’s kind of like money thrown down the drain,” Freemark said. Transit housing projects from DC to LA The Santa Monica and Vermont Apartments where Smith lives is part of an ambitious plan by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to build 10,000 housing units near transit sites by 2031 — offering developers land discounts in exchange for affordable housing development and other community benefits.In Washington D.C., the transit authority has completed eight projects since 2022 that provided nearly 1,500 apartments and a million square feet of office space. About half were in partnership with Amazon, which committed $3.6 billion in low-cost loans and grants for affordable housing projects in Washington, as well as Nashville, Tennessee, and the Puget Sound area in Washington state. Almost all are within a half-mile of public transit. “Big cities face the greatest challenges when it comes to traffic congestion and high housing costs,” Freemark said. “Building new homes near transit helps address both problems by encouraging people to take transit while increasing housing supply.”Among projects Boston has built, the Pok Oi Residents in Chinatown is a 10-minute walk to the subway and a half-dozen bus stops. That's a draw for Bernie Hernandez, who moved his family there from a Connecticut suburb after his daughter got into a Boston university.“The big difference is commuting. You don’t need a car,” said Hernandez, who said he can walk to the grocery story and pharmacy. His 17-year-old daughter takes the subway to school. Now, his car mostly sits idle, saving him money on gas and time spent in traffic.“You get to go to different places very quickly. Everything is convenient," Hernandez said. States take aim at zoning regulations States from Massachusetts to California are passing laws targeting restrictive zoning regulations that for decades prohibited building multifamily developments and contributed to housing shortages. Last month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a state law allowing taller apartment buildings on land owned by transit agencies and near bus, train and subway lines. “Building more homes in our most sustainable locations is the key to tackling the affordability crisis and locking in California’s success for many years to come,” said State Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat who authored the bill.California joins Colorado, which requires cities to allow an average of 40 housing units per acre within a quarter-mile of transit, and Utah, which mandates about 50 units per acre. In Washington, the governor signed a bill this year allowing taller housing developments in mixed-use commercial zones near transit. “We want to ensure that there are mixed-income, walkable, vibrant homes all around those transit investments and that people have the option of using cars less to improve the environmental health of our communities,” said Democratic Rep. Julia Reed, who authored the Washington bill.“It’s about giving people the opportunity to drive less and live more." Housing takes center stage in Massachusetts Among her most potent tools is a 2021 law that requires 177 towns or communities nearby to create zoning districts allowing multi-family housing. The state provided nearly $8 million to more than 150 communities to help create these zones, while threatening to cut funding for those that don't. More than 6,000 housing units are in development as a result.“You put housing nearby public transit" Healey said. "It’s great for people. They can literally get up, leave their home, walk to a commuter rail and get to work.” Among the first to comply was Lexington, which has approved 10 projects, including a $115 million complex with 187 housing units and retail space.Walking past earth-moving equipment and dump trucks at the construction site earlier this year, project manager Quinlan Locke said: “This is a landscape yard. It’s commercial. It’s meant for trucking.” But, he added, in “two years from now, it’s going to be meant for people who live here, work here and play here. This is going to become someone’s home.” Opposition to zoning changes Some advocates argue the lofty goals of transit housing are falling short due to fierce local resistance and lack of funding and support at the federal and state levels. Higher mortgage interest rates, more government red tape, rising construction costs and lack of investment at transit stations also have contributed to a troubling trend — nine times more housing units built far from public transit versus near it in the past two decades, according to a 2023 Urban Institute study.In Massachusetts, 19 communities still haven't created new zones. Some unsuccessfully sued the state to halt the law, while residents rejected new zones in others. Lexington eventually shrank its zone from 227 acres to 90 acres after residents complained.“If we allow the state to come in and dictate how we zone, what else are they going to come in and dictate?” said Anthony Renzoni, a selectman from the town of Holden, which sued the state and is drawing up a new zoning map after residents rejected the first one.In Los Angeles, the six-story complex where Smith lives in East Hollywood is home to 300 new residents since opening in February. It's revitalizing the area around the metro site, with a Filipino grocery, medical clinic and farmers market opening early next year. Half the 187 units are reserved for formerly homeless residents like Smith, who had been living in a rundown motel paid for with a voucher and before that on the street. She's been assigned a case worker and is getting help with basic life skills, budgeting and finding work. Equally important: Smith, who can't afford a car, doesn't need one.“I’m very very fortunate to be somewhere where the transit takes me where I want to go,” she said. “Where I want to go is not that far.”Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

Crisis
Government
Land Use

Sicily deserves better than the looming prospect of a giant bridge that will never get built | Jamie Mackay

Troubled waters over the world’s longest suspension bridge are no surprise. The Italian government should be funding public servicesA dozen or so times each day, as Italy’s southbound Intercity rail service arrives in the Calabrian town of Villa San Giovanni, the journey comes to a dramatic halt. The train is decoupled from its tracks, carefully loaded on to the deck of a ferry, and secured in place. The entire cargo then eases out into the Strait of Messina en route to Sicily. Invariably, this 25-minute crossing becomes an impromptu community moment. Passengers abandon their carriages, flocking to the ship’s top-deck snack bar to share freshly fried arancini, trade anecdotes, and admire the vista over Mount Etna’s distant peak, before returning to continue their journey by rail.For tourists and itinerant visitors like myself, the ferry crossing is a charming novelty. For local people, however, it has long been a defining part of their identity. In his 1941 novel, Conversations in Sicily, the writer Elio Vittorini describes a group of fruit pickers congregating on the boat’s deck, feasting on large chunks of local cheese and enjoying the view. As the narrator joins them, he is transported to “being a boy; feeling the wind devouring the sea”, while gazing out at “the ruins along the two coasts”, separated, poetically, across the water.Jamie Mackay is a writer and translator based in Florence Continue reading...

A dozen or so times each day, as Italy’s southbound Intercity rail service arrives in the Calabrian town of Villa San Giovanni, the journey comes to a dramatic halt. The train is decoupled from its tracks, carefully loaded on to the deck of a ferry, and secured in place. The entire cargo then eases out into the Strait of Messina en route to Sicily. Invariably, this 25-minute crossing becomes an impromptu community moment. Passengers abandon their carriages, flocking to the ship’s top-deck snack bar to share freshly fried arancini, trade anecdotes, and admire the vista over Mount Etna’s distant peak, before returning to continue their journey by rail.For tourists and itinerant visitors like myself, the ferry crossing is a charming novelty. For local people, however, it has long been a defining part of their identity. In his 1941 novel, Conversations in Sicily, the writer Elio Vittorini describes a group of fruit pickers congregating on the boat’s deck, feasting on large chunks of local cheese and enjoying the view. As the narrator joins them, he is transported to “being a boy; feeling the wind devouring the sea”, while gazing out at “the ruins along the two coasts”, separated, poetically, across the water.Soon, though, this sentimental voyage may become a relic of the past. For the past few months, Italian officials have been in advanced talks to sign off on a new bridge connecting Sicily to the mainland. In August, the Italian government confirmed it will invest €13.5bn and commission the Webuild Group to begin construction. If it is ever built, it will be the longest single-span bridge in the world.The Sicilians I know are sceptical. After all, this is not the first time the Messina Bridge has been mooted, only to be shelved. While plans for the crossing date back to Roman times, the modern saga truly began in the late 1960s, when successive Italian governments championed the project as crucial for tackling regional inequalities. For the original architects, the bridge offered an obvious solution to the glaring infrastructure gap between the industrial north and the agricultural south. By closing that space, they reasoned, Sicily could finally attract the kind of international investment that other parts of Italy had long enjoyed.But the bridge has never materialised. Over the decades, hurdles such as seismic viability, environmental concerns, and the pervasive risk of mafia fraud have repeatedly halted the plans, making it seem impossible. Even a few months ago, when the government announced its “final” approval, my Sicilian friends told me they’d believe it when they saw it. They were right. Last month, Italy’s court of auditors blocked the project due to concerns about the legality of the financing, and at the time of writing, the project is frozen once again.In the meantime, an old public debate is re-emerging, which reveals a lot about Italian politics today. On one side are the pro-bridge advocates, who see the project as key to the future, pointing out that it would provide as many as 120,000 new local jobs per year and improve prospects for growth. On the other side are the protesters, from across the political spectrum, who dismiss pro-bridge advocates as nefarious opportunists concerned only with profit. For them, the bridge is synonymous with the shortsighted exploitation of the island.If you’ve ever been to Messina, you’ll know these vague ideological stances quickly rub up against reality. While the city’s life and culture are as exciting as anywhere on the island, Messina is unfortunately afflicted by some of the worst social problems in Italy. The local municipality is infamous for its financial mismanagement, characterised by mysterious losses of public funds and active criminal and civil court cases ongoing against various politicians, including two former mayors. Organised crime is prevalent, and cases of infrastructure-related fraud are already common among businesses, including those with interests in the Strait. Poverty is a huge problem. The health service is on its knees, and the school system is on the verge of collapse, suffering from some of the worst drop-out rates in the country.This reality makes the rhetoric of political proponents hard to swallow. Recently, Italy’s transport minister, Matteo Salvini, called the bridge “the most important public work in the world”, but he didn’t always feel this way. A decade ago, in fact, he was arguing the exact opposite. In a 2016 TV interview, which is now being widely reshared online in Italy, he judged the bridge unfeasible from an engineering standpoint and argued that regular closures due to the notoriously strong winds would render it useless. Given the state of public services in Sicily, he argued, spending billions on such a project would be a waste of money, and it would be better to dedicate such limited funds to bolstering local services.Ironically, the very arguments Salvini made in 2016 have only gained greater relevance as the effects of the climate crisis intensify. Over my years of taking the ferry, I’ve witnessed first-hand how the annual wildfires are getting worse. I’ve made small talk with local farmers on the ferry’s top-deck bar, watching flames lick the sky, illuminating the charred hillsides. I’ve heard accounts of the fatal spring and summer of 2024, when the province of Messina experienced its worst drought in decades. Crops failed, livestock died. Reservoirs ran empty and aqueducts began to fail. In some areas, tap water failed to arrive for days on end.Webuild presents the Messina Bridge as a historic opportunity. Residents, though, don’t seem to see it that way, and a recent survey indicates 70% are against the project. And you can see why: if you were living in a drought zone, would the prospect of having an estimated 15-20% of your local water supply diverted towards the project really seem like an opportunity? If you lived near the seafront, would you want years of noise, wildlife destruction and pollution, all for the eventual aim of a giant public work that is not guaranteed to benefit you? If you were one of the 4,000 people on either side of the Strait who would be forced to abandon their homes to demolition, would you be ready to pack your bags?skip past newsletter promotionSign up to This is EuropeThe most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environmentPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionSalvini has promised to respond to the court’s concerns and claims the government can still get construction started by February 2026. I, for one, hope he backs down. At a moment when the climate crisis is creating new emergencies and worsening an already dire economic situation, the bridge is simply not a priority. Sicilians are desperately in need of political investment in public services, of leaders who can inspire collective action to ensure government funds are properly spent. Until then, Sicilians remain defiant and continue to enjoy one of the world’s most spectacular ferry crossings: preferring conviviality and arancini to a costly steel panacea.

Government
Water
Climate

The world’s carbon emissions continue to rise. But 35 countries show progress in cutting carbon

In 2025 the world has fallen short, again, of peaking and reducing its fossil fuel use. But there are many countries on a path to greener energy.

Global fossil fuel emissions are projected to rise in 2025 to a new all-time high, with all sources – coal, gas, and oil – contributing to the increase. At the same time, our new global snapshot of carbon dioxide emissions and carbon sinks shows at least 35 countries have a plan to decarbonise. Australia, Germany, New Zealand and many others have shown statistically significant declines in fossil carbon emissions during the past decade, while their economies have continued to grow. China’s emissions have also been been growing at a much slower pace than recent trends and might even be flat by year’s end. As world leaders and delegates meet in Brazil for the United Nations’ global climate summit, COP30, many countries that have submitted new emissions commitments to 2035 have shown increased ambition. But unless these efforts are scaled up substantially, current global temperature trends are projected to significantly exceed the Paris Agreement target that aims to keep warming well below 2°C. These 35 countries are now emitting less carbon dioxide even as their economies grow. Global Carbon Project 2025, CC BY-NC-ND Fossil fuel emissions up again in 2025 Together with colleagues from 102 research institutions worldwide, the Global Carbon Project today releases the Global Carbon Budget 2025. This is an annual stocktake of the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide worldwide. We also publish the major scientific advances enabling us to pinpoint the global human and natural sources and sinks of carbon dioxide with higher confidence. Carbon sinks are natural or artificial systems such as forests which absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than they release. Global CO₂ emissions from the use of fossil fuels continue to increase. They are set to rise by 1.1% in 2025, on top of a similar rise in 2024. All fossil fuels are contributing to the rise. Emissions from natural gas grew 1.3%, followed by oil (up 1.0%) and coal (up 0.8%). Altogether, fossil fuels produced 38.1 billion tonnes of CO₂ in 2025. Not all the news is bad. Our research finds emissions from the top emitter, China (32% of global CO₂ emissions) will increase significantly more slowly below its growth over the past decade, with a modest 0.4% increase. Emissions from India (8% of global) are projected to increase by 1.4%, also below recent trends. However, emissions from the United States (13% of global) and the European Union (6% of global) are expected to grow above recent trends. For the US, a projected growth of 1.9% is driven by a colder start to the year, increased liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, increased coal use, and higher demand for electricity. EU emissions are expected to grow 0.4%, linked to lower hydropower and wind output due to weather. This led to increased electricity generation from LNG. Uncertainties in currently available data also include the possibility of no growth or a small decline. Fossil fuel emissions hit a new high in 2025, but the growth rate is slowing and there are encouraging signs from countries cutting emissions. Global Carbon Project 2025, CC BY-NC-ND Drop in land use emissions In positive news, net carbon emissions from changes to land use such as deforestation, degradation and reforestation have declined over the past decade. They are expected to produce 4.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2025 down from the annual average of 5 billion tonnes over the past decade. Permanent deforestation remains the largest source of emissions. This figure also takes into account the 2.2 billion tonnes of carbon soaked up by human-driven reforestation annually. Three countries – Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – contribute 57% of global net land-use change CO₂ emissions. When we combine the net emissions from land-use change and fossil fuels, we find total global human-caused emissions will reach 42.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2025. This total has grown 0.3% annually over the past decade, compared with 1.9% in the previous one (2005–14). Carbon sinks largely stagnant Natural carbon sinks in the ocean and terrestrial ecosystems remove about half of all human-caused carbon emissions. But our new data suggests these sinks are not growing as we would expect. The ocean carbon sink has been relatively stagnant since 2016, largely because of climate variability and impacts from ocean heatwaves. The land CO₂ sink has been relatively stagnant since 2000, with a significant decline in 2024 due to warmer El Niño conditions on top of record global warming. Preliminary estimates for 2025 show a recovery of this sink to pre-El Niño levels. Since 1960, the negative effects of climate change on the natural carbon sinks, particularly on the land sink, have suppressed a fraction of the full sink potential. This has left more CO₂ in the atmosphere, with an increase in the CO₂ concentration by an additional 8 parts per million. This year, atmospheric CO₂ levels are expected to reach just above 425 ppm. Tracking global progress Despite the continued global rise of carbon emissions, there are clear signs of progress towards lower-carbon energy and land use in our data. There are now 35 countries that have reduced their fossil carbon emissions over the past decade, while still growing their economy. Many more, including China, are shifting to cleaner energy production. This has led to a significant slowdown of emissions growth. Existing policies supporting national emissions cuts under the Paris Agreement are projected to lead to global warming of 2.8°C above preindustrial levels by the end of this century. This is an improvement over the previous assessment of 3.1°C, although methodological changes also contributed to the lower warming projection. New emissions cut commitments to 2035, for those countries that have submitted them, show increased mitigation ambition. This level of expected mitigation falls still far short of what is needed to meet the Paris Agreement goal of keeping warming well below 2°C. At current levels of emissions, we calculate that the remaining global carbon budget – the carbon dioxide still able to be emitted before reaching specific global temperatures (averaged over multiple years) – will be used up in four years for 1.5°C (170 gigatonnes remaining), 12 years for 1.7°C (525 Gt) and 25 years for 2°C (1,055 Gt). Falling short Our improved and updated global carbon budget shows the relentless global increase of fossil fuel CO₂ emissions. But it also shows detectable and measurable progress towards decarbonisation in many countries. The recovery of the natural CO₂ sinks is a positive finding. But large year-to-year variability shows the high sensitivity of these sinks to heat and drought. Overall, this year’s carbon report card shows we have fallen short, again, of reaching a global peak in fossil fuel use. We are yet to begin the rapid decline in carbon emissions needed to stabilise the climate. Pep Canadell receives funding from the Australian National Environmental Science Program - Climate Systems HubClemens Schwingshackl receives funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme and Schmidt Sciences.Corinne Le Quéré receives funding from the UK Natural Environment Research Council, the UK Royal Society, and the UK Advanced Research + Invention Agency. She was granted a research donation by Schmidt Futures (project CALIPSO – Carbon Loss In Plants, Soils and Oceans). Corinne Le Quéré is a member of the UK Climate Change Committee. Her position here is her own and does not necessarily reflect that of the Committee. Corinne Le Quéré is a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of Societe Generale. Glen Peters receives funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme.Judith Hauck receives funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, the European Research Council and Germany's Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space.Julia Pongratz receives funding from the European Horizon Europe research and innovation programme and Germany's Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space.Mike O'Sullivan receives funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, and the European Space Agency.Pierre Friedlingstein receives funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programmeRobbie Andrew receives funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme and the Norwegian Environment Agency.

Energy
Climate
Forests

MIT senior turns waste from the fishing industry into biodegradable plastic

Jacqueline Prawira’s innovation, featured on CBS’s “The Visioneers,” tackles one of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.

Sometimes the answers to seemingly intractable environmental problems are found in nature itself. Take the growing challenge of plastic waste. Jacqueline Prawira, an MIT senior in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE), has developed biodegradable, plastic-like materials from fish offal, as featured in a recent segment on the CBS show “The Visioneers with Zay Harding.” “We basically made plastics to be too good at their job. That also means the environment doesn’t know what to do with this, because they simply won’t degrade,” Prawira told Harding. “And now we’re literally drowning in plastic. By 2050, plastics are expected to outweigh fish in the ocean.” “The Visioneers” regularly highlights environmental innovators. The episode featuring Prawira premiered during a special screening at Climate Week NYC on Sept. 24.Her inspiration came from the Asian fish market her family visits. Once the fish they buy are butchered, the scales are typically discarded. “But I also started noticing they’re actually fairly strong. They’re thin, somewhat flexible, and pretty lightweight, too, for their strength,” Prawira says. “And that got me thinking: Well, what other material has these properties? Plastics.” She transformed this waste product into a transparent, thin-film material that can be used for disposable products such as grocery bags, packaging, and utensils. Both her fish-scale material and a composite she developed don’t just mimic plastic — they address one of its biggest flaws. “If you put them in composting environments, [they] will degrade on their own naturally without needing much, if any, external help,” Prawira says. This isn’t Prawira’s first environmental innovation. Working in DMSE Professor Yet-Ming Chiang’s lab, she helped develop a low-carbon process for making cement — the world’s most widely used construction material, and a major emitter of carbon dioxide. The process, called silicate subtraction, enables compounds to form at lower temperatures, cutting fossil fuel use. Prawira and her co-inventors in the Chiang lab are also using the method to extract valuable lithium with zero waste. The process is patented and is being commercialized through the startup Rock Zero. For her achievements, Prawira recently received the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, awarded to undergraduates pursuing careers in science, mathematics, or engineering. In her “Visioneers” interview, she shared her hope for more sustainable ways of living. “I’m hoping that we can have daily lives that can be more in sync with the environment,” Prawira said. “So you don’t always have to choose between the convenience of daily life and having to help protect the environment.”

Waste
Climate
Nature

A Flotilla Kicks off the People's Summit for Activists at UN Climate Talks

As United Nation climate talks get underway in Belem, a different kind of conference is kicking off: the People’s Summit, a gathering of activists, organizers, environmentalists and Indigenous groups from around the world

BELEM, Brazil (AP) — As United Nations climate talks rolled on Wednesday at the elaborate new venues built for the summit, many of the activists eager to shape the talks took to the water.Carried by scores of boats large and small, a vast group whooped and laughed, smiled and wept. Some splashed canoe paddles through the bay where a northern section of the Amazon rainforest meets the Atlantic Ocean. Others hugged old friends. They pressed their foreheads together or held hands or stood solemnly in moments of prayer and reflection.They were there to celebrate a community from around the world at a gathering of activists, organizers, environmentalists and Indigenous groups, outside the halls where world leaders are discussing climate change for the next two weeks. Their joy came after a brief but tense moment the night before when protesters broke through security barricades at the main conference venue, slightly injuring two security guards, according to the U.N.Many emphasized the importance of making the voice of the people heard after years of these talks being held in countries where civil society is not free to demonstrate.“The Amazon for us is the space of life,” said Jhajayra Machoa, an A'l Kofan First Nation of Ecuador member of A Wisdom Keepers Delegation, who helped paddle one of the canoes. “We carry the feeling and emotions of everything lived in this place, and what we want is to remember. Remember where we are from and where we’re going and what we want." Pressing world leaders to keep those who suffer most in mind The people who are attending the Conference of the Parties, or COP30, have a wide range of hopes for the outcome. This year is different than in past years, because leaders aren't expected to sign one big agreement at the end of it; instead, organizers and analysts have said it's about getting specifics to execute on past promises to act on climate change. “When we’re bridging what’s happening in the mind, when we talk about policy, we need to bridge to the heart, and touch our spirit when we do the work,” said Whaia, another member of A Wisdom Keepers Delegation, a Ngāti Kahungunu woman from New Zealand. “It takes both arms, both branches of the tree to really be strong, to be able to find our resilience in this space.” Activists welcome greater freedom to speak out The ability to express thoughts and feelings freely is a welcome respite for many arriving in Brazil after several years of these talks being held in countries where governments imposed limitations on free speech and demonstrations. The evolution that needs to happen for the world to take action is "not in the halls of the U.N. COP, but it’s in the streets and it is with our people,” said Jacob Johns, an Akimel O'Otham and Hopi member of A Wisdom Keepers Delegation who witnessed the security breach. Now is the time to come together, respect each other and reevaluate the systems that govern the planet, said Pooven Moodley of the Earthrise Collective, which brings together activists from different traditions. For him, the canoes seen in Wednesday's gathering are a metaphor for the situation the world is in with climate change.“The current canoe we’re in is falling apart, it’s leaking, people are being pushed over, and ultimately we’re heading for a massive waterfall. So the question is, what do we do, because we’re in that reality,” Moodley said. “We have to continue to defend the territories and the ecosystems that we can, but while we do that, we launch a new canoe.”The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

Activism
Climate

How Can Detroit Repair Past Harms? Reparations Recommendations Are In

Detroit’s Reparations Task Force has submitted its long-anticipated report of recommendations to the City Council for programs to repair harms and compensate Black residents for historically unjust city policies

Detroit’s Reparations Task Force, the first of its kind for the city, submitted its long-anticipated report of recommendations to the City Council.The task force, created through a 2021 voter-approved ballot initiative, recommends programs to repair harms and compensate African American residents for historically unjust city policies. Key proposals include cash payments and housing grants for eligible Detroiters, expanding African-centered education, firing “high-risk” police officers and ending water shutoffs for delinquent bills.Details of the report were shared with BridgeDetroit after it was submitted to the City Council at the end of October. The full document is available online here.The task force recommended three criteria to determine who is eligible to receive compensation through reparations programs: 1. A descendant of an African enslaved in the U.S. or in the diaspora3. A current resident of Detroit who has been a Detroit resident for at least 20 yearsThe task force documented “historical atrocities” inflicted on African American residents since before Detroit’s founding. Recommended policies are the culmination of dozens of meetings and hundreds of hours of discussion.“We have been guided as a Task Force by our understanding that the wealth and imperialist power of the United States may be attributed directly to profits generated by the enslavement of our ancestors – through the slave trade, chattel slavery, peonage, and prison labor,” the report states. “In colonial America and the United States, extraction of Black labor and the violence with which this extraction was conducted, ensured the accumulation of wealth by whites, so that their heirs today continue to enjoy economic security and prosperity.” The final product tackles a broad range of issues and suggests a multitude of new investments. Some changes are within the city’s power, like creating grants, while others require changes in state law, like ending qualified immunity for police. It’s unclear how much reparations programs would cost. The task force recommends finding revenue by creating a downtown entertainment tax, an additional fee on casino revenue and a $5 million fund for neighborhood corridor development. It also suggests clawing back tax breaks from developers that fail to meet benchmarks and creating a new fee on city contracts. A reparations administrative office is recommended to ensure accountability and long-term success. It would be overseen by an independent board of appointed residents and charged with administering reparations payments, establishing programs, tracking outcomes and coordinating public feedback. The task force was charged with suggesting policies, not implementing them. The City Council will decide what to do with the recommendations. Project Manager Evan Daugherty said the task force hopes to hold public discussions on the report but can’t take action without the City Council extending the task force. Their business ended Oct. 31, he said, though the council could ask members to stay on longer to roll out the recommendations to residents. Mayor-elect Mary Sheffield introduced legislation that established the reparations effort. Chief of Staff Brian White said Tuesday that her team is still reviewing the report. Detroit’s task force builds on decades of local advocacy from figures like “Reparations Ray” Jenkins and U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., who pushed for federal reparations. The report acknowledges reparations were historically paid to other groups, including Japanese Americans who were interred during World War II, Holocaust victims and even former slave owners. The city’s 2021 ballot initiative established a task force to suggest housing and economic development programs that address historic discrimination. Unlike past efforts, the task force is focused on seeking municipal reparations to repair harms caused by the City of Detroit. “The devastating consequence of Detroit municipal policies over the last 50 years has been the handing over of City governance to corporate control,” the report states. “There has been intensive development of the downtown core — to the neglect of traditional neighborhoods, and the concession of the people’s valuable assets, such as the Water and Sewerage Department and Belle Isle, to suburban and State interests.” The task force laments that city policies “reflect the same racial and political biases that characterized policies of previous eras” despite most city leaders being African Americans. It argues city leaders stood by as thousands of residents lost their homes through illegal overassessment and have not held corporations accountable for delivering benefits negotiated in tax abatement agreements.“Our City leaders have surrendered their authority to the corporate establishment and entities like the Detroit Downtown Development Authority, leaving the welfare of neighborhood communities unattended and underfunded,” the report states. “Now Detroit consists of two cities, one thriving, the other neglected and plundered.” Here’s a summary of recommendations: A reparations office would distribute housing grants worth up to $40,000 in down payment assistance and up to $30,000 for home repairs. The task force recommended building at least 1,000 new housing units for African Americans that are affordable for someone making 50% of the area median income ($35,350). It called for creating rent control policies and renovating vacant properties into shelters for unhoused residents. The task force wants to end the transfer of city-owned land to the Detroit Land Bank Authority and establish a new redevelopment program that prioritizes residents. The task force also wants to stop delinquent water bills from becoming a lien on property and eliminate sewage fees. The report recommends refunding African American property owners who lost homes to tax foreclosure with money from auction sales. It recommends freezing property taxes for residents who were overassessed by the city. The task force recommends providing up to $100,000 in grants for businesses displaced by urban renewal projects. It suggests creating other grants for co-ops, start-ups, grocery stores and community-based businesses. It recommends building 10 new commercial strip malls that provide five years of rent-free space for African American–owned businesses. Commercial areas should be designated as tax increment financing zones, according to the task force, allowing tax revenues to be reinvested within the zone. City contracts should give more preference to African American-owned businesses, according to the report. Recommendations call for free post-secondary training for skilled trades careers and online financial literacy courses. The report also calls for giving city-owned land to local farmers to support community food networks. Policing and law enforcement The task force proposed recommendations to address ongoing issues with police misconduct. It includes paying restitution to people injured or killed by police, ending qualified immunity, and firing “high risk” officers identified by the Detroit Police Department and officers who shoot unarmed citizens. The task force recommends hiring more Black residents at DPD and in local courts to better reflect the city’s racial demographics. It calls for adding staff to process citizen complaints against police officers and create a permanent archive for police body camera footage. The report calls for dissolving a DPD command center that monitors school campuses across the city. It also seeks to dismantle the “One Detroit” violent crime initiative, a partnership between local law enforcement and federal agencies like the DEA, AFT and FBI. The task force argued the partnership “represses citizens in an overlay of multiple surveillance and policing operations,” while city leaders credit it for decreasing violent crime. Funding should be increased for community violence intervention, DPD’s mental health co-response unit and other restorative justice programs, according to the report. Unaffordable water bills have caused residents to live in unsanitary conditions and lose their homes, according to the report. The task force calls for a moratorium on residential water shutoffs and a new affordability program that doesn’t charge residents more than 3% of their household income. The task force calls for renegotiating a $50 million annual lease with the Great Lakes Water Authority and the terms of its service agreement to create a more equitable cost-sharing scheme. The report highlights how Detroit pays 83% of sewerage system costs, while suburban residents pay 17%.Decades of disinvestment, state-imposed emergency management and racially biased funding formulas left the Detroit Public Schools Community District unable to meet the needs of its predominantly African American student population, according to the task force. Reparations school grants are recommended to fund STEM fellowships, free high-speed internet for students and other academic, athletic and mental health programs. The task force also suggested finding new uses for shuttered school buildings. The report recommends lobbying the state Legislature for funding to reduce class sizes, upgrade school infrastructure, hire more African American teachers and introduce educators to African-centered education. The task force aims to rebuild the foundations of health, environment and food access in neighborhoods.The report sets a goal for creating 100 acres of community-controlled agricultural land by 2035. It recommends creating a food sovereignty fund to support Black-owned grocers, co-ops, kitchens and food markets. The task force suggests dedicating vacant city land as food distribution centers and offering funding to grocers that open in food deserts. The task force recommends creating “environmental reparations zones” in polluted census tracts to coordinate environmental monitoring and clean up. Detroit’s high rate of asthma hospitalization and toxic air quality poses a major threat to the wellbeing of residents, according to the report. The task force hopes to cut emergency room visits due to asthma in half within a decade. Possible solutions include in-home air filters, ongoing air quality monitoring and creating buffer zones between homes and industrial facilities. The task force recommends creating an Office of African American Cultural Programs to support the arts. This includes historic preservation projects, grants for galleries and studios, plus efforts to rename public sites in honor of significant African American leaders. This story was originally published by BridgeDetroit and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

Business
Education
Food

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