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bill mckibben
COP30: 'A Real Opening for Quicker Progress'
Why it's not all bad news for Bill McKibben regarding the climate crisis. Five questions to one of the leading environmentalists in the US.
Nov 09, 2025
From November 10 to 21, the 30th Climate Change Conference, known as the Conference of the Parties, or COP, will take place in Belém, Brazil. Despite decades of climate diplomacy and many promises, annual greenhouse gas emissions have not only failed to be halted, but have continued to rise as the climate crisis worsens. The goal of keeping global warming below 1.5°C is already unattainable.
David Goeßmann: Why have the conferences failed, and what do you expect from the upcoming summit?
Bill McKibben: Look, climate change is a tough problem. It's caused by the same thing—fossil fuel—that undergirds the economy, and the fossil fuel industry is strong enough politically in many countries to make change hard (see America). But, as of the last few years, the price of solar and wind energy has fallen far enough that we have a real opening for quicker progress. I think that will start to be reflected in various national strategies.
David Goeßmann: US President Donald Trump has reversed the steps toward an energy transition initiated under the Biden administration, attacked all environmental protection, withdrawn from the Paris Agreement, and issued more than 300 new oil and gas drilling permits. That's the bad news. Is there any good news?
It's easier to get politicians to say yes to clean energy than no to dirty energy.
Bill McKibben: At the state level progress continues—Texas is the biggest clean energy player now. But it's not enough to offset the federal headwinds, so we're all fighting back as hard as we can.
David Goeßmann: How do you assess the climate movements worldwide? What are the strategies that should be focused on now?
Bill McKibben: I think the greatest possibility probably lies in the popularity and affordability of clean energy. It's easier to get politicians to say yes to clean energy than no to dirty energy (though both require hard work).
David Goeßmann: You talk about a “silent revolution” in terms of the global energy transition. What is driving it?
Bill McKibben: The cost of sun and wind power, and of batteries. These are supplying a third more power to the world this autumn than last. It took us 70 years to get the first terawatt of solar power, two years to get the second, and the third is now coming even faster.
David Goeßmann: You have been fighting for climate protection for decades. What gives you the hope and strength to continue?
Bill McKibben: Hey, lots of people are suffering badly, mostly in places that did nothing to cause climate change. If they can keep fighting, I guess I can too!
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Despite Trump-Musk Feud, CO2 Milestone Is the 'Important News of the Day'
Scientists said that atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations peaked above 430 parts per million for the first time in perhaps 30 million years.
Jun 06, 2025
The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere peaked above 430 parts per million in 2025—the highest it has been in millions of years—according to data released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego on Thursday.
The news was overshadowed by the explosive feud between U.S. President Donald Trump and his erstwhile backer Elon Musk, but climate activist Bill McKibben argued that it was ultimately more consequential.
"In the long run, this is actually going to be the important news of the day—CO2 in the atmosphere passes another grim milestone," McKibben wrote on social media.
In the long run, this is actually going to be the important news of the day--co2 in the atmosphere passes another grim milestone
[image or embed]
— Bill McKibben (@billmckibben.bsky.social) June 5, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Carbon dioxide has been accumulating in the atmosphere due primarily to the human burning of fossil fuels, as well as by the clearing of forests and other natural carbon sinks. There, it acts as a greenhouse gas, trapping heat from the Earth, and is the primary gas responsible for the rise of global temperatures by approximately 1.1°C from the 1850 -1900 average. This warming has already had a host of dramatic impacts, from extreme weather events to sea-level rise to polar ice melt, and scientists warn these impacts will only accelerate under current energy policies, which put the world on track for around 3°C of warming by 2100.
The last time that atmospheric CO2 concentrations topped 430 ppm was most likely more than 30 million years ago, Ralph Keeling, who directs the Scripps CO2 Program, told NBC News.
"It's changing so fast," he said. "If humans had evolved in such a high-CO2 world, there would probably be places where we wouldn't be living now. We probably could have adapted to such a world, but we built our society and a civilization around yesterday's climate."
"While largely symbolic, passing 430 ppm should be a wake-up call."
Scripps and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration both measure carbon dioxide levels from NOAA's Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, where Charles Keeling began taking measurements in 1958. As CO2 levels rise over time, they also follow a seasonal cycle—peaking in May before falling in the Northern Hemisphere summer and rising again in the fall.
This May, Scripps Oceanography calculated an average of 430.2 ppm for 2025, which is 3.5 ppm over the average for May 2024. NOAA's Global Monitoring Laboratory, meanwhile, calculated a monthly average of 430.5 ppm, a 3.6 ppm jump from the year before and the second-steepest yearly climb since 1958.
"Another year, another record," Keeling said in a statement. "It's sad."
The news comes two months after Mauna Loa daily measurements surpassed 430 ppm for the first time in March, which Plymouth Marine Laboratory professor Helen Findlay called "extremely disappointing and worrying."
"While largely symbolic, passing 430 ppm should be a wake-up call, especially given the accelerated response we are seeing of glaciers and ice sheets to current warming," Dr. James Kirkham, chief scientist of the Ambition on Melting Ice coalition of governments, said at the time.
"This upward trajectory is a direct result of continued fossil fuel use, likely exacerbated by emissions from extreme wildfires last year, methane leaks from fossil fuel extraction and possibly greater permafrost emissions, alongside decreased ability of very warm oceans to absorb CO2," Kirkham said.
The monthly record also comes a little more than a week after a United Nations report warned that there was a small chance global temperatures could surpass 2°C in at least 1 of the next 5 years, only a decade after world leaders pledged in the Paris agreement to keep global temperatures "well-below" that level.
"Carbon emissions are still rising, and the atmosphere is going to keep heating further until greenhouse gas concentrations stabilize," Matt Kean, who chairs Australia's Climate Change Authority, wrote in response to the Scripps and NOAA figures. "What sort of climate do we want to leave our children and those who come after them?"
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Global Climate Movement Mourns Passing of Pope Francis
"Pope Francis spoke plainly and with clarity about the climate crisis," said one environmental advocate.
Apr 21, 2025
The Monday passing of Pope Francis, the world's first Latin American pontiff, has prompted an outpouring of tributes for the spiritual leader—including from members of the environmental movement who remembered him as a champion of climate justice.
"If he could bring new hope and energy to an institution as hidebound as the Vatican, there was reason for all of us to go on working on our own hidebound institutions," wrote the environmental activist and author Bill McKibben on Monday, adding that Francis' passing had hit him hard.
Francis, 88, passed away from a stroke, followed by a coma and irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse, the Vatican announced.
He died a day after briefly meeting with U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Sunday morning. His annual Easter speech, which was read by a surrogate, included a condemnation of unnamed political leaders who use "fear" to oppress marginalized people including immigrants and refugees.
McKibben highlighted that Franceis brought "moral resolve to the question of climate change," including by making environmental issues the subject of his 2015 encyclical "Laudato Si'," which Mckibben called "arguably the most important piece of writing so far this millennium.
In Laudato Si', a papal letter, Francis called the climate crisis a global problem with grave consequences, particularly for the poor. It was the first papal letter exclusively focused on the environment, according to The New York Times. When The Paris Agreement, a global climate treaty, was adopted later that year, several leaders made specific reference to the pope's words about climate change during their addresses to the United Nations climate conference, per the Times.
The national nonprofit Catholic Climate Covenant paid tribute to Francis in a statement Monday, emphasizing the impact of Laudato Si', and writing that his "leadership and attention to 'the poorest of the poor' and our Common Home inspired and renewed not only our work but that of billions of people around the world."
Laudato Si' also spawned a global climate group, the Laudato Si' Movement, which has representation in 115 countries across five continents, according to its website. The group was previously called the Global Catholic Climate Movement.
"All around the world, you saw all of these people reading the encyclical, writing letters to the editor, posting on social media, forming discussion groups in their parishes," Rebecca Elliott, senior director for strategy and special projects at Laudato Si' Movement, told NPR.
According to Mauricio López Oropeza, a rector and lay vice president of the Amazon Ecclesial Network who spoke to the Times, one of the most important impacts of Laudato Si' has been the church's work in the Amazon basin.
Unhappy with the lack of progress in combating the climate crisis, Francis wrote a follow-up to Laudato Si' in 2023, "Laudate Deum."
"The necessary transition toward clean energy sources such as wind and solar energy, and the abandonment of fossil fuels, is not progressing at the necessary speed," he wrote in Laudate Deum.
He also directly called out the United States for being disproportionately responsible for planet-warming emissions.
"Pope Francis spoke plainly and with clarity about the climate crisis, correctly naming that the burning of fossil fuels only further exacerbates our peril and that the United States has a moral obligation to lead by example as the world's leading historical emitter," Sierra Club executive director Ben Jealous said Monday.
In addition to his stance on the environment, Francis also loosened official church attitudes toward divorce and approved non-wedding blessings of same-sex couples, among other actions generally viewed as progressive.
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