News
Chemours and DuPont Knew About Risks But Kept Making Toxic PFAS Chemicals, UN Human Rights Advisors Conclude
A UN human rights panel calls on the UN Environment Assembly to take on “forever chemicals” at a meeting in Nairobi, citing a North Carolina PFAS plant as an example of environmental negligence.
By James Bruggers
In advance of a United Nations meeting next week where pollution is on the agenda, a U.N. human rights team has called out a PFAS manufacturing plant in North Carolina as a poster child for irresponsible behavior.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
State of Play
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”