This Week's Climate Policy Update

Continuing the Biden administration's whole-of-government approach to addressing climate change, the White House Council on Environmental Quality issued its Guidance on Consideration of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate Change to assist federal agencies' climate impact assessments and disclosures. Moreover, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a proposed rule to slash soot emissions. On the local level, the North Carolina Utilities Commission issued its Carbon Plan outlining a path to achieve a 70 percent reduction in carbon emissions from 2005 levels by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050. Finally, a United Nations study concluded that efforts to repair the ozone layer are working and that—at the current rate—the atmospheric shield may recover to its 1980s levels by the 2040s.