Julia Simon

The 55 countries here include oil and gas producers like Canada, Australia and Nigeria.

The world's largest oil and gas producer, the US, is not here.

Julia Simon, NPR News, Santa Marta, Colombia.

This is NPR.

For 30 years, countries have come together for United Nation climate conferences.

But fossil fuel producers such as Saudi Arabia have historically held up conversations about transitioning away from oil, gas and coal.

Burning fossil fuels is the single biggest driver of climate change.

This conference is explicitly dedicated to figuring out how to make the transition to technologies like renewable energy and batteries sustainable.

The energy crisis brought on by the war in Iran gives even more motivation, some participants tell NPR.

The 55 countries here include oil and gas producers like Canada, Australia, and Nigeria.

The world's largest oil and gas producer, the U.S., is not here.

Julia Simon, NPR News, Santa Marta, Colombia.

Made up of outside scientists, the Science Advisory Committee is tasked with providing independent advice to EPA's administrator.

The members summarize the best available science to help inform the agency's policy.

For example, they help provide guidance on air quality standards, which regulate the country's air pollution.

Several of the new board's 37 members come from industry.

One is an employee of Dow Chemical.

Two employees come from Chemours, a chemical company that spun off from DuPont.

ExxonMobil Biomedical Sciences is also represented on the board.

The other scientists come from universities across the country.