Illustration: Kate Prior
Climate Politics
The Biden Administration Is Fighting Smugglers of a Potent Greenhouse Gas
Since the start of this fiscal year alone, Customs and Border Protection agents have confiscated 211,000 metric tons of planet-warming chemicals.
The Biden administration has launched a new initiative to crack down on smugglers at US borders and ports. The concern isn’t drugs or counterfeit goods, though; it’s a refrigerant that’s also a dangerous greenhouse gas.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other agencies are arming themselves with new weapons — like AI tools that can pick out suspicious shipments — and rethinking ways of teaming up to combat the threat.