Julia Simon Julia Simon is the Climate Solutions reporter on NPR's Climate Desk.
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Julia Simon

Julia Simon

Climate Solutions Reporter, Climate Desk

Julia Simon is the Climate Solutions reporter on NPR's Climate Desk. She covers the ways governments, businesses, scientists and everyday people are working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. She also works to hold corporations, and others, accountable for greenwashing.

Simon is a longtime contributor to NPR News and programming, including the Science, International and Business desks, as well as NPR's climate coverage. She has also reported for several NPR podcasts, including Planet Money, The Indicator, Rough Translation, Short Wave, Life Kit and Code Switch, and has done investigations for CIR's Reveal. She began her career at the BBC Cairo bureau and has worked as an energy reporter at Reuters.

Simon lived in and reported from Egypt, Indonesia and Nigeria, where she was a Fulbright Fellow covering the oil sector. She has reported for NPR on the tree math of carbon offsets and how misinformation is derailing renewable energy projects across the U.S., and has traveled deep into the Sumatran rainforest in search of climate solutions.

As a guest host for Planet Money, she's taken listeners on adventures to explain key parts of the global economy. Simon followed stolen oil from Nigeria to Togo to Long Island, found gold and staked a claim to explain America's 150-year-old mining law and, along with Planet Money's Kenny Malone, visited an old oil boom town to explain the history of antitrust. The antitrust series was a 2020 finalist for the Gerald Loeb award.

Simon is a graduate of the University of Chicago and studied international energy and climate change as a KSP scholar at the Sciences Po in Paris. She speaks and reports in Egyptian Arabic, Spanish, French and Indonesian.

Story Archive

Thursday

More than 2,400 fossil fuel representatives and lobbyists have been accredited for the U.N. climate talks in Dubai — a record. Meanwhile, negotiators are wrestling with calls to end all new oil, gas and coal projects to curb climate change. Giuseppe Cacace/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Giuseppe Cacace/AFP via Getty Images

A record number of fossil fuel representatives are at this year's COP28 climate talks

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Tuesday

ExxonMobil CEO, Darren Woods, speaks at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Week in San Francisco on Nov. 15, 2023. Oil companies have a big platform at the ongoing COP28 climate conference in Dubai, and experts say their language is important because it can make it into policy. Woods, for example, attended COP28, the first time an ExxonMobil CEO has gone to the gathering. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Oil companies are embracing terms like 'lower carbon.' Here's what they really mean

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Monday

What the fossil fuel industry is saying in this year's climate talks

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Tuesday

The developing world needs much more than $100 billion to cope with climate change

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Monday

Wind turbines generate electricity off the coast of England. World leaders will meet later this week in Dubai to discuss global efforts to reduce emissions of planet-warming pollution and transition to renewable energy sources. Frank Augstein/AP hide caption

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Frank Augstein/AP

Monday

The USFS is proposing changing a rule that would allow the storage of carbon dioxide pollution under national forests and grasslands. It's controversial. Julia Simon/NPR hide caption

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Julia Simon/NPR

The U.S. has a controversial plan to store carbon dioxide under the nation's forests

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Friday

Tuesday

A UN gathering on addressing plastic waste draws a variety of voices

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Monday

People work at a landfill in India that's full of plastic bags. Members of the United Nations are negotiating a treaty that's aimed at cutting plastic pollution globally. Shammi Mehra/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Shammi Mehra/AFP via Getty Images

The world is awash in plastic. Oil producers want a say in how it's cleaned up

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Monday

The government may store carbon dioxide under the nation's forests

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Wednesday

LEFT: Ida Tarbell, photographed between 1905 and 1945. RIGHT: Robert Bork in 1987. Harris & Ewing/Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division/Associated Press hide caption

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Harris & Ewing/Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division/Associated Press

Antitrust in America, from Standard Oil to Bork (classic)

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Sunday

Michael Brilliot, deputy director for citywide planning for San Jose, Calif., is building urban villages — with a mix of apartments and amenities nearby. He says it's the city's version of 15-minute cities. Most of San Jose is dominated by single-family neighborhoods that aren't so dense. Julia Simon/NPR hide caption

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Julia Simon/NPR

Saturday

2023 had the hottest September in 174-year record

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An aerial view of a stuck boat on a dried out lake in Bolivia. A new report finds that September 2023 was the hottest September on record. South America - which is coming out of its winter - also saw record high temperatures. Gaston Brito Miserocchi/Getty Images hide caption

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Gaston Brito Miserocchi/Getty Images

Thursday

ExxonMobil makes a $60 billion oil deal, doubling down on fossil fuels

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Sunday

The '15-minute city' could limit global warming — if it can counter misinformation

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Carlos Moreno, a Franco-Colombian urbanist, has been helping spread the idea of 15-minute cities — where people can access key things in their life within a short walk, bike ride or transit ride of their home. But the climate solution is seeing huge challenges, including conspiracy theories. Julia Simon/NPR hide caption

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It's a global climate solution — if it can get past conspiracy theories and NIMBYs

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Thursday

Getty Images

People working on climate solutions are facing a big obstacle: conspiracy theories

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Monday

Trees and other plants help keep cities cooler. In New York City, scientists are working to understand how to maximize the benefits of urban green spaces. Here, residents gather in Brooklyn Bridge Park on a hot summer night. Ryan Kellman/NPR hide caption

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Ryan Kellman/NPR

Climate solutions are necessary. So we're dedicating a week to highlight them

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Tuesday

The waters of the Ha' Kamwe' hot springs are healing and sacred, says Ivan Bender, the caretaker of the Cholla Canyon Ranch, which belongs to the Hualapai Tribe. Less than a hundred yards away, an Australian mining company called Arizona Lithium has been exploring for lithium. Julia Simon/NPR hide caption

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The U.S. needs minerals for green tech. Will Western mines have enough water?

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Saturday

Mines for climate-friendly technologies face growing water scarcity in the West

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Monday

Researchers say that advanced transmission technologies could help the existing grid work better. But some of these tech companies worry about getting utilities on board - because of the way utilities make money. Julia Simon/NPR hide caption

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Saturday

A hurricane off Mexico's coast will bring a tropical storm watch to Southern California

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Sunday

Researchers say that advanced transmission technologies could help the existing grid work better. But some of these tech companies worry about getting utilities on board - because of the way utilities make money. Julia Simon/NPR hide caption

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Why lasers could help make the electric grid greener

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