漫步在有着中国“新能源汽车第一城”之称的深圳街头，你不会错过停放在路边的大量新能源汽车，以及宣传“绿色低碳”生活方式的标语。
深圳是一座紧邻香港的城市，有着1800万人口。这座城市因40多年前成为中国的改革开放试验田而闻名。
如今，它在碳减排方面也走在前列，是中国“低碳城市”建设的“试点”地区之一。
深圳是中国首个将公交车、出租车和网约车全部实现电气化的城市。2024年，深圳新车销量中有约77%为新能源汽车，远高于48%的全国平均水平。
深圳还率先设立了碳排放总量控制机制，推动“能耗双控”向“碳排放双控”转型——这比全国层面出台碳排放总量控制政策更早。
此外，深圳的地方性碳排放权交易市场（ETS）和“绿色债券”也都早于国家层面推出。
尽管深圳在碳减排领域很早就采取了措施，但一些专家对Carbon Brief表示，深圳的政策——这被当地政府称为“深圳模式”——很难在中国其他进行低碳转型的城市复制。
Carbon Brief回顾了深圳在低碳转型方面迄今为止所做的努力，并评估了其减排成效。
电动交通
官方智库中国（深圳）综合开发研究院财税贸易与产业发展研究中心主任韦福雷对Carbon Brief表示，深圳的低碳转型并非一蹴而就，而是建立在早期规划、政府支持和市场驱动相结合的基础上。
深圳的低碳转型始于21世纪初，当时该市的空气重污染天数达到峰值。
BBC新闻2017年的一篇报道称，经过十年的污染治理，深圳的空气污染程度“下降了近一半”。
报道称，这一成果很大程度上源于其“产业基础”的改变，也使深圳成为全国首批“低碳城市”之一。
这一时期，当地官员们制定了“低碳发展”战略，其中包括培育一批“战略性新兴产业”，如“信息通信技术”。这些产业后来为深圳包括新能源汽车行业在内的低碳行业提供了核心技术支持。
例如，目前全球领先的电动汽车巨头比亚迪，正是在这样的背景下诞生于深圳的。
韦福雷指出：“有了这种‘产业基因’，深圳只需把产业链重新梳理一遍，，就能快速满足新能源汽车行业（在2020年代）的新需求。”
尽管人口仅占全国约1%，但2025年深圳地方“两会”上的政府工作报告显示，该市在2024年的新能源汽车产量占到全国的22%。
报告同时称，深圳将在未来一年启动大约100个“气候投融资项目”，计划新增“绿色贷款”约1800亿元人民币（约合240亿美元）。
能源与清洁空气研究中心（CREA）分析师和中国团队负责人沈昕一对Carbon Brief说，深圳地方政府在扶持新兴产业方面经验丰富。
她说：“20年前，风电、太阳能发电，以及电动汽车，都还是需要大量投资和技术研发的新兴行业……当时的失败风险很高，但深圳市政府敢于推出很多创新政策加以扶持。”
新能源汽车企业的迅猛发展带动本地市场中新能源汽车占比持续上升。除了国家层面的补贴，地方政府也在生产和消费两端给予有力支持。
2024年，深圳销售的新车中约77%为新能源汽车，远高于48%的全国平均水平。
此外，深圳还率先实现了本市公交车、出租车和网约车全部电气化，是中国首个做到这一点的城市。
伦敦大学学院（UCL）可持续基建、经济与金融学讲师郑赫然向Carbon Brief指出，“更环保的交通车队”加快了深圳的低碳转型步伐，因为一座城市的低碳转型主要依赖两个关键方面——“交通转型”和“产业脱碳”。
他说：“一个城市在碳减排上的政策工具其实有限，但它可以推动更绿色的交通。比如，伦敦设立了超低排放区，鼓励人们使用公共交通和更清洁的车辆。城市也可以推动产业升级和减排，但这更难做到，因为很少有城市愿意放慢经济增长的步伐。”
郑赫然表示，深圳“与中国一些煤矿城市不同”，在产业转型方面具有“优势”，这使其可以设定“更具雄心”的排放目标。
碳控机制
中国将能源强度和碳强度（即单位国内生产总值GDP的能源使用量和排放量）作为其气候政策的关键指标。
此外，自2016年以来，中国一直实行“能耗双控”机制，即同时控制能源消费强度和能源消费总量。但中国政府已经宣布将在2024年起转向“碳排放双控”机制。
新机制将对二氧化碳排放总量设定约束性上限，并将成为2030年后的主要目标，而2030年前的主要指标——碳强度——将逐渐成为次要目标。
在这一领域，深圳依然是先行者。据“对话地球”（Dialogue Earth）报道，早在2023年，深圳就已成为中国首个明确承诺实行“（碳排放）双控机制”的城市。
为此，深圳市在2023年发布了两份《实施方案》，同时设定了市级碳排放总量控制目标。
与国家层面的方案相比，深圳在进程上更具雄心，其目标是在2025年建立起市级“碳排放双控”机制，并计划于2026年至2030年“全面实施”。
其中一份方案提出：“力争到2028年实现深圳碳市场制造业基本采用碳排放双控方式开展配额分配工作……力争到2030年实现市场调节能力显著提升。”
深圳还计划到2025年底，将能源强度在2020年的基础上降低14.5%，高于同期全国13.5%的目标。
郑赫然表示，深圳的这些目标是“量力而行的”。他解释道：“（就中国整体而言）碳减排主要集中在三个领域——钢铁、水泥和电力。深圳没有大型钢铁或水泥产业，因此只需将重心放在电力领域……而且它也不属于化石燃料城市，不位于供应链上游，无需担心煤炭开采等业务。深圳的产业结构主要以‘高附加值’行业为主，比如科技和新能源汽车，这些行业的碳排放更容易削减。”
“此外，深圳是科技中心，很多高碳排企业已搬到周边城市，比如汕尾。这就是所谓的‘排放外包’，受益于此，深圳的绿色转型面临的障碍更少。”
去年，郑赫然和同事在《自然》杂志上发表了一篇有关中国城市间碳排放外包的研究，指出“一些城市从其他城市的碳减排成果中获得大于其自身的收益”，并建议政策制定者正视其影响。
他还指出，深圳与其他城市相比还有一个“巨大差异”：“深圳拥有自己的核电站”，而这对深圳实现电力转型具有“重要”意义。电力行业是深圳在当前低碳转型中需要着力的最后一环。
低碳能源
根据2021年的一份报告，大亚湾核电站是深圳“最大的本地电力来源”，总装机容量达6.1吉瓦（GW）。
2021年，核电在深圳总发电量中的占比达到35%。
这也拉高了深圳的低碳能源使用水平。2024年，深圳一次能源消费中约47%来自清洁能源。
对深圳而言，核能发电量远超其他并入城市电网的清洁能源来源。市政府在2025年工作报告中提到，当前本地太阳能发电装机容量约为1吉瓦，风电装机并未被提及。
《深圳市应对气候变化“十四五”规划》写道，由于本地能源资源匮乏，加之风电、光伏“受土地和资源限制”，可再生能源的增长空间“有限”。
与此同时，深圳对外来电力的依赖程度也非常高——约七成的用电从外部进口。
这种依赖限制了深圳对电力行业碳排放的掌控，也给本地电网在用电高峰期的调度带来压力。
2024年，中国批准在毗邻深圳的惠州建设更多核电机组。
根据2022年一份研究报告，深圳市政府计划“到2025年将天然气、核能和可再生能源在能源结构中的总占比从当前的77%提升至90%，远高于全国52%的平均水平”。
郑赫然表示，“深圳与邻近的香港非常相似，香港的能源转型也不依赖太阳能和风能的建设”。
他补充说，深圳和香港应充分发挥自身作为“金融城市”的优势，以实现可持续的能源转型。
“绿色金融”
韦福雷表示，深圳一直善于利用“市场机制”，“在政府支持与市场驱动之间”成功找到平衡。其中，企业“担任主力角色，承担了90%的工作”，政府只在必要时出手干预。
在政府干预较少的情况下，深圳早在2013年就成为全国首批建立碳排放权交易市场“试点”的七个省市之一，远早于2021年全国碳市场的上线。
和全国层面的碳市场类似，深圳的本地碳市场并不以绝对排放量为基准，而是根据企业的排放强度（即单位产值的碳排放量），为企业分配可交易的排放配额。
深圳本地的碳排放权交易市场启动时覆盖了全市约38%的碳排放量。国际碳行动伙伴组织（ICPA）在一份报告中指出，这一比例到2020年已经提升至50%，并将进一步扩大。深圳还宣布将从2027年起为碳排放设置“绝对上限”。
（目前，国家层面的碳市场也未设置排放总量上限，但这也将在未来有所改变。）
不过，咨询公司ClearBlue Markets分析师秦炎对Carbon Brief说，虽然深圳碳排放权交易市场的覆盖范围还在扩大，但许多试点地区的碳排放权交易市场正在“收缩”，因为越来越多企业选择退出地方市场，转而加入国家碳市场。
国际碳行动伙伴组织的研究也发现，自2019年深圳碳排放权交易市场“向国家市场过渡”以来，发电已不再被纳入深圳碳排放权交易市场。
尽管如此，秦炎强调，这些地方试点“仍是一个重要的试验田，为国家碳排放权交易市场的成功落地铺平道路。（它们）会继续存在，覆盖中小企业以及国家市场尚未涉及的行业”。
国际碳行动伙伴组织称，截至2022年，深圳的地方碳排放权交易市场涵盖了水利、燃气、供热、制造业和交通等多个行业。
根据《深圳商报》报道，截至2024年，深圳已拥有全国最大的地方碳排放权交易市场，年交易量连续多年居全国首位。
与此同时，深圳也在“绿色金融”领域积极布局，将私人投资引入市场。
2021年，深圳在香港发行了中国首支面向海外市场的“绿色政府债券”，并出台了中国首部地方性“绿色金融法规”。国际绿色金融研究所（International Institute of Green Finance）在一份对该立法的评估中指出，其为规范“绿色市场”提供了“坚实的制度保障”。
相比之下，中国的首支主权绿色债券自2025年4月起才向国际买家发行。
深圳还推出了多种“绿色金融”产品。据官媒《经济日报》报道，2024年上半年，沪深两地交易所内新能源、新能源汽车及其他环保相关行业公司的市值达约4.6万亿元人民币（约合6,330亿美元）。
不过，郑赫然表示，“绿色债券”的效果“很难评估”。他说：“有很多项目，比如污水处理，也可以被归入‘绿色债券’的范畴。”
据官媒中央电视台报道，深圳2021年发行的“绿色债券”涵盖了“普通公办高中建设、城市轨道交通和水治理”等项目。
郑赫然表示，这些项目虽然在一定程度上与提高能效有关，但它们对碳减排的直接影响仍“有限”。
他补充说，市场引导在一座城市的低碳转型中“不可或缺”，但“目前尚无关于绿色金融产品在减排方面能发挥多大作用的研究”。
沈昕一则指出，“金融工具”在支持低碳转型方面仍发挥着重要作用。
她说：“低碳产业的成本往往高于化石燃料相关行业……通过政策支持和金融工具，才能够规模化，成本才能够降下来。”
“深圳模式”
深圳地方政府和媒体将深圳在气候领域取得的成就誉为“深圳模式”，意在其可以被推广到其他地区。
深圳市生态环境局党组成员许化表示，在去年的联合国气候变化大会（COP29）上，这一模式“向世界展示了成果”：“一是持续完善顶层设计，坚持立法先行，构建政策体系……二是聚焦重点领域转型升级……将新能源、安全节能环保等战略性新兴产业纳入重点产业集群，培育赋能……三是坚持开放共享，探索绿色低碳发展新路径。”
许化补充说，深圳的“绿色发展水平走在全国前列”，截至2023年底，深圳的“万元GDP能耗、水耗、碳排放分别降到了全国平均水平的1/3、1/8和1/5”。
不过，沈昕一指出，深圳的发展路径并非完全“可复制”，因为“深圳抓住了时代的机遇”。
她对Carbon Brief说：“比如，深圳的产业链优势和技术工人的聚集，给其高端制造业提供了很好的基础。”
郑赫然也认同这一观点。他认为，深圳只能代表中国一种特定类型的城市。
“深圳就像中国的硅谷，在高端科技领域投入巨大。它只能代表一线城市这一（特定）类别的中国城市，比如北京、上海、广州。中国有三百多个城市，每个城市都面临着独特的转型形势。依赖煤炭的工业城市照搬深圳的做法并不现实。”
与此同时，中国的其他城市也开始探索各自的可持续发展之路。
苏州建成了中国首批低碳工业园区试点之一的苏州工业园区。当地还建立了“市场化碳普惠交易体系”，鼓励居民和中小企业“自愿”参与碳排放交易。
据新华社报道，天津也与新加坡开展合作，“探索城市绿色低碳发展路径”。
沈昕一表示，其他城市必须“因地制宜地制定策略”。这种理念也体现在国务院于2023年发布的《新时代的中国绿色发展》白皮书中。
该文件指出，地方政府要“依托资源环境禀赋和产业发展基础……充分发挥各地区比较优势。”
The post 解读：何为中国城市低碳转型的“深圳模式”？ appeared first on Carbon Brief.
The UK has abandoned projects worth tens of millions of pounds that were meant to help protect Congo rainforests and support local people.
Together, these initiatives would have made up around half of the £200m that the UK pledged to support conservation in the Congo basin – the world’s second-largest rainforest.
When it hosted COP26 in Glasgow, the UK led a new initiative to end forest loss, which included a collective pledge by 12 donors of “at least” $1.5bn (£1.1bn) for Congo rainforest nations by 2025.
Development minister Jenny Chapman revealed last week that, as of 2024, the UK had only provided £39.8m towards this goal.
Alongside the US and much of Europe, the UK has significantly cut its aid budget in recent years, leading to much of its Congo rainforest spending being cancelled or reappraised.
The government says it still plans to “prioritise” rainforest regions, including the Congo basin, but civil society groups and MPs are concerned about the lack of “ring-fenced” forest funding in the UK’s new aid strategy.
COP pledge
At COP26, the UK – led by then prime minister Boris Johnson – launched the “Glasgow leaders’ declaration”, with a goal to “halt and reverse forest loss” by 2030. This was backed by more than 140 nations.
The UK also made various funding pledges, including £200m to protect the Congo basin, £350m for tropical forests in Indonesia and “up to £300m” for the Amazon.
These commitments target the world’s three largest rainforests, all of which face major forest loss due to threats such as agriculture, logging and climate change.
The Congo basin is the planet’s largest forested carbon sink. Yet, its six host nations are among the poorest in the world and face significant funding barriers.
This has global ramifications. An official UK assessment warned that “degradation or collapse” of the Amazon or Congo rainforests “threaten UK national security and prosperity”.
Forest cuts
Following successive aid cuts introduced by both the Conservative and then Labour governments – tracking a global trend – the UK’s Congo funding is under threat.
The Congo basin forest action programme (CBFA) was launched by the UK at COP27. It was explicitly set up to provide “roughly half” of the UK’s £200m Congo pledge.
CBFA set out to “empower central African nations”, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with support for “community forests” and other measures to curb forest loss.
Now, after reporting delays, the UK has slashed the CBFA as part of the Labour government’s recent aid cuts, intended to free up money for defence spending.
Its original £90m budget has now been reduced to £18.8m. Government data shows that £15m of this has already been spent.
This is not the only Congo project that has been dropped due to this latest round of aid cuts.
The Congo part of the biodiverse landscapes fund – championed by the previous government and worth at least £12.3m – has been closed, just two years into its seven-year schedule.
Government documents reveal more Congo forest funding is at risk as the UK scales back its aid budget, including the UK’s two largest remaining projects in the region.
One initiative, intended to “incubate forest-friendly enterprises” in DRC, faces “reduc[ed] budgets”. Officials working on the other, while more optimistic, reported that the project may be forced to operate in fewer countries as the cuts set in.
Documents also reveal the difficulties that come when operating in the Congo, including “complex political economies” and, in Gabon, a military coup – which “complicated matters”.
‘Breaking promises’
Damian Fleming, a senior director of forests at WWF International tells Carbon Brief:
“Tropical forest countries are making long-term policy and development choices in expectation that international partners will honour their commitments.”
In a series of recent parliamentary responses, Chapman revealed that the UK had only spent £39.8m on Congo forest finance, as of 2024. (She declined to provide any information on the Indonesia and Amazon regional goals.)
Despite being presented as the UK’s “contribution” to the £1.1bn-by-2025 global goal agreed at COP26, the £200m target has a deadline of 2029.
Therefore, while the collective goal has been met, the UK’s contribution so far has been relatively small.
Zac Goldsmith, a former Conservative minister who oversaw the forest targets at COP26, tells Carbon Brief that, in his view, the UK has “discarded” its regional pledges:
“We have gone from being perhaps the leader on protecting nature internationally to breaking promises to countries around the world for whom the environment is an existential issue.”
Future targets
The Labour government says it has met the five-year “climate finance” target of £11.6bn that expires this year.
Ministers also say the government has met “and exceeded” the £3bn and £1.5bn sub-goals for “preserving nature” and forests, respectively, within the £11.6bn. These are the funding streams that include support for the Congo basin and other rainforests.
The UK has funded a variety of projects in line with its forest goals, including mangrove restoration in Indonesia, support for carbon-offsetting projects in Brazil and promoting “forest stewardship” among farmers in Cameroon.
Chapman has stated that the UK will continue to “prioritise” the Congo rainforest, in line with its new plan for aid spending in Africa. The UK even helped to launch a new “call to action” for Congo basin funding at COP30 last year.
The UK government also says it supported the creation of Brazil’s flagship “Tropical Forest Forever Facility” (TFFF). However, so far it has not provided any funding for the facility.
When the government announced a new climate finance pledge for 2026 onwards, it stressed that nature would still be a “focus” and said it would also generate billions in “climate and nature positive investments”. Nevertheless, it dropped the “ring-fenced” amounts for nature and forests that had appeared in its previous pledge.
The UK, alongside other developed countries, has pledged to provide biodiversity finance to developing countries, under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) – a non-binding global pact to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030.
Sarah Champion, chair of the international development committee of MPs, says “sub-pledges” for nature and forests are a “cost-effective and impactful” way to ensure this finance is provided, alongside climate finance. She tells Carbon Brief that she was “concerned” about the move away from this approach:
“When the minister recently appeared before the international development committee, I was concerned to hear her characterise this shift as a ‘gamble’.”
A government spokesperson tells Carbon Brief:
“We remain committed to providing finance for forests, including in the Congo basin, as a core element of our overall climate funding.”
A shorter version of this article was first published in Cropped, Carbon Brief’s fortnightly newsletter that provides a digest of food, land and nature news, on 15 July 2026. Subscribe for free.
The post UK withdraws millions in funding from world’s second-largest rainforest in Congo appeared first on Carbon Brief.
UK withdraws millions in funding from world’s second-largest rainforest in Congo
Climate Change
Cropped 15 July 2026: Uganda starves | Trump opens endangered habitats | UK cuts rainforest aid
We handpick and explain the most important stories at the intersection of climate, land, food and nature over the past fortnight.
This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s fortnightly Cropped email newsletter.
Subscribe for free here.
Key developments
Global drought and heat
DRY THEN WET: A recent heatwave and months of low rainfall has led to a prolonged drought for Uganda, resulting in at least 16 deaths from hunger and significant crop losses, reported BBC News. Bastille Post Global suggested that “a developing El Niño later this year could bring heavier rainfall to parts of the region, raising the risk of flooding in areas now struggling with drought”.
FUNDING FOOD: The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have appealed for $200m in funding to help African nations deal with the impact of El Niño, stated Deutsche Welle. This would target 22 high-risk countries with measures, including “cash transfers, climate-resilient seeds, livestock protection and flood control.” The Guardian explained how El Niño could still “cause a severe shock to global food prices lasting into 2028”.
FARMING FEARS: Extreme weather has devastated agriculture across the world. India saw its driest June in 12 years, reported BBC News, and France has had a “double-digit production” decline, according to Le Monde. The Financial Times reported that farmers in the UK are mitigating the impacts of extreme heat by eliminating “chemicals and intensive ploughing to improve soil quality so it retains water”.
EURO FIRES: Wildfires have spread across Europe, with Spain reporting at least 12 deaths so far, according to the Guardian, and France experiencing road closures, said Reuters. Wildfire Today reported that the most extreme conditions are “across France, Spain and northern Portugal, the Alpine arc extending into northern Italy, the south of the UK and south-east Ireland”. CNN explained how “the climate crisis is driving hotter, drier weather, which is setting the stage for fiercer fire seasons”.
Endangering species
REDEFINING HARM: The Trump administration “reversed decades of longstanding environmental law protecting endangered species…opening up sensitive habitats…to drilling, mining, farming and real estate development”, reported CNN. According to the story, the change “redefines what constitutes ‘harm’” to endangered species, which historically prohibited habitat modification or degradation. Agence France-Presse reported that US environmental groups sued the Trump government over the move, arguing that it had violated “common sense, biological science and federal law”.
OPEN SEASON: Reuters reported that the change “limits the reach of the 50-year-old Endangered Species Act” (ESA), which is a “key regulatory consideration” when granting permits for “oil and gas, mining, electric transmission and other operations on federal lands and water”. Legal scholars told the New York Times the US government “was acting without conducting scientific research into the impact” of the change, while the National Mining Association “applauded the announcement”.
News and views
- INTERNATIONAL WATERS: After a significant delay, the UK ratified the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement (BBNJ), also known as the High Seas Treaty. Oceanographic detailed how this will allow for “marine protected areas across international waters for the first time”, but also stressed that the “hard part” starts now.
- SCOPE-FREE: The world’s largest meat supplier JBS “scrapped a key climate goal” in its net-zero plan that accounts for its suppliers’ emissions, “which make up the vast bulk of the company’s environmental footprint”, reported the Financial Times. The company told the paper it was difficult to control these “indirect” emissions.
- DEEP TROUBLE: Pacific gray whales are facing a “catastrophic die-off” as sea-ice loss threatens their food sources, said the Guardian. Separately, conservationists warned that more than half of all molluscs that “cluster around underwater vents” could face extinction from deep-sea mining, reported Reuters.
- ETHANOL PUSHBACK: India’s new rules to promote 100% ethanol fuel and make ethanol-blended fuel mandatory at pumps “triggered a political row”, reported the Times of India. While the Indian government defended the push to automobile owners, a Hindu editorial and an Indian Express comment warned against incentivising fuels made from “water-intensive” sugarcane and rice.
- AMAZON ACTION: Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell to its lowest level in a decade, but president Lula’s plans to “end illegal deforestation by 2030” could be hampered if he is not re-elected, reported Al Jazeera. Meanwhile, Colombia’s outgoing environment minister warned of greater environmental and climate risk under the incoming government, said the Associated Press.
- WAR WORRIES: The International Energy Agency (IEA) warned of the impact of the Iran war on Africa’s clean cooking efforts as disruption in the strait of Hormuz has stunted supplies and increased prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), explained Climate Home News.
Spotlight
UK ‘discards’ Congo rainforest funding
Amid worldwide cuts to aid spending, Carbon Brief explores how the UK is backtracking on funding for the Congo basin – the world’s second-largest rainforest.
The UK has abandoned projects worth tens of millions of pounds that were meant to help protect Congo rainforests and support local people.
Together, these initiatives would have made up half of the £200m that the UK pledged to support forest conservation in the Congo basin.
When it hosted COP26 in Glasgow, the UK led a new initiative to end forest loss, which included a collective pledge of “at least” $1.5bn (£1.1bn) for Congo rainforest nations by 2025.
Development minister Jenny Chapman revealed last week that, as of 2024, the UK had only provided £39.8m towards this goal.
COP pledge
At COP26, the UK – led by then prime minister Boris Johnson – launched the “Glasgow leaders’ declaration”, with a goal to “halt and reverse forest loss” by 2030.
The UK also made various regional funding pledges, including £200m for the Congo basin, £350m for tropical forests in Indonesia and “up to £300m” for the Amazon.
All of these rainforests face major forest loss. The Congo basin is the planet’s largest forested carbon sink, but its six host nations are among the poorest in the world and face significant funding barriers.
This has global ramifications. An official UK assessment warned that “degradation or collapse” of the Amazon or Congo rainforests “threaten UK national security and prosperity”.
Forest cuts
Following successive aid cuts introduced by both Conservative and Labour governments – tracking a global trend – the UK’s Congo funding is under threat.
The Congo basin forest action programme (CBFA) was explicitly set up to provide “roughly half” of the UK’s £200m Congo pledge.
Now, after reporting delays, the UK has slashed the CBFA as part of the Labour government’s aid cuts. Its £90m budget has been “quietly reduced by 79% to £18.8m”, according to the Times.
This is not the only Congo project that has been dropped due to aid cuts. The Congo part of the biodiverse landscapes fund – worth at least £12.3m – has closed five years early.
Official documents reveal more Congo forest funding is at risk, including the UK’s two largest remaining projects in the region. One initiative, intended to “incubate forest-friendly enterprises” in DRC, faces “reduc[ed] budgets”.
Documents also show the difficulties operating in the Congo, including “complex political economies” and, in Gabon, a military coup – which “complicated matters”.
‘Breaking promises’
Damian Fleming, a senior forests director at WWF International told Carbon Brief:
“Tropical forest countries are making long-term policy and development choices in expectation that international partners will honour their commitments.”
In a parliamentary response, Chapman said that the UK had spent £39.8m towards its £200m Congo target, as of 2024.
Despite being described as the UK’s contribution to the £1.1bn-by-2025 global goal agreed at COP26, the £200m target has a deadline of 2029. Therefore, while the collective goal has been met, the UK’s contribution was relatively small.
Zac Goldsmith, a former Conservative minister who oversaw the forest targets at COP26, told Carbon Brief that, in his view, the UK has “discarded” its regional pledges:
“We have gone from being perhaps the leader on protecting nature internationally to breaking promises to countries around the world.”
The Labour government says it has met its overarching “climate finance” goals and still intends to “prioritise” the Congo rainforest.
However, civil society groups and MPs are concerned about the lack of “ring-fenced” forest funding in the UK’s new aid strategy.
Watch, read, listen
TOXIC TROUBLES: DeSmog unpacked a new report that said Northern Ireland is being turned into a “toxic” pig and poultry farming “sacrifice zone” to satiate the UK’s meat appetite.
NEED TO NOAA: Laid-off scientists from the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) launched Climate.Us – an independent, public-backed version of the climate information website shut down by Trump last year.
DRY FRUIT: A Dialogue Earth long read looked at how climate change is impacting apricot harvests in the “stark, high-altitude desert” region of Ladakh, India.
READING ALOUD: A London Review of Books podcast discussed Robin Wall Kimmerer’s influential book “Braiding Sweetgrass”, weighing its compelling themes and where it veers into “scientific overreach”.
New science
- Climate change could cause Indigenous peoples in the Amazon to lose 28-34% of their plant species and 18-23% of their associated services | Nature
- Biodiversity in forests can act as a “buffer” against compound extreme weather events | Nature Communications
- Zero-deforestation commitments in Indonesia’s palm oil sector have had “no additional impacts” on reducing forest loss | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
In the diary
- 7-15 July: High-level political forum on sustainable development | New York City
- 13-31 July: Meeting of the International Seabed Authority assembly and council | Kingston, Jamaica
- 16 July: International Energy Agency critical minerals outlook 2026, online
- 27 July-1 August: Scientific and technical subsidiary body meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity | Nairobi, Kenya
This edition of Cropped was written by Jess Milligan, Josh Gabbatiss and Aruna Chandrasekhar. Cropped is edited by Dr Giuliana Viglione. This edition was edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send tips and feedback to cropped@carbonbrief.org.
The post Cropped 15 July 2026: Uganda starves | Trump opens endangered habitats | UK cuts rainforest aid appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Cropped 15 July 2026: Uganda starves | Trump opens endangered habitats | UK cuts rainforest aid
Climate Change
Campaigners oppose Dangote’s planned Kenya refinery over climate and ecological risks
Climate and environment campaigners have urged the Kenyan government to halt plans for a proposed 700,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery backed by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, warning the project threatens one of East Africa’s most ecologically sensitive coastlines.
The refinery, which is planned to be situated in Lamu County on Kenya’s northern coast, will be East Africa’s largest refining project and is expected to take up to three years to build. Once finished, it would supply refined petroleum products to Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda, among others, helping to reduce the region’s dependence on imported fuels.
Campaigners are questioning the viability of such a large refinery at a time when renewable energy and electric transportation are expanding rapidly.
Mohamed Adow, director of a Kenya-based climate and energy think-tank Power Shift Africa, said the decision to give Dangote the green light for the refinery is “an extraordinary act of environmental recklessness and economic short-sightedness”, arguing it would tie Kenya to “yesterday’s energy system” just as global demand for petroleum products faces increasing uncertainty.
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Campaigners argue the refinery risks coming online just as transport – the largest market for petrol and diesel – is beginning to electrify across the continent.
Kenya launched a National Electric Mobility Policy earlier this year to speed up the uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) and reduce the country’s roughly $5 billion annual fuel import bill. Ethiopia has already banned imports of non-electric vehicles and now has more than 100,000 EVs on its roads, while Rwanda is expanding its electric mobility programme with plans to convert its fleet of around 100,000 motorcycles to electric.
Adow said the project risks billions of dollars in investment in infrastructure that could become obsolete as the world moves away from oil.
“Building a refinery today assumes decades of robust demand for fuels that much of the world is actively trying to phase out,” he said in a statement.
Ecological concerns
Lamu – the proposed site for the project – is home to the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Lamu Old Town and an archipelago containing extensive mangrove forests, coral reefs and seagrass beds that support fisheries, tourism and coastal livelihoods.
Locating the refinery in Lamu would “place one of Africa’s largest fossil fuel developments in one of the continent’s most ecologically sensitive and culturally significant coastal regions,” Power Shift Africa said.
Major emitting countries knew of climate risks decades earlier than claimed
Sherelee Odayar, oil and gas campaigner at Greenpeace Africa, warned that a refinery of this scale could increase the risk of habitat destruction, marine pollution, oil spills and air pollution in one of East Africa’s most fragile coastal ecosystems.
She said the risks stem not only from the refinery itself – including storage tanks, pipelines and fuel handling facilities – but also from the large volumes of crude oil that would need to be shipped into Lamu and refined products exported by sea. Increased tanker traffic and fuel transfers, she said, would raise the likelihood of accidents in ecologically sensitive coastal waters.
Odayar added that Lamu’s low-lying, flood-prone coastline could compound those risks by damaging infrastructure and carrying contaminants from storage facilities into nearby fishing grounds and marine ecosystems.
“Lamu’s mangroves, coral reefs and seagrass beds are not expendable; they support fisheries, livelihoods and coastal protection,” Odayar added.
She said Kenyan authorities should suspend any approvals until an independent environmental and social impact assessment is completed, with genuine public participation and transparent scrutiny of the long-term economic, health and ecological risks.
“Any review must assess cumulative impacts on Lamu’s mangroves, coral reefs, seagrass beds and fishing livelihoods, alongside the wider economic risk of locking Kenya into costly fossil fuel infrastructure as the global energy transition accelerates”.
Dangote Group declined to answer questions from Climate Home News when contacted by phone.
Technological change threaten project’s future
The Kenya refinery would replicate Dangote’s 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Lagos, currently Africa’s largest, which has plans to more than double capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day by 2028.
Adow of Power Shift Africa said projects like this represent “a breathtaking failure to recognise where the global economy is heading”, pointing out that the East African refinery risks arriving when Africa is experiencing an unprecedented clean energy boom.
Referencing Africa’s solar boom, global electric vehicles uptake and the International Energy Agency’s projection that global oil demand is set to enter a decline later this decade, the think-tank founder said African governments risk anchoring the continent’s future to an industry facing mounting economic uncertainty.
Loss and damage fund delays first project approvals as needs dwarf resources
The organisation said the project faces a bigger threat aside from environmental opposition and that is technological change. “The danger is not simply that the refinery will pollute, it is that it will become obsolete long before it has paid for itself,” he added.
Kenyan President William Ruto said the project will create about 60,000 jobs for Kenyans and supply refined fuel to eight East and Central African countries.
GreenPeace Africa’s Odayar said the promise of ‘thousands of jobs’ cannot be used to hide the true cost of the investment which is that large fossil fuel projects often create temporary jobs while undermining existing livelihoods in fishing, tourism and small-scale local economies.
“The enormous capital required for a project of this scale could instead help accelerate Kenya’s renewable energy future through solar, wind, geothermal, storage and better energy access,” she added.
The post Campaigners oppose Dangote’s planned Kenya refinery over climate and ecological risks appeared first on Climate Home News.
Campaigners oppose Dangote’s planned Kenya refinery over climate and ecological risks
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