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Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.

This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s weekly DeBriefed email newsletter. Subscribe for free here.

This week

September heat record ‘shattered’

‘GOBSMACKINGLY BANANAS’: September has “shattered” its previous global heat record “by a record margin”, according to data covered by the Washington Post. BBC News reported that last month was 0.93C hotter than the 1991-2020 September average and 0.5C hotter than the previous record set in 2020. Several outlets, including the Guardian, have quoted the verdict of Carbon Brief’s science contributor, Dr Zeke Hausfather, who described the heat as “absolutely gobsmackingly bananas”.

OCTOBER HEATS UP: The unusual heat has continued into October, with the New York Times publishing a map showing that parts of Europe, the Middle East, southern Africa, southeast Asia, Australia, North America and South America experienced temperatures up to 9C higher than average this week. CBC noted that “warm summer-like weather” has continued in the Canadian province of Ontario and the Australian Associated Press reported that more than 100 fires have been blazing across New South Wales amid a heatwave in the Australian state.

EU launches first carbon border tax

PHASE ONE: The EU has launched the initial phase of its carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), the world’s first system to impose emissions tariffs on imported goods, according to Reuters. For now, importers of steel, cement and other products only have to report the emissions “embodied” in their goods, but, from 2026, they will face border charges for high-emitting goods, the Economist explained.

GLOBAL PUSHBACK: Major EU trading partners, including Russia, the UK and US, are likely to feel CBAM’s effects the most, according to a recent report by Carnegie Europe. Brazil, South Africa and India have accused the CBAM of being “discriminatory” and China has called on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to assess the measure, Politico stated. Writing in the Financial Times, EU economy commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said non-European countries “need not fear” the tax and said it was “fully compatible” with WTO rules.

NEW CLIMATE CHIEFS: Meanwhile, European Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič and former Dutch foreign minister Wopke Hoekstra have been approved by the European parliament as the EU “green deal” chief and climate commissioner, respectively, according to Politico.

Around the world

  • ‘IRRESPONSIBLE’ LIFESTYLES: The Pope has pointed to an “irresponsible lifestyle connected with the Western model” as a key driver of climate change in a new “apostolic exhortation” titled Laudate Deum (Praise God), CNN reported.
  • RUSSIA ROADBLOCK: Ahead of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, Russia has stated it will ​​oppose a global deal to cut fossil-fuel use, according to the Financial Times. Another Financial Times article said the United Arab Emirates has proposed hosting COP for two years in a row as Russia continues to block eastern European states from hosting it next year.
  • INDIA FLOODS: At least 14 people have been killed and 102 are missing after flash floods in North Sikkim, India, triggered by a glacial lake outburst, the Times of India reported.
  • OIL LAWSUIT: Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against French oil giant TotalEnergies and its major pipeline project in Tanzania and Uganda, alleging numerous criminal offences, according to Radio France Internationale.
  • CLIMATE ARRESTS: Vietnamese state media has confirmed the arrest of energy expert Ngo Thi To Nhien, who worked on the G7-backed plan to wean the nation off fossil fuels, Agence France-Presse reported. Drilled has covered a string of arrests of Vietnamese climate advocates since 2021.
  • ‘NET-ZERO ZEALOTS’: “Green politics” has been “under attack” at the UK’s Conservative party conference, the Guardian stated, with even the net-zero secretary, Claire Coutinho, taking aim at “zealots” who “view net-zero as a religion”.

$143bn

The annual “global cost” of extreme weather that can be attributed to human-caused climate change, according to a new study in Nature Communications.

Latest climate research

  • The boom in commercial tree plantations for the purpose of carbon-offsetting threatens biodiversity in the tropics, a paper in Trends in Ecology and Evolution concluded.
  • The second Global Amphibian Assessment, published in Nature, found that 41% of species are threatened with extinction – and climate change is a key factor in their decline.
  • A paper in Nature Food explored how meat taxes in Europe could be designed to avoid overburdening low-income consumers.

(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)

Captured

Some of the biggest UN Green Climate Fund contributors are yet to commit more money in the latest pledging round. Commitments across the three Green Climate Fund pledging rounds ($m).

The second “pledging conference” for the UN’s flagship Green Climate Fund (GCF) took place on Thursday in Bonn, Germany. The GCF, which is the world’s largest multilateral climate fund, was established in 2010 as part of the global effort to help developing countries cut emissions and prepare for climate change. The event brought the total pledged by wealthy nations to just $9.3bn, less than previous funding rounds and short of the GCF’s internal targets, according to Climate Home News. Notable absences included the US and Australia, both of which have failed to pledge anything since 2014. They, along with Italy, Sweden and Switzerland, said they will commit funds, but did not specify how much. The Natural Resources Defense Council’s Green Climate Fund Pledge Tracker has data on every country’s contributions.

Spotlight

Factcheck: Do large solar projects produce more CO2 than they save?

This week, Carbon Brief factchecks claims pushed by right-wing politicians and anti-solar campaigners that a major UK solar project would produce more greenhouse gases than it is able to save.

Matt Hancock, former UK minister turned TV reality show contestant – has urged the government to reject plans for a solar farm in his West Suffolk constituency. The proposed Sunnica scheme is on track to be one of the nation’s largest solar projects. When built, the developers say it would produce enough electricity to power up to 100,000 homes.

Hancock is not alone. At least 19 other UK MPs – all Conservatives – have come out against new solar farms, citing the concerns of people in their rural constituencies. The issue became a hot topic during the Conservative leadership contest last year, when both former prime minister Liz Truss and current prime minister Rishi Sunak vowed to stop farmland being used for solar power.

This is part of a wider trend of groups claiming to represent local communities pushing back against new renewable projects. Hundreds of new wind and solar projects are facing local opposition across the US, amid an organised effort by climate-sceptics. In the UK, a group called the Solar Campaign Alliance, which stresses it is “not against renewables”, supports a network of around 100 anti-solar protest groups, including the Say No To Sunnica campaign.

One of the central points made by many of these activists is that some new solar farms are “not carbon neutral” and will “do nothing to help” the UK meet its climate goals. This has been repeated on the campaign websites and materials distributed by those protesting the Sunnica project and other sites. Also repeating the claim, Hancock has written in the Daily Mail that Sunnica “would pump out more carbon…than it actually saved”.

These claims appear out of step with the central role solar power is expected to play in getting the UK – and the world – to net-zero.

They come from analysis commissioned by the Say No To Sunnica campaign and carried out by researchers at Cranfield University. The authors argue that the Sunnica scheme “during its lifetime would constitute a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions”, largely based on the developers underestimating its “lifecycle” emissions – including those associated with battery production and replacement.

Solar projects do not produce emissions when they generate electricity, but the manufacture of their components does as fossil fuels are used in these processes.

Despite this, experts tell Carbon Brief that the Cranfield study contains unusual methodological choices. Not least, it compares the Sunnica solar farm to a scenario in which the grid decarbonises, thanks in large part to solar power. Prof Edgar Hertwich, a researcher of resource efficiency and climate change at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, says arguing that the new solar farm replaces renewable power is “conceptually not correct”.

A more relevant comparison would be contrasting Sunnica with a scenario in which fossil fuels continue to be used. Gas power produces more than eight times more carbon dioxide (CO2) per unit of energy throughout its lifetime than ground-mounted solar panels.

The Cranfield researchers tell Carbon Brief they agree that the comparison they make is problematic, but point out that they followed the same methodology as the one used by the Sunnica developers.

They also warn that solar developers are not sufficiently accounting for battery production emissions when making claims about their net-zero credentials, stating that Sunnica did not factor in the need to replace batteries. However, other research shows that when solar power displaces fossil fuels from the grid, its climate benefits are only “marginally affected” by adding batteries.

Ultimately, the researchers stress that their conclusions “apply to this particular scheme only”, adding that each project “needs to be assessed on its own merits”.

The Say No To Sunnica campaign did not respond to Carbon Brief’s request for comment.

Watch, read, listen

CLIMATE SLEUTHING: Bloomberg has a feature on Itziar Irakulis Loitxate, a PhD student tasked with searching for global methane leaks at the UN Environment Programme. She is the “closest thing the world has to climate police”.

SOLUTIONS SEARCH: NPR has dedicated an entire week to stories and conversations about the search for climate solutions, from the Philippines to California.

WEAPONISING HEAT PUMPS: A long read in Politico explored how the far-right Alternative for Germany party has turned the issue of electric heat pumps into “electoral rocket fuel”.

Coming up

Pick of the jobs

DeBriefed is written in rotation by Carbon Brief’s team and edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to debriefed@carbonbrief.org

The post DeBriefed 6 October 2023: ‘Gobsmackingly bananas’ global heat; EU’s carbon border tax; UK solar claims factchecked appeared first on Carbon Brief.

DeBriefed 6 October 2023: ‘Gobsmackingly bananas’ global heat; EU’s carbon border tax; UK solar claims factchecked

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Climate Change

Global warming topped key 1.5C limit over last three years, EU scientists say

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January 14, 2026

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Global warming has hit “a milestone” as average temperatures have exceeded the critical 1.5C threshold for the longest period yet, European scientists warned on Wednesday.

According to the EU’s Earth observation service Copernicus, 2025 ranks as the third-warmest year on record, behind 2023 and 2024, with global temperatures averaging more than the Paris Agreement’s most ambitious limit for the first time over a three-year period.

“Exceeding a three-year average of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is a milestone none of us wished to reach,” said Mauro Facchini, head of the Unit for Earth Observation in the European Commission.

Samantha Burgess, deputy director at Copernicus, said the last three years had been “exceptionally warm” as a result of the record amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, primarily caused by burning fossil fuels, as well as record ocean heat, fuelled in part by the El Niño weather pattern.

“New era of climate extremes” as global warming fuels devastating impacts in 2025

In 2025, global temperatures were 1.47 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, slightly cooler than in 2023 and 0.13C lower than in 2024, the hottest year on record, according to the Copernicus analysis.

Temperatures in tropical regions in 2025 were lower than in 2023 and 2024, influenced by a weak La Niña, which is when surface waters in the Pacific Ocean are cooler than usual.

Paris pact’s 1.5C goal to be breached this decade

When governments adopted the 2015 Paris Agreement, they committed to holding the increase in the global average temperature to “well below 2C above pre-industrial levels” and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5C.

Scientists with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the World Meteorological Organisation say that temperature increases should be measured over 20-year periods, meaning that a one-year or a three-year breach does not mean the Paris targets have been missed.

But the European agency expects that, based on the current rate of warming, the world will reach the threshold of long-term warming above 1.5C before the end of 2029, over a decade earlier than scientists had predicted at the time the Paris accord was signed.

“The expectation was that emissions would be reduced more rapidly than what we’ve observed over the last decade,” said Burgess. “That’s really the big difference between where we thought the world would look back in 2015, versus where it looks now at the beginning of 2026.”

    For the first time last year, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres conceded that a “temporary overshoot” of the 1.5C warming threshold was inevitable, starting in the early 2030s at the latest. He told global leaders gathered at the COP30 summit in November that failure to curb global heating amounted to “moral failure and deadly negligence”.

    Commenting on the Copernicus findings, Helen Clarkson, CEO of the US-based Climate Group, which builds networks working for net-zero emissions, said the average of 1.5C of warming over the past three years showed “the warnings of scientists are becoming a dangerous reality”. Governments that do not act to cut emissions are putting their economic security at risk, she emphasised.

    “Too many leaders are propping up fossil fuels, blocking people and businesses from accessing the cost savings and benefits of cheap, clean energy. But we can break this trend: accelerate the transition to renewables, electric cars and clean electrification,” she added.

    Antarctic saw hottest year on record

    Scientists have warned that, while the temperature limit is not a cliff edge, every additional fraction of a degree of warming increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts and storms, triggering severe impacts.

    In 2025, polar regions experienced significant temperature anomalies, with the Antarctic seeing its hottest year on record and the Arctic its second-warmest, the Copernicus analysis found. That partly offset the less extreme temperatures observed in tropical regions last year.



    Global warming is causing the world’s ice caps to melt at an accelerating pace. In February 2025, the combined sea ice cover from both poles fell to its lowest value since at least the start of satellite observations in the late 1970s, the EU agency said.

    Burgess expects that 2026 will be among the top five warmest years, with temperatures comparable to 2025, but she noted it is too early to tell how natural climate cycles will develop over the coming months and affect human-made global warming.

    The longer-term trend, however, is for continued rises in temperatures, she said.

    “When we look at the continued rate of emissions from countries around the world, the reality is, unfortunately, that the last three years we have experienced – when we look back in five years’ time – will be cooler than average rather than continue to be exceptional,” she told journalists.

    The post Global warming topped key 1.5C limit over last three years, EU scientists say appeared first on Climate Home News.

    Global warming topped key 1.5C limit over last three years, EU scientists say

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    Climate Change

    New Climate Reports Show ‘Unprecedented Run of Global Heat’

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    13 hours ago

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    January 14, 2026

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    Data from multiple international agencies shows the reality of a rapidly warming world.

    By Bob Berwyn

    Several annual international climate reports released Tuesday indicate that relentless human-caused warming continued in 2025, especially in the oceans and at the poles.

    New Climate Reports Show ‘Unprecedented Run of Global Heat’

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    Climate Change

    How Does Nature Contribute to the Economy? These Environmental Accountants Are Trying to Find Out

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    19 hours ago

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    January 13, 2026

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    Experts are trying to determine nature’s financial contributions—and what could happen if they are lost.

    By Kiley Price

    In an era of rapid globalization, economic growth has come with trade-offs. To make room for urban development or fossil fuel extraction, countries often clear forests, pollute water and decimate wildlife populations.

    How Does Nature Contribute to the Economy? These Environmental Accountants Are Trying to Find Out

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