Welcome to Carbon Brief’s Cropped.
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
Trump chaos
TRUMP TARIFFS: US president Donald Trump’s escalating trade war with the rest of the world sent ripples through global food markets this month. Trump introduced a 10% tariff on goods imported from China, but delayed his planned 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico after reaching a deal for the two countries to increase border controls, the Associated Press reported. Reuters said that retaliatory tariffs from countries targeted by Trump could significantly harm the US agricultural sector. China, Canada and Mexico are the “top three markets” for US farm products and imported $94bn in agricultural goods from the nation in 2023, according to the newswire. CNN presented three charts illustrating how the tariff war could increase the prices of US groceries, from “fresh avocados to dairy products”.
AID CUTS: The Trump administration also unveiled dramatic reductions to the work of USAid, the country’s main international development arm, the New York Times reported, with leaked plans suggesting staff would be cut from 14,000 to just 294. The move has put around $500m of food aid at risk of spoilage after staff cuts and funding freezes have left the agency in “chaos”, the Guardian reported. Reuters said the dismantling of USAid “is crippling the intricate global system that aims to prevent and respond to famine”. Civil Eats reported that USAid typically purchases $2bn in rice, wheat, lentils and peas from US farmers each year, “prompting questions about how the agency’s shuttering might also impact rural America”. Bloomberg said the Department of Agriculture confirmed that the US will keep buying agricultural commodities to supply food aid in the world’s poorest countries.
NATURE AT RISK: The dismantling of USAid could also have large ramifications for global efforts to tackle nature loss, the Revelator reported, noting that the agency funds efforts to “reduce wildlife poaching and trafficking, tackle deforestation, assist environmental refugees, study animal populations in the wild and protect people in critical habitats”. The New York Times reported that the 150 scientists behind the first US national nature assessment, which was shut down by a Trump executive order, are hoping to find a way to release their findings without government backing. It comes after the assessment’s lead author, Dr Phil Leven, sent an email to his fellow authors saying “this work is too important to die”, according to the publication.
Natural heritage at risk
ECOSYSTEMS THREATENED: Three-quarters of the world’s “natural heritage sites” will face at least one “climate pressure” by the end of the century, under an “intermediate” scenario of climate change, according to new research covered by Carbon Brief. Natural heritage sites are those that are “recognised internationally as the most important ecosystems on Earth”, including sites such as the Galápagos Islands, Serengeti national park and the Great Barrier Reef, according to the article. The research also found that, under the highest emissions scenarios, nearly all such sites will experience extreme heat exposure, with many also facing the compounding impacts of drought or extreme rainfall, by 2100.
BIODIVERSITY LOSS: As part of their study, the authors assessed biodiversity loss inside natural heritage sites to date. They identified 14 natural heritage sites with “vulnerable” levels of biodiversity. These were mainly located in South America, mainland Africa, and on various coasts and islands, including Brazil’s Pantanal conservation complex, Mount Kenya’s national park and Australia’s Ningaloo Coast, according to the research. The researchers added that these vulnerable sites are likely to face the greatest climate risks as the planet warms. Elsewhere, the Guardian reported on efforts to save polar heritage sites on a Canadian Arctic island sinking into the Beaufort Sea.
Spotlight
How global trade harms forest species
This week, Carbon Brief explores a new Nature study which examined how consumption in 24 countries leads to “outsourced” deforestation and biodiversity loss.
Deforestation linked to consumption in major economies, such as the US and China, is harming forest-dwelling animals, according to a new study.
The research found that consumption in many nations led to “outsourced losses of biodiversity” as a result of forest clearance abroad.
The impacts are “substantial, widely distributed and strongly structured by geography and trade linkages”, the study noted. The lead study author, Alex Wiebe, a graduate student at Princeton University, was “surprised” by the magnitude of the findings. He told Carbon Brief:
“The cumulative [biodiversity loss] impacts of the countries we examined were 15 times greater to species outside of their borders than within them. This suggests that the vast majority of a developed country’s impacts on global biodiversity happens outside of its borders.”
The researchers quantified the loss of area in which more than 7,500 forest-dwelling birds, mammals and reptiles lived around the world between 2001 and 2015.
They analysed a dataset attributing land deforested during the study period to the production of goods imported and consumed in 24 countries – including the US, China and UK.
Many of these countries are “effectively moving biodiversity losses overseas”, the study concluded, by “driving land-use change in other countries through their consumption of imported agricultural and forestry products”.
‘Disproportionate harm’ on far-flung species
The findings showed that the US contributed by far the most to international forest species’ range loss, followed by Japan and China.
Dr Janice Lee, an environmental scientist at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said the study “advances our understanding and quantification of how international trade affects global biodiversity.”
The “important work” adds to ongoing discussions around the impact of global trade on deforestation and biodiversity, Lee, who was not involved in the research, told Carbon Brief.
Many of the impacts occurred between neighbouring countries, but in some cases nations “inflicted disproportionate harm” on species thousands of miles away, the study said.
Almost half of all of the species range losses recorded far away from the examined countries were in Madagascar, possibly driven by deforestation for vanilla production, the researchers wrote.
Dr Erasmus zu Ermgassen, a scientist at Belgian university UCLouvain, said the study is “interesting”, but “perhaps a bit one-dimensional”.
Zu Ermgassen, who was not involved in the study, noted that biodiversity loss can be driven by “domestic economies and politics within the tropics” as well, rather than solely from consumption abroad. He added that species range impacts do not consider “other wildlife, habitats, nor the humans living in those landscapes”.
The study noted the “limited spatially explicit data on attributable deforestation” and the complications that would occur with broadening the research scope.
The impact countries have on biodiversity in other parts of the world is a topic that deserves more attention, Wiebe told Carbon Brief, noting:
“In the future, understanding how countries impact non-forest species, how the impacts of countries are changing over time, and which products are most closely tied with threats to wildlife in different parts of the world will all be important to investigate.”
News and views
SUSANA QUITS: Colombian politician Susana Muhamad resigned as environment minister, leaving her position as president of the COP16 nature talks in question, El Espectador reported. COP16 will resume in Rome on 25 February after countries failed to find consensus on all negotiating issues in Colombia in 2024. In a public resignation letter, Muhamad appealed to her president, Gustavo Petro, for permission to stay on as head of the talks. In an interview with Colombian TV network Noticias Caracol, Muhamad confirmed it will be down to Petro to decide if she can remain in post.
FOOD CHAIN RISKS: An Arctic geoengineering project will end its operations after identifying environmental concerns and “potential risks” to the region’s food chain, Climate Home News reported. Climate and Indigenous campaigners “welcomed” the shutdown of the experimental project, which aimed to release small silica particles over the ocean to “in theory reflect sunlight from the surface and cool down melting ice”, the outlet said. Panganga Pungowiyi from the Indigenous Environmental Network, told Climate Home News: “Our concerns about the reckless use of harmful materials were dismissed, yet we knew that the health of our ecosystems and the wisdom of our people must not be overlooked.”
CLEARING WAY: Indonesia’s government is eyeing up 2.3m hectares of protected forest – “an area 30 times the size of New York City” – that could be converted to produce food and biofuel crops, according to Mongabay. This formed part of wider plans to convert 20m hectares of forest into “food and energy estates”, which the outlet said could lead to the “largest deforestation project in the country’s history”. The consideration to convert protected land “raised alarms among environmental groups and lawmakers”, the outlet said. The country’s forestry minister, Raja Juli Antoni, said that the plan does not target pristine rainforests, arguing that it could rehabilitate degraded protected forest areas, Mongabay added.
SHARK ATTACKS: The Times reported that a spate of deadly shark attacks in Australia have coincided with a warning from scientists that warming seas could be drawing the predators closer to popular swimming locations. Prof Culum Brown, a shark expert at Sydney’s Macquarie University, told the publication that the city “needed to prepare for more sharks in popular swimming areas as climate change raises sea temperatures and makes conditions more hospitable for the predators, especially bull sharks”. Australia’s NewsWire reported that a “long-term increase” in shark attacks occurring could be linked to both “an increasing number of people swimming in the ocean and climate change”.
MINING FOR GOLD: Permits for at least 79 “semi-industrial gold mining and exploration projects” were issued in the Sangha region of the Republic of Congo over the past four years – “despite the area being officially designated for a REDD+ project”, a Mongabay investigation found. REDD+ projects are “designed to reduce deforestation”, but “since mining contributes to deforestation, these two activities are fundamentally incompatible”, environmentalist Justin Landry Chekoua told the outlet. Mongabay further detailed the impact of mining in the Sangha region, in which forests have been uprooted and “streams that were once drinkable are now vast, muddy stretches of uninviting water”.
CATTLE CONSPIRACY: Scientists described misinformation about a methane-cutting cattle feed additive as a “wake-up call” to improve communication with farmers and the public, the Guardian reported. Last November, major food company Arla announced plans to pilot using Bovaer, a cattle feed additive, to “reduce the carbon footprint of its products”, the Guardian said. This “quickly became a social media storm about the health effects of the additive, with people videoing themselves throwing away products by the brand and pouring milk down their sinks in protest”, the newspaper said. The UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) said that “there are no safety concerns when Bovaer is used at the approved dose”. The FSA’s chief scientific adviser, Prof Robin May, told a press briefing this week: “The more communication and transparency the better.”
Watch, read, listen
GROWING PAINS: An article in Grist explored how climate change is altering the types of crops grown across the world.
DARK DOLPHIN MAGIC: A short documentary by Mongabay investigated the illegal exploitation of endangered pink river dolphins in the Amazon, driven by a myth about their magical properties.
REVEALING REVOLUTION: Through photographs, Undark magazine showed the “downstream effects of India’s green revolution”.
SPOKEN WORD: The Third Pole Podcast from Dialogue Earth explored the impact of climate change on Indigenous languages in Pakistan’s remote mountain communities.
New science
- Climate change could have a variable impact on cocoa yields in west and central Africa, a region responsible for much of the world’s production, according to new research in Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. The study found that wetter conditions could drive yield increases in Nigeria and Cameroon, but decreases in the Ivory Coast and Ghana.
- The widespread deployment of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) to remove CO2 from the atmosphere would violate multiple “planetary boundaries”, according to a new study in Communications Earth and Environment. It noted that widespread BECCS use would have the largest impact on the boundary for land ecosystems.
- A new rice variety showed methane emission reductions of up to 70% in paddy field trials over a three-year period, according to a Molecular Plant study. The findings “offer great possibilities” to mitigate the climate impact of rice, the researchers claim.
In the diary
- 23 February: Germany general election
- 24-28 February: 62nd session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change | Hangzhou, China
- 25-27 February: Resumed session of the UN biodiversity summit COP16 | Rome
Cropped is researched and written by Dr Giuliana Viglione, Aruna Chandrasekhar, Daisy Dunne, Orla Dwyer and Yanine Quiroz. Please send tips and feedback to cropped@carbonbrief.org
The post Cropped 12 February 2025: Trump chaos; COP16 leadership in question; How global trade harms forest species appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Climate Change
DeBriefed 15 August 2025: Raging wildfires; Xi’s priorities; Factchecking the Trump climate report
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
This week
Blazing heat hits Europe
FANNING THE FLAMES: Wildfires “fanned by a heatwave and strong winds” caused havoc across southern Europe, Reuters reported. It added: “Fire has affected nearly 440,000 hectares (1,700 square miles) in the eurozone so far in 2025, double the average for the same period of the year since 2006.” Extreme heat is “breaking temperature records across Europe”, the Guardian said, with several countries reporting readings of around 40C.
HUMAN TOLL: At least three people have died in the wildfires erupting across Spain, Turkey and Albania, France24 said, adding that the fires have “displaced thousands in Greece and Albania”. Le Monde reported that a child in Italy “died of heatstroke”, while thousands were evacuated from Spain and firefighters “battled three large wildfires” in Portugal.
UK WILDFIRE RISK: The UK saw temperatures as high as 33.4C this week as England “entered its fourth heatwave”, BBC News said. The high heat is causing “nationally significant” water shortfalls, it added, “hitting farms, damaging wildlife and increasing wildfires”. The Daily Mirror noted that these conditions “could last until mid-autumn”. Scientists warn the UK faces possible “firewaves” due to climate change, BBC News also reported.
Around the world
- GRID PRESSURES: Iraq suffered a “near nationwide blackout” as elevated power demand – due to extreme temperatures of around 50C – triggered a transmission line failure, Bloomberg reported.
- ‘DIRE’ DOWN UNDER: The Australian government is keeping a climate risk assessment that contains “dire” implications for the continent “under wraps”, the Australian Financial Review said.
- EXTREME RAINFALL: Mexico City is “seeing one of its heaviest rainy seasons in years”, the Washington Post said. Downpours in the Japanese island of Kyushu “caused flooding and mudslides”, according to Politico. In Kashmir, flash floods killed 56 and left “scores missing”, the Associated Press said.
- SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION: China and Brazil agreed to “ensure the success” of COP30 in a recent phone call, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
- PLASTIC ‘DEADLOCK’: Talks on a plastic pollution treaty have failed again at a summit in Geneva, according to the Guardian, with countries “deadlocked” on whether it should include “curbs on production and toxic chemicals”.
15
The number of times by which the most ethnically-diverse areas in England are more likely to experience extreme heat than its “least diverse” areas, according to new analysis by Carbon Brief.
Latest climate research
- As many as 13 minerals critical for low-carbon energy may face shortages under 2C pathways | Nature Climate Change
- A “scoping review” examined the impact of climate change on poor sexual and reproductive health and rights in sub-Saharan Africa | PLOS One
- A UK university cut the carbon footprint of its weekly canteen menu by 31% “without students noticing” | Nature Food
(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
Captured
Factchecking Trump’s climate report
A report commissioned by the US government to justify rolling back climate regulations contains “at least 100 false or misleading statements”, according to a Carbon Brief factcheck involving dozens of leading climate scientists. The report, compiled in two months by five hand-picked researchers, inaccurately claims that “CO2-induced warming might be less damaging economically than commonly believed” and misleadingly states that “excessively aggressive [emissions] mitigation policies could prove more detrimental than beneficial”80
Spotlight
Does Xi Jinping care about climate change?
This week, Carbon Brief unpacks new research on Chinese president Xi Jinping’s policy priorities.
On this day in 2005, Xi Jinping, a local official in eastern China, made an unplanned speech when touring a small village – a rare occurrence in China’s highly-choreographed political culture.
In it, he observed that “lucid waters and lush mountains are mountains of silver and gold” – that is, the environment cannot be sacrificed for the sake of growth.
(The full text of the speech is not available, although Xi discussed the concept in a brief newspaper column – see below – a few days later.)
In a time where most government officials were laser-focused on delivering economic growth, this message was highly unusual.
Forward-thinking on environment
As a local official in the early 2000s, Xi endorsed the concept of “green GDP”, which integrates the value of natural resources and the environment into GDP calculations.
He also penned a regular newspaper column, 22 of which discussed environmental protection – although “climate change” was never mentioned.
This focus carried over to China’s national agenda when Xi became president.
New research from the Asia Society Policy Institute tracked policies in which Xi is reported by state media to have “personally” taken action.
It found that environmental protection is one of six topics in which he is often said to have directly steered policymaking.
Such policies include guidelines to build a “Beautiful China”, the creation of an environmental protection inspection team and the “three-north shelterbelt” afforestation programme.
“It’s important to know what Xi’s priorities are because the top leader wields outsized influence in the Chinese political system,” Neil Thomas, Asia Society Policy Institute fellow and report co-author, told Carbon Brief.
Local policymakers are “more likely” to invest resources in addressing policies they know have Xi’s attention, to increase their chances for promotion, he added.
What about climate and energy?
However, the research noted, climate and energy policies have not been publicised as bearing Xi’s personal touch.
“I think Xi prioritises environmental protection more than climate change because reducing pollution is an issue of social stability,” Thomas said, noting that “smoggy skies and polluted rivers” were more visible and more likely to trigger civil society pushback than gradual temperature increases.
The paper also said topics might not be linked to Xi personally when they are “too technical” or “politically sensitive”.
For example, Xi’s landmark decision for China to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 is widely reported as having only been made after climate modelling – facilitated by former climate envoy Xie Zhenhua – showed that this goal was achievable.
Prior to this, Xi had never spoken publicly about carbon neutrality.
Prof Alex Wang, a University of California, Los Angeles professor of law not involved in the research, noted that emphasising Xi’s personal attention may signal “top” political priorities, but not necessarily Xi’s “personal interests”.
By not emphasising climate, he said, Xi may be trying to avoid “pushing the system to overprioritise climate to the exclusion of the other priorities”.
There are other ways to know where climate ranks on the policy agenda, Thomas noted:
“Climate watchers should look at what Xi says, what Xi does and what policies Xi authorises in the name of the ‘central committee’. Is Xi talking more about climate? Is Xi establishing institutions and convening meetings that focus on climate? Is climate becoming a more prominent theme in top-level documents?”
Watch, read, listen
TRUMP EFFECT: The Columbia Energy Exchange podcast examined how pressure from US tariffs could affect India’s clean energy transition.
NAMIBIAN ‘DESTRUCTION’: The National Observer investigated the failure to address “human rights abuses and environmental destruction” claims against a Canadian oil company in Namibia.
‘RED AI’: The Network for the Digital Economy and the Environment studied the state of current research on “Red AI”, or the “negative environmental implications of AI”.
Coming up
- 17 August: Bolivian general elections
- 18-29 August: Preparatory talks on the entry into force of the “High Seas Treaty”, New York
- 18-22 August: Y20 Summit, Johannesburg
- 21 August: Advancing the “Africa clean air programme” through Africa-Asia collaboration, Yokohama
Pick of the jobs
- Lancaster Environment Centre, senior research associate: JUST Centre | Salary: £39,355-£45,413. Location: Lancaster, UK
- Environmental Justice Foundation, communications and media officer, Francophone Africa | Salary: XOF600,000-XOF800,000. Location: Dakar, Senegal
- Politico, energy & climate editor | Salary: Unknown. Location: Brussels, Belgium
- EnviroCatalysts, meteorologist | Salary: Unknown. Location: New Delhi, India
DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to debriefed@carbonbrief.org.
This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s weekly DeBriefed email newsletter. Subscribe for free here.
The post DeBriefed 15 August 2025: Raging wildfires; Xi’s priorities; Factchecking the Trump climate report appeared first on Carbon Brief.
DeBriefed 15 August 2025: Raging wildfires; Xi’s priorities; Factchecking the Trump climate report
Climate Change
New York Already Denied Permits to These Gas Pipelines. Under Trump, They Could Get Greenlit
The specter of a “gas-for-wind” compromise between the governor and the White House is drawing the ire of residents as a deadline looms.
Hundreds of New Yorkers rallied against new natural gas pipelines in their state as a deadline loomed for the public to comment on a revived proposal to expand the gas pipeline that supplies downstate New York.
New York Already Denied Permits to These Gas Pipelines. Under Trump, They Could Get Greenlit
A “critical assessment” report commissioned by the Trump administration to justify a rollback of US climate regulations contains at least 100 false or misleading statements, according to a Carbon Brief factcheck involving dozens of leading climate scientists.
The report – “A critical review of impacts of greenhouse gas emissions on the US climate” – was published by the US Department of Energy (DoE) on 23 July, just days before the government laid out plans to revoke a scientific finding used as the legal basis for emissions regulation.
The executive summary of the controversial report inaccurately claims that “CO2-induced warming might be less damaging economically than commonly believed”.
It also states misleadingly that “excessively aggressive [emissions] mitigation policies could prove more detrimental than beneficial”.
Compiled in just two months by five “independent” researchers hand-selected by the climate-sceptic US secretary of energy Chris Wright, the document has sparked fierce criticism from climate scientists, who have pointed to factual errors, misrepresentation of research, messy citations and the cherry-picking of data.
Experts have also noted the authors’ track record of promoting views at odds with the mainstream understanding of climate science.
Wright’s department claims the report – which is currently open to public comment as part of a 30-day review – underwent an “internal peer-review period amongst [the] DoE’s scientific research community”.
The report is designed to provide a scientific underpinning to one flank of the Trump administration’s plans to rescind a finding that serves as the legal prerequisite for federal emissions regulation. (The second flank is about legal authority to regulate emissions.)
The “endangerment finding” – enacted by the Obama administration in 2009 – states that six greenhouse gases are contributing to the net-negative impacts of climate change and, thus, put the public in danger.
In a press release on 29 July, the US Environmental Protection Agency said “updated studies and information” set out in the new report would “challenge the assumptions” of the 2009 finding.
Carbon Brief asked a wide range of climate scientists, including those cited in the “critical review” itself, to factcheck the report’s various claims and statements.
The post Factcheck: Trump’s climate report includes more than 100 false or misleading claims appeared first on Carbon Brief.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-trumps-climate-report-includes-more-than-100-false-or-misleading-claims/
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