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The amount of UK electricity generated from fossil fuels fell 22% year-on-year in 2023 to the lowest level since 1957, Carbon Brief analysis reveals.

The 104 terawatt hours (TWh) generated from fossil fuels in 2023 is the lowest level in 66 years. Back then, Harold Macmillan was the UK prime minister and the Beatles’ John Lennon and Paul McCartney had just met for the first time.

Electricity from fossil fuels has now fallen by two-thirds (199TWh) since peaking in 2008. Within that total, coal has dropped by 115TWh (97%) and gas by 80TWh (45%).

These declines have been caused by the rapid expansion of renewable energy (up six-fold since 2008, some 113TWh) and by lower electricity demand (down 21% since 2008, some 83TWh).

As a result, fossil fuels made up just 33% of UK electricity supplies in 2023 – their lowest ever share – of which gas was 31%, coal just over 1% and oil just below 1%.

Low-carbon sources made up 56% of the total, of which renewables were 43% and nuclear 13%. The remainder is from imports (7%) and other sources (3%), such as waste incineration.

Overall, the electricity generated in the UK in 2023 had the lowest-ever carbon intensity, with an average of 162g of carbon dioxide per kilowatt hour (gCO2/kWh).

This remains a long way from the government’s ambition for 95% low-carbon electricity by 2030 – just seven years from now – and a fully decarbonised grid by 2035.

Fossil falls

Historically, fossil-fuel generation rose steadily as the size of the UK’s economy expanded – and, relatedly, as demand for electricity grew.

The rise in demand for electricity paused during the late 1970s and 1980s, as the country’s economic situation and industrial relations worsened. Yet the upwards march soon resumed.

Electricity demand then started to “decouple” from economic growth in the early 2000s, leading to a peak in 2005. Since then, demand has dropped precipitously, falling from 396TWh in 2008 to 313TWh in 2023, as shown by the dark blue line in the figure below.

This reduction in demand of 83TWh (21%) is equivalent to more than three times the expected output of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant, which is currently being built in Somerset.

Demand reductions are the result of a poorly understood combination of more efficient appliances and lighting, high prices driven by expensive gas and changes in the structure of the UK as it shifts to an ever more service-led rather than manufacturing-heavy economy.

(In the medium- to long-term, electricity demand is expected to rise as transport and heating are increasingly electrified using electric vehicles and heat pumps.)

While electricity demand was falling, the UK was also starting to rapidly scale its renewable energy capacity, primarily from wind, but also from solar and bioenergy.

As a result, renewable electricity output climbed six-fold from 23TWh in 2008 to 135TWh in 2023, shown by the red line in the chart below.

The combined impact of falling demand (-83TWh) and rising renewables (+113TWh) has acted as a pincer on electricity generation from fossil fuels, squeezing it from two directions.

Having peaked at 303TWh in 2008, the UK got just 104TWh of electricity from fossil fuels in 2023 – as shown by the steep black line in the figure below – a two-thirds reduction in 15 years. This takes fossil-fuel generation to its lowest level since 1957.

UK electricity from fossil fuels drops to lowest level since 1957
Annual UK electricity generation from fossil fuels (black) and renewables (red), TWh, as well as overall demand (dark blue). Source: DESNZ, BM Reports and Carbon Brief analysis.

In 1957, the Conservative party’s Harold Macmillan was elected UK prime minister in January following Anthony Eden’s resignation due to ill health.

That same year, the Central Electricity Generating Board was established ‘to keep the lights on’. It was responsible for electricity generation, transmission and bulk sales in England and Wales up until the electricity sector was privatised in the 1990s.

The world’s first commercial nuclear power station, at Calder Hall in Cumbria, had just opened its second unit, yet fossil fuels still supplied 97% of the UK’s electricity.

Also that year, the Suez canal was reopened, “Sputnik 1” – the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth – was launched by the Soviet Union and the UK government unveiled plans to allow women to join the House of Lords for the first time.

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Shifting shares

For most of the past century, fossil fuels generated almost all of the UK’s electricity, as shown by the black line in the figure below. Fossil fuels – predominantly coal – made up 97% of the total in 1957, a figure that had barely changed for decades.

The rise of nuclear power (dark blue line) from the late 1950s onwards – after Calder Hall opened in 1956 – pushed the fossil fuel share downwards.

Yet electricity demand continued to grow and the earliest nuclear reactors were starting to shut down by the early 2000s, with only Sizewell B in Suffolk, in 1995, having replaced them.

With renewables still in their infancy, this meant that, in 2008, the UK was still getting 76% of its electricity from fossil fuels. Of this, 45% was from gas and 30% from coal.

Since then, fossil fuels’ share has dropped to a record-low 33% in 2023, being overtaken by renewables in the process (red line).

Renewables’ share reached a record high of 43% in 2023, with nuclear (13%, light blue line), imports (7%) and other sources (3%) making up the remainder.

Fossil fuels met a record-low 33% of UK electricity needs in 2023
Share of electricity generation from fossil fuels (black), renewables (red) and nuclear (light blue), %. Source: DESNZ, BM Reports and Carbon Brief analysis.

The total share from low-carbon sources – renewables and nuclear – was 56% in 2023. This was down one point from the record 57% share in 2022, as a result of a drop in nuclear output.

The current government’s ambition is to get 95% of the country’s electricity from low-carbon sources by 2030, which would mean an increase of 39 percentage points in seven years.

To date, the fastest rate of increase has been 25 percentage points in seven years, achieved between 2010 (23% low-carbon) and 2017 (48%).

The aim is then to fully decarbonise the grid by 2035. The opposition Labour Party’s aim is even more ambitious, hoping to fully decarbonise the electricity grid already by 2030. This would be a 44 percentage point increase in seven years.

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Renewable rise

The rise of renewables since 2008 has been nearly as steep as the fall for fossil fuels, as shown by the red line in the figure below.

Notably, however, since reaching 134TWh in 2020, renewables have effectively stood still, with output of 135TWh in 2023, matching the record 135TWh set in 2022.

This reflects the balance between continued increases in wind and solar capacity, variations in average weather conditions and reduced output in the past two years from bioenergy.

The 135TWh of renewable electricity in 2023 was made up of:

  • 82TWh from wind (up 2TWh year-on-year, a 2% increase);
  • 35TWh from bioenergy (down 5TWh and 13% from 2021 levels);
  • 14TWh from solar (up 2% year-on-year);
  • 5TWh from hydro (down 1TWh year-on-year, a 9% drop).

At the same time, coal has nearly disappeared from the UK electricity system, falling from 119TWh in 2008 to 4TWh in 2023 (down 115TWh, 97%), shown by the black line below.

Gas, meanwhile, is now down to levels rarely seen since the mid-1990s (grey line), falling from 178TWh in 2008 to just 98TWh in 2023 (down 80TWh, 45%).

Nuclear also continues to decline, reaching 41TWh in 2023, a 7TWh reduction year-on-year (15%) from already low levels, after Hinkley Point B in Somerset closed down and the remaining five stations were temporarily offline for planned maintenance outages.

Renewables are the largest contributor to UK electricity needs
Top: Annual UK electricity generation by source, TWh. Bottom: Share of electricity generation by source, %. The jump in generation in 1951 reflects a change in the scope of the data, which only included “major” power producers prior to that date. The spikes in 1984 reflect the substitution of coal with oil as part of the government’s strategy against the miners’ strikes. Source: DESNZ, BM Reports and Carbon Brief analysis.

Capacity for both onshore and offshore wind projects rose in 2023, by 0.6GW and 1.1GW, respectively.

Average wind speeds in the first 11 months of 2023 were well below the long-term average however, according to government figures, whereas 2022 had only been marginally below average. This muted overall generation growth over the last year somewhat.

A windy December helped boost overall generation figures for the year, with a new wind generation record provisionally set on 21 December according to National Grid ESO. Wind generation hit 21.8GW between 8:00 and 8:30 on 21 December, providing 56% of the generation mix.

Notably, only one offshore windfarm was completed in 2023 – the 1GW Seagreen development off the east coast of Scotland – whereas three projects totalling 3GW were commissioned in 2022.

In October 2023, Dogger Bank off the coast of Yorkshire sent power to the national grid for the first time. It will be the world’s largest offshore windfarm, at 3.6GW, when it is completed in 2026.

Nevertheless, the government’s ambition for 50GW of offshore wind by 2030 is in doubt after the latest auction for new renewable capacity failed to secure any additional projects.

For bioenergy, the 35TWh in 2023 was similar to the level delivered in 2022, but down from 40TWh in 2020 and 2021. Plant biomass – mainly woodchips – is around two-thirds of these annual totals.

The four wood-burning former coal units at the Drax plant in Yorkshire account for around one-third of power from bioenergy on their own. However, their output has been subdued in 2022 and 2023, with some reporting having raised questions about the incentives at play.

Meanwhile, electricity generation from solar power only increased by 2% in 2023, despite a surge in new capacity being connected to the grid.

The number of hours of sunshine during 2023 was roughly in line with the long-term average, government figures show, whereas 2022 had been unusually sunny.

According to figures from consultancy Rystad Energy cited by Drax Electric Insights, the UK’s solar capacity was expected to rise from 15GW at the start of 2023 to 18GW by the end of the year.

Recent growth in solar installations comes after an extended period of stagnation, with installed capacity having reached 13GW in 2018 and only climbing to 14GW in 2022.

Rystad Energy expects UK solar capacity to continue accelerating, topping 25GW in 2025.

The latest reduction in coal generation, down another 33% in 2023, came as three of the UK’s four remaining coal-fired power stations shut down.

Dr Simon Evans on X: Not sure if you noticed, but as of yesterday, the UK only had one coal-fired power station remaining
Dr Simon Evans on X: Not sure if you noticed, but as of yesterday, the UK only had one coal-fired power station remaining

West Burton in Nottinghamshire closed in March, then Drax in Yorkshire closed in April, followed by Kilroot in Northern Ireland at the end of September.

Only Ratcliffe in Nottinghamshire, operated by utility firm Uniper, remains operational. It plans to close in September 2024, ahead of the government’s ambition to end coal power by October 2024.

While the UK saw a major coal-to-gas transition in the 1990s “dash for gas”, recent reductions in coal use have been driven by renewables and reduced demand. These same forces have also been driving gas out of the mix.

The large drop in gas generation in 2023 of 27TWh (21%) reflects a combination of this longer-term trend with a one-off flip in the UK’s electricity imports.

The dip in the dark blue line for “oil, imports and other” in 2022 is due to the UK becoming a net electricity exporter that year for the first time ever.

Every year since the opening of the first “interconnector” linking the grids of the UK and France in 1986, the UK has been a net electricity importer – apart from 2022.

The switch in 2022 was due to widespread outages in the French nuclear fleet, with neighbouring countries including the UK picking up the slack.

In 2023, the UK reverted to being a net importer, buying 23TWh of electricity from countries including France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Norway. This was similar to 2021 (25TWh).

The switch from being a net exporter of 5TWh in 2022 to net imports of 23TWh in 2023 combined with steady output from renewables and falling demand to push down the need for fossil fuels.

The UK now has 8.4 gigawatts (GW) of interconnector capacity to link its electricity system with that of neighbouring countries. Some 4.4GW of this has been added in the past five years.

In addition, the 1.4GW Viking Link interconnector between the UK and Denmark was completed in late 2023, and started operating on 29 December.

Another 4.7GW has regulatory approval, with further projects totalling 5.6GW also planned.

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Cleanest power

With fossil fuels reaching a record-low 33% share and coal down to 1% of the total, the UK saw its lowest-carbon electricity mix ever in 2023.

The carbon intensity of electricity – in other words, the amount of CO2 associated with each unit of electricity – fell to a record-low 162gCO2/kWh in 2023, a reduction of 18% year-on-year.

This continues a longer-term trend, shown in the figure below. In the early years of the series, the reductions in carbon intensity reflect a shift towards more efficient power plants.

The expansion of nuclear power in the 1970s and 1980s was followed by the “dash for gas”, which is lower-carbon than coal. From around 2008, the decline is due to the rise of renewables.

Electricity generated in 2023 was the cleanest ever
Carbon intensity of UK electricity supplies, gCO/kWh. Source: DESNZ, BM Reports and Carbon Brief analysis.

The government had earlier set a goal of reducing the carbon intensity of electricity generation to below 100gCO2/kWh by 2030. Since then, the UK’s 2050 climate target has been strengthened from an 80% cut in emissions to a 100% cut – reaching net-zero by that date.

If the government reaches its aim of 95% low-carbon electricity by 2030 then the carbon intensity of generation would fall to well-below 100gCO2/kWh. Just how far below would depend on the contribution from bioenergy and whether CO2 associated with imported electricity is counted.

The figure above counts bioenergy lifecycle emissions and imports towards the total.

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Methodology

The figures in the article are from Carbon Brief analysis of data from DESNZ Energy Trends chapter 5 and chapter 6, as well as from BM Reports. The figures from BM Reports are for electricity supplied to the grid in Great Britain only and are adjusted to include Northern Ireland.

In Carbon Brief’s analysis, the BM Reports numbers are also adjusted to account for electricity used by power plants on site and for generation by plants not connected to the high-voltage national grid. This includes many onshore windfarms, as well as industrial gas combined heat and power plants and those burning landfill gas, waste or sewage gas.

The analysis of carbon intensity is based on the methodology published by National Grid ESO, but also takes account of fuel use efficiency for earlier years.

DESNZ historical electricity data, including years before 2009, is adjusted in line with other figures and combined with data on imports from a separate DESNZ dataset. Note that the data prior to 1951 only includes “major” power producers.

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Greenhouse Gases

Cropped 25 February 2026: Food inflation strikes | El Niño looms | Biodiversity talks stagnate

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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

Food inflation on the rise

DELUGE STRIKES FOOD: Extreme rainfall and flooding across the Mediterranean and north Africa has “battered the winter growing regions that feed Europe…threatening food price rises”, reported the Financial Times. Western France has “endured more than 36 days of continuous rain”, while farmers’ associations in Spain’s Andalusia estimate that “20% of all production has been lost”, it added. Policy expert David Barmes told the paper that the “latest storms were part of a wider pattern of climate shocks feeding into food price inflation”.

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  • Sign up to Carbon Brief’s free “Cropped” email newsletter. A fortnightly digest of food, land and nature news and views. Sent to your inbox every other Wednesday.

NO BEEF: The UK’s beef farmers, meanwhile, “face a double blow” from climate change as “relentless rain forces them to keep cows indoors”, while last summer’s drought hit hay supplies, said another Financial Times article. At the same time, indoor growers in south England described a 60% increase in electricity standing charges as a “ticking timebomb” that could “force them to raise their prices or stop production, which will further fuel food price inflation”, wrote the Guardian.

TINDERBOX’ AND TARIFFS: A study, covered by the Guardian, warned that major extreme weather and other “shocks” could “spark social unrest and even food riots in the UK”. Experts cited “chronic” vulnerabilities, including climate change, low incomes, poor farming policy and “fragile” supply chains that have made the UK’s food system a “tinderbox”. A New York Times explainer noted that while trade could once guard against food supply shocks, barriers such as tariffs and export controls – which are being “increasingly” used by politicians – “can shut off that safety valve”.

El Niño looms

NEW ENSO INDEX: Researchers have developed a new index for calculating El Niño, the large-scale climate pattern that influences global weather and causes “billions in damages by bringing floods to some regions and drought to others”, reported CNN. It added that climate change is making it more difficult for scientists to observe El Niño patterns by warming up the entire ocean. The outlet said that with the new metric, “scientists can now see it earlier and our long-range weather forecasts will be improved for it.”

WARMING WARNING: Meanwhile, the US Climate Prediction Center announced that there is a 60% chance of the current La Niña conditions shifting towards a neutral state over the next few months, with an El Niño likely to follow in late spring, according to Reuters. The Vibes, a Malaysian news outlet, quoted a climate scientist saying: “If the El Niño does materialise, it could possibly push 2026 or 2027 as the warmest year on record, replacing 2024.”

CROP IMPACTS: Reuters noted that neutral conditions lead to “more stable weather and potentially better crop yields”. However, the newswire added, an El Niño state would mean “worsening drought conditions and issues for the next growing season” to Australia. El Niño also “typically brings a poor south-west monsoon to India, including droughts”, reported the Hindu’s Business Line. A 2024 guest post for Carbon Brief explained that El Niño is linked to crop failure in south-eastern Africa and south-east Asia.

News and views

  • DAM-AG-ES: Several South Korean farmers filed a lawsuit against the country’s state-owned utility company, “seek[ing] financial compensation for climate-related agricultural damages”, reported United Press International. Meanwhile, a national climate change assessment for the Philippines found that the country “lost up to $219bn in agricultural damages from typhoons, floods and droughts” over 2000-10, according to Eco-Business.
  • SCORCHED GRASS: South Africa’s Western Cape province is experiencing “one of the worst droughts in living memory”, which is “scorching grass and killing livestock”, said Reuters. The newswire wrote: “In 2015, a drought almost dried up the taps in the city; farmers say this one has been even more brutal than a decade ago.”
  • NOUVELLE VEG: New guidelines published under France’s national food, nutrition and climate strategy “urged” citizens to “limit” their meat consumption, reported Euronews. The delayed strategy comes a month after the US government “upended decades of recommendations by touting consumption of red meat and full-fat dairy”, it noted. 
  • COURTING DISASTER: India’s top green court accepted the findings of a committee that “found no flaws” in greenlighting the Great Nicobar project that “will lead to the felling of a million trees” and translocating corals, reported Mongabay. The court found “no good ground to interfere”, despite “threats to a globally unique biodiversity hotspot” and Indigenous tribes at risk of displacement by the project, wrote Frontline.
  • FISH FALLING: A new study found that fish biomass is “falling by 7.2% from as little as 0.1C of warming per decade”, noted the Guardian. While experts also pointed to the role of overfishing in marine life loss, marine ecologist and study lead author Dr Shahar Chaikin told the outlet: “Our research proves exactly what that biological cost [of warming] looks like underwater.” 
  • TOO HOT FOR COFFEE: According to new analysis by Climate Central, countries where coffee beans are grown “are becoming too hot to cultivate them”, reported the Guardian. The world’s top five coffee-growing countries faced “57 additional days of coffee-harming heat” annually because of climate change, it added.

Spotlight

Nature talks inch forward

This week, Carbon Brief covers the latest round of negotiations under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which occurred in Rome over 16-19 February.

The penultimate set of biodiversity negotiations before October’s Conference of the Parties ended in Rome last week, leaving plenty of unfinished business.

The CBD’s subsidiary body on implementation (SBI) met in the Italian capital for four days to discuss a range of issues, including biodiversity finance and reviewing progress towards the nature targets agreed under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).

However, many of the major sticking points – particularly around finance – will have to wait until later this summer, leaving some observers worried about the capacity for delegates to get through a packed agenda at COP17.

The SBI, along with the subsidiary body on scientific, technical and technological advice (SBSTTA) will both meet in Nairobi, Kenya, later this summer for a final round of talks before COP17 kicks off in Yerevan, Armenia, on 19 October.

Money talks

Finance for nature has long been a sticking point at negotiations under the CBD.

Discussions on a new fund for biodiversity derailed biodiversity talks in Cali, Colombia, in autumn 2024, requiring resumed talks a few months later.

Despite this, finance was barely on the agenda at the SBI meetings in Rome. Delegates discussed three studies on the relationship between debt sustainability and implementation of nature plans, but the more substantive talks are set to take place at the next SBI meeting in Nairobi.

Several parties “highlighted concerns with the imbalance of work” on finance between these SBI talks and the next ones, reported Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB).

Lim Li Ching, senior researcher at Third World Network, noted that tensions around finance permeated every aspect of the talks. She told Carbon Brief:

“If you’re talking about the gender plan of action – if there’s little or no financial resources provided to actually put it into practice and implement it, then it’s [just] paper, right? Same with the reporting requirements and obligations.”

Monitoring and reporting

Closely linked to the issue of finance is the obligations of parties to report on their progress towards the goals and targets of the GBF.

Parties do so through the submission of national reports.

Several parties at the talks pointed to a lack of timely funding for driving delays in their reporting, according to ENB.

A note released by the CBD Secretariat in December said that no parties had submitted their national reports yet; by the time of the SBI meetings, only the EU had. It further noted that just 58 parties had submitted their national biodiversity plans, which were initially meant to be published by COP16, in October 2024.

Linda Krueger, director of biodiversity and infrastructure policy at the environmental not-for-profit Nature Conservancy, told Carbon Brief that despite the sparse submissions, parties are “very focused on the national report preparation”. She added:

“Everybody wants to be able to show that we’re on the path and that there still is a pathway to getting to 2030 that’s positive and largely in the right direction.”

Watch, read, listen

NET LOSS: Nigeria’s marine life is being “threatened” by “ghost gear” – nets and other fishing equipment discarded in the ocean – said Dialogue Earth.

COMEBACK CAUSALITY: A Vox long-read looked at whether Costa Rica’s “payments for ecosystem services” programme helped the country turn a corner on deforestation.

HOMEGROWN GOALS: A Straits Times podcast discussed whether import-dependent Singapore can afford to shelve its goal to produce 30% of its food locally by 2030.

‘RUSTING’ RIVERS: The Financial Times took a closer look at a “strange new force blighting the [Arctic] landscape”: rivers turning rust-orange due to global warming.

New science

  • Lakes in the Congo Basin’s peatlands are releasing carbon that is thousands of years old | Nature Geoscience
  • Natural non-forest ecosystems – such as grasslands and marshlands – were converted for agriculture at four times the rate of land with tree cover between 2005 and 2020 | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • Around one-quarter of global tree-cover loss over 2001-22 was driven by cropland expansion, pastures and forest plantations for commodity production | Nature Food

In the diary

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 25 February 2026: Food inflation strikes | El Niño looms | Biodiversity talks stagnate appeared first on Carbon Brief.

Cropped 25 February 2026: Food inflation strikes | El Niño looms | Biodiversity talks stagnate

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Dangerous heat for Tour de France riders only a ‘question of time’

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Rising temperatures across France since the mid-1970s is putting Tour de France competitors at “high risk”, according to new research.

The study, published in Scientific Reports, uses 50 years of climate data to calculate the potential heat stress that athletes have been exposed to across a dozen different locations during the world-famous cycling race.

The researchers find that both the severity and frequency of high-heat-stress events have increased across France over recent decades.

But, despite record-setting heatwaves in France, the heat-stress threshold for safe competition has rarely been breached in any particular city on the day the Tour passed through.

(This threshold was set out by cycling’s international governing body in 2024.)

However, the researchers add it is “only a question of time” until this occurs as average temperatures in France continue to rise.

The lead author of the study tells Carbon Brief that, while the race organisers have been fortunate to avoid major heat stress on race days so far, it will be “harder and harder to be lucky” as extreme heat becomes more common.

‘Iconic’

The Tour de France is one of the world’s most storied cycling races and the oldest of Europe’s three major multi-week cycling competitions, or Grand Tours.

Riders cover around 3,500 kilometres (km) of distance and gain up to nearly 55km of altitude over 21 stages, with only two or three rest days throughout the gruelling race.

The researchers selected the Tour de France because it is the “iconic bike race. It is the bike race of bike races,” says Dr Ivana Cvijanovic, a climate scientist at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development, who led the new work.

Heat has become a growing problem for the competition in recent years.

In 2022, Alexis Vuillermoz, a French competitor, collapsed at the finish line of the Tour’s ninth stage, leaving in an ambulance and subsequently pulling out of the race entirely.

Two years later, British cyclist Sir Mark Cavendish vomited on his bike during the first stage of the race after struggling with the 36C heat.

The Tour also makes a good case study because it is almost entirely held during the month of July and, while the route itself changes, there are many cities and stages that are repeated from year to year, Cvijanovic adds.

‘Have to be lucky’

The study focuses on the 50-year span between 1974 and 2023.

The researchers select six locations across the country that have commonly hosted the Tour, from the mountain pass of Col du Tourmalet, in the French Pyrenees, to the city of Paris – where the race finishes, along the Champs-Élysées.

These sites represent a broad range of climatic zones: Alpe d’ Huez, Bourdeaux, Col du Tourmalet, Nîmes, Paris and Toulouse.

For each location, they use meteorological reanalysis data from ERA5 and radiant temperature data from ERA5-HEAT to calculate the “wet-bulb globe temperature” (WBGT) for multiple times of day across the month of July each year.

WBGT is a heat-stress index that takes into account temperature, humidity, wind speed and direct sunlight.

Although there is “no exact scientific consensus” on the best heat-stress index to use, WBGT is “one of the rare indicators that has been originally developed based on the actual human response to heat”, Cvijanovic explains.

It is also the one that the International Cycling Union (UCI) – the world governing body for sport cycling – uses to assess risk. A WBGT of 28C or higher is classified as “high risk” by the group.

WBGT is the “gold standard” for assessing heat stress, says Dr Jessica Murfree, director of the ACCESS Research Laboratory and assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Murfree, who was not involved in the new study, adds that the researchers are “doing the right things by conducting their science in alignment with the business practices that are already happening”.

The researchers find that across the 50-year time period, WBGT has been increasing across the entire country – albeit, at different rates. In the north-west of the country, WBGT has increased at an average rate of 0.1C per decade, while in the southern and eastern parts of the country, it has increased by more than 0.5C per decade.

The maps below show the maximum July WBGT for each decade of the analysis (rows) and for hourly increments of the late afternoon (columns). Lower temperatures are shown in lighter greens and yellows, while higher temperatures are shown in darker reds and purples.

Six Tour de France locations analysed in the study are shown as triangles on the maps (clockwise from top): Paris, Alpe d’ Huez, Nîmes, Toulouse, Col du Tourmalet and Bordeaux.

The maps show that the maximum WBGT temperature in the afternoon has surpassed 28C over almost the entire country in the last decade. The notable exceptions to this are the mountainous regions of the Alps and the Pyrenees.

Maximum WBGT across France for the month of July from 1974-2023. Rows show the values for each decade and columns show the hourly values for 3:00pm, 4:00pm, 5:00pm and 6:00pm. Lower temperatures are shown in lighter greens and yellows, while higher temperatures are shown in darker reds and purples. Triangles indicate the six Tour de France locations analysed in the study. Source: Cvijanovic et al. (2026)

The researchers also find that most of the country has crossed the 28C WBGT threshold – which they describe as “dangerous heat levels” – on at least one July day over the past decade. However, by looking at the WBGT on the day the Tour passed through any of these six locations, they find that the threshold has rarely been breached during the race itself.

For example, the research notes that, since 1974, Paris has seen a WBGT of 28C five times at 3pm in July – but that these events have “so far” not coincided with the cycling race.

The study states that it is “fortunate” that the Tour has so far avoided the worst of the heat-stress.

Cvijanovic says the organisers and competitors have been “lucky” to date. She adds:

“It has worked really well for them so far. But as the frequency of these [extreme heat] events is increasing, it will be harder and harder to be lucky.”

Dr Madeleine Orr, an assistant professor of sport ecology at the University of Toronto who was not involved in the study, tells Carbon Brief that the paper was “really well done”, noting that its “methods are good [and its] approach was sound”. She adds:

“[The Tour has] had athletes complain about [the heat]. They’ve had athletes collapse – and still those aren’t the worst conditions. I think that that says a lot about what we consider safe. They’ve still been lucky to not see what unsafe looks like, despite [the heat] having already had impacts.”

Heat safety protocols

In 2024, the UCI set out its first-ever high temperature protocol – a set of guidelines for race organisers to assess athletes’ risk of heat stress.

The assessment places the potential risk into one of five categories based on the WBGT, ranging from very low to high risk.

The protocol then sets out suggested actions to take in the event of extreme heat, ranging from having athletes complete their warm-ups using ice vests and cold towels to increasing the number of support vehicles providing water and ice.

If the WBGT climbs above the 28C mark, the protocol suggests that organisers modify the start time of the stage, adapt the course to remove particularly hazardous sections – or even cancel the race entirely.

However, Orr notes that many other parts of the race, such as spectator comfort and equipment functioning, may have lower temperatures thresholds that are not accounted for in the protocol, but should also be considered.

Murfree points out that the study’s findings – and the heat protocol itself – are “really focused on adaptation, rather than mitigation”. While this is “to be expected”, she tells Carbon Brief:

“Moving to earlier start times or adjusting the route specifically to avoid these locations that score higher in heat stress doesn’t stop the heat stress. These aren’t climate preventative measures. That, I think, would be a much more difficult conversation to have in the research because of the Tour de France’s intimate relationship with fossil-fuel companies.”

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Dangerous heat for Tour de France riders only a ‘question of time’

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DeBriefed 20 February 2026: EU’s ‘3C’ warning | Endangerment repeal’s impact on US emissions | ‘Tree invasion’ fuelled South America’s fires

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

This week

Preparing for 3C

NEW ALERT: The EU’s climate advisory board urged countries to prepare for 3C of global warming, reported the Guardian. The outlet quoted Maarten van Aalst, a member of the advisory board, saying that adapting to this future is a “daunting task, but, at the same time, quite a doable task”. The board recommended the creation of “climate risk assessments and investments in protective measures”.

‘INSUFFICIENT’ ACTION: EFE Verde added that the advisory board said that the EU’s adaptation efforts were so far “insufficient, fragmented and reactive” and “belated”. Climate impacts are expected to weaken the bloc’s productivity, put pressure on public budgets and increase security risks, it added.

UNDERWATER: Meanwhile, France faced “unprecedented” flooding this week, reported Le Monde. The flooding has inundated houses, streets and fields and forced the evacuation of around 2,000 people, according to the outlet. The Guardian quoted Monique Barbut, minister for the ecological transition, saying: “People who follow climate issues have been warning us for a long time that events like this will happen more often…In fact, tomorrow has arrived.”

IEA ‘erases’ climate

MISSING PRIORITY: The US has “succeeded” in removing climate change from the main priorities of the International Energy Agency (IEA) during a “tense ministerial meeting” in Paris, reported Politico. It noted that climate change is not listed among the agency’s priorities in the “chair’s summary” released at the end of the two-day summit.

US INTERVENTION: Bloomberg said the meeting marked the first time in nine years the IEA failed to release a communique setting out a unified position on issues – opting instead for the chair’s summary. This came after US energy secretary Chris Wright gave the organisation a one-year deadline to “scrap its support of goals to reduce energy emissions to net-zero” – or risk losing the US as a member, according to Reuters.

Around the world

  • ISLAND OBJECTION: The US is pressuring Vanuatu to withdraw a draft resolution supporting an International Court of Justice ruling on climate change, according to Al Jazeera.
  • GREENLAND HEAT: The Associated Press reported that Greenland’s capital Nuuk had its hottest January since records began 109 years ago.
  • CHINA PRIORITIES: China’s Energy Administration set out its five energy priorities for 2026-2030, including developing a renewable energy plan, said International Energy Net.
  • AMAZON REPRIEVE: Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has continued to fall into early 2026, extending a downward trend, according to the latest satellite data covered by Mongabay.
  • GEZANI DESTRUCTION: Reuters reported the aftermath of the Gezani cyclone, which ripped through Madagascar last week, leaving 59 dead and more than 16,000 displaced people.

20cm

The average rise in global sea levels since 1901, according to a Carbon Brief guest post on the challenges in projecting future rises.


Latest climate research

  • Wildfire smoke poses negative impacts on organisms and ecosystems, such as health impacts on air-breathing animals, changes in forests’ carbon storage and coral mortality | Global Ecology and Conservation
  • As climate change warms Antarctica throughout the century, the Weddell Sea could see the growth of species such as krill and fish and remain habitable for Emperor penguins | Nature Climate Change
  • About 97% of South American lakes have recorded “significant warming” over the past four decades and are expected to experience rising temperatures and more frequent heatwaves | Climatic Change

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

Captured

US emissions, MtCO2e, under a “current policy” scenario in which the EPA removes key federal climate regulations

Repealing the US’s landmark “endangerment finding”, along with actions that rely on that finding, will slow the pace of US emissions cuts, according to Rhodium Group visualised by Carbon Brief. US president Donald Trump last week formally repealed the scientific finding that underpins federal regulations on greenhouse gas emissions, although the move is likely to face legal challenges. Data from the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm, shows that US emissions will drop more slowly without climate regulations. However, even with climate regulations, emissions are expected to drop much slower under Trump than under the previous Joe Biden administration, according to the analysis.

Spotlight

How a ‘tree invasion’ helped to fuel South America’s fires

This week, Carbon Brief explores how the “invasion” of non-native tree species helped to fan the flames of forest fires in Argentina and Chile earlier this year.

Since early January, Chile and Argentina have faced large-scale and deadly wildfires, including in Patagonia, which spans both countries.

These fires have been described as “some of the most significant and damaging in the region”, according to a World Weather Attribution (WWA) analysis covered by Carbon Brief.

In both countries, the fires destroyed vast areas of native forests and grasslands, displacing thousands of people. In Chile, the fires resulted in 23 deaths.

Firefighters spray water on homes in Vina del Mar, Chile.
Firefighters spray water on homes in Vina del Mar, Chile. Credit: Esteban Felix / Alamy Stock Photo

Multiple drivers contributed to the spread of the fires, including extended periods of high temperatures, low rainfall and abundant dry vegetation.

The WWA analysis concluded that human-caused climate change made these weather conditions at least three times more likely.

According to the researchers, another contributing factor was the invasion of non-native trees in the regions where the fires occurred.

The risk of non-native forests

In Argentina, the wildfires began on 6 January and persisted until the first week of February. They hit the city of Puerto Patriada and the Los Alerces and Lago Puelo national parks, in the Chubut province, as well as nearby regions.

In these areas, more than 45,000 hectares of native forests – such as Patagonian alerce tree, myrtle, coigüe and ñire – along with scrubland and grasslands, were consumed by the flames, according to the WWA study.

In Chile, forest fires occurred from 17 to 19 January in the Biobío, Ñuble and Araucanía regions.

The fires destroyed more than 40,000 hectares of forest and more than 20,000 hectares of non-native forest plantations, including eucalyptus and Monterey pine.

Dr Javier Grosfeld, a researcher at Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) in northern Patagonia, told Carbon Brief that these species, introduced to Patagonia for production purposes in the late 20th century, grow quickly and are highly flammable.

Because of this, their presence played a role in helping the fires to spread more quickly and grow larger.

However, that is no reason to “demonise” them, he stressed.

Forest management

For Grosfeld, the problem in northern Patagonia, Argentina, is a significant deficit in the management of forests and forest plantations.

This management should include pruning branches from their base and controlling the spread of non-native species, he added.

A similar situation is happening in Chile, where management of pine and eucalyptus plantations is not regulated. This means there are no “firebreaks” – gaps in vegetation – in place to prevent fire spread, Dr Gabriela Azócar, a researcher at the University of Chile’s Centre for Climate and Resilience Research (CR2), told Carbon Brief.

She noted that, although Mapuche Indigenous communities in central-south Chile are knowledgeable about native species and manage their forests, their insight and participation are not recognised in the country’s fire management and prevention policies.

Grosfeld stated:

“We are seeing the transformation of the Patagonian landscape from forest to scrubland in recent years. There is a lack of preventive forestry measures, as well as prevention and evacuation plans.”

Watch, read, listen

FUTURE FURNACE: A Guardian video explored the “unbearable experience of walking in a heatwave in the future”.

THE FUN SIDE: A Channel 4 News video covered a new wave of climate comedians who are using digital platforms such as TikTok to entertain and raise awareness.

ICE SECRETS: The BBC’s Climate Question podcast explored how scientists study ice cores to understand what the climate was like in ancient times and how to use them to inform climate projections.

Coming up

Pick of the jobs

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 20 February 2026: EU’s ‘3C’ warning | Endangerment repeal’s impact on US emissions | ‘Tree invasion’ fuelled South America’s fires appeared first on Carbon Brief.

DeBriefed 20 February 2026: EU’s ‘3C’ warning | Endangerment repeal’s impact on US emissions | ‘Tree invasion’ fuelled South America’s fires

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