Welcome to Carbon Brief’s China Briefing.
China Briefing handpicks and explains the most important climate and energy stories from China over the past fortnight. Subscribe for free here.
Key developments
Climate leadership and cooperation
ENVOY REMARKS: Xinhua published an exclusive interview with Chinese climate envoy Liu Zhenmin, in which he spoke about how China-Europe cooperation could make a “positive contribution” to combating climate change. In the interview, Liu said that developed countries were “generally worried about who will share the responsibilities that the US should bear” after its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, adding that China “deeply regretted” the “shrinking space” for US-China climate cooperation. The outlet quoted Liu saying: “However, we must see that China and the US do not have fundamental differences in the field of climate change, but rather have broad space for cooperation.”
EU AMBIVELANCE: Meanwhile, the EU’s ambassador to China, Jorge Toledo, warned that the EU may not hold an expected “high-level economic [and] trade dialogue” with China in July, due to current negotiations over Chinese EV tariffs and supply chains “not making progress”, reported the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP). European countries, such as the Netherlands, France and Germany, on the other hand, have expressed interest in more collaboration in areas such as climate and the low-carbon transition, said state-supporting media the Global Times. Belinda Schäpe, China policy analyst at Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), nevertheless wrote on LinkedIn that while both China and Germany “expressed support” for tackling climate change, it is “unclear how this will translate into Germany’s position on cooperation in areas like energy transition or climate diplomacy”.
EARLY PEAK?: China’s emissions will “likely peak a few years ahead of its self-set deadline of 2030”, Bloomberg said, reporting comments by Zhu Guangyao, who was the country’s vice minister of finance from 2010-2018 and who cited analysis recently published by Carbon Brief. The outlet quoted Zhu saying: “It’s most likely China will realise the peak of carbon emissions a few years before 2030…That’s good news for China, also good news for Asia, for the whole world.” Meanwhile, the SCMP published a comment article by former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon on China’s “green energy leadership”. In the article, Ban called on China to target a 30% reduction in emissions below 2023 levels by 2035 in its next international climate pledge (nationally determined contribution, NDC).
New plan for ‘green’ manufacturing
‘GREEN TRANSFORMATION’: China’s central government approved an action plan for “advancing the green and low-carbon development” of the manufacturing sector between 2025 and 2027 at a State Council executive meeting, reported state news agency Xinhua. The full text of the action plan is not yet public. The meeting called for “deep[ening the] green transformation of traditional industries” while “accelerat[ing] innovation in green technologies”, added the outlet. The state-owned newspaper Securities Daily said that the policy extends “intensive” regulatory support and will affect a range of industries, including steel, metals and construction. About 20% of the “total output of China’s manufacturing industry” in 2024 had already come from “national-level green [factory] plants”, added the newspaper. (According to the “general principals” outlined by the Chinese government, such plants have tighter requirements on their emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.)
RECTIFY THE ‘RAT RACE’: Meanwhile, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) commented on “neijuan” (内卷) – officially translated as “rat race competition” that leads to oversupply in affected industries, including clean energy, steel and oil refining, reported Xinhua. According to the newswire, the NDRC said at its May press conference that this “rat race” had “disrupted” fair competition and “must be rectified”. According to the NDRC transcript, government officials called for eliminating “inefficient and backward production capacity” in the oil refining and steel industries, “preventing blind new construction” in the coal chemical and aluminium industries, and “guiding” “new-energy vehicle” (NEV) and solar companies to “focus on technology research and development”. Nevertheless, the officials stated that the majority of the investments the NDRC had approved from January to April this year were still in the “energy” and “advanced technology” sectors, among others, reported Chinese media outlet Dazhong News. The NDRC also said its “two new” policy “stimulated green consumption” of products such as NEVs, according to the transcript. Separately, the production of NEVs rose by 39% in April, said the Communist party-affiliated People’s Daily, adding that China’s “shift toward intelligent and green development is gaining momentum”.
‘Record’ solar added as policy deadline looms
SOLAR RUSH: China installed a “record” 105 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity between January and April 2025, industry outlet PV Tech said, citing a recent data release by the National Energy Administration (NEA). It added that “April alone” accounted for 45GW of new additions – compared to a total of 46GW solar installations in China between January and March 2024 – as a deadline set by a new renewable pricing policy “triggered a project installation rush”. [Outside China, the US is the only country in the world to have more than 105GW of solar capacity in total. The UK has 18GW.]
THERMAL FALL: Analysis by thinktank Climate Energy Finance found that the amount of new solar installations between January and April was eight times larger than that of new thermal capacity (13GW, mainly coal). It added that China’s coal plants were only running 46% of the time on average in the first four months of 2025, saying that this was a “record low”. Similarly, Reuters reported that “thermal power generation in China, fuelled mainly by coal, fell 2% in April and 4% from January to April amid slower overall power output growth”. New data from energy thinktank Ember found that wind and solar power generated 26% of the country’s electricity in April 2025, the “highest monthly share on record”.
ROOFTOP ‘BOOM’: Meanwhile, separate data from consultancy Rystad Energy found that, of the 60GW of solar installed between January and March 2025, rooftop solar installations accounted for 36GW, marking the “highest quarterly total for distributed solar in [China’s] history”, solar news outlet PV Magazine reported. Industry news outlet SolarQuarter said that, according to Rystad Energy’s forecasts, the rooftop solar installation “boom” will continue through to June 2025, “potentially pushing total distributed solar capacity additions for the year to 130GW”.
SOLAR CYBER SCARE: Reuters reported that the US government is “reassessing the risk posed by Chinese-made” renewable energy components after “rogue communication devices not listed in product documents ha[d] been found in some Chinese solar power inverters by US experts”. The newswire added that it “was unable to determine how many solar power inverters and batteries they have looked at”. Following this, the Japanese government also “launched an investigation into Chinese-made solar panels”, reported SCMP. Tom Nunlist, associate director at consultancy firm Trivium China, wrote on LinkedIn that while “an industrial-scale plot to disrupt the US power grid” cannot be ruled out, it is “far more likely that we’re dealing with commonplace bill of materials errors”. He added that “given the atmosphere, I think there’s a good chance this will get blown way out of proportion”. Meanwhile, the industry association SolarPower Europe called for stronger cybersecurity rules for Europe’s clean-energy installations, following the discovery of “unexplained electronic components in imported circuit boards from an unnamed country destined for [Denmark’s] energy infrastructure”, PV Magazine said. It added that the “suspicious elements were not solar components”.
Extreme weather sweeping across China
RAIN AND FLOODING: Four people were killed by “torrential rain” in Guizhou province in southwest China and 17 people remained missing, reported Reuters on 23 May. China is facing “hotter and longer heatwaves and more frequent and unpredictable heavy rain as a result of climate change” and its “huge population” made the country “especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change, authorities have said”, added the outlet.
-
Sign up to Carbon Brief’s free “China Briefing” email newsletter. All you need to know about the latest developments relating to China and climate change. Sent to your inbox every Thursday.
EXTREME HEAT: Temperatures in north China reached as high as 43C in May, according to China Qixiang Aihaozhe, a popular scientific blog. State broadcaster CGTN reported that many places in the provinces of Henan and Hebei broke local temperature records for May and that ground temperatures in “multiple places” broke 70C on 20 May. The outlet noted that May is a “critical” period for maximising wheat harvest yields. Reuters reported that China disbursed 1.4bn yuan ($194m) for “agricultural production disaster prevention and relief”. Meanwhile, cooling demand from air conditioners could drive electricity demand to be about 100GW higher than last year, Bloomberg cited the NEA as saying. Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at CREA, posted on Bluesky that, even if this demand does disrupts the recent plateau in China’s emissions, the “structural trend” of clean-energy additions pushing overall emissions down will continue to drive reductions in the long-term.
68%
The share of China’s overseas energy investments that went to solar and wind projects between 2022-2023, reported Inside Climate News citing data from Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center. Only 13% of investments had gone into solar and wind from 2000-2021, added the outlet, noting that 2021 was the year that China pledged to stop funding overseas coal projects.
Spotlight
What is China’s ‘Shenzhen model’ for city-level low-carbon transition?
Shenzhen, a city bordering Hong Kong that is known for pioneering China’s economic reforms, is leading the country in several carbon mitigation measures and is seen as a “pilot” for the construction of “low-carbon cities”.
Carbon Brief looks back at Shenzhen’s efforts to date and assesses its progress on carbon mitigation. The full article will be available on Carbon Brief’s website.
Electric transportation
Since the 2000s, Shenzhen has developed strategies for “low-carbon development”. Part of this included nourishing the growth of a number of “strategic emerging industries”, such as “new-energy vehicles” (NEVs).
According to a government work report, Shenzhen – whose population makes up 1% of the country’s total – produced 22% of China’s NEVs in 2024. NEV also comprised 77% of the new car sales in Shenzhen last year, significantly higher than the national share of 48%.
The city has also replaced all of its buses, taxis and ride-hailing cars with electric versions – the first city to have done so in China.
Heran Zheng, lecturer in sustainable infrastructure economics and finance at University College London (UCL), told Carbon Brief that a city’s green transition mainly requires two focuses: “transport transition” and “industry decarbonisation”.
With no major heavy industries, Shenzhen has an “advantage” in industry low-carbon transition, said Zheng, which allows it to set “more ambitious” emissions targets.
Carbon control
Shenzhen was China’s “first city to explicitly state its commitment to the ‘dual control [of carbon]’ system”, according to Dialogue Earth. It issued two “implementation plans” towards this effort and developed a city-level carbon emissions cap.
Shenzhen plans to reduce its energy intensity by 14.5% before the end of 2025, compared to 2020 levels. The national energy intensity target is 13.5% during the same period.
Zheng said that Shenzhen’s commitment “should be within its capacity”, adding:
“There are three major carbon mitigation areas – steel, cement and electricity. Shenzhen has no major steel and cement industries, so it only needs to largely focus on electricity…In addition, the city is a technology hub. A lot of high-emission manufacturers have moved out of Shenzhen to its neighbouring cities.”
Another “big difference” between Shenzhen and other cities is that “Shenzhen has its own nuclear power”, said Zheng, which is “important” for the city’s electricity transition – the remaining sector that Shenzhen needs to put efforts on towards green transition.
Low-carbon energy
According to a 2021 report, nuclear power is Shenzhen’s “largest local power source”. It contributed 35% of the city’s total power generation in 2021.
Nuclear dwarfs all the other clean energy sources feeding into the city’s grid. The Shenzhen local authority’s 2025 government work report says current solar power capacity stands at about 1GW – and it does not mention wind capacity.
Its “14th five-year plan for climate change response” says that Shenzhen’s renewable energy capacity has “little room” for future growth due to “scarce” energy resources and “limited” land for wind and solar power.
In 2024, China approved the construction of more nuclear reactors in Shenzhen’s neighbouring city of Huizhou.
The Shenzhen government also aims to “raise the combined share of natural gas, nuclear and renewable energy to 90% in 2025, up from the current figure of 77%, which is noticeably ahead of the nationwide figure of 52%”, according to research published in 2022.
‘Green finance’
Shenzhen was one of the first seven cities and provinces in China that established a local “pilot” emissions trading system (ETS) in 2013, ahead of the national rollout in 2021.
Yan Qin, carbon analyst at consultancy firm ClearBlue Markets, told Carbon Brief that despite Shenzhen’s plans to expand the coverage of its ETS, most pilot ETSs are seeing their coverage “shrinking” due to enterprises leaving to join the national ETS.
In the meantime, Shenzhen issued China’s first overseas sales of “green government bonds” in 2021 in Hong Kong. In contrast, China’s national sovereign bonds were only available to international buyers from April 2025.
Zheng said that the impact of the green bonds is “hard to evaluate”. He added that projects, such as sewage treatment, can “also fall into the category of ‘green bonds’”. Although linked to energy efficiency improvement, they nonetheless make only “limited contributions” to cutting carbon emissions, he added.
‘Shenzhen model’
The local government and media outlets have touted the city’s achievements on climate as the “Shenzhen model”.
But Shenzhen’s journey is not all “replicable”, said Shen Xinyi, analyst and China team lead at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), adding that “Shenzhen capitalised on the opportunities of its era”.
Zheng said Shenzhen can “only represent a [certain] type of city in China, the ‘top tier’, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou”. He added:
“There are more than 300 cities in China, all facing unique transition situations. It is meaningless for coal-heavy industrial cities to learn from Shenzhen.”
Other cities must “adapt strategies according to their unique conditions”, Shen added.
This report is by freelancing climate journalist Henry Zhang and Carbon Brief’s China section editor Wanyuan Song.
Watch, read, listen
CRITICAL MINERALS: An episode of consulting firm Trivium China’s podcast discussed China’s critical mineral export controls.
‘MARSHALL PLAN’?: Sam Geall, Dialogue Earth’s outgoing chief executive officer, published a comment on China’s new role amidst shifting “climate politics”.
US-CHINA DECOUPLING: In an exclusive interview with Chinese financial media Caixin, Huang Hanquan, dean of the Chinese Academy of Macroeconomic Research – a thinktank under the direct management of NDRC – said there are still “risks” in US-China decoupling.
‘ZERO-CARBON’ PARKS: The 21st Century Business Herald, a Chinese media outlet, published an interview with Chai Qimin, director of the International Cooperation Department at the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, a thinktank under the China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, talking about “zero-carbon industrial parks”.
New science
Peer effects on rural household carbon emissions in China
Scientific Reports
New research found that the “peer effect” – a phenomenon where an individual’s behavior and attitudes are influenced by their peers – has a “significant positive impact” on carbon emissions in rural China. The paper quantified emissions from rural Chinese households over 2012-20 using data from “China family panel studies” and “carbon emission accounts and datasets”. The authors found that carbon emissions from “low social status families” are influenced by those of “high social status families”. They added that the “peer effect has a relatively greater impact on the carbon emissions of farmers in the eastern region”.
The impact of carbon news coverage on corporate green transformation
Scientific Reports
A new study of Chinese companies found that “carbon news coverage significantly enhances the corporate green transformation”. The authors examined the effect of “carbon news coverage” on the green transformation of “Chinese A-share listed enterprises” over 2013-21. They found that “carbon news coverage” can help enterprises with their “green transition” by “alleviating financing constraints, strengthening environmental information disclosure and increasing R&D investment”. They added that “carbon emissions trading market and carbon news coverage serve as multiple co-regulations of formal and informal environmental regulation, synergistically advancing enterprises’ green transformation”.
China Briefing is compiled by Wanyuan Song and Anika Patel. It is edited by Wanyuan Song and Dr Simon Evans. Please send tips and feedback to china@carbonbrief.org
The post China Briefing 29 May 2025: The ‘Shenzen model’; Record solar growth; NDRC rejected industrial ‘rat race’ 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.
-
Nigeria gives fossil gas a bigger role as “transition fuel” in climate plan
Officials say the country needs time and money to ramp up renewables, but critics say betting on gas is a risky strategy that could prolong the “oil curse” -
Gas flaring soars in Niger Delta post-Shell, afflicting communities
Since the multinational sold its assets in Nigeria’s oil hub, data analysis for Climate Home News shows flaring has risen, harming locals and the climate
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
-
Climate Change11 months ago
Guest post: Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop
-
Greenhouse Gases11 months ago
Guest post: Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop
-
Greenhouse Gases2 years ago嘉宾来稿：满足中国增长的用电需求 光伏加储能“比新建煤电更实惠”
-
Climate Change2 years ago嘉宾来稿：满足中国增长的用电需求 光伏加储能“比新建煤电更实惠”
-
Climate Change2 years ago
Bill Discounting Climate Change in Florida’s Energy Policy Awaits DeSantis’ Approval
-
Renewable Energy9 months agoSending Progressive Philanthropist George Soros to Prison?
-
Carbon Footprint2 years agoUS SEC’s Climate Disclosure Rules Spur Renewed Interest in Carbon Credits
-
Greenhouse Gases1 year ago
嘉宾来稿：探究火山喷发如何影响气候预测