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China Briefing handpicks and explains the most important climate and energy stories from China over the past fortnight. Subscribe for free here.
Key developments
Emissions halt in China
PEAK OR PLATEAU?: A new analysis for Carbon Brief found that China’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions were kept “below the previous year’s levels in the last 10 months of 2024” due to a “record surge of clean energy”. (Read more about the surge below.) The author Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), said that clean energy would “accelerate” in 2025 as “largescale wind, solar and nuclear projects race to finish before the 14th five-year plan period comes to an end”. Combined with slowing electricity demand growth, this would be expected to push coal-power output into decline, Myllyvirta said. However, he added that “another period of industrial demand growth driven by government stimulus efforts could change this picture, particularly if the real-estate slump turns around”. In a newly published Carbon Brief interview, Tsinghua University’s Prof Wang Can said that China’s emissions were “close to…the peak”.
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FALLING COAL?: A Reuters article citing several other analysts said coal generation is “set to fall in 2025 for the first time in a decade”, although there is “caution” that “extreme weather or stronger than expected industrial growth could upend that forecast”. The China Electricity Council forecast that electricity demand would grow by 6% in 2025, down from 6.8% in 2024, China energy news reported. Soaring renewable expansion makes it “clear” that China’s future “electric power system” will have non-fossil energy being the “main supply” and fossil-fuel being the “[energy security] guarantee”, according to an article published by industry news outlet BJX News. For now, however, a “more aggressive wave of coal power infrastructure construction is on its way” to keep up with rising electricity demand and more extreme weather events, added the article.
Clean energy surge
RENEWABLES RISE 25%: About 357 gigawatts (GW) of solar and wind was built in China last year, reported the Associated Press citing data from China’s National Energy Administration (NEA). The NEA’s data showed that, as of the end of 2024, the capacity of renewable energy reached 1,889GW, up 25% year-on-year and accounting for about 56% of the total capacity, reported Jiemian. In addition, the capacity of “new energy storage” surpassed 70GW, Xinhua said.
GERMAN-SIZED GROWTH: The clean-energy capacity completed in 2024, including new nuclear, is sufficient to generate around 500 terawatt hours (TWh) per year, the Carbon Brief analysis showed – equivalent to the total annual power output of Germany. In 2025, China is set to add enough to generate 600TWh per year, roughly twice the output of the UK.
‘SUPER DAM’ DOUBTS: Meanwhile, “concerns” over China’s proposed “super dam” in Tibet, which could produce 300TWh of electricity annually, continued to rise, according to the New York Times, “in part, because Beijing has said so little about it”. The dam would be built on the Yarlung Tsangpo river, which flows into India and Bangladesh, added the newspaper. Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for India’s foreign ministry, criticised the “mega project with a lot of ecological disturbances” for not taking “the interests of the lower riparian states” into account, reported the Financial Times. The newspaper added that India “fears…[it] could spur floods and water scarcity downstream”. Prof Y Nithiyanandam of Indian thinktank the Takshashila Institution wrote in a comment for the New Indian Express that the Yarlung Tsangpo basin is already “vulnerable” to “climate change and disasters”, which together “rais[e] serious questions about the long-term viability and safety of the project”.
US-China tariff tensions
TRUMP TARIFF RETALIATION: In response to the Trump administration imposing an additional 10% tariff on Chinese imports, China announced duties of 10-15% on US fossil fuels and certain other goods, the Financial Times reported, adding that the scope was “limited…in a possible attempt to avoid a full-blown trade war”. Coal and liquified natural gas (LNG) will face an additional 15% tariff, while crude oil, agricultural machinery and some cars will bear an extra 10%, the newspaper continued. China was the second-largest buyer of US coal in the first three quarters of 2024 after India, the report added.
‘EFFECTIVELY DEAD’: In a comment for Reuters, columnist Clyde Russell said that while the fossil-fuel trade between the two countries was now “effectively dead”, “the immediate impact of China’s measures…is likely to be limited”, given that China’s oil purchases from the US make up less than 2% of its imports, LNG volumes are “modest” and the US is “little more than a fringe supplier” of coal to the country.
CRITICAL MINERALS: Meanwhile, China announced additional controls on more than two dozen rare metal products and technologies, according to the Financial Times. “Molybdenum and indium-related items” – materials used to make low-carbon technologies including wind turbines – were on the list published by the Chinese communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily. For now, the new controls mirror earlier restrictions, which added paperwork but – per previous Carbon Brief analysis – only temporarily interrupted critical mineral trade flows.
Money, money, money
LARGEST MARKET: Chinese investment in the low-carbon transition “grew 20% last year, accounting for $134bn of the $202bn global increase”, the Financial Times reported, citing new figures from data provider BloombergNEF. The report found that mainland China was the “largest market for investment” in the energy transition, accounting for $818bn out of a global total that surpassed $2tn for the first time in 2024. BusinessGreen said that global investment levels were only at 37% of the level needed to meet global targets, according to a separate BloombergNEF report, with China “the closest to being on track”.
OVERSEAS INVESTMENT: China signed new clean energy- and environment-related contracts with other countries worth just over $49bn in 2024, up 13% year-on-year, the state-supporting Global Times said, citing China’s Ministry of Commerce. This outpaced the 1% growth in new overseas contracts overall, according to the newspaper. In addition, a “record amount of generation capacity” (24GW) was installed by Chinese companies in countries falling under China’s Belt and Road Initiative in 2024, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported. About 52% of the projects “employed renewable sources”, while 48% were fossil fuel-based, it added. Dialogue Earth reported that, between 2006 and 2022, 86% of the approximately $9bn that Chinese entities invested in Indonesia’s energy sector focused on fossil fuels, “leaving just 14% for renewables”.
Captured

China issued just under $57bn in “aid and subsidised credit”, predominantly loans, to other countries to develop mines for critical minerals between 2000 and 2021, according to a new dataset by AidData. Chinese-backed mining activity focused on “copper, cobalt, nickel, lithium and rare-earth elements”, for which it developed mines across 19 low-income and middle-income countries, noted a report accompanying the dataset. Loans made to the Middle East in 2000 and the Americas in 2014 are too small to be visible on the chart.
Spotlight
How ‘green’ is the 2025 Asian Winter Games?
The 9th Asian Winter Games will be held in Harbin, capital of the northmost province in China, bordering Russia, from tomorrow to 14 February.
Being “green and eco-friendly” is the city’s “principle” for hosting the event, according to the official report. In this issue, Carbon Brief explores the “green” efforts that have been made for this four-yearly multisports event.
‘100% green electricity’
China has hosted two Olympic games and three Asian Games. Similar to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and 2023 Hangzhou Asian Summer Games, the 2025 Harbin Asian Winter Games has also claimed to be relying on “green electricity”.
State news agency Xinhua said it is the “first time in history that 100% green electricity will be guaranteed during the Asian Winter Games, covering both the venue renovations and the games’ operations”.
Harbin is the biggest city in the province of Heilongjiang. From January to October 2024, Heilongjiang produced 103,710 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity, according to commercial data provider Hua Jing.
“Green electricity” from wind, solar and hydropower contributed nearly 29% of the total output, it added, with coal at 71%. It also reported that thermal generation – mainly coal – was down 2% year-on-year, while wind was up 17%, solar 1% and hydro 6%.
The amount of electricity needed to run the games is small in comparison to these totals. The entire games, including preparations, would consume just 88GWh – less than 3% of the renewable electricity generated by the province in an average month.
However, whereas a new “green electricity grid” was built to power the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022, Harbin does not appear to have commissioned specific new generating capacity or grid infrastructure as part of hosting the Asian winter games.
Instead, state-supported Science and Technology Daily reported that 73GWh of “green electricity” had been “traded” – bought from elsewhere – in order to “fully meet the green power demand” during the games.
‘New energy’ transport
Other than renewable electricity, the Harbin organisers also “introduced new-energy vehicles (NEVs) to cater to transportation needs” during the games.
NEVs include battery-electric (EVs), plug-in hybrids as well as fuel-cell electric vehicles, and emit less carbon dioxide (CO2) than fossil fuel-powered cars.
In contrast to other recent games that mainly used EVs, the Harbin Games will employ more than 350 “methanol-hydrogen-electric hybrid” vehicles as the “official transport fleet” to ensure “eco-friendly, reliable travel even in temperatures as low as -20C”, according to state media CGTN. (EVs are also being used for these games.)
Methanol-hydrogen-electric vehicles, according to state-run China Daily, use methanol as a “liquid fuel” in place of petrol, but are otherwise similar to hybrid vehicles such as a Prius.
A more detailed commercial report said that Geely, the firm making the cars, is also participating in production plants where electrolytic hydrogen is combined with CO2 to produce “low-carbon methanol” to power the vehicles.
According to Geely, a first 100,000 tonnes-per-year demonstration phase of the Alxa “green methanol” project opened in Inner Mongolia in October 2024. The full 500,000t per year scheme is expected to cut CO2 emissions by 750,000 tonnes per year.
State media CGTN said the Harbin games would mark the “first large-scale use of methanol vehicles at an international event”.
The China Daily report also said that, “if widely adopted, these vehicles could help reduce oil imports by 125m tonnes annually and cut carbon emissions by 215m tonnes”.
More ‘greener’ winter games
Harbin is home to the world’s biggest snow and ice festival each year and hosted the 1996 Asian Winter Games.
Despite the city usually receiving consistent snowfall during winter, it still made up to 800,000 cubic metres of artificial snow as of January at its main skiing venue, Yabuli ski resort, for the 2025 event.
Scientists have warned that climate change will, over time, leave fewer places with enough natural snowfall for hosting winter sports.
Last year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) warned that only 10 countries would be able to host snow sports by 2040 as a result of warming, BBC News reported.
The 2022 Winter Olympics sparked a backlash for being almost entirely dependent on artificial snow and ice, as its host city Beijing has received barely any snow in recent years.
At the time, the IOC defended the decision, saying artificial snow had been used for years and was needed “to get the right quality” for consistent race conditions.
The environmental impact of major international sporting events has been coming under increasing scrutiny.
The Paris 2024 Olympics emitted less than half the average of the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, according to Carbon Brief analysis.
The upcoming 2026 Milan Olympics is committed to “fighting climate change and protecting natural ecosystems”, while the 2028 games has announced a “no cars” ambition and plans to build a “greener Los Angeles”.
Watch, read, listen
‘CLIMATE LEADER’: A podcast from Singapore’s Straits Times asked: “Can China step up to become a climate leader?” It hosted Li Shuo, director of China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute.
NUCLEAR FUSION: An article from thinktank MacroPolo explored whether China’s energy development model, which “marries state capital with iterative and process innovation in the private sector”, can “succeed in frontier energy technologies, particularly the holy grail of nuclear fusion”.
ENERGY STORAGE: The South China Morning Post published a comment by analyst Tim Daiss under the title: “How battery storage development can wean China off fossil fuels.”
STEEL REFORM: Shanghai-based media outlet the Paper explored decarbonisation pathways for the Chinese steel industry.
20,000
The number of petrol stations expected to close in China during the 15th “five-year plan” (2026-2030), out of 110,000 that are currently under operation, reported financial media Caijing. The closures are due to the rise of electric cars and LNG-fuelled trucks, which means that China’s demand for refined oil products is declining and its oil demand overall is “entering a peak plateau period”, added the report.
New science
Planted forests in China have higher drought risk than natural forests
Global Change Biology
Planted forests in China are less able to cope with drought than natural forests, according to new research. The study, which used satellite observations over 2001-20 to understand forest drought risk, found that planted forests exhibit lower drought resilience and resistance than natural forests, particularly subtropical broad-leaved evergreen and warm temperate deciduous broad-leaved forests. Lower forest canopy height and poorer soil nutrients are among the factors responsible for planted forests’ higher drought risk, according to the researchers. They emphasised the need for “enhanced [forest] management strategies” as droughts become more frequent and severe.
Temperature effects on peoples’ health and their adaptation: empirical evidence from China
Climate Change
Chinese residents “implement appropriate protective measures” when temperatures exceed 30C, but underestimate the risks posed by temperatures of 25-30C, a new study said. This can lead to “significant health issues”, the paper warned. The authors combined meteorological data with results from the China family panel survey, which includes data from around 33,500 adults on hospital stays and self-reported “unhealthy status”. The paper found that increased healthcare expenditure and reduced physical activity are “two possible ways in which residents respond to climate change”.
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 6 February 2025: Emissions halt; ‘Green’ Asian Winter Games; US-China tariff war appeared first on Carbon Brief.
China Briefing 6 February 2025: Emissions halt; ‘Green’ Asian Winter Games; US-China tariff war
Greenhouse Gases
Cropped 25 February 2026: Food inflation strikes | El Niño looms | Biodiversity talks stagnate
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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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
- 2-6 March: UN Food and Agriculture Organization regional conference for Latin America and Caribbean | Brasília
- 5 March: Nepal general elections
- 9-20 March: First part of the thirty-first session of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) | Kingston, Jamaica
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
Greenhouse Gases
Dangerous heat for Tour de France riders only a ‘question of time’
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.
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.”
The post Dangerous heat for Tour de France riders only a ‘question of time’ appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Dangerous heat for Tour de France riders only a ‘question of time’
Greenhouse Gases
DeBriefed 20 February 2026: EU’s ‘3C’ warning | Endangerment repeal’s impact on US emissions | ‘Tree invasion’ fuelled South America’s fires
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

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.

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
- 22-27 February: Ocean Sciences Meeting, Glasgow
- 24-26 February: Methane Mitigation Europe Summit 2026, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- 25-27 February: World Sustainable Development Summit 2026, New Delhi, India
Pick of the jobs
- The Climate Reality Project, digital specialist | Salary: $60,000-$61,200. Location: Washington DC
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), science officer in the IPCC Working Group I Technical Support Unit | Salary: Unknown. Location: Gif-sur-Yvette, France
- Energy Transition Partnership, programme management intern | Salary: Unknown. Location: Bangkok, Thailand
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.
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