Published

9 months ago

July 17, 2025

Alice Rush

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

Forests under fire

‘ONEROUS REQUIREMENTS’: A letter from 18 EU member states called for the bloc to “delay and further simplify” the forthcoming application of new rules to curb global deforestation, according to Bloomberg. The letter said the regulation, due to take effect in December, “does not sufficiently take into account countries with effective forest protection laws and a negligible risk of causing deforestation”, the outlet said. The Financial Times added that Indonesia also demanded EU “policymakers cut back on ‘onerous’ requirements”, citing the challenges facing smallholder farmers and producers.

‘ILLICIT TIMBER TRADE’: Illegal loggers are “profit[ing] from Brazil’s carbon credit projects”, Reuters analysis found. Companies have invested “hundreds of millions of dollars” into these conservation projects. But at least 24 of 36 projects in the Brazilian Amazon examined by the newswire “involved landowners, developers or forestry firms that have been punished by Brazil’s environmental agency Ibama for their roles in illegal deforestation”. Offences ranged from “clear-cutting the rainforest without authorisation” to “entering false information in a government timber tracking system”, Reuters said. It is a “failure of the whole idea”, said Raoni Rajão, who formerly ran Brazil’s environment ministry’s programme combating deforestation.

WILDFIRES ABLAZE: Elsewhere, wildfires “fanned” by extreme heat across France, Spain, Greece and other parts of Europe resulted in forced evacuations and “major firefighting operations”, the Independent reported. According to Reuters, 227,000 hectares of land has burned in Europe since the beginning of 2025, “more than double the average for this time of year over the past two decades”. More than 100 wildfires burned in a central Canadian province, the New York Times said, while fires in a Syrian coastal mountain region “overwhelm[ed]” emergency services, according to CNN.

Ag emissions projected to rise

EMISSIONS INCREASE: A new report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that the growth of farming and livestock production worldwide will increase the sector’s greenhouse gas emissions by 6% by 2034. However, yield improvements derived from changed farming practices mean that global agricultural carbon intensity will actually decrease over the next decade, the report found. FAO director general Qu Dongyu said in a press release: “Lower carbon intensity of agrifood systems is also welcome, but we can do better.”

LIVESTOCK IMPACT: According to the report, the main drivers of the expected rise in emissions include the increase of ruminants and livestock (70% of the projected global emissions), followed by the use of synthetic fertilisers (28%), rice cultivation and other activities, such as burning crop residues. The largest increases are expected in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the report said. Agricultural emissions are projected to rise in these two regions by 14% and 8%, respectively, by 2034, partly due to the expansion of ruminant herds, it noted.

YIELD DISPARITY: The report also estimated that current differences in agricultural yields between developed and developing countries will not have “significant changes” over the next decade. For instance, yields of maize are higher in North America, compared to the rest of the world. This is attributed to several factors, including gaps in access to finance and modern technologies, the report noted. The authors offered solutions for increasing agricultural yields while mitigating emissions from the sector, including increasing productivity, manure management and addressing both production and consumption of livestock products.

Spotlight

Climate impacts for US lobsters

A deceased American lobster with epizootic shell disease at the University of Rhode Island. Credit: Orla Dwyer / Carbon Brief

This week, Carbon Brief food, land and nature reporter Orla Dwyer explores how climate change is impacting US lobsters, after recently attending a science workshop as part of the Metcalf Fellowship at the University of Rhode Island.

Scaly? Check. Covered in scabs resembling cigarette burns? Check. Yes, that lobster has epizootic shell disease – and climate change is making it worse.

This disease – first recorded in the north-eastern US region of New England in the 1990s – acts as a “manifestation of an environment that is increasingly inhospitable to lobsters,” said Dr Ben Gutzler, a post-doctoral research fellow at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm in Maine.

He told Carbon Brief that the disease is one indication of the “stress” lobsters are under due to warmer ocean conditions, which leave them more vulnerable to these kinds of ailments.

Gutzler co-authored new research that assessed more than 1,000 peer-reviewed studies on American lobsters published over the past 25 years.

The research found that epizootic shell disease currently affects as much as half of lobsters in parts of southern New England, where overall lobster numbers have plummeted in recent decades.

Warmer oceans fuelled the spread of the disease-causing bacteria, Gutzler said, telling Carbon Brief:

“The warmer water leads to faster microbial growth, because everything happens faster at warmer temperatures…Once [lobsters] get a nick on their shell that provides that portal of entry, the microbes can just go gangbusters.”

The disease causes lesions to form on a lobster’s shell and can reduce their growth and impact reproduction. In severe cases, the sores grow, spread beneath the shell and enter the lobster’s tissue, eventually damaging their internal organs and gills.

A disease-free, alive lobster at the University of Rhode Island. Credit: Orla Dwyer / Carbon Brief

’Leprosy’ lobsters

Carbon Brief recently spoke to researchers at the University of Rhode Island about the impact climate change is having on lobsters in New England, where the vast majority of the US lobster industry is located.

They explained that lobsters are cold-water creatures, generally most comfortable in waters of around 16C. The north-eastern Atlantic waters are warming faster than the global average and lobsters in the region are struggling as a result.

Although epizootic shell disease looks unpleasant, Gutzler said that it does not impact the taste of a lobster:

“It just becomes annoying for the fishermen, because nobody wants to eat a lobster that looks like it has leprosy.”

This disease is far from the only way lobsters are affected by the impacts of climate change. Warmer, more acidic oceans are impacting the areas in which lobsters settle and grow in abundance. Gutzler added:

“There’s a whole suite of things driven by ocean temperature that all add up to: it’s harder to be a lobster and successfully complete your life cycle in this new thermal regime.”

News and views

POLICY CONTRADICTIONS: Labour proposals to “weaken environmental regulations for small housebuilders” in the UK would exempt 97% of planning approvals from the “requirement to replace destroyed nature”, the Guardian reported. The plans could “destroy 215,000 hectares of nature in England”, it added. Meanwhile, the UK government released a new food strategy for England, promising to “improve environment and health”, according to BusinessGreen. The strategy “promises [a] wave of fresh policies to tackle emissions [and] curb nature impacts”, the outlet said, adding that campaigners “have repeatedly warned the UK remains off track to meet targets to reverse nature loss by 2030”.

‘GREEN GREAT WALL’: China has completed a “sand control belt” that spans the Badain Jaran, Tenegger and Ulan Buh deserts in the westernmost part of Inner Mongolia, according to the South China Morning Post. The green belt, stretching 1,856km, represents the “latest phase” in China’s “decades-long efforts to curb desertification”, the outlet said. Similar projects to combat desertification include Africa’s ‘Great Green Wall Initiative’, which China supports through “sharing technology expertise and funding”, it added.

SALTY: Thousands of salt farmers in the western India state of Gujarat are undertaking an “unlikely green revolution” by switching from diesel to solar-powered water pumps, JUST Stories reported. The outlet noted that 80% of India’s salt is produced in Gujarat, where the “vast majority” of salt workers are women. The salt pan workers, known as Agariyas, have been “steadily replacing” their pumps with help from a self-employed women’s trade union, the outlet said. Mary Robinson, climate advocate and former president of Ireland, said this initiative is “one of the most stunning examples of a truly just transition”.

ALL OVER THE WORLD: A report from the UN Convention to Combat Desertification found that the 2023-24 drought, which was exacerbated by El Niño, affected wide swathes of the planet, including the Mediterranean, Amazon basin, Panama, Mexico and south-east Asia. According to the report, the drought’s impacts varied by region, but generally included water supply shortages, agricultural failures and power rationing. Human and livestock deaths were recorded in eastern Africa, while the Amazon released more carbon into the atmosphere as a result of the drought.

HYDRO-POWERED: Women in Somalia who have been displaced by conflict and climate change are growing spinach, tomatoes and leafy greens with hydroponics, instead of planting them in the soil, Deutsche Welle reported. The hydroponics project was launched by the not-for-profit SOS Children’s Villages in 2022 in “response to the country’s worsening droughts and floods, which have devastated traditional agriculture”. The project is carried out in 41 solar-powered greenhouses and allows women to earn up to €43 a month, per person. The outlet quoted a farmer who said: “These beautiful farms have changed our lives.”

Watch, read, listen

SWEET COEXISTENCE: Euronews Green explored whether wild pollinators and honeybees can co-exist and assessed the risk of pollinator extinction in the EU.

‘MEDIOCRE’ MILK: A joint investigation by DeSmog and the Premium Times examined how a milk powder produced using Irish dairy is being sold in west Africa under a “carefully constructed” image of being “healthy and sustainable”.

BIG SHIFT: This NPR Short Wave podcast addressed how ocean currents, such as the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, are shifting due to climate change.

PLANT POWER: The Guardian spoke to “rainforest gardeners” at a botanical sanctuary in Kerala, which is a “haven for more than 2,000 native plant species from southern India”.

New science

A new review article, published in Nature, found that marine heatwaves have intensified since around 1980 due to human-driven climate change, resulting in “biological, ecological and socioeconomic change in almost all oceans and seas”. The authors wrote that reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the “only long-term solution”.
A PLOS One study found that 80% of areas with the highest potential for flowering plant discoveries in Brazil are not within protected areas, but 50% of them lie in Indigenous lands. The study highlighted the “urgent need” to expand collection efforts, protected areas and collaboration with Indigenous peoples, the authors said.
Cropland productivity “stagnated” in most parts of southern Africa over the past 20 years, according to research published in Nature Food. The findings are in contrast to official crop statistics and, although climate change influenced annual fluctuations in productivity, the study authors said climate trends do not explain the stagnation.

In the diary

7-25 July: 30th session of the International Seabed Authority (part two) | Kingston, Jamaica
23-31 July: 15th meeting of the conference of the contracting parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands | Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
24 July: EU-China summit | Beijing
27-29 July: Second UN food systems summit stocktake | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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 16 July 2025: EU deforestation law pushback; Agri emissions; US lobster disease appeared first on Carbon Brief.

Cropped 16 July 2025: EU deforestation law pushback; Agri emissions; US lobster disease

Climate Change

As a Plastic Waste Plant Violates Pollution Rules, Its Owner Makes the Case for a Second Location

Published

8 hours ago

April 20, 2026

Alice Rush

Freepoint Eco-Systems seeks to become a major player in so-called “chemical recycling.” Some residents and environmental advocates are fighting back.

By James Bruggers

Belching smoke from a new plastic waste processing plant in central Ohio has stirred opposition to an even larger “chemical recycling” factory planned for Arizona by the same company.

As a Plastic Waste Plant Violates Pollution Rules, Its Owner Makes the Case for a Second Location

Climate Change

Revealed: Scientists tell Colombia fossil-fuel transition summit to ‘halt new expansion’

Published

10 hours ago

April 20, 2026

Alice Rush

Countries attending a first-of-its-kind fossil-fuel summit have been asked to consider “action recommendations” such as “halting all new fossil-fuel expansion” and “reject[ing] gas as a bridging fuel”, according to a preliminary scientific report seen by Carbon Brief.

Around 50 nations will gather in Santa Marta, Colombia from 24-29 April to debate ways to “transition away” from fossil fuels, in the face of worsening climate change and sky-high oil prices.

The talks come after a large group of nations campaigned for, but ultimately failed, to get all countries to formally agree to a “roadmap” away from fossil fuels at the COP30 climate summit in Brazil in November.

The nations gathering in Santa Marta for the summit co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands, call themselves the “coalition of the willing”.

Ahead of country officials arriving in Santa Marta, a global group of academics will gather in the city this week to present and discuss the latest scientific evidence on fossil-fuel phaseout, which will then inform debate among policymakers.

A preliminary scientific “synthesis report” circulated to governments attending the talks and seen by Carbon Brief offers 12 “action insights” for countries to consider, along with a wide range of “action recommendations”.

These recommendations range from “phase out subsidies on fossil-fuel production and consumption” to “kick-start a forum to develop a legal framework to ban fossil-fuel advertisements”.

‘Rapid’ assessment

The preliminary scientific report seen by Carbon Brief – titled, “Action insights for the Santa Marta process” – is the result of some rapid work by an “ad-hoc” group of around 24 scientists.

It is designed to present governments attending the talks with concrete and actionable recommendations for transitioning away from fossil fuels.

The preliminary version, which includes recommendations such as “halting all new fossil fuel expansion”, has already been circulated to governments, with a view that this could help them to prepare for the talks in advance.

It will be further debated and refined by scientists attending the academic segment of the Santa Marta talks, before a final version is made public towards the end of April, Carbon Brief understands.

The process to produce the report began shortly after the conclusion of the COP30 climate summit in Brazil in November, explains its lead author, Dr Friedrich Bohn, a research scientist and co-founder of the Earth Resilience Institute in Germany. He tells Carbon Brief:

“When [Brazil] announced there would be a Santa Marta conference led by Colombia and the Netherlands, I was sitting listening with a small group of scientists. We thought: ‘This is great news, but it should be supported by scientific expertise.’”

One of the members of Bohn’s group had a pre-existing relationship with the Colombian government, allowing a dialogue to quickly be established, he continues:

“In the beginning, the idea was to just write a peer-reviewed paper. But, because of this close connection to the Colombian government and some feedback from them, the synthesis paper evolved.”

The report came out of a “very rapidly evolved process” that relied on the “goodwill” and “enthusiasm” of the academics involved, adds coordinating author Prof Frank Jotzo, a professor of climate change economics at Australian National University. (Jotzo is a former Carbon Brief contributing editor.) He tells Carbon Brief:

“It’s an attempt to get broad coverage on relevant topics from researchers with good expertise and reputation.”

The group of 24 scientists involved spent around two months compiling the “action insights” for the report, drawing on their expertise and the latest available research, says Jotzo.

Given the rapid nature of the report, it does not aim to be “completist”, has not been externally reviewed and did not follow a stringent process for author selection comparable to that used by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, he adds.

The contributors to the report currently skew to the global north and include more men than women, adds Bohn.

‘Direct guidance’

In a departure from IPCC reports, the preliminary Santa Marta synthesis report offers “very direct guidance to action”, says Jotzo.

The report lists 12 “action insights”, each with three “action recommendations”. (The list was cut down from a shortlist of about 40-50 insights, Carbon Brief understands.)

One of the most striking in the draft is “action insight 5”, which says:

“Take immediate measures to prevent future emissions. Ban new fossil infrastructure, mandate deep methane cuts, accelerate electrification and inscribe fossil-fuel phase-down targets in NDCs [nationally determined contributions] and clean-energy pathways support to low and middle income countries (LMICs).”

The accompanying three “action recommendations” include “halting all new fossil-fuel extraction and infrastructure projects ahead of a final investment decision”, “implementing deep, legally binding methane cuts in the energy sector” and “inscrib[ing] targets for fossil-fuel phase down, electrification and green exports in NDCs”.

(The draft report includes multiple references to “phasing out” and “phasing down” fossil fuels, rather than the “transition away from fossil fuels” language that was, ultimately, agreed by countries at the COP28 UN climate talks in Dubai in 2023.)

Another action insight says “public support for climate action is broadly underestimated and undermined by interest groups, but it can be strengthened by debunking greenwashing narratives”.

One recommendation for this insight is that nations “reject natural gas as a bridging technology and CCS [carbon capture and storage] techniques as scalable compensation”.

In a letter introducing the report to governments and civil society, the scientists note that making direct recommendations is a “challenge for our community”, but added:

“However, in the spirit of a constructive collaboration between science and policymaking, we allowed ourselves to identify some potential courses of action that our community would recommend for each particular issue – and we invite you to weigh these against your own circumstances and pick up whatever seems most useful for you and your colleagues.”

The prescriptiveness of the recommendations – something strictly prohibited in IPCC reports – was an explicit request from the Colombian government, Bohn says:

“The idea of actionable recommendations was introduced by the Colombian government.

“There was some discussion within the team about this. It’s a tricky area when you leave science and move to consultation. Therefore, we agreed, in the end, to call them ‘actionable recommendations’ and to make them as precise as possible, from the scientific perspective.”

Jotzo, a veteran of the IPCC process, tells Carbon Brief that it was “very liberating” to work on a report with a “free-form process”:

“The bulk of policy-related research is very readily deployed to recommendations pointing out what countries could do. The IPCC process, for example, just doesn’t allow that. As far as the summary for policymakers in the IPCC is concerned, it will usually be governments that filter out anything that could be interpreted as a specific recommendation.”

He adds that the hope is that some of the action insights might be reflected in the high-level segment of the Santa Marta conference:

“No one is under any illusions that governments will walk away from the Santa Marta conference and will have made a decision to implement recommendations one, seven and nine – or something like that. But it is a chance to insert directly applicable action points into national and plurilateral policy agendas.”

Colombia calling

The preliminary report will be further debated and refined by scientists attending the “pre-academic segment” of the Santa Marta talks.

This is taking place from 24-26 April, ahead of the “high-level segment” involving ministers and other policymakers from 28-29 April.

The pre-academic segment will also separately see the launch of a new advisory panel on fossil-fuel transition and a scientifically led roadmap for how Colombia can transition away from fossil fuels, Carbon Brief understands.

The high-level segment is expected to be attended by representatives from around 50 countries, including COP31 host Turkey and major oil-and-gas producers such as the UK, Canada, Australia, Brazil and Norway.

Countries expected to attend account for one-third of global fossil-fuel demand and one-fifth of global production, according to the Colombian government.

At the end of the conference, countries are due to release a report featuring a “menu of solutions” for transitioning away from fossil fuels, according to Colombia’s environment minister Irene Vélez Torres.

This report is in turn set to inform a global “roadmap” on transitioning away from fossil fuels being developed by the Brazilian COP30 presidency, which is due to be presented at COP31 in Turkey this November.

The Brazilian COP30 presidency offered to bring forward a “voluntary” fossil-fuel transition “roadmap” outside of the official COP process, after countries failed to formally agree to one during negotiations in Belém.

The post Revealed: Scientists tell Colombia fossil-fuel transition summit to ‘halt new expansion’ appeared first on Carbon Brief.

Revealed: Scientists tell Colombia fossil-fuel transition summit to ‘halt new expansion’

Climate Change

Technical Assessment of Woodside’s Browse Turtle Management Plan

Published

10 hours ago

April 20, 2026

Alice Rush

DOWNLOAD TURTLE REPORT HERE

Technical Assessment of Woodside’s Browse Pygmy Blue Whale Management Plan

DOWNLOAD WHALE REPORT HERE

To secure their approvals, Woodside had to develop a plan for how they would manage the significant risks to threatened green turtles if the project proceeds. We’ve had two independent scientists provide a technical assessment of Woodside’s management plan for whales and turtles and their findings are gobsmacking.

Woodside’s Browse gas project could make Scott Reef’s unique green turtles extinct.

Woodside’s Browse gas project could delay or prevent the population recovery of the endangered pygmy blue whales that rely on Scott Reef, heightening their extinction risk.