Welcome to Carbon Brief’s Cropped.
We handpick and explain the most important stories at the intersection of climate, land, food and nature over the past fortnight.
This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s fortnightly Cropped email newsletter. Subscribe for free here.
Key developments
Nature finance
‘FORESTS FOREVER’: Brazil unveiled a new “tropical forests forever” fund proposal at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai on Friday, Reuters reported. Launched by environment minister Marina Silva and finance minister Fernando Haddad, the proposal aims to provide 80 tropical countries with finance to help maintain trees, with annual payments based on hectares conserved or restored, according to the newswire. It added that Brazil hopes to raise $250bn from sovereign wealth funds and other investors, including the oil industry. Elsewhere, Bloomberg reported that the UK pledged an additional $38m to Brazil’s Amazon Fund at the talks. According to Dubai’s Khaleej Times, French president Emmanuel Macron used his appearance at the summit to confirm funding for three forest finance packages, including $100m for Papua New Guinea, $60m for the Democratic Republic of Congo and $50m for the Republic of Congo. It added that some of this finance would be through carbon-offset credits (see Carbon Brief’s explainer on the risks of such credits).
DEBT SWAPS FOR NATURE: African leaders called for debt relief for climate action and are receiving guidance from the UN Economic Commission for Africa on how to negotiate agreements at COP28, the Economist reported. However, debt swaps for nature are questioned for their “minimal fiscal impact”, the Mail and Guardian reported. The South African outlet noted that in 35 years this mechanism has only generated $318m of the $280bn needed for the continent to adapt to climate change. Elsewhere, the Climate Finance Group for Latin America and the Caribbean and other 28 civil-society organisations called on international finance institutions and developed countries at COP28 to agree on debt treatment and restructuring. Their call to action included cancelling debt for nations with low financial capacities, enabling debt-for-climate action swaps for emerging countries and creating mechanisms to ensure that those countries can allocate the resources in climate mitigation and adaptation while conserving biodiversity. A group of eight multilateral development banks issued a joint declaration aiming to create a task force on sustainability-linked sovereign financing for nature and climate. This seeks to mobilise credit enhancement – mechanisms to lower risk by investors on sovereign debt – for sustainability-linked sovereign financing for nature and climate.
POOR APPETITE: While much of the attention at COP28 is on fossil fuel phase-out, the latest text of the global stocktake does not mention harmful agricultural subsidies. Carbon Brief examined the text and found no explicit mention of agriculture in the draft, except in an oblique reference to food production and in “noting” the importance of switching to patterns of sustainable consumption and production, encouraging the former and silent on the latter. Oceans and other ecosystems have a slightly more pronounced presence: halting and reversing deforestation by 2030 is listed as a mitigation option to meet Paris Agreement goals in the next five years, while the need for more research on climate “tipping points” is mentioned twice, a key ask by countries of the Amazon and small island states.
CARBON MARKET CONCERNS: Meanwhile, Indigenous activists associated with the Indigenous Environmental Network expressed “very serious concerns” about Article 6 negotiations on carbon markets in a press conference at the start of COP28. Eriel Deranger, the executive director of Indigenous Climate Action, pointed out that “carbon-trading mechanisms and fossil fuel systems depend on continued growing emissions” and that phasing out fossil fuels is a matter of “life and death for our communities”. While key decisions on market and non-market approaches will be taken this coming week, World Bank president Ajay Banga told reporters that controversial voluntary carbon offsets were the “best way to move money from the developed world to the developing world”.
COP greenwashing
MEATY: Key players in the meat industry planned a “large presence” at COP28, aiming to “tell its story and tell it well”, according to documents seen by DeSmog and the Guardian. Members of the industry-funded Global Meat Alliance, which produced the documents, were “asked to stick to key comms messages, which include the idea that meat is beneficial to the environment”, the Guardian said. They also featured a messaging summary with talking points framing meat as “sustainable nutrition” – despite meat’s high climate impact. A GMA spokesperson told the outlets that the group works to “simplify and distil public information” around global events “which are often dominated by an anti-meat narrative”.
PARAGUAY PLANS: In Paraguay, agribusiness groups allegedly “modified” the guidance document for the country’s stance on talks at COP28, El Surtidor reported. The news outlet looked at a previous draft of this document and found that mentions of “reaffirming” commitment to the Paris Agreement and increasing heatwaves were removed from the final text, following comments from agribusiness representatives. El Surtidor said the final document also “call[s] into question” official figures on greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.
MAMMOTH TASK: In a woolier story from Dubai, a Russian billionaire who “made a fortune in coal and fertiliser” outlined a plan to “bring a slice of Russia’s ecology back 14,000 years”, Bloomberg reported. Andrey Melnichenko proposed an “eccentric” way to control methane emissions from the thawing Siberian permafrost by “recreating a time when woolly mammoths roamed the tundra”, the outlet said. (For the latest science on methane emissions and permafrost thaw, read Carbon Brief’s recent coverage of a report on how climate change is affecting the cryosphere.)
Spotlight
Food systems declaration garners 134 signatures
In this spotlight, Carbon Brief explains the Emirates Declaration on food systems – released at COP28 in Dubai last week – and the reaction on the ground from food-systems experts and civil society groups.
During the world climate action summit on the first day of COP28, UAE climate and environment minister Mariam Almheiri announced the Emirates Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action, a three-page document endorsed by 134 governments. Among the notable signatories are Brazil, China, EU, Indonesia, UK and US.
Almheiri pointed out that the countries who had signed the declaration were home to more than 5.7 billion people and responsible for more than three-quarters of the world’s total food systems emissions. (Research shows that food systems overall account for nearly one-third of total global greenhouse gas emissions.)
The declaration begins with a recognition of the “unprecedented” impacts that climate change is having on food systems and the importance of food and agriculture to lives and livelihoods around the world. It also recognises the “need to ensure access to safe, sufficient, affordable and nutritious food for all”.
The document then lays out five objectives: to enhance food-systems resilience; to promote food security and nutrition; to support agricultural workers; to strengthen freshwater management; and to maximise the climate and environmental benefits of agriculture. Alongside these are areas where countries have promised to strengthen their efforts: integrating food systems into national plans and strategies, scaling up finance and science and strengthening trade.
Among these, several observers pointed to the integration of food systems into plans such as nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and national adaptation plans as a promising step. As with all such declarations at COPs, the food declaration is not legally binding. But that is not to say it carries no weight, Ed Davey, partnerships director at the Food and Land Use Coalition, told Carbon Brief. He added that while declarations are “not as important as the negotiated outcome and they never will be…they are a way of signalling that something is important”.
Representatives of several civil society groups told Carbon Brief that the declaration was a mixed bag. “There are some good elements there – it’s about transformation,” said Million Belay, the general coordinator of Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa and a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems. “But there’s heavy reliance on ‘technology will solve the problem’ kind of thinking…What kind of technology? Who owns the technology?”
A non-state actors call to action, released on the same day, was signed by more than 150 farmers’ groups, businesses, philanthropies, research institutions and other groups. That document calls for parties to “act with appropriate urgency, effort and scale” to create food systems that “deliver significant, measurable progress for people, nature and climate”.
News and views
EU BUMPER: There have been three notable EU policy updates related to agriculture. First, lawmakers rejected a plan to significantly cut pesticide use, the Associated Press reported, which one green politician described as a “black day” for the environment and farmers. The proposed nature restoration law, on the other hand, is one step closer to the finish line after it was approved by the European parliament’s environment committee, according to Carbon Pulse. And, finally, plans to sign off on the EU-Mercosur trade deal (covered previously in Cropped) look unlikely in the coming weeks, partly due to political hesitancy in Argentina, CNN Brasil reported.
COLOMBIA LEADS: Colombian president Gustavo Petro announced at COP28 that his country will officially join an alliance of countries seeking a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty. The group is calling for a global transition away from fossil fuels and now counts 10 countries as its members, the Guardian reported. Petro said that, although his country relies on fossil fuels, “being here, we are trying to halt a suicide, the death of everything that is alive”. According to Spanish newswire EFE Verde, the Latin American country is also pushing debt-for-nature swaps at the climate negotiations in Dubai, after setting up that agenda at a meeting of Latin American and Caribbean environment ministers held in Panama earlier this year.
INDIGENOUS VOICES: A Brazilian minister became the first Indigenous head of a UN climate negotiations delegation, Carbon Brief’s Daisy Dunne reported. Sônia Guajajara took on the position after environment minister Marina Silva departed the climate summit. She will hold the role until 7 December, according to a press release. Guajajara said in a statement: “Indigenous peoples are often the first to bear the harmful effects of climate change…They are also ideally positioned to bring forward solutions for climate adaptation and mitigation, so it is essential that their voice is heard.” Elsewhere, Grist reported on the Indigenous advocates at COP28 hoping to “ensur[e] that their communities aren’t overlooked by global leaders”.
DEEP-SEA DEVELOPMENTS: The Norwegian government has given a “green light” to deep-sea mining in an area of the Arctic Ocean south-west of the Svalbard archipelago, in a decision that Norway Greenpeace head Frode Pleym said was “a disaster for the sea”, according to the Associated Press. The deal was struck between four political parties, including the ruling Labor and Center party coalition government and two conservative parties, the newswire said. Norway’s parliament will reportedly “approve the first development projects, in the same way as it has done for certain extraction projects in the petroleum sector”. The country’s petroleum and energy minister said the country “will do this carefully” and gather knowledge before assessing whether extraction is feasible.
UPS AND DOWNS: Blue whales have returned to the Seychelles archipelago, within the Indian Ocean, after being wiped out in that area by whaling ships in the 1960s, BBC News reported. Researchers and filmmakers recorded the largest animal on Earth both on film and using a “sound trap”, which captured whale calls during breeding season. Scientists described the whales’ return as a “conservation win”. However, on western Australia’s Pilbara coast, whales are reportedly threatened by a new gas extraction project by Woodside, the country’s top oil and gas producer, Australia’s ABC News wrote. The company won approval for seismic testing, which is used to identify fossil gas reserves under the seafloor. In response, traditional owner and Indigenous woman Raelene Cooper told the outlet that she would consider legal actions against the project. Woodside told ABC News that the seismic testing would not occur near known whale migration routes.
OLIVE HARVEST: Palestinian olive farmers are experiencing “growing violence” and “economic devastations” from the impact of the Israel-Hamas conflict on their harvest, Mongabay reported. Ghassan Najjar, a farmer in the West Bank, told the outlet: “Many farmers rely completely on their olive harvest…It’s our livelihood, our source of life.” More than 3,000 olive trees have been “destroyed by the illegal settlers” in recent weeks. Mongabay said. According to Human Rights Watch, satellite imagery “shows that orchards, greenhouses and farmland in northern Gaza have been razed since the beginning of Israel’s ground invasion” in October.
Watch, read, listen
DARK HEDGES: The Economist explained how an avenue of ancient beech trees in Northern Ireland is being lost due to tourism after Game of Thrones made them famous.
MEAT PHASEDOWN: BBC Future Planet looked at Denmark’s new dietary roadmap for discouraging the consumption of meat and dairy and boosting plant-based foods.
‘PLASTIC RICE’: A three-part series in the Wire outlined concerns from farmers and health experts about a rice fortification scheme in India.
CALL OF THE WILD: Perk your ears up to an album of Australia’s most threatened mammals – featuring “a chorus of shrieks, screams and bellowing”.
New science
Community forest governance and synergies among carbon, biodiversity and livelihoods
Nature Climate Change
Empowering local forest governance may support multiple objectives of forest restoration, a new paper found. The researchers used a dataset of more than 300 “forest commons” in human-dominated landscapes in 15 tropical countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America. They looked at the links between carbon storage, tree species richness and livelihoods of local communities. The analysis showed that formal recognition of the community’s role in forest management, including local participation in rule-making, was a predictor of positive outcomes. The study said that considering governance and interconnections among those benefits may contribute to “effective interventions” for tropical forests.
Tillage agriculture and afforestation threaten tropical savanna plant communities across a broad rainfall gradient in India
Journal of Ecology
Agricultural conversion of and tree-planting in old-growth savannahs in India imperil plant communities that are hard to later recover, according to a new paper. The researchers analysed the impacts of tillage agriculture, agricultural fallows and tree plantations on herbaceous plant communities of old-growth savannahs in western Maharashtra, India. They found that the three types of land conversion decreased native species richness and cover of native plants, and increased cover of invasive species. The study suggested that conservation in India should account for the savannah biome and limit the conversion of old-growth savannahs.
Risk to rely on soil carbon sequestration to offset global ruminant emissions
Nature Communications
A new study noted that relying solely on grasslands to sequester global ruminant emissions – those from cattle, sheep, goats and buffalo – “is not feasible”, since it would require nearly twice the global carbon stock currently in grasslands. Researchers found that about 135bn tonnes of carbon sequestration is required to offset ongoing methane and nitrous oxide emissions from this sector. The authors argued that previous studies used a methodology that does not account for the climate impacts of short- and long-term emissions, and that their new research overcomes those shortcomings while accounting for historical warming. The study concluded that reducing sources of emissions and increasing soil organic carbon stocks is needed.
In the diary
- 30 November-12 December: UNFCCC COP28 | Dubai
- 7 December: FAO webinar: Scaling up agroforestry | Online
- 6-8 December: EU Agri-food days | Brussels
- 9 December: COP28 thematic day on nature | Dubai
- 10 December: COP28 thematic day on food | Dubai
- 11 December: International Mountain Day
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 6 December 2023: COP28 greenwashing; Nature finance; Food pledge appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Cropped 6 December 2023: COP28 greenwashing; Nature finance; Food pledge
The UK’s new prime minister Andy Burnham remained tight-lipped on his views on climate change during his leadership campaign.
When asked his views on allowing new North Sea drilling in June – a move that the oil-and-gas industry and right-wing media have pushed for in recent months – he said he had “something of an open mind” on the issue.
But a trawl of Burnham’s past comments about climate change, net-zero and fossil fuels reveals a different picture.
Just a year ago in June 2025, Burnham, while mayor of Greater Manchester, gave his support to the fossil fuel treaty – a proposed international pact on phasing out coal, oil and gas – calling it a “lifeline” that “all governments” should join.
In a video message endorsing the treaty, he also said that “there should be no turning away from net-zero”.
During his last bid to be Labour leader in 2015, he used similar language, saying:
“Labour under my leadership will never turn our back on either our duty to tackle climate change or the prospects offered by the green economy.”
Burnham has spoken about the threat of climate change since at least 2008, noting in 2021 that accelerated action could “create thousands of good jobs”, but also warning that net-zero risked becoming the “next Brexit”.
Burnham is yet to appoint his cabinet, but there is much speculation that he will select current net-zero secretary Ed Miliband as his chancellor – with their ally Miatta Fahnbulleh having a “strong chance” of taking Miliband’s former position.
Below, Carbon Brief recounts 28 things that Burnham has said about climate change, net-zero, fossil fuels, energy and transport.
Climate change
“Tackling climate change isn’t just about protecting the planet – it’s a powerful opportunity to build a fairer, greener future for our communities and businesses.”
Calling for local councils to be given more power and money for climate action, 29 November 2025
“There is little doubt that Greater Manchester’s biodiversity has taken a hit over the years, with habitats being lost, destroyed and becoming less diverse due to the impact of development, climate change, pollution and invasive species…We are committed to delivering a city-region for all residents to enjoy – a fairer, greener and more prosperous place for everyone.”
Statement after Greater Manchester declared a “biodiversity emergency”, 25 March 2022
“Over the next decade, if we accelerate our response to the climate crisis, we can create thousands of good jobs, improve homes, overhaul our transport system and make [Manchester] an even better place to live.”
Greater Manchester Green Summit, 18 October 2021
“The environment has never been higher on the national and international agenda.”
Statement after visiting a peat bog restoration project in England, 9 January 2020
“I think climate change [action] will be driven more quickly from the bottom up, if I’m honest. It’s the will of evolution if you wait for the government to act…When governments aren’t listening you get out and get your voice heard…so I think [climate protesters] deserve our encouragement, not our criticism.”
Speaking to Manchester Evening News at a student climate protest in Manchester, 24 May 2019
“Labour under my leadership will never turn our back on either our duty to tackle climate change or the prospects offered by the green economy.”
Labour leadership candidate speech, 15 July 2015
“Climate change can seem a distant, impersonal threat – in fact the associated costs to health are a very real and present danger…We need well-designed climate change policies that drive health benefits.”
Speaking to the Guardian about a study on climate and health, 25 November 2009
“The Stern report on the economics of climate change has changed the debate, in this country and around the world. It made it clear that the people who could suffer most from a failure to tackle climate change, or from a lack of ambition in our approach to it, are those living in the developing countries. They are the most vulnerable…[and] Stern said that the cost of not acting would be large. That is why the government took various measures in the recent spending review to ensure that we are prepared to face the challenges posed by climate change.”
Speaking in the UK parliament on the economic impacts of climate change on his final day as chief secretary to the Treasury, 24 January 2008
Net-zero
“There should be no turning away from net-zero.”
Speaking after giving his support to the fossil fuel treaty – a proposed global pact to introduce laws to phase out coal, oil and gas – on behalf of Manchester, 6 June 2025
“An opportunity is opening up for Britain as other countries move away from net-zero. We should seize that…We can make Britain a green leader. This is not the time to tiptoe, it is the time to commit to this path.”
Speaking at Innovation Zero World Congress in London, 29 April 2025
“[We] need a government that fully buys into the 2038 vision because the UK will not get to 2050 unless places like Greater Manchester are freed up to go faster – and we’re ready to go faster.”
Speaking about Greater Manchester’s aim to reach net-zero by 2038, 19 October 2022
“In Greater Manchester we have plans to build 30,000 net-zero social rented homes because we recognise that a successful city region needs good quality, affordable accommodation for everyone.”
Speech on the future of cities, 24 June 2022
“By building a broad consensus behind the drive to net-zero, we can ensure that the transition is a fair one that delivers social justice as well as climate justice. This is an opportunity for all of us to show how cutting carbon emissions in our cities can make a real difference to our communities – away from the abstractions and rooted in the real world.”
Panel discussion in Glasgow during the COP26 climate summit, 12 November 2021
“To the extent that people have picked up anything from COP26, it’s a sense that the drive to net-zero will mean cost and inconvenience for ordinary people and offsetting for the wealthy and entitled. All of a sudden, you can feel how net-zero could become the new Brexit – a debate that gets very divided on class grounds…This has got to be a wake-up call. We cannot let this happen. We need to act now to build a broad social consensus behind the drive to net-zero. How to do that? It starts with taking control of the climate narrative from those steering it in the wrong direction and turning it around…We must show how, if done in the right way, the drive to net-zero is actually an opportunity to reduce the cost of living; to make people’s lives better and society fairer.”
Writing for the London Standard, 5 November 2021
“The drive to net-zero is a chance to re-industrialise the north of England, this time in a clean way. Create really good jobs, future-facing jobs for people, better public transport, improve people’s homes…If we go quickly towards net-zero, it’s the quickest way to level up the country.”
ITV interview at COP26, 1 November 2021
“If we really embrace the drive to net-zero, that is the route to level up the country…But it needs substantial investment, upfront, now, of the kind that Rachel Reeves, shadow chancellor [and chancellor under Keir Starmer’s government], has been talking about. We need long-term predictable funding.”
Interview with GB News at COP26, 1 November 2021
“I would have preferred to hear slightly less about carbonated wine and much more about a decarbonised economy.”
Referencing a UK budget, which included tax cuts for sparkling wine and other drinks, 28 October 2021
“Decarbonising is not just about lowering costs on to people. It’s the route to get better, cheaper public transport. It’s the route to getting homes that are cheap to run. It’s actually the way we can create thousands of good jobs for the people who live in Greater Manchester. This is the route to levelling up the country by going further and faster on decarbonisation.”
Speaking to Manchester Confidential, 20 October 2021
“[I am] asking people to stop seeing the environmental agenda as a cost and a burden agenda. I think this is a barrier that we’ve got to get over. Already in the media interviews I’ve done today, people are saying ‘can you afford it?’, ‘can it be achievable when times are tough?’.
“My answer to that is, at some point in the 21st century, all homes will be zero-carbon. At some point in this century, all buildings of any kind will be zero-carbon…All cars will be zero-carbon, all public transport will be zero-carbon…The question is: when? And surely the places that embrace those things first are putting themselves in a position of economic strength when it comes to facing up to the future. Rather than seeing the whole agenda as a burden, we’ve got to see it for the benefits that it can bring.
“There may be a greater upfront cost in a zero-carbon home, but let’s stop thinking, as we tend to do in Britain, of the short-term, the short-termist approach to life. Surely let’s start talking to the public about the lifetime cost.”
Greater Manchester Green Summit, 21 March 2018
Fossil fuels
“I’ve got something of an open mind, you know. I don’t have a sort of fixed position.”
Speaking on the issue of new North Sea oil and gas in a New Statesman interview, 3 June 2026
“We would fight this in GM [Greater Manchester]…Communities across the north would face all the danger and disruption while big oil and gas walk away with all the profits.”
In response to Reform’s call for fracking, on X, 25 August 2025
“I am proud to endorse the fossil-fuel treaty proposal today on behalf of Greater Manchester. It’s not just a plan – it’s a lifeline. It’s a call to end coal, oil and gas, hold polluters accountable…I urge all governments, nationals and subnationals to join this fight.”
Statement upon endorsing the fossil-fuel treaty, 5 June 2025
“Fracking is the past, it is not the future.”
Speech at London climate protest, 20 September 2019
“I have called for a moratorium on fracking. Far too many potential risks and unanswered questions.”
On X, 22 June 2015
Energy and transport
“What I would do, if successful, is lay out a plan for more public control over water, energy, transport, so that over the period we can get those bills down, fares down, and give people and give businesses breathing space.”
LBC interview, 2 July 2026
“I am all in favour of tough decisions at a national level. I don’t believe there should be a third runway at Heathrow, for instance. But I think those are decisions for national government.”
Guardian interview, 13 June 2019
“There is a debate to be had about aviation, isn’t there? There are changing public attitudes about aviation. Rather than just saying no to people flying, don’t we need to accelerate research into low and zero-carbon forms of aviation?”
Guardian interview, 13 June 2019
“Today, I stand alongside the mayors of some of the greatest cities in the world. I’m committed to a cleaner, greener and healthier future for Greater Manchester. Around a third of greenhouse gas emissions in our city-region come from transport.”
When signing the C40 Fossil-Fuel-Free Streets Declaration, which includes support for zero-emissions vehicles and walking and cycling, on behalf of Manchester, 14 September 2018
This article was updated on 20 July to reflect Burnham replacing Keir Starmer as UK prime minister.
UK withdraws millions in funding from world’s second-largest rainforest in Congo
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Analysis: UK sales of electric vehicles just overtook petrol cars for the first time
The post 28 quotes from new UK leader Andy Burnham on climate, net-zero and fossil fuels appeared first on Carbon Brief.
28 quotes from new UK leader Andy Burnham on climate, net-zero and fossil fuels
Climate Change
Greenpeace welcomes dismissal of Woodside’s anti-democratic “SLAPP suit” against climate campaigners
SYDNEY, Thursday 23 July 2026 — Greenpeace Australia Pacific has welcomed news that a ‘fishing expedition’ brought by Woodside in connection with a 2023 climate protest has been dismissed in full, celebrating it as a win for the community in their ongoing fight to stop Woodside from drilling for oil and gas at Scott Reef.
The Supreme Court of Western Australia today threw out Woodside’s case, finding it had not succeeded in establishing it might have a cause of action against an unknown party involved in a three-year-old protest to bring attention to the harmful effects of Woodside’s gas expansion on climate and cultural heritage.
It comes as public opposition to Woodside’s plans to drill over 50 gas wells at Scott Reef continues to mount.
David Ritter, CEO at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “Greenpeace welcomes the news that this case has been dismissed. Woodside’s use of a SLAPP* suit of this kind is a grotesque attempt to use legal tactics to silence people. There should be no place for SLAPP suits in Australian democracy.
“Community opposition to Woodside’s dangerous plans to drill over 50 gas wells at Scott Reef is large and growing.
“Woodside’s plan to drill for gas at Scott Reef is breaking hearts in the Australian community. Their plan to drill for gas at the pristine, magnificent Scott Reef, risking precious marine wildlife like turtles and whales, oceans and the climate, is a disaster waiting to happen, and one that over half a million Australians are calling on the WA and Federal governments to stop.”
-ENDS-
Notes for editor
A petition calling on the federal and WA governments to save Scott Reef has more than 552,000 signatures.
*SLAPP stands for “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation”. It is a legal tactic used by powerful corporations, particularly within the fossil fuel industry, to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the high costs of a legal defense until they abandon their environmental advocacy or protests.
Media contact
Lucy Keller on +61 491 135 308 or lucy.keller@greenpeace.org
Kimberley Bernard on +61 407 581 404 or kbenard@greenpeace.org
Greenpeace welcomes dismissal of Woodside’s anti-democratic “SLAPP suit” against climate campaigners
Britain’s new prime minister announced in his first week that he will cut the cost of public transport and electricity, making lower-emission technologies like bus travel, electric vehicles and heat pumps more affordable for voters. But some of the funding for those policies will come from the budget for international climate finance, the government has said, raising concerns about fairness.
Former Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham took over from Keir Starmer as Labour Party leader and prime minister on Monday, appointing climate advocates Ed Miliband as foreign and development minister and Miatta Fahnbulleh as climate and energy minister.
On Tuesday, Burnham said his government would cut the value added tax (VAT) households and some small businesses pay on their electricity bills from 5% to zero from October 1, saving households £45 ($60) a year.
On Wednesday, he said the maximum fare bus companies in England can charge for a single journey will be reduced from £3 ($4) to £2 ($2.67) from January 1, 2027. The government said the subsidies to achieve this would be mostly funded by switching money set aside for overseas climate finance projects from grants to loans. It did not give further information in its announcement, while the UK’s transport minister told Sky News the plan is still being worked out.
-
Tropical forest protection fund at risk after UK stalls on pledge
The Brazil-led TFFF was launched at COP30 as an innovative financial model to keep rainforests standing, but is still short on startup cash -
UK halves Green Climate Fund contribution, as it spends more on security
After promising £1.6 billion to the UN’s flagship climate fund in 2023, the UK government has now said it will only hand over half as much -
EU, UK lead push for electrification as “powerful weapon” against fossil fuels
A group of dozens of countries seeks to build momentum for a COP31 pledge to electrify 35% of global energy use by 2035 as an alternative to fossil fuels
The floated changes to the climate finance budget were immediately criticised by groups working on climate justice for developing countries, including Bond, the UK network for NGOs, which described the decision as “disappointing”.
“Robbing Peter to pay Paul is not the answer and pitches marginalised communities in the UK against marginalised communities in lower-income and climate-vulnerable countries,” BOND CEO Romilly Greenhill said in a statement. “Climate finance must not worsen the debt burden of countries that are already suffering the worst – and most costly – impacts of a climate crisis they did not cause.”
Hunt for money
Burnham promoted both policies as measures to combat the rising cost of living and “give people breathing space”, with climate campaigners and industry groups noting they are also likely to reduce the UK’s climate-heating emissions by encouraging bus travel and the use of electric vehicles and heating.
But thorny questions remain over how the policies will be paid for. The government said Tuesday’s VAT cut for electricity would be funded by scrapping the previous government’s digital ID programme, but Darren Jones, a former minister involved with that policy, said it had been “unfunded” – a statement that dominated media coverage.
A day later, the government said the new bus fare cap would cost £454 million ($606m). Transport minister Heidi Alexander told Sky News that £54 million would be taken from an under-spend in the budget of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and £400 million would come from changing unspecified international climate finance from grants to loans. The details “still need to be worked through”, she said, adding that the government “had wanted to make an announcement today”.
Mohamed Adow, director of Nairobi-based think-tank Power Shift Africa, said “climate finance was never meant to be a pot of money that governments raid when they need to pay for domestic spending”.
DESNZ had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication. “We’re not wanting to fleece anyone here, and we actually want to maximise the development potential of this money that is available,” minister Alexander said in her TV interview.
Aside from the controversy over their funding, the policies themselves were widely welcomed by climate campaigners. Jess Ralston, energy lead at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), said the tax cut on electricity bills “could help households to switch to electric heat pumps, protecting UK homes from becoming ever more exposed to the whims of Putin and Trump when turning on their gas boiler”.
The last few months have seen global momentum build behind electrification, spurred by the US-Iran war disrupting oil and gas supplies and driving up prices. The Turkish and Australian COP31 presidencies have announced a global target to boost electrification, backed by the European Union, Canada, Philippines, UK and others.
Campaigners call for lower power prices
While reaction to the VAT cut was supportive, some questioned whether £45 a year of savings per household is enough and called for more measures to cut electricity bills.
Friends of the Earth’s energy lead Imogen Dow said those on the lowest incomes should be given cheaper electricity through a “social tariff” and the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think-tank – which is close to the Labour Party – said levies on energy bills should be shifted to general taxation.
Matthew Paterson, a politics professor at Manchester University, told Climate Home News that the most effective way to reduce electricity bills is to take on the UK’s private electricity companies, while consumer-oriented measures like the VAT cut are “tinkering around the edges”.
Jarrod Birch, head of policy and public affairs for the EV charging industry association Charge UK, said that while the policy would make home-charging cheaper, people who charge their vehicles at public points will still have to pay 20% VAT. The UK’s tax authority is fighting a court ruling that ordered it to reduce the tax motorists pay on public chargers to the current household rate of 5%.
Further measures will be the responsibility of Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Miatta Fahnbulleh, who is relatively new to politics after a career at left-wing, pro-climate think tanks the IPPR and the New Economics Foundation.
Michael Jacobs, political economy professor at Sheffield University and former adviser to UK Labour prime minister Gordon Brown, said Fahnbulleh would be a “climate advocate” who would continue the “progressive climate agenda” of her predecessor Ed Miliband.
“She’s a very creative policy wonk so I expect there to be lots of policy innovation under her,” he said, “I think she will be looking at new ways to encourage take-up of heat pumps and domestic batteries.”
Aid budget in Miliband’s hands
Despite reports he could be made finance minister, Miliband has been appointed Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. Miliband has attended many climate COP meetings over several decades, most recently representing the UK at COP29 and COP30, and has been targeted by the right-wing media for his support for climate action and opposition to new oil and gas drilling in the UK’s part of the North Sea.
In his new role, Miliband will be responsible for the UK’s overseas aid budget including its international climate finance, which the Starmer government had slashed to fund increases in defence spending.
UK cuts support for climate action abroad to fund military instead
Jacobs said he expected Miliband to prioritise climate and development in the UK’s foreign policy and to push Burnham and new finance minister John Healey to reverse Starmer’s aid cuts.
But there are fears Healey could try to cut the aid budget further to fund the military. Healey was a surprise pick for Chancellor of the Exchequer and grabbed headlines when he resigned as Starmer’s defence minister in June over what he saw as insufficient defence spending.
The post Will new UK PM’s green measures at home cause climate finance pain overseas? appeared first on Climate Home News.
Will new UK PM’s green measures at home cause climate finance pain overseas?
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