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
Poor showing for national biodiversity plans
COP16 COMING UP: Just 10% of countries have submitted updated national biodiversity plans ahead of the COP16 summit, according to Carbon Brief’s tracker (which will be updated again next week). Almost 200 countries agreed to submit new “national biodiversity strategies and action plans”, or NBSAPs, before the UN biodiversity talks, which begin on 21 October in Cali, Colombia. Only 21 plans have been submitted so far. Carbon Brief reported last week that the UK will not publish its plan until the new year, also missing the UN’s COP16 deadline. Separately, a report showed that less than 3% of land in England is “effectively protected”, BusinessGreen said, adding that the UK is falling “badly” behind the pledge to protect 30% of its land and sea by 2030. Elsewhere, Dialogue Earth examined new NBSAP targets from China, the president of the previous biodiversity summit COP15.
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UNITE THE PLEDGES: COP16 hosts Colombia called for national pledges for the biodiversity, climate and desertification COPs to be unified in future, Reuters reported. The country’s environment minister and COP16 president Susana Muhamad said that creating a “synthesis plan”, instead of separate submissions, could improve “synergies” between the interconnected issues. Colombia is among the countries that have not submitted a new NBSAP ahead of COP16. A profile of Muhamad in the Guardian examined how the “Frida Kahlo of environmental geopolitics” went from working as a sustainability consultant at Shell to being “one of the biggest opponents of fossil fuel on the world stage”.
TALKING POINTS: COP16 will focus on “implementation and financing”, the EU’s lead negotiator at the Cali talks, Hugo-Maria Schally, told Agence France-Presse. The Inter Press Service said that key discussions centre on how to “generate financial resources that recognise the contribution of countries that are reservoirs of biodiversity, without resulting in greater indebtedness for nations in the global south”. Latin American civil society groups called for more inclusive biodiversity decision-making involving “ethnic and peasant peoples” and local communities, El Espectador reported. Carbon Brief has just published an interactive table outlining where countries stand on key issues. Five Carbon Brief journalists will be reporting from Cali throughout the summit, so keep an eye out for webinars, analysis and summaries over the next few weeks.
Environment investigations
WATCHING OPPOSITION: A Lighthouse Reports investigation found that the US-based PR firm v-Fluence used US government funding to discredit environmentalists and scientists opposing pesticides and genetically modified crops. The outlet noted that the firm profiled hundreds of scientists, campaigners and writers and published their dossiers on a private social network, providing access to executives at the world’s largest pesticide companies and government officials. It added: “v-Fluence denies having held government contracts now or in the past, but said that the US government was a ‘funder of other organisations with whom we work’.” The Wire added that the company was founded and is still run by a former Monsanto communications director.
FOCUS ON THE SOIL: A collaborative special report, published by Earth Journalism Network, the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigation Network and other outlets, explored the drivers of soil degradation in Asia. The investigation, carried out by 11 journalists from 10 countries, identified persistent problems, such as poor soil-management practices, rapid urbanisation and unsustainable agriculture. The report also explained the consequences of soil degradation and salinisation and potential solutions for soil conservation and regenerative agriculture.
THREATENED WILDLIFE: The Journal revealed how the Irish black market sells foxes, badgers and hares as live bait. The outlet reported that those animals “are being used to ‘blood’ vicious hunting dogs, whose owners engage in brutal acts of wildlife cruelty”, such as illegal hare coursing and dog-on-wildlife attacks. However, their prosecutions “aren’t recorded as criminal convictions”. Meanwhile, vast areas of forests and rainforests in south-west Mexico will be cleared to make way for the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, according to El Universal. The newspaper added that the corridor would industrialise the region, polluting water, land and air and killing wildlife.
Spotlight
‘Now really is nature’s moment’
In this Spotlight, Carbon Brief speaks to Astrid Schomaker, the new executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity – the international agreement behind the upcoming COP16 talks in Cali, Colombia. The full interview will be published on Carbon Brief’s website this week.
Carbon Brief: How are you feeling ahead of COP16?
Astrid Schomaker: Mostly excited and quite optimistic. For us in the convention, it’s a big moment. We had an ambitious framework put in place just two years ago and now we need to look at whether this has actually been the game-changer that people think it has been…Now really is nature’s moment.
CB: What are the main outcomes you want to see from COP16?
AS: The first thing is to have a look at how implementation is actually progressing. We said at COP15 [that] countries should prioritise national targets. So far, we have 79 countries that have put national targets in place. We expect more by COP and maybe also some to be announced at COP…On the national biodiversity strategies and action plans, the number does not look quite so good. We are at 20 so far. Again, we know lots of countries are now finalising their plans, stepping up action. One may think it’s a low number – and certainly this has been pointed out by some NGOs…I think the important thing is to look that progress is there and I’m confident that, by the end of the year, the number will be significantly higher.
CB: President Lula from Brazil and other world leaders will be at COP16. Do you think this will boost the profile of biodiversity COPs?
AS: I think the intention of Colombia as a host – and, of course, we very much support that – is to demonstrate that the nature crisis has to be understood as being at the same level of seriousness as the climate crisis…We will not be able to look at climate change in isolation from the nature and biodiversity crisis…By bringing heads of state and government that are talking about this a lot to our COP, I think we will succeed more to get this message heard by a wider audience.
CB: Azerbaijan recently put its name forward to host the next biodiversity COP summit [in 2026]. What is your reaction to that, especially given some of the controversies around them hosting this year’s climate COP?
AS: We have two offers on the table at the moment – Azerbaijan and Armenia…Hosting a COP is a huge responsibility and I think Azerbaijan experiences this now, as they’re getting ready to host the climate COP. If a country puts itself forward, it puts its national policies under a global spotlight. So I think it takes courage to do it and we’re grateful that we have two candidates that want to host us in 2026.
News and views
ANIMAL IMPACT: Hurricane Helene – which tore through six US states and killed at least 230 people last week – damaged more than 100 poultry facilities and 15 dairy farms in Georgia, Inside Climate News reported. The hurricane “underscore[s] the perils of raising tens of thousands of animals in industrial-scale facilities as weather patterns grow more extreme”, the outlet said. Meanwhile, Florida is set to be hit again by Hurricane Milton, which experts warned may “result in significant losses of vegetables and fruit crops” and could send food prices “sky high”, according to Newsweek. The Washington Post profiled the efforts at Florida’s zoos and aquariums to prepare their animals to withstand the storm.
DIGGING DEEP: The Amazon river is “parched” after being “battered by back-to-back droughts fuelled by climate change”, the New York Times said. It added that water levels in some stretches fell to their lowest level on record last month. Brazil plans to begin “dredging” to deepen parts of the river – a measure the newspaper said “might have been unthinkable not too long ago”. Some scientists warn that this “could leave lasting marks on aquatic systems, disrupting and potentially harming plants and animals”, the newspaper said. Meanwhile, a World Meteorological Organization report found that last year was the “driest” in more than three decades for rivers globally.
NEW GREEN REVOLUTION: The push for a new “green revolution” in Africa is stirring up old debates, Reuters reported. The newswire cited a study that indicates that around 65% of Africa’s farmland is degraded or unproductive due to the overuse of chemical fertilisers, contributing to the food insecurity of more than 270 million people. It added that the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, a coalition of civil societies and farmers’ groups, advocates for a transition to agroecology, while agribusiness companies rely on new technologies for boosting soil health.
DELAY FOR CONSERVATION: The EU intends to delay the implementation of its anti-deforestation law for one year amid growing concerns from international trading partners, the Financial Times reported. The European Commission pointed out that the pause would give countries and companies “additional time to prepare” for implementation. Environmental groups criticised the decision. Julian Oram, senior policy director at Mighty Earth, said the postponement would push “climate and nature goals out of reach”. The European parliament and member states must approve the proposal ahead of the law entering into force on 30 December, according to the outlet.
METHANE MADNESS: The methane emissions from 29 major meat and dairy companies “rival those of the 100 biggest corporations in the fossil fuel sector”, according to a report from Greenpeace. The environmental NGO’s calculations estimate that the 29 companies collectively emit 20m tonnes of methane each year – one-fifth of all livestock methane emissions globally. Greenpeace also estimated that “business as usual” meat and dairy production and consumption could add an extra 0.32C of warming by 2050. Shefali Sharma, a co-author on the report and global agriculture campaigner at Greenpeace Nordic, told Carbon Brief: “For everyday people, that [0.32C] might not mean much. But for those of us who have been following climate, this is huge. So it’s time that we really do take this head on.”
CLIMATE EDUCATION: The Associated Press covered a German programme aiming to educate students, farmers and breweries on climate change. The initiative came up in a plant nursery at the Society of Hop Research in Munich, which holds 7,000 seedlings of hops, many of which are new varieties that are resilient to diseases and drought. The newswire said that the plants will be taken to universities, “vocational schools, breweries and farms across Germany”.
Watch, read, listen
HOME TIES: A new documentary Taste of the Land explored the filmmaker’s relationship with her homeland, Cambodia, and its changing landscapes.
ACCUSATIONS: Also in Cambodia, Mongabay detailed how an environmental journalist covering deforestation “has himself been charged with deforestation”.
WASTE NOT: A Guardian long read examined the “scandal of food waste” and the hurdles standing in the way of reducing it.
BURYING TREES: In this Science podcast, a professor at the University of Maryland explored how burying trees could help sequester carbon emissions.
New science
- If all unmanaged coral reefs were to apply fishing restrictions, reef fish biomass would rise by 10.5%, according to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Using a conservation model based on 2,600 reef sites, scientists found that current fishing restrictions are responsible for preserving 10% of current fish biomass on reefs.
- Many South American regions experienced a three-fold increase in the number of days with “extreme fire weather conditions” since 1971, according to research published in Communications Earth & Environment. The researchers analysed changes in the weather conditions that can boost fire risk, finding those extremes “disproportionally affect vulnerable rural populations and minorities”.
- More than half of tropical rainforests could turn into dry savannah by the end of this century under a future scenario with very high global greenhouse gas emissions, an npj Climate and Atmospheric Science study found. The researchers wrote that the situation is “more critical” in the Amazon, which may “become an open-canopy, highly degraded ecosystem”, if it hits a tipping point.
In the diary
- 12 October: World Migratory Bird Day
- 21 October-1 November: COP16 UN biodiversity conference | Cali, Colombia
- 22 October: Seminar on “reconciling land uses on a crowded island to achieve net-zero and more” | Oxford, UK and online
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 9 October 2024: COP16 looms; ‘Parched’ Amazon river; UN biodiversity chief Q&A appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Cropped 9 October 2024: COP16 looms; ‘Parched’ Amazon river; UN biodiversity chief Q&A
Climate Change
DeBriefed 15 August 2025: Raging wildfires; Xi’s priorities; Factchecking the Trump climate report
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
This week
Blazing heat hits Europe
FANNING THE FLAMES: Wildfires “fanned by a heatwave and strong winds” caused havoc across southern Europe, Reuters reported. It added: “Fire has affected nearly 440,000 hectares (1,700 square miles) in the eurozone so far in 2025, double the average for the same period of the year since 2006.” Extreme heat is “breaking temperature records across Europe”, the Guardian said, with several countries reporting readings of around 40C.
HUMAN TOLL: At least three people have died in the wildfires erupting across Spain, Turkey and Albania, France24 said, adding that the fires have “displaced thousands in Greece and Albania”. Le Monde reported that a child in Italy “died of heatstroke”, while thousands were evacuated from Spain and firefighters “battled three large wildfires” in Portugal.
UK WILDFIRE RISK: The UK saw temperatures as high as 33.4C this week as England “entered its fourth heatwave”, BBC News said. The high heat is causing “nationally significant” water shortfalls, it added, “hitting farms, damaging wildlife and increasing wildfires”. The Daily Mirror noted that these conditions “could last until mid-autumn”. Scientists warn the UK faces possible “firewaves” due to climate change, BBC News also reported.
Around the world
- GRID PRESSURES: Iraq suffered a “near nationwide blackout” as elevated power demand – due to extreme temperatures of around 50C – triggered a transmission line failure, Bloomberg reported.
- ‘DIRE’ DOWN UNDER: The Australian government is keeping a climate risk assessment that contains “dire” implications for the continent “under wraps”, the Australian Financial Review said.
- EXTREME RAINFALL: Mexico City is “seeing one of its heaviest rainy seasons in years”, the Washington Post said. Downpours in the Japanese island of Kyushu “caused flooding and mudslides”, according to Politico. In Kashmir, flash floods killed 56 and left “scores missing”, the Associated Press said.
- SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION: China and Brazil agreed to “ensure the success” of COP30 in a recent phone call, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
- PLASTIC ‘DEADLOCK’: Talks on a plastic pollution treaty have failed again at a summit in Geneva, according to the Guardian, with countries “deadlocked” on whether it should include “curbs on production and toxic chemicals”.
15
The number of times by which the most ethnically-diverse areas in England are more likely to experience extreme heat than its “least diverse” areas, according to new analysis by Carbon Brief.
Latest climate research
- As many as 13 minerals critical for low-carbon energy may face shortages under 2C pathways | Nature Climate Change
- A “scoping review” examined the impact of climate change on poor sexual and reproductive health and rights in sub-Saharan Africa | PLOS One
- A UK university cut the carbon footprint of its weekly canteen menu by 31% “without students noticing” | Nature Food
(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
Captured
Factchecking Trump’s climate report
A report commissioned by the US government to justify rolling back climate regulations contains “at least 100 false or misleading statements”, according to a Carbon Brief factcheck involving dozens of leading climate scientists. The report, compiled in two months by five hand-picked researchers, inaccurately claims that “CO2-induced warming might be less damaging economically than commonly believed” and misleadingly states that “excessively aggressive [emissions] mitigation policies could prove more detrimental than beneficial”80
Spotlight
Does Xi Jinping care about climate change?
This week, Carbon Brief unpacks new research on Chinese president Xi Jinping’s policy priorities.
On this day in 2005, Xi Jinping, a local official in eastern China, made an unplanned speech when touring a small village – a rare occurrence in China’s highly-choreographed political culture.
In it, he observed that “lucid waters and lush mountains are mountains of silver and gold” – that is, the environment cannot be sacrificed for the sake of growth.
(The full text of the speech is not available, although Xi discussed the concept in a brief newspaper column – see below – a few days later.)
In a time where most government officials were laser-focused on delivering economic growth, this message was highly unusual.
Forward-thinking on environment
As a local official in the early 2000s, Xi endorsed the concept of “green GDP”, which integrates the value of natural resources and the environment into GDP calculations.
He also penned a regular newspaper column, 22 of which discussed environmental protection – although “climate change” was never mentioned.
This focus carried over to China’s national agenda when Xi became president.
New research from the Asia Society Policy Institute tracked policies in which Xi is reported by state media to have “personally” taken action.
It found that environmental protection is one of six topics in which he is often said to have directly steered policymaking.
Such policies include guidelines to build a “Beautiful China”, the creation of an environmental protection inspection team and the “three-north shelterbelt” afforestation programme.
“It’s important to know what Xi’s priorities are because the top leader wields outsized influence in the Chinese political system,” Neil Thomas, Asia Society Policy Institute fellow and report co-author, told Carbon Brief.
Local policymakers are “more likely” to invest resources in addressing policies they know have Xi’s attention, to increase their chances for promotion, he added.
What about climate and energy?
However, the research noted, climate and energy policies have not been publicised as bearing Xi’s personal touch.
“I think Xi prioritises environmental protection more than climate change because reducing pollution is an issue of social stability,” Thomas said, noting that “smoggy skies and polluted rivers” were more visible and more likely to trigger civil society pushback than gradual temperature increases.
The paper also said topics might not be linked to Xi personally when they are “too technical” or “politically sensitive”.
For example, Xi’s landmark decision for China to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 is widely reported as having only been made after climate modelling – facilitated by former climate envoy Xie Zhenhua – showed that this goal was achievable.
Prior to this, Xi had never spoken publicly about carbon neutrality.
Prof Alex Wang, a University of California, Los Angeles professor of law not involved in the research, noted that emphasising Xi’s personal attention may signal “top” political priorities, but not necessarily Xi’s “personal interests”.
By not emphasising climate, he said, Xi may be trying to avoid “pushing the system to overprioritise climate to the exclusion of the other priorities”.
There are other ways to know where climate ranks on the policy agenda, Thomas noted:
“Climate watchers should look at what Xi says, what Xi does and what policies Xi authorises in the name of the ‘central committee’. Is Xi talking more about climate? Is Xi establishing institutions and convening meetings that focus on climate? Is climate becoming a more prominent theme in top-level documents?”
Watch, read, listen
TRUMP EFFECT: The Columbia Energy Exchange podcast examined how pressure from US tariffs could affect India’s clean energy transition.
NAMIBIAN ‘DESTRUCTION’: The National Observer investigated the failure to address “human rights abuses and environmental destruction” claims against a Canadian oil company in Namibia.
‘RED AI’: The Network for the Digital Economy and the Environment studied the state of current research on “Red AI”, or the “negative environmental implications of AI”.
Coming up
- 17 August: Bolivian general elections
- 18-29 August: Preparatory talks on the entry into force of the “High Seas Treaty”, New York
- 18-22 August: Y20 Summit, Johannesburg
- 21 August: Advancing the “Africa clean air programme” through Africa-Asia collaboration, Yokohama
Pick of the jobs
- Lancaster Environment Centre, senior research associate: JUST Centre | Salary: £39,355-£45,413. Location: Lancaster, UK
- Environmental Justice Foundation, communications and media officer, Francophone Africa | Salary: XOF600,000-XOF800,000. Location: Dakar, Senegal
- Politico, energy & climate editor | Salary: Unknown. Location: Brussels, Belgium
- EnviroCatalysts, meteorologist | Salary: Unknown. Location: New Delhi, India
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 15 August 2025: Raging wildfires; Xi’s priorities; Factchecking the Trump climate report appeared first on Carbon Brief.
DeBriefed 15 August 2025: Raging wildfires; Xi’s priorities; Factchecking the Trump climate report
Climate Change
New York Already Denied Permits to These Gas Pipelines. Under Trump, They Could Get Greenlit
The specter of a “gas-for-wind” compromise between the governor and the White House is drawing the ire of residents as a deadline looms.
Hundreds of New Yorkers rallied against new natural gas pipelines in their state as a deadline loomed for the public to comment on a revived proposal to expand the gas pipeline that supplies downstate New York.
New York Already Denied Permits to These Gas Pipelines. Under Trump, They Could Get Greenlit
A “critical assessment” report commissioned by the Trump administration to justify a rollback of US climate regulations contains at least 100 false or misleading statements, according to a Carbon Brief factcheck involving dozens of leading climate scientists.
The report – “A critical review of impacts of greenhouse gas emissions on the US climate” – was published by the US Department of Energy (DoE) on 23 July, just days before the government laid out plans to revoke a scientific finding used as the legal basis for emissions regulation.
The executive summary of the controversial report inaccurately claims that “CO2-induced warming might be less damaging economically than commonly believed”.
It also states misleadingly that “excessively aggressive [emissions] mitigation policies could prove more detrimental than beneficial”.
Compiled in just two months by five “independent” researchers hand-selected by the climate-sceptic US secretary of energy Chris Wright, the document has sparked fierce criticism from climate scientists, who have pointed to factual errors, misrepresentation of research, messy citations and the cherry-picking of data.
Experts have also noted the authors’ track record of promoting views at odds with the mainstream understanding of climate science.
Wright’s department claims the report – which is currently open to public comment as part of a 30-day review – underwent an “internal peer-review period amongst [the] DoE’s scientific research community”.
The report is designed to provide a scientific underpinning to one flank of the Trump administration’s plans to rescind a finding that serves as the legal prerequisite for federal emissions regulation. (The second flank is about legal authority to regulate emissions.)
The “endangerment finding” – enacted by the Obama administration in 2009 – states that six greenhouse gases are contributing to the net-negative impacts of climate change and, thus, put the public in danger.
In a press release on 29 July, the US Environmental Protection Agency said “updated studies and information” set out in the new report would “challenge the assumptions” of the 2009 finding.
Carbon Brief asked a wide range of climate scientists, including those cited in the “critical review” itself, to factcheck the report’s various claims and statements.
The post Factcheck: Trump’s climate report includes more than 100 false or misleading claims appeared first on Carbon Brief.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-trumps-climate-report-includes-more-than-100-false-or-misleading-claims/
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