Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
This week
Sweltering Earth
RECORD YEAR?: Global temperatures “breached the threshold of 1.5C for each of the past 12 months and seas reached their warmest for 15 months in a row”, the Financial Times reported, setting the scene for 2024 to be the hottest year on record. Reuters, also quoting the EU’s climate change monitoring service, said last month was the hottest June on record, the 13th month in a row to be the warmest recorded.
SCORCHING SUMMER: Japan issued a heat stroke alert for 26 of the country’s 47 prefectures, urging people to stay indoors, use air conditioners and drink lots of water, the Guardian reported. Covering Pakistan’s heatwave, the New York Times said “hundreds of patients suffering from heat-related illnesses pour into the hospitals every day, pushing them far past their capacity.” About 36 million people in the US are under excessive heat warnings, Reuters reported.
STORMY TIMES: Hurricane Beryl reached Texas after causing destruction in the Caribbean last week and knocked out power to nearly three million homes and businesses, the Associated Press reported. According to the Indian Express, record rains descended on Mumbai, leading to traffic chaos and train cancellations across the city. In Cape Town, South Africa, nearly 1,000 homes were destroyed by gale-force winds, the Associated Press reported.
Labour makes early moves
WIND POWER: Days after its historic election win, the new Labour government in the UK lifted a “de-facto ban” on building new onshore wind turbines in England, the Guardian reported. According to the Daily Mail, chancellor Rachel Reeves described the ban as “absurd” and said it would hold back progress towards Labour’s ambition to make the UK a “clean-energy superpower”.
GREEN INDUSTRY: Labour also announced that a new £7.3bn national wealth fund, aimed at cutting emissions from the UK’s heavy industry, will begin investing in areas such as green steel and gigafactories “immediately”, the Financial Times reported. Reeves said the funds are to be spent over five years and disbursed by the state-run UK Infrastructure Bank, the newspaper added. And Chris Stark was appointed to head a “Covid vaccine-style taskforce aimed at delivering clean and cheaper power by 2030”, said the Guardian.
FOSSIL BUSINESS: The new government said that a proposed coal mine in Cumbria had been approved unlawfully, reported the Guardian, as the carbon emissions of coal from the mine should have been taken into account in the planning decision. Meanwhile, a Daily Telegraph article on North Sea oil and gas licensing was described by the government as a “complete fabrication”, noted City AM.
Around the world
- NO TURNING BACK: The EU has resisted calls from industries and countries to delay its flagship deforestation law, which is set to take effect from 30 December, Reuters reported.
- MORE TREES: The amount of forest lost in Colombia fell by 36% between 2022 and 2023, its lowest level in 23 years, the Guardian reported.
- CLEAN POWER: South Africa’s new energy minister vowed to be “ultra-aggressive” on renewable energy as the country celebrated more than 100 days with no power cuts – a record following years of crippling blackouts, Reuters reported.
- ELECTION ANXIETY: Scientists in France said they were relieved that the right-wing party National Rally was defeated in the country’s parliamentary elections, over fears of budget cuts to research and the introduction of climate scepticism into government, Nature reported.
- END TIMES: Fossil-fuel company BP said oil demand is expected to peak in 2025 under current climate policies and fossil fuels will decline to about two-thirds of the global energy mix by 2050, as more renewable capacity is installed, said the Times.
- RECORD PENALTY: Petroleum company Marathon Oil must pay a record $64.5m penalty to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Air Act, the Washington Post reported.
760,000
The number of hectares (1.8m acres) that have already burned across the Brazilian Pantanal – the world’s largest wetland and one of the most biodiverse places on Earth – in 2024, reported the Guardian.
Latest climate research
- As the world reduces emissions and approaches net-zero, it will be “difficult” to identify specifically when warming has “stopped”, according to a new study published in Environmental Research Letters, potentially creating confusion among policymakers and the general public.
- New research in Scientific Reports found that climate change-driven desertification in the Gobi Desert could threaten several species of dung beetle.
- Methane emissions from livestock in China are projected to rise 13% by 2030, but there is the “technical potential” to cut them by 36%, a new study in Nature Food suggested.
(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
Captured
Clean energy generated a record-high 44% of China’s electricity in May 2024, pushing coal’s share down to a record low of 53%, despite continued growth in demand, according to new analysis published by Carbon Brief. Coal lost seven percentage points compared with May 2023, when it accounted for 60% of generation in China. Generation from clean energy sources grew by a record 78 terawatt hours (TWh), including a record rise from solar of 41TWh (78%), a recovery from earlier drought-driven lows for hydro of 34TWh (39%) and a modest rise for wind of 4TWh (5%). If current rapid wind and solar deployment continues, then China’s CO2 output is likely to continue falling, making 2023 the peak year for the country’s emissions, the analysis said.
Spotlight
Solutions to West Africa’s fishing crisis
Carbon Brief examines the link between climate change and the declining fortunes of fishing communities in West Africa.
In June, a new paper in Scientific Reports suggested that global warming was contributing to changes in the distribution of small pelagic (open ocean) fish species in a marine ecosystem that stretches from Morocco to Senegal.
“These changes serve as an early indicator of potential future challenges regarding availability, holding profound implications for the food security of millions of citizens across West Africa,” the authors wrote.
The study was one of the latest in an ongoing effort by scientists to improve the understanding of climate change’s impact on marine ecosystems in West Africa.
Nearly seven million people directly derive their livelihoods from small-scale fisheries in West Africa, but the fatal combination of overfishing and ocean warming has resulted in reduced productivity in marine resources, threatening to further impoverish coastal communities in the region.
For example, the coastal catch dropped by nearly 40% in Côte d’Ivoire between 2003 and 2020. And, in Ghana, annual landings of round sardinella, an economically important fish in the country, fell by 90% between 1992 and 2019.
Maximum catch potential is expected to continue to decline as ocean warming – which accounts for about 90% of global warming – accelerates, according to Robert Paarlberg, an emeritus professor at Wellesley College in Massachuchets, who has spent the past three decades researching food and agricultural policy in several African countries.
Coastal adaptation
In 2023, Paarlberg, a co-investigator at a Harvard research cluster focused on climate adaptation in the Gulf of Guinea, spent three weeks visiting coastal communities in Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria. He returned to Ghana in May 2024. His goal was to study adaptation strategies for fishing communities in the region.
“Finding alternative income for traditional fishing communities is essential, since the stocks of small pelagic fish will continue to decline, at least in the Gulf of Guinea where I have focused my research,” Paarlberg tells Carbon Brief.
In a recent article, Paarlberg advocated for conditional cash transfer policies at the national level to help fishing communities stay in school longer, arguing that more education could empower them to find non-fishing jobs.
But he believes the international community can also play a role. He tells Carbon Brief:
“US AID [Agency for International Development] has been scaling up a vocational training program for fishers in Ghana, to help them transition to alternative livelihoods, but the US AID budget is not big enough to scale up such programmes for all those in need. The UN Green Climate Fund has started to provide this kind of assistance in West Africa and, together with the World Bank, could be doing even more.”
One way to slow down the impact of climate change is to significantly curb the overfishing practices of local and foreign trawlers. According to Paarlberg, regional cooperation can help, due to the transnational nature of the coast:
“Countries such as Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire have been imposing ‘closed seasons’ to combat overfishing in July and August. But if Togo does not follow suit too, many canoes will simply go down the coast and fish in Togolese waters.”
Watch, read, listen
FEEDING THE PLANET: For the first guest on her new podcast, Prof Sarah Bridle, interviewed Prof Rosie Green about plant-based alternative foods, their environmental impact and what to look for when choosing plant milk.
CLIMATE THEATRE: For Nature, Prof Peter Stott reviewed the premiere of a new UK play, Kyoto, which depicts the drama behind the scenes at the 1997 Kyoto Protocol negotiations.
ROAD TO COP29: In an opinion piece for African Arguments, chair of the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) at the climate talks in Bonn in June 2024, Ali Mohamed, said a pan-African stance is the only path to climate justice.
Coming up
- 15 July: Rwandan general elections
- 15 July – 2 August: 2nd Part of the 29th Annual Session of the International Seabed Authority, Kingston, Jamaica
- 16–17 July: G7 Trade ministers’ meeting, Reggio Calabria, Italy
- 18 July: Meeting of the European Political Community, Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, UK
Pick of the jobs
- The African Climate Foundation, programme manager, sustainable finance | Salary: Unknown. Location: Remote, preference will be given to candidates based in Kenya, Ethiopia and South Africa
- International Institute for Sustainable Development-Experimental Lakes Area, programme manager | Salary: CAD$80,000-CAD$100,000. Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba (hybrid)
- US South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, New Mexico tribal liaison | Salary: $48,000-$52,000. Location: Oklahoma
- The India Climate Collaborative, senior manager – capacity building | Salary: Unknown. Location: Mumbai (preferred) or remote
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 12 July 2024: 12 consecutive months above 1.5C; Labour sets UK climate agenda; West Africa’s fishing crisis appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Climate Change
DeBriefed 19 June 2026: Bonn talks end in ‘gridlock’ | Energy’s ‘new era’ | Oceans in climate negotiations
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
This week
Bonn talks close
‘SIDE-STEPPING AND STALLING’: UN climate talks in Bonn have ended in “gridlock”, according to Climate Home News. The outlet reported on the failure to balance developing countries’ need for climate-adaptation finance with “richer nations’ desire to move forward” on emissions cuts. It added that both topics were subject to “rule 16”, meaning no agreement could be reached and work will be pushed to the COP31 summit in Turkey. Inside Climate News quoted UN climate executive secretary Simon Stiell, who said the talks had seen “side-stepping and stalling”.
JUST TRANSITION: One “glimmer of hope” came from negotiations on achieving a “just transition”, reported Euronews. The news outlet said negotiators “made headway on operationalising the Belém-Antalya mechanism”, intended to support people in the shift to a low-carbon economy. However, Politico concluded that much of the focus in Bonn had “shift[ed] to efforts outside diplomatic talks – raising questions about the future of global climate negotiations”.
‘ATTACKING SCIENCE’: Agence France-Presse reported on the EU, Switzerland and “dozens of developing nations” warning of “attacks on science” by a “small group of fossil-fuels interests” in Bonn. Table Briefings explained that “the 1.5C target is increasingly being challenged” and the role of the UN climate-science panel – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – in an upcoming assessment of global climate progress “remains controversial”. See Carbon Brief’s full write-up of the talks for more detail.
US-Iran deal
PRICE DROP: The US and Iran announced that they have reached an interim agreement to halt the war and reopen the strait of Hormuz, reported Bloomberg. Oil prices have fallen, as the “long-awaited deal” began the process of “eas[ing]” the global energy crisis triggered by the conflict, according to the New York Times. The Associated Press noted that high fuel prices will “likely outlast the Iran war”.
‘OIL GLUT’: The Financial Times reported that the International Energy Agency (IEA) has forecast a “glut of oil” emerging next year, if the peace deal holds. The IEA said this would allow countries to build new strategic reserves, as they “review their energy strategies and policies in response to the crisis”, according to Reuters.
‘NEW ERA’: Agence France-Presse reported that oil and gas companies have “few illusions about a return to normal for the Gulf energy industry after more than three months of blockage”. One analyst told the newswire that the war “showed the oil and gas industry that Hormuz risk is no longer just a geopolitical headline”.
Around the world
- OCEAN MONITOR: The Trump administration is “abandoning its plan” to dismantle a $368m ocean monitoring system key for tracking climate change after a “bipartisan backlash on Capitol Hill”, reported the New York Times.
- CORAL HAVEN: The New York Times covered preliminary research, presented at the Our Ocean Conference in Kenya, suggesting there could be three times as many “coral refugia” – where corals are relatively safe from climate change – than previously thought.
- BAD CREDIT: Down to Earth reported that the first carbon credits issued under the Paris Agreement’s new Article 6.4 mechanism are “facing scrutiny over alleged links to institutions controlled by Myanmar’s military junta”.
- OIL BACKTRACK: Reuters reported that oil-and-gas company Equinor has dropped a renewable-energy target and scaled back clean investments, while another Reuters story noted that Shell is selling off its offshore wind assets.
1.1 billion
The number of children facing “at least three overlapping climate hazards”, according to a new Unicef report covered by Agence France-Presse.
Latest climate research
- Including the “permafrost carbon-climate feedback” in climate models increases the chance of exceeding “tipping elements” – such as the Greenland ice sheets, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation or Amazon rainforest – by up to 50% | Environmental Research Letters
- The intensity of influenza outbreaks could decline in temperate regions, but increase in tropical areas over the next century, as the climate warms | PNAS Nexus
- European snow cover has declined by 20% for December and January since the start of the industrial era, revealing an “unprecedented ongoing shrinkage of European winters” | Communications Earth & Environment
(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
Captured
The more than 2m battery electric vehicles (BEVs), 1m “plug-in” hybrids (PHEVs) and 100,000 electric vans on UK roads are already saving drivers a total of around £3bn a year, according to new Carbon Brief analysis. This amounts to savings of more than £1,100 a year in fuel costs for each BEV driver in the UK. The analysis comes amid reports in UK media this week that the government is considering “watering down” its EV sales targets.
Spotlight
Oceans rising at UN climate talks
The state of the world’s oceans is inextricably linked to the changing climate – and many delegates at UN climate talks want to see more focus on this issue, reports Carbon Brief.
Oceans are often described as the world’s “greatest ally” against climate change – absorbing 30% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and most of the heat generated by those emissions.
They are also the site of important climate solutions, such as huge offshore windfarms and the shipping industry’s transition to cleaner fuels.
At the same time, the oceans themselves present a growing danger to coastal communities and sea life due to sea level rise, marine heatwaves and ocean acidification.
These diverse issues have led to growing calls within the UN climate process for more focus on oceans. During climate negotiations this week in Bonn – known as SB64 – nations and civil society had a chance to air these views during an “ocean and climate change dialogue”.
‘Elevate action’
Oceans first entered UN climate outcomes in 2019, when the final COP25 negotiated text requested a new “dialogue” on “the ocean and climate change to consider how to strengthen mitigation and adaptation action”.
The following years saw this dialogue established as an annual event. However, the political weight of these discussions has been limited.
COP31 is being co-led by Turkey and Australia, but with Pacific islands playing a supporting role. These small islands sometimes self-identify as “large ocean states”, stressing the ocean’s centrality in their societies.
In Bonn, figures from across the presidency threw their weight behind this issue. Chris Bowen, an Australian minister and incoming COP31 “president of negotiations”, told attendees:
“Australia, Turkey and the Pacific see an important opportunity to elevate ocean-based climate action.”
Strategies and finance
The two-day dialogue in Bonn involved a series of panels, statements and breakout groups.
One of the main topics was how oceans are integrated into national climate plans under the Paris Agreement, known as “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs).
Three-quarters of the latest round of NDCs mention oceans, with conservation of “blue carbon” ecosystems the most frequently described action. (Landscapes such as mangroves can both absorb CO2 and protect coastal areas.)
Delegates also discussed alignment with the UN biodiversity process, as well as ocean finance, which currently makes up less than 1% of all climate finance.
(As discussions were taking place in Bonn, country officials also gathered in Mombasa, Kenya for the 11th Our Ocean Conference. Carbon Brief’s associate editor Giuliana Viglione attended the conference and will publish a full summary shortly.)
Developing countries were clear that many of the ocean-related actions in their NDCs would depend on receiving more financial support.
‘Political momentum’
With the backing of the COP31 presidency, delegates were hopeful about where this year’s dialogue could lead.
Charles Hamilton, an advisor for the Bahamas who spoke for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) in the dialogue, told Carbon Brief that island representatives “are not traveling thousands of miles to just talk and pat ourselves on the back”. He added:
“A dialogue that just remains a dialogue is just more talk – no action.”
Given that, he said “discussions in the dialogue must move into COP decisions and the decisions must be actioned”, noting the importance of finance.
Marina Corrêa, oceans lead at WWF-Brazil, pointed to an upcoming UN climate change Standing Committee on Finance forum as a space to ramp up pressure on ocean finance.
More broadly, she wanted to see the presidencies translate their support into a “leader-level ocean initiative” that could “mainstream” oceans across negotiations.
“We have a really interesting opportunity, in terms of political momentum,” Corrêa told Carbon Brief.
Watch, read, listen
‘HOTTER THAN HELL’: An episode of the BBC’s Rare Earth podcast titled “hotter than hell” considered the issue of extreme heat, with input from experts and “people facing up to the hottest temperatures on the planet”.
NOT BROKEN?: John Drake, a professor of ecology at the University of Georgia, wrote an essay for Aeon – also re-published as a Guardian “long read” – questioning the framing of ecosystems and climate systems “breaking down”.
ON COURSE: On his Volts podcast, US climate journalist David Roberts interviewed UK climate minister Katie White, quizzing her about whether the UK will “stay the course with its climate plans”.
Coming up
- 20-28 June: London climate action week
- 21 June: Colombia presidential runoff
- 24 June: UK Climate Change Committee progress in reducing emissions 2026 report to parliament
Pick of the jobs
- Mongabay, managing editor – Africa | Salary: Unknown. Location: Global
- Contexte, environment reporter – Brussels | Salary: €45,000-€60,000. Location: Brussels
- Climate 200, communications director | Salary: Unknown. Location: Australia
- Energy Tracker Asia, energy transition correspondent | Salary: $3,000-$4,000 per month. Location: South-east Asia (remote)
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 19 June 2026: Bonn talks end in ‘gridlock’ | Energy’s ‘new era’ | Oceans in climate negotiations appeared first on Carbon Brief.
The fiscal future of Musselshell County is uncertain after the coal mine that anchors its economy helped defeat the official working to diversify the area’s revenue streams.
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A deep pool of warm water that forms in the Western Pacific could bring strong storms to Southern California and throughout the South while increasing the risks of Western wildfires.
From our collaborating partner Living on Earth, public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by Jenni Doering with author Kevin Trenberth.
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DeBriefed 19 June 2026: Bonn talks end in ‘gridlock’ | Energy’s ‘new era’ | Oceans in climate negotiations
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