Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
This week
Asian extreme weather
SWELTERING: An intense heatwave is sweeping across south and eastern Asia. The Dhaka Tribune said temperatures in Bangladesh have surpassed 40C in many regions and the Daily Star reported that the country recorded at least 23 days “heatwave days” in April. Agence France-Presse reported that Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, reached 40.1C on Wednesday. The Bangkok Post added that temperatures could reach 43C in northern Thailand next week. (See Carbon Brief’s recent on-the-ground reporting on the impacts of climate change on human migration in Thailand.) Schools across the Philippines, Bangladesh and India have been forced to close due to the heat, according to BBC News.
ELECTION HEAT: In India, the heatwave coincides with the country’s six-week general election, in which nearly one billion people are eligible to vote, the New York Times reported. India’s election authorities have set up a taskforce “to review the impact of heatwave[s]” on the election after a significant decrease in voter turnout, the Indian Express said. India’s Economic Times added that temperatures in the country will peak on 27-28 April.
FLOODING: More than 110,000 people have been evacuated from China’s Guangdong province after record-breaking rainfall caused widespread flooding, state news agency Xinhua reported. China Daily said that southern China has experienced more than double the typical rainfall for April. The flooding has caused economic losses exceeding 140m yuan ($19.8m), according to the People’s Daily Online. Meanwhile, the Financial Times reported that the World Meteorological Organization has published a report warning that climate change “is causing major repercussions across Asia”.
Legal action
HISTORIC ENQUIRY: The Inter-American Court on Human Rights in Barbados is hearing the first part of a “historic” inquiry this week, the Guardian said. The New Humanitarian reported that Colombia and Chile are “asking the hearing to define states’ legal responsibility to combat climate change and prevent it from violating people’s human rights”. It added that the court will hear from Julian Medina, a Colombian fisherman, among others.
HEALTH FAILURE: A group of South Koreans is suing their government for failing to protect 200 people, including young environmental activists and children, by not tackling climate change, Reuters reported. “The proceeding is Asia’s first such climate-related litigation,” the newswire added. Meanwhile, BBC News reported that an Iraqi man is taking legal action against BP, alleging that his late-son’s leukaemia was caused by the oil company’s flaring practices.
SUSPENDED: Meanwhile in the UK, Dr Sarah Benn, a retired GP in Birmingham, has had her medical licence suspended for five months following her involvement with Just Stop Oil protests and risks being stuck off permanently, the Guardian reported. According to the Times, the 57-year-old was previously jailed for 31 days after taking part in three climate protests at an oil terminal in Kingsbury in 2022. There has been backlash to the ruling, which the British Medical Association called “very concerning”, the paper added.
Around the world
- EARTH DAY: US president Joe Biden marked “Earth Day” on Monday by announcing $7bn of investment into solar energy projects, the New York Times reported.
- CONTROVERSIAL TREATY: EU lawmakers have voted “overwhelmingly” for the bloc to leave the international energy charter treaty, according to the Financial Times. The paper called the ruling a “victory for climate advocates”, adding that many think the treaty protects fossil fuels.
- UNHELPFUL SLOGAN: Chris Stark, the outgoing chief executive of the UK’s Climate Change Committee, told the Guardian that “net-zero” has become an “unhelpful” slogan, which is often “associated with the campaigns against it”.
- MEXICAN DROUGHT: Nearly 80% of Mexico’s territory is now under drought conditions, Excélsior reported. EuroNews added that drought, combined with a surge in water demand to grow crops such as avocados, is causing rivers and lakes to dry up in the “once green and lush” state of Michoacan.
- DEADLY FLOODS: Countries across east Africa have been “lashed by relentless downpours in recent weeks”, Al Jazeera reported. The outlet warned that “deadly floods” are sweeping through Kenya’s capital Nairobi.
- CLIMATE RISK: The World Bank is advising South Africa’s national treasury on climate risk strategies, such as taking out climate insurance or setting up contingency funds, following floods which have caused billions of dollars of damage in recent years, reported Bloomberg.
2.4 billion
The number of workers globally expected to face “excessive heat conditions” at some point during their careers, according to an International Labor Organization report covered in the Associated Press.
Latest climate research
- A study in Nature Climate Change found that meteorological definitions for extreme weather events do not fully capture the negative impacts experienced by women in informal settlements.
- The area of land in east Africa affected by combined heatwaves and wildfires could increase by 940% by the end of the century, according to new research in Earth System Dynamics.
- New analysis by the World Weather Attribution service found that the heavy rainfall that hit Oman and the United Arab Emirates recently was 10-40% heavier than it would have been in an El Niño year without climate change.
(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
Captured
The past 10 months have all set new all-time monthly global temperature records, with April 2024 on track to extend this streak to 11, wrote Dr Zeke Hausfather in his latest quarterly “state of the climate” report for Carbon Brief. The graph shows monthly temperatures over 1940-2024, plotted with respect to a 1850-1900 baseline. Based on the year so far and the current El Niño forecast, Carbon Brief estimates that global temperatures in 2024 are likely to average out at around 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
Spotlight
Climate science in the courtroom
Last week, a group of 2,000 Swiss women won a landmark case in the European Court of Human Rights. The women, mostly in their 70s, said that their age and gender made them particularly vulnerable to heatwaves linked to climate change. The court ruled that Switzerland’s efforts to meet its emissions targets had been “woefully inadequate”.
At the annual European Geosciences Union (EGU) general assembly in Vienna, Carbon Brief interviews Prof Wim Thiery – a scientist who was involved in multiple conference sessions on climate change and litigation. This interview was edited for length.
Carbon Brief: What types of climate science are used in litigation?
Prof Wim Thiery: Just like how there’s a range of different subfields in climate science, we have a range of different climate cases. For example, there’s attribution science which supports reparation cases. We are seeing carbon budget research and fair-share emission pathways research supporting cases on climate policies. And we’re also seeing future climate impact projections supporting cases that are started by young people around the world.
CB: What science was used in the recent European case?
WT: Impact attribution research played a key role. Recent studies by [Oxford University researcher] Dr Rupert Stewart-Smith and [Swiss epidemiologist] Dr Anna Vicedo-Cabrera, for example, showed that all women in Switzerland are disproportionately at risk of heat-related mortality in Switzerland. So, these are recent scientific publications that were directly mentioned in court and that played an influence on the final court ruling.
CB: Do you think the methods used in attribution science are changing to better support litigation?
WT: We are seeing an evolution in attribution science, whereby we move from the traditional science of long-term trends in climate variables, to the operational ability to – in almost real time – establish the link of climate change with the occurrence of individual extreme events. And we’re seeing a new evolution whereby communities are increasingly looking at impact-relevant variables. Think about inundated areas, lake levels, heatwave mortalities. These are the new target variables of attribution science. This is a new frontier and we are seeing that those studies are directly usable in court cases.
CB: Do you ever worry about your research, or that of your colleagues, becoming ‘too political’?
WT: We are used to, in climate science, working with policymakers and with society. Our research is of direct societal relevance and this is just a new example. For me, this is just another example of working with stakeholders – lawyers are a new group of stakeholders for our community.
There is a very direct and tangible impact when you see that an attribution study or a particular scientific publication is used in a court case and has a direct effect on its evolution. It’s very tangible, the outcomes, and I think that’s something which motivates climate scientists in engaging in this community.
Watch, read, listen
FAKE MEAT: Climate YouTuber Simon Clark has published a video asking: “How green is fake meat, really?” To answer the question, he compared the carbon and land footprints of beef, chicken, pork and mutton with those of major meat substitutes.
GROWING GULLIES: A multimedia-rich BBC News article explained how soil erosion is causing vast gullies and chasms to open up around Latin America and Africa, destroying tens of thousands of homes.
GREENWASHING ADS: The Financial Times and Reuters have taken down “advertorials” paid for by oil giant Saudi Aramco, following allegations of greenwashing and disinformation, DeSmog reported.
Coming up
- 28-30 April: G7 ministers’ meeting on climate, energy and environment, Piemonte, Italy
- 29 April: Parliamentary election, Togo
- 30 April: UN General Assembly thematic event on “the El Niño Phenomenon”, New York, US
- 4 May: Local elections, UK
Pick of the jobs
- Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, head of Asia campaigns and advocacy | Salary: $60,000-80,000. Location: Fully remote (Asia)
- UK Met Office, land observations manager | Salary: £41,725. Location: Exeter, Edinburgh or Watnall
- International Institute for Environment and Development, urban climate resilience lead and principal researcher | Salary: £64,814-80,654. Location: Hybrid within or outside the UK, with occasional travel to the UK offices.
- Climate Analytics, deputy head of climate policy and senior climate science data analyst | Salary: €54,348-84,495 and €64,348-70,944, respectively. Location: Berlin
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 26 April 2024: Extremes grip Asia; Human rights inquiry; Using climate science in court appeared first on Carbon Brief.
DeBriefed 26 April 2024: Extremes grip Asia; Human rights inquiry; Using climate science in court
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/
-
Climate Change2 years ago
Spanish-language misinformation on renewable energy spreads online, report shows
-
Climate Change Videos2 years ago
The toxic gas flares fuelling Nigeria’s climate change – BBC News
-
Greenhouse Gases1 year ago嘉宾来稿：满足中国增长的用电需求 光伏加储能“比新建煤电更实惠”
-
Climate Change1 year ago嘉宾来稿：满足中国增长的用电需求 光伏加储能“比新建煤电更实惠”
-
Carbon Footprint1 year agoUS SEC’s Climate Disclosure Rules Spur Renewed Interest in Carbon Credits
-
Climate Change2 years ago
Why airlines are perfect targets for anti-greenwashing legal action
-
Climate Change Videos2 years ago
The toxic gas flares fuelling Nigeria’s climate change – BBC News
-
Climate Change2 years ago
Some firms unaware of England’s new single-use plastic ban