Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
This week
Biden’s ‘climate legacy’
BIDEN OUT: US energy policy expert Jason Bordoff was among commentators reacting to the news that Joe Biden has withdrawn from the 2024 presidential race, telling Axios that he will “leave office with the strongest record on climate change of any president in US history”. The Associated Press reported that the Environmental Protection Agency announced $4.3bn in funding this week for decarbonisation efforts across 30 states. The timing of the grants will “ensure Biden’s environmental legacy will remain intact”, Inside Climate News said.
STILL OFF TRACK: Despite Biden’s efforts, the US remains off track for its Paris Agreement pledge of halving emissions from 2005 levels by 2030, according to a new report from US thinktank Rhodium Group, covered by the Financial Times. Rhodium’s analysis suggests the US would only reach 32-43% reductions by 2030, despite a record $71bn of clean energy investment in the first quarter of 2024. The Guardian covered how the US became the world’s biggest oil and gas producer, noting that no other country has ever produced as much of the fossil fuels.
KAMALA IN?: The New York Times is among publications examining the climate record of Kamala Harris, current vice-president and Biden’s most likely successor in the presidential race. “Harris has for years made the environment a top concern,” the newspaper said. The Guardian noted that, when Harris ran for the Democratic presidential primary in 2019, she promoted a “green agenda that was more ambitious than Biden’s, including calling for a carbon tax, a ban on fracking on public lands and a $10tn investment” to help combat climate change.
Global burning
NORTH AMERICA ON FIRE: Biden’s departure from the presidential race comes as US firefighters continue to battle wildfires in Utah and California amid blistering heat, the Guardian reported. NBC News noted that wildfires are also raging across Oregon and Washington, as well as across the border in Alberta, Canada. Fires forced 25,000 people to evacuate the tourist town of Jasper in Alberta, where flames have reached as high as 100 metres, the New York Times reported.
EUROPE ON FIRE: Parts of Europe are also battling blazes, with Greece facing its “most difficult wildfire season in two decades”, according to Bloomberg. There were 30 wildfires reported within a 24-hour period through last Sunday, it added. At least 20 wildfires were also reported in North Macedonia, with firefighters from neighbouring countries called in to help, according to Euronews.
Around the world
- FOSSIL CLIMATE FUNDS: Azerbaijan, host of the COP29 climate summit in November, is setting up a “Climate Finance Action Fund”, which will take money from fossil-fuel producing countries and companies in order to finance climate action in the global south, Reuters reported.
- ALTÉRRA-IA MOTIVE: Climate Home News reported on how money from a $30bn climate fund set up by COP28 host UAE, known as ALTÉRRA, has been used to help finance a gas pipeline project in the US.
- CLIMATE HYPOCRISY: A Guardian exclusive revealed how five wealthy countries are responsible for the majority of the new oil and gas licences handed out in 2024, with these projects due to emit 12bn tonnes of CO2 over their lifetimes. UN chief Antonio Guterres responded to the news by saying rich nations “are signing away our future”, reported Inside Climate News.
- WORST OIL SPILL: An oil tanker carrying 1.4m litres of oil capsized off the coast of the Philippines, with the country’s coast guard saying it “would be the worst oil spill in Philippine history if it were to leak”, reported the Inquirer.
- SA CLIMATE BILL: South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa signed a new climate change bill into law this week, reported the Citizen. The bill introduces a regulatory framework for climate mitigation and adaptation, something that had been lacking up to now.
- ETHIOPIA MUDSLIDES: At least 229 people have been killed in mudslides triggered by heavy rains in Ethiopia, Al Jazeera reported.
17.15C
The global temperature on Monday 22 July, which was likely the hottest day in human history, according to Carbon Brief’s latest “state of the climate” update.
Latest climate research
- A study in Nature Climate Change showed that only 8% and 53% of African nations’ nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and national adaptation plans (NAPs), respectively, provide sufficient baselines for tracking progress on climate adaptation.
- The current “science-based” climate targets that have been adopted by companies across the world suffer from three issues: “basic misrepresentation”; “narrow and arbitrary benchmarks”; and “unequal effort sharing in an unequal world”. This makes them in need of reform, argued a comment piece published in Nature Communications Nature and Environment.
- A Nature study found that as well as absorbing carbon dioxide, trees also absorb methane from the atmosphere through their bark, making them more effective in absorbing greenhouse gases than previously thought.
(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 Paris 2024 Olympics officially start today and these Games are likely to be the hottest ever, with the organisers attempting to mitigate impacts from the likely heatwaves. Carbon Brief analysis shows that the greenhouse gas emissions from these Games are expected to be less than half of those from London 2012. The Paris organisers have explicitly set a carbon budget of 1.75m tonnes of CO2 equivalent (which is half of the average of London 2012 and Rio 2016) and, according to their latest estimates, they are set to meet this target with total emissions coming in at 1.58m tonnes. Organisers said they had aimed to reduce emissions through use of temporary and low-carbon construction materials, as well as by encouraging sustainable travel. The Paris total is set to be even lower than the emissions from the Tokyo 2020 games held in 2021, when emissions were significantly reduced due to a ban on spectators amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The emissions figures exclude any carbon offsets and, for Rio 2016, do not include emissions from legacy construction.
Spotlight
Life in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’
This week, Carbon Brief interviews Dr Joy Banner, co-founder and co-director of the Descendants Project, about her work trying to uplift Black communities in the face of industrial pollution and increasing climate impacts.
Banner is based in a region along the Mississippi River in Louisiana known as “Cancer Alley”. It is so named due to the high prominence of cancer, which has been linked to local industrial air pollution from the area’s 150 industrial plants. These plants contributed 66% of Louisiana’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2020.
Levels of the carcinogen ethylene oxide, used in plastics production, were found to be 1,000 times higher than safe levels in the region. The health impacts disproportionately affect Black communities. This has been labelled by the UN as a form of “environmental racism”.
Banner’s organisation, the Descendants Project, aims to raise awareness of how Black communities in the region are “descended from the enslaved men, women and children who were forced to labour at plantations”, many of which were purchased by “large industrial petrochemical plants” fromin the 1970s onwards.
Carbon Brief: How would you say that your work relates to petrochemicals and climate change?
Joy Banner: To be honest, when we first started the Descendents Project…we didn’t see it as intersecting our work. But, pretty early on, Jo [co-founder and Joy’s sister] was invited to a conference in Texas, which is another location where there is a proliferation of petrochemical development. That work brought to mind the environmental issues that we are having in Louisiana. So, we are known as “Cancer Alley”, because of the health consequences of having so much industry right on top of us. Our cancer risk is 95% higher than the rest of the country. And the reason why we have so much production is plastics – and plastics is petrochemical[s] and so I guess I didn’t put two and two together [until then].
CB: The carbon emissions released in the production of plastics is having a global impact, but what are the kind of local impacts that you’re seeing in your community?
JB: I don’t know the statistics of how much [petrochemical production in] the Gulf Coast region is impacting climate overall, but it’s not insignificant at all. But, it’s just, for us, we are inundated with the smells. You can taste it, you can feel it, you can see it, you can hear it. It takes over your senses. And the other side of it is the impact that is happening to our climate and the way it’s impacting the strength of the hurricanes and the storm systems that are coming through…Our storms are getting worse. Those hurricanes are getting worse. And the impact of those storms are having more dire consequences.
CB: What are things that you’re trying to do [through the Descendants Project]?
JB: One of the strategies…[is] this dependence that we feel that we have on industries is false. It’s an illusion, it’s not actually a dependence because the plants are not doing s**t for us. Excuse my language, they really are not. Like they’re making billions of dollars. And why, if they’re so rich, then why are we in an impoverished community? Why do we have food deserts? Why are our school systems not better? And so, so our work is breaking that illusion, educating people and getting them to the point where they’re asking questions…We’re just strategising and highlighting the ways in which our communities are doing things for ourselves.
Watch, read, listen
BATTERY DEMANDS: A new report from the US thinktank RMI explored future demand for batteries and the critical raw minerals required to make them.
NOT SO RARE: The podcast BBC Rare Earth explored whether the rise in wildfires around the world is unstoppable and whether the solutions might be found through applying Indigenous fire management practices.
JAILED PROTEST: George Monbiot appeared on Guardian’s Science Weekly podcast to discuss the record-long jail terms for non-violent protest given to five Just Stop Oil activists for planning the blocking of a motorway in the UK.
Coming up
- 27 July-2 August: 61st session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Sofia, Bulgaria
- 28 July: Venezuelan presidential elections
- 29 July-2 August: International Seabed Authority Assembly, second part of the 29th session, Kingston, Jamaica
- 30 July-1 August: UN Environment Programme Dialogue on Actionable Steps for Inclusive Climate Resilience Monitoring and Reporting, online
Pick of the jobs
- International Energy Agency, China programme officer | Salary: €5,741 per month. Location: Paris
- Internews, environmental media consultant – Middle East North Africa | Salary: Unknown. Location: Remote (based in UK or Tunisia)
- Earth Journalism Network, virtual reporting fellowships to the UNCBD (COP16) and UNFCCC (COP29) | Salary: $100 communications stipend
- Reuters Institute, Oxford Climate Journalism Network Engagement Manager | Salary: £32,332-£38,205. Location: Oxford, UK
DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to debriefed@carbonbrief.org.
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The post DeBriefed 26 July 2024: Biden’s ‘climate legacy’; Global wildfires; Life in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ appeared first on Carbon Brief.
SYDNEY, Thursday 30 October 2026 — In response to reports that the Albanese government is set to introduce draft legislation this year that would seek to ban data centres in Australia’s suburbs, Joe Rafalowicz, Head of Climate and Energy at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said:
“These reports are a testament to the growing community opposition to these completely inappropriate AI factories that have sprung up across our suburbs, and Big Tech corporations should take heed — the data centre build-out must not happen without the endorsement of the Australian people.
“But the government can’t simply ship this problem out to regional Australia without addressing the fundamental issues with this extractive new industry.
“We’re already seeing a trend of AI data centre proposals moving to the regions, in areas that are more water-scarce, more environmentally sensitive, and next to sources of fracked and coal seam gas to support their massive BYO gas-fired power plans — a pattern we’ve seen play out in the United States.
“From the Beetaloo Basin in the NT to the Western Downs in Qld, we’re seeing a wave of AI data centre proposals that would see new gas fast-tracked to support their massive energy demand, and threaten to completely derail Australia’s energy transition.
“Just as suburban Australians are asking, “what for?”, regional communities like Berry Springs and Dalby do not want dirty data centres setting up shop with absolutely no benefit to their communities. Greenpeace is calling for a moratorium on AI data centre developments until strict and enforceable safeguards are in place to protect our climate and our communities.”
-ENDS-
Media contact
Kate O’Callaghan on +61 406 231 892 or kate.ocallaghan@greenpeace.org
AI data centre ban in suburbs would not address fundamental issues: Greenpeace
In the thick of the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan in 2024, the UN climate talks were rattled by what can only be described as a major PR disaster. The BBC, Reuters and The Guardian all carried headlines, attributed to leading climate policy experts, that the COPs were “no longer fit for purpose”.
The articles outlined a series of reforms called for in an open letter signed by 22 eminent scientists and politicians, including a former UN secretary-general and previous UN climate chief, with a further 150 lending their support. The headlines shook confidence in the COP process, just as governments were wrestling over a new climate finance goal.
The Club of Rome – which handled the media relations for the letter – hurried to say that its “constructive, supportive ideas” had been “misinterpreted”. Negotiators kept calm(ish) and carried on, in the end landing the finance goal after some high-stakes drama on the final day.
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Early speakers’ list suggests few powerful leaders will attend COP31
Just 77 heads of state or government are scheduled to address the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, a third less than the COP28 peak -
Africa wants adaptation finance on COP31 agenda, raising risk of a fight
The African Group wants dedicated space on tripling adaptation finance, the Green Climate Fund and trade, setting up a possible clash
To my surprise, when I went back this week to read the letter again, I could not find the offending line about the COPs not being fit for purpose. The Club of Rome has yet to respond to my query about its disappearance.
Whatever happened to the wording, that sentiment has been widely shared. COPs have ballooned in size while the importance of their outcomes seems to have diminished since the 2015 Paris Agreement (with the exception of the 2023 COP in Dubai where countries agreed to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems).
The same on the surface
Two years on from those painful headlines in Baku, has anything changed for the better? You might be forgiven for thinking not. Official decisions are still made by consensus rather than the majority voting some have called for to stop blockers.
Tens of thousands of officials, activists and business execs still scurry around the halls to an ever-growing list of side events, roundtables and dialogues, while deals still come down to rows, all-nighters and jargon-filled texts adopted to rounds of applause.
But it would not be true to say that COPs have completely failed to respond to the very real need to translate the words of the Paris Agreement into action in the outside world.
Global warming is projected to be around 1.3C lower this century than it would have been if the world had not committed to tackle the climate crisis under that accord. Developing countries have a valued space at COPs in which their voices have equal weight in decision-making, unlike in many other international fora. And most importantly, perhaps, there has been a subtle shift, tipping the balance away from negotiating towards doing.
Brazil branded last year’s summit in Belém as the “COP of Implementation”, corralling the sprawling Action Agenda into six axes. This was a bid to impose some structure on the mushrooming efforts between governments, UN agencies, cities, businesses and civil society to set targets and spur faster results on their pet issues, from methane emissions to health and adaptation in conflict zones. COP30 alone saw the launch of 120 “plans to accelerate solutions”.
COP30 roadmaps off the cuff
Meanwhile, as the formal negotiations drew to a close, it was clear that consensus decision-making was evolving into something a little more improvised.
With only around half of all countries on board with the idea of a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels, COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago announced his team would put one together over the coming year, along with another on how to meet a global goal to halt deforestation by 2030. Those roadmaps will be launched next week, presented and discussed at COP31, though it’s still unclear whether or how they’ll be incorporated into the formal negotiating agenda.
