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BIDEN OUT: US energy policy expert Jason Bordoff was among commentators reacting to the news that Joe Biden has withdrawn from the 2024 presidential race, telling Axios that he will “leave office with the strongest record on climate change of any president in US history”.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.
The case shows that climate change is a fundamental human rights violation—and the victory of Bonaire, a Dutch territory, could open the door for similar lawsuits globally.
From our collaborating partner Living on Earth, public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by Paloma Beltran with Greenpeace Netherlands campaigner Eefje de Kroon.
A Tiny Caribbean Island Sued the Netherlands Over Climate Change, and Won
Climate Change
Greenpeace organisations to appeal USD $345 million court judgment in Energy Transfer’s intimidation lawsuit
SYDNEY, Saturday 28 February 2026 — Greenpeace International and Greenpeace organisations in the US announce they will seek a new trial and, if necessary, appeal the decision with the North Dakota Supreme Court following a North Dakota District Court judgment today awarding Energy Transfer (ET) USD $345 million.
ET’s SLAPP suit remains a blatant attempt to silence free speech, erase Indigenous leadership of the Standing Rock movement, and punish solidarity with peaceful resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Greenpeace International will also continue to seek damages for ET’s bullying lawsuits under EU anti-SLAPP legislation in the Netherlands.
Mads Christensen, Greenpeace International Executive Director said: “Energy Transfer’s attempts to silence us are failing. Greenpeace International will continue to resist intimidation tactics. We will not be silenced. We will only get louder, joining our voices to those of our allies all around the world against the corporate polluters and billionaire oligarchs who prioritise profits over people and the planet.
“With hard-won freedoms under threat and the climate crisis accelerating, the stakes of this legal fight couldn’t be higher. Through appeals in the US and Greenpeace International’s groundbreaking anti-SLAPP case in the Netherlands, we are exploring every option to hold Energy Transfer accountable for multiple abusive lawsuits and show all power-hungry bullies that their attacks will only result in a stronger people-powered movement.”
The Court’s final judgment today rejects some of the jury verdict delivered in March 2025, but still awards hundreds of millions of dollars to ET without a sound basis in law. The Greenpeace defendants will continue to press their arguments that the US Constitution does not allow liability here, that ET did not present evidence to support its claims, that the Court admitted inflammatory and irrelevant evidence at trial and excluded other evidence supporting the defense, and that the jury pool in Mandan could not be impartial.[1][2]
ET’s back-to-back lawsuits against Greenpeace International and the US organisations Greenpeace USA (Greenpeace Inc.) and Greenpeace Fund are clear-cut examples of SLAPPs — lawsuits attempting to bury nonprofits and activists in legal fees, push them towards bankruptcy and ultimately silence dissent.[3] Greenpeace International, which is based in the Netherlands, is pursuing justice in Europe, with a suit against ET under Dutch law and the European Union’s new anti-SLAPP directive, a landmark test of the new legislation which could help set a powerful precedent against corporate bullying.[4]
Kate Smolski, Program Director at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “This is part of a worrying trend globally: fossil fuel corporations are increasingly using litigation to attack and silence ordinary people and groups using the law to challenge their polluting operations — and we’re not immune to these tactics here in Australia.
“Rulings like this have a chilling effect on democracy and public interest litigation — we must unite against these silencing tactics as bad for Australians and bad for our democracy. Our movement is stronger than any corporate bully, and grows even stronger when under attack.”
Energy Transfer’s SLAPPs are part of a wave of abusive lawsuits filed by Big Oil companies like Shell, Total, and ENI against Greenpeace entities in recent years.[3] A couple of these cases have been successfully stopped in their tracks. This includes Greenpeace France successfully defeating TotalEnergies’ SLAPP on 28 March 2024, and Greenpeace UK and Greenpeace International forcing Shell to back down from its SLAPP on 10 December 2024.
-ENDS-
Images available in Greenpeace Media Library
Notes:
[1] The judgment entered by North Dakota District Court Judge Gion follows a jury verdict finding Greenpeace entities liable for more than US$660 million on March 19, 2025. Judge Gion subsequently threw out several items from the jury’s verdict, reducing the total damages to approximately US$345 million.
[2] Public statements from the independent Trial Monitoring Committee
[3] Energy Transfer’s first lawsuit was filed in federal court in 2017 under the RICO Act – the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a US federal statute designed to prosecute mob activity. The case was dismissed in 2019, with the judge stating the evidence fell “far short” of what was needed to establish a RICO enterprise. The federal court did not decide on Energy Transfer’s claims based on state law, so Energy Transfer promptly filed a new case in a North Dakota state court with these and other state law claims.
[4] Greenpeace International sent a Notice of Liability to Energy Transfer on 23 July 2024, informing the pipeline giant of Greenpeace International’s intention to bring an anti-SLAPP lawsuit against the company in a Dutch Court. After Energy Transfer declined to accept liability on multiple occasions (September 2024, December 2024), Greenpeace International initiated the first test of the European Union’s anti-SLAPP Directive on 11 February 2025 by filing a lawsuit in Dutch court against Energy Transfer. The case was officially registered in the docket of the Court of Amsterdam on 2 July, 2025. Greenpeace International seeks to recover all damages and costs it has suffered as a result of Energy Transfers’s back-to-back, abusive lawsuits demanding hundreds of millions of dollars from Greenpeace International and the Greenpeace organisations in the US. The next hearing in the Court of Amsterdam is scheduled for 16 April, 2026.
Media contact:
Kate O’Callaghan on 0406 231 892 or kate.ocallaghan@greenpeace.org
The Trump administration’s relentless rollback of public health and environmental protections has allowed widespread toxic exposures to flourish, warn experts who helped implement safeguards now under assault.
In a new report that outlines a dozen high-risk pollutants given new life thanks to weakened, delayed or rescinded regulations, the Environmental Protection Network, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group of hundreds of former Environmental Protection Agency staff, warns that the EPA under President Donald Trump has abandoned the agency’s core mission of protecting people and the environment from preventable toxic exposures.
Former EPA Staff Detail Expanding Pollution Risks Under Trump
The Positive Effects We’ve Had on Others Are Profound, Whether We Know It or Not
A Tiny Caribbean Island Sued the Netherlands Over Climate Change, and Won
Greenpeace organisations to appeal USD $345 million court judgment in Energy Transfer’s intimidation lawsuit
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