Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
This week
UK considers cuts
EMISSIONS ADVICE: New recommendations from the UK’s climate advisers, the Climate Change Committee, said the nation should reduce its emissions to 87% below 1990 levels by 2040. This would keep the country on track for reaching net-zero by 2050 and take £1,400 off household bills by the same year, according to the advice. Read Carbon Brief’s in-depth summary of the findings, which show that the estimated cost of reaching net-zero is now 73% lower than thought just five years earlier.
‘Y BOTHER’: Despite not being a major focus of the new analysis, much of the UK media coverage zoned in on how achieving the emissions cut might affect people’s lives. The Guardian reported that the average person might need to skip “two kebabs’ worth of meat a week”, while a frontpage Daily Telegraph story raged at the idea that frequent fliers may need to pay a higher rate of tax, which was not a recommendation. It comes shortly after a satirical Private Eye piece by correspondent Y Bother reported that “getting net-zero done might be a massive faff”, asking: “Shall we just not do it?”
UK AID CUT: Elsewhere, prime minister Keir Starmer announced plans to cut the UK aid budget from 0.5% to 0.3% of national income and spend more on defence, the Guardian reported, just as officials entered international finance negotiations in Rome (more on this below). The newspaper said it understood the UK’s £11.6bn climate finance would be “ringfenced” from cuts, but Climate Home News reported that climate groups were “dismayed” by the move.
Around the world
- BIG VOTE: The centre-right Christian Democrats party won Germany’s federal election, with far-right Alternative for Germany in second place, Al Jazeera reported. Clean Energy Wire said the future government would still be committed to climate neutrality by 2045 but is likely to have a “reduced focus on climate policies”.
- REGULATORY REVERSAL: The US Environmental Protection Agency is aiming to reverse the “endangerment finding”, a key legal ruling that required the agency to regulate CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Washington Post.
- SETBACK: Energy company BP announced it will slash investment in renewables, while boosting oil and gas spending by 20%, the Associated Press reported.
- UKRAINE-US PACT: Ukraine made an agreement with the US to jointly explore its mineral resources – including oil and gas, according to a frontpage story in the Financial Times.
45%
The proportion by which Tesla’s electric vehicle sales have fallen in Europe since Elon Musk’s “political meddling”, reported Bloomberg.
Latest climate research
- A new Nature study suggested that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) – a system of ocean currents that moves water, heat and nutrients around the Atlantic Ocean and the globe – is unlikely to collapse this century. The research has promoted discussion around what AMOC “collapse” means.
- Climate change could lead to the creation of new carbon sinks in some ice-free areas of Antarctica, according to a study in Communications Earth and Environment.
- Peatland fires in the UK released 800,000 tonnes of carbon from 2000-21, a study in Environmental Research Letters found, accounting for 90% of the country’s total fire emissions.
(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
Captured
In December 2022, nearly all countries agreed to a flagship global target to protect 30% of Earth by the end of the decade. But a new investigation of hundreds of country plans submitted to the UN by Carbon Brief and the Guardian found that more than half of nations are not willing to commit to protecting 30% of their own land and seas. It comes as nations met in Rome this week to try to find agreement on outstanding biodiversity issues (more on this below). The chart above shows the various pledges made by countries when it comes to protecting a proportion of their land for nature, illustrating how less than half have committed to the key 30% figure.
Spotlight
COP16 talks reach finance deal
This week, Carbon Brief reports from COP16 nature talks in Rome, where countries landed a landmark finance deal in the early hours of Friday morning.
Last year saw a run of fraught and fractious environmental talks play out around the world.
Talks on reversing biodiversity loss, plastic pollution and desertification all ended in failure, while a UN climate summit in Azerbaijan produced a finance deal that was bitterly disappointing for many developing countries.
However, in the early hours of Friday morning at the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) headquarters in Rome, countries delivered what they described as a signal of hope for multilateralism in uncertain times.
Against a backdrop of foreign aid freezes and cutbacks in the US and Europe, nations agreed to a “permanent arrangement” to pay to help developing countries conserve biodiversity and a strategy to “mobilise” at least $200bn per year by 2030.
Striking a deal
The decision came after finance dominated discussions during the three-day resumed session of COP16 in Rome. Countries agreed to meet again in the Italian capital after failing to reach consensus at COP16 in Colombia in October 2024.
Different versions of the financing texts were negotiated throughout the week. Most countries agreed on the need to find a solution, but key disagreements still fractured the path to a deal until the summit’s final plenary.
In the end, two proposals – one from the COP16 presidency and another from Brazil on behalf of the BRICs – were merged to enable countries to find consensus on finance.
A UK official told Carbon Brief that Brazil’s leading role in the negotiations is a “very positive sign” of its commitment to working with countries ahead of hosting the COP30 climate summit in November.
Biodiversity in the balance
Colombian politician and COP16 president Susana Muhamad received a lengthy standing ovation for her role in guiding parties to consensus in the early hours of Friday morning in Rome.
But, amid celebrations, some speakers noted that nations are still far off track for meeting the targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The GBF is a landmark deal, first made in 2022, aiming to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.
Some three-quarters of nations have still not submitted their UN biodiversity plans for how they will achieve the targets of the GBF – four months after the deadline.
And a recent investigation by Carbon Brief and the Guardian revealed that more than half of nations that have submitted UN biodiversity plans do not commit to the GBF’s flagship target of protecting 30% of land and seas for nature by 2030.
Carbon Brief’s in-depth summary of all of the key outcomes from the COP16 talks in Rome has just been published.
Watch, read, listen
CLIMATE DATA: A short video report by ABC News explained how the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration uses automated techniques to record climate data.
‘FIRE AND FURY’: An editorial in Nature urged the global science community to resist Donald Trump’s “assault on science and international institutions”.
UNLOCK LOVELOCK: A BBC Sounds podcast told the life of James Lovelock, the co-author of the Gaia scientific theory and a former advisor to Shell who in 1966 warned the company about the risks of fossil fuels.
Coming up
- 3-4 March: First G20 agriculture working group meeting | South Africa
- 3-14 March: International Seabed Authority 30th session, legal and technical commission meeting | Kingston, Jamaica
- 4-6 March: Regional workshop on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) | Mombasa, Kenya
Pick of the jobs
- Associated Press, climate social video producer | Salary: $52,046-$82,934. Location: New York
- Imperial College London, deputy director of Undaunted | Salary: £68,005-£77,703. Location: London (hybrid)
- Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, senior economist, climate policy | Salary: Unknown. Location: Beijing
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 28 February 2025: COP16 lands finance deal; More than half of nations skip key nature pledge; UK eyes cost-saving emissions plan appeared first on Carbon Brief.
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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