Published

1 year ago

May 31, 2024

Alice Rush

Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.

This week

More than halfway to boiling

ASIAN HEAT: Extreme temperatures hit south Asia this week, with Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh reaching 52.2C, according to Bangladesh’s Somoy News, and India’s capital Delhi hitting 52.3C, according to the Times of India. Authorities in India are investigating whether the Delhi record was caused by a faulty sensor in Mungeshpur in the north of the city, as other neighbourhoods consistently recorded deadly temperatures of around 49-50C, the Guardian reported.

LANDSLIDES: Elsewhere in India, at least 25 people were killed in “rain-related incidents and landslides” as cyclonic storm Remal struck four northeastern states, according to Scroll. In Papua New Guinea, more than 2,000 people may have been buried in a landslide triggered by “weeks of heavy rain and other wet conditions in the area”, BBC News reported.

ONGOING EXTREMES: Meanwhile, in North America, more than one million people were left without power in Texas amid severe storms, Le Monde reported. Reuters said that Mexico’s electricity demand hit a new record amid scorching heat in the country. Deutsche Welle had an explainer on how 2024’s widespread extremes are linked to climate change.

Around the world

OFFSET REFORM: US president Joe Biden’s administration announced first-of-its-kind federal guidelines for the voluntary carbon market, where firms buy credits from carbon-cutting schemes to claim they have reduced their own emissions, the New York Times reported.
EU VISION: Ahead of European elections, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz co-wrote in the Financial Times that Europe can be an “industrial and technological leader” and the “first climate-neutral continent” by pursuing “green and digital transitions”.
MORE 4-BY-4S: Sales of SUVs reached a record last year, accounting for half of all new cars globally, according to International Energy Agency (IEA) data reported on by the Guardian. If SUVs were a country, they would be the fifth largest CO2 emitter.
‘V20’ LAUNCH: The Philippines will lead 19 other countries to establish a group to raise funds for the most climate-vulnerable nations, known as the “Vulnerable 20” or “V20”, Reuters reported.
RIGHTS TRIAL: An ongoing “historic” trial by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights into whether countries should be held culpable over the impact of climate change on human rights this week heard from Indigenous people in the Brazilian Amazon, Common Dreams reported.
AFRICAN FORECASTING: The African Union Commission and the European Satellite Agency have signed a new deal aimed at improving Africa’s “obsolete” weather forecasting system, the Independent Uganda reported. Carbon Brief analysis found Africa has the lowest density of weather stations globally.

$115.9bn

The amount of climate finance paid by developed nations in 2022 – meeting a target to provide $100bn two years after the deadline, according to OECD data.

$88.9bn

The amount when funding sourced from existing development aid is subtracted, according to new analysis shared with Carbon Brief.

Latest climate research

By the end of the century, the surface area of lakes on the Tibetan Plateau will increase by more than 50% (around 20,000km2) and water levels will rise by around 10 metres, even under a low-emissions scenario, new Nature Geoscience research found.
A “policy forum” article in Science argued that “a social-moral norm against new fossil fuel projects has strong potential to contribute to achieving global climate goals”.
Research in the Journal of Environmental Psychology examined how the public reacts to the term “climate anxiety”, with most viewing it neutrally yet a minority finding it to be “unfounded, irrational or excessive”.

(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)

Captured

China's C02 emissions fell 3% in March 2024, ending a 14-month surge — China’s CO2 emissions fell by 3% in March 2024, ending a 14-month surge that began when the economy reopened after the nation’s “zero-Covid” controls were lifted in December 2022, according to new analysis for Carbon Brief, which has been covered by the New York Times, Economist and Bloomberg, among others. The drivers of the CO2 drop in March 2024 were expanding solar and wind generation, which covered 90% of the growth in electricity demand, as well as declining construction activity, the analysis said. The dip in emissions reinforces the view that China’s emissions could have peaked in 2023, it added.

Spotlight

One year of DeBriefed

This week, DeBriefed’s editor Daisy Dunne reflects on the past year of Carbon Brief’s weekly climate newsletter – and outlines how readers can help shape its future.

One year ago we published the first edition of DeBriefed, Carbon Brief’s weekly newsletter aimed at summarising key climate developments around the world.

We wanted to provide readers with a “one-stop shop” of the latest in climate news, journalistic investigations and scientific research, as well as key dates for the diary and a hand-picked selection of interesting job vacancies.

It was a key aim of ours to try to cover all corners of the globe, including not only the UK and the US, but emerging Asian economies and typically underrepresented regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.

Another goal was to showcase the work of Carbon Brief’s brilliant and diverse team of journalists, which have been based in countries including India, Nigeria, Mexico, the US and the UK.

Thanks to this, we have published everything from a first-hand report on the impacts of coal mining in India’s elephant country and an exclusive interview with a Just Stop Oil prisoner through to reports on how Palestine has struggled to access climate funding, the origins of Donald Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” slogan and how K-pop fans are campaigning for climate action in East Asia.

I am pleased that DeBriefed has been able to provide an outlet for original climate reporting that may otherwise have not been published.

As we look forward to our next 12 months, we would like to invite readers to send their thoughts on the newsletter: What do you like and dislike? What would you like to see more of? Do you have any suggestions for where DeBriefed could go next – say with a podcast or webinars, for example? Please email any thoughts to: debriefed@carbonbrief.org

Finally, a small request, if you have enjoyed reading this newsletter, please consider forwarding it on to a friend or colleague who may also be interested in receiving a free climate roundup each week. We would be eternally grateful.

Watch, read, listen

‘NOTHING GROWS FOREVER’: A documentary by Al Jazeera examined how Costa Rica has been able to protect its environment and achieve “high levels of wellbeing that have very little to do with money”.

SMALL ISLANDS: Amid the fourth International Conference for Small Island Developing States, Maldives president Mohamed Muizzu called in the Guardian for climate finance to be “unlocked”, adding that small islands seek “not charity but equity and justice”.

ETHIOPIAN DAM: A feature in African Arguments examined how a dam mega-project in Ethiopia affected the ability of Indigenous people to grow food and herd animals.

Coming up

1 June: Final phase of India’s election
2 June: Mexico’s election
3-13 June: Bonn UN climate change conference, Germany
6-9 June: European elections
7-8 June: High-level event on ocean action, San Jose, Costa Rica

Pick of the jobs

Guardian Australia, climate and environment reporter. Salary: Unknown. Location: Australia
Conservative Environment Network, climate programme manager. Salary: £30,000-£39,000. Location: London Bridge
WaterAid, climate and environment lead. Salary: £56,249-£59,602. Location: One of the following countries: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, UK or Zambia
Friends of the Earth Ireland, climate policy campaigner. Salary: €37,857-€46,588. Location: Dublin

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 31 May 2024: 52C in South Asia; Biden’s carbon offsets overhaul; Tell us what you think appeared first on Carbon Brief.

DeBriefed 31 May 2024: 52C in South Asia; Biden’s carbon offsets overhaul; Tell us what you think

Climate Change

COP Bulletin Day 8: Pope keeps faith in 1.5C

Published

7 hours ago

November 18, 2025

Alice Rush

The United Nations may have accepted that overshooting 1.5C of warming – at least temporarily – is inevitable – but God’s representative on Earth didn’t get the memo.

The new pope, Leo XIV, sent a video message to cardinals from the Global South gathered at the Amazonian Museum in Belém last night, saying “there is still time to keep the rise in global temperature below 1.5°C” although, he warned, “the window is closing.”

“As stewards of God’s creation, we are called to act swiftly, with faith and prophecy, to protect the gift he entrusted to us,” he said, reading from a sheet of paper in front of a portrait of the Vatican.

And he defended the 10-year-old Paris Agreement, saying it has ”driven real progress and remains our strongest tool for protecting people and the planet.” “It is not the Agreement that is failing – we are failing in our response,” he said In particular, the American Pope pointed to“the political will of some.”

“We walk alongside scientists, leaders and pastors of every nation and creed. We are guardians of creation, not rivals for its spoils. Let us send a clear global signal together: nations standing in unwavering solidarity behind the Paris Agreement and behind climate cooperation,” he emphasised.

UN climate chief Simon Stiell welcomed the message, adding that the Pope’s words “challenge us to keep choosing hope and action, honouring our shared humanity and standing with communities all around the world already crying out in floods, droughts, storms and relentless heat”.

Former US climate negotiators Trigg Talley and Todd Stern at COP30 on November 17

The post COP Bulletin Day 8: Pope keeps faith in 1.5C appeared first on Climate Home News.

COP Bulletin Day 8: Pope keeps faith in 1.5C

Climate Change

A fast, fair, full, and funded fossil fuel phaseout

Published

7 hours ago

November 18, 2025

Alice Rush

I pause to write this letter in the middle of week one of the 30th UNFCCC Conference of the Parties — the big international climate conference, the space for multilateral decision making to save ourselves from ourselves and rein in the climate crisis. Day two photos showed that a torrential downpour left the blue zone entrance flooded. Mother Nature is present and making her anger known.

This morning I also saw the announcement of Time Magazine’s 100 Climate leaders for 2025. At the top of the list I found the Global Head of Climate Advisory for JP Morgan Chase, Sarah Kapnick. I shook my head, thinking perhaps I was still asleep, and refocused. There it was indeed.

JPMorgan Chase is the world’s largest financier of fossil fuels, having provided over $382 billion since the Paris Agreement, with $53.5 billion in 2024 alone. The bank faces criticism from scientists and activists for its continued large-scale investments, particularly in fossil fuel expansion. How does a person who works for such an institution end up being lauded as a hero working to resolve the climate crisis?

Last week the Guardian released a report from Kick Big Polluters Out showing that over the past four years fossil fuel lobbyists have gained access to negotiation spaces at COP. The roughly 5,350 lobbyists mingling with world leaders and climate negotiators in recent years worked for at least 859 fossil fuel organizations including trade groups, foundations and 180 oil, gas and coal companies involved in every part of the supply chain from exploration and production to distribution and equipment. There are more fossil fuel lobbyists and executives in negotiations than delegates representing the most climate vulnerable countries on the planet.

We’ve known since the late 1800s that greenhouse gas emissions warm the planet. In 1902 a Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius calculated that burning fossil fuels will, over time, lead to a hotter Earth. But the fossil fuel industry followed Big Tobacco’s playbook and despite knowing the truth, waged a multi-decade, multibillion dollar disinformation, propaganda and lobbying campaign to delay climate action by confusing the public and policymakers about the climate crisis and its solutions. See this report from Climate Action Against Disinformation and the Exxon funded think tanks to spread climate change denial in Latin America.

They’ve infiltrated our K-12 classrooms. The Oklahoma Energy Resources Board, a state agency funded by oil and gas producers, has spent upwards of $40m over the past two decades on providing education with a pro-industry bent, including hundreds of pages of curriculums, a speaker series and an after-school program — all at no cost to educators of children from kindergarten to high school. In Ohio students learn about the beauty of fracking. Even Scholastic, a brand trusted by parents and educators, has attached its seal of approval to pro fossil fuel materials. Discovery Education has also embedded pro oil propaganda into its science and stem free resources.

There is no just transition, no possible way to keep our global temperatures to the limit agreed to in Paris ten years ago without a fast and fair phase out of fossil fuels. We know this is possible, during the first half of 2025, renewables generated more electricity than coal. As UN General Secretary António Guterres said in his opening remarks in Belem, “We’ve never been better equipped to fight back… we just lack political courage.”

Next year, I hope that TIME’s Climate 100 is a list of indigenous climate activists from around the world, whose leadership has led us to find the political courage Guterres spoke of, the courage to do the right thing and phase out fossil fuels forever.

Susan Phillips
Executive Director

Photo by Andrea DiCenzo

The post A fast, fair, full, and funded fossil fuel phaseout appeared first on Climate Generation.

A fast, fair, full, and funded fossil fuel phaseout

Climate Change

COP30: Carbon Brief’s second ‘ask us anything’ webinar

Published

1 day ago

November 17, 2025

Alice Rush

As COP30 reaches its midway point in the Brazilian city of Belém, Carbon Brief has hosted its second “ask us anything” webinar to exclusively answer questions submitted by holders of the Insider Pass.

The webinar kicked off with an overview of where the negotiations are on Day 8, plus what it was like to be among the 70,000-strong “people’s march” on Saturday.

At present, there are 44 agreed texts at COP30, with many negotiating streams remaining highly contested, as shown by Carbon Brief’s live text tracker.

Topics discussed during the webinar included the potential of a “cover text” at COP30, plus updates on negotiations such as the global goal on adaptation and the just-transition work programme.

Journalists also answered questions on the potential for a “fossil-fuel phaseout roadmap”, the impact of finance – including the Baku to Belém roadmap, which was released the week before COP30 – and Article 6.

The webinar was moderated by Carbon Brief’s director and editor, Leo Hickman, and featured six of our journalists – half of them on the ground in Belém – covering all elements of the summit: