Published

7 months ago

August 8, 2025

Alice Rush

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

This week

Global extremes

RECORD HEAT: Multiple countries experienced record heat this week. Nordic countries were hit by a “truly unprecedented” heatwave, where temperatures reached above 30C in the Arctic Circle and Finland endured three straight weeks with 30C heat, its longest heat streak in records going back to 1961, said the Guardian. Reuters reported that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is facing “surging temperatures this summer”, following its hottest spring ever.

FIRE WEATHER: Some 81 million Americans were under air quality alerts as hundreds of wildfires burned across Canada and parts of the US, reported the Guardian. Meanwhile, a “massive” wildfire in California has “become the biggest blaze in the state so far this year” amid an intensifying heatwave, reported the Associated Press.

TORRENTIAL RAIN: A “torrent of mud” has killed at least four people in the northern Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, Reuters reported. According to the Times of India, “more than one cloudburst” hit the high-altitude district of Uttarkashi on Tuesday, triggering flash floods. It added that cloudburst risks in the Himalayan region are “projected to increase with climate change”. Meanwhile, Taiwan News said that “torrential rain in central and southern Taiwan over several days has left three dead, four missing, 49 injured and prompted 85 rescues”. Flash floods in a Myanmar-China “border town” have killed six people, according to the Straits Times.

Around the world

COP30 CHAOS: After significant delays and pressure from a UN committee, Brazil has finally launched the official accommodation platform for COP30, Climate Home News reported. It added that “significant markups and sky-high prices remained”.
MORE TARIFFS: Donald Trump has increased tariffs on imports from India to 50% as “punishment” for the country buying Russian oil, the New York Times reported.
CORAL BLEACHING: The Guardian said that the Great Barrier Reef suffered its biggest annual drop in live coral since 1986 in two out of the three areas that are monitored by scientists..
ENDANGERED: Top scientific advisers in the US have announced that they will “conduct an independent, fast-track review of the latest climate science” following the Trump administration’s move to repeal the “endangerment finding”, the scientific basis for federal climate regulations, Inside Climate News reported.

10,000

The number of glaciers in the Indian Himalayas that are “receding due to a warming climate”, according to Reuters.

Latest climate research

Ecosystem restoration should be “pursued primarily” for biodiversity, supporting livelihoods and resilience of ecosystem services, as “climate mitigation potential will vary” | Nature Geoscience
Attendees at the 2024 UN Environment Assembly “underestimate global public willingness to contribute 1% of their personal income to climate action” | Communications Earth & Environment
Urban green spaces can lower temperatures by 1-7C and play a “crucial role in cooling urban environments” | Climate Risk Management

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

Captured

Carbon Brief’s in-depth explainer unpacked the findings of a recent analysis on climate anxiety in more detail. The analysis explored 94 studies, involving more than 170,000 participants across 27 countries, to find out who is more likely to be affected by climate anxiety and what its consequences could be. The analysis suggests that women, young adults and people with “left-wing” political views are more likely to feel climate anxiety.

Spotlight

Heat and fire in France

This week, Carbon Brief explores how France’s media has covered the impacts of recent heatwaves and wildfires.

“We’re used to high temperatures, but we’ve never experienced heat like this [so] early in the year before,” a family member who lives in the Dordogne area of southwest France explained during a recent visit to the country.

Over recent weeks, there have been extreme heatwaves and fires across Europe, which has set new records across the continent, including in France.

France is now gripped once again by extremes. The country is currently experiencing yet another heatwave and this week faced its “largest wildfire in decades”, according to France24.

French climate scientist Dr Olivier Boucher, who is also the CEO of Klima consulting, told Carbon Brief:

“Climate change is already having visible and significant impacts in France. Heatwaves are becoming more frequent, more intense, and are occurring earlier in the season.

“This trend is accompanied by an increased risk of wildfires, particularly in southern regions, though other areas are also increasingly affected, putting the built environment at risk.”

Red alerts

In July, nearly 200 schools closed or partially closed as a result of high temperatures across the country.

Since the start of the summer, water reserves have been under close surveillance and multiple areas are facing water restrictions as a result of drought.

These water restrictions can include the use of tap water and violations can incur fines of €1,500 (£1,300). According to Le Monde, more than a third of the country is under drought alerts.

France has also experienced a “devastating summer” for fire outbreaks, according to FranceInfo. Traditional firework displays celebrating France’s Bastille day on 14 July were cancelled across the country due to forest fire risks, said Le Monde.

Firefighters battling a wildfire in southern France on 5 August. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo

On 4 August, the local area of Aude, situated in the south-east, was placed under a red alert for forest fire risks.

Since then, there have been record-breaking fires in the region. BBC News reported that fires have “scorched an area larger than Paris”. The broadcaster added that the country’s prime minister, François Bayrou, linked the fires to global warming and drought, describing them as a “catastrophe on an unprecedented scale”.

Needing to adapt

Le Point explained how heatwaves impact grape vines and how winemakers have adapted their growing techniques by leaving more leaves on vines to protect the grapes from getting burned by the sun. However, it added that, “in the long run, it is necessary to think about more long-term modifications of viticulture”.

FranceInfo told the story of winegrowers losing their crops, worth millions of euros, in the recent fires in southern France, adding that it is “a real economic disaster for farmers affected by the flames”.

Le Monde interviewed French geographer Dr Magali Reghezza-Zitt, who described the nation’s preparations for dealing with climate change as inadequate. She told the newspaper:

“The gap between what needs to be done and the pace at which climate change is accelerating grows wider each year.”

Boucher added to Carbon Brief:

“All economic sectors are impacted by climate change, with agriculture among the most vulnerable. As the warming trend is projected to continue over the coming decades, adaptation will be essential – both through the climate-proofing of infrastructure and through changes in practices across sectors.”

Watch, read, listen

‘GRASSROOTS ALLIANCE’: A Deutsche Welle documentary explained how unions, activists and the India Meteorological Department have joined forces to protect Delhi’s informal workers from extreme heat.

NEW RULES: A Bloomberg article said that South Africa “will seek jail time, fines and higher taxes for breaches of proposed rules to govern carbon emissions” as part of new efforts to reduce the country’s dependency on coal.

SUSTAINABLE AI?: As the AI race intensifies, the Financial Times investigated if data centers can “ever truly be green”.

Coming up

5-14 August: Resumed talks on a global plastics treaty, Geneva, Switzerland
10-15 August: Ecological Society of America annual meeting | Baltimore, US
13-15 August: African Union-AIP water investment summit 2025 | Cape Town, South Africa
15 August: China Environmental Science Youth Academic Conference | Changsha, China

Pick of the jobs

Save the Children, senior climate advisor | Salary: £61,500-£69,200. Location: London
Irish Independent, environmental correspondent | Salary: Unknown. Location: Dublin
Ember, interim managing director | Salary: £89,000-£100,000. Location: Remote
British Antarctic Survey, seabird remote sensing data analyst | Salary: £41,344-£45,479. Location: Cambridge, UK

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 8 August 2025: Arctic heatwave; Climate anxiety deep-dive; France’s wildfire crisis appeared first on Carbon Brief.

DeBriefed 8 August 2025: Arctic heatwave; Climate anxiety deep-dive; France’s wildfire crisis

Climate Change

Greenpeace organisations to appeal USD $345 million court judgment in Energy Transfer’s intimidation lawsuit

Published

10 hours ago

February 28, 2026

Alice Rush

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

Greenpeace organisations to appeal USD $345 million court judgment in Energy Transfer’s intimidation lawsuit

Climate Change

Former EPA Staff Detail Expanding Pollution Risks Under Trump

Published

11 hours ago

February 28, 2026

Alice Rush

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.

By Liza Gross

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

Climate Change

Cheniere Energy Received $370 Million IRS Windfall for Using LNG as ‘Alternative’ Fuel

Published

17 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Alice Rush

The country’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas benefited from what critics say is a questionable IRS interpretation of tax credits.

By Phil McKenna

Cheniere Energy, the largest producer and exporter of U.S. liquefied natural gas, received $370 million from the IRS in the first quarter of 2026, a payout that shipping experts, tax specialists and a U.S. senator say the company never should have received.