Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
This week
Australia votes for climate action
CLIMATE PROMISE: Australia’s Labor party has secured a second term in power following a landslide election victory, reported CNN. Prime minister Anthony Albanese “reiterated his commitment to climate action” and his government’s target to reach net-zero by 2050, added the outlet. Bloomberg said Albanese’s “next campaign” is to stave off Turkey to secure hosting the COP31 climate summit, along with Pacific nations, in 2026.
PUBLIC SUPPORT: The Conversation said that Australia now has “five huge climate opportunities”, including setting an ambitious new international climate pledge for 2035. Columnist David Fickling wrote in Bloomberg that the “historic” victory of the Labor party proved the right-wing opposition party’s plan to replace “renewables-focused climate targets with a switch to nuclear energy” was not widely supported. Guardian Australia’s climate and environment editor Adam Morton said that the country “backed a rapid shift to renewable energy”.
EU eyes renewable future
RUSSIAN GAS: The European Commission published a “roadmap” for ending reliance on Russian energy, which includes a ban on all Russian gas imports by the end of 2027, BBC News reported, adding that the bloc hopes to move away by “accelerating the deployment of renewable energy”. Meanwhile, Chinese president Xi Jinping was expected to talk about the China-Russia Siberia 2 gas pipeline, which could send 50bn cubic metres of gas to China, during his visit to Moscow this week, the Guardian reported.
SPAIN’S TRANSITION: Following last week’s blackout in Spain and Portugal, the Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said that he will not deviate a “single millimetre” from his commitment to renewable energy, calling it “our country’s energy future” and “our only and best option”, reported the Financial Times. Sanchez rejected nuclear-power advocates, saying the blackout was used as an excuse for a “gigantic manipulation exercise”, reported the Daily Telegraph.
Trump regime continues
DISASTERS DELETED: The New York Times reported that the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has announced that it will stop tracking the cost of the country’s most expensive disasters – defined as those that cause at least $1bn in damage. The newspaper described this as the “latest effort from the Trump administration to restrict or eliminate climate research”.
MORE TRUMP: The Trump administration also proposed to cut more than $21bn in climate-related funding, including $15bn for carbon capture and renewable energy and $6bn for electric-vehicle chargers, reported Reuters. Elsewhere, two major science unions pledged to produce “over 29 peer-reviewed journals that will cover all aspects of climate change” after the administration dismissed a “key Congress-mandated report on climate”, reported the Guardian.
Around the world
- UN REFORM: The UN is “considering sweeping reforms”, which could “integrate” the “climate change arm” into the “environment programme”, following “even deeper funding cuts” from the Trump administration, said the Financial Times. The newspaper added that the reform memo also “mulled whether the COP climate change summit…‘should be discontinued’ in its current form”.
- WINDFARM BLOW: The construction of Hornsea 4, a windfarm that aimed to add 2.4GW to the UK’s clean energy capacity, was cancelled by its Danish owner Ørsted, reported BBC News. The Guardian said the decision was a “major blow to the government’s plan to quadruple the UK’s offshore wind capacity by the end of the decade”.
- CHINA EXTREME WEATHER: Upcoming “hot and dry” weather will pose risks to the wheat harvest in China’s Henan province, which accounted for nearly a third of the nation’s total wheat output in 2024, Bloomberg reported.
- METHANE EMISSIONS: Record fossil-fuel production pushed methane emissions close to an all-time high in 2024, according to a report by the International Energy Agency, covered by Agence France-Presse.
65%
The proportion of global warming from 1990-2020 that the “wealthiest 10%” of people are “responsible” for, according to research covered by Carbon Brief.
Latest climate research
- Research in PLOS Climate found that just 4% of hyperlinks point to “scientific sources” in 1.3m posts and 20.3m comments related to climate change on Reddit from 2009-22.
- Climate change intensified deadly rainfall and made storms more likely to occur in Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and other states across the US south and midwest in early April, a new World Weather Attribution analysis found.
- Science Advances published a study finding that an unprecedented surge in concurrent heatwave-drought events from Eastern Europe to East Asia has been “amplified” by climate change.
For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
Captured
Children born in 2020 – of which there are about 124 million – will face “unprecedented exposure” to extreme weather events, even if global warming is limited to 1.5C by the end of the century, according to a new study published in Nature and covered by Carbon Brief. The chart above illustrates how many millions of children born in 2020 are expected to face a range of extremes, from heatwaves to tropical cyclones, throughout their lifetime at 1.5C (dark blue), compared to even higher levels of warming. Limiting global warming to 1.5C could save 77.2 million children from exposure to extremes, the research concluded.
Spotlight
Taiwan’s nuclear phaseout
This week, Carbon Brief examines what Taiwan’s decision to phase out nuclear power means for its climate policies.
Taiwan will shut down its last nuclear power reactor on 17 May.
Nuclear has played an important role in Taiwan’s energy supply, which is 97% imported.
Nuclear provided 12% of electricity in 2016, according to the Taiwanese Energy Administration. In 2025, it accounted for about 3% of the electricity supply, while gas contributed 46%, coal 34% and renewable energy 15%.
In 2016, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), an anti-nuclear party, won the presidential election. Then-president Tsai Ing-wen launched her “nuclear-free homeland policy”, with a pledge to avoid nuclear incidents similar to the Fukushima disaster in Japan.
The DPP has said that going “nuclear-free” is part of its “net-zero” transition. The party aims to have 50% of its electricity generated from gas, 30% from coal and 20% from renewable sources by 2025.
Public concerns
Nevertheless, its nuclear-free policy faces pressures from the opposition parties, as well as the public.
The Taipei Times, a Taiwanese newspaper, reported that 48% of the public was “dissatisfied” with the plan in 2017.
Protests against the plan continued until May 2025, with many people citing worries about having a stable electricity supply.
Seeking to reassure the public, the government’s Energy Administration said that the need to source more electricity to replace nuclear has “already been included in the long-term electricity development plan” and that “there will be no power shortage”.
More fossil fuels?
The environmental impact of the government’s “long-term power electricity plan” has also been under scrutiny.
The Taipei Times said the plan is “substituting nuclear sources of energy with coal-fired sources”.
A study in Energy Strategy Review found that the plan “lack[s]” a “coal phase-out schedule”, which may “render Taiwan’s energy transition unjust”.
In 2016, about 45.9% of electricity supply was from coal, while gas and renewable energy accounted for 31.5% and 4.8% respectively.
Rather than gradually reducing coal-fired power as the DPP planned, the share of coal increased to more than 47% in 2018, which then fell back to 45% in 2020, due to the temporary increase of nuclear power, said the study.
The growth of gas and renewable sources did not go as fast as the DPP predicted, according to the study, making the nuclear-free energy transition “unlikely to be achieved”.
As of today, only 14.6% of electricity in Taiwan is from renewable sources, far behind its goal of 20%.
Meanwhile, burning gas, which is the main energy source under the plan, releases carbon emissions, making it harder for the island to achieve net-zero.
Focus Taiwan said the move could promote the use of fossil fuels to as high as 84%.
The official nuclear research institute National Atomic Research Institute in Taiwan refused a request to comment.
Watch, read, listen
WEATHER AND PANGOLINS: A TEDxLondon podcast focused on how crop failure, drought and extreme weather are damaging the livelihood of pangolins.
DEEP DIVE: A new feature-length documentary “Ocean With David Attenborough” is in cinemas now.
US AND CLIMATE: An editorial in the Break-Down, a new publication focusing on the “political economy of climate and ecological crisis”, dissects “this moment in climate politics”.
Coming up
- 10-11 May: 2025 international workshop on methane observation and quantification, Xuzhou, China
- 12 May: Philippines elections
- 12-14 May: African Union conference on debt, Lomé, Togo
- 14 May: NDC partnership public webinar, online
Pick of the jobs
- BBC World Service, science/climate journalist and senior science/climate journalist | Salary: £28,000-£35,000 and £42,000-£49,000. Location: London
- Global Renewables Alliance, various roles | Salary: Unknown. Location: Various
- EarthRights International, Mekong communications manager | Salary: Unknown. Location: Chiang Mai, Thailand
DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to debriefed@carbonbrief.org.
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The post DeBriefed 9 May 2025: Australia elects climate action; Spain ‘committed’ to renewables; Taiwan’s nuclear phaseout 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.
Some leading policy-makers don’t think that matters too much. Speaking to journalists before the Antalya summit, COP30 CEO Ana Toni and Dutch climate minister Stientje van Veldhoven said “coalitions of the willing” can move ahead without needing consensus from the COPs. This, they said, was evident this year at the first global conference on TAFF, co-chaired by van Veldhoven and attended by 60 countries.
“Consensus or no-consensus in the general COP doesn’t make a difference for the choices I have to make in my country to get my country to phase out fossil fuels,” said the Dutch minister. The Netherlands recently became one of the first to publish a national TAFF plan.
COP31 banks on flagship voluntary initiatives
This thinking has permeated the management and expected outcomes of this year’s COP too. Earlier this year, Türkiye, supported by international energy agencies, floated the idea of a voluntary goal to boost electrification to 35% of the world’s final energy consumption by 2035 – and this is now being touted as one of the main results to be expected from Antalya.
Türkiye is also championing a pledge on AI and climate, while co-host Australia is pushing to ease access to climate finance for least developed countries and small island states.
COP31 presidency announces AI pledge as UN climate chief says Big Tech ‘on thin ice’
None of these needs consensus. But with a political cover decision already in the works, as trailed by the COP presidents, they – and perhaps the fossil fuel roadmap – may find a home in the official text if language acceptable to most can be found, giving them them additional weight.
UNFCCC reform process in the shadows
Formal reform is underway too, if quietly. UN climate chief Simon Stiell is leading a review informed by ongoing consultations with a group of 15 well-respected climate policy experts, three of whom signed the open letter in 2024.
Among them is leading Swedish climate and sustainability scientist Johan Rockström who has strong ideas about how to make COPs function better, including a switch to majority voting. He told the same press briefing nothing stands in the way of this, because the rules of procedure for making decisions at COPs have never been formally agreed.
Still, to get away from the default setting of consensus would require agreement on a new system that may be impossible to achieve given the rise in bullying tactics by fossil fuel heavyweights.