Struggling with persistent power outages in the conflict-shattered Gaza Strip, Palestinian Ayesh Nassar, a 43-year-old resident of Jabalia refugee camp in the north, had little choice but to use a damaged 50-amp battery to light his family’s tent at night.
He spent 900 shekels ($322) on the old battery after being shocked by the “exorbitant prices” of new ones.
“A 100-amp battery now costs over 5,000 Israeli shekels ($1,790) – an amount three times my monthly salary,” said the government employee.
Since Israel launched its offensive on Gaza following an attack on Israeli citizens by Hamas militants in October 2023, industrial batteries have become the main power source for the territory’s 2.3 million residents, due to an ongoing electricity blackout.
But, as Gazans resort to old or reconditioned batteries for basic power, they face a high risk of accidents and negative health impacts from battery chemicals, especially those who work on battery maintenance, medical professionals in the territory told Climate Home News.
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Israel’s efforts to disband the Hamas militant group have led to over 61,700 deaths in Gaza, displaced most of the population repeatedly, reduced buildings and infrastructure to rubble, and cut off electricity and water supplies inside the narrow coastal area. A ceasefire during which Hamas has been returning Israeli hostages is fragile and the future highly uncertain.
Throughout the conflict, the Israeli army has restricted flows of basic supplies from entering – including energy equipment and batteries to light tents and what remains of homes. At the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to halt the entry of all goods and supplies to the Gaza Strip, citing Hamas’s “refusal” to continue with a new phase of hostage releases and talks based on a US proposal.
Leaking acid
The Gaza Strip’s only power plant operates irregularly, due to intermittent fuel deliveries and a lack of equipment to fix technical problems. To compensate for the lack of grid electricity, many families use batteries charged with solar panels or fuel-run generators.
But access to this inadequate source of power comes with a heavy financial and physical cost to the war-weary population.
“Before the war, we had a house equipped with a solar energy system, and we never felt the power outages,” Nassar recalled. “But today, searching for a small battery has become very difficult.”
He repaired his battery to boost its efficiency to 70% but after a week, foul-smelling acid started leaking from it. Despite the health risks, he said, he was still using it for lighting.
Yusuf Al-Shawa from the Al-Nasr neighborhood in Gaza City also decided to purchase a reconditioned battery, unable to afford a new one due to their skyrocketing prices, as vendors took advantage of people’s desperate need.
Al-Shawa, 37, who supports a family of five, explained that his children cannot sleep without a light at night. “It was essential to find an alternative energy source to survive this difficult life,” he said.
He bought a fixed-up 40-amp battery for 1,000 shekels ($358), which he said “is a large sum, but there are no other options in these tough circumstances”. He noted that prices have jumped since the war started, as locals rely on old batteries hooked up to ad hoc solar panels or generators to run LED lamps and solar-powered USB lights.
“I am usually hesitant to buy old batteries because they come with the risk of exploding due to the lack of proper equipment to fix them,” Al-Shawa said.
Lead poisoning
Sami Al-Sharif, 41, who owns a workshop that repairs old batteries in the Shujaiya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City, explained that new batteries have become scarce since the Israeli blockade, opening up the market for used ones.
In more peaceful times, different kinds of batteries are imported from India, China and Turkey via the Israeli Kerem Shalom crossing, east of Rafah in southern Gaza – but in general they only have a lifespan of around two years and their quality deteriorates over time.
These days old acid batteries are being repaired for reuse, Al-Sharif said, with the price of a kilogramme of acid quadrupling to 800 shekels ($286) since the conflict began.
“Battery repairs are not without health risks,” he said. Two years ago, he fell sick from blood poisoning, with lead four times higher than safe levels detected in his blood – and he still suffers from severe headaches and spasms.
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For the past 11 years, Louay Al-Saouy from Gaza City has been repairing batteries in a small workshop. The 32-year-old started noticing health issues three years ago, experiencing sudden spasms and problems with his nervous system. He was also diagnosed with lead poisoning.
“The work in this profession lacks safety standards and oversight. People don’t wear masks or gloves while working, which leads to further health issues,” he added.
Despite this, Al-Saouy cannot quit or look for another job, as work is scarce in Gaza and the risky vocation is his only source of income.
Unsafe disposal and recycling
Mohammed Masleh, director of the Environmental Resources Department in the Gaza government under Hamas, said Gaza contains more than 30,000 tonnes of batteries that need recycling, adding that these are currently stored in several open sites in unsuitable conditions.
“Batteries are made of heavy metals and toxic materials, such as lead and mercury, which are highly poisonous and pose a great danger to the health of the population,” he warned.
Statistics on accidents linked to batteries and the health impacts are not being systematically collected. But Dr. Said Al-Masri, a hematology specialist at Al-Ahli Hospital, said the highly toxic substances contained in batteries can cause serious diseases via inhalation or skin contact.
“They enter the human body, distribute through the nervous system, and concentrate in the brain, with the most dangerous effect being on the blood, causing leukemia and lung cancer,” he explained.
Dr. Mohamed El-Nadi, a neurosurgery consultant at Al-Awda Hospital, said the way batteries are being handled during the conflict can expose people to the lead, cadmium, mercury and lithium they contain, causing neurological problems, kidney failure and immune system disorders – even resulting in death.
When batteries are damaged or reused incorrectly, toxic fumes such as sulphur and nickel oxides may be emitted, which can lead to lung and skin irritation, asthma and chronic respiratory diseases, as well as poisoning, he added.
“Children are more vulnerable to these risks, as chronic exposure to lead can cause developmental delays and behavioral disorders,” he warned.
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Despite the rising health risks facing Gazans who are increasingly forced to rely on old and recycled batteries for power, Dr. Al-Masri said there are no official statistics on the numbers affected by such diseases, as the work of collecting damaged batteries is done informally.
Unsafe methods are used which violate environmental standards outlined in the Basel Convention of 2002 on the disposal of hazardous waste, he emphasised.
Battery collection and processing should be carried out safely by specialists in areas far from population centres, he told Climate Home.
The post Gazans pay a high price for dangerous batteries to light tents appeared first on Climate Home News.
Gazans pay a high price for dangerous batteries to light tents
Climate Change
Cheniere Energy Received $370 Million IRS Windfall for Using LNG as ‘Alternative’ Fuel
The country’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas benefited from what critics say is a questionable IRS interpretation of tax credits.
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.
Cheniere Energy Received $370 Million IRS Windfall for Using LNG as ‘Alternative’ Fuel
Climate Change
DeBriefed 27 February 2026: Trump’s fossil-fuel talk | Modi-Lula rare-earth pact | Is there a UK ‘greenlash’?
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
This week
Absolute State of the Union
‘DRILL, BABY’: US president Donald Trump “doubled down on his ‘drill, baby, drill’ agenda” in his State of the Union (SOTU) address, said the Los Angeles Times. He “tout[ed] his support of the fossil-fuel industry and renew[ed] his focus on electricity affordability”, reported the Financial Times. Trump also attacked the “green new scam”, noted Carbon Brief’s SOTU tracker.
COAL REPRIEVE: Earlier in the week, the Trump administration had watered down limits on mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants, reported the Financial Times. It remains “unclear” if this will be enough to prevent the decline of coal power, said Bloomberg, in the face of lower-cost gas and renewables. Reuters noted that US coal plants are “ageing”.
OIL STAY: The US Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments brought by the oil industry in a “major lawsuit”, reported the New York Times. The newspaper said the firms are attempting to head off dozens of other lawsuits at state level, relating to their role in global warming.
SHIP-SHILLING: The Trump administration is working to “kill” a global carbon levy on shipping “permanently”, reported Politico, after succeeding in delaying the measure late last year. The Guardian said US “bullying” could be “paying off”, after Panama signalled it was reversing its support for the levy in a proposal submitted to the UN shipping body.
Around the world
- RARE EARTHS: The governments of Brazil and India signed a deal on rare earths, said the Times of India, as well as agreeing to collaborate on renewable energy.
- HEAT ROLLBACK: German homes will be allowed to continue installing gas and oil heating, under watered-down government plans covered by Clean Energy Wire.
- BRAZIL FLOODS: At least 53 people died in floods in the state of Minas Gerais, after some areas saw 170mm of rain in a few hours, reported CNN Brasil.
- ITALY’S ATTACK: Italy is calling for the EU to “suspend” its emissions trading system (ETS) ahead of a review later this year, said Politico.
- COOKSTOVE CREDITS: The first-ever carbon credits under the Paris Agreement have been issued to a cookstove project in Myanmar, said Climate Home News.
- SAUDI SOLAR: Turkey has signed a “major” solar deal that will see Saudi firm ACWA building 2 gigawatts in the country, according to Agence France-Presse.
$467 billion
The profits made by five major oil firms since prices spiked following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine four years ago, according to a report by Global Witness covered by BusinessGreen.
Latest climate research
- Claims about the “fingerprint” of human-caused climate change, made in a recent US Department of Energy report, are “factually incorrect” | AGU Advances
- Large lakes in the Congo Basin are releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from “immense ancient stores” | Nature Geoscience
- Shared Socioeconomic Pathways – scenarios used regularly in climate modelling – underrepresent “narratives explicitly centring on democratic principles such as participation, accountability and justice” | npj Climate Action
(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 constituency of Richard Tice MP, the climate-sceptic deputy leader of Reform UK, is the second-largest recipient of flood defence spending in England, according to new Carbon Brief analysis. Overall, the funding is disproportionately targeted at coastal and urban areas, many of which have Conservative or Liberal Democrat MPs.
Spotlight
Is there really a UK ‘greenlash’?
This week, after a historic Green Party byelection win, Carbon Brief looks at whether there really is a “greenlash” against climate policy in the UK.
Over the past year, the UK’s political consensus on climate change has been shattered.
Yet despite a sharp turn against climate action among right-wing politicians and right-leaning media outlets, UK public support for climate action remains strong.
Prof Federica Genovese, who studies climate politics at the University of Oxford, told Carbon Brief:
“The current ‘war’ on green policy is mostly driven by media and political elites, not by the public.”
Indeed, there is still a greater than two-to-one majority among the UK public in favour of the country’s legally binding target to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, as shown below.
Steve Akehurst, director of public-opinion research initiative Persuasion UK, also noted the growing divide between the public and “elites”. He told Carbon Brief:
“The biggest movement is, without doubt, in media and elite opinion. There is a bit more polarisation and opposition [to climate action] among voters, but it’s typically no more than 20-25% and mostly confined within core Reform voters.”
Conservative gear shift
For decades, the UK had enjoyed strong, cross-party political support for climate action.
Lord Deben, the Conservative peer and former chair of the Climate Change Committee, told Carbon Brief that the UK’s landmark 2008 Climate Change Act had been born of this cross-party consensus, saying “all parties supported it”.
Since their landslide loss at the 2024 election, however, the Conservatives have turned against the UK’s target of net-zero emissions by 2050, which they legislated for in 2019.
Curiously, while opposition to net-zero has surged among Conservative MPs, there is majority support for the target among those that plan to vote for the party, as shown below.
Dr Adam Corner, advisor to the Climate Barometer initiative that tracks public opinion on climate change, told Carbon Brief that those who currently plan to vote Reform are the only segment who “tend to be more opposed to net-zero goals”. He said:
“Despite the rise in hostile media coverage and the collapse of the political consensus, we find that public support for the net-zero by 2050 target is plateauing – not plummeting.”
Reform, which rejects the scientific evidence on global warming and campaigns against net-zero, has been leading the polls for a year. (However, it was comfortably beaten by the Greens in yesterday’s Gorton and Denton byelection.)
Corner acknowledged that “some of the anti-net zero noise…[is] showing up in our data”, adding:
“We see rising concerns about the near-term costs of policies and an uptick in people [falsely] attributing high energy bills to climate initiatives.”
But Akehurst said that, rather than a big fall in public support, there had been a drop in the “salience” of climate action:
“So many other issues [are] competing for their attention.”
UK newspapers published more editorials opposing climate action than supporting it for the first time on record in 2025, according to Carbon Brief analysis.
Global ‘greenlash’?
All of this sits against a challenging global backdrop, in which US president Donald Trump has been repeating climate-sceptic talking points and rolling back related policy.
At the same time, prominent figures have been calling for a change in climate strategy, sold variously as a “reset”, a “pivot”, as “realism”, or as “pragmatism”.
Genovese said that “far-right leaders have succeeded in the past 10 years in capturing net-zero as a poster child of things they are ‘fighting against’”.
She added that “much of this is fodder for conservative media and this whole ecosystem is essentially driving what we call the ‘greenlash’”.
Corner said the “disconnect” between elite views and the wider public “can create problems” – for example, “MPs consistently underestimate support for renewables”. He added:
“There is clearly a risk that the public starts to disengage too, if not enough positive voices are countering the negative ones.”
Watch, read, listen
TRUMP’S ‘PETROSTATE’: The US is becoming a “petrostate” that will be “sicker and poorer”, wrote Financial Times associate editor Rana Forohaar.
RHETORIC VS REALITY: Despite a “political mood [that] has darkened”, there is “more green stuff being installed than ever”, said New York Times columnist David Wallace-Wells.
CHINA’S ‘REVOLUTION’: The BBC’s Climate Question podcast reported from China on the “green energy revolution” taking place in the country.
Coming up
- 2-6 March: UN Food and Agriculture Organization regional conference for Latin America and Caribbean, Brasília
- 3 March: UK spring statement
- 4-11 March: China’s “two sessions”
- 5 March: Nepal elections
Pick of the jobs
- The Guardian, senior reporter, climate justice | Salary: $123,000-$135,000. Location: New York or Washington DC
- China-Global South Project, non-resident fellow, climate change | Salary: Up to $1,000 a month. Location: Remote
- University of East Anglia, PhD in mobilising community-based climate action through co-designed sports and wellbeing interventions | Salary: Stipend (unknown amount). Location: Norwich, UK
- TABLE and the University of São Paulo, Brazil, postdoctoral researcher in food system narratives | Salary: Unknown. Location: Pirassununga, Brazil
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 27 February 2026: Trump’s fossil-fuel talk | Modi-Lula rare-earth pact | Is there a UK ‘greenlash’? appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Seven Pacific island nations say they will demand heftier levies on global shipping emissions if opponents of a green deal for the industry succeed in reopening negotiations on the stalled accord.
The United States and Saudi Arabia persuaded countries not to grant final approval to the International Maritime Organization’s Net-Zero Framework (NZF) in October and they are now leading a drive for changes to the deal.
In a joint submission seen by Climate Home News, the seven climate-vulnerable Pacific countries said the framework was already a “fragile compromise”, and vowed to push for a universal levy on all ship emissions, as well as higher fees . The deal currently stipulates that fees will be charged when a vessel’s emissions exceed a certain level.
“For many countries, the NZF represents the absolute limit of what they can accept,” said the unpublished submission by Fiji, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands.
The countries said a universal levy and higher charges on shipping would raise more funds to enable a “just and equitable transition leaving no country behind”. They added, however, that “despite its many shortcomings”, the framework should be adopted later this year.
US allies want exemption for ‘transition fuels’
The previous attempt to adopt the framework failed after governments narrowly voted to postpone it by a year. Ahead of the vote, the US threatened governments and their officials with sanctions, tariffs and visa restrictions – and President Donald Trump called the framework a “Green New Scam Tax on Shipping”.
Since then, Liberia – an African nation with a major low-tax shipping registry headquartered in the US state of Virginia – has proposed a new measure under which, rather than staying fixed under the NZF, ships’ emissions intensity targets change depending on “demonstrated uptake” of both “low-carbon and zero-carbon fuels”.
The proposal places stringent conditions on what fuels are taken into consideration when setting these targets, stressing that the low- and zero-carbon fuels should be “scalable”, not cost more than 15% more than standard marine fuels and should be available at “sufficient ports worldwide”.
This proposal would not “penalise transitional fuels” like natural gas and biofuels, they said. In the last decade, the US has built a host of large liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals, which the Trump administration is lobbying other countries to purchase from.
The draft motion, seen by Climate Home News, was co-sponsored by US ally Argentina and also by Panama, a shipping hub whose canal the US has threatened to annex. Both countries voted with the US to postpone the last vote on adopting the framework.
-
IMO head: Shipping decarbonisation “has started” despite green deal delay
Arsenio Dominguez said the shipping industry’s net zero emissions goal is not in dispute although countries have stalled on adopting a framework to reach it -
US-led alliance wins a year’s delay in adoption of green shipping deal
The IMO’s Net-Zero Framework will be up for approval again in October 2026, after the US and Saudi Arabia persuaded countries not to vote on it as planned
The IMO’s Panamanian head Arsenio Dominguez told reporters in January that changes to the framework were now possible.
“It is clear from what happened last year that we need to look into the concerns that have been expressed [and] … make sure that they are somehow addressed within the framework,” he said.
Patchwork of levies
While the European Union pushed firmly for the framework’s adoption, two of its shipping-reliant member states – Greece and Cyprus – abstained in October’s vote.
After a meeting between the Greek shipping minister and Saudi Arabia’s energy minister in January, Greece said a “common position” united Greece, Saudi Arabia and the US on the framework.
If the NZF or a similar instrument is not adopted, the IMO has warned that there will be a patchwork of differing regional levies on pollution – like the EU’s emissions trading system for ships visiting its ports – which will be complicated and expensive to comply with.
This would mean that only countries with their own levies and with lots of ships visiting their ports would raise funds, making it harder for other nations to fund green investments in their ports, seafarers and shipping companies. In contrast, under the NZF, revenues would be disbursed by the IMO to all nations based on set criteria.
Anais Rios, shipping policy officer from green campaign group Seas At Risk, told Climate Home News the proposal by the Pacific nations for a levy on all shipping emissions – not just those above a certain threshold – was “the most credible way to meet the IMO’s climate goals”.
“With geopolitics reframing climate policy, asking the IMO to reopen the discussion on the universal levy is the only way to decarbonise shipping whilst bringing revenue to manage impacts fairly,” Rios said.
“It is […] far stronger than the Net-Zero Framework that is currently on offer.”
The post Pacific nations want higher emissions charges if shipping talks reopen appeared first on Climate Home News.
Pacific nations want higher emissions charges if shipping talks reopen
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