Friends, it is with great sadness that I share that Kristen Poppleton, our Senior Director of Programs, will be leaving Climate Generation mid-December for a new professional adventure as Assistant Director of Minnesota Trout Unlimited. Kristen has played an essential role at Climate Generation over the past 14 years, growing and developing our programs and our reputation. She started here when it was the Will Steger Foundation, and has weathered many transitions, always staying grounded in integrity. Her understanding of and care for our COP program will be especially missed. And we wish her well in her new adventure, knowing that she will remain a friend of Climate Gen and available to us as we might need her. It has been an honor to work with her during the past year. I invited Kristen to share her parting thoughts:
In the summer of 2006, I spent a week at the School of Environmental Studies in Apple Valley, Minnesota participating in Climate Generation’s first Summer Institute for Climate Change Education (the organization was then known as Will Steger Foundation.) I was in graduate school at the University of Minnesota studying Conservation Biology, with a focus on climate change education. My friend Abby Fenton, then one of the three staff members, had invited me to join the Institute knowing my interest in climate change education.
The week was spent with 50 other teachers learning about how climate change was impacting the Arctic region, hearing from Inuit leaders, and developing activities together. The staff were planning an expedition to Baffin Island in the Arctic to see impacts of climate change first hand and to talk to Inuit communities about their experience — we, the participants, were tasked with sharing this with our students.
Back then, climate change wasn’t “happening” so much in our backyards, and when you googled climate change education there was really not much to see resource-wise or jobs-wise. When I joined the team a few years later to work on the Minnesota’s Changing Climate curriculum resource, finding people and resources for this work was one of my first challenges.
Doing climate work is a practice in partnership, innovation, patience, and radical optimism, and it requires people.
People who can help with all that stuff we typically think of as work, but also for fun, laughter, and friendship. As I ready myself for the next adventure beyond Climate Generation, my number one priority is to recognize and say thank you to all the amazing individuals and organizations I have had the privilege of working with over the years — to the PEOPLE that have made this work happen.
From the beginning the School of Environmental Studies (SES) in Apple Valley, Minnesota was a big partner in our work. The team there supported our Summer Institute the first time, as well as two more times over the years. Their students have been our interns, gone on climate-focused expeditions, provided us with valuable grounding in how to do an intentional and learning-focused trip to the international climate negotiations (COP), and now still support us with badging individuals for COP.
I don’t know when I discovered the Climate Literacy Network (CLEAN), but it was pretty early on. My calendar has had the standing Tuesday network meeting on it for almost 14 years. While I haven’t been able to attend as much recently, this network helped build the foundation of our work at Climate Generation today. Through conversations, shared presentations at AGU, NAAEE, NSTA; tweet chats; time spent as a Board co-chair; this group of folks has been leading the charge on climate change education across the country and has introduced me to so many of the partners we continue to work with today. I am especially grateful for the long time mentorship and deep friendship of Frank Niepold at NOAA’s Climate Office and Jen Kretser at the Wild Center.
The US ACE Coalition was a spin off from CLEAN, and it was through this coalition we started to really understand how our work at Climate Generation is grounded in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and is critical for accelerating climate action. So many great minds contributed to the Framework behind the Coalition and I learned so much from all of you!
I continue to be so excited about the Climate Literacy Certificate offered through Hamline University, a product of many years of dreaming with staff there. Our partnership with the Center for Global Environmental Education, and our staff teaching a Theories and Models of Climate Change Education course, and Global Climate Policy and Solutions during COP are a few of the rewarding moments of this partnership.
I also, of course, found much joy and inspiration through working with colleagues at Climate Generation. I had the pleasure of being a part of some amazing teams over the years focused on local to international projects. Our Climate Minnesota: Local Stories, Community Solutions convening series took our team, along with climatologist Mark Seeley and Terry Webster from the Department of Commerce, across the state to 12 local communities. Stewarding the development of our book, Eyewitness, sharing it through a webinar series, and delivering it to every legislator in the state (during a global pandemic) was a full team affair!
Pulling off our Summer Institute for Climate Change Education every year takes a village, and that village has grown exponentially thanks to the leadership of some amazing education staff and a network of organizations that started locally with SES, Osprey Wilds, the Science Museum, Ft. Snelling State Park, the Institute on the Environment, and St. John’s University, and grew to partners across North America including NOAA’s Climate Office, the Wild Center, EcoRise, and Ten Strands.
I can’t imagine where Climate Generation would be without the passion, excitement, anger, persistence, and joy brought to this organization by high school youth over the years. It is young people that have been our moral compass, our edge-pusher, and our constant reminder that apathy is not a choice; that we must continue to do better than our best work. I have learned so much from them and I also have been privileged to co-work on legislation and coalitions and projects that give me hope. One of my greatest joys is leaving our organization knowing that we have a former high school YEA! member on our youth program staff today.
Our ongoing organizational journey from equity to antiracism has been one of the most important, life-changing professional experiences I have had. I have been so humbled by the individuals I have had the chance to learn from, wrestle and cry with, have profound “a-has” with, and share collective humanity with. These learnings, this journey of seeing the world, is ongoing and it is a gift I bring with me.
Finally, experiential learning can be a profound spark for action, and in 2015 when my colleague and I brought a group of 10 teachers to COP21 in Paris to launch our annual Window Into COP program, I was “sparked.” Over the years, the delegates we have been able to support to attend the UN climate negotiations have been some of our most passionate and sustained partners — citing the experience as an activation point for their personal climate action. Every year in planning COP, I am so fortified by the people we meet and work with to plan an educational and impactful program and experience at COP. I am so grateful to be able to end my time with Climate Generation supporting this program and our largest and most diverse delegation ever!
Over the years, I think I may have taken on almost every role in the organization, at least for a short period, but I spent the majority of my time in programming. I was a part of stewarding its growth from a team of one to a team of ten program experts in youth, education, and community. I believe that an organization matures due to the support, passion, smarts, mistakes, and investment of many people. It’s working with colleagues at Climate Generation, and partners around the world, that has provided me with the sustained focus, inspiration, knowledge, and support to do this work.
I look forward to watching Climate Generation continue to be a force in the climate movement — knowing that people are at the heart of this work!
It would mean a lot to hear from you if you have any memories of working together over the years! Consider adding a photo or written memory to this padlet with the password kpmemory.
Susan Phillips
Executive Director
Kristen Poppleton
Senior Director of Programs
The post Holding the Both/And of Goodbyes appeared first on Climate Generation.
Climate Change
Analysis: UK newspapers have already printed 63 editorials in 2026 backing North Sea drilling
UK newspapers have already published 63 editorials this year calling for more oil and gas extraction in the North Sea, according to Carbon Brief analysis.
The national outlets, including the Sun, the Daily Telegraph and the Times, argue that the nation “needs” more North Sea drilling to provide “home-sourced oil and gas” amid a “full-blown energy crisis”.
These newspapers seek to blame energy secretary Ed Miliband’s “net-zero crusade” for curbing UK fossil-fuel production – despite supplies dwindling for decades before he took the role.
The push for North Sea drilling in newspaper editorials – considered a publication’s formal “voice” – is part of a wider rejection of net-zero policies by the UK’s right-leaning press.
Figures ranging from ex-Labour prime minister Tony Blair to hard-right Reform UK leader Nigel Farage have repeated similar arguments that more drilling will “boost” the UK economy.
Even US president Donald Trump has weighed in, attributing, in part, the resignation of Keir Starmer as UK prime minister to him “fail[ing] badly” on North Sea oil.
Despite these claims, experts say trying to extract the last barrels of domestic oil and gas would have no impact on people’s energy bills and very little effect on energy security.
More drilling
North Sea oil and gas production is a highly politically charged issue in the UK, especially under the current Labour government.
When Labour won the general election in 2024, the new government committed to a “phased and responsible” transition away from fossil-fuel extraction in the North Sea.
As part of this pledge, it ruled out issuing new exploration licences for oil and gas. Since then, the government has allowed some “tiebacks”, where new drilling is undertaken close to existing sites.
Roughly 90% of the fossil fuels that are likely to be extracted in the North Sea have already been burned. North Sea oil and gas extraction was, therefore, already on a clear downward trajectory long before Labour came to power, having dropped 75% between 2000 and 2024.
Nevertheless, many newspapers have relentlessly called for more oil and gas production, framing the Labour policy as “self-destructive” and compromised by “green ideology”.
This has ramped up significantly in 2026. Just six months into the year, newspapers have already published 63 pro-North Sea editorials, according to analysis by Carbon Brief. This is more than double the number published in 2025, as shown in the figure below.
Right-leaning newspapers have led this campaign, with the Sun alone publishing 25 editorials, while the Daily Telegraph and the Times have published 10 each.
‘Full-blown energy crisis’
The biggest surge in pro-North Sea drilling editorials came in March, as the Iran war escalated and a global energy crisis began to take shape. Newspapers published 24 such editorials that month, despite the crisis largely arising from the world’s reliance on fossil fuels.
The Daily Express said the UK needed more “home-sourced oil and gas” and the Daily Mail highlighted the “perverse limit on domestic fossil-fuel production”.
As the weeks progressed, the Sun lamented price rises and potential fuel shortages, proposing North Sea drilling as a solution to the “full-blown energy crisis”.
Yet, UK oil and gas is sold by private companies on the open market at international rates. This means UK consumers have no particular right to the fuels or control over the prices they are bought for.
The Sun claimed – without evidence – that if the North Sea had been prioritised, the UK “might just have the cheapest electricity in the world”. It also said net-zero “forces us to spend billions” on imports.
In fact, the UK’s high energy prices are primarily the result of its reliance on gas to generate electricity.
The nation is reliant on oil and gas imports, in part, because the North Sea is a “mature basin” that saw its output collapse long before the UK even had a net-zero target.
Renewables and low-carbon technologies – often dismissed by the same newspapers – are expected to have a far greater impact on cutting imports than new drilling ever could.
Miliband’s ‘crusade’
Much of the criticism by these newspapers of Labour’s North Sea stance is tied to their highly personal criticism of Miliband. Of the 63 editorials arguing for more drilling, nearly three-quarters also attacked him as a “net-zero zealot” on a “green crusade”.
The Times said the energy and net-zero secretary was pursuing a “masochistic policy” by not expanding North Sea drilling and that he had “cloaked his zealotry in spurious rationality”.
This all fits with a broader trend that has seen right-leaning newspapers launch frequent, personal attacks on Miliband.
In the roughly two years since Labour won the election, giving the government a clear mandate for its net-zero policies, there have been around 230 editorials criticising Miliband.
(These have redoubled in recent days, amid rumours that he may be made chancellor under Andy Burnham, if the new Makerfield MP becomes the next prime minister, as is widely expected.)
Such attacks have increasingly spilled over into politics. Conservative shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho has accused Miliband of “fanaticism” and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has even likened him to a “Nigerian military dictator”.
The newspapers have also interpreted any support for North Sea drilling as a rebuke of Miliband. Both the Sun and the Daily Telegraph welcomed an essay by Blair, in which he argued that “we must…use what is left of our North Sea oil and gas resources”.
The Sun heralded Blair as Labour’s “most successful election winner” and said he “nailed the chief mistakes” of the current government, including:
“Allowing Ed Miliband free rein on net-zero – especially the banning of North Sea drilling.”
Several of the newspapers have also thrown their support behind the Conservative party, as it frames itself as an anti-net-zero, pro-fossil fuel alternative to Labour.
The Daily Mail described Badenoch’s proposal to drill more in the North Sea as a “concrete plan”, while the Sun – in an echo of Trump’s slogan – has simply urged her to “drill, Kemi, drill”.
The post Analysis: UK newspapers have already printed 63 editorials in 2026 backing North Sea drilling appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Analysis: UK newspapers have already printed 63 editorials in 2026 backing North Sea drilling
Climate Change
Cropped 1 July 2026: Heatwave scorches Europe | UK 2050 farm plan | What’s next for the High Seas Treaty
We handpick and explain the most important stories at the intersection of climate, land, food and nature over the past fortnight.
This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s fortnightly Cropped email newsletter.
Subscribe for free here.
Key developments
Heatwave scorches European agriculture
‘PUSHED TO THEIR LIMITS’: The record-breaking heatwave that swept through much of western and central Europe in recent weeks had myriad impacts across the continent, reported Carbon Brief. Martin Lines, chief executive of the Nature Friendly Farming Network, explained: “Prolonged high temperatures place huge stress on livestock, dry out soils and reduce crop resilience, all while putting more pressure on nature.” The Times noted that “refrigerated warehouses were pushed to their limits” by the high temperatures.
POULTRY PROBLEMS: “At least several hundred thousand poultry” perished in France due to the extreme temperatures, the head of a French poultry-industry group told Reuters. A separate Reuters article said that “cows and pigs were suffering from heat stress” in Belgium, “which has raised concerns about milk and meat production”. Meanwhile, UK government data obtained by Carbon Brief showed that “twice as many animals died due to heat stress en route to slaughterhouses” amid record heat in 2025, compared to 2024.
FIRE AND ICE: The heatwave also had widespread impacts on the natural world. A wildfire scorched 200 hectares of moorland in Derbyshire, reported the Times. Derbyshire’s fire service said: “The ground is tinder dry and the slightest spark…could soon escalate to a major incident.” Agence France-Presse reported that “Swiss glaciers are set to lose an enormous amount of ice”, noting that this is the “second-earliest arrival on record of the tipping point known as ‘glacier-loss day’”.
UK 2050 farm plan
FARM CHANGES: The UK government launched a 2050 “farming roadmap” for England, setting out aims to make agriculture more resilient to climate change, increase domestic food production and boost nature recovery. The plan is “full of ambition”, but “falls short” on action and delivery, said National Farmers’ Union president Tom Bradshaw in a statement. Meanwhile, the government also announced £47m in funding for peatland protection and restoration schemes.
FOREST LOSS: UK companies may soon be required to “check that their supply chains are free from products linked to illegal land clearances”, reported the Times. The government revived plans for anti-deforestation rules for products such as soya, palm oil, cocoa and rubber, said the newspaper. The rules will initially target goods linked to illegal deforestation, but later move to a “blanket ‘deforestation-free’ standard”, it noted, adding that similar plans in the EU have been repeatedly delayed.
FRAUGHT FUND: UK energy secretary Ed Miliband was “poised to announce” a £400m commitment to the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, but the plan was “shelved over ‘optics concerns’” amid a “bitter row over defence spending”, said the Times. Meanwhile, one of Europe’s oldest and largest trees died after “becoming stressed by a series of hot, dry summers”, reported the Guardian. The Major Oak, which has grown in England’s Sherwood Forest “for at least 1,000 years”, did not produce leaves this year, said the newspaper.
News and views
- OCEAN ACTION: The Our Ocean Conference concluded in Mombasa, Kenya, with more than 300 voluntary commitments from governments, civil-society groups, non-governmental organisations and others, said Carbon Brief. Observers told the outlet that “these pledges must now be backed up by action”.
- HOT SEAS: Record-high global ocean temperatures in June could lead the world to “uncharted territory”, said the Financial Times. Meanwhile, the Independent reported that a species of sea star thought to be extinct was found off the coast of California.
- EU PLANS: The European parliament approved rules to allow the use of gene-edited plants, marking a “major shift” in the EU’s approach to modified crops, reported Bloomberg. Meanwhile, Grilled, a new investigative newsletter, said the EU is “considering an overhaul of how it measures methane emissions from livestock”.
- BRAZIL BLAZES: Last year, fires caused a “significant spike in forest loss” across three areas in Brazil home to Indigenous peoples living in “voluntary isolation”, according to Mongabay. Indigenous leaders told the outlet that fire “affects their productive practices and destroys the biodiversity and vegetation they depend on”.
- DISCLOSURE DISPARITY: The Biodiversity Footprint Company analysed the climate- and biodiversity-related disclosures of “120 of the world’s largest listed companies”. It found that “companies disclose roughly two-thirds of assessed climate information, yet less than one-20th of the equivalent biodiversity information”.
- FRUITLESS: Fruit growers across the US south-western state of Utah “are reporting near-total harvest losses”, reported High Country News. It noted that a warm, dry winter, followed by a “record-breaking spring heatwave”, led orchards to bloom early, but the crop was then “devasta[ed]” by a “series of April freezes”.
Spotlight
‘Up and running immediately’: what’s next for the High Seas Treaty
This week, Carbon Brief speaks to Rebecca Hubbard, director of the High Seas Alliance, about the High Seas Treaty (also known as the agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, or BBNJ). This interview was conducted at the Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, Kenya.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Carbon Brief: What connects BBNJ and climate change?
Rebecca Hubbard: The high seas cover half of the planet, or two-thirds of the global ocean. The ocean is essential for many things, including producing oxygen, absorbing carbon and absorbing the enormous amount of excessive heat we’ve produced as a result of burning fossil fuels. The ocean, including the high seas, cannot perform its critical climate-regulating role without healthy populations, without being healthy, and – at the moment – the high seas are not protected.
In fact, only around 1% of the high seas are protected and they’re under immense pressure from shipping, fishing, pollution [and] climate change – both heating and acidification. The High Seas Treaty, for the first time ever, gives us the legal framework to be able to protect the high seas. By being able to protect and better manage the high seas, we are assuring its critical role in protecting us from the worst of climate change.
CB: What were your hopes or expectations coming into this conference?
RH: My hopes were that we would get strong engagement and leadership from African states in the High Seas Treaty and we have seen that, which is really fantastic. There’s been a lot of support, a lot of leadership from African governments on the treaty and on their ambitions to not just complete their ratification processes, but to also start looking at creating marine protected areas. They want to be engaged and involved in leading and delivering those processes and I think that’s really exciting. It’s a great opportunity for the whole world. We can really get some exciting collaborations.
CB: What has been missing from the conversation here?
RH: I actually don’t think much has been missing, because I think there’s been a lot of different conversations. There’s been conversations around the need for finance to implement the treaty and this is something that’s common across all multilateral environmental agreements – certainly no stranger to the climate process. We’re going to need this huge amount of resources to implement the treaty. Where is that money coming from?
CB: We’ve got almost exactly six months until COP1 [the first Conference of the Parties for the High Seas Treaty scheduled for January 2027]. What needs to happen between now and then?
RH: We need as many more countries to ratify as possible. We hope that well over 100 countries will be party to the agreement by COP1, so that they can be at the decision-making table. We need countries to really prepare for that COP, so that they’re ready to really efficiently make the decisions founded off all of the work that we’re done through the PrepCom [preparatory commission] meetings [and] so that we can get the rules of procedure and the subsidiary bodies that are going to be essential to an effective implementation up and running immediately.
There is so much to do and we do not have time to waste with circular negotiations, rehashing resolved issues. We also need countries to continue to prepare for implementation, particularly back in their capitals – establishing inter-ministerial committees, so that you have a cohesive and united approach from governments that reflects a whole-of-government approach. That’s what’s going to be essential for effective implementation.
Watch, read, listen
‘ELEPHANT MARSH’: Mongabay delved into the knock-on effects of a 2023 cyclone on farming households living in Malawi wetlands.
REEF RESILIENCE: In bioGraphic, journalist Claudia Geib explored the unexpected resilience of a coral reef in Miami that is home to some critically endangered species.
TRUMP VS ALGAE: The Guardian Science Weekly podcast discussed the causes of algal blooms, in light of the green algae saga at the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool in Washington DC.
FRAUGHT FARMING: A century-old state law protects the water rights of just a handful of users on the Deschutes River at the expense of the region’s farmers, said Oregon Public Broadcasting.
New science
- Growing oil crops, such as oil palm and coconuts, potentially caused the long-term loss of 1.5% of global plant and animal species between 1995 and 2020, with largest impacts in the tropics | Nature Food
- “Climate-smart agriculture” is improving household resilience in Ethiopia, but scaling its benefits requires addressing “local realities and inequalities” | Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change
- Drought has been linked to “abundance declines” and range shifts in 40% of 37 birds species living in the deserts of the western US | Conservation Letters
In the diary
- 1-3 July: UN Food and Agriculture Organization global conference on “smart farming” | Rome (webcast available)
- 13-31 July: Meeting of the International Seabed Authority assembly and council | Kingston, Jamaica
- 14 July: Launch of the “state of food security and nutrition in the world” report | New York City
- 27 July-1 August: Scientific and technical subsidiary body meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity | Nairobi, Kenya
The post Cropped 1 July 2026: Heatwave scorches Europe | UK 2050 farm plan | What’s next for the High Seas Treaty appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Climate Change
Proposal for ‘Hyperscale’ data centre in remote Northern Territory demonstrates need for urgent moratorium
SYDNEY, Wednesday 1 July 2026 — The proposal for the ‘Project Ares’ data centre in remote Northern Territory, which would be powered by off-grid gas and renewables, has prompted renewed calls from Greenpeace for an urgent moratorium, citing serious concerns about emissions and environmental harm.
The application for the project under the EPBC Act reveals the gas-fired generation for the project would be approximately 1,038MW at full build-out, which would more than double the NT’s current gas-fired generating capacity.
A recent report by Greenpeace Australia Pacific and independent expert Ketan Joshi, Energy Vampires: the AI data centres draining Australia, revealed how the frenzied rollout of AI data centres in Australia is set to derail the renewable energy transition, entrench gas and turbocharge climate pollution.
Solaye Snider, Campaigner at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “Proposals like Project Ares, which would have significant off-grid gas powered generation and emissions, should not be moving along while there are still zero binding regulations to limit the impacts of AI data centres on our communities and environment.
“This hyperscale project proposes massive new off-grid gas infrastructure, making a mockery of the Federal Government’s unenforceable ‘expectations’ that data centres will cover their own power use with renewables. Communities will pay the price for the data centre industry’s endless hunger for energy at any cost.
“This proposal also raises serious questions about where this new gas would come from. Could it come from fracking the Beetaloo? Communities deserve to have the full picture before this project is approved.
“The Australian Government is asleep at the wheel when it comes to the rapid roll-out of AI data centres. We need an urgent moratorium on the construction and approval of new data centres, so our government can take appropriate time to legislate the regulations and safeguards we so desperately need.”
-ENDS-
Media contact
Lucy Keller on 0491 135 308 or lucy.keller@greenpeace.org
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