The year 2024 was the fourth warmest on record for the UK, behind only 2022, 2023 and 2014.
In this review, we look back at the UK’s climate in 2024 to highlight how the key events of the year fit into the wider picture of long-term human-caused climate change. We find:
- Eight months of the year were warmer than average.
- Spring was the warmest on record for the UK, which saw a record-high average temperature for May.
- February was the second warmest on record for the UK and December the fifth warmest.
- In contrast, the summer months of June, July and September were slightly cooler than average.
- On 28 January, a strong Foehn effect resulted in a temperature of 19.9C at Achfary, Sutherland, marking the highest temperature for January since records began.
- The year was relatively wet, with 7% more rainfall than average, making it the UK’s 17th wettest in a series going back to 1836.
- Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire saw their second-wettest year on record, driven by large rainfall totals in February and September.
- Storm Lilian in August marked the first time that storm names reached ‘L’ in the alphabetised list since storm naming was introduced in 2015.
- An attribution study found that rainfall in the winter season of 2023-24 was 20% more intense due to human-caused climate change. It also showed the amount of rainfall observed during the season was 10 times more likely.
(See our previous annual analysis for 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018.)
The year in summary
The Met Office relies on the long-running HadUK-Grid dataset to place recent UK weather and climate into its historical context. The gridded, geographically complete dataset combines observational data for monthly temperature since 1884, rainfall since 1836 and sunshine since 1910.
Unless stated otherwise, the rankings of events and statements (such as “warmest on record”) in this article relate to the HadUK-Grid series.
The “climate anomaly” maps below show the difference between the average temperature (left), rainfall total (middle) and sunshine duration (right) between 2024 and the 1991-2020 period. In other words, they show how much warmer, cooler, wetter, drier, sunnier or cloudier the year was than average.
The maps show that the whole country was warmer than average, with slightly lower temperature anomalies in Scotland, and slightly higher anomalies seen in East Anglia.
Rainfall shows more regional variation, with the wettest regions relative to average in central and southern England, but a slightly drier year than average for Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland.
Meanwhile, it was a relatively dull year across the country with lower-than-average sunshine across the vast majority of the UK, particularly in western regions.
The UK annual average absolute temperature for 2024 was 9.78C, which is 0.64C above the 1991-2020 average.
This makes 2024 the fourth-warmest year since records began, coming only after 2022, when the average temperature was 10.03C; 2023, when the average temperature was 9.97C; and 2014, when temperatures averaged at 9.88C. Rounding off the top-five warmest years on record is 2006, when the average temperature was 9.70C.
The timeseries plot below shows how average temperature in the UK has followed a clear long-term warming trend since the 1960s.
Daily minimum and maximum temperatures have been recorded in the UK since the 19th century.
These observe the highest and lowest temperature reached during a 24-hour period which starts and ends at 9:00 GMT each day. The daily maximum temperature tends to be in the early afternoon and the minimum temperature in the hours before dawn, but not exclusively. In the winter season in particular, changes in weather patterns can result in larger swings in temperature.
In 2024, the annual average minimum temperature for the UK was the equal-warmest on record, matching the previous record set in 2023. The consequence of this has been some mild nights and far fewer frosts than normal, particularly in February and December. Meanwhile, the annual average daily maximum temperature was 8th warmest in the series.
Tracking the impact of climate change
For 2022 and 2023, attribution analysis conducted by Met Office scientists has shown that the temperatures experienced in both years were exceptional in more than 140 years of observational data, and would have been a 1-in-500 year event in a climate unaffected by humans.
However, in the context of the current climate, such average temperatures are not necessarily extreme – in fact, they now have a “return period” closer to one-in-three years.
The observed temperature for the UK in 2024 – despite being the fourth warmest on record – is not unusual when seen through the context of the warming climate. The UK has warmed by a rate that is comparable to the observed rise in the global average temperature.
The internationally-agreed observational reference period for climate averages is the period 1991-2020. Variability in the Earth’s climate means that cooler years can still occur, such as in 2010. However, it is notable that the UK has not had a year with below-average temperature since 2013.
The 2024 climate statistics continue a pattern of warming in the UK, which highlights how climate change is not a distant challenge for the future, but is happening now.
The year 2024 also fits into a general picture of a wetter climate for the UK overall. The timeseries plot below shows how rainfall in the UK has increased over recent decades.
However, the drivers of annual rainfall trends are more complex than for temperature, with annual totals masking regional and seasonal variations.
Climate projections for the UK show that winters are more likely to become wetter and summers are more likely to be drier through the 21st century.
One important driver of this change is that a warmer ocean and atmosphere can result in more water vapour in the atmosphere, which brings greater rainfall totals, or more intense rain, associated with weather systems.
However, the impact of a warming atmosphere alone is not sufficient to wholly account for the observed rainfall increase evident in the UK annual rainfall series. Other factors include decadal-scale natural variations in the climate, and the influence of climate change on large-scale circulation patterns across the northern hemisphere.
The rainfall amount of 2024 would have been considered a notably wet year if compared to much of the 19th and 20th centuries. However, last year was drier than a cluster of relatively wet years that have occurred since the late 1990s.
The timeseries below, which tracks annual sunshine in the UK over 1910-2024, highlights some of the vagaries of the UK’s climate.
The plot shows how 2024 was a relatively dull year for the UK, receiving the lowest hours of bright sunshine since 1998. However, this is against a backdrop of a longer-term trend of increasing sunshine in the UK, which has been especially notable since the 1980s. Sunshine amounts in winter and spring have seen the largest changes with 15-16% increases in the past decade, compared to the 1961-90 reference period.
These trends are driven by a combination of natural variability, changes in dominant circulation patterns, as well as possible human influence from increases and decreases in aerosol pollutants that influence cloud cover.
Regionally, exceptionally wet weather – particularly in February and September – resulted in parts of central and southern England having an extremely wet year overall.
Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire all saw their second-wettest year, while Dorset, Cheshire and Berkshire had their third wettest and Hertfordshire and Shropshire their fifth wettest.
The year was in the top-10 wettest for a further 10 counties and in the upper third for a majority of regions. However, parts of east Scotland and Northern Ireland had slightly below-average rainfall for the year.
Map showing the ranking by county of annual rainfall in 2024. The counties shaded darkest blue had one of their top five wettest years in a series from 1836. No counties had their overall wettest year. Credit: Met Office
Weather through the year
Temperature
The chart below shows average UK temperature through the year, with orange highlighting periods that were warmer than average and blue showing cooler than average.
There were numerous spells of warm conditions (relative to the time of year), particularly in January, February, May and December. Overall, 60% of the year (220 days) was warmer than average and 40% (146 days) was cooler. A total of 13% (49 days) was above the 95th percentile (that is, in the top 5% warmest for the time of year). Cold snaps were not common and relatively short-lived, with only 3% (12 days) below the 5th percentile (that is, in the top 5% of coldest days for the time of year).
The highest maximum temperature of the year was 34.8C, recorded in Cambridge on 12 August during a relatively short hot spell in an otherwise unremarkable summer. The lowest minimum temperature of the year was -14.0C, recorded at Dalwhinnie in the Scottish Highlands on 17 January.
Extremes in temperature have increased at a much faster rate than the average, and the annual maximum temperature in 2024 – which would have once been an occasional event – is now much more common.
There were only nine years in the 20th century where the maximum temperature of the year in the climate archive exceeds the 2024 value (34.8C), but there are already eight years in the 21st century that have done so. Six of those have been in the last 10 years.
Rainfall
The two plots below show the accumulation of rain day-by-day through the course of the year, averaged across Scotland and for England and Wales combined.
The blue-shaded regions highlight periods when total rainfall was above average for the time of year and the orange-shaded regions times when it was below. For example, the first chart shows that Scotland had reached around 500mm by early April, which is close to average for that point in the year. (This equates roughly to a volume of water that could fill Loch Ness five times over).
In Scotland, total rainfall was close to average for much of the year. August was notably wet – the third wettest on record for western Scotland region – but this was offset by a dry autumn. A wet December, particularly for northern Scotland, brought the overall rainfall accumulation for 2024 close to average.
In contrast, rainfall in England remained well-above average for most of the year, leading to the year being the 8th wettest on record for the nation.
England saw its fourth-wettest February, followed by a wet March. In southern England, February saw well over 200% of average rainfall, dipping slightly to nearly 180% in March. Accumulated rainfall was further boosted by exceptional rain in September, which saw some regions recording more than 300% of average rainfall.
Storms
The Met Office has been naming storms – in collaboration with the Irish weather service, Met Eireann – since 2015. The Dutch weather service, KNMI, joined the initiative in 2019.
The 2023-24 storm season had a very active start with seven named storms occurring from September to December 2023. This continued into early 2024 with Henk, Isha and Jocelyn occurring in January.
The winter half-year from October 2023 to March 2024 was the wettest on record for both England and Wales, including in the long-running England and Wales Precipitation series (EWP), which dates back to 1766.
An attribution study – bringing together scientists from the UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden and Germany – looked into the impact of climate change on the autumn-winter storm season, which ran from October 2023 to March 2024. It found that the average rainfall on stormy days has increased by about 20% due to human-caused climate change. This echoes wider studies and climate projections that suggest UK winters are likely to become wetter due to climate change.
An analysis of the intensity of storms based on wind speed in the study found that a stormy season was slightly less likely because of climate change. However, other studies, using other methods, have suggested an increase in storminess is likely in a future climate. The diverging findings highlight how uncertainty remains about the response of storm systems affecting the UK in a changing climate, and underscores the need for ongoing research on this topic.
Two red warnings for wind were issued in 2024. These were for storm Isha in January, which affected north-east Scotland and storm Darragh in December, which affected west Wales. The two wind storms were the UK’s most powerful since storm Eunice in February 2022.
| Storm name | Date/s of impact in UK | Maximum wind gust | Number of observing sites recording wind gusts over 50 knots |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-2024 names | |||
| Henk | 2 January | 82 knots (94 mph), Needles, Isle of Wight | 37 |
| Isha | 21-22 January | 86 knots (99 mph), Brizlee Wood, Northumberland | 92 |
| Jocelyn | 23-24 January | 84 knots (97 mph) Capel Curig, Gwynedd | 50 |
| Kathleen | 6-7 April | 66 knots (76 mph), Loch Glascarnoch, Ross&Cromarty | 30 |
| Lilian | 22-23 August | 64 knots (74 mph), Capel Curig, Gwynedd | 16 |
| 2024-2025 names |
|||
| Ashley | 20-21 October | 71 knots (82 mph) Aberdaron, Gwynedd | 46 |
| Bert | 22-25 November | 71 knots (82 mph) Capel Curig, Gwynedd | 32 |
| Conall | 27 November | 51 knots (59 mph) Needles, Isle of Wight | 1 |
| Darragh | 6-7 December | 83 knots (96 mph) Berry Head, Devon | 58 |
Overall, the average wind speed in 2024 was close to, but slightly below, the 1991-2020 average, while being the highest since 2020. This aligns with a long-term decline in the average wind speed for the UK since 1969, shown in the chart below.
This long-term trend should be interpreted with some caution as it is possible that non-climatic factors – such as changes in instrumentation and exposure of the observing network through time – influences these trends. However, the decline is consistent with a widespread global slowdown termed “global stilling”.
More recently, global and UK data have shown that, since 2010, the decline in the average wind speed has stopped or even reversed.
Winter
The climatological UK winter spans the calendar months of December, January and February. Winter 2023-24 was mild and the fifth warmest on record for the UK. For England and Wales combined it was the second warmest on record.
The year commenced with some significant flooding impacts from storm Henk, which brought damaging winds and heavy rain to central and southern England and Wales on 2 January. The rain fell on already saturated ground, leading to flood warnings. High pressure became more established from mid-January, bringing a spell of cooler and drier conditions. The month concluded with storms Isha and Jocelyn in quick succession.
On 28 January, exceptionally high temperatures for the time of year were recorded in parts of north-west Scotland, reaching 19.9C at Achfary and 19.6C at Kinlochewe, surpassing both stations’ previous record of 18.3C by a large margin. There was a marked contrast between cooler and more moist conditions on the windward side of the highlands, and warmer, drier conditions on the leeward side.
This is the classic consequence of the Foehn effect, which can result in remarkably unseasonable temperatures locally due to the air losing moisture as it passes up and over the higher ground, resulting in warmer drier conditions when it descends.
Map showing temperature anomaly for 28 January 2024, relative to 1991-2020. Credit: Met Office.
The Foehn effect was the primary driver of January’s exceptional temperatures. However, it is worth acknowledging that global warming has led to high temperature records across all seasons in recent years. New maximum temperature records were set for January in 2024, February in 2019, July in 2022, October in 2011, November in 2015 and December in 2019.
In other words, new temperature records have been set for six of the 12 months of the year since 2011. Conversely, no months have set new lowest minimum records.
It was the warmest February on record for both England and Wales, and the second warmest for the UK overall. The years 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024 also had warm Februaries which ranked in the top 10 warmest on record.
Meanwhile, the south of England has its wettest February on record, and England its fourth wettest. This resulted in widespread disruption, particularly to transport, due to flooding and landslips.
Overall, it was the eighth-wettest winter for the UK, continuing a trend of wetter winters consistent with climate projections that indicate that human-caused climate change will drive a shift to wetter winters.
Spring
The year 2024 saw the warmest May, and spring, on record for the UK.
It was also the sixth wettest spring on record, after a succession of low-pressure systems brought rain to much of the country, with the exception of north-west Scotland, which was drier than average.
The preponderance of wet weather contributed to considerable surprise – and in some cases disbelief – of the extent to which May broke its all-time temperature record. The possible disconnect between the recorded temperatures and perception of the conditions was also due to extreme daily minimum temperatures occurring overnight. An exceptionally warm month in spring does not necessarily mean a month of fine and dry weather.
A Met Office analysis of the May 2024 event demonstrated that a significant contributing factor to the high temperatures was from a marine heatwave affecting the waters around the UK for the whole of May and early June. Although the UK was under cloudy skies for much of May, clearer skies coupled with weak winds and wave conditions over the North Sea contributed to very high sea temperatures.
In addition to the contribution from the marine heatwave, a Met Office attribution analysis also found that human-induced climate change made the May average temperature between six and 14 times more likely than it would have been in a pre-industrial climate. The chart below shows how the likelihood of temperatures at or exceeding May 2024 are lower in a natural – or pre-industrial – climate compared to one impacted by human activities.
Chart showing the distribution of UK May mean temperature for simulations with human and natural forcings (ALL, in orange) and equivalent but with natural only forcings (NAT, blue). Credit: Met Office
Summer
The summer was arguably rather disappointing for many, with warm spells generally being short-lived and the season being cooler than average overall, and the coolest summer since 2015.
Although July was wetter than average for parts of the country, both June and August were relatively dry for most. Western Scotland and parts of north-west England were the exception and were notably wet in August, with some areas receiving more than 200% of average rainfall for the month. It was the third-wettest August on record for western Scotland.
A short hot spell across central and southern England on 11-12 August saw the highest temperature of the year, of 34.8C in Cambridge. This was followed – as is often the case in the breakdown of summer heat events – with an outbreak of thunderstorms. These particularly affected northern and western parts of the UK.
Storm Lilian in late August resulted in high winds and rain with significant disruption to road, rail and power supply across northern England. Storm Lilian means that the 2023-24 season has had the most named storms since the naming system was launched 10 years ago.
The storm naming system is designed for raising awareness of the potential of risk to life and property from extreme storms. The decision to name considers both the severity of the storm and also its likelihood to cause impacts. For example, a storm system passing over heavily populated regions coinciding with rush hour in the summer months when trees are in full leaf can carry higher risks than a storm of the same wind severity passing through overnight in winter.
Storm naming criteria and the partners involved have evolved over time. For these reasons the number of named storms over time cannot itself be used as an indicator of change.
Autumn and December
Autumn continued the rainy theme. A succession of low-pressure systems throughout September resulted in some exceptional rainfall for southern and central England, with more than 300% of average rainfall observed across a wide region.
It was the seventh-wettest September for England and the wettest September on record for 10 counties in central and southern England. For Bedfordshire and Oxfordshire, September was the wettest calendar month the counties have experienced in a series dating back to 1836. Meanwhile, the Oxford Radcliffe meteorological station recorded its wettest month since September 1774.
Map showing the percentage of average rainfall that fell in September 2024. The purple regions highlight those areas that had in excess of 300% of average. White areas were close to average and brown regions drier than average. Credit: Met Office
The remainder of autumn saw the first named storms for the 2024-25 season: Ashley in October and Bert and Conall in November. Storm Bert brought heavy rain and snow.
The day of 21 November saw the most significant November snow event since 2010, with lying snow as far south as Devon and Cornwall. This was one of the coldest spells of weather in the year, although lower temperatures were recorded during the January cold snap earlier that year. The spell was short-lived and conditions were much milder again throughout December. It was the fifth-warmest December in a series dating back to 1884.
December was also notable for a red weather warning issued for storm Darragh for west Wales and the Bristol Channel, with extreme wind gusts along exposed coastal and upland areas. Some of the strongest winds were from an unusual northerly direction, likely influencing the number of fallen trees. A number of fatalities were reported and more than 2 million people were left without power during the storm.
The weather of the UK within any single year is diverse and at times surprising, and 2024 was no different. Where records have been broken, they have been for exceptionally high temperatures and high rainfall totals. This is another reminder that climate change is already having an impact on the UK’s weather, shifting the probabilities to make high temperature extremes and records increasingly likely to be broken and re-broken.
The drivers of rainfall records are more complex, but climate projections have consistently pointed to a general pattern of wetter winters, drier summers and more intense rainfall when it occurs. It is therefore vital to continue to monitor the indicators of change both globally and in the UK, in order to better understand what changes can be expected in the future, and how to respond to climate-related risks.
The post Met Office: A review of the UK’s climate in 2024 appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Climate Change
DeBriefed 3 July 2026: US faces scorching Independence Day | Record ocean temperatures | Vietnam’s EV surge
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
This week
Heating up
NOT FREE FROM HEAT: “Dangerous, record-breaking” heat altered plans for 4 July celebrations across the US this weekend, reported the Associated Press. New York and Boston hit 100F (37.8C) on Thursday, said the newswire. CNBC reported that temperatures of up to 105F (40.5C) are forecast in central and eastern parts of the country, with “daily, monthly and all-time records possible”.
TEMPERATURES SOAR: Heat that hit western Europe last week spread east to “scorch” Germany, Hungary, Romania, Poland and others, said Bloomberg. Red warnings for extreme heat were issued in a number of nations, noted the outlet, adding that the heat “underscores how climate change is transforming summers in the world’s fastest-warming continent”. The Independent said last month was confirmed to be England’s hottest June on record.
HEAT DEATHS: June’s extreme temperatures caused more than 2,000 excess deaths in Spain and France, reported the Guardian. The countries are bracing for further heat that “could bring temperatures of 44C (111F) over the coming days”, said the newspaper. Deaths in France rose almost 30% at the heatwave “peak” on the week of 22 June, according to Le Monde. Last week’s conditions also led to around 480 excess deaths in the Netherlands, reported Reuters.
BOILING: Global ocean temperatures reached record levels for this time of year, reported NBC News, “fuelling fears of more dangerous heatwaves this summer and fanning concerns over the escalating global climate crisis”. Scientists told the Financial Times that this could lead the world towards “uncharted territory”. The newspaper said global average sea surface temperatures reached 20.96C on 21 June, exceeding June records for 2023 and 2024.
Around the world
- GOAL DROPPED: The World Bank will “abandon” its goal to devote 45% of annual lending resources to climate-related projects, reported Reuters. Carbon Brief explored what it could mean for global climate action.
- FIVE-YEAR PLAN: China plans to invest more than 20tn yuan ($2.9tn) in “key energy projects and new business models” over the next five years, according to International Energy Net.
- DRILLING: The Guardian said UK Labour politicians “urged” the likely next prime minister Andy Burnham to ignore “deluded” calls to develop the Rosebank oil field located in the Atlantic north of Scotland.
- PLASTIC TALKS: Countries and activists feared key issues could be sidelined at “critical” talks on a global treaty to curb plastic pollution in Kenya, said Climate Home News. A treaty could have “important implications” for climate change, reported Carbon Brief in 2024.
- CANADA PIPELINE: Canadian prime minister Mark Carney announced plans to build an oil pipeline to supply Asia with up to 1m barrels per day, reported the Financial Times. Earlier this week, Carney called the previous government’s climate plans “expensive” and “divisive”, said CBC News.
63
The number of UK newspaper editorials calling for more oil and gas extraction in the North Sea so far in 2026, according to Carbon Brief analysis.
Latest climate research
- Including emissions from permafrost thaw raises the likelihood of the Arctic becoming a net-carbon source by more than 50% at 2C of warming | Earth System Dynamics
- Net-zero scenarios relying less on carbon dioxide removals lead to fewer residual emissions, which offers greater health improvements for “non-white and low-income groups” in particular | Nature Climate Change
- Agricultural plots of land in sub-Saharan Africa owned by women face heat impacts 2-2.5 times higher than those owned by men | Nature Sustainability
(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
Captured
Wind and solar were the world’s largest source of new energy in 2025, according to Carbon Brief analysis of the latest Energy Institute statistical review of world energy. Wind and solar also saw the fastest growth, up by 18% in 2025. Nevertheless, every source of energy – including coal, oil, gas, nuclear and hydro – also reached global all-time highs last year.
Spotlight
Vietnam’s EV surge
Carbon Brief explores the reasons behind soaring electric-vehicle sales in Vietnam.
Motorbikes are a constant fixture on streets across Vietnam. They pollute the air in cities and make crossing the road a feat of endurance.
But, increasingly, people are moving away from petrol-powered vehicles to save money and reduce air pollution.
Sales of electric motorbikes, scooters and mopeds more than doubled in Vietnam last year, according to a recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
This identified that Vietnam has the largest electric vehicle (EV) market in south-east Asia.
Nearly one-in-five of the two-wheeled vehicles sold last year were electric, it noted, in a nation with 102 million people and 77m motorbikes.
This is “particularly impactful” given they are the main mode of transport in Vietnam, said Lam Pham, Asia energy analyst at thinktank Ember. He told Carbon Brief:
“Electrifying road transport is essential for Vietnam to achieve its net-zero target by 2050. Road transport accounted for around 86% of transport-sector emissions in 2022.”
The nation has just 6.8m cars, but this number is also climbing, partly due to EVs, with nearly 40% of new car sales being electric.
This is “above levels seen in most European countries”, noted the IEA. (The UK’s figure is around 30%.)
EV incentives
Fuel costs surged in south-east Asian countries earlier this year after the energy crisis caused by the US-Israel war on Iran.
This “accelerated” discussions from “why use EVs” to “why keep paying more for fuel”, said Dr Tham Nguyen, a lecturer at the Ho Chi Minh City campus of Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, who has researched Vietnamese public attitudes to EVs.
But the surge is “not driven by fuel prices alone”, noted Pham.
Increased EV sales can also be attributed to a “convergence of affordability, convenience and sustainability”, Nguyen said:
“Vietnamese consumers buy EVs because they see real value with immediate personal benefits, such as cost savings and energy security, alongside long-term environmental gains.”
Government policies have also incentivised sales through registration fee exemptions and tax cuts for EVs.
Another factor is affordable EVs sold by Chinese companies and Vinfast, a Vietnamese manufacturer. The IEA report noted that Vietnam is the only country in south-east Asia with “sizeable” domestic production of accessible EVs.
Vinfast reported a 219% year-on-year increase in orders for electric motorbikes and e-bikes in the first quarter of 2026, but the company has yet to turn a profit.
Pham noted that “growing public awareness of air pollution” has also “dramatically strengthened” public support for EVs.
Future plans
Vietnam’s major cities also have plans to get drivers to go electric or turn to public transport.
The capital city Hanoi announced that it would ban fossil-fuel-powered motorbikes from a central zone this month, but this has been postponed until 2028.
Ho Chi Minh City, the nation’s largest city with more than 9.5 million people, intends to introduce low-emission zones and swap 400,000 petrol-powered motorbikes to electric by 2028.
The city’s green transport plans focus on metro lines, electric buses and e-bikes, explained RMIT associate professor Catherine Earl. She noted that walking and cycling are currently “not popular, accessible or safe for many residents in Ho Chi Minh City’s hot and humid climate”.
Looking ahead, Pham said Vietnam could focus on “purchase subsidies, financing schemes and adequate charging or battery-swapping infrastructure, to ensure lower-income riders, including delivery and ride-hailing drivers, are not negatively affected”.
Watch, read, listen
‘JUST 1%’ OF EMISSIONS: The Guardian debunked arguments that climate actions from smaller countries are “insignificant”.
DRILLING RISKS: Mongabay reported on the possible impacts oil drilling in the Amazon could have on a “little-known reef”.
HEATING UP: The BBC Climate Question podcast discussed the weather pattern El Niño and its links to climate change.
Coming up
- 7-10 July: AI for good global summit, Geneva, Switzerland
- 7-15 July: UN high-level political forum on sustainable development, New York
- 8-10 July: Ninth meeting of the board of the fund for responding to loss and damage, Manila, Philippines
Pick of the jobs
- Green Alliance, senior partnerships officer | Salary: £42,748-£47,346. Location: London
- World Vision, environment and climate action senior adviser | Salary: Unknown. Location: Kenya
- Nature Energy, interim associate or senior editor | Salary: Unknown. Location: London or Milan
- Climate Analytics, senior communications manager – climate policy (maternity cover) | Salary €60,605-€66,880. Location: Berlin
- Carbon Exchange, researcher | Salary: Unknown. Location: Hong Kong
DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to debriefed@carbonbrief.org.
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The post DeBriefed 3 July 2026: US faces scorching Independence Day | Record ocean temperatures | Vietnam’s EV surge appeared first on Carbon Brief.
The World Bank has abandoned a target for 45% of the funding it gives developing countries to be “climate finance”, following months of pressure from the Trump administration in the US.
However, a concerted effort by developed- and developing-country shareholders has seen the bank hold onto its “action plan” for tackling climate change.
The multilateral development bank (MDB) – which is headquartered in Washington DC – is the single largest provider of climate finance globally, distributing $39.2bn in 2025 alone, primarily as loans.
Amid widespread aid cuts by developed countries, the World Bank and other MDBs have previously pledged to significantly scale up their climate finance over the next decade.
Despite scrapping its central target, the bank says it will continue to support the demands of its “clients”, many of which have explicitly stated their need for climate-related investment.
Here, Carbon Brief looks at the likely impact of the World Bank’s policy shift and whether it is – as one expert puts it – “mostly a symbolic victory” for the US.
- How does the World Bank support climate action?
- Why has the World Bank abandoned its climate-finance target?
- Why is the World Bank important for international climate finance?
- How will these changes affect global climate action?
How does the World Bank support climate action?
The World Bank is the oldest and largest MDB. It is tasked by its 189 member governments – the bank’s shareholders – with supporting development projects around the world.
The US is the bank’s largest shareholder, followed, in order, by Japan, China, Germany, France and the UK.
Every year, the bank provides billions of dollars – predominantly as loans – to developing countries.
(One part of the World Bank, the International Development Association – IDA – specifically distributes grants to lower-income nations, as well as lower-interest loans.)
Through its financing, the World Bank also has an important role in “mobilising” private investments in developing countries.
In recent years, the bank has increasingly focused on helping developing countries to cut emissions and adapt their economies for climate change.
The World Bank provided $164bn in what it calls financing with climate “co-benefits” between 2020 and 2025.
The largest share of this funding – roughly one-fifth – went to clean energy and electricity access projects. Smaller shares went to areas such as public transport, water supply and sustainable farming.
As the map below shows, the largest recipients of the bank’s climate funds since 2020 have been emerging economies, such as Turkey ($10.3bn), India ($9bn) and Nigeria ($6.3bn).
Among the largest World Bank projects in recent years are two extensive programmes in India, totalling nearly $3bn, supporting renewables and green hydrogen.
Others include $1.7bn for a Pakistan hydropower project, $926m for Iraq’s railways and $803m to boost “green development” in Colombia.
Despite the bank’s major role in providing climate finance to developing countries, it has faced heavy scrutiny from climate advocates.
In particular, they have noted the dominance of loans that push developing countries further into debt. The World Bank has also been criticised for a lack of transparency around how it classifies projects as “climate-related”, as well as “over-reporting” of climate finance.
Why has the World Bank abandoned its climate-finance target?
When World Bank president Ajay Banga – nominated by former US president Joe Biden – took over the institution in 2023, there were widespread calls for MDB reform.
Many of the bank’s shareholders wanted to see billions more dollars being channelled to support climate action. Later that year, Banga announced that the bank would ensure that 45% of the bank’s funding was climate finance by 2025.
This replaced an existing target of 35% for climate finance between 2021 and 2025, which had been set out in the bank’s second climate change action plan (CCAP).
The CCAP is intended to “mainstream” climate action in the bank’s work. With it in place, the World Bank’s climate finance more than doubled from $17.2bn in 2020 to $39.2bn in 2025.
As the chart below shows, this meant the World Bank exceeded its 2025 goal, with climate-related projects making up a 48% share of total funding that year.
When Biden was replaced by Donald Trump as president in 2025, the US administration turned against international cooperation, including climate finance.
However, the US did not walk away from the World Bank, where it exerts considerable power as the largest shareholder.
With the CCAP due to expire in July 2026, the US has spent months pressuring the bank and its shareholders to weaken or abandon the plan altogether.
US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent issued a statement during the 2026 World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) spring meetings in April 2026, in which he called for “jettisoning” the 45% climate-finance target. More broadly, he said:
“We welcome the coming expiration of the CCAP and…expect the bank to immediately shift its myopic focus on climate and financing volumes to one that emphasises high-quality, durable projects.”
This vision involves a push for the World Bank to finance more fossil-fuel projects, including drilling for new gas. (The bank has committed since 2019 to stop funding upstream oil and gas projects.)
The decision on whether to continue with the CCAP was negotiated behind closed doors by the board of directors – representing national shareholders. There were reports of “deep divides”.
A joint statement from 19 of the 25 directors last year affirmed the need for both a plan and a target. The US, Russia, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia all declined to sign up, while Japan and India abstained, according to Reuters.
There were reports of European nations championing a climate plan, bolstered by support from the developing countries that would stand to receive climate finance. The US call to drop the 45% target entirely was reportedly backed by Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Ultimately, the day before the CCAP was due to lapse, the World Bank announced what appeared to be a middle ground. It would drop both the 45% target and the 35% goal it had replaced, while also “extend[ing]” the CCAP.
UK development minister Jenny Chapman told a committee hearing in the House of Commons the next day that this marked a “compromise”. She said:
“It wasn’t clear we were going to get a CCAP at all and a bank without an action plan on climate is a problem for us – so that’s a good outcome.”
Supportive shareholders had been pushing for a one-year extension of the plan. While the World Bank did not initially define the length, Chapman confirmed on LinkedIn that the plan had, in fact, been extended “indefinitely”.
The bank said it would also engage an “independent evaluation group” to assess the CCAP, in line with a board request.
Gaia Larsen, director of climate finance at the World Resources Institute (WRI), tells Carbon Brief that this evaluation will likely be “relatively free from political ideology” and could be “focused on how to make the CCAP more effective”.
Why is the World Bank important for international climate finance?
Under the Paris Agreement, developed countries – including major World Bank shareholders in Europe and elsewhere – are obliged to provide climate finance for developing countries.
This includes a target of $300bn a year by 2035, which is expected to largely come from developed countries. One significant way these nations can contribute to this goal is via their support for MDBs, particularly the World Bank.
The World Bank has described itself as “by far the largest provider of climate finance to developing countries”. Each year, it oversees half of all climate finance from MDBs and far more than any single donor country.
Many developed countries have, therefore, enthusiastically backed the World Bank’s climate efforts, as well as a “bigger” role for MDBs in development more broadly. The bank can lend sums that far exceed the amount of new public finance that individual nations are willing to commit.
This is particularly significant, given many of these nations, including the UK, Germany and France, have announced large cuts to their aid budgets in recent years.
Carbon Brief analysis suggests that roughly a fifth of the international climate finance provided and “mobilised” by developed countries in recent years can be attributed to their World Bank contributions, as the chart below shows.
(This only accounts for the World Bank financing that can be linked to developed-country shares in the bank. Developing countries, such as China, also have significant shares, which are not included in the chart below.)
MDBs – including the World Bank – have committed to providing $120bn in climate finance to developing countries by 2030.
This was set to come from greater shareholder contributions, combined with a programme of reforms to free up capital.
If the World Bank continued to provide half of the MDB total, it would need to increase its climate finance by around 50%, from $39.2bn today to $60bn in 2030.
Therefore, experts see a “key” role for the World Bank in achieving not only the $300bn target, but also the more aspirational $1.3n target that countries agreed as part of the “new collective quantified goal” (NCQG) on climate finance at COP29 in 2024. This includes the private capital it could “unlock” through its lending.
Joe Thwaites, international climate finance director at Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), tells Carbon Brief that these “NCQG politics” are “quite important”. He says:
“The maths of the $300bn does not work if the MDBs pull back and so I think that’s why you’re seeing developed countries taking a stand.”
How will these changes affect global climate action?
To date, the World Bank has only released minimal details about its new climate plans. As such, experts say the impact on future climate finance remains uncertain.
Jon Sward, environment project manager at the Bretton Woods Project, tells Carbon Brief:
“They have said they are going to retain all the same processes about climate-finance reporting. So, of course, there is a world in which, actually, climate finance continues to increase like it has been.”
Some of the World Bank’s internal organisations will, in fact, keep their climate-finance goals for the time being. For example, the IDA’s largely grant-based funding retains a 45% target for its current round, which will last until 2028 – the year of the next US presidential election.
However, WRI’s Larsen tells Carbon Brief that the changes, from a bank that was previously a “champion for climate action”, remain significant:
“This reality, reinforced by the elimination of the 45% goal, means that it would not be surprising to see a reduction in climate investments.”
In a statement, the World Bank said its “work on climate is and will remain firmly client driven”, noting that it supports nations undertaking their Paris Agreement climate plans.
Therefore, its climate focus may come down to whether there is demand for climate action from “client” countries receiving finance.
At an April event in discussion with the climate sceptic Bjørn Lomborg, Bessent said that global financial institutions should focus on growth, characterising climate action as an “elite belief”.
The implication from the US Treasury secretary was that recipient countries are not interested in climate action. However, as reported by Devex, a group of World Bank shareholders representing nearly 100 developing countries, wrote a letter that appeared to push back against this framing.
This “G11+” group, led by Brazil and China, said the bank “must remain firmly client-driven”, noting that countries are “following nationally determined pathways toward climate action”. NRDC’s Thwaites tells Carbon Brief:
“It’s one thing for the Europeans to talk about climate…This was the client countries [100 developing countries] saying: ‘No, we want this.’”
Recent research by the ODI thinktank found that 79% of developing-country officials polled wanted to see MDB investment in solar projects, 54% wanted hydropower and 47% wanted wind power. Only 13% wanted investment in gas-power plants.
Rishikesh Ram Bhandary, a senior development researcher at Boston University, has stressed the need for an “enhanced CCAP”, which could be supported by the bank’s new independent evaluation. Among other things, he tells Carbon Brief:
“The bank needs to make a more convincing case about how climate change is being integrated into development priorities rather than competing with them.”
Thwaites says he is hopeful that the outcome is “mostly a symbolic victory for the US”.
However, he says major shareholders from Europe and elsewhere should make it clear to the bank that it is not “the only game in town” when it comes to climate finance. He says:
“If [the World Bank] are going to cave into one shareholder, when the vast majority of the other shareholders are supportive of continuing climate action, they can take their money elsewhere.”
The post Q&A: How will the World Bank’s abandoned finance goal affect climate action? appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Q&A: How will the World Bank’s abandoned finance goal affect climate action?
Rich Wilson is CEO of the Iswe Foundation and co-founder of the Global Citizens’ Assembly.
The numbers are stark. According to the 2026 Global Report on Food Crises, 266 million people across 47 countries experienced high levels of acute food insecurity last year, nearly double the figure recorded a decade ago.
Meanwhile, disruptions to oil, gas and fertiliser flows through the Strait of Hormuz drove a 46% month-on-month spike in urea prices early this year, sending agricultural price indices up 8% and raising the spectre of a global affordability crisis.
This is not a blip. It is a new baseline. The EAT-Lancet Commission concluded that food systems now account for roughly 30% of total greenhouse gas emissions and are the largest single contributor to the climate crisis. The science has been clear for years.
Now some of the solutions to the problem are becoming socially acceptable too.
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Earlier this year, people from more than 60 countries and territories, selected not by vested interest, but by lottery, spent seven weeks examining the evidence on food and climate for the latest Global Citizens’ Assembly. They heard from scientists, farmers and industry. They worked through 42 hours of structured deliberation, engaging with some difficult trade-offs.
They were not asked to endorse a predetermined conclusion. They were asked an open question: what changes, if any, should we make to how we grow, share and eat food, so that everyone has enough to nourish themselves while tackling the causes and impacts of climate change?
Phase down industrial animal farming
Their answer was unambiguous. They voted to protect forests. They voted to phase down industrial animal food production. They voted for supply chain reform and corporate accountability, explicitly rejecting the idea that the burden of change should fall on individual consumers. All 22 of their Calls to Action passed with over 85% support, a super-majority of randomly selected people from every region of the world, in agreement.
Consider what the assembly was actually being asked to decide. Industrial animal food production is the primary driver of tropical deforestation. Protecting more land as forest and ecosystem means less land available for the expansion of industrial production. That is a real trade-off, with real consequences for real livelihoods. Politicians have spent years avoiding it.
These randomly selected people looked at the evidence, deliberated across time zones and cultures, and chose the forests, with 64% in strong support and a further 20% in favour. People from livestock farming communities voted for change. Not because they were told to. Because deliberation led them there.
We estimate there have now been more than 7,000 citizen participation initiatives worldwide in the last decade. They have been organised because, as our 2025 report: People in the Lead demonstrated, people are now consistently and significantly ahead of politicians on issues ranging from climate to AI governance.
The people know best
What the research consistently shows is that ordinary people, given proper evidence and time, produce recommendations that are more effective and more aligned with public values than what emerges from elected legislatures. The gap in global governance is no longer primarily between science and the public. It is between citizens and their political leaders.
That gap matters for more than procedural reasons. When policy treats people as passive recipients rather than active participants, it leaves out the very actors whose behaviour, trust and consent the transition depends on. Institutions that speak only to other institutions, and negotiate only with state actors and industry lobbies, are missing out on the trust and energy of the people they are supposed to serve.
Governments, left to their own devices, are not moving fast enough to prove that argument wrong. At COP30 in Belém last November, countries failed to agree on a fossil fuel phaseout roadmap, and even full implementation of every submitted national climate plan still leaves the world on course for 2.3 to 2.8C of warming.
Citizens’ track at COP
But the Brazilian presidency grasped something important. Among the conference’s more significant outcomes was the formal launch of a Citizens’ Track within the UNFCCC process, a mechanism for connecting the global participation field to intergovernmental climate negotiations. Türkiye and Australia, who together hold the COP31 presidency in Antalya this November, now have the opportunity to strengthen and institutionalise what Brazil began.
In Guatemala, Indigenous women build climate resilience with old and new farming methods
The question before us is no longer whether citizens can contribute to solving these problems. Across the world, in local food networks, in community assemblies and in participatory planning processes, they already are, quietly generating more ambitious and more legitimate solutions than those emerging from formal diplomatic channels.
What is required now is the political courage to connect people to power. Not to consult citizens and file the results. Not to invite them to observe while the real decisions are made elsewhere. But to recognise the public as partners in perhaps the most consequential governance challenge of our time.
The post As food shocks spread, citizens are showing more leadership than governments appeared first on Climate Home News.
As food shocks spread, citizens are showing more leadership than governments
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