英国最后一座燃煤发电厂——诺丁汉郡的索尔河畔拉特克利夫火电厂（Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station）——于10月关闭，标志着英国142年燃煤发电时代的终结。
英国逐步淘汰煤电在国际上意义重大。它是首个实现这一里程碑的主要经济体，也是首个G7成员国。1882年，英国在伦敦霍尔本高架桥（Holborn Viaduct）上建成了世界上第一座燃煤发电厂。
Carbon Brief的分析显示，从1882年到索尔河畔拉特克利夫火电厂关闭，英国的燃煤电厂共燃烧了46亿吨煤炭，排放了104亿吨二氧化碳（CO2），这比大多数国家从所有来源产生的CO2都多。
英国对煤电的逐步淘汰，将有助于推动煤炭总需求达到17世纪以来的最低水平。
逐步淘汰建立在四个关键要素之上：替代电源的可用性、结束新煤炭产能建设、定价外部因素，以及明确和长期的政府政策。
随着英国致力于到2030年实现电力行业的完全脱碳，其在努力为气候行动建立另一个成功范例方面，既面临挑战，又面临机遇。
英国何时开始使用煤电？
长期以来，英国的资源禀赋就包括丰富的煤炭，但几个世纪以来煤炭的使用量一直很少。煤炭用于发电的时间要晚得多。
最早的蒸汽机从1700年左右开始使用。它通过燃煤将水从矿井中抽出，以便开采更深的煤矿。
这些蒸汽机的效率非常低，但詹姆斯·瓦特（James Watt）和乔治·史蒂文森（George Stevenson）等发明家对蒸汽机进行了改进，使煤的使用更加经济，也更广泛。
如下图所示，经历了上述过程，英国的煤炭使用量开始激增，为工业革命、大英帝国以及全球CO2排放量的激增提供了动力。
格拉斯哥大学（University of Glasgow）经济与社会史高级讲师、《煤炭之乡：战后苏格兰去工业化的意义和记忆》（Coal Country: The Meaning and Memory of Deindustrialization in Postwar Scotland）一书作者伊万·吉布斯（Ewan Gibbs）博士在接受Carbon Brief采访时说：“从英国工业革命的发展历程来看，煤炭对英国19世纪的工业经济发展绝对举足轻重。钢铁工业由煤炭提供动力。在18世纪晚期，当然也包括19世纪上半叶，英国成为了煤炭大国。这是世界上第一个以煤炭为动力的经济体。”
1810年，英国开始用煤生产城镇燃气以用于照明。从1830年开始，随着英国扩张其蜿蜒的铁路网，煤炭被用来提供燃料。
1882年，煤第一次被用来发电供公众使用。同年1月，世界上第一座燃煤发电厂在伦敦霍尔本高架桥开始运行。
除了工业能源之外，这些新用途（包括供热、照明和运输）推动了英国煤炭使用量的急剧上升。需求量从1800年的1490万吨增长到1900年的1.726亿吨，增长了十多倍。
在此期间，英国各地纷纷开设了小型燃煤发电厂。
到1920年，英国的燃煤发电量达到4TWh，满足了全国97%的电力需求，其中大部分来自工厂。
在整个20世纪上半叶，英国的煤炭使用量持续增长。到1956年英国煤炭使用量达到2.21亿吨的峰值时，燃煤发电量仍然只占需求量的一小部分。炼钢、工业、城镇燃气、家庭供热和铁路占据了主导地位。
在20世纪下半叶，除电力外，所有这些用途的煤炭使用量都急剧下降。
这一时期英国煤炭使用量下降的原因，包括北海天然气的出现和蒸汽铁路的终结，以及日益加剧的全球化和去工业化。
战后煤炭使用量下降的另一个关键因素是，到1950年代，煤炭燃烧对环境的影响已变得过于显著和危险，不容忽视。
1952年伦敦烟雾事件已知造成约4000人死亡，实际死亡人数可能更多。
为此，英国议会颁布了《1956年清洁空气法令》（1956 Clean Air Act）。这从法律层面禁止了“烟雾滋扰”或“黑烟”，并对新熔炉的排放设定了限制。1968年，有关排放的法律得到进一步加强。
在随后的几十年里，随着更便宜和清洁的替代能源开始取代煤炭，家庭用暖、铁路运输和工业用煤持续减少。
在这些年里，城市的小型燃煤电厂也逐渐转为靠近煤矿的农村大型发电厂。虽然英国也是核电的先驱，但直到1957年，煤炭在年发电量中的占比才首次降至90%以下。
1960至1964年间，中央电力局（Central Electricity Generating Board）公布了兴建10座燃煤电厂的计划，一批新燃煤电厂随之在1966年至1972年间投运。
这些项目的建设使煤电装机容量在1974年攀升至57.5吉瓦（GW）的历史峰值。几年后的1980年，燃煤发电量达到212TWh的峰值。
英国最后一个新建燃煤发电厂位于德拉克斯（Drax），该厂于1975年投运，当时的装机容量为2GW，但在1986年翻番至4GW。
英国是如何停止使用煤电的？
20世纪下半叶，《清洁空气法令》的实施、从使用城镇燃气转向北海天然气、去工业化和全球化等因素共同推动了煤炭使用的减少。
但如上所述，在这一时期的大部分时间里，煤电继续蓬勃发展，因为其他发电来源无法满足不断增长的用电需求。
因此，燃煤发电量直到1980年才达峰，在1990年仍保持在类似水平。
然后，在主宰英国电力供应长达一个世纪之后，煤炭在两个快速但截然不同的阶段逐步淘汰，其间有一个长达十多年的平稳期。
第一阶段是1990年代的“天然气热潮”（Dash for Gas）。第二阶段则经历了可再生能源的发展、能源效率的提高，以及让燃煤电厂为污染买单的政策。
从1950年代开始，核电厂和燃油发电厂的扩张已开始侵蚀煤炭在英国电力结构中的份额。尽管如此，在整个1960年代和1970年代，随着全国各地燃煤发电厂的兴建，燃煤发电量仍在持续增长。
这批发电厂包括英国最后一家在运的燃煤发电厂索尔河畔拉特克利夫火电厂，它于1968年由中央电力局核准。
虽然1960年代在北海发现了天然气，但多年来，人们一直忽视和限制大规模使用天然气发电。
然而，到1980年代末，随着人们对酸雨的担忧日益加剧，欧盟1988年通过了《大型燃烧设备指令》（Large Combustion Plant Directive），要求减少二氧化硫排放。煤电厂是主要的排放源，而抑制此类排放的减排技术大大增加了煤电厂的运行成本。
与此同时，“联合循环”（“combined cycle”，将燃气轮机和蒸汽轮机组合起来的一种发电方式）燃气轮机技术不断进步，天然气价格不断下降，使得天然气不仅更清洁，而且比煤炭更便宜。
在新私有化的电力行业随之发生的“天然气热潮”，推动燃煤发电量在十年间减少了近一半。燃煤发电量从1990年的200TWh（占总发电量的65%）下降到2000年略高于100TWh（占总发电量的32%），而同期天然气发电量则从几乎为零上升到近150TWh。
世纪之交之后，英国的煤电进入了一个停滞期。燃煤发电量随着天然气价格的起伏而上升、下降、再上升。
2000年，英国现已解散的皇家环境污染委员会（Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution）发表了一份关于能源和“不断变化的气候”的报告，呼吁政府采取“快速部署替代能源”来取代化石燃料等方法，到2050年将英国的温室气体排放量减少至2000年水平的60%。
到2003年能源白皮书发布时，“到2050年减排60%”的目标已成为政府政策。“可再生能源义务”也纳入了到2010年可再生能源发电量占比达到10%的目标。
不过，2003年的白皮书也为使用碳捕集与封存技术（CCS）的“清洁煤”敞开了大门。
在英国煤电进入逐步淘汰的第二阶段之前，有十年的平稳期。该时期见证了一系列新政策的出台、一场大规模抗议运动，以及电力需求出现了意想不到却显著的下降。
其中一项政策进展是2005年生效的欧盟排放交易体系（EUETS），这是世界上首个大型碳市场。该体系最初效果不佳，尤其是在2008年金融危机之后出现了碳价格暴跌，但该体系确立了污染发电厂应为其CO2排放买单的原则。
另一项值得注意的政策是2001年欧盟对《大型燃烧设备指令》进行了更新。该政策对发电厂的空气污染设置了更严格的限制，于2008年生效。
当时，英国的许多燃煤发电厂已经老旧，它们选择使用“克减条款”（豁免权），即如果只运行有限的几个小时，就可以继续运行到2015年，而无需投资污染控制设备。
虽然这决定了一大批老旧发电厂的命运，但当时，在英国新建燃煤发电厂仍在议事日程之上。
2007年底，“金斯诺斯六人组”（Kingsnorth six）活动人士爬上了肯特郡一家现有燃煤发电厂的烟囱，以抗议在该地新建发电厂的计划。2008年1月，当地议会批准了该计划，这使其成为英国24年来第一个新建燃煤电厂。
2008年10月，英国通过了《气候变化法案》（Climate Change Act），其中包括一项具有法律约束力的目标，即到2050年将温室气体排放量减少到比1990年低60%的水平。该目标后来被加强至降低80%，并在2019年再次修订，改为实现“净零”排放。
智库E3G的政策顾问肖恩·雷-罗奇（Sean Rai-Roche）告诉Carbon Brief，该法案是第一个由一个国家制定的具有法律约束力的气候目标，是英国发展历程中的“开创性时刻”，其中便包括逐步淘汰煤炭。
到2009年，时任能源和气候大臣、现任能源安全和净零排放国务大臣埃德·米利班德（Ed Miliband）宣布，英国将不会新建任何不配备碳捕集与封存技术的燃煤电厂。
米利班德当时表示：“新建未减排的煤炭（工厂）的时代已经结束。”
2010年，金斯诺斯（Kingsnorth）发电厂被正式取消，英国再也没有新建任何煤炭项目。随着老发电厂的退役，这为更早的淘汰煤电铺平了道路。
由于英国没有新建燃煤电厂，许多旧的煤电厂也将关闭，而非进行成本高昂的升级改造以满足更严苛的空气污染规定，因此，在替代能源出现后，煤电将进入淘汰的第二阶段。
2013年的《能源法案》通过一项排放性能标准（EPS），正式宣告了无减排措施的煤电项目的终结。该标准规定新建发电厂每千瓦时CO2排放量不得超过450克，这约为未减排煤炭排放量的一半。
智库“能源气候情报组织”（Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit）分析总监西蒙·克兰-麦克格里欣博士（Dr Simon Cran-McGreehin）告诉Carbon Brief，空气污染法规、碳捕集与封存技术的成本和碳定价的综合作用，使得目前的燃煤发电“缺乏竞争力”。
“持续的煤电根本不是一个选项，因为它的成本太高……甚至与天然气和核能相比都没有竞争力，更不用说新兴的可再生能源了。”他说。
2013年的《能源法案》恢复了一些新的核电计划，并扩大了对低碳发电的支持。可再生能源发电量在五年内翻了一番，从2013年的约50TWh增至2018年的110TWh。联合政府还在2013年引入了“碳价下限”，为电力行业的CO2排放增加了额外价格，使天然气比煤炭更受青睐。
Ember智库认为，这一额外的碳价格对英国的煤电产生了“重大影响”，并在随后几年里推动了发电量的急剧减少。
英国电力结构中煤电的占比从2012年的近40%，到2015年降至22%。
除了可再生能源的增长，英国煤电得以迅速淘汰的另一个因素，是自2005年以来电力需求的下降。
事实上，英国的电力需求在2018年已降至1994年以来的最低水平，相对于之前的趋势节省了约100TWh。
电力需求的下降得益于能效法规的实施、LED照明的普及和一些高耗能产业的离岸外包。
这一快速的转变使得在2015年，时任能源和气候变化大臣的安伯·拉德（Amber Rudd）宣布了到2025年实现逐步淘汰煤炭的目标。
2016年，在欧盟的《大型燃烧设备指令》导致最后一家发电厂关闭之后，煤电占年发电量的比例骤降至仅9%。
这一年也见证了自霍尔本高架桥发电厂于1882年投运以来，英国出现首个无煤电小时。随后，英国在2017年迎来了首个无煤电日，2019年迎来了首个无煤电周，2020年迎来了首个无煤电月。
在此之后，煤电淘汰目标在2021年被提前至2024年10月，2020年煤炭发电量仅在电力结构中占到1.8%。
如下图所示，在此期间，继续有燃煤发电厂被关闭。2023年底，英国倒数第二家燃煤发电厂——北爱尔兰的基尔鲁特（Kilroot）——停止了燃煤发电，仅剩下索尔河畔拉特克利夫火电厂。
该电厂于10月1日前关闭，这将结束英国长达142年的煤电历史。与多年来许多误导性的新闻标题相反，英国并没有因此出现停电。
值得注意的是，英国逐步淘汰煤电，以及关闭该国仅存的几个位于威尔士塔尔伯特港（Port Talbot）和林肯郡斯肯索普（Scunthorpe）的高炉，将有助于将2024年的总煤炭需求降至17世纪以来的最低水平。
Carbon Brief的分析显示，在这142年间，英国的燃煤发电厂总共消耗约46亿吨煤炭，产生104亿吨CO2。
如果把英国的燃煤发电厂比作一个国家，那么它们的化石燃料累计排放量将位居世界第28位。这意味着这些燃煤发电厂对当前气候变化的历史责任要大于阿根廷、越南、巴基斯坦或尼日利亚等国家。
英国现在从哪里获得电力？
如今，英国的电力系统与几十年前大不相同，可再生能源在发电组合中日益占据主导地位。
2023年，可再生能源创下新纪录，在全国电力供应的占比达到44%，高于2018年的31%和2010年的7%。Carbon Brief的分析显示，可再生能源今年的发电量将从2023年的约135TWh增加到150TWh以上。
相比之下，化石燃料发电仅占电力供应的三分之一，在电力结构中所占比例达到创纪录低的33%，其中煤电略高于1%。
这一略低于20%的降幅使化石燃料供应量降至104TWh，这是自1957年以来的最低水平，当时95%的电力供应来自煤炭。
下图显示了英国电力结构在一个世纪以来的变化。值得注意的是，虽然石油、核能和天然气都曾在压缩煤电方面发挥了重要作用，但可再生能源现在是（能源转型的）主力。
事实上，所有其他发电来源现在都在衰退：随着英国老化的反应堆即将寿终正寝，核电也在衰退；随着可再生能源的扩张，天然气和煤炭也在下降。
2024年，可再生能源在电力结构中所占的比例将继续增加，Carbon Brief对今年迄今为止的数据进行的分析表明，可再生能源将首次占到电力供应的50%左右。
英国电力的下一步是什么？
在成为第一个逐步淘汰煤炭发电的主要经济体后，英国寻求更进一步，到2030年前实现电力产业完全脱碳。
在保守党政府执政期间，英国的目标是到2035年实现电力部门完全脱碳。新的工党政府将这一目标提前到2030年。
与此同时，随着交通和供暖等行业日益电气化，电力行业将需要开始扩张，以满足这些行业的需求。
前气候变化委员会（CCC）首席执行官、现任政府2030年电力目标“任务控制”负责人克里斯·斯塔克（Chris Stark）于 9 月中旬在伦敦市中心的一次活动中表示，他认为这一目标“可能实现”，但“极具挑战性”。
据CCC称，到2035年，英国的电力需求预计将增长50%。
要满足这一增长需求，英国需要大幅增加可再生能源发电能力，并安全运转靠风能和太阳能发电为主的电网。要实现这一目标，还需要在六年内逐步淘汰未减排天然气发电。目前，天然气的发电占比约为22%。淘汰天然气的速度大约需要是淘汰煤炭速度——从2012年的39%降至2024年的0%——的两倍，如下图所示。
为了实现2030年目标和更广泛的英国气候目标，工党政府已承诺将陆上风电容量增加一倍，太阳能增加三倍，海上风电增加四倍。
政府的“差价合约”（“contracts for difference”）计划继续支持可再生能源的扩张。工党政府还支持新的核项目、碳捕集与封存技术和“天然气发电站战略储备”（“strategic reserve of gas power stations”），以保证电力供应安全。
其他国家可以从英国学到什么？
索尔河畔拉特克利夫火电厂的关闭标志着英国142年煤炭发电时代的结束。
除了象征意义之外，英国的煤炭淘汰在实质上也很重要，因为它表明快速摆脱煤炭发电是可能的。
1990年至2000年间，煤炭在英国发电中的份额减少了一半，随后，煤炭的占比从2012年的五分之二下降到2024年底的零。
这一进展暗示着其他国家——乃至全世界——有可能复制英国的成功，并在此过程中为气候行动做出重大贡献。
有四个关键因素促成了英国的淘汰：
- 建设替代性发电来源，且使其数量足以满足甚至超过电力需求增长。
- 停止建设新的燃煤电厂。
- 通过政策和法规让燃煤电厂承担其产生的空气污染和温室气体排放的成本。
- 发出明确的政治信号，让市场也参与其中。
随着英国开启电力行业的下一个重大挑战——到2030年实现清洁能源——它还可能为世界提供另一个成功的气候研究方案。
本文是一篇概要，点击此处阅读原文。
The post Q&A：英国如何成为首个淘汰煤电的G7国家 appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Greenhouse Gases
Analysis: Constituency of Reform’s climate-sceptic Richard Tice gets £55m flood funding
The Lincolnshire constituency held by Richard Tice, the climate-sceptic deputy leader of the hard-right Reform party, has been pledged at least £55m in government funding for flood defences since 2024.
This investment in Boston and Skegness is the second-largest sum for a single constituency from a £1.4bn flood-defence fund for England, Carbon Brief analysis shows.
Flooding is becoming more likely and more extreme in the UK due to climate change.
Yet, for years, governments have failed to spend enough on flood defences to protect people, properties and infrastructure.
The £1.4bn fund is part of the current Labour government’s wider pledge to invest a “record” £7.9bn over a decade on protecting hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses from flooding.
As MP for one of England’s most flood-prone regions, Tice has called for more investment in flood defences, stating that “we cannot afford to ‘surrender the fens’ to the sea”.
He is also one of Reform’s most vocal opponents of climate action and what he calls “net stupid zero”. He denies the scientific consensus on climate change and has claimed, falsely and without evidence, that scientists are “lying”.
Flood defences
Last year, the government said it would invest £2.65bn on flood and coastal erosion risk management (FCERM) schemes in England between April 2024 and March 2026.
This money was intended to protect 66,500 properties from flooding. It is part of a decade-long Labour government plan to spend more than £7.9bn on flood defences.
There has been a consistent shortfall in maintaining England’s flood defences, with the Environment Agency expecting to protect fewer properties by 2027 than it had initially planned.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has attributed this to rising costs, backlogs from previous governments and a lack of capacity. It also points to the strain from “more frequent and severe” weather events, such as storms in recent years that have been amplified by climate change.
However, the CCC also said last year that, if the 2024-26 spending programme is delivered, it would be “slightly closer to the track” of the Environment Agency targets out to 2027.
The government has released constituency-level data on which schemes in England it plans to fund, covering £1.4bn of the 2024-26 investment. The other half of the FCERM spending covers additional measures, from repairing existing defences to advising local authorities.
The map below shows the distribution of spending on FCERM schemes in England over the past two years, highlighting the constituency of Richard Tice.
By far the largest sum of money – £85.6m in total – has been committed to a tidal barrier and various other defences in the Somerset constituency of Bridgwater, the seat of Conservative MP Ashley Fox.
Over the first months of 2026, the south-west region has faced significant flooding and Fox has called for more support from the government, citing “climate patterns shifting and rainfall intensifying”.
He has also backed his party’s position that “the 2050 net-zero target is impossible” and called for more fossil-fuel extraction in the North Sea.
Tice’s east-coast constituency of Boston and Skegness, which is highly vulnerable to flooding from both rivers and the sea, is set to receive £55m. Among the supported projects are beach defences from Saltfleet to Gibraltar Point and upgrades to pumping stations.
Overall, Boston and Skegness has the second-largest portion of flood-defence funding, as the chart below shows. Constituencies with Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs occupied the other top positions.
Overall, despite Labour MPs occupying 347 out of England’s 543 constituencies – nearly two-thirds of the total – more than half of the flood-defence funding was distributed to constituencies with non-Labour MPs. This reflects the flood risk in coastal and rural areas that are not traditional Labour strongholds.
Reform funding
While Reform has just eight MPs, representing 1% of the population, its constituencies have been assigned 4% of the flood-defence funding for England.
Nearly all of this money was for Tice’s constituency, although party leader Nigel Farage’s coastal Clacton seat in Kent received £2m.
Reform UK is committed to “scrapping net-zero” and its leadership has expressed firmly climate-sceptic views.
Much has been made of the disconnect between the party’s climate policies and the threat climate change poses to its voters. Various analyses have shown the flood risk in Reform-dominated areas, particularly Lincolnshire.
Tice has rejected climate science, advocated for fossil-fuel production and criticised Environment Agency flood-defence activities. Yet, he has also called for more investment in flood defences, stating that “we cannot afford to ‘surrender the fens’ to the sea”.
This may reflect Tice’s broader approach to climate change. In a 2024 interview with LBC, he said:
“Where you’ve got concerns about sea level defences and sea level rise, guess what? A bit of steel, a bit of cement, some aggregate…and you build some concrete sea level defences. That’s how you deal with rising sea levels.”
While climate adaptation is viewed as vital in a warming world, there are limits on how much societies can adapt and adaptation costs will continue to increase as emissions rise.
The post Analysis: Constituency of Reform’s climate-sceptic Richard Tice gets £55m flood funding appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Analysis: Constituency of Reform’s climate-sceptic Richard Tice gets £55m flood funding
Greenhouse Gases
Cropped 25 February 2026: Food inflation strikes | El Niño looms | Biodiversity talks stagnate
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
Food inflation on the rise
DELUGE STRIKES FOOD: Extreme rainfall and flooding across the Mediterranean and north Africa has “battered the winter growing regions that feed Europe…threatening food price rises”, reported the Financial Times. Western France has “endured more than 36 days of continuous rain”, while farmers’ associations in Spain’s Andalusia estimate that “20% of all production has been lost”, it added. Policy expert David Barmes told the paper that the “latest storms were part of a wider pattern of climate shocks feeding into food price inflation”.
-
Sign up to Carbon Brief’s free “Cropped” email newsletter. A fortnightly digest of food, land and nature news and views. Sent to your inbox every other Wednesday.
NO BEEF: The UK’s beef farmers, meanwhile, “face a double blow” from climate change as “relentless rain forces them to keep cows indoors”, while last summer’s drought hit hay supplies, said another Financial Times article. At the same time, indoor growers in south England described a 60% increase in electricity standing charges as a “ticking timebomb” that could “force them to raise their prices or stop production, which will further fuel food price inflation”, wrote the Guardian.
‘TINDERBOX’ AND TARIFFS: A study, covered by the Guardian, warned that major extreme weather and other “shocks” could “spark social unrest and even food riots in the UK”. Experts cited “chronic” vulnerabilities, including climate change, low incomes, poor farming policy and “fragile” supply chains that have made the UK’s food system a “tinderbox”. A New York Times explainer noted that while trade could once guard against food supply shocks, barriers such as tariffs and export controls – which are being “increasingly” used by politicians – “can shut off that safety valve”.
El Niño looms
NEW ENSO INDEX: Researchers have developed a new index for calculating El Niño, the large-scale climate pattern that influences global weather and causes “billions in damages by bringing floods to some regions and drought to others”, reported CNN. It added that climate change is making it more difficult for scientists to observe El Niño patterns by warming up the entire ocean. The outlet said that with the new metric, “scientists can now see it earlier and our long-range weather forecasts will be improved for it.”
WARMING WARNING: Meanwhile, the US Climate Prediction Center announced that there is a 60% chance of the current La Niña conditions shifting towards a neutral state over the next few months, with an El Niño likely to follow in late spring, according to Reuters. The Vibes, a Malaysian news outlet, quoted a climate scientist saying: “If the El Niño does materialise, it could possibly push 2026 or 2027 as the warmest year on record, replacing 2024.”
CROP IMPACTS: Reuters noted that neutral conditions lead to “more stable weather and potentially better crop yields”. However, the newswire added, an El Niño state would mean “worsening drought conditions and issues for the next growing season” to Australia. El Niño also “typically brings a poor south-west monsoon to India, including droughts”, reported the Hindu’s Business Line. A 2024 guest post for Carbon Brief explained that El Niño is linked to crop failure in south-eastern Africa and south-east Asia.
News and views
- DAM-AG-ES: Several South Korean farmers filed a lawsuit against the country’s state-owned utility company, “seek[ing] financial compensation for climate-related agricultural damages”, reported United Press International. Meanwhile, a national climate change assessment for the Philippines found that the country “lost up to $219bn in agricultural damages from typhoons, floods and droughts” over 2000-10, according to Eco-Business.
- SCORCHED GRASS: South Africa’s Western Cape province is experiencing “one of the worst droughts in living memory”, which is “scorching grass and killing livestock”, said Reuters. The newswire wrote: “In 2015, a drought almost dried up the taps in the city; farmers say this one has been even more brutal than a decade ago.”
- NOUVELLE VEG: New guidelines published under France’s national food, nutrition and climate strategy “urged” citizens to “limit” their meat consumption, reported Euronews. The delayed strategy comes a month after the US government “upended decades of recommendations by touting consumption of red meat and full-fat dairy”, it noted.
- COURTING DISASTER: India’s top green court accepted the findings of a committee that “found no flaws” in greenlighting the Great Nicobar project that “will lead to the felling of a million trees” and translocating corals, reported Mongabay. The court found “no good ground to interfere”, despite “threats to a globally unique biodiversity hotspot” and Indigenous tribes at risk of displacement by the project, wrote Frontline.
- FISH FALLING: A new study found that fish biomass is “falling by 7.2% from as little as 0.1C of warming per decade”, noted the Guardian. While experts also pointed to the role of overfishing in marine life loss, marine ecologist and study lead author Dr Shahar Chaikin told the outlet: “Our research proves exactly what that biological cost [of warming] looks like underwater.”
- TOO HOT FOR COFFEE: According to new analysis by Climate Central, countries where coffee beans are grown “are becoming too hot to cultivate them”, reported the Guardian. The world’s top five coffee-growing countries faced “57 additional days of coffee-harming heat” annually because of climate change, it added.
Spotlight
Nature talks inch forward
This week, Carbon Brief covers the latest round of negotiations under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which occurred in Rome over 16-19 February.
The penultimate set of biodiversity negotiations before October’s Conference of the Parties ended in Rome last week, leaving plenty of unfinished business.
The CBD’s subsidiary body on implementation (SBI) met in the Italian capital for four days to discuss a range of issues, including biodiversity finance and reviewing progress towards the nature targets agreed under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).
However, many of the major sticking points – particularly around finance – will have to wait until later this summer, leaving some observers worried about the capacity for delegates to get through a packed agenda at COP17.
The SBI, along with the subsidiary body on scientific, technical and technological advice (SBSTTA) will both meet in Nairobi, Kenya, later this summer for a final round of talks before COP17 kicks off in Yerevan, Armenia, on 19 October.
Money talks
Finance for nature has long been a sticking point at negotiations under the CBD.
Discussions on a new fund for biodiversity derailed biodiversity talks in Cali, Colombia, in autumn 2024, requiring resumed talks a few months later.
Despite this, finance was barely on the agenda at the SBI meetings in Rome. Delegates discussed three studies on the relationship between debt sustainability and implementation of nature plans, but the more substantive talks are set to take place at the next SBI meeting in Nairobi.
Several parties “highlighted concerns with the imbalance of work” on finance between these SBI talks and the next ones, reported Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB).
Lim Li Ching, senior researcher at Third World Network, noted that tensions around finance permeated every aspect of the talks. She told Carbon Brief:
“If you’re talking about the gender plan of action – if there’s little or no financial resources provided to actually put it into practice and implement it, then it’s [just] paper, right? Same with the reporting requirements and obligations.”
Monitoring and reporting
Closely linked to the issue of finance is the obligations of parties to report on their progress towards the goals and targets of the GBF.
Parties do so through the submission of national reports.
Several parties at the talks pointed to a lack of timely funding for driving delays in their reporting, according to ENB.
A note released by the CBD Secretariat in December said that no parties had submitted their national reports yet; by the time of the SBI meetings, only the EU had. It further noted that just 58 parties had submitted their national biodiversity plans, which were initially meant to be published by COP16, in October 2024.
Linda Krueger, director of biodiversity and infrastructure policy at the environmental not-for-profit Nature Conservancy, told Carbon Brief that despite the sparse submissions, parties are “very focused on the national report preparation”. She added:
“Everybody wants to be able to show that we’re on the path and that there still is a pathway to getting to 2030 that’s positive and largely in the right direction.”
Watch, read, listen
NET LOSS: Nigeria’s marine life is being “threatened” by “ghost gear” – nets and other fishing equipment discarded in the ocean – said Dialogue Earth.
COMEBACK CAUSALITY: A Vox long-read looked at whether Costa Rica’s “payments for ecosystem services” programme helped the country turn a corner on deforestation.
HOMEGROWN GOALS: A Straits Times podcast discussed whether import-dependent Singapore can afford to shelve its goal to produce 30% of its food locally by 2030.
‘RUSTING’ RIVERS: The Financial Times took a closer look at a “strange new force blighting the [Arctic] landscape”: rivers turning rust-orange due to global warming.
New science
- Lakes in the Congo Basin’s peatlands are releasing carbon that is thousands of years old | Nature Geoscience
- Natural non-forest ecosystems – such as grasslands and marshlands – were converted for agriculture at four times the rate of land with tree cover between 2005 and 2020 | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Around one-quarter of global tree-cover loss over 2001-22 was driven by cropland expansion, pastures and forest plantations for commodity production | Nature Food
In the diary
- 2-6 March: UN Food and Agriculture Organization regional conference for Latin America and Caribbean | Brasília
- 5 March: Nepal general elections
- 9-20 March: First part of the thirty-first session of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) | Kingston, Jamaica
Cropped is researched and written by Dr Giuliana Viglione, Aruna Chandrasekhar, Daisy Dunne, Orla Dwyer and Yanine Quiroz.
Please send tips and feedback to cropped@carbonbrief.org
The post Cropped 25 February 2026: Food inflation strikes | El Niño looms | Biodiversity talks stagnate appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Cropped 25 February 2026: Food inflation strikes | El Niño looms | Biodiversity talks stagnate
Rising temperatures across France since the mid-1970s is putting Tour de France competitors at “high risk”, according to new research.
The study, published in Scientific Reports, uses 50 years of climate data to calculate the potential heat stress that athletes have been exposed to across a dozen different locations during the world-famous cycling race.
The researchers find that both the severity and frequency of high-heat-stress events have increased across France over recent decades.
But, despite record-setting heatwaves in France, the heat-stress threshold for safe competition has rarely been breached in any particular city on the day the Tour passed through.
(This threshold was set out by cycling’s international governing body in 2024.)
However, the researchers add it is “only a question of time” until this occurs as average temperatures in France continue to rise.
The lead author of the study tells Carbon Brief that, while the race organisers have been fortunate to avoid major heat stress on race days so far, it will be “harder and harder to be lucky” as extreme heat becomes more common.
‘Iconic’
The Tour de France is one of the world’s most storied cycling races and the oldest of Europe’s three major multi-week cycling competitions, or Grand Tours.
Riders cover around 3,500 kilometres (km) of distance and gain up to nearly 55km of altitude over 21 stages, with only two or three rest days throughout the gruelling race.
The researchers selected the Tour de France because it is the “iconic bike race. It is the bike race of bike races,” says Dr Ivana Cvijanovic, a climate scientist at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development, who led the new work.
Heat has become a growing problem for the competition in recent years.
In 2022, Alexis Vuillermoz, a French competitor, collapsed at the finish line of the Tour’s ninth stage, leaving in an ambulance and subsequently pulling out of the race entirely.
Two years later, British cyclist Sir Mark Cavendish vomited on his bike during the first stage of the race after struggling with the 36C heat.
The Tour also makes a good case study because it is almost entirely held during the month of July and, while the route itself changes, there are many cities and stages that are repeated from year to year, Cvijanovic adds.
‘Have to be lucky’
The study focuses on the 50-year span between 1974 and 2023.
The researchers select six locations across the country that have commonly hosted the Tour, from the mountain pass of Col du Tourmalet, in the French Pyrenees, to the city of Paris – where the race finishes, along the Champs-Élysées.
These sites represent a broad range of climatic zones: Alpe d’ Huez, Bourdeaux, Col du Tourmalet, Nîmes, Paris and Toulouse.
For each location, they use meteorological reanalysis data from ERA5 and radiant temperature data from ERA5-HEAT to calculate the “wet-bulb globe temperature” (WBGT) for multiple times of day across the month of July each year.
WBGT is a heat-stress index that takes into account temperature, humidity, wind speed and direct sunlight.
Although there is “no exact scientific consensus” on the best heat-stress index to use, WBGT is “one of the rare indicators that has been originally developed based on the actual human response to heat”, Cvijanovic explains.
It is also the one that the International Cycling Union (UCI) – the world governing body for sport cycling – uses to assess risk. A WBGT of 28C or higher is classified as “high risk” by the group.
WBGT is the “gold standard” for assessing heat stress, says Dr Jessica Murfree, director of the ACCESS Research Laboratory and assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Murfree, who was not involved in the new study, adds that the researchers are “doing the right things by conducting their science in alignment with the business practices that are already happening”.
The researchers find that across the 50-year time period, WBGT has been increasing across the entire country – albeit, at different rates. In the north-west of the country, WBGT has increased at an average rate of 0.1C per decade, while in the southern and eastern parts of the country, it has increased by more than 0.5C per decade.
The maps below show the maximum July WBGT for each decade of the analysis (rows) and for hourly increments of the late afternoon (columns). Lower temperatures are shown in lighter greens and yellows, while higher temperatures are shown in darker reds and purples.
Six Tour de France locations analysed in the study are shown as triangles on the maps (clockwise from top): Paris, Alpe d’ Huez, Nîmes, Toulouse, Col du Tourmalet and Bordeaux.
The maps show that the maximum WBGT temperature in the afternoon has surpassed 28C over almost the entire country in the last decade. The notable exceptions to this are the mountainous regions of the Alps and the Pyrenees.
The researchers also find that most of the country has crossed the 28C WBGT threshold – which they describe as “dangerous heat levels” – on at least one July day over the past decade. However, by looking at the WBGT on the day the Tour passed through any of these six locations, they find that the threshold has rarely been breached during the race itself.
For example, the research notes that, since 1974, Paris has seen a WBGT of 28C five times at 3pm in July – but that these events have “so far” not coincided with the cycling race.
The study states that it is “fortunate” that the Tour has so far avoided the worst of the heat-stress.
Cvijanovic says the organisers and competitors have been “lucky” to date. She adds:
“It has worked really well for them so far. But as the frequency of these [extreme heat] events is increasing, it will be harder and harder to be lucky.”
Dr Madeleine Orr, an assistant professor of sport ecology at the University of Toronto who was not involved in the study, tells Carbon Brief that the paper was “really well done”, noting that its “methods are good [and its] approach was sound”. She adds:
“[The Tour has] had athletes complain about [the heat]. They’ve had athletes collapse – and still those aren’t the worst conditions. I think that that says a lot about what we consider safe. They’ve still been lucky to not see what unsafe looks like, despite [the heat] having already had impacts.”
Heat safety protocols
In 2024, the UCI set out its first-ever high temperature protocol – a set of guidelines for race organisers to assess athletes’ risk of heat stress.
The assessment places the potential risk into one of five categories based on the WBGT, ranging from very low to high risk.
The protocol then sets out suggested actions to take in the event of extreme heat, ranging from having athletes complete their warm-ups using ice vests and cold towels to increasing the number of support vehicles providing water and ice.
If the WBGT climbs above the 28C mark, the protocol suggests that organisers modify the start time of the stage, adapt the course to remove particularly hazardous sections – or even cancel the race entirely.
However, Orr notes that many other parts of the race, such as spectator comfort and equipment functioning, may have lower temperatures thresholds that are not accounted for in the protocol, but should also be considered.
Murfree points out that the study’s findings – and the heat protocol itself – are “really focused on adaptation, rather than mitigation”. While this is “to be expected”, she tells Carbon Brief:
“Moving to earlier start times or adjusting the route specifically to avoid these locations that score higher in heat stress doesn’t stop the heat stress. These aren’t climate preventative measures. That, I think, would be a much more difficult conversation to have in the research because of the Tour de France’s intimate relationship with fossil-fuel companies.”
The post Dangerous heat for Tour de France riders only a ‘question of time’ appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Dangerous heat for Tour de France riders only a ‘question of time’
-
Greenhouse Gases7 months ago
Guest post: Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop
-
Climate Change7 months ago
Guest post: Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop
-
Greenhouse Gases2 years ago嘉宾来稿：满足中国增长的用电需求 光伏加储能“比新建煤电更实惠”
-
Climate Change2 years ago
Bill Discounting Climate Change in Florida’s Energy Policy Awaits DeSantis’ Approval
-
Climate Change2 years ago
Spanish-language misinformation on renewable energy spreads online, report shows
-
Climate Change2 years ago嘉宾来稿：满足中国增长的用电需求 光伏加储能“比新建煤电更实惠”
-
Climate Change Videos2 years ago
The toxic gas flares fuelling Nigeria’s climate change – BBC News
-
Carbon Footprint2 years agoUS SEC’s Climate Disclosure Rules Spur Renewed Interest in Carbon Credits