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Washington CCL Statement on Climate Auction Relief (CAR) Fund Proposal in Washington State Legislature

WASHINGTON STATE, Dec. 9, 2023 – Citizens’ Climate Lobby has long proposed that fees on carbon emissions be rebated to American families on a per-capita basis. We call this “carbon cashback.” While the “CAR Fund” proposal by Rep. April Connors (R-Kennewick) proposes to rebate only a portion of the carbon fee proceeds, and only to Washingtonians with a registered vehicle (vs. all Washingtonians), Washington State Citizens’ Climate Lobby (WA CCL) still believes that this is a good step toward addressing concerns about high gas prices. The proposed rebates will be more meaningful to working class Washingtonians experiencing higher gas prices but who have to drive to work, school or to visit and care for family members. WA CCL thanks Rep. Connors for bringing forth this innovative proposal while also expressing support for the emission reduction goals of the Climate Commitment Act that we all share.

Background

In 2021, the Washington Legislature passed the Climate Commitment Act. The Act caps greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from major emitters in WA State and provides for quarterly auctions of GHG emission allowances. The Climate Commitment Act (CCA) is a major step forward on addressing the damaging impact of climate change in our state. Washington State Citizens’ Climate Lobby strongly supports the State’s policy established in the CCA to place a price on carbon emissions, set at quarterly auctions, as one of the most effective ways to unleash innovation across Washington on how best to reduce emissions to meet critical targets in 2030 and 2050 to reduce the impact of climate change on the state.

Because activities that emit carbon are so deeply embedded in our economy, placing a price on carbon will have an impact on prices throughout the economy. The CCA addresses this by directing the proceeds from the auctions to programs that help mitigate these increased costs, especially on frontline communities in the state. For example, the CCA funds $35 million to the Energy Utility Bill Assistance program and $80 million to the Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates Program.

One area not directly addressed by plans for distributing CCA funds is the effect of the carbon price on the price of gasoline. For a variety of reasons, most of which are not related to the CCA auctions, gasoline prices have risen rapidly in WA during 2023.  The price of gasoline is unique in that it is highly visible — it is displayed on large lighted message boards on street corners across the state. Increasing the price is effectively a regressive tax on Washingtonians, since those least able to pay but who need to drive to jobs, school, or to care for family members are affected the most. It also is unclear to many Washington consumers why gas prices have increased, creating an opening for those who oppose the goals of the CCA to unfairly blame it for the entire amount of the rise. Since we are still in year one of auctions, Washingtonians don’t yet clearly see how the collected funds are being used, increasing the political opening for opponents of CCA.

The first quarterly auction of carbon credits was held in February 2023 and raised far more revenue than expected. In total, the 2023 auctions have brought in about $1.5 billion in revenue as of November 2023, versus $574 million projected by the state — and the revenue from the fourth auction on December 6 is still yet to be officially announced. While no one knows what auction prices will be in 2024 and beyond, the “cap” on emissions declines over time so it is reasonable to expect that the price per ton of emissions will increase, further increasing revenue to the state.

Rep. April Connors (R-Kennewick) plans to introduce a bill in the upcoming 2024 legislative session that would send all “extra” carbon auction funds back to Washington drivers as a check. Here’s how it would work:

    • Registered vehicle owners would receive a $100 check — or up to $200 per family with two or more registered vehicles — next July. There would be no strings attached.
    • After the July payment, Washingtonians would receive an annual check when they renew their car tabs.
    • The check amount would vary depending on how much the state collects above what was forecasted to be collected in 2021 when the CCA was enacted. 
    • Individuals would be limited to one check, and everyone would receive the same amount, regardless of how little or how much they drive, or what the amount of their car tab renewal fees are.

“Citizens’ Climate Lobby has long proposed that fees on carbon emissions be rebated to American families on a per-capita basis,” said Steven Ghan, leader of the Tri-Cities chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby. “The modeling on this shows that economically disadvantaged Americans are helped more by this policy than those in the top part of the income distribution. The rebate proposed here isn’t exactly the same. It proposes to rebate only a portion of the carbon fee proceeds, and only to Washingtonians with a registered vehicle, not all Washingtonians. Nevertheless, we think this is a good step toward addressing concerns about high gas prices. The proposed rebates will be more meaningful to working class Washingtonians experiencing higher gas prices but who have to drive to work, school or to visit and care for family members. I especially want to thank my own representative, Rep. Connors, for bringing forth this innovative proposal while also expressing support for the emission reduction goals of the Climate Commitment Act that we all share.”

Citizens’ Climate Lobby understands that any proposed legislation goes through a process of comment and modification during the session, and we would like the following to be considered as positive changes in the proposal:

    • The impact of higher prices on Washingtonians without a registered vehicle be addressed by directing a portion of the excess auction funds to the Working Families Tax Credit program or other ways to support frontline communities.
    • Washington should pass pro-transparency and anti-price gouging legislation similar to the California Gas Price Gouging and Transparency Law. Oil corporations consistently report some of their highest profit margins in the country in Washington. For example, in December 2022 (before the launch of the Climate Commitment Act), the Seattle metro area was the second most profitable in the country, with a steep fuel profit margin of $1.09 per gallon. This is many times more than the same companies are making in other regions. ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron and TotalEnergies made record-breaking annual profits globally in 2022 and posted their highest-ever Q1 net profits in 2023. 
    • Establish an easily accessible and understandable dashboard showing how CCA auction funds are being disbursed. California has such a dashboard at https://www.caclimateinvestments.ca.gov/cci-data-dashboard 

For more information, contact: 

    • Mike Kelly, mikekelly@msn.com, 425-894-1208 – Co-State Coordinator, Washington Citizens’ Climate Lobby
    • Ellie Gittelman, egittelman@comcast.net, 206-300-8457 – Co-State Coordinator, Washington Citizens’ Climate Lobby
    • Steven Ghan, steven.ghan@gmail.com, Group Leader, Tri-Cities Citizens’ Climate Lobby

Background Links

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Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy climate change organization focused on national policies to address the national and global climate crisis.

Our consistently respectful, nonpartisan approach to climate education is designed to create a broad, sustainable foundation to drive climate action across all geographic regions and political inclinations. By building upon shared values rather than partisan divides, and empowering our supporters to work in keeping with the concerns of their local communities, we work towards the adoption of fair, effective, and sustainable climate change solutions.

We train and support volunteers to build relationships with elected officials, the media and their local community.

Our volunteers include everyone from high school students to concerned grandparents, engineers in the natural gas industry, house painters, farmers, and everyone in between. Some are PhDs who have spent careers researching the intricacies of climate change; others are concerned citizens who just want to know how to help. Whatever our backgrounds, we’re all united by a commitment to making our voices heard as we call for action for a healthy climate.

CCL volunteers are organized into hundreds of local chapters across the U.S. and internationally, including a dozen here in Washington State. These chapters build political support for climate action with a variety of tools, which they use in keeping with their local culture and politics. By focusing on shared values rather than partisan divides, we build relationships with community leaders, local and state elected officials and with Congress, always starting from a place of respect and appreciation.

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Washington CCL Statement on Climate Auction Relief (CAR) Fund Proposal

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CCC: England’s approach to climate adaptation is ‘not working’

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The “vast majority” of the UK government’s plans to prepare for climate hazards have made virtually no progress over the past two years, according to the Climate Change Committee (CCC).

In that time, the world has experienced the hottest year on record, while England has seen its wettest ever 18-month stretch between 2022 and 2024.

(Climate adaptation – outside of some issues such as defence – is mostly a devolved matter, with separate plans in place from the administrations for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.)

The previous government introduced a new adaptation strategy for England in 2023, covering plans for rising temperatures and more extreme weather in the country.

However, in its latest analysis of the government’s progress, the CCC states that the current approach to adaptation in England is “not working” and requires “urgent strengthening”.

The government is failing to make “good” progress in adapting to climate change on any of the 46 outcomes measured by the committee, ranging from better healthcare during heatwaves to preparing financial institutions for climate risk.

The report marks the latest in a series of appraisals by the CCC that have repeatedly identified large gaps in the nation’s adaptation efforts.

This time, with a relatively new Labour government that has said it will act on adaptation, the committee says its report “must serve as the turning point”.

But the CCC also says it is “seriously concerned” that the government will cut funding for adaptation, ultimately leading to much higher future costs as temperatures continue to rise.

Climate adaptation is ‘vital’

There is “unequivocal evidence” that climate change is already making extreme weather in the UK “more likely and more extreme”, the CCC says.

The report lays out major risks facing the country, noting that the number of properties at risk from flooding is set to increase from 6.3m today to 8m by 2050. Roads and railways at risk from flooding could increase from a third of the total length to half over the same timeframe.

At least 59% of top-quality farmland is already at risk from flooding, the report says, adding that this could also increase over the coming decades.

Meanwhile, annual heat-related deaths could increase “several times over” to pass 10,000 in an average year by 2050, the CCC says.

It also cites an Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) report from 2024 that concludes the UK’s GDP could be around 3% lower by 2074, even under the Paris Agreement’s “below 2C” goal. It says this could increase to 5% in a “below 3C” scenario, according to the OBR.

High-quality climate adaptation is therefore “vital to ensure that these risks are managed most efficiently and at least cost”, according to the committee. Otherwise, government policy could “lock in” risks or even make them worse.

The CCC reports on adaptation progress in England every two years, as required under the 2008 Climate Change Act. These reports have consistently highlighted adaptation as an issue that has been “underfunded and ignored” by successive governments.

There have been a few major developments since the committee’s last report.

Notably, the previous Conservative government launched its third national adaptation programme (NAP3), which is the cornerstone of the nation’s adaptation policy, in summer 2023. (NAP3 covers adaptation policy in England, as well as non-devolved issues that affect the whole UK, such as defence.)

In a highly critical initial appraisal of the programme, the CCC concluded that it fell “far short of what is needed” and “must be strengthened”. NAP3 has also faced an ultimately unsuccessful legal challenge from activists, arguing that it breached people’s human rights.

Another big development since the committee’s last report is Labour winning the general election in 2024. The CCC acknowledges that the new government “inherited a NAP that fell short of the task”, but says it finds “little evidence of a change of course”.

What progress has been made?

The report looks at both the “policies and plans” underpinning climate adaptation, as well as the actual “delivery and implementation” of those plans. It states:

“Whilst there is some evidence of policies and plans improving [since 2023], it is clear that NAP3 has been ineffective in driving the critical shift towards effective delivery of adaptation.”

The CCC assesses the planning and delivery of 46 outcomes from adaptation policy across five overarching themes. It scores them using roughly the same monitoring framework used in its last report in 2023.

It notes that 11 policies and plans have improved over the past two years, including a new adaptation strategy from the Ministry of Justice and a green finance strategy.

Over the same period, it says four have gotten worse, among them investment in flood protection projects, as plans no longer align with their stated objectives”.

The lack of significant improvement between 2023 and 2025, based on the CCC’s scoring system, can be seen in the chart below.

Climate adaptation outcome scores for “policies and plans”, assigned by the CCC in its progress report.
Climate adaptation outcome scores for “policies and plans”, assigned by the CCC in its progress report. This chart compares the 2023 CCC report, which is based on an assessment of 45 outcomes, with the 2025 report, which uses the same outcomes plus one extra, bringing the total to 46. Source: Carbon Brief analysis of CCC adaptation progress reports from 2023 and 2025.

As for the government actually delivering on its plans, the CCC says the “vast majority of our outcomes have received the same score as in 2023, most at low levels”.

The small number of improvements mainly relate to the latest round of implementation of the “adaptation reporting power”, which allows the government to ask infrastructure providers to disclose how they deal with climate risks.

The chart below, which compares the scores given to different adaptation outcomes between 2023 and 2025, demonstrates the lack of progress in the intervening years.

The CCC concludes that none of the outcomes could be classified as making “good” progress, in terms of delivery. Only four of them saw improvements over this period.

It highlights the water supply as an area where there has been backsliding over the past two years, noting that “continued slow rate of leakage reduction is now clearly inconsistent with meeting the sector’s targets”.

Climate adaptation outcome scores for “delivery and implementation”,  assigned by the CCC in its progress report.
Climate adaptation outcome scores for “delivery and implementation”, assigned by the CCC in its progress report. This chart compares the 2023 CCC report, which is based on an assessment of 45 outcomes, with the 2025 report, which uses the same outcomes plus one extra, bringing the total to 46. The 2023 report used the category “mixed” instead of “limited” or “partial”, both of which are used in 2025. Source: Carbon Brief analysis of CCC adaptation progress reports from 2023 and 2025.

The CCC also points out that “tracking progress on adaptation remains challenging due to limited national-scale, up-to-date and relevant data”.

While there has been an improvement since 2023, nine of the 46 assessed outcomes for England still lacked enough evidence to assess progress, the report says.

These include important areas such as the impact of climate change on food supplies and the vulnerability of telecommunications and information and communication technology (ICT) assets.

In addition, ahead of NAP3, the CCC recommended – as part of its 2023 progress report – a list of 89 actions to close what it viewed as “policy gaps in government’s adaptation planning”.

It suggested that these could be dealt with either in NAP3 itself, or as part of other policy programmes.

However, only four of these recommendations have been achieved, with a further 14 seeing “partial progress”.

The report highlights food security, community preparedness and buildings as some of the areas where the government did not follow through on its recommendations.

What does the CCC recommend?

The CCC’s report echoes previous advice that, despite some improvements in NAP3 on previous efforts, the nation’s climate adaptation strategy needs an overhaul:

“The UK’s current approach to adaptation policy making is not working. Adaptation is not the cross-government priority that it needs to be, which is holding back delivery.”

NAP3 covers a five-year period from 2023 to 2028. With the latest report coming at a halfway point in this cycle, the committee says it “must serve as the turning point” for the government on climate adaptation.

As part of the “urgent strengthening” suggested in the report, the committee sets out key areas that it says should be improved.

“Adaptation” can mean different things in different contexts. The CCC stresses the need for a set of “specific and measurable sectoral targets” that can be used to guide progress, with clarity on how to monitor them and who is responsible.

The government has signalled its intention to strengthen adaptation objectives. The committee says that such objectives “must” be developed as a priority, no later than the end of 2025.

The CCC report highlights the “data gaps” that need to be closed, with “monitoring and evaluation…still not treated with sufficient urgency”. It says the government should direct relevant agencies to collect data on climate risks and the delivery of adaptation measures.

Adaptation is a topic that affects every area of government, from healthcare to education. Yet the CCC highlights that there is not enough coordination of activities between departments and says this should be improved.

In order to carry out adaptation policies, the CCC also stresses that the government “needs to ensure sufficient funding is available” as it undertakes its spending review. Baroness Brown, chair of the CCC’s adaptation committee, told journalists in a press briefing:

“We are seriously concerned that resilience and climate adaptation may be cut in the spending review. [The] government needs to recognise that this is not a future problem, this is today’s problem…I know the government is under a lot of pressure to make cuts, but this isn’t the easy one.”

Given the cost of future climate risk, the committee stresses that ignoring adaptation would not, ultimately, save money. In fact, acting early would “minimise the overall costs of tackling climate change”, it explains.

In the press briefing, CCC chief executive Emma Pinchbeck emphasised the “real need” for the government to think about the future when implementing key policies, such as home-building programmes and other major infrastructure developments.

“If you think about potential waste in terms of investment into the NHS, if we then have to retrofit hospitals to make them cooler,” she said, as an example.

How prepared are different sectors for climate change?

The CCC progress report looks at specific outcomes broken down across five broad sectors.

Within these, it highlights key problems and makes specific recommendations for each area.

Land, nature and food

The CCC highlights various “foundational” strategies covering farming and land that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is expected to publish in the coming months, including the land-use framework and the food strategy.

Delays in publishing such documents have “hampered” adaptation progress. However, the report highlights them as opportunities to set out clear objectives and responsibilities for the sector.

As it stands, important issues such as boosting climate-resilient farming and protecting food supply chains are rated “insufficient” for both government planning and implementation.

The CCC highlights the relatively new “environmental land management schemes” (Elms), which constitute England’s successor to the EU’s farm payments policy.

The report says these schemes lack guidance for climate adaptation, adding that the government should provide “certainty” about how much farmers will be paid for such measures.

As for the fishing industry, the report has downgraded its climate-adaptation plans, noting that they “no longer look credible”. It says the government’s marine strategy, published earlier this year, “does not include any specific or targeted adaptation actions”.

Infrastructure

According to the CCC, when the government publishes its 10-year infrastructure strategy, it should set out “clear resilience standards” for new infrastructure projects.

It also notes that major funding packages – for new roads and electricity networks, for example – should include incentives to fund climate adaptation.

Two out of the three adaptation policies that are scored as “good” are in the infrastructure sector, namely the plans for maintaining reliability in the road and rail networks.

Despite this, actual progress in improving transport resilience is largely “stagnant”, the committee says. It highlights increased flooding on railways and an increased number of roads deemed “susceptible” to flooding.

This is also the sector that has seen the most improvement in terms of delivery and implementation. The water, energy, telecommunications and transport sectors are all described as improving the identification and management of “interdependencies”.

This refers to better evidence of links between different sectors, which is being unveiled via adaptation reporting power. Notably, none of the sectors that have seen improvements are rated as “good”, indicating they still have work to do in this area.

Built environment and communities

Flooding is highlighted as the key risk facing many communities around England.

While the Environment Agency-led flood defence programme has been successful, “its budget in real terms is shrinking as risks are escalating, meaning delivery is falling short of targets and the condition of flood defence assets is declining”, according to the CCC.

The government’s investment programme needs “long-term” targets for cutting the risk posed by floods and coastal erosion, supported by sufficient funds, the report concludes.

It also recommends a “long-term cross-sector plan to manage future heat risk and drive joined-up action”.

The CCC is currently unable to track many of the important measures around heat risk, such as how many buildings are overheating, due to a lack of data.

Overall, none of the efforts to implement better protections for homes and communities have seen any positive change since 2023, despite this being a record period of heat and flooding.

Health and wellbeing

The CCC notes that there are only “limited” policies and plans in place to protect population health and healthcare delivery in the face of escalating climate hazards.

Extreme heat is the main risk identified in this context. As it stands, there are long-term, increasing trends of heat-associated deaths and overheating in hospital settings, the committee says.

In this context, the report recommends that the government develop an “improved climate and public health adaptation plan” that builds on the existing adverse weather and health plan.

Also, as part of the government’s decade-long plan to improve the NHS, the CCC says any upgrades must “make it more resilient to climate extremes today and in the future”.

Economy

The committee says that while businesses can take action to protect their own affairs from climate change, “barriers remain” and adaptation finance “remains nascent”.

It therefore highlights an important role for the government in removing these barriers, providing high-quality information and “correcting market failures”.

The report recommends setting up a portal for adaptation-related data that can be accessed by companies.

It also says the government should ensure that the UK’s sustainable disclosure requirements incorporate “adaptation-related disclosure”, to better prepare the private sector for climate risks.

The CCC also points out that an adaptation finance “deliverables and action plan”, promised for 2024, has not been produced. Among other things, this plan should lay out ways to “mobilise” private investment into adaptation projects, it adds.

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CCC: England’s approach to climate adaptation is ‘not working’

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DeBriefed 25 April 2025: Brazil calls for country emissions plans; Global coral bleaching; Where top pope contenders stand on climate

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Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed. 
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.

This week

Push for new climate targets

MISSED DEADLINE: During a virtual meeting of 17 world leaders, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and UN secretary general António Guterres urged countries to come forward with their overdue climate plans, according to Folha de São Paulo. Diplomats from Brazil, which is hosting COP30, are working with UN officials to encourage countries to launch their new 2035 “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs) by September, Reuters explained. Carbon Brief analysis showed nearly every country missed the original deadline to submit new NDCs in February.

CHINA PLEDGE: Chinese president Xi Jinping announced during the meeting that China will submit its new NDC, covering all economic sectors and all greenhouse gases, ahead of COP30 in November, according to Xinhua. In addition, China Daily reported that Xi told attendees China would not slow down its climate action, “regardless of changes in the international landscape”.

Worst coral bleaching on record

NO END IN SIGHT: Coral bleaching has struck 84% of the world’s reefs in what the International Coral Reef Initiative has described as the worst global bleaching event on record, the Associated Press reported. The ongoing incident, caused by warming oceans, began in 2023 and it is “not clear” when it will end, according to the news outlet.

GLOBAL THREAT: In total, reefs in at least 82 countries and territories “have been exposed to enough heat to turn corals white”, according to the Guardian. Scientists in north and central America “were among the first to raise the alarm” after record ocean temperatures in the summer of 2023 and in recent weeks bleaching has spread to east African reefs, the newspaper added.

Around the world

  • CLIMATE-DRIVEN: The early arrival of an April heatwave in north India and Pakistan that saw temperatures reach 49C was “largely driven” by climate change, according to a new analysis by the French organisation ClimaMeter, reported by the Times of India.
  • TRADE WAR: The US has announced plans to impose tariffs on solar-panel imports from four southeast Asian countries – with some Cambodian exporters facing duties as high as 3,521% – according to BBC News. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has responded to rumours by stating it has no plans “at this time” to attempt to remove tax exempt status from US climate NGOs, Reuters reported.
  • NEW MARKET: Brazil is taking the “initial steps” to launch South America’s first-ever carbon market for major emitters within the country, which is expected to be operating by 2029, according to E&E News.
  • AUSTRALIA ELECTION: As Australia’s election looms, right-leaning Coalition leader Peter Dutton has confirmed that he would “scrap a popular tax break” for electric-vehicle drivers, the Guardian reported. Carbon Brief examined where Australia’s major parties stand on climate, energy and biodiversity loss.
  • HIGH ENERGY: An energy-security summit hosted in London by the UK government and the International Energy Agency saw prime minister Keir Starmer issue “some of his strongest comments yet” in support of net-zero policies, according to BusinessGreen

$28 trillion

The scale of the climate-related damage caused by emissions from 111 of the world’s biggest companies, according to a new Nature paper that the Washington Post said could “fuel” global climate litigation.


Latest climate research

  • A new study in Nature Climate Change concluded that the urban heat island effect – where cities experience higher temperatures than their surrounding rural areas – increases heat-related deaths, but also currently curbs deaths during cold spells at a higher rate.
  • A paper in Nature Reviews Clean Technology, also covered in a Carbon Brief guest post, explored “realistic” roles for hydrogen in the global energy transition, concluding that fuel-cell cars and space heating are “among the least promising applications”.
  • Sudden shifts from extreme warm to cold temperatures – and vice-versa – have become more frequent, intense and rapid over the past 60 years, according to new research published in Nature Communications.

(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)

Captured

Conservative election win could add 800m tonnes to Canada’s emissions by 2035

A Conservative victory over the Liberals in the upcoming Canadian election could lead to nearly 800m extra tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade, according to Carbon Brief analysis. Modelling by researchers from Simon Fraser University and University of Victoria shows that if the Conservatives follow through on their pledges to cut various climate policies, Canadian emissions would likely start to creep up in the coming years. However, as the analysis shows, even the Liberals’ policy platform would not put Canada on track to meet any of its climate targets, on the way to net-zero emissions by 2050.

Spotlight

How do the top papal candidates compare on climate?

Following the death of Pope Francis, Carbon Brief explores the various papal contenders’ views on climate issues.

Pope Francis, who died this week, has been praised for making climate action a core part of his work as the spiritual leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

His influence extended far beyond the church and included directly lobbying oil companies, engaging in UN climate talks and criticising world leaders’ lack of action.

In 2015, the pope published Laudato Si – the first papal encyclical dedicated to the environment. As Carbon Brief reported at the time, it drew heavily on climate science and even called for fossil fuels to be phased out.

There is much speculation about whether Francis’s successor will continue his relatively progressive agenda, including on climate change.

Below, Carbon Brief examines the climate credentials of the cardinals that have been tipped as most likely to be chosen as the next pope during the church’s secret “conclave” process.

Papal candidates (left to right) Peter Turkson, Luis Antonio Tagle, Robert Sarah and Pietro Parolin.
Papal candidates (left to right) Peter Turkson, Luis Antonio Tagle, Robert Sarah and Pietro Parolin.

Pietro Parolin

The current favourite to become pope is Pietro Parolin, an Italian cardinal who has served as the Vatican’s secretary of state since 2013. He leads the Holy See’s delegation at UN climate summits.

He has stressed the “unequivocal” evidence and “scientific consensus” behind climate change. Speaking on behalf of Francis at COP28, Parolin described environmental destruction as “an offence against God, a sin that is not only personal, but also structural”.

The Holy See ratified the Paris Agreement in 2022 and has been actively involved in COP negotiations. In 2024, Parolin’s delegation attracted controversy when diplomats accused it of aligning with Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia to block gender discussions at COP29.

Peter Turkson

Ghanaian cardinal Peter Turkson, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, has been influential in international climate politics.

During his time as president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Turkson spent 18 months guiding the drafting of Laudato Si. He was described by the Guardian as “the public face of Pope Francis’s war on global warming”.

The encyclical was launched to influence the nascent Paris Agreement and commentators have pointed to similarities in wording and themes between the documents. Turkson attended the Paris summit with a Vatican delegation and the goal of being a “catalyst” for action.

Luis Antonio Tagle

Another frontrunner, cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle has not had as much high-level involvement in climate politics as other candidates. However, he has often been compared with Francis due to his focus on social justice.

Tagle has been a vocal supporter of Laudato Si and has been involved in climate activism in his native Philippines. He has been active in the response to extreme weather in his country and has made the link between such events and climate change.

Robert Sarah

A conservative cardinal from Guinea, Robert Sarah has been welcomed by multiple right-leaning media outlets and is viewed by some as an “anti-woke” successor to Francis.

However, he has cited Francis’ teachings on the environment and pointed to the role of foreign interests in exploiting African resources. “They pollute the environment and leave the continent in endemic poverty,” he wrote in 2019.

Other contenders

There is huge uncertainty surrounding the conclave voting process to choose the new pope and several other candidates are thought to be in the running.

Among them are the Italian cardinal Matteo Zuppi, another progressive who has called for “bold” action on climate change.

Another is Péter Erdő, a leading conservative candidate from Hungary. While Erdő has not been vocal on climate change, he has close ties with Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, a strong opponent of climate action.

Watch, read, listen

SILENT MAJORITY: Covering Climate Now has launched “the 89% project”, a global media collaboration based on the idea that there is a “silent majority” of people around the world who want climate action.

ATTRIBUTION AND LITIGATION: Dr Friederike Otto and Dr Joyce Kimutai from the World Weather Attribution project at Imperial College London appeared on the New Scientist Weekly podcast to talk about how climate attribution science can be used to achieve climate justice, in part through litigation.

NIMBY NEWSCAST: Tortoise Media’s Slow Newscast investigated the “so-called zealots” who have been taking legal action against everything from road-building to energy projects in the UK, in an episode titled “nimby nation”.

Coming up

Pick of the jobs

DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to debriefed@carbonbrief.org.

This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s weekly DeBriefed email newsletter. Subscribe for free here.

The post DeBriefed 25 April 2025: Brazil calls for country emissions plans; Global coral bleaching; Where top pope contenders stand on climate appeared first on Carbon Brief.

DeBriefed 25 April 2025: Brazil calls for country emissions plans; Global coral bleaching; Where top pope contenders stand on climate

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Australia election 2025: Where parties stand on climate change, energy and nature

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Australia is heading to the polls for a general election on 3 May.

The ruling centre-left Labor party has for the past three years attempted to fix Australia’s “climate-laggard” reputation by setting a legal net-zero target and approving a record number of renewable energy projects.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese is also hoping, if reelected, to stave off Turkey to host the COP31 climate summit in Adelaide, South Australia, in 2026.

However, the Labor party has faced criticism from climate analysts for approving new coal mines and expansions and pledging support for new gas projects until “beyond 2050”.

Labor’s main opposition, the Liberal-National Coalition, an alliance of right-leaning parties, hopes to reenter power on a plan centred around building seven nuclear power plants across the country.

Australia currently has no nuclear power.

The Coalition has also pledged to “ramp up” domestic gas production, slow the rollout of renewables and keep coal-fired power plants open for longer.

Its leader, Peter Dutton, has said that hosting COP31 would be “madness” and cost “tens of billions” of dollars.

In contrast to the two major parties, Australia’s Greens have policies to stop new coal and gas projects, end fossil fuel subsidies and instead pay homes and businesses to install solar and batteries.

Voting is compulsory in Australia.

Its preferential voting system will all but guarantee that one of the two major parties will enter power.

Current polling suggests that Labor will edge ahead of the Coalition to win the election, after preferences are distributed between the top two parties.

In the interactive grid below, Carbon Brief examines where Australian parties stand on climate change, energy and nature.

Each entry in the grid represents a direct quote from a party document.

The piece will be updated to include the Labor Party’s full plans once they have been announced.

Coal and campaigning

Australia is the third-largest exporter of fossil fuels in the world. Coal accounts for three-quarters of the nation’s total exports.

From 2021-22, Australia produced 422m tonnes of coal. When burned, this will create 1.1bn tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).

Australia’s richest citizen, Gina Rinehart, makes her fortune from coal mining and is a supporter of climate-sceptic groups and a friend of Donald Trump.

Her company, Hancock Prospecting, is now the Coalition’s second-largest donor.

Coalition leader Dutton was forced to clarify that he believed in climate change after refusing to comment on the increasing impacts of warming during a TV debate with Albanese.

Newspaper magnate Rupert Murdoch rules over 60% of Australia’s print media through his company News Corp. He has been accused of using his media empire to sow “confusion and doubt” about climate change.

Biodiversity crisis

Australia is also one of the world’s 17 “megadiverse” countries, meaning it is home to some of Earth’s most rare, unique and abundant wildlife. It is one of just two developed countries to have this status, alongside the US.

The nation is facing a species extinction crisis. The Great Barrier Reef, Earth’s largest living structure, is projected to die off if the world does not meet its climate goals.

The logging of natural forests is still permitted in several Australian states, including Tasmania, New South Wales and Queensland.

Both of the major parties have been criticised for failing to centre the biodiversity crisis in their campaigning.

By contrast, the Greens have pledged to spend 1% of the budget on nature, end native forest logging nationally and spend $20bn on biodiversity restoration over the next decade.

The post Australia election 2025: Where parties stand on climate change, energy and nature appeared first on Carbon Brief.

Australia election 2025: Where parties stand on climate change, energy and nature

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