I have developed and updated 15 resources in my four years at Climate Generation. However, the 2025 update of Next Generation Climate for grades 6-8 (NGC) felt significantly more challenging. For the first time, I faced an atmosphere of federal pushback against the validity of climate change science and education. I struggled to find alternative sources for data sets and graphs that I would normally access from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) or the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Resources I wanted to share, like the 2024 Climate Literacy Principles, disappeared from websites as quickly as I found them. I wrote words like “climate justice” and “equity”, wondering how many educators would avoid downloading NGC due to anti-DEI policies. Honestly, the process was disheartening at times. The chaos sowed by the federal government created uncertainty, as intended.
However, amidst the uncertainty exists a more powerful feeling: a conviction that climate change curricula like NGC are more needed than ever.
As government agencies like NOAA and the EPA are dismantled, limiting their abilities to inform the public about climate adaptation strategies and protect us from environmental threats, it is crucial that our students have access at school to information about how climate change impacts their daily lives and futures. Education is a climate solution because an informed public is one that can make the necessary changes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to local climate impacts.
Beyond climate science and data, the updated NGC builds on previous versions to bring a more human-centered approach. Our students need inspiration to take localized climate action to create safer, more equitable futures. In the 2025 edition, you will see:
- Discussions of the social, economic, and political causes of climate change;
- Examples of leaders in climate justice movements;
- More guidance for how to take climate action; and
- Opportunities for reflection and mindfulness to support students’ mental health.
Education is not only a climate solution; it is now an act of resistance.
Teaching concepts like climate change and climate justice can oppose the oppression and cruelty we’re witnessing at the federal level. Educating about what’s really happening, what people experience every day, is necessary for students to feel safe, secure, and supported, so that they don’t feel that they alone care about the crises facing our world. We need to show students that most people care, and that together we can leverage our efforts toward making the world a better place for all. We need educational resources that center our collective humanity; foster empathy for all of life; celebrate working for the common good, not individual gain; and give students opportunities to develop the knowledge, skills, confidence, and motivation to live into their values and take positive action.
We know that in some states, the reality of censoring words and concepts like climate change has existed for some time. It can be risky to teach directly about climate change in some places. For those whose states follow the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), remember that the standards directly mention human-caused climate change and offer foundational concepts for understanding it. NGC includes a table of the NGSS performance expectations most closely associated with the lessons. For others, we must remember that we are a collective. We can all contribute in some way; some of us can say climate change, and some of us can talk about the weather. Some of us can use the full NGC curriculum, and others may incorporate small ideas from it.
Restrictions in education aren’t really about specific words; they’re about controlling narratives, erasing truth, and amassing power against the people. It’s hard work, but in times of uncertainty, it can help to focus on what we can control.
As educators, we can influence what happens in our learning spaces:
- We can localize climate change so that our students see the personal effects and tangible opportunities for change.
- We can integrate community science so that students can participate in researching and communicating about climate issues and solutions.
- We can discuss the root causes of climate change (even without saying climate change) — how our global legacy of hurting the many to enrich the few has impacted everything from wars to housing stability to the air and water we need to live.
- We can facilitate civic engagement in everything from writing to legislators, to planting trees, to creating public art with a message.
- We can share stories with our students that inspire them to be kind, honest, fair, and brave.
We hope that NGC provides enough inroads that everyone can find a path to introduce their students to climate change, particularly the ways in which we can take action together to protect and nurture ourselves and our environment.
In the final week of editing NGC, I triple-checked a link to a graph from NOAA; one that depicts the data collected since the 1880s showing the substantial increase in land and ocean temperatures over the past century. Not surprisingly, the link no longer exists. I left the graph in Appendix B with the citation to a broken link; to me, this data tells an essential story that we cannot fully appreciate with another figure. This administration is trying to overwhelm us, to silence us, to exhaust us to the point of inaction. But they will not succeed; they cannot, for the sake of our planet and the next generations after us.
Moments of uncertainty are an invitation to determine what you are certain about.
What and whom do you value? What are you going to do about it? Climate Generation will continue to do this work as long as we are able. While we always advocate for rest and self-care, we also encourage you to find ways you can plug into everyday actions. We hope that, for many of you, it might look like downloading NGC and facilitating the activities with your students. Together, we can make a positive impact on our present and future. No matter your situation, Climate Generation’s staff and resources will support you along the way.
Marie grew up in Wisconsin on the ancestral and contemporary lands of the Menominee, Potowatomi, and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ and the contemporary lands of the Oneida. Marie’s fascination with human relationships to the earth led her to study Environmental Education and Spanish Language at UW-Stevens Point and later earn her master’s degree in Environmental Studies and Environmental Education from Antioch University New England. She’s pursued her varied interests at multiple nature centers and an aquarium in Minnesota; community gardens in New Hampshire; and as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua. At Climate Generation, Marie loves creating resources that encourage people to be curious, connect deeply, and work collaboratively. When she’s not writing curriculum, she enjoys hiking, cross country skiing, reading, and spending time with her husband and her dog, Merlin.
The post What does the “Next Generation” Require of Us? appeared first on Climate Generation.
A global shift towards “healthier” diets could cut non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions, such as methane, from agriculture by 15% by 2050, according to a new report.
The EAT-Lancet Commission report on “healthy, sustainable and just food systems” says this diet would require producing more fruit, vegetables and nuts, as well as fewer livestock.
The findings build on the widely cited 2019 report from the EAT-Lancet Commission – a group of leading experts in nutrition, climate, economics, health, social sciences and agriculture from around the world.
The new report notes that one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions come from the global food system.
These emissions are so great that, even if all fossil fuels were phased out, “food can on its own push us beyond the 1.5C limit”, one of the commission co-chairs, Prof Johan Rockström, told a press briefing.
The report details a “planetary health diet” – a concept first introduced in the 2019 report – which focuses on “plant-rich” and “minimally processed” foods.
The latest edition builds on the previous report by adding improved modelling of food-system transformation and adding social-justice considerations.
The 2019 report faced a “massive online backlash” against some of its findings, particularly on cutting meat consumption, DeSmog reported earlier this year, which was “stoked by a PR firm that represents the meat and dairy sector”.
Rockström said the commission is “ready to meet that assault” if it arises again and issued concern “over this return of mis- and disinformation and denialism on climate science”.
Here, Carbon Brief picks out three key takeaways from the latest report.
- A ‘plant-rich’ diet has the best health and climate outcomes
- Transforming food systems could ‘substantially reduce’ the associated emissions
- Social justice should be a ‘central goal’ in transforming global food systems
A ‘plant-rich’ diet has the best health and climate outcomes
The new report recommends a plant-rich “planetary health diet”, which is largely the same as the one first outlined in the 2019 report.
The diet is designed to be flexible and “compatible with many foods, cultures, dietary patterns, traditions and individual preferences”, the report says.
It does not exclude meat or dairy products – the foods that cause the highest emissions – but recommends limited portions, equating to around one glass of milk per day and a couple of servings of meat and two eggs each week, for those whose diets include them.
The chart below outlines the recommended intake of different foods, adding up to around 2,400 calories each day. A range is given for each food type to accommodate different diets. The categories with the largest intakes include whole grains, plant oils, nuts and legumes.
The diet is “designed for health…[not] sustainability”, Dr Line Gordon, a commissioner on the report, told a press briefing.
But the report also analyses the climate impact of the recommendations. It estimates that shifting to the planetary diet could reduce global non-CO2 agricultural emissions – from greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide – by 15% by 2050. (See: Transforming food systems could ‘substantially reduce’ the associated emissions.)
Widespread adoption of the diet would require a two-thirds increase in fruit, vegetable and nut production and allow for a one-third reduction in livestock meat production, compared to 2020 levels.
Currently, diets across the globe all “deviate substantially” from the report’s recommendations. But the report claims that, due to the planetary diet’s health benefits, around 15 million “avoidable” deaths could be prevented each year if it were widely adopted.
The report also measures how much global food systems contribute to the nine planetary boundaries – a concept of global thresholds for a “safe and just” planet. It finds that food systems are the largest contributor to five breaches of these boundaries, which include changes in the use of land and freshwater.
In terms of steps to move towards the planetary diet, Gordon listed actions such as changing taxes to make healthy foods more affordable, clearly labelling foods and shifting agricultural production subsidies towards healthier foods.
The report highlights that “transforming food systems is not only possible, it’s essential to securing a safe, just and sustainable future for all”, Rockström says in a statement.
Transforming food systems could ‘substantially reduce’ the associated emissions
Food systems are responsible for about one-third of human-driven greenhouse gas emissions.
These emissions are roughly equally partitioned between livestock and crop production, land-use change and other aspects of the food system, including refrigeration, fertilisers, transport and retail, according to the report.
The authors use global economic models to determine how different actions towards transforming food systems could affect agricultural production, environmental impact and food prices.
For the baseline, they use a set of “business-as-usual” parameters. This scenario uses SSP2-7.0, a high-emissions pathway under which there is a global population of 9.6 billion people and global warming of 2C above pre-industrial temperatures in 2050.
Using these assumptions, the business-as-usual scenario results in a 37% increase in global agricultural production and a 33% rise in non-CO2 agricultural emissions by 2050, compared to 2020. Crop yields increase by nearly one-quarter in this scenario, while the amount of land used for agricultural cultivation expands by 2m square kilometres (km2) – an area roughly the size of Mexico.
The chart below shows the changes in non-CO2 agricultural emissions and agricultural land use under each scenario, with the three main scenarios highlighted in green. The dots indicate the results from different model runs.
The dietary transformation projection assumes a world in which there is total adherence to the suggested diet, a halving of food loss and waste and an additional 7-10% increase in global agricultural productivity.
They find that, in this scenario, agricultural emissions of non-CO2 greenhouse gases decline by 20% compared to 2020 values. Although cropland will have to expand to account for the increased intake of fruits, vegetables and legumes, the decrease in land needed for livestock-rearing means that agricultural land use will fall overall by 3.4m km2, an area the size of India.
The authors also consider a scenario that combines the dietary shifts with “ambitious mitigation” efforts. This includes policies such as carbon pricing and land-use regulations that could drive the adoption of bioenergy, afforestation and renewable energy, the report says.
Under widespread dietary shifts and ambitious mitigation, the report finds that non-CO2 emissions from agriculture will fall by 34% compared to 2020, and the reduction in agricultural land use will double compared to the scenario that only factors in the dietary shifts.
Social justice should be a ‘central goal’ in transforming global food systems
In a step further than its predecessor, the new report assesses justice in global food systems, by analysing the rights to food, a healthy environment and decent work.
The focus on social equity and justice added a “tremendous broader aspect” to the report, Dr Shakuntala Thilsted, one of the commission co-chairs, said in a briefing.
The report notes that more than half of the world’s population struggles to access healthy diets, which leads to “devastating consequences for public health, social equity and the environment”.
This primarily affects marginalised people living in low-income regions, it says.
The report finds that the diets of the world’s richest 30% of the population contribute to more than 70% of environmental pressures from food systems, such as land use and greenhouse gas emissions. The report says:
“These statistics highlight the large inequalities in the distribution of both benefits and burdens of current food systems.”
Furthermore, living and working in toxic-free environments and stable climate conditions is a “crucial” human right, it adds.
According to the report, “power asymmetries and discriminatory social and political structures” – such as the concentration of power among a small number of agribusiness firms – hinder the fulfilment of those rights.
The report says that social justice, along with environmental sustainability, should be central to global food systems.
It proposes several steps to making healthy, sustainable and just food systems more accessible by 2050: securing decent working conditions, ensuring liveable wages, recognising and protecting marginalised groups and limiting market concentration.
It notes that while taking steps to mitigate climate change will increase food costs – particularly in areas that currently do not consume adequate fruits and vegetables, and where animal-sourced food is less commonly eaten – some of these pressures can be alleviated by introducing subsidies targeted towards those preferred food groups.
Finally, the authors underscore that implementing this diet must consider both cultural context and sustainability.
However, they also warn that meeting these goals requires global action and “transformative change” in both individual and cultural habits.
The post EAT-Lancet report: Three key takeaways on climate and diet change appeared first on Carbon Brief.
EAT-Lancet report: Three key takeaways on climate and diet change
Climate Change
China Briefing 2 October 2025: China’s new pledge; electricity demand slows; steel overcapacity
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s China Briefing.
China Briefing handpicks and explains the most important climate and energy stories from China over the past fortnight. Subscribe for free here.
Key developments
China’s first-ever pledge to cut emissions
NEW CLIMATE TARGETS: In a video address to the UN last week, China’s president Xi Jinping personally pledged to cut his nation’s economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions to 7-10% below peak levels by 2035, while “striving to do better”, reported state broadcaster CCTV. Sky News called it a “landmark moment”, saying that this marked the first time China “made a commitment to cut its greenhouse gas emissions”. The announced target, along with other commitments such as expanding wind and solar power capacity to more than six times 2020 levels, will be included in China’s 2035 “nationally determined contribution” (NDC) under the Paris Agreement, which has not yet been submitted, reported BBC News. Carbon Brief published a detailed analysis of the announcement and hosted a webinar with climate policy experts to discuss their assessments. More details of the webinar can be found below.
AMBITION CRITICISM: In an article for Just Security, Sue Biniaz, former US principal deputy special envoy for climate, wrote that “at and around the UN event, the chatter regarding the announcement was generally negative”, adding that the announced target was “even lower than expected”. EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra described China’s new climate pledge as falling “well short of what we believe is both achievable and necessary”, reported Reuters. In response, China accused the EU of “being slow to act on its own climate targets”, according to another Reuters report. The outlet said that Hoekstra’s “criticism of China’s new climate pledges shows ‘double standards and selective blindness’, China’s foreign ministry said on Friday”.
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MEDIA REACTION: Media outlets including the Guardian and the Times raised questions about the ambition of the target. Similarly, Bloomberg said it was “seen as too modest to put the nation on a path to net-zero and galvanise global climate action”. An editorial in state-run newspaper China Daily, however, called the target a “milestone in the nation’s long-term road map toward green, low-carbon development”. Li Shuo, director of the China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute, wrote in a comment for the New York Times that China’s targets “may seem tepid”, but “beneath them is a bold wager: that steady action, powered by industrial strength and vision shielded from political volatility, will ultimately do more to contribute to the global climate effort than lofty, fickle promises ever could”.
Electricity demand growth slowed
PRESSURE DROP: The rate of growth in China’s electricity demand slowed in August, with “cooler” weather helping to “take some pressure off the grid”, reported Bloomberg, citing official data. The outlet added that electricity consumption rose 5% in August, compared with 8.6% in July and 5.4% in June. Still, China’s electricity demand in both July and August exceeded 1,000 terawatt hours – the first time this happened globally, said Chinese finance media outlet Cailianpress. According to a report by the China Electricity Council, China’s “electrification rate” has already surpassed that of “major developed economies in Europe and the US”, wrote China Energy Net.
MARKET PRICE: Two coastal provinces, Guangdong and Shandong, have used China’s new market-based pricing system for renewables to “steer clean-energy investment to the areas that suit them best, reported Bloomberg. According to the outlet, Guangdong, which is “surrounded by relatively shallow waters”, offered “generous rates to offshore wind”. In Shandong, the pricing system was used to “correct course and reduce a glut of solar power that has built up over the years”, added the outlet.
Steel to face new controls
CAPACITY CURBS: China has released a work plan for 2025-26 to “ban new steel capacity and reduce production, in the latest move to help balance supply and demand”, reported Bloomberg. The plan came after Beijing promised to cut steel output at the Two Sessions in March, according to the outlet. It also called for “significantly enhancing green, low-carbon and digital development levels” of the country’s steel sector, according to the industry news outlet BJX News. Financial media outlet Caixin said “more than 80% of China’s crude steel production capacity has completed ultra-low-emission retrofits, according to the China Iron and Steel Association”.
ETS EXPANSION: Meanwhile, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued draft allowance plans for the steel, cement and aluminium sectors for 2024 and 2025 in its national emissions trading scheme (ETS), reported Cailian Press. (The ETS was expanded to these sectors from 2024 in a draft policy, published late last year and covered by Carbon Brief. The expansion, which means that the ETS covers 60% of China’s emissions, rather than 40% previously, was confirmed in March.) Meanwhile, a report published by the State Council said that a total of 189m tonnes of carbon dioxide was traded on the ETS in 2024, according to Xinhua.
Typhoon Ragasa
DAMAGES IN ASIA: Nearly two million people in southern China had to be “relocated” after Typhoon Ragasa made landfall in Guangdong province last Wednesday, reported state news agency Xinhua. BBC News described the typhoon as the “world’s strongest storm this year” and said “a month’s worth of rain” was expected in the city of Zhuhai in one day. In the wider Asia-Pacific region, dozens of people were killed, while flights as well as businesses were also strongly affected, said the Financial Times.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Ragasa was intensified by “unusually hot oceans”, which can be linked to climate change, according to “preliminary studies” covered by the Hong Kong Free Press. “Rapid attribution” analysis by the French research group ClimaMeter concluded that cyclones such as Ragasa are around 10% wetter than they would have been in the past, added the outlet. Benjamin Horton, dean of the school of energy and environment at City University of Hong Kong, also linked Ragasa to climate change, saying extreme weather events “should not be happening at such regularity, so late in the season, of such intensity, of such high winds and of such big storm surges”, according to the SCMP.
40%
The share of China’s total solar capacity in 2024 made up by distributed photovoltaics – typically installed on rooftops – according to a report from the International Energy Agency, which said the share was up from 30% four years earlier. The report added that the “stock of electric cars grew by more than 650% over the same period”.
Spotlight
Experts: What China’s new climate pledge means for the world
Last week, president Xi Jinping announced several new pledges that will be included in China’s upcoming 2035 nationally determined contribution (NDC).
Carbon Brief held a webinar with several experts on what the new announcement means for China’s climate trajectory and the global energy transition. Below are the highlights of their answers. A recording of the webinar is available on the Carbon Brief website.
Ryna Cui, associate director and associate research professor at the University of Maryland Center for Global Sustainability
Our assessment of a plausible high ambition pathway for China [showed it] delivering a 27-31% reduction in total greenhouse gas emissions by 2035…In addition, we also model[led] a current policy pathway for China, which…also achieve[d] a 10-14% reduction…Both scenarios suggest a larger reduction compared to the 7-10% overall emission reduction target.
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Under our current policy scenario for 2035, wind and solar total installed capacity is over 4,000 gigawatt (GW). It is over 4,700 gigawatt under a high ambition [scenario]. [The target announced by Xi is for 3,600GW by 2035.]
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The non-fossil share of total primary energy…is 40% [under current policies] and 48% [under high ambition], compared to the 30% target announced [by Xi].
Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst and co-founder at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air
At [China’s] rate of clean-energy growth, there is no more space for…coal, in general, to grow. So if you were to announce targets of 20-30% reduction in carbon dioxide, then you have to recognise that there’s going to be a major downsizing of the coal industry.
That seems to be a decision that China’s leadership is still postponing. Are you going to put reins on this clean-energy boom, or are you going to accept that the coal industry has to start downsizing in a big way?
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These targets really, to me, show that the leadership was not prepared to resolve that conflict and say that coal is the one that has to give.
Anika Patel, China analyst at Carbon Brief
[In terms of what’s next,] one of the big signals…is COP30. What else will be announced that could signal China’s relative level of climate ambition?
Will there be quantitative targets placed on things like climate finance?…Will there be more announcements around south-south cooperation? What will China’s signaling on fossil fuels – especially coal – in the final COP30 outcome be?
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At the same time, we’ve got the 15th five-year plan coming up…We’re expecting a new set of overarching targets for 2026-2030, and traditionally there have always been a couple of climate targets [among the plan’s headline targets]. From that, we can expect to start seeing signals about what the level of climate ambition for the next five years will be.
Li Shuo, director of the China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute
There has been a very strong alignment now in the Chinese system between its decarbonisation goals and its economic development agenda…I think that strong alignment is what will propel the country to cut more carbon over time.
I also think that when you begin to realise [that]…you will then begin to realise it is not necessarily just the [state-level] EU-China climate relationship…[or] COPs that we should pay attention to. New actors are emerging.
We need to pay attention to BYD [and] CATL. We need to pay attention to [low-carbon commercial and investment activity in] Brazil…[and] Indonesia. Those factors and actors, over the next ten years or so, will begin to drive carbon-emission reduction in a more significant and meaningful way than countries’ NDCs.
Watch, read, listen
‘NEW ENERGY’: A comment on the “high-quality development” of China’s “new energy” sector was published by the Communist party’s Study Times – an official newspaper edited by the central school of the Chinese Communist party – under the byline of Wang Hongzhi, head of the National Energy Administration.
HIGH-LEVEL COMMENT: The Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily published an article under the byline Zhong Caiwen, used to indicate party leaders’ views on economic affairs, saying “green development is the defining feature of China’s high-quality economic growth”.
EXTREME WEATHER: Chinese media outlet 21st Century Business Herald conducted an interview with Xu Xiaofeng, former deputy director of the China Meteorological Administration and president of the China Meteorological Service Association, who talked about the “high intensity of extreme weather events” under climate change.
CARBON MARKETS: Ma Aimin, former deputy director of the National Centre for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, told Jiemian that China’s carbon market (ETS) needed to enhance its “trading activity” and that the next two years will be a “critical period” for voluntary carbon trading (CCERs).
New science
Development policy affects coastal flood exposure in China more than sea-level rise
Nature Climate Change
Exposure to coastal flooding in China over the 21st century will depend more on “policy decisions” than the rate of sea-level rise, according to new research. The authors combined simulations of population and land use changes with flood models that incorporate factors such as sea level rise and storm surges. They said their paper offers a “more nuanced understanding of coastal risks” than other existing assessments.
Spatiotemporal patterns and drivers of wildfire CO2 emissions in China from 2001 to 2022
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Annual CO2 emissions from forest and shrub fires in China decreased over 2001-22, but increased for cropland fires, a new study found. The analysis noted that the upward trend in cropland fire emissions is primarily in the country’s north-east and is “closely linked to region-specific straw-burning policies”. The researchers found that emissions from grassland fires remained relatively stable over the two decades assessed.
China Briefing is compiled by Wanyuan Song and Anika Patel. It is edited by Wanyuan Song and Dr Simon Evans. Please send tips and feedback to china@carbonbrief.org
The post China Briefing 2 October 2025: China’s new pledge; electricity demand slows; steel overcapacity appeared first on Carbon Brief.
China Briefing 2 October 2025: China’s new pledge; electricity demand slows; steel overcapacity
Since she was a child, Argentine park ranger Natay Collet can remember seeing trucks rolling through her hometown, throwing up dust clouds and piled high with the reddish-brown trunks of the Chaco’s famed quebracho tree.
“You used to know people who lived in the forest. Now, the land belongs to big business owners who come to exploit it,” said Collet, 40, gesturing towards a dusty plain that was once covered by forest in Argentina’s northern province of Chaco.
Collet’s determination to do what she could to save Gran Chaco – the second-biggest forest biome in South America after the Amazon – led her to become a park ranger as the region’s dry, scrubby forest comes under intense pressure from agricultural expansion and illegal logging.
Chaco province alone has lost 1 million hectares (2.47 million acres) of tree cover since 2001, equivalent to 18% of the area covered by trees in 2000, according to Global Forest Watch. As a whole, the country has lost about 7 million hectares (17.3 million acres) of tree cover over the same period, in tandem with rising output of grains – especially soybeans.
Argentina’s native forests are protected by law – and it backed a commitment by countries at the Glasgow COP26 climate summit to halt forest loss by 2030.
Lula says he is “optimistic” about US support for new rainforest fund
But two years since pro-business libertarian President Javier Milei was elected on pledges to get the country’s unruly finances in order, environmentalists and climate campaigners fear the country’s forests are in growing danger because of sweeping spending cuts for forest protection – including park rangers like Collet.
“It’s getting worse and worse,” she told Climate Home News, describing increasingly precarious working conditions, with rangers’ contracts renewed every three months, low pay and no money for new equipment or repairs.
The budget of the National Parks Administration (APN) fell 34% in real terms between 2023 and 2024, according to a report published by the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (FARN), an Argentine NGO.
The APN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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In new forest finance plan, 34 nations endorse Brazil’s rainforest fund
The Forest & Climate Leaders’ Partnership of forest-rich and donor countries backs Brazil’s Tropical Forest Forever Facility, set to be launched at COP30 -
Russia justifies fossil gas use by citing contentious COP28 loophole
In Dubai two years ago, Russia pushed for a clause on “transitional fuels” which its new UN climate plan uses to justify gas consumption -
Zimbabwe forest carbon megaproject generated millions of junk credits
Verra is seeking compensation for offsets issued “in excess” by the controversial Kariba REDD+ scheme. But the registry’s track record in obtaining remedies raises concerns
Deforestation jumps under Milei
Milei, an ideological ally of US President Donald Trump who took office in December 2023, faces a crucial midterm election this month that could make it even easier for him to push environmental protection cutbacks through by bolstering his support in Congress, where his government currently holds a minority.
Environmentalists say the impact of his government’s spending cuts and other policies is already becoming evident, contributing to an increase in deforestation across the country last year, including in the northern provinces that straddle the Gran Chaco region, which covers about 1 million square km (386,000 square miles) in total across Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia.
Argentine government data indicates a loss of around 254,000 hectares nationwide in 2024, up 34% from 2023, despite a court injunction completely banning deforestation in Chaco since August 2024. Neighbouring northern provinces are also deforestation hotspots.
Milei has in the past called climate change a hoax and earlier this year he expressed interest in withdrawing Argentina from the Paris Agreement. Officials from his government, however, have said his administration will honour its environmental agreements and its commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
The Subsecretariat of the Environment did not reply to a request for comment.
Milei scrapped the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, downgrading it to the Secretariat of Tourism, Environment and Sports. That move led to a decrease of almost 80%, in real terms, in the environmental budget between 2023 and 2024, according to FARN.
And in an October 2024 decree, Milei eliminated the national Fund for the Environmental Protection of Native Forests, making less funding available for conservation, sustainable use and forest restoration projects.
International credibility at risk
Under Milei, the “dismantling” of the state apparatus has “encouraged institutional permissiveness over deforestation”, said Ana di Pangracio, interim executive director of FARN.
“The failure to comply with international commitments and national laws affects Argentina’s international credibility, hinders access to climate and biodiversity financing, and affects the conditions for entering international markets that are of interest to Argentina,” Di Pangracio added.
Last year, Milei attempted to modify the country’s Forest Law as part of a broader reform bill, seeking to loosen the legislation’s controls on deforestation on certain land, but eventually dropped the plan in order to garner sufficient support from opposition lawmakers to pass the wider measures.
Explainer: Brazil’s “right answer” to forest finance turns to markets to keep rainforest standing
“Axe-breaker” tree no match for chainsaws
The biggest driver of deforestation in northern Argentina is agriculture: mainly soy farming and cattle grazing, which has been pushed northwards as the best arable land is used up further south.
Decades of “systematic clearing” have taken a heavy toll on Chaco’s emblematic quebracho tree – meaning axe-breaker due to its hard wood, said Collet, the park ranger. Along with its wood, the tree is exploited for its tannins, which are used for curing leather products such as luxury handbags and car upholstery.
Despite the 2024 deforestation ban, there are signs that trees continue to be cut down in Chaco.
During a July visit to the town of Juan José Castelli, which lies just outside the El Impenetrable national park, a large truck loaded with tree trunks was parked up in front of the police station – apparently confiscated along with its load.
In May, Governor Leandro Zdero hailed the arrival of new satellite-equipped trucks, which he said had helped forest service officials halt an illegal deforestation incident.
But environmental activists told Climate Home that for the most part, those responsible for deforestation, including large-scale landowners, do so with impunity in a province plagued by corruption.
Struggle to protect Indigenous land
For Chaco’s forest defenders, who include members of Indigenous communities, there have been some small victories.
In August, the provincial government partially vetoed a law that had been heavily criticised in April for lessening fines and allowing the use of illegally deforested timber for profit, creating an incentive for illicit tree-cutting.
Bigger battles continue, however.
Óscar Villalba, a member of the Moqoit Indigenous community, has been fighting in the courts to secure his people’s land rights since 2012, when the 308,000 hectares (761,000 acres) of the forested Reserva Grande in western Chaco were recognised as Indigenous land jointly belonging to the Moqoit, Wichí and Toba – or Qom – communities.
Despite the recognition by a provincial Indigenous rights body, governors have twice blocked court rulings that supported the Indigenous communities’ exclusive rights to live on and work the land, Villalba said, adding that in the meantime, loggers have had free rein to encroach on the land and cut down trees.
The provincial government did not reply to requests for comment.
“For many years we have been travelling, walking, denouncing, demanding that the government grant us hearings,” Villalba said, struggling to hold back tears as he stood by the side of a dusty road near the reserve. “There is no response. But they are cutting down trees to their heart’s content, day and night.”
The post Milei’s budget cuts fuel deforestation fears in Argentina’s Chaco appeared first on Climate Home News.
Milei’s budget cuts fuel deforestation fears in Argentina’s Chaco
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