Carbon Brief

Print article Share More of Germany’s electricity came from wind and solar power than fossil fuels for the first time ever in 2025. Together, wind and solar power generated 225 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity – accounting for 44% of the total in 2025 – with just 217TWh (43%) coming from fossil fuels. Solar and onshore wind have grown rapidly under Germany’s “Energiewende” strategy over the past two decades, as the nation transitions away from both coal and

Print article Share Most countries failed to meet a 2025 target to identify all of their subsidies that could be “harmful” to biodiversity, according to Carbon Brief analysis. The findings also reveal that 32 countries spend an estimated $270bn on biodiversity-harming subsidies and other incentives each year. This is the “tip of the iceberg”, one expert notes, with “trillions” spent globally.   In 2022, almost every country in the world agreed on

This summer has seen Europe suffer through a series of record-breaking heatwaves. Amid widespread media coverage of the number of deaths and the influence of climate change, the UK’s Daily Telegraph reported on new research with the incorrect headline: “Heatwaves caused by fall in pollution.” The article was shared on social media by Richard Tice – deputy leader of the hard-right, climate-sceptic Reform UK party – along with a number of prominent rightwing commentators. Tice claimed tha

Empowering women through greater access to finance could “strengthen” households’ resilience to “climate shocks”, according to a new study.   Published in Climate Risk Management, it analyses the impact of financial access on “women-headed households” in sub-Saharan Africa.  The study finds that where women had formal financial access – such as through owning a bank account – households were more able to withstand short-term shocks. It adds that “climate shocks”, su

As 2026 passes its halfway point, the world is watching one of the most rapidly intensifying El Niño events in the modern record take shape in the tropical Pacific. The developing El Niño is boosting expectations for global temperatures, both this year and next. El Niño is the warm phase of a recurring climate pattern in the tropical Pacific that releases heat from the ocean into the atmosphere, temporarily raising global temperatures and reshaping rainfall and extreme weather around the w

Print article Share The European Commission has put forward new plans to cut emissions under the EU carbon market more slowly, from 2031 onwards.  On 17 July, the commission presented its long-awaited proposal for reform of the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS).  It recommended a number of changes, including giving companies free allowances to cover their emissions for longer than previously planned, conditional on climate investment plans. 

Print article Share Recent weeks have seen a flurry of reports from public health authorities and scientists that estimate the deaths caused by Europe’s record-breaking summer heatwaves.  In France, the national public health agency reported 2,025 excess deaths over the week where the heatwave peaked in June.  Authorities in Germany and Netherlands put the excess death toll during the same seven-day period at 5,753 and 533, respectively. An analys

Print article Share The UK has abandoned projects worth tens of millions of pounds that were meant to help protect Congo rainforests and support local people. Together, these initiatives would have made up around half of the £200m that the UK pledged to support conservation in the Congo basin – the world’s second-largest rainforest. When it hosted COP26 in Glasgow, the UK led a new initiative to end forest loss, which included a collective pledge by 12 donors

Print article Share The UK’s new prime minister Andy Burnham remained tight-lipped on his views on climate change during his leadership campaign. When asked his views on allowing new North Sea drilling in June – a move that the oil-and-gas industry and right-wing media have pushed for in recent months – he said he had “something of an open mind” on the issue. But a trawl of Burnham’s past comments about climate change, net-zero and fossil fuels reveals a diffe

Last month, COP31 president-designate Murat Kurum launched a target for 35% of the world’s final energy to come from electricity by 2035. In an interview with Carbon Brief, Kurum says that the target was not a political choice, but instead reflects the latest evidence on “what is needed to keep 1.5C within reach”. The ongoing Hormuz crisis means there is an “urgent” need for renewables and electrification, which are the “surest and cleanest way to protect citizens” from high energy prices.

Print article Share As successive heatwaves hit Europe, air-conditioning (AC) has emerged as a new front in the international “culture war” over climate action. France, Germany and the UK have experienced record-breaking heat and thousands of heat-related deaths this summer, with June temperatures in many regions passing 40C. This has drawn attention to the relatively low rates of AC use in these countries – and in Europe as a whole – especially when compared

The number of global climate initiatives launched or run by China has been growing since 2009, a new study shows. But whether this will translate into China taking up the mantle of climate leadership remains an “open question”, says Dr Sun Yixian, study co-author and professor of sustainability governance at the University of Bath. Sun’s team has compiled a database tracking all global environmental initiatives established from the 1980s onwards that were launched or run by China. These

Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed. An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change. This week Heating up NOT FREE FROM HEAT: “Dangerous, record-breaking” heat altered plans for 4 July celebrations across the US this weekend, reported the Associated Press. New York and Boston hit 100F (37.8C) on Thursday, said the newswire. CNBC reported that temperatures of up to 105F (40.5C) are forecast in central and eastern parts of the country, with “daily, mont

The World Bank has abandoned a target for 45% of the funding it gives developing countries to be “climate finance”, following months of pressure from the Trump administration in the US. However, a concerted effort by developed- and developing-country shareholders has seen the bank hold onto its “action plan” for tackling climate change. The multilateral development bank (MDB) – which is headquartered in Washington DC – is the single largest provider of climate finance globally, distributin

Candidates are being nominated to take over as the UN secretary general, when António Guterres steps down after nearly a decade in the role at the end of 2026. Since becoming the ninth secretary general on 1 January 2017, Guterres has been a strong advocate for climate action, saying in January 2026:  “We have been outspoken on the urgent need for climate action, demanding ambition and working to rally governments, businesses and civil society.”  According to the UN, his pre

UK newspapers have already published 63 editorials this year calling for more oil and gas extraction in the North Sea, according to Carbon Brief analysis. The national outlets, including the Sun, the Daily Telegraph and the Times, argue that the nation “needs” more North Sea drilling to provide “home-sourced oil and gas” amid a “full-blown energy crisis”. These newspapers seek to blame energy secretary Ed Miliband’s “net-zero crusade” for curbing UK fossil-fuel production – despite supplie

We handpick and explain the most important stories at the intersection of climate, land, food and nature over the past fortnight. This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s fortnightly Cropped email newsletter. Subscribe for free here. Key developments Heatwave scorches European agriculture ‘PUSHED TO THEIR LIMITS’: The record-breaking heatwave that swept through much of western and central Europe in recent weeks had myriad impacts across the continent, reported Carbon Brief. Martin

Clean power added more to global energy supplies than any other source in 2025, according to the latest Energy Institute statistical review of world energy. Outside the Covid pandemic, it was also the first year ever in which wind and solar, when combined, contributed more new energy than any of the individual fossil fuels. The findings illustrate the “growing prominence” of electricity in the global energy system, according to the Energy Institute, a professional membership body that

The Pine Island glacier in West Antarctica is one of the fastest-changing glaciers in the world.  Alongside its neighbour, the Thwaites glacier, it is responsible for almost half the sea level rise caused by melting ice sheets in Antarctica. Scientists know the West Antarctic ice sheet – which includes Thwaites and Pine Island – is retreating because of warm water eroding the ice sheet from below.  But the extent to which this process has been driven by human-caused greenhouse

Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed. An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change. This week Record Europe heat HOTTEST EVER: The UK broke its temperature record for June twice this week, while France recorded its hottest day ever two days in a row, reported the Guardian. The Times reported that temperatures reached 36.7C in Somerset on Thursday, as the “London Ambulance Service had its busiest-ever day for life-threatening emergencies”. FRA