Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
World court’s ‘landmark’ climate opinion
POLLUTERS ‘ACCOUNTABLE’: The UN’s highest court has told “wealthy” countries “they must comply with their international commitments to curb pollution or risk having to pay compensation to nations hard hit by climate change”, reported Reuters. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a much-awaited advisory opinion that small island states have described as a “legal stepping stone to make big polluters accountable”, the newswire added.
‘INHERENT RIGHT’: The Associated Press said that, during a two-hour hearing to present the unanimous opinion, Japanese judge Yuji Iwasawa told the court that the “human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is…inherent in the enjoyment of other human rights”. The newswire said activists described this as a “turning point in international climate law”.
‘LEGAL WEIGHT’: The Times noted that the “view is non-binding on governments, including the [UK], and the US does not recognise the court’s jurisdiction”. However, the “ICJ’s advisory opinions carry great legal weight and are seen to contribute to the clarification of international law”, the newspaper added. Carbon Brief has just published an in-depth Q&A on what the opinion means for climate change.
Renewables ‘breakthrough’
BRINK OF BREAKTHROUGH: UN secretary-general António Guterres said on Tuesday that the “world is on the brink of a breakthrough in the climate fight and fossil fuels are running out of road”, the Guardian reported, as two new reports were published illustrating the growing dominance of renewable energy. In his online speech, Guterres said the global energy transition is now “unstoppable” due to “smart economics”.
RENEWABLES ‘CHEAPER’: The first of the new reports, from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), said that around 90% of renewable power projects globally are now cheaper than fossil fuel alternatives, Reuters said. The second, from the UN drawing on data from multiple international agencies, found that renewables made up 92.5% of all new electricity capacity additions and 74% of electricity generation growth in 2024, the Financial Times reported. Carbon Brief pulled out five key takeaways from both reports.
- IN DANGER: The Trump administration has “drafted a plan to repeal a fundamental scientific finding”, known as the “endangerment finding”, that “gives the US government its authority to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions and fight climate change”, reported the New York Times.
- EU-CHINA SUMMIT: The EU and China have “committed to leading the world in the fight against climate change” in a joint statement released on Thursday following a meeting between the two superpowers, Bloomberg said. Carbon Brief’s China Briefing newsletter provided more details.
- JAPAN EYES NUCLEAR: A Japanese utility has become the first since the Fukushima nuclear disaster 14 years ago to take steps towards building a new reactor, reported Channel News Asia.
- SHELL QUITS INITIATIVE: Shell and other fossil-fuel companies have “abandoned” a six-year-long attempt to define a net-zero emissions strategy “after being told that such a standard would require them to stop developing new oil and gas fields”, according to the Financial Times.
- FLASH FLOODS: Ongoing flash flooding in Pakistan has killed at least 266 people over the past month, the Hindu reported.
The temperature in some parts of Iran this week – as authorities asked people to limit drinking water amid an ongoing drought crisis, reported the Guardian.
- Climate change is creating “new vulnerabilities” for pandemics | Carbon Brief
- South American lands stewarded by “Afro-descendant” people coincide with areas with “high biodiversity” and are associated with a 29-55% reduction in forest loss, compared to control sites | Communications Earth & Environment
- The “true price” of solar geoengineering is “much higher than its modest technical costs would indicate” | npj Climate Action
(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
New research covered by Carbon Brief this week found that one in three people in informal settlements in the global south live in floodplains and are at risk of a “disastrous flood”. The chart above draws on data from the study, published in Nature Cities, to illustrate where in the world has the highest number of “slum residents” living in floodplains.
Antarctica’s oldest ice arrives in UK
Carbon Brief recently visited British Antarctic Survey scientists responsible for uncovering the secrets of Antarctica’s oldest ice.
Standing in a freezer in Cambridge – with a -25C chill licking at his nostrils – British Antarctic Survey (BAS) lab manager Jack Humby excitedly opens up an unassuming polystyrene box.
Using his bare hands, he pulls out its contents. Long square-shaped sections of crystal clear ice – wrapped in plastic labelling which way is up – are revealed.
Little about the appearance of the ice gives away that it is at least 1.2m years old.
It has journeyed to the BAS headquarters on the outskirts of Cambridge from an ice core drilling camp in East Antarctica.
In January, scientists at the camp vertically drilled a 2,800m-long ice core, with on-site tests revealing it was likely to be at least 1.2m years old. The ice was then flown to a nearby port and shipped to Europe aboard the Italian icebreaker Laura Bassi.
The ice was drilled as part of the Beyond Epica Oldest Ice project, a large-scale field operation involving multiple research teams and laboratories across Europe.
‘One shot’
Owing to its specialist equipment and research expertise, BAS has been tasked with analysing the ice to reveal its secrets.
Though not visible to the human eye, the ice contains organic compounds and tiny pockets of air from periods stretching back hundreds of thousands of years.
Over the next seven weeks, the research team at BAS will work around the clock to analyse these features. However, in order to do so, they will have to melt the ice.
Dr Liz Thomas, head of the ice cores team at BAS, told journalists:
“It’s a huge responsibility because this is a one shot. Given how much effort has gone into drilling these cores, we have to get this absolutely right.”
To conduct their analysis, the team plan to use a gold-plated instrument to melt the square-shaped sections of ice being stored in the freezer room.
The meltwater will then be piped into a specially designed lab next door, which contains millions of pounds worth of analysis equipment, according to Humby.
Climates past
The analysis will help scientists work out how old the ice actually is. Though initial tests suggest it is at least 1.2m years old, but the team believe it could be up to 1.5m years old or even older.
It will also enable researchers to paint a more detailed picture of Earth’s past climates.
In turn, this could inform scientists’ understanding of how large swings in temperature in the past have affected various parts of the Earth climate system, including its ice sheets and ecosystems.
Ultimately, this could help researchers to make more informed projections about the likely impacts of human-caused climate change, Thomas explained:
“As climate scientists, it’s our job to provide as much information as we can. What we’re relying on to understand the next steps is climate models. They are fantastic, but they’re only as good as the information we put into them. That really is the justification for looking back in time.”
COP30 LOOMS: A long-read in the Brazilian culture magazine Piauí examined the fraught road that the nation faces to host the next UN climate summit in November.
ARCTIC ‘MELTING POINT’: In Nature Communications, researchers recounted how the Arctic island of Svalbard is facing a “dramatic shift” to high air temperatures and rainfall in the depths of winter.
STUDENT VICTORY: The Guardian spoke to a group of students from the Pacific islands who started the campaign for the world’s top court, the ICJ, to take on the issue of climate change.
DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to [email protected].
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Great Job Daisy Dunne & the Team @ Carbon Brief Source link for sharing this story.
