Carbon Brief

🇨🇳 China will need 10,000GW of wind and solar to hit carbon neutrality by 2060 – more than seven times its current capacity – according to new Chinese government-endorsed research. 📚 The China Energy Transformation Outlook 2024 (CETO24) shows that this massive expansion can improve China’s climate efforts and bring economic benefits. It explores two possible pathways: ➡️ One where geopolitical tensions limit international cooperation ➡️ Another where international climate collaboration continues despite global challenges 🔎 Both scenarios show China can reach net-zero energy emissions before 2060. But success depends on boosting energy efficiency, electrification, and building “intelligent”, renewables-based grids. Read more from Wang Zhongying and Kaare Sandholt here ⬇️ https://buff.ly/gR4AAhf #ChinaPolicy #Renewables #EnergyTransition #NetZero

Kemi Badenoch, leader of the opposition Conservative party, is wrong about the UK’s net-zero goal. Read Dr Simon Evans’s factcheck for detail on why: https://buff.ly/715QoAh 🗣️ Badenoch claimed that the UK's net-zero target by 2050 is “impossible” to achieve without “bankrupting” the country in a speech launching a new Conservative “policy renewal programme”. She dismissed the 2050 net-zero target, passed into law by her own party in 2019, without offering an alternative or supporting evidence 🔎 In reality, in 2019, the UK’s advisory Climate Change Committee considered the breadth of scientific evidence, the economics of the transition, as well as societal and technological trends when it offered detailed advice – covering 277 pages – on setting a net-zero by 2050 target. This target was passed into law by Badenoch’s own Conservative party. 🔎 Carbon Brief's latest factcheck examines the evidence behind the UK’s net-zero target, factchecking several more false claims from the speech. Read it here ⬇️ https://buff.ly/715QoAh #UKpolicy #NetZero #UKpolitics #EnergyTransition #KemiBadenoch

“Adapting to increasing extreme #heat will be central to urban living for decades to come. A late start to these efforts will increase pressure on the state in the future and risks exposing citizens to harms from warming that could be avoided.” Aditya Valiathan Pillai, Tamanna Dalal, Ishan Kukreti, Alexandra Kassinis, Lucas Vargas Zeppetello, Escandita Tewari, and Navroz K. Dubash write in Carbon Brief article about our new report that assesses India’s readiness for extreme heat. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/g2f7nGs9 

FACTCHECK: Why Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch is wrong about UK's net-zero goal In which I take a look at the evidence contradicting Badenoch's speech, from the science on the 2050 target to fact gas is causing high electricity prices + much much more https://lnkd.in/eUR9pH9c

🌽 How should we feed the billions of mouths around the planet without denuding the natural “assets” – the soil, the water, the forests – that sustain us? 🍲 Should we eat organic food? Is it best to be vegan? Could genetically modified crops better withstand climate change? What exactly are “nature-based” climate solutions? 🔎 To guide our choices and policymaking on this huge, complex topic, we need evidence-based clarity. 📩 This is why Carbon Brief sends out a free fortnightly email newsletter, Cropped.  🌿 Cropped provides a digest of all the key developments from the fraught, yet fascinating intersection between food systems, land use, nature and climate change. Sign up to Cropped for free here ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/exdkaNPS ✍️ Cropped is written in rotation by a team of global, award-winning journalists: Dr Giuliana Viglione, Aruna Chandrasekhar, Daisy Dunne, Orla Dwyer and Yanine Quiroz.

New report from Kaare Sandholt and Wang Zhongying from the Chinese Academy of Macroeconomic Research – a “national high-end thinktank” under the central gov shows that China will need to install around 10,000GW💨 and🌞 capacity, up from the current 1408GW, to reach carbon neutrality by 2060. In the past few years, electricity demand has grown rapidly. The challenge today is related to transformation’s speed – how China can vigorously accelerate renewable energy deployment to cover growing energy demand and substitute coal power. The report sets two scenarios. Under both scenarios, China’s energy system can achieve net-zero carbon emissions before 2060, paving the way to make Chinese society as a whole carbon neutral before 2060. However, the outlook shows that meeting these policy goals will not be possible unless China improves its energy efficiency, sustains its electrification efforts and develops a power system built around “intelligent” grids that are predominantly supplied with electricity from solar and wind. https://lnkd.in/eis-kbaY

🔊 New analysis from Carbon Brief found that the UK's emissions fell 3.6% in 2024 to the lowest since 1872. 📉 Key drivers of the decline: UK coal consumption dropped 54% to just 2 million tonnes, the lowest level since 1666. This accounted for half of the UK’s emissions drop last year. 🚗 Oil & Gas Down Despite increased road traffic, EV sales soared (+40%), reducing petrol/diesel demand. EV drivers collectively saved £1.7bn in fuel costs. Meanwhile, gas for power fell, replaced by low-carbon sources and cheap imports. 🌍 UK emissions now 54% below 1990 levels while the economy has nearly doubled—but we still need to accelerate cuts to hit 2035/2050 targets. Thanks for sharing Simon Evans and for the great research as ever.

What’s happened this week in climate change? Read the latest issue of Carbon Brief’s weekly newsletter, DeBriefed, here ⬇️ https://buff.ly/MCRNjVN In this issue: 🇺🇸 US energy secretary made the “moral case for fossil fuels” as climate cuts continued. 🇧🇷 Eight miles of rainforest are being cleared in Belém ahead of COP30. 📆 Key dates for next week and pick of the jobs. 💡 Spotlight | This week, Carbon Brief unpacks Myanmar’s energy crisis. ✍ Written by Alice Vernat-Davies 📝 Edited by Daisy Dunne Sign up to DeBriefed here ⬇️ https://bit.ly/4a4gsGR #DeBriefed #ClimateNews #ClimateChange

🌨️ In a warming world, is climate change making extreme cold more common? 🐻❄️There is significant debate in the scientific community about whether rapid Arctic warming and sea ice loss could disrupt atmospheric circulation patterns and lead to cold-air outbreaks in the northern hemisphere mid-latitude regions. 🔎 In a new analysis, Carbon Brief shows that few places in the world have seen an increase in extreme cold days over the past 55 years. ☀️ If climate change is influencing atmospheric circulation, any effects on extreme cold appear to be more than compensated by the rapid winter warming the world has experienced. Read more from Dr Zeke Hausfather here ⬇️ https://buff.ly/i2MHXEK #GlobalWarming #ExtremeWeather #ClimateScience #RisingTemperatures