Photo by Nandish Jha on Unsplash Zoning regulations have lately come under fire for making cities less dense and driving up the cost of new homes. State legislatures are increasingly responding by preempting aspects of local zoning authority. But despite its real problems, both now and historically, local zoning power remains an important tool among […]

Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed. An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change. This week Hormuz latest DELAYED ULTIMATUM: The week started with US president Donald Trump giving Iran 48 hours to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital supply route for oil and gas, or the US would “hit and obliterate” […]

India has set a new target to reduce its “emissions intensity” – greenhouse gas emissions per unit of economic output – to 47% below 2005 levels by 2035. The much-awaited announcement comes within India’s delayed new nationally determined contribution (NDC) for 2035 under the Paris Agreement, which had been due last year. The pledge, which has […]

Arctic sea ice has reached its peak extent for this winter, clocking in as the joint-smallest in a satellite record going back almost half a century. Provisional data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) shows that sea ice extent peaked at 14.29m square kilometres (km2) on 15 March. This is slightly […]

The UK is roughly halving the climate aid it allocates to developing countries, when accounting changes and inflation are factored in, according to new analysis by Carbon Brief. On 19 March, the government announced that the UK would provide “around £6bn” of international “climate finance” over the next three years. This replaces a previous goal […]

For the past two decades, low-level cloud cover has been declining, increasing the amount of sunlight absorbed by Earth and amplifying global warming. As global temperatures have reached record highs in recent years, there has been concern that the decline in cloudiness may be enhancing warming more than previously expected. In a new study, published […]

India’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions grew by 0.5% in the second half of 2025 and by just 0.7% in the year as a whole, the slowest rate in more than two decades. This is a sharp slowdown from the growth of 4-11% in the preceding four years and marks the lowest rate of increase since […]

Limiting warming to 2C above pre-industrial temperatures may not be enough to prevent “extreme global climate outcomes”, according to research published in Nature. The authors simulate climate extremes – such as drought in breadbasket regions and flooding in populated areas – under a 2C warming scenario using a range of different global climate models. They […]

The Iran war has triggered another fossil-fuel energy crisis, with surging global prices and increasing concerns over energy security. In the UK, many newspapers, opposition politicians and other public figures have used the crisis to argue in favour of issuing more licences for oil and gas drilling in the North Sea. These arguments have also […]

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 Seabed mining talks stall UNFINISHED BUSINESS: The International Seabed Authority (ISA) ended a two-week meeting in Kingston, […]