Rapid data center development is challenging local governments’ ability to manage the environmental challenges these facilities raise. Cities, towns, and counties are facing both uncertainty about the scope of those impacts and growing opposition to data centers from residents. In response, many are turning to temporary moratoria to pause data center development while they figure […]

China has said that hydrogen is a key “future industry”, important to both its energy transition and its industrial policy. Hydrogen frequently goes through hype cycles, most recently driven by rising oil and gas prices due to the conflict in the Middle East. Yet, even in China, the world’s largest producer and consumer of the […]

Clean energy siting across the nation is facing enormous challenges. Local opposition is widespread and rapidly increasing in many areas. One example is Ohio, where government opposition is a byproduct of state legislation and also the result of coordinated campaigns spreading mis- and dis-information about the impacts of renewable energy projects. By the end of […]

Climate advocates may hope to see dramatic commercial breakthroughs over the next several decades that reshape emissions-intensive components of our everyday lives, such as our dietary choices, household energy use, and transportation habits. Yet transforming these consumer sectors will require not only scientific ingenuity and entrepreneurial ambition, but also nimble competition policy to address complex […]

A major change in the way that China measures its core climate goal has effectively halved the growth in the country’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions over the past five years. The revised measure of “carbon intensity”, the amount of CO2 per unit of economic output, implies that China’s emissions have only gone up by 7% […]

At least 67 NHS hospital wards, departments and other sites across the UK have been forced to temporarily close or relocate due to weather-related flooding over the past five years, a Carbon Brief investigation reveals. Maternity centres, surgical theatres, a neonatal intensive-care unit and even entire hospital buildings have been disrupted by heavy rainfall or […]

Hundreds of scientists gathered in London this week to discuss the role of migration as a way for communities to adapt to climate change. The impacts of a warming world, such as sea level rise and worsening extremes, are pushing many people around the world to leave their homes. As a form of climate adaptation, […]

Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed. An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change. This week UN adopts landmark opinion ICJ OPINION: The UN has adopted a resolution backing a landmark world court opinion stating that countries have a legal obligation to address climate change, reported the Guardian. Some 141 countries voted in […]

Hundreds of scientists in dozens of institutions are embarking on the next phase of the world’s largest coordinated climate-modelling effort. Climate-modelling groups use supercomputers to run climate models that simulate the physics, chemistry and biology of the Earth’s atmosphere, land and oceans. These models play a crucial role in helping scientists understand how the climate […]

The number of new coal-fired power plants built around the world hit a “10-year high” in 2025, even as the global coal fleet generated less electricity, amid a “widening disconnect” in the sector.  That is according to the latest annual report from Global Energy Monitor (GEM), which finds that the world added nearly 100 gigawatts […]

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 Deforestation talks COP30 ROADMAP: Brazil’s global roadmap away from deforestation will involve countries producing their own voluntary […]