DeBriefed 11 July 2025: Texas floods; Global warming ‘tripled’ Europe heat deaths; Ireland exits coal
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Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed. An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change. This week Deadly Texas floods EXTREME FLOODING: At least 120 people died and 173 remain missing one week after flash floods in Texas, NBC News reported. The floods were “one of the deadliest weather events in recent American history”, […]
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A Differentiated Path Forward: The Inter-American Court’s Advisory Opinion on Climate Change and Human Mobility Rights
Within hours of the publication of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ (IACtHR) Advisory Opinion OC-32/25 on the “Climate Emergency and Human Rights” (AO-32/25), the international human rights community erupted with acclaim. Academics and human rights advocates swiftly characterized the opinion as “historic”, a “landmark decision”, with one colleague declaring it “highly inspiring”. Such effusive […]
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Media reaction: The 2025 Texas floods and the role of climate change
At least 120 people have died after a devastating flash flood swept through homes and holiday camps in central Texas in the early hours of 4 July. The disaster unfolded after a severe rainstorm caused the Guadalupe River to swell to its second-greatest height on record. Headlines have been dominated by the death of 27 […]
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China Briefing 10 July 2025: New sector targets; Overcapacity dressing-down; Adaptation scorecard
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s China Briefing. China Briefing handpicks and explains the most important climate and energy stories from China over the past fortnight. Subscribe for free here. Key developments New sector targets in renewable portfolio standard NEW QUOTAS: China has published the 2025-2026 provincial quotas for renewable energy consumption, which for the first time included […]
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Water stored in dams has caused a shift in Earth’s magnetic poles
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Aerial view of the Kariba Dam, in the Kariba Gorge of the Zambezi river basin between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Over the past two centuries, humans have locked up enough water in dams to shift Earth’s poles slightly away from the planet’s axis of rotation, according to new research. Earth’s outermost solid layer sits atop goopy […]
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AD and Biogas Industry Awards 2025 winners announced
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The winners The winners for the AD and Biogas Industry Awards 2025 have now been revealed at a lavish ceremony hosted by Rory Bremner at the Birmingham National Conference Centre on Wednesday night, 9 July. Run by the Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA) and the World Biogas Association (WBA), the Awards celebrate excellence and […]
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Veolia to build £70 million closed-loop plastics recycling facility near Shrewsbury
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Plastic bottles collected for recycling. Resource management company Veolia has launched its biggest UK plastics recycling project with a £70 million investment which will include the country’s first “tray to tray” closed loop PET recycling facility in Battlefield near Shrewsbury, Shropshire. Construction on the facility has begun, said the group in a 9 July announcement, […]
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AI shapes autonomous underwater “gliders”
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Marine scientists have long marveled at how animals like fish and seals swim so efficiently despite having different shapes. Their bodies are optimized for efficient, hydrodynamic aquatic navigation so they can exert minimal energy when traveling long distances. Autonomous vehicles can drift through the ocean in a similar way, collecting data about vast underwater environments. […]
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Changing the conversation in health care
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Generative artificial intelligence is transforming the ways humans write, read, speak, think, empathize, and act within and across languages and cultures. In health care, gaps in communication between patients and practitioners can worsen patient outcomes and prevent improvements in practice and care. The Language/AI Incubator, made possible through funding from the MIT Human Insight Collaborative (MITHIC), […]
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Sabin Center Releases Its 2024-2025 Annual Report
Today, the Sabin Center published its 2024-2025 annual report, highlighting its groundbreaking work over the last year to develop legal tools to combat the climate crisis and advance climate change. In 2024-2025, we expanded our work and impact, both domestically in the United States and globally. We added to our team of climate law experts, […]
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Experts: Which climate tipping point is the most concerning?
Last week, hundreds of scientists, policymakers and journalists flocked to the University of Exeter to attend an international conference on “tipping points”. The conference saw experts discussing the dangers of a range of Earth system tipping points, including the dieback of the Amazon, the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and the shutdown of the […]
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A Blueprint for Rights-Based Climate Action: The Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ Advisory Opinion on the Climate Emergency
A Historic Advisory Opinion On July 3, 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) issued Advisory Opinion No. 32—the most important and progressive document yet released by an international court on the climate crisis. In this landmark ruling (still only available in Spanish, with official English and Portuguese translations expected on Friday, July 11), […]
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Nature-positive AI projects hailed successes following £2 million investment
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The River Idle in Nottinghamshire was the focal point of work by one of the funding recipients Zulu Ecosystems & Severn Trent, in a project that has developed models to show how nature-based solutions can impact things like flood management (image credit: Darkhorse Winterwolf, CC BY-NC 2.0 license). Six data and AI projects have successfully […]
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World first claimed for hybrid solar-powered inland shipping vessel
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In the Blue Marlin, solar panels contribute power directly to the ship’s high voltage electric propulsion. Dutch maritime solar innovator Wattlab has delivered a solar energy system for HGK Shipping’s inland shipping cargo vessel Blue Marlin. In what’s presented as a significant technical milestone for sustainable inland shipping, the vessel’s 192 solar panels will provide […]
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Tipping points: Window to avoid irreversible climate impacts is ‘rapidly closing’
In the midst of a record-breaking heatwave in Europe, the UK city of Exeter recently played host to the second international conference on “tipping points”. The event was billed as a “call to action” to the “research community, policymakers and business to raise awareness and understanding of the importance of tipping points and to accelerate […]
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OBR: Net-zero is much cheaper than thought for UK – and unchecked global warming far more costly
Reaching net-zero will be much cheaper for the UK government than previously expected – and the economic damages of unmitigated climate change far more severe. These are two key conclusions from the latest report on risks to the government finances from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which includes a chapter on climate change. The new […]
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PurAffinity signs first commercial agreement for full-scale deployment of its PFAS removal technology
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(Left to right) Vincent Caillaud, Puraffinity chief executive officer, with co-founder Henrik Hagemann. This article contains paid for content produced in collaboration with Puraffinity. Puraffinity, a leading innovator in PFAS removal technologies, has signed its first commercial agreement to implement its flagship product, Puratech G400, in a full-scale water treatment project. This marks a significant […]
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Open-source AI models support water quality monitoring
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The models aims to support river flow predictions and pollution source tracking, among other things. Collaborative innovation project River Deep Mountain AI (RDMAI) has announced the open-source release of a suite of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) models that it says are set to transform the way water quality data is collected and used. […]