Chinese president Xi Jinping, in an unexpected video address at the UN, announced last week that China will aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions 7-10% below peak levels by 2035. The target was one of several new pledges that will be included in China’s 2035 nationally determined contribution (NDC), which China has yet to reveal […]

Electricity demand on the island of Great Britain has been fully covered by the output of clean-energy sources for a record 87 hours in 2025 to date, new Carbon Brief analysis shows. This is up from just 2.5 hours in 2021 and 64.5 hours in all of 2024, ahead of the government’s clean-power target for […]

Hello! My Name is Athena Geer, and I am the Youth Climate Justice Coordinator here at Climate Generation.  I get the honor and immense privilege of co-facilitating our Youth Environmental Activist Program (YEA)!. YEA! is a network for and by young people. From weekly programming to our annual Youth Climate Justice Summit (YCJS), the leaders […]

Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed. An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change. This week China’s new climate pledge GUTERRES DEMANDS: UN secretary general António Guterres hosted a special climate action summit in New York on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported, alongside the closing day of the UN general assembly. It added […]

Half of global greenhouse gas emissions are now covered by a 2035 climate pledge following a key UN summit this week, Carbon Brief analysis finds. China stole the show at the UN climate summit held in New York on 24 September, announcing a pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 7-10% below peak levels by […]

President Xi Jinping has personally pledged to cut China’s greenhouse gas emissions to 7-10% below peak levels by 2035, while “striving to do better”. This is China’s third pledge under the Paris Agreement, but is the first to put firm constraints on the country’s emissions by setting an “absolute” target to reduce them. China’s leader […]

When lawsuits first began to raise climate change issues in the late 1980s, the cases were rare and experimental, with litigants testing out ways to draw on the growing body of climate science to argue for legal obligations to address “the serious and imminent threat to our environment posed by a continuation of global warming.”1 Four […]

A record number of heat-related “emergencies” have been triggered by councils this year to help rough sleepers in England and Wales, Carbon Brief analysis reveals. As climate change drives more heat extremes, there is a growing recognition that homeless people face a higher risk of illness and even death when temperatures soar. This summer has […]

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 High Seas Treaty milestone  OCEAN PROTECTION: The High Seas Treaty, which aims to “protect the world’s oceans […]

Andrew Kieffer joined the Sabin Center in September 2025 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Renewable Energy Legal Defense Initiative, which uses legal research and engagement to support siting utility- and community-scale renewable energy facilities and associated transmission and storage equipment. His work focuses on identifying legal pathways to challenge land-use and siting barriers which […]