Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An indispensable guide to the week’s key climate change developments.

Floods, fires and heat

DISASTER IN BANGLADESH: According to the Bangladeshi newspaper Daily Star, more than three million people have been stranded by floods in eight districts in Bangladesh. The newspaper also reported comments by an adviser to the interim government, who said that India had been “inhuman” by opening a dam without prior notice and thereby “caused” floods in Bangladesh. This was strongly denied by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, the Hindustan Times reported. Agence France-Presse reported that Bangladesh is extremely vulnerable to climate change, adding that it is “changing weather patterns and increasing the number of extreme weather events”.

FLOODS: The Associated Press reported that more than 200 people have died in southern Pakistan as a result of flash flooding caused by monsoon rains. The Global Times reported that since the start of this year’s flood season, China‘s major rivers have experienced 25 significant floods – the most recorded since data collection began in 1998. Reuters, Agence France-Press and The Associated Press reported flooding in “Alpine regions of Austria”, “warn-torned Yemen” and “the western Alaskan village of Napakiak” respectively.

FIRE FIGHTING: Greece and Turkey both struggled to contain wildfires as temperatures soared to 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit), Bloomberg reported. The Greek government will hold a parliamentary debate next month on its handling of the latest wildfire season, the outlet noted. Separately, Bloomberg explained that the EU’s firefighting budget rose 35% from 2018-22, to $42 billion in 2022.

MEDITERRANEAN HEAT: The Mediterranean Sea recorded a high of 31.96C last week and an average daily temperature of 28.90C, potentially breaking two temperature records, Agence France-Presse reported. BBC News is among several outlets to note that such high temperatures have been known to fuel sea tornadoes, known as “waterspouts”, which may have played a role in the fatal capsizing of a superyacht in Sicily on Monday.

US Democrats ‘silent’ on climate

DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION: At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week, top Democrats have been “largely silent on climate change,” the Washington Post reported. On Monday, delegates voted to approve a party platform that calls for the U.S. to be the first country to achieve net-zero agricultural emissions by 2050, Successful Farming reported. National Public Radio reported that climate change “got its moment in the sun” during an evening event on Thursday, when speakers including Interior Secretary Deb Haaland discussed “Biden administration climate policy” and “job creation.”

ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN: Meanwhile, several climate groups have joined forces to run a $55 million ad campaign for Kamala Harris ahead of the U.S. presidential election, the New York Times reported. According to the newspaper, the ads frame Biden and Harris’ climate policies “in terms of economic benefits rather than environmental benefits” and will run in six key swing states.

• FINANCIAL OBJECTIVE: A group of developed countries led by the EU and the US “want other countries that have become richer – and more polluting – to join in” on the new climate finance target to be agreed at COP29 in November, Climate Home News reported.
• COAL INCIDENCE: Approvals for new coal-fired power plants in China “fell sharply” in the first half of 2024, the Associated Press news agency reported, after “a flood of permits in the previous two years raised concerns about the government’s commitment to limiting climate change.”
• EV RELAPSE: Automaker Ford has decided to invest less in battery-powered vehicles and scrap its planned three-row electric SUV, the New York Times reports.
• CONTROVERSY OVER HISTORY: Three climate scientists have written a commentary piece in the Conversation pushing back against claims that the world can limit warming to 1.5C while expanding fossil fuel production by relying on carbon removal technologies. Axios noted that “experts not involved in the piece disagreed with some aspects.”
• ARCTIC LETTER: Daisy Dunne, associate editor of Carbon Brief, is joining the British Antarctic Survey on an Arctic expedition next week. Register for a free webinar, hosted live by Daisy from Spitsbergen next Friday, to ask the scientists your questions.

According to Reuters, the number of people in southern Africa suffering the effects of an El Niño-induced drought has risen, devastating crops in the region.

• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) should consider “a broader range of assumptions about future population sizes” in its future warming scenarios, a new study in npj Climate Action argues.
• A new modelling study in the Lancet, using data from 854 European cities, found that heat-related deaths in Europe could triple by 2100 under current climate policies, with most of this happening among people living in southern parts of the continent, the study found.
• West Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier may be less vulnerable to the instability of sea ice cliffs than previously thought — a theory that holds that towering cliffs of glacial ice could collapse into the ocean under their own weight — according to a new paper published in Science.

(For more information, see Carbon Brief’s comprehensive daily summaries of key climate news on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)

Captured

Carbon Brief has published five graphs explaining how climate change is affecting food supplies and prices. The paper examines case studies from around the world, from extreme heat damaging Chinese rice crops to hurricanes and pests limiting US orange harvests. The graph above shows the factors that have affected global olive oil production over the past two decades. Global olive production fell by a third between 2021 and 2024 due to droughts and heatwaves, the paper says, pushing up prices across Europe.

Lessons from 1,500 climate policies

A new one study Analyses of 1,500 climate policies implemented over the past two decades published this week show that only 4% – 63 policy – were effective in reducing emissions.

Carbon Brief speaks with lead author Dr. Annika Stechemesser from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.

Carbon Brief: Your study identifies 1,500 climate policies. What are the most common policies?

Dr. Annika Stechemesser: “Command-and-control” measures, such as emission standards and technology mandates, are the most widely used policy measures in all sectors except transport. Market-based policy measures [such as taxes] are mainly concentrated in developed economies and are most common in the transportation sector.

CB: You identified 63 policy interventions that led to large emission reductions. Can you share examples of these?

AS: In the industrial sector, China’s pilot emissions trading schemes led to significant reductions in emissions after a few years. This was complemented by lower subsidies for fossil fuels and stronger financial incentives for energy efficiency.

In the electricity sector, the UK has achieved major emissions reductions through a carbon floor, renewable energy subsidies and a plan to phase out coal.

The US is an example of significant emissions reductions in the transportation sector, thanks to a combination of tax breaks and subsidies for low-emission vehicles and carbon efficiency standards.

CB: You think that a mix of policies is more effective than one policy. Why is that?

AS: Popular measures such as bans, building codes, energy efficiency rules and subsidies tend to have little or no effect when used alone. They only show large effects when combined with other policy measures and in most cases pricing is the complement that makes effective emission reductions possible.

Among price-based measures, taxes stand out. They are the only policy instrument that has been shown to produce large emissions reductions on their own.

CB: Are there differences between successful policies in developed and developing countries?

AS: Our findings suggest that the combinations of policy instruments that are complementary in mixes vary across sectors and groups of countries with economic development. For example, we find that in the manufacturing sector, pricing plays a prominent role in both developed and developing countries, but in different ways. It is most effective alone in developed economies and most synergistic with other policies in developing countries.

The observed differences in effective policies may partly reflect the stage of climate policy. We cannot observe some policies in developing countries because they are not implemented due to opposition from interest groups or limited state capacity.

The authors of the study also introduce a dashboard that anyone can use to make country-by-country and sector-by-sector policy comparisons. This interview has been edited for length.

CLIMATE COMMUNICATION: The British Antarctic Survey hosted a YouTube conversation between three climate scientists about how to communicate climate science. The conversation is also outlined in this article.

‘TAXING’ BIG OIL: In her newsletter Heated, reporter Emily Atkin offered a rebuttal to Elon Musk’s position that people should not “vilify” the oil and gas industry in his recent conversation with Donald Trump.

EV PERCEPTION: The Energy vs Climate podcast published an episode titled “Buzzkill: Understanding the shift in media perception towards EVs,” featuring Simon Evans, deputy editor of Carbon Brief.

Choice of jobs

• British Antarctic Survey, communication modeller | Salary: £43,116-£47,076. Location: Cambridge
• Climate Action Trackermentorship program in climate journalism | Salary: $900 “economic incentive”. Location: Chile, Colombia and Peru
• Historic England, Head of Climate Change | Salary: £52,765 – £57,926. Location: UK (multiple locations)
• Climate analysis, climate impact and adaptation – research associate | Salary: Unknown. Location: Lome, Togo

DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunne. Send tips or feedback to [email protected].
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