Climate change did not have a “significant” impact on the likelihood or intensity of recent “devastating” rainfall and flooding in a northern Italian region, new analysis shows.  Over the course of a few days in May, extremely high rainfall levels led to severe flooding in Emilia-Romagna, one of the wealthiest regions in Italy.  This one-in-200-year extreme weather event caused 17 deaths and displaced 50,000 people from their homes.  But although the rain levels were “very unusual”, a new study finds that climate change has not made high rainfall in this region at this time of y ..read more

Republican strongholds, such as Texas, Wyoming and Oklahoma, stand to gain hundreds of thousands of jobs in the clean-energy sector as the US moves to a net-zero economy, a new study concludes. It finds that jobs in low-carbon industries would outweigh losses in most of the country’s fossil-fuel rich regions, as oil, coal and gas operations close down. Total employment in the nationwide US energy sector could double or even triple by 2050 to meet the demand for wind turbines, solar panels and transmission lines, according to the modelling published in Energy Policy. Republican leaders have rej ..read more

As part of a series on how key emitters are responding to climate change, Carbon Brief delves into the causes of Pakistan’s deep-rooted energy and economic crisis, whether it will move past coal and how catastrophic floods fuelled its call for loss-and-damage finance at UN climate talks. Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change in the world. It is currently in the midst of a crippling energy and economic crisis that has brought it to the brink of bankruptcy. The country, which is the fifth most populous in the world and home to more than 230 million people, was the 18 ..read more

Virtually every country in the world has set a target for cutting emissions under the Paris Agreement. As part of their obligations under the climate treaty, they have also committed to regularly reporting on their efforts. In the race to cut fossil fuel use and preserve carbon-rich landscapes, it is essential that governments understand the flows of greenhouse gases that fall within their jurisdictions.  Without reliable reporting, it will be impossible to know whether nations are living up to their Paris Agreement commitments. As it stands, many developing countries have limited capacit ..read more

Welcome to Carbon Brief’s Cropped.  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. Snapshot Ecuador completed the world’s biggest debt-for-nature deal to date – setting the stage to reduce the country’s debt in exchange for funding nature conservation.  Subscribe: Cropped Sign up to Carbon Brief's free "Cropped" email newsletter. A fortnightly digest of food, land and nature news and views ..read more

Subsidies that harm nature and the environment cost the world an estimated $1.8tn each year – the equivalent of the entire GDP of Canada. Governments funnel this money into supporting fossil fuels, agriculture and other sectors which can have negative impacts on biodiversity. Countries have signed up to a number of targets to cut down these subsidies, including in a recent global agreement to reduce biodiversity-harming subsidies by at least $500bn by 2030. But experts say there is still a long road ahead to reduce the ways in which governments harm nature and ecosystems, such as lowering the ..read more

The Montreal Protocol – which aims to reduce emissions of ozone-depleting gases – has had the unexpected benefit of slowing Arctic sea ice loss, according to new research. In 1987, nearly 200 countries signed the landmark Montreal Protocol, promising to limit their emissions of “ozone-depleting substances” in an effort to slow the thinning of the planet’s ozone layer. The agreement is widely hailed as one of the most successful environmental treaties ever implemented. Today, nearly 99% of banned ozone-depleting substances, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), have been phased out and the ozone ..read more

China’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions grew 4% in the first quarter of 2023, reaching a record high for the first three months of the year. The new analysis for Carbon Brief, based on official figures and commercial data, shows the increase was driven by an economic rebound after the end of China’s long zero-Covid policy, stimulus measures and weak hydro generation due to an ongoing drought. Looking at the rest of the year, the government’s focus on economic growth means that China’s emissions are likely to reach an all-time high in 2023, topping the previous peak in 2021. The medium-term pict ..read more

In the second of a new series explaining how key commodities are affected by and contribute to climate change, Carbon Brief looks at coffee – from how it is grown in the world’s bean belt to where it is roasted, traded and consumed – with a special focus on Colombia and Ethiopia. Coffee is the most popular drink in many countries and the most widely traded tropical product in the world. The world produces almost 11m tonnes of coffee per year and consumes about the same. The global coffee trade accounts for 2.5% of the world’s agricultural commodity trade by value – but less than 0.6% of its tr ..read more

There will be a significant loss in the benefits that European forests provide for humans and nature this century, concludes new research.  However, it also finds that these losses can be reduced – but not entirely stopped – by more strategic tree-planting. The study says that “ecosystem services” supplied by forests, such as protecting soils or providing food, will reduce by 15% on average by the end of this century under a moderate-emissions scenario. These losses can be partly mitigated if more consideration is given to the type of trees planted across the continent, the study finds.&n ..read more