DeBriefed 30 June 2023: Deforestation rises; UK not a ‘climate leader’; Thailand field research; Pick of climate jobs

§ This week

Deforestation rises

Destruction: Around 4.1m hectares of primary tropical rainforest was lost globally in 2022 – an increase of 10% from 2021 – BBC News reported. This is according to a new report from the World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch and University of Maryland, which was widely covered in the media. Forest loss in 2022 produced 2.7bn tonnes of CO2 emissions, equivalent to the annual fossil fuel emissions of India, the Hindu reported.

Ranking: Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Bolivia topped the table for tropical primary forest loss in 2022, said the Guardian. The paper added that Indonesia and Malaysia “managed to keep rates of loss near record low levels after significant corporate and government action in recent years”. 

Glasgow Declaration: The rise in deforestation flies in the face of a pledge made just two years ago by more than 100 world leaders. At COP26 in 2021, leaders including Joe Biden, Xi Jinping and Jair Bolsonaro pledged to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030 in a commitment that covered more than 90% of the world’s forests. “The new data suggests that leaders are failing to deliver on their promise,” noted the Guardian.

UK admonished

‘Worryingly slow’: The Climate Change Committee (CCC) released a damning report on Wednesday warning that the UK has “lost” its global leadership position on climate change, BBC News reported. The committee described government efforts to scale up climate action as “worryingly slow”, saying it was “markedly” less confident that the UK can reach its targets for cutting carbon emissions than it was a year ago, the outlet added.

Credible targets: Last year, the CCC said there were “credible” policies in place to make two-fifths of the emissions cuts needed over the next decade. Now, just one-fifth of those cuts are covered. Instead, it estimates that existing “credible” climate policies will see emissions flatline – and says only nine out of 50 key indicators are currently “on track”. See Carbon Brief’s in-depth coverage of the report for more details. And, earlier today, international environment minister Zac Goldsmith resigned from the government saying the UK had “visibly stepped off the world stage and withdrawn our leadership on climate and nature”.

Expansion: In recent weeks, the government has dismissed the opposition Labour party’s plans to end new oil-and-gas licences in the North Sea. Yet the CCC report states explicitly that “expansion of fossil fuel production is not in line with net-zero”. Meanwhile, the Guardian said that the committee had “warned that the UK could no longer expand any of its airports without closures or shrinking of capacity elsewhere but the government seems not to have accepted this”.

Rising emissions

Record high: Greenhouse gas emissions from the global energy industry hit a record high last year, according to the “statistical review of world energy” report. The Times noted that fossil fuels made up 82% of the world’s total energy consumption in 2022, “barely down on the previous year”. But thanks to a 1% rise in global energy demand, total greenhouse gas emissions still climbed by 0.8%, Reuters reported.

Renewable rise: This rise in overall emissions comes despite an increase in renewable energy production. Renewable energy sources, excluding hydropower, met 7.5% of the world’s energy demand last year, said the Guardian. This represents an increase of nearly 1% over the previous year, with 25% growth in solar generation and 13.5% growth in wind power output.

§ Around the world

WILDFIRE EMISSIONS: Wildfires in Canada have already produced more CO2 emissions in the first six months of 2023 than in any full year on record, the Guardian reported. Reuters added that the country launched its first-ever national climate adaptation strategy to reduce the risk from extreme weather events, including wildfires.

SWELTERING HEAT: The Washington Post reported on the ongoing record-breaking temperatures across Texas. This comes as Inside Climate News and AI-Monitor covered the sweltering heat in Mexico and Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, the Guardian focused on the extreme heat in China saying “activists are hoping that overheated Beijingers will start thinking about the causes of, as well as the solutions to, such intense heatwaves”.

CLEAN ENERGY: The World Bank has approved a $1.14bn project to expand access to cleaner electricity in Indonesia, Reuters reported.

OIL AND GAS: Norway has approved 19 new oil-and-gas projects in its waters, with a total investment of more than NOK 200bn (£14.62bn), Energy Voice reported.

AHEAD OF SCHEDULE: China is on course to hit its 2030 wind and solar power target a full five years ahead of schedule, the Guardian reported. According to new analysis by Global Energy Monitor, the country is set to double its capacity and produce 1,200 gigawatts of energy through wind and solar power by 2025.

DIGITAL CLONE: The Pacific island nation of Tuvalu “is not only trying to reclaim physical land, but create a ‘twin’ to survive in future”, said the Guardian. According to the newspaper, Tuvalu is expected to be one of the first countries to be completely lost to climate change and about a fifth of its 12,000 citizens have already relocated.

§ US$47tn

The amount that countries in the Asia-Pacific region could add to the global economy by 2070 if they “seize opportunities from decarbonisation”, according to the South China Morning Post.

§ Latest climate research

• Climate change is decreasing snowfall and increasing rainfall at high altitudes in the northern hemisphere, according to new research in Nature.
• The large-scale land-clearing required for increased biofuel crop production could impede global climate goals if it is not well-regulated, finds a new study in Nature Climate Change.
• Plugging all “orphaned” oil and gas wells documented in the US would exceed the $4.7bn federal funding by 30–80%, according to a new study in Environmental Research Letters.

§ Captured

‘Striking’ videos make CO2 emissions visible

Fast-rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are the main driver of human-caused global warming. Yet, unlike some other forms of pollution, this gas is invisible to the human eye.

Dramatic new visualisations by NASA show CO2 emissions building up in the atmosphere over the course of a year. The videos highlight the emissions imbalance between the northern and southern hemispheres and show how CO2 is carried around the world on air currents once in the atmosphere.

See Carbon Brief’s write-up for more information – and the full videos.

§ Spotlight

Exploring climate change and migration in rural Thailand

Reporting from Chiang Rai in northern Thailand, Carbon Brief’s Ayesha Tandon learns how local researchers are exploring the links between climate change and migration.

As climate change supercharges storms, lengthens droughts and drives up sea levels, many regions are becoming increasingly hostile to human habitation.

Climate change has already forced millions of people to leave their homes, with experts estimating that more than 1.2 billion people could face displacement due to the impacts of climate change by 2050.

Research on climate-driven migration often focuses on physical changes to the planet. For example, which regions could become too hot for human habitation? Too dry? Likely to disappear underwater? This work is a crucial component of climate migration research.

However, it is also important to explore the socioeconomic factors that can influence a person’s decision to leave their home. The HABITABLE project, which is funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme, aims to better understand the links between climate change impacts and displacement patterns.

By interviewing tens of thousands of people across Kenya, Ethiopia, Mali, Ghana and Thailand, the project is learning about the people hardest-hit by climate change. The results of this four-year project, which brings together partners from 18 countries across the world, will be published next year.

I spent a week with the Raks Thai research team in Chiang Rai, Thailand, learning how they conduct surveys with villagers and tribespeople. I documented how researchers build trust with local communities, from engaging with the village heads to recruiting local people into the interview team.

In each village, the researchers spoke to a randomly selected group of villagers about their perceptions about climate change and migration. For example, they asked whether people have noticed changing weather patterns. Do they know about “climate change”? And – the key question – would they consider moving if conditions worsen?

The villagers I spoke to worked almost exclusively in agriculture and most had seen clear changes in weather which had impacted their crops.

“Last year’s flood directly relates to climate change and global warming”, explained a rice farming couple.

“The rain pattern has changed, so it affects our trees and we don’t get any harvest,” said another couple, whose livelihood depends on harvesting the longan fruit. When asked if they would consider migrating if the situation worsened, they said:

Husband: “Yes, we might need to move to another place if the situation gets worse to the point that it is not suitable to live anymore.”

Wife: “But where are we going to move to?”

Husband: “That’s true. Or we might just have to try to survive and continue to live here.”

(This work forms part of Ayesha’s EGU22 science journalism fellowship, for which she will write a series of articles for Carbon Brief on climate change and migration over the coming year.)

§ Watch, read, listen

COP28 CONTROVERSY: The Guardian’s “today in focus” podcast explored the controversy around COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber, who is also the chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

CLIMATE-DENYING TIK TOK: A BBC investigation found that TikTok is struggling to stop false climate information from spreading across the platform.

CLIMATE AND COFFEE: Carbon Brief’s Aruna Chandrasekhar, who recently co-authored a Carbon Brief commodity profile on coffee, spoke to the BBC’s “Climate Question” podcast about the impact of climate change on the crop.

§ Coming up

• 4 July: Climate Resilience for Energy Transitions in the Middle East and North Africa, Rabat, Morocco
• 3-7 July: 45th Meeting of the Montreal Protocol OEWG, Bangkok, Thailand
• 4-5 July: UNEP Intergovernmental Meeting on Minerals and Metals: African States Group Regional Meeting, Dakar, Kaolack, Senegal

§ Pick of the jobs

• The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts is hiring a climate data visualiser | Salary: €83,888. Location: Bonn, Germany
• China Dialogue is looking for a global editor | Salary: £59,409.63. Location: London: UK
• Oxfam is hiring a climate and geospatial analyst | Salary: 1,271,588 BDT. Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh
• The Nature Conservancy seeks an Africa climate director | Salary: Competitive and depends on location. Location: Angola, Gabon, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania or Zambia

DeBriefed is written in rotation by Carbon Brief’s team and edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to [email protected]